Spirit Portal

"Is it really that simple?"

"Yeah, just talk to him and don't stop even if you start fighting. You have to let all your repressed feelings out."

"That… alright."

Smiling, Genji hugged Azula.

"You'll be okay, Zuko will understand one day."

"Okay…"

Azula slightly smiled before returning the hug.

After crying and letting out all her emotions onto Genji, she felt like she was born anew. Her body felt lighter and her visual outlook on life was also brighter.

A smile was becoming more frequent on her face rather than a cunning smirk nor her serious face.

Now with this brighter outlook on life, Azula felt like she had to strengthen her relationships with her close friends and family.

So, whilst eating together, Azula and Genji talked about Azuka and her family, Iroh and Zuko.

Wishing to fix her relationship with them, Azula asked Genji for help. With his newfound wisdom, Genji helped out Azula and gave her some suggestions.

Now, with that in mind, Azula parted with Genji after they finished eating.

She had a lot on her mind and she had to sort through her feelings.

***

Like this, a whole week passed by in the blink of an eye.

During this week, Genji spent it on teaching Ty Lee about Airbending and training himself. Occasionally he would also talk with Azula and Toph, rarely with Zuko, Mai, or Suki.

However, he felt like he could fix his relationship with Suki. She would occasionally walk towards him when she would chicken out and turn to another direction.

He would even hear her murmur to herself as she wished to speak with him.

As much as he wished to go talk to her so that they could solve this problem, Genji decided to instead wait for Suki to work up the courage in case he scares her off.

With that in mind, Genji would occasionally leave the door to his training room open.

Genji trained in all his bending abilities, all of them at the highest level they could currently reach with the level cap of the system. Instead, he worked on refining his skills further and would eventually got some enlightenment in Airbending, Earthbending, and weirdly enough, even Lightning Generation and Metalbending.

Besides training in his bending abilities, Genji would also train in his martial arts and spear skills.

Since his bending used martial arts as a basis, his martial arts skills advanced rapidly. His spear skills also advanced, but not as much as his martial arts.

With such a rigorous and strict training schedule, Genji hardly had time for eating. Even his time spent on reading the books he got from Wan Shi Tong's Library was at night.

At night, he would deduce and comprehend whatever was written within the books.

Now, he had a single left to read.

It was one of Guru Laghima's many books that Genji had. It talked about the last part of Guru Laghima's life that he spent never touching the ground after discovering flight/weightlessness.

Genji had already finished reading the concepts of Yin and Yang, all that was left was to comprehend everything he read.

…

"The Northern Water Tribe…"

Genji sighed as he looked at the enormous whitish blue wall in the distance.

After more than a month away, Genji was already on his way back to the Northern Water Tribe.

'I wonder how Yue is,' thought Genji as he watched as the ship approached the ice wall.

As they approached, the ice wall opened up a passage for them and the ship entered the city. It didn't take long before Genji was presented with a city that was beginning to collapse.

With a frown, Genji looked at the various destroyed houses and found that they had been destroyed by large beings.

Dark spirits.

'They've already made it to the capital city of the Northern Water Tribe,' thought Genji as he began to feel a sense of urgency to meet Yue.

Without warning, Genji shocked everyone on the ship as he jumped into the ice cold water.

PFFFF!

With a large blast of water, Genji shot off to the palace like a rocket.

His speeding figure caught the attention of the people and various soldiers.

Just when the soldiers were going to stop and detain Genji, they noticed who it was and stopped in their tracks in shock.

"Vice Chief!"

"The Vice Chief is back!"

"He's come to save us!"

"Vice Chief!!!"

Soon, word began to spread that Genji and returned and the entire city quickly knew that their Vice Chief had returned.

…

"Yue!"

Jumping out of the water, Genji ran into the palace as he effortlessly made his way through the palace.

With his spirit sense and awakened senses, Genji quickly found Yue and dashed over to her. After finding out that she was still within the city, Genji relaxed but continued to run rapidly as he made his way over to her.

Running into her bedroom, Genji found Yue training her Waterbending skills.

"Yue…"

Genji looked at Yue with a relieved look on his face after noticing that she wasn't hurt at all.

"Who dares to enter my room without permission?!"

Hearing the door to her room open, Yue turned around and froze in place when she noticed the person she had thought she wouldn't see anymore.

Her eyes went wide and a smile spread on her face.

"Genji!"

With an excited yell, Yue ran to Genji and jumped into his arms.

"I missed you! I've been praying to the Ocean and Moon Spirits for your safety!"

Welcoming Yue into his arms, Genji hugged her back.

"I've missed you too," said Genji, surprisingly not lying.

After hearing about the dangers here in the Northern Water Tribe, Genji began to worry about Yue. Something which caused him to shake his head in disappointment after finding out that he gets attached to people too quickly.

"What are you doing here?"

Yue reluctantly pulled herself off Genji and looked at him curiously.

Genji smiled solemnly, "Dark Spirits. I've come to put an end to them.

Permanently."

"What?!"

Looking at Genji with shock, Yue's expression returned to normal before nodding.

"Knowing you, you might have a chance to actually do that, right?"

Genji didn't answer and instead changed the topic, "When was the city attacked? Are you all safe?"

"We were attacked by the Dark Spirits yesterday… they kidnapped all the children they could get their hands on," grimly answered Yue.

Yue noticed Genji changing the topic but decided to answer his question nonetheless.

Hearing Yue's answer, Genji revealed a grim look and knew that he needed to leave right away.

If they grab enough children, the Dark Spirits will be able to free Vaatu with all the accumulated spirit and life energy from the children.

"This is bad…" muttered Genji before looking at Yue. "Keep the people in the city safe. I will bring back the children and prevent a disaster from happening."

"I will keep the people safe!"

Yue nodded.

Genji turned around to leave, but before he stepped out of Yue's room, he stopped and went back to Yue before giving her a big kiss on the lips.

"I'll… save the children," said Genji before running out, leaving a stunned Yue behind.

'He's so… sweet,' thought Yue as she touched her lips.

"You have such a sweet and strong daddy…" muttered Yue as she rubbed the bottom of her belly with a smile.

***

Standing outside the palace, Genji solemnly watched as the ship docked and Azula and the rest got off.

'Should I just head out myself?'

Genji wondered as his gaze drifted over to Suki's nervous face. Her eyes darting to the sides, fearful of whatever may be lurking in the shadows.

She had already experienced being ambushed by the Dark Spirits and it only made her wary of the land around her, mainly snow.

Everyone noticed Genji and approached him, wondering why he had suddenly dashed to the palace.

Prompting Genji to shift his gaze to the side before saying, "We will be heading out now."

"Now?"

Mai furrowed her eyebrows at Genji's words.

Everyone else also looked at Genji curiously after hearing him. Azula on the other hand quickly understood why.

"We're on a tight schedule, I'll tell you all on the way to the spirit portal," said Genji as he looked at everyone in the eyes before turning around and continuing to walk.

Everyone turned to look at each other before silently following behind Genji.

Whilst Genji and the rest we're talking, Yue had already given out her orders and formed a couple of troops to follow Genji.

They prepared various Buffalo Yaks to act as mounts for Genji's group.

Once they all settled and rode their mounts, Genji led his group and the troops out to the spirit portal.

"Genji… are you prepared?"

Suki looked at Genji, her face showing concern as she looked at his distant gaze. Her heart was aching as she wished to express her love for him but couldn't because of the current situation.

'I'll tell him after all this is over…'

"Yes, more prepared than I'll ever be," said Genji as he gripped onto his staff tightly.

"He better be prepared…" scoffed Azula as she joined Suki and Genji.

Rolling his eyes, Genji turned his attention to the light pillar in the distance.

…

Genji's group and the Northern Water Tribe Troops were making good progress. Some dark spirits would occasionally attack them and they would take care of the spirits rapidly.

Whilst most waterbenders and the rest of Genji's group attacked and stalled the dark spirits, Genji and the other spiritual waterbenders began to restore balance to the Dark Spirits.

Turning them back to calm spirits, the spirits fled after being 'healed'. With Vaatu's influence over them having dissipated, the spirits began roaming around the North Pole.

They didn't dare return to the spirit world whilst Vaatu was still spreading his influence.

Genji and the rest looked at the fleeting spirits before turning their gazes to the spirit portal that seemed to stretch into space.

It was just a couple of steps away from them.

A distance that might be short but carried immense weight.

Getting off the Buffalo Yak, Genji stepped closer to the spirit portal. His eyes focused on the soothing light beam that was shooting into the sky.

"Regroup!"

The soldiers from the Northern Water Tribe regrouped and formed their squads.

Whilst the soldiers regrouped, Azula and the rest approached Genji.

"Let's take down that baddy!"

Ty Lee said with a smile on her face as she tried alleviating the tense atmosphere.

It seemed to have worked as everyone smiled a little after hearing her.

Toph punched her fists together and said, "Vaatu won't know what hit him."

"We will take down Vaatu here and today," said Genji as his gaze turned into a resolute one. "We will rescue all those children and send them back to their homes."

"A mere Spirit of Chaos and Darkness won't stop us," Azula proudly announced with a smirk on her face.

Zuko and Mai only smiled a little at what everyone said as they huddled a little closer to each other.

"Looks like the Northern Water Tribe soldiers are ready to go now," said Azula as she turned her head and looked at the soldiers in the distance.

Genji nodded and turned to look at everyone before turning back to the spirit portal.

"Let's go!"