Inferno by Bibliophile Anya

Complete Summary: The spirits must love irony or else they are horrible sadists. Afterall I died consumed in fire and was reborn as the twin sister to Mai in the world where people control and manipulate elements. Which element did I get? Didn't the name Mai seem any familiar? Prince Zuko's former girlfriend and one of Azula's former henchmen? Laugh it up I was reborn as a firebender. Hello psychological trauma... PTSD meet firebending. Don't even get me started on my sister's future boyfriend or was it supposed to be ex?! Don't be so lovable dammit and stop looking at me with those puppy dog eyes blown wide! And what ripples did my birth bring? Even an ember is able to blaze into an inferno. Doesn't it seem omnious at all? My name? Xia meaning 'The Glow of Sunrise'. Only time will tell whether this glow will bring a holocaust...

Disclaimer: I do not own this franchise in any way or form and this work of fiction is not giving me any monetary compensation.

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Inferno

Prologue

Everything was burning. I begged somebody to help. Pleading to stop. I was being burnt alive. I could smell my own flaming skin. The stench of blazing meat. It was a gruesome painful death I wouldn't wish on any of my enemies.

I died. I am sure I did. So why this darkness? This numbness? Was this some sort of limbo? Slowly I started getting the feeling back. The sense of hearing... A soft female voice was crooning. I could feel a nudge beside me in response. Then the temperature started rising. I panicked and then everything went blissfully numb again.

It was a long while later. I felt myself being suffocated to death. Then air. I could breath. I burst out crying in relief.

I was reborn. I don't know the how's or why's. When I figured out my identity and where I was born I decided to ask the questions to some spirit later on but my formative years were all fuzzy. It was all gradual. There was no immediate surprise that 'oh I am in a fictional world.' I didn't have an extreme freak out session as anxiety attacks were per the term or more like baby tantrums. I figured out slowly, but by bit and then differences. I blanked out after figuring out firebenders though. Still terrified. Though it wasn't like right off the bat I figured out that I was reborn in the world of Avatar. Reason? There might have been hundreds of fictional worlds in my before with different magical abilities. And after reincarnation everything else seems probable.

I was named Xia meaning The Glow of sunrise... I don't know whether to laugh hysterically or cry my heart out. So I did both. Being a kid I was excused. Probably for a lot of things.

Who I was born as? I was born the younger twin to Mai.

We were fraternal twins. I got the same traditional looks as the entirety of fire nation. The glossy straight black hair and ivory skin. Our features took awhile to get distinguished as all the babies have a lighter eye colour in the beginning and chubby fat all around the prominent features.

Apparently my eyes remained a starting amber, whereas my twin's darkened to black. I had wide eyes and softer features as compared to Mai. What a delicate lady I would grow into as foretold. But no one foresaw the bullheaded independence and the streak of feminism and sheer stubbornness under the veneer of the demure shy child. Nor did they hear the sarcastic cynical remarks and the aggressive firebending once I accepted my element. I never quite manage to outgrow the complete fear, but the bonedrenching burning was hard to forget. I learnt to accept myself and it as a part of me. Zen, isn't it?

I made sure that they only thought I knew the traditional fire dances in court or the delicate performances and the sheer basics. I was an average firebender. What a joke. I owed my being to the very element. I of course, was anything but average. To feel the very element flowing in your body and in others you tend to get very aware. The smallest of nuisances... I didn't burn like an ember, I blazed as an inferno.

Don't be so envious sister I am afraid of this bloody element still, after who wouldn't after being cooked alive? Rising from ashes like a phoenix? Excuse me? Have you ever experienced it? That was the reason I felt that inexplicable warmth when I was in my mother. My fire was exceptionally strong. My honourable father joked that I burned enough for both of us siblings. Note the sarcasm in honourable. It didn't help any when it came to the relationship with my sister.

Ugh... It seems so weird. I don't want to remember all those formative years. Breastfeeding? Enough said... Whatever of the bi-curiosity I had was eliminated then and there.

My mother Michi loved us I was sure of it. With having both previous knowledge and the current proof. I couldn't ever say it about my father Ukano. He was proud of us sure... But I think mostly because it aided his political machinations.

Three years passed. Mai and I were trained as per the expectations that we were supposed to hold up to. Basic education, drilling etiquette, postural modification, court games, political ones with small unnoticeable exercises daily. It is not that we were expected to do it day in and day out... But like Mai once confessed in another dimension, in a life long past, she got anything she wanted from her parents so long as she was quiet, well-mannered and perfectly behaved.

Don't even get me started on the fire nation propaganda. It was seared since the birth. I would go on for days and rant and rave but I will stop now. I don't particularly wish to embitter my already sour mood.

Mai was pretty brilliant being able to more or less keep up with me, though there were times she faltered and I wanted to cynically say that 'don't you worry elder sister it isn't your fault that your younger twin is a reincarnation gone wrong, who remembers a past life where you were a fictional character.'

When I turned three. Everything changed. It started and began with the one thing that defines my existence. Fire...

Notes:

It is one of my many plots for SI's... I will be uploading all of them slowly and focusing on updating one or two of them mainly. Especially according to my current interest in the fandom and the response. I have a lot of previously written material or at least similar to tumblr prompts so I cannot be sure of my updates for the same fanfiction...
Thank You for reading this, be sure to leave a response!

Cross posted from ao3.

I really don't know what is wrong with the chapter, it is recurring in that different format but still thank you for pointing it out 'legendaryNOT' though I think you are pretty legendary!

My
Instagram : bibliophile_anya/

~Anya