Agh! I am so sorry! I posted this yesterday, but when I looked at it, FF had removed all of my spacing! And so that is why I deleted both this chapter and my other chapter from another story. So yea. Here it is. Again. :)

I'm out on the edge and I'm screaming my name

Like a fool at the top of my lungs

Sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm alright

But it's never enough - Echo

Screams.

Panic.

Crashes.

Cries.

Words.

Every sound moved around him, yet he couldn't grasp onto any of the noises. They faded like echos through his mind. Reverberating around the recesses of his shattering mind. Always close, yet always out of reach. And they were accompanied by the visions.

A woman in a white dress, running through a field. The meadow she was running through was full of green grass and flowers waving in the wind. When the wind moved past the woman, her hair fluttered and swirled around her tan face, and her dress whipped around her giving her an angelic quality.

He thought he could hear giggles mixed in with the echoes around him, but it was too hard to tell whether he was imagining it.

But this place did make him feel… happy.

At one point the woman turned around and looked right at him. She had the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. It seemed to glow with burning passion. And her skin was a flawless shade of tan that rivaled the softness of clouds.

She turned around and moved her finger in a teasing way, gesturing for him to follow.

When she looked at him, he saw the mesmerizing oceans that swam in her eyes. They soothed his soul with their constant flow and for a second, he became lost in them.

Her eyes broke away when she turned and started running again.

But this time he followed.

He ran as fast as he could, but somehow, she always alluded his reach. With every step he took, she took three.

"Wait.." He called out hesitantly. He reached out a hand in an attempt to stop the strange phantom dancing around his vision.

He wanted to say more but he was cut short when the distant echoes started to become closer.

And the beautiful woman started to fade. Farther and farther.

But he would not let the beautiful phantom leave him. With a blast of air, he caught up with her run and grabbed her slender arm.

"Please don't leave." He whispered to the woman. For some reason, he felt like this woman was important in some way. Something in the back of his mind was screaming at him to understand. To know. To remember.

But nothing came to him.

The woman turned her deep blue eyes on him once more. Her eyes were gentle and held nothing but love. The corner of her mouth was turned into a sad smile.

"Its time to wake up." Her words flew to him. And then she just disappeared. His grip around her arm collapsed and he was left with nothing but air where her soft skin should have been. He looked back up in sadness to see the world collapsing around him.

Everything followed the phantom, disappearing into nothingness,

First the trees that stretched their branches across the horizon.

Then the sky.

Then the sun.

And the shrubs.

And the grass.

And the dirt.

Everything disappeared until he was the only thing left in the darkness. His heart thumped with fear. He was all alone in the dark.

Suddenly his stomach lurched as he was thrown into a free fall. He was plummeting into the nothingness around him.

Into the abyss.

His arms and legs flailed furiously and he couldn't suppress the small scream that escaped his lips. This was the end.

He was sure of it.

But instead of hitting the invisible blackness, he hit something soft.

And warm.

Gasping, his eyes opened to the bright light around him. He was instantly blinded and he slammed his eyelids shut in attempt to save what was left of his vision. After a moment he gradually started to open his eyes, taking the harsh light in by small doses.

Splotches of color danced around his vision at first, but he couldn't make out what was real, and what was the after effects of blindness.

He tightened his hands into fists and rubbed his eyes aggressively. When he removed his hands this time, he found himself looking at a hazy picture.

The setting around him appeared to be some sort of room, and he was in the middle of it. His hands darted to the soft thing he was laying on.

After careful examination, he came to the conclusion that he was in a bed. Although he didn't know where the bed was, or how he had gotten there.

He squeezed his eyes shut, and tried desperately to remember anything.

White. Cold. Pain. Black.

That was all he could remember. He went to throw his head into his hands in defeat but he was stopped by the stabbing pain that inflicted his head when it met his hands. With two gentle fingers, he felt the tender spot and found that he had a swelling bruise protruding from his forehead.

He definitely did not remember getting that.

Suddenly he realized that his whole body ached with the same pains. He lifted the edge of his shirt tentatively, unsure what to expect on the pale skin beneath.

But instead of pale skin, he found that his torso was painted with bruises and scars. As he lifted his shirt completely off, the marks only increased in quantity. With each bruise he saw, he became more aware of the soreness that plagued his body.

He was just about to touch one of his newly found scars when he heard a soft sigh from somewhere else in the room.

His head whipped around so hard, that he was sure he had broken his neck. When he had first opened his eyes, he hadn't noticed any other life in his room. And after seeing the state of his body, he knew that he was in no shape to defend himself.

Then he saw her. The beauty from his strangely real dream.

She was curled up in a chair beside his bed. A light blue blanket was tightly wrapped around her small frame and he could see her whole body shake when she breathed. Her face was relatively normal, but it gave him a sad feeling. And he didn't really know why. The feeling was more of instinct than his actual consciousness.

Her breaths were deep and almost completely quiet. He found himself matching her pattern as he listened to the rhythm. It had a calming effect that he could not explain.

He wanted to say something to the woman, but he couldn't find the heart to wake her from her serene sleep. So instead, he just watched he sleep.

Every twitch, every breath, every chestfall, every sigh.

He could feel the peace all around him. Flowing around him. Moving through him.

At one point, he had the urge to move closer to the sleeping shape. He to actually feel her next to him. To feel her body matching her breaths. But he decided against it.

Partly because he didn't know how she would react and partly because his body was too sore to move.

So instead he just kept breathing. Letting the world slow to a stop. Feeling his inner peace swell inside of him, washing over his tired body.

Then it just stopped.

He turned abruptly to see what had halted his metronome of breathing.

And when he looked, he saw her awakening from her dreams.

Her eyelashes fluttered and she stretched her limbs with a soft groan. As she stretched she took a deep breath of the morning air around her. Her hair was flying in all directions as a reminder of her deep sleep. She moved her hands groggily towards her face, and wiped away the sleep that encompassed her eyes.

Slowly, she lifted her half lidded eyes around the room to make sure everything was okay. As she swept her head, she let out a soft yawn that sent a pang into his heart. When she saw him sitting up in his bed staring at her with wide eyes, she made a sleepy smile, and waved her hand as if she was saying hello.

"Oh...You woke up…" She uttered through another yawn. Her arms moved as if she was going to stretch again, but they stopped halfway through the air.

Suddenly her head turned back onto him, and her eyes widened with surprise. Her mouth gaped in utter shock. He could hear a sound move up her throat but it never quite made it out of her mouth. Instead she choked on the silent words as she tried to speak.

After a moment of her mouth moving and no words coming out, she finally spoke.

"YOU'RE AWAKE!" She practically screamed. Before he could ask what was going on, she practically jumped on him. She easily pinned him against the soft mattress, but her touch was as gentle as a feather. She was above him and all he could see was her chocolate hair falling around her face and tickling his cheeks. Her expression looked like it would explode with happiness and she made small little giggles as she moved herself down on him and wrapped her arms around his sore body.

Even though her touch hurt his bruises, he didn't push away. For some reason, her touch just felt so… right. Like she was meant to hug him. Like their destiny was intertwined. And when she finally released him, he was in a state of pure happy confusion.

"I can't believe it… Everyone will be so happy… wait til I tell them… Sokka might have a heart attack… and Toph might start acting normal…" Her eyes drifted off into her giddiness as she spoke to herself.

She didn't even notice that she was still laying over him in an awkward position.

But he noticed.

His cheeks were stained a deep red and he tried not to stare at the woman smiling above him. But he couldn't help himself.

Her eyes were even bluer than the dream had portrayed them, and her laugh was even sweeter. And in this reality, he could feel her heat radiating from her skin. And her pulse beating like a drum to contrast his more sporadic one. He could smell her scent that wafted down from her happy giggles and intoxicated him. This was better than the dream.

This was real.

He wanted to live this moment for the rest of his life.

Her smiling and giggling and him admiring her with a mixture of awe and confusion.

All of a sudden she looked back down at him and noticed the blush that graced his nervous cheeks. She suddenly became aware of their position and before he could reassure her, she rolled off of him in an embarrassed manner.

She looked down at the floor and fiddled with the strands of hair that fell wildly around her face. He wasn't sure whether the hair had become displaced by her sleep, or her aggressive embrace.

"Sorry about that…its just, I'm so excited. And I have something really important to tell you…" She said as she tucked one of her stray hairs behind her ear. He could tell that her voice was hiding something. Something deep.

And he wanted to know what it was.

"Well while you were… um… asleep… I started to think about us." She said as her eyes drifted everywhere but his face. Her hair covered her face, but when she moved, he could see a shade of pink beneath her hair.

He smiled softly at her blushing face. For some reason it reminded him of something. Something important. Someone important.

"You see, I uh.. well me and Kantu.. and now we… and you were dying-"

His thoughts stopped. Dying.

Such a harsh word.

He was dying. He was on the verge of ceasing to exist.

About to die.

About to be dead.

To be gone.

"Wait, what?" He exclaimed in a mixture of shock and fear. He was just sleeping. He couldn't have been dying. That was impossible.

Her expression clouded with sadness, as if she was experiencing a bad memory. Her eyes became sodden and her mouth twisted into a grimace.

"Um, well you close.. but-" He stopped listening as soon as he heard confirmation.

His head was spinning all at once. He had lost his anchor and now a thousand questions surged in his head. His vision blurred for a second and he thought he was going to pass out from the overwhelming thoughts.

"But-b but I was just sleeping and- wait how long was I asleep?" The pain and shock was clear on his face like an open wound. The meaning of her words was sinking in with dreadful consequences.

"Oh… 8 days." Her face contorted into a heartbreaking expression and she turned away from him.

"It's my fault… I'm so sorry…" She continued sadly. One of her hands moved from her side and latched onto his. Her gesture was comforting and for a moment, he didn't feel so alone. But that moment ended when another thought pressed into his mind.

"What happened?" he asked quietly.

Her tears suddenly broke free from their barriers and she was left sobbing uncontrollably.

"H-he… he knocked you out and he…" Her eyes traveled over his shirtless chest that was still coated in black and blue marks. In a quick motion, she pulled her hands over her mouth and choked out another sob.

He wanted to hug her and tell her it was okay. But he was too confused and a deep hurt was stabbing into his side. He understood where his confusion came from, but the hurt was a complete mystery.

"Please. I'm so sorry…"

She moved into his arms and he instinctively wrapped them around her shaking body. Her wet cheeks fell onto his collarbone, and he could feel the hot tears burning against his bare skin as she wept.

"Its okay." He assured her softly.

But it wasn't.

He had no idea what was happening and he felt so lost and alone. Even as he hugged her, something felt wrong. He felt like he was back in the dream. He felt like she would disappear and leave him to fall into the abyss again.

And that same hurt continued to stab into his side. A hurt that seemed to be related to the blue eyed woman in his arms.

After a few minutes of her crying, and him holding her, she finally pulled away and wiped her cheeks with shaking hands.

She stepped away from him and nodded to herself. Trying to calm down and stop remembering. Stop seeing the visions. The blood.

She cleared her throat to remove hint of pain in her voice before she she spoke.

"Anymore questions?" She said weakly. She tried to smile, but her lips shattered before they could form the happy curve. She was obviously still trying to comfort him and he felt gratitude to her for her selflessness.

"Yea… Just one more…" He said quietly. He knew he needed to ask the question, but he didn't want her to fall apart when the words came out of his mouth. Maybe he could just ignore it and ask later when she wasn't so… distraught.

But he knew there was no avoiding it.

He had to ask, or it will only cause more pain down the road.

His eyes moved to his hands which were shaking involuntarily. For a second he closed his eyes and tried to remember. To remember anything. But all he could remember was five words.

"You will never be alone."

Finally he opened his eyes and looked back up into the stunning blue eyes.

"Who are you?"

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