Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Who's a kitty kitty? Yes, who's a little kitty kitty?"

Miyuki, enemy of the Fire Nation and current reincarnation of Rangi Sei'naka, glares at him. "Glad to see some things never change, huh?"

No response.

Of course there isn't. She's a cat.

"Do you like khapse?" Jinpa asks. "The New Year's coming up, and I was thinking of making some."

"Hm. Perhaps."

"An actual answer, please? I was just thinking"—Jinpa licks whatever paste he's making—"Kyoshi would appreciate some. It's Kelsang's birthday, as well, and he's not around but you know, I figured Kyoshi might want to-"

"If you say so," Lao Ge mutters. He's more focused on his book, 101 Ways To Kill A Human Bloodlessly by- oh, somebody famous no doubt. It's not particularly thrilling; see the 'bloodless' part. Most annoying reincarnation of Wan I've ever met.

When had Wan died again? Oh, a long time ago. Strictly speaking Wan was also reincarnated as Kyoshi as of right now, but that wasn't Wan's soul. It was (obviously) Kyoshi. A little misleading that people said the Avatar reincarnated when really only Raava reincarnated, picking some poor lost soul who'd died young or poor or whatever and giving them another chance.

Ugh, how sweet.

"That'll be a yes then!" Jinpa's nice, probably, sounding almost too much like Wan for comfort. Clever kid. Shame he keeps getting dragged into Zoryu's MLM schemes.

I mean, all he wants in life is to be reincarnated as a cat.

"Hey! Tieguai!"

So the boy - man - has found him again. 

"Shouldn't you be dead by now?"

And he's naive, too. Tieguai cocks a grin. "You know the Immortal bit in Tieguai the Immortal?"

Wan nods, breathless. "I assumed you were just screwing with me."

"I am most of the time," he admits, "but not this time."

"I don't like it when you lie."

"Then you'll hate me in the future. Whole world's built on lies, sunny."

"Hey!" Wan says, sparks flying from his hands. "I'm not sunny, I'm Wan."

"And the Avatar?"

Wan grins. "Yeah."

"Tell Raava death is fucking terrified of me, will you?"

"Uh. Sure."

The boy is perched precariously on an icy ledge. Lao Ge taps him, and all the water rapidly melts. "Who was that?"

"Me," Lao Ge grins.

"Yes, I can see that, but who?"

"I told you, I'm me, Unalaq."

"How did you kn-" Unalaq makes a sign against his chest, the sign of Tui.

"Met you before."

"I've never met you in my life."

"Oh, really? Not in this one, but you think we haven't met before in a past life?"

"How would you know?"

"Immortality." He grins, a grin that flashes a few too many teeth for comfort. "You were born on old Zuzu's date of death, weren't you?"

"Fire Lord Zuko?"

"No! No, of course not. I meant Azulon."

"You knew him?"

"Of course I did! He trapped spirits all the time. Trapped me in his palace for nearly a century, damn and save his soul. I think you'd enjoy it too, seeing as you're his soul reincarnated."

"H-huh?"

"Fate is a strange thing," he says, cackling, and then vanishes.

The girl looks, if not confused, then at the very least a lot like Sokka. Which makes sense, since she's related.

Oh, and his reincarnation.

"Jinora, how thrilling to see you again!"

"Wh- how do you-" Her tattoos glow slightly, before calming down again. "Most people don't know that."

"I mean, most people don't meet immortal spirits. You win some, you lose some!"

Jinora looks, in no uncertain terms, pissed. "I'm trying to study."

"Yeah, yeah, sure you are. Aren't you fourteen?"

"Fifteen."

"Whatever. Humans are embarrassingly short-lived. Cringe-inducingly puny, terrifyingl-"

"I get it, okay?" She rebuffs him with a blast of air. "Now go away, I'm studying Master Kirima's bending style."

"You're an Air Nomad, right?"

The girl looks so much like Jinpa it's not even funny. Sure, her hair's wrong (mostly in that she has any of it at all) and there are no tattoos running down her arms and forehead, but otherwise it's pretty obvious that this girl is Jinpa (formerly Khian, formerly- ah, who gives a shit). 

She also looks terrified. "You can't just say that out here, someone could hear-" Ty Lee pauses. "How do you even know that?"

"I mean, you're the damn image of your past lives. Right down to Wan."

"Who?"

"No matter. Obviously you mostly resemble Jinpa, then-" He rattles off a series of names, in descending order. He might have put Yuka too far above Jai, but whatever.

"Can you please just go away? I know spirits have been hounding me for ages, but it's starting to get annoying."

"They'd stop hounding you if you just accepted you're Air Nation."

"I grew up in the militaristic Fire Nation."

"Fair. Have a sweet."

"You're confusing me."

"Excelent! Bye."

Jesa screams, really screams. "Look, I know you just broke your leg and all, but could you stop yelling? My ears hurt."

"You just dropped me off a cliff!" she screeches. 

"Hey, stop yelling! You'll wake up Hark."

"Oh, because Hark is the one with the broken fucking leg! Alright then!"

"If you weren't the reincarnation of someone really annoying I wouldn't have done it!"

"What, broken my leg and murdered half my fiancé's family?"

"You have no proof. And anyway. His fault for being descended from a bunch of asshole nobles!"

"I hate you!"

"Alright," Lao Ge says, "I'll just leave you here then."

"Hellfire, if you do that I will-"

Lao Ge relents.

"You're an owl." 

"And you're annoying."

"The great Wan Shi Tong could have chosen any form in the world and you chose... an owl?"

"I will smack you."

"With your giant bird wings? Ooh, I don't think so."

"Get out."

"I-"

"Or I will turn you into a book."

"You can do that?" 

"Get out!"