The Lesson

***

"I'm going after that bitch with every last strength I have."

"Fuck this." I hear Lucas says from behind me before another sound of the earth breaking, streaming forth a large body of water follow behind him. Then, the others go into action too. The elements are on horizon.

***

Liliana Roslyn's POV.

I'm looking straight into those grey eyes. They glint and glow as I lock eyes with them. They call me. They walk into my soul in a way that they aren't trespassing. My mind and body wants them to bore into us.

Pallas' hand tightens around mine, she holds me firmly never leaving me.

Her eyes seems not to blink, she stares deep into me. The real me.

At that very second, white light taints my vision. Blurry images covers my open eyes, then followed by a pull.

I'm pulled into space and time. A place where no being's existed nor could survive. Its full of voids and they move flashily, past my vision.

The pull makes my hair fly around and the strands stand as I'm afraid of where this is going to lead to.

My eyes close, tightly shutting against one another. Suddenly, it all stop.

Just like that, the eerie sounds and pulling feeling halt.

"You would listen to my every instructions, Ana." The faint voice of Pallas says. I can't see anything. I'm in dark. It's all dark here, I could only hear her voice.

"Open your eyes and you'll see." She instructs faintly and gently. My lids open and I'm faced with the most beautiful lights I've ever seen. They're natural yet they seem too amazing.

They spread on both sides as halves. On one side, where I'm standing on, is a plain shining white lights that covers and paints my skin.

My eyes roam round to see that this whole parts are white. At the other side, is a plain shining eclectic colours of light; blue, red, orange, green, white and so on. They look like they're seeping into each other. They spark electrically.

"The white space where you're is the bending state created by Avatar while the eclectic space opposite you is the source state which will to make you a pure bender." Pallas explains.

It's wonderful. It's like painting a wall in which half part of it is painted white while the other half part is painted varieties of colours that sparks and lightens.

"Look ahead of you, Ana. What do you see?" Pallas' faint voice instructs again and I look into the far distance ahead me.

I now realize that there's a stair beneath my frame which I'm standing on and looking down, I see that there's no ground.

It's pitch black, and full of voids. They have patterns of darkness around them, lurking out to grab my soul. I can feel their badness, wanting to get into me.

Ahead of me is another stairs, just a single one like the one I'm standing on.

But the difference is that, it's in the other region. On the other half side with eclectic colours.

"There's a stair on the other side!" I yell out since I can't see her.

"Your body can't take it. You can't get to the other region for now." She pause briefly and continue. "Look above you."

I fix my stares upwards and see another stair forming. Now, there's a single stair which I'm standing on, another single stair at the middle of both lights, acting like an intermediary. And last there's the other single stair at the far distance. All, making up three.

"You have to climb up the stairs to get to the median one." What? There's nothing here, just voids.

"There's no stairs to get to the median." I say.

"Ana. Once you believe, there'll be." She pause. "All you need is believe." That's the dumbest.

Oh, no! I'm not the type to do this believing stuff. Something tells me that that empty ground that filled with dark will cause me an excruciating pain if I fall into it. I'm not doing this. I can't.

"I'm not the type that believes what I don't see. Take me back, Pallas. I can't do this." I say back but received no reply.

No....she can't leave me here. This place is between time and space. Time would be tricky here, I mean, I might have been using minutes here while in the outside world, it might have been days or weeks.

"Pallas!" I yell again and for a brief moment, she didn't answer. Her tone panics as she instruct again.

"Ana, we've lesser time. You need to climb those stairs."

"What's happening?" I ask.

"He's coming. Adrian's coming and when he gets here, he'll try to stop us. We can't let that happen. Ana, be quick." Explains, Pallas.

I can't!

"I'm sorry, I can't." I say as I fix my gaze back to the empty ground. Pallas can't just think that I'll take a step, by actually imagining that there's one and then as she says there will be one. I can't risk my life for that.

"Ana, you can. He's near, Ana!" Her faint voice raise. "Ana, listen to me. Your mother wants you to do this and I know that you don't want to disappoint her. Lucas wants you to do this, he believes you to be their race's saviour. Jasmine wants you to do this too, she thinks the same as Lucas. Rita wants you to. Adrian wants you to. They all wants you to. I want you to. Ana, believe." Pallas finishes. How did she know them all?

I close my eyes and stretch forth my legs. My breathing trembles as I suck in breaths before letting go.

When I feel a solidity holding my frame to stand, I sigh in total relieve.

"Continue, Ana." Pallas urges.

I nod even though she isn't here and take another step with my eyes close. Another stair that's painted in the same white lights that's covering my side appears.

One step.

Another.

Another.

Another.

Another.

Until it's now remaining two. "I'm doing it, Pallas!" I almost whoop from where I am. Can one believe that it just dwell on me that if I finish climbing this steps, what's going to happen? I never asked that question. This just makes me the most idiotic person on earth.

I stretch forth my left leg this time but a force swipes it back. Another gusty blow pushes me backwards but somehow, I try to maintain my stance.

"What's wrong?" I ask Pallas.

"It's the darkness force trying to fight you. You've to be strong to surpass it. You can do this part too, Ana."

I should have asked Pallas what this is going to involve in the first place. This is too much for a human, especially one as naive to the supernatural world as me. I obviously know nothing about them.

Anyways, I put the thoughts aside and push past the force. The black, void-ful ground splits and blows more force to push me back. As I force myself to pass, making a new stair, they split and fly past me. I make another stair again and they do the same.

After multiple attempt, I manage to take the second to the last step when suddenly, the force stops.

I look around the emptied space as if I'm searching for something before taking the last step to stand on the median.

As my right leg step on the median stair which has two colours around it, taking it half-bending state and half-source state, the gusty force of the dark sweep off my legs and I slip.

"Ana!" Pallas gasp. For the first time, I hear her concerned voice and that alone gives me the vibe that she doesn't want me dead. "You need to let the lights cross your body half by half."

"I can't do that." My voice strain. "I'm falling!"

My hands manage to quickly grab the the last stair while the force pushes them backwards so they could slip finally. While struggling, I stretch my hands to the other end of the stair for support and I feel the delirious prickling of the other part of the space.

Finally, I slip and fall into the darkness with an ear-deafening shriek from my throat.

"Noooooooo!!!" I can feel the extreme fear in Pallas as she screams from the mental space.

King Adrian's POV.

Speeds of Lucas and the others trail behind mine as we dash past the darkness of the cave.

I've never, none of us- benders has ever came here. We've no reason to. Even the humans that forges mercury through this cave's material that Frederick made for them to weaken us, risked their lives. Most of them died before being able to succeed in using it against us.

Because of Ana, I'm in this moments that I never thought would come into existence. This was never in our plan. All we thought was to just find the hideouts of the Harlow's and kill them all, then we'll return back to our territories.

That was the plan until this fucking hospes decides to ruin it. That bitch.

I'm surprised that the shadows of the darkness, making a molten stream of black powers aren't sucking our life force and energies. That's what they're rumoured to do.

I'm running in, the more while the others are still following me. They still trust me dearly to even follow me here, where Frederick or his men - the Harlow's could kill us.

One thing, I'm hoping for is for Liliana not to be in my world, my earth- the benders universe. If she's there then I don't think, I can save her or myself because Frederick's curse would prevent us from crossing the boundary and might even kill us.

Fuck!! That's them. I can see them. Just in the near distance, Ana is sitting, rather she's floating on air, opposite that beast woman. They're holding hands which just furiously wants me to cut off the hospes hands. What's she doing to Ana?

I push more further, past my arising weakness. My bivatar and monster, supporting our action. We're going for the kill....straight away.

I'm weak but not too weak to chop off the hospes head.

I'm now near them. Since the hospes is facing Liliana which makes her back to face me, I release a low grunting sound and make a whiplash of air to slash her head when a voice halts me.

"Stop!" Says, my beloved.

Her eyes snap open and her hand stretch forth to stop me just in time, the slash would meet the hospes. The hospes head tilt to her back to face me and she looks at me with an emotionless face. She isn't afraid in the tiniest bit.

My air stops on Ana's accord and then she says. "Drop them."

Instantly as she command, the whiplash turns into a scattered air and blows away.

Lucas and the others stops when they've reached us and they all go into action.

"All of you, stop!" Ana says firmly, still holding up her left hand as she's still floating. She adds. "Don't attack her." I swear, I'm whipped. She's definitely my queen.

The relieve I felt when I see Ana is as if ice was being poured on my scorching body. As if lava has been prickling my skin before, but now it's been replaced with cool water, seeping into my pores. It's takes more than words to explain the reaction. If you by chance experience one, you'll understand me.

My commander's eyes are locked to my back, waiting for instructions.

"Ana, stay away from her!" Sternly, says Lucas. His glowing blue eyes with white flecks are angrily placed on the hospes.

"No, Lucas." She say back. Her voice holds the same sternness as Lucas'.

Inhumanly, I dash in front of Ana when she pulls her other hand away from hospes and stand from the ground since the floating has diminished.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

I see her eyeball rolls round her eyes, already knowing what she's going to say before she forces them out. "I'm gonna faint."...........and she's asleep.

Now that Ana's shutdown, Lucas takes Ana from my arm with care.

"I warned you not to go near my beloved!" I growl, dangerously fierce.

"I can't stay far from her. You know this, Adrian." Says, the hospes, earning an unapprovable growls from others when she says my name without utilizing my title.

This is actually the first time she'll do so. She's a bitch to have the audacity to talk back at me.

"When I kill you, I'll redesign your head and put it near Ana so you wouldn't stay far from her!" Grumbled tone spit off my vibrating throat.

"Kneel." I command and surprisingly, my compulsion works on her. she heed while the other still watch. I'm not killing the hospes for now because of Lucas. He wants to know how she knows about his beloved.

I make a new whiplash of air and slash it on the hospes. Her frame hurls backwards, followed by the cave's wall meeting her frame with a thudding sound. I guess, she's the one who made a force so powerful that the darkness couldn't lure in.

I have another idea. I'll break her and make her work for me, all without Liliana, knowing about it. I want to change but not without making this hospes suffer.

Shakes fills the ground all of a sudden, like earthquake before we hear the uprising war roar of the Harlow's. Fuck this! There are coming from both path- the entrance and the exit of the cave.