Chapter 1: The Boy Who Fell Through Fire
The world burned red before Robert Jackson's eyes.
He wasn't supposed to die like this. Not at seventeen. Not on a rainy night in Chicago with sirens echoing and a stray bullet meant for someone else finding him instead.
He remembered clutching his chest, warmth pouring between his fingers, and the blur of streetlights turning into streaks of gold. Then—darkness.
When he opened his eyes again, the world was not the same.
The sky above was crimson, the sun blazing through a haze of heat. He sat up on cracked stone, surrounded by jagged cliffs and a smoking volcano in the distance.
His reflection shimmered in a pool of molten glass beside him — same brown skin, same sharp eyes, but his hair was shorter, messier… and his clothes?
Traditional Fire Nation red and black armor, scorched at the edges.
"What the—" he started, but his voice sounded different. Deeper. Sharper.
Then came the voice inside his head.
"The cycle continues. You have been given another chance, Robert of Earth. But fire must be mastered—or it will consume you."
He stumbled backward, looking around. "Who said that?!"
Silence. Only the wind and the crackle of distant flame.
He looked down at his hands. Heat pulsed beneath his palms, and suddenly—
WHOOSH!
A burst of flame shot out, curling like a whip before fading into sparks.
He fell to his knees, heart racing. "No way… am I—am I a firebender?"
A group of soldiers appeared over the ridge, their red banners flapping in the wind. They looked at him with suspicion.
"You there! What division are you from?" one barked.
Robert's mind spun. His Chicago accent slipped out. "Uh… division? Man, I don't even know where I am!"
The soldiers frowned. The leader stepped forward, his armor shining. "You wear Fire Nation garb, yet speak like a fool. You'll explain yourself to Commander Iroh."
Robert froze.
"Iroh?" he whispered.
The Iroh? As in that Iroh?
As they led him away in chains, he couldn't stop thinking:
He had died once. But maybe this world—this Avatar world—was his second chance.
And if the fire within him was real, maybe he could use it to change the destiny of more than just himself.
Maybe this time, he'd live for something bigger.
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