chapter 1

There were few things more annoying than waking up to a disaster. Korra figured she should be used to it by now

“Mako it’s like four am,” Korra grumbled. “What’s happening?”

Mako’s voice came over the phone. “I’m sorry, but there’s something happening that you might want to hear about.”

“Yeah?” The avatar responded. “Don’t tell me it’s more of Kuvira’s supporters still mad about her defeat.” After almost a year cleaning up the Earth Empire’s mess, she was starting to get really tired of it’s supporters.

“No, a man broke into Republic City Museum.”

“And? It’s a museum, of course there’s gonna be museum break-ins.”

“Yeah, but he’s acting like he doesn’t know what’s going on or how he got there.”

“Great, a crazy man at the museum. Totally needs the avatar’s assistance.” Korra responded dryly.

Mako hesitated for a second. “And…. according to Beifong, before I arrived he was firebending and airbending.”

Korra’s eyes widened, the world seemed to stop. “He what? It has to be some sort of misunderstanding, only-”

“You can do that, yeah.” Mako finished the sentence for her. “See why I called you?”

“Yeah,” Korra responded. “I’ll get Asami, we’ll be there soon.”

In just a few minutes, Korra and Asami arrived outside the museum, “You don’t really think..” Asami trailed off, uncertainty in her voice.

“Of course not.” Korra reassured her girlfriend. “We all know that I’m the Avatar, this is all some big misconception. Maybe there was a weird breeze.”

“In a museum?” Asami asked doubtfully.

Korra shrugged. “I guess? But he can’t….we all know that there’s only one avatar.”

Once in the museum lobby, Korra and Asami were greeted by the other two members of their team, Mako and Bolin.

“You guys are here!” Bolin said, immediately hugging them both. “I have no idea what’s happening, it’s so weird! The guy was just- whoosh-whoosh-” Bolin waved his arms around in an imitation of airbending, “-But he was also firebending! Please tell me everyone else is as confused as I am.”

“I’m sure it was just a coincidence,” Korra responded, patting her friend on the shoulder for reassurance. She turned to Mako. “Was there anything else unusual?”

“He was dressed in… outdated fashion. Like he came straight out of the past.” Mako replied.

“I didn’t know you were an expert on fashion history, Mako.” Asami laughed.

“Trust me, when you see him, it’s pretty obvious he doesn’t belong. C’mon, he’s in the Fire Nation Historical Arts wing.”

As Mako led them through the museum, Korra continued to ponder the situation. “Maybe he’s some sort of historical reenactor? Or an actor in a new mover?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t explain the bending. Or how confused he was.” Asami replied. “You think he could be a firebender who got airbending during Harmonic Convergence?”

“No, only born non-benders got airbending, as far as we know. And if we did know, we would’ve known sooner.”

As the group neared the Fire Nation Historical Arts wing, they could hear the man.

“I’m telling you, I don’t know what’s going on!” He yelled. “Let me out!”

“We’ll let you out when you tell us where you came from, who you are, and how you can bend two elements.” Lin Beifong responded. “Do you live here, in republic city?”

“Repub- what? I told you I don’t know what that is!”

As Korra and her team entered the room, they saw the man. He was pale, with thick black hair that reached his shoulders and a scruffy goatee. Judging by his golden-yellow eyes, he was of fire nation descent. Just like Mako had said, he was dressed in an unusual outfit, a reddish-orange tunic that fell to his knees. The more Korra looked at him, the more familiar he seemed.

“We need to talk.” Korra pulled her friends into the hallway.

“What is it?” Asami asked, putting a hand to Korra’s back as she shivered with uncertainty.

“Do you know that guy?” Bolin asked.

“He- uh. Might be my past life. The first Avatar, Wan.”

“What?!” Mako responded.

“He looks just like him, and explains the bending. And the confusion. And his clothes.”

“Yeah but it raises the question of how he even got here! He’s from what- ten thousand years ago?”

Korra shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably won’t be the weirdest thing that’s ever happened.”

“No one has any better idea of who he could be.” Asami piped in.

“Just because it’s an idea doesn’t mean it’s a good idea!” Mako retaliated.

Korra ignored him and entered the main wing again, where the man was still being handcuffed and interrogated by the police.

Korra approached him. “Uh, Wan?”

“How do you know my name? What’s happening?”

Korra almost gasped. She was right. Somehow, her past life, the very first Avatar, had ended up here.

chapter 2

“So you’re telling me” Wan repeated. “I’m ten thousand years in the future and you’re my current reincarnation.”

“Yeah, basically,” Korra replied. “It’s a bit more complicated than that, but…” She shrugged.

“Huh…” Wan ran a hand through his hair. “I’m probably dreaming, aren’t I…”

Korra shrugged. She didn’t know what to think about her newfound predicament. During her time as the avatar, she had dealt with many a weird event, but they all paled in comparison to meeting her own past life in the flesh.

“I hate to interrupt your reunion or whatever,” Lin Beifong, Republic City’s chief of police interrupted. “But what are we going to do about this?”

“She’s right, we can’t exactly have a second Avatar running around the city, especially one without any knowledge of the modern world,” Mako added.

Korra nodded, “I think the best solution, at least for now, is to go to Air Temple Island. Tenzin might know what to do.” She turned to Asami. “Sorry about all this.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Asami replied. “Things come up.”

“Alright.” Korra addressed her team, Wan, and the police present. “We’re going to air temple island for a while until this situation’s a bit more under control.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Wan replied.

As the group left the museum, Bolin started asking Wan questions about his life, to which the latter gave awkward and vague answers too. Eventually, the team left the maze of the museum.

“Whoa.” Wan marveled at Republic City’s skyscrapers. “Your buildings are so… tall.”

“I felt the same way when I first got here.” Korra laughed. “Welcome to Republic City.”

“Are you two coming or not?” Mako called from Asami’s car.

“Yeah!” Korra said, guiding Wan towards the car.

“What is that?” The other avatar asked as they approached the vehicle.

“It’s a car, a satomobile to be specific.” Asami explained. “They’re machines that help you get from one place to another.”

“Cool.” Wan replied as Korra helped him into the seat.

“Everyone ready?” Asami asked. She didn’t usually make a point of starting the car, but seeing as they had a new team member who had never ridden a car before, she figured it necessary.

“Yup!” Korra responded.

As the team traveled through the city, Wan asked about nearly everything he could see.

“What’s that?” He asked.

“That’s a streetlamp.” Korra responded.

“What’s that?”

“That’s a phone booth.”

“What’s that?”

“That’s- you know what a tree is!”

Eventually, the group reached the docks looking out onto Yue Bay and boarded the ferry ride to Air Temple Island. Somehow, the rest of the night had passed them by and the sun was rising over the horizon. The start of a new day both comforted Korra and loomed over her like a shadow, reminding her that she wasn’t dreaming and she had yet another issue to deal with.

Tenzin greeted them on the dock of air temple island.

“Korra, it’s good to see you again.” The airbending master greeted. “Lin informed me of the… situation… although I’m afraid I don’t quite understand. Avatar Wan is here?”

Korra shrugged and glanced behind her, where Wan and Bolin were chatting and getting off the boat. “Yeah, it confuses me too.” She grabbed Wan by the elbow. “Tenzin, meet Wan, the first Avatar. Wan, this is Tenzin, the current leader of the Air Nomads.”

Wan and Tenzin exchanged an awkward handshake. “It’s a pleasure to meet you?” Wan greeted.

“I wasn’t expecting to meet another avatar today…” Tenzin mused, stroking his beard. “And you’re aware that we’re ten thousand years from your time.”

“Yeah, Korra told me,” Wan explained. “I have no idea how I even got here. One minute I was traveling through the woods, the next I was in that museum.”

“Hmm…” Tenzin paused. “Well, until we figure out how to set things straight again, you can stay here on Air Temple Island.”

“Thank you for your hospitality,” Wan replied.

“I’ll show you around,” Tenzin said, leading the other avatar through the temple gates.

Korra turned to the rest of her group, the rest of them looking as tired as she felt. “I’m going to go sleep.”

chapter 3

Korra was not happy to wake up, for a number of reasons.

First of all, she was on air temple island, where the beds sucked considerably more than they did at her and Asami’s downtown apartment.

Second of all, she had barely gotten any sleep thanks to being rudely awakened at 4 am by a phone call from the police.

Third, and most importantly, her past life of all people, had shown up out of nowhere.

Korra fought the urge to open her eyes, she wanted to pretend it was all a dream.

“Hey, you awake?” Asami asked, placing a hand on Korra’s shoulder. Korra opened her eyes, no longer hiding from the weird, confusing truth of the matter. She looked out onto the simple room, judging by the light entering from the window, it was around 9.

“Guess it’s not a dream…” Korra muttered.

“Sure seemed like it.” Asami replied. “You think maybe he was magically teleported back to his own time in the time we were asleep?”

Before Korra could respond, somebody knocked on the door.

“Yeah?” Korra said, pulling herself off the bed. Both she and Asami were still wearing their day clothes, not bothering to change after the events of the night before.

The door opened to reveal Ikki, Tenzin and Pema’s second daughter. “Korra, did you know that there’s someone new on the island?” Ikki asked.

“Yeah?” Korra replied, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she and Asami left the room, following Ikki down the hall.

“Yeah, but nobody will tell me anything about him. He just showed up.”

“Where is he now?” Korra asked.

“He’s in the dining room with Daddy. Why, do you know him?”

“Uhhh… Kinda?”

When Korra, Ikki and Asami reached the dining room, many people were already seated there. Bolin and Mako sat near each other eating breakfast, Pema sat opposite them trying to balance feeding three-year old Rohan and stopping Meelo from spilling food all over his glider suit, and next to them Tenzin and Wan, talking quietly together. Ikki took a seat next to her brothers, and Korra and Asami sat next to Wan.

“Ikki, have you seen your sister anywhere?” Pema asked.

“She went out gliding with Kai pretty early,” Ikki replied. “She wanted to go check out some ‘weird spiritual energy at the museum’.” Ikki gestured with her hands as she did her best impression of her older sister.

Korra turned her attention to Wan and Tenzin.

“Glad to see your awake, Korra.” Tenzin greeted. “I was just catching Wan up on all that’s happened in the last ten thousand years. It has not been easy.”

“A lot has changed…” Wan mused as he tapped the table.

The dining room door opened, and Jinora walked in, followed by her boyfriend, Kai.

“Good morning, everyone!” Jinora greeted as she sat down next to Ikki. She glanced over the table, her gaze settling on Wan. “I don’t think we’ve met before?”

“Uh yeah.” Wan greeted. “I’m Wan, I’m from the….” He trailed off awkwardly not knowing what to say.

“Fire nation!” Korra interfered. “He’s from the fire nation.”

“And why is he here?” Jinora raised an eyebrow.

“To train airbending! He’s a new airbender.” Korra replied.

“Really?” Jinora responded, doubt still in her voice. “I though we found all the new airbenders in the Fire Nation.”

“Well you didn’t find me!” Wan said.

“Hmm…” Jinora trailed off. “Well, I’ll see you later. I wanna look more into the spiritual disturbance that happened last night, I’ll be in the library.”

As Jinora left, Korra turned to Tenzin and Wan. “I feel so bad about lying to everyone…” She whispered.

“As do I…” Tenzin stroked his beard. “Although I think it best to keep this situation as ‘under-wraps’ as we possibly can. We don’t want mass panic.”

“Absolutely.” Wan agreed.

“I hate to interrupt,” Bolin interrupted. “But I have a question.”

Mako groaned. “Dude!”

“No, no, it’s fine.” Wan replied.

“Ok, so since you and Korra are technically the same person can you read each other’s minds?”

Korra looked at Wan, looking him straight in the eye for a moment. ‘No, I don’t think so.”

“Aw…” Bolin said. “That’s disappointing. I thought that having two avatars around was gonna be cooler.”

Wan smiled and laughed. “I’m sure we can find a way to make it cooler.”

chapter 4

It turned out that it was pretty hard to make having two avatars at once, at least without spilling their secret to the entire world. So for now, they were stuck with watching Wan go through basic airbending exercises that every new airbender went through. It might’ve been the most boring day of Korra’s life.

“You’re pretty good at the spinning gates.” Korra said to her past life as they walked through one of the meditation gardens. “Better than I was when I first got here.”

“Really?” Wan responded. “Air’s always been a favorite of mine, and I guess the principles of bending haven’t changed much since… well, you know.”

Korra nodded, still not accustomed to having another avatar around. Surely they were supposed to have more of a connection than just smalltalk about training exercises. What were they supposed to do?

“So.” Wan filled the silence that had grown around them. “There’s a new spirit portal in the middle of your city.”

“Yeah…” Korra gritted her teeth. “Was wondering when you’d bring that up.” She looked to the horizon, the portal was even more visible than usual. “That was formed when Kuvira attacked the city with a giant spirit-vine cannon thing and it exploded.”

Wan looked confused. Before he could respond, Korra interrupted. “It probably wouldn’t make sense if I explained it. But yeah. Spirit portal in republic city now. Thankfully we have everything relating to it mostly under control now, things were pretty hectic for a bit.”

“There’s a spirit portal in the middle of your city.” Wan repeated.

“Yup.” Korra responded, knowing where the conversation was heading.

“And you left it open?!”

Korra nodded. She figured this conversation was going to happen sometime, might as well get it over with “Yep. I also reopened the northern and southern portals.”

Wan ran a hand through his hair. “Why would you do that! After I went through all the effort of closing the portals!”

“Things have changed alot since you were around.” Korra responded. She remembered what she had told to the reporters right after she had left the portals open. “It was time to reunite the spirits and humans. It’s a new age.”

“Still!” Wan sighed. “Hey, maybe that’s what brought me here…”

“Could be.” Korra responded.

Before their conversation could continue, they were interrupted by Jinora approaching them.

“Hey Jinora.” Korra greeted awkwardly. “What’s new?”

“Not much.” The airbender responded. She turned to Wan. “I saw you at the training ground, you’re pretty good. Better than Korra was.”

“Hey!” Korra exclaimed.

Wan chuckled. “Thanks! It’s nice to.. Uh.. practice with you guys!”

“So you guys were talking about the spirit portals?” Jinora asked.

Korra facepalmed. They were supposed to be keeping quiet. “How much did you hear?”

“Almost the entire conversation. Although I knew who Wan was before, it was pretty obvious. And Bolin’s not very quiet.”

“I think bad lying might be a trait that carries to future lives..” Wan sighed. “Guess my secrets out.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.” Jinora responded. “I get why you want to keep this secret for a while- it’s super confusing.”

“Actually-” Korra said. “I was wondering if you could help us figure this out” She turned to Wan. “Jinora’s super good at spirit-y stuff, if anyone can figure this out she can.”

“I would love to- I’ll start research tonight.” Jinora waved goodbye as she raced off to one of the air temple libraries.

Korra waved back, secretly glad that Jinora was the one who found out about their secret instead of her much more talkative sister.