Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tango snaps his eyes open, his heart pounding violently in his chest. Once his vision adjusts and his head stops throbbing Tango lays eyes upon a scene he was sure he’d never see again. He stands, blinded by broad daylight on rocky terrain. He can hear the rushing water of a river behind him. Tango is, once again, in a circle of people he knows very well by now. Each is in their own stage of grief as they too take in the situation. His heart hammers faster as realisation seeps in. 

They’re in another test. 

“No- no, this can’t be happening. Jimmy got us out, he-” Tango stops his panicked rambles as he scans the group, looking for his Rancher. He does multiple passes and almost instinctively reaches out across the soulmate bond he and Jimmy shared in Double Life. But there’s nothing there.

“ Welcome players, to the fourth test in this series, Limited Life ” a voice booms from seemingly nowhere. All the ‘players’ stop their panicked grumbling immediately. A tense anger fills the air, fuelled by the whole party at the sound of the loud voice, that they all know to belong to a Watcher. 

“ We understand the confusion and would like to remind you all that it is impossible to break out of this test. We have removed the anomaly that allowed you to escape the previous one prematurely. That test had not been completed, so it is with great intrigue that we will watch over this one. Have fun. ” 

The voice is carried away by the wind, leaving the group in dread seeped silence. 

“Well what the heck is that s’pposed to mean?” Bdubs’ shout sounds from across the circle. “D’they really think we’re gonna play by their rules this time?”

Martyn steps forward, drawing the group’s attention to him. “The Watchers can be very persuasive. Believe me. As long as we’re trapped in their stupid games, we’re at their mercy.”

Tango knows the depth of what Martyn is saying more than probably anyone else. Well apart from Jimmy. The thought of his Rancher has Tango scanning the group again. It comes up empty. The avatar, his soulmate, is nowhere in sight.

“Where is-?”

“I don’t see Jimmy either.” Tango’s fire atop his head pops in surprise at the voice beside him, interrupting his question to no one in particular. 

He looks to his left and finds Lizzie, her gaze solemn as it flickers across the rest of the group.

“Joel isn’t here either. Or Grian or Ren. I don’t think their team was taken.” Tango feels relief flood through him and prays to all the spirits that Lizzie’s theory is correct. She seems the most collected of the group. Perhaps this has to do with her training as a Listener; she had retained her memories in Last Life after all. Wait a minute-

“Lizzie, why can we remember?” Lizzie finally meets Tango’s questioning eyes.

She shakes her head. “I don’t know. I’ve heard the memory wipe is a lengthy process, maybe they didn’t have time for it? Judging by everyone’s reactions, I’m guessing we all can remember.”

“I can confirm that I remember. Or- well I guess I wouldn’t be able to tell if I had forgotten something now that I think about it.” Mumbo, who’s stood to Lizzie’s left, joins in their semi hushed conversation. Tango and Lizzie stare up at him, making the moustached man’s cheeks go red as he rubs the back of his neck. “Oh uh- sorry, was I not supposed to be listening in?”

“Nah you’re good.” Tango offers Mumbo an unsure smile “That’s just a terrifying thought to have is all, thanks Mumbo.” Tango looks at the two before him. Seeing them in another test feels so surreal. Last Life was so long ago. And now they’re here for round four.

“I’m sorry you guys are back. It’s probably nice to have been spared the last game.” Tango sighs and looks down. He soon feels a hand gently rest on his arm. 

“Tango it’s alright. The more of us there are, the more of a chance we have to find a way out of here” Lizzie tries to give him a reassuring smile, and although Tango doesn't know her particularly well, even he can tell that her smile is forced.

Lizzie’s face suddenly falls to a frown. The hand on Tango’s arm goes stiff as she stares into the distance, pausing all conversation as if she were focusing intently on something. Tango and Mumbo share a look. Tango is just about to ask her what’s wrong when Lizzie snaps out of her trance. The grip on Tango’s arm is loosened and Lizzie steps back from the firebender.

“The Watchers say they’re ready to start some sort of timer.” Tango can see her scan the group and lock eyes with Martyn who’s stood across from them. It takes Tango a couple of seconds to process but as soon as he does, he’s just about ready to smack himself in the forehead for not considering sooner that Lizzie would be able to hear the Watchers.

“Of course you can hear them! You’re the original Listener!” 

Lizzie giggles at Tango’s little eureka moment. “Well yeah! I’m the reason Martyn, Jimmy and Skizz can hear them in the first place.”

Tango looks over to Skizz in the circle who is also eyeing the group with great concern. The firebender makes a mental note to have at least one of the Listeners close at all times so he can hear about the Watcher’s chatter as quickly as possible.

Suddenly a loud bell rings out through the entire prison, making the ground shake and the players reach up to cover their ears. There are 24 chimes, followed by the thundering voice, “You have 24 hours to live, good luck.”

There is a burning sensation in Tango’s arm. He hisses and rips his sleeve up to reveal numbers branded into his forearm, magically changing and counting down: 24:00:00, 23:59:59… The others seem to be examining their own wrists, the sight of it ticking creates a pit in Tango’s stomach. He didn’t think he could feel any more dread at the whole situation. Leave it to the Watchers to prove him wrong. 

“Why is it ticking down so slowly?” Mumbo is the first of the three to break the silence, making Tango look up at him, then back down to his wrist. Mumbo is right, the clock is far slower than actual seconds, he doesn’t need to count cabbages to realise that. It has only just ticked down to 23:59:58.

“To prolong our suffering, I suppose,” Lizzie deadpans. The dark humour falls flat as an awkward silence spreads amongst the group. Mumbo focuses on his wrist, mouthing something. He seems to be counting? Tango looks over the group of people again. Making one hundred percent sure that nobody from Jimmy’s group is in the game. Although the absence of his Rancher makes Tango’s heart sink. There still flutters a little hope inside him, that Jimmy and the others are working on a way to get them out of this test as quickly as possible.

“There is absolutely no way I sit around while the Watchers do whatever they want with me!” Tango snaps out of his gaze and looks over to where Cleo is in the middle of a standoff with Martyn. The rest of the players seem to have moved to watch the former soulmates argue, more or less quietly taking sides in the debacle.

“I have to agree with Cleo here!” Scar interjects. “There is no reason for us to sit around to be the Watchers’ playthings. We should find a way out of here immediately.”

Tango, Lizzie and Mumbo have a silent agreement between them that they should join the others. Lizzie seems to be readying herself to put out the inevitable fires with Cleo involved.

“No you’re not listening to me-” Martyn seems far more agitated than he did when he initially stepped up “I’m saying we don’t have a choice. Be it bloodlust or outright possession, there is no chance we don’t play the game. And you guys will just make all our lives harder if you don’t play along!” Scott moves behind Martyn. Silently showing support, but also readying himself to hold Martyn back with how aggressive the earthbender has become in this shouting match.

“How do we know that you’re not one of their minions Martyn? Because you seem to do their bidding an awful lot. Surely you’re just one of them! Why else would you want us to play the forsaken game!” Cleo, noticing Scott’s stance, decides to stalk closer to their former soulmate, pointing an accusatory finger at him.

Martyn seems just about ready to drop a mountain on Cleo. Tango can see the fire in his eyes and decides to keep his distance, unsure of how big a bolder Martyn’s going to bend when it inevitably comes to a scrap.

Martyn’s voice is low and seething with hate when he next opens his mouth. “Don’t you dare even suggest that I might be one of them. You have no idea.”

Cleo does not act intimidated by anything Martyn says; they rarely do. They lift their head and cross their arms, standing just a few feet from the earthbender. “What you gonna do? Throw a pebble at me?”

At that Martyn cracks. Before Scott can reach out to hold him back, Martyn stomps his foot in front of him in typical earthbender fashion and then hurls his fists forwards trying to pull rocks from the ground to fling at Cleo. But instead of rocks breaking free of the earth, a brilliant orange flame bursts from Martyn’s fists directly towards Cleo. Before the fire reaches her, Scar is suddenly by her side, crashing into her and pulling them both to the floor to avoid the flames.

Just as soon as Martyn starts miraculously bending fire, the flames taper out and he stares at the fresh burns coating his fists. The group is stunned to silence, truly a rare occurrence.

“The Watchers say: Oh, so the Hand has already figured out our secret twist! How delightful that it works! I do wonder how long it will take the others to realise. ” Lizzie relays to the non Listeners before rushing forward to examine Martyn’s burns. Tango follows quickly in tow.

Martyn has fallen to his knees by the time they reach him. Scott is already by his side, soothing the wounds with some water but not healing them. Tango supposes Scott had never taken the time to learn healing. From what he knows of the waterbender, Scott used to focus his bending on creating intricate ice sculptures. Scott smiles thankfully at Lizzie and lets her take over properly healing Martyn’s burns. His hands are shaking uncontrollably.

“What do they mean with a secret twist?” When Martyn speaks, his words are rushed and as he breathes, rough and shallow, Tango can see smoke trailing from his mouth and nostrils. Martyn needs to relax or he’s going to hurt himself. Tango moves down beside his friend, placing one hand on his back to steady him, the other he uses to move Martyn’s hand to his own chest and starts taking deep breaths. In and out. Martyn locks eyes with Tango and quickly realises what he’s doing. He starts to mimic Tango’s breathing. It only takes a minute or so before Martyn is breathing regularly on his own again and Lizzie can go back to healing the hand Tango had taken out of the water stream. 

Martyn smiles up at Tango. “Thanks for that, bud.” 

“Hey, don’t worry about it.” Tango softly smiles back at Martyn. “I know what losing control is like and believe me, you do not want to be burnt by that fire.”

“Yeah, let’s talk about that,” Scott starts, sitting cross legged beside Martyn, as if he were ready to spill all the hottest gossip at a slumber party. “How in the world did you just bend fire?”

Chapter Text

“Scar, how'd you just do that?” Bdubs’ call from the other side of the confrontation reaches Tango’s ears. He looks over to see Cleo and Scar on the ground, Scar seemingly having knocked his head, by the way he’s got a hand cradling his forehead. Tango meets eyes with Cleo, who seems unharmed, but is looking over at Martyn with shock and worry plastered over their face. Pearl and BigB have moved over to help them up.

“I don’t know what you mean, Bdubs!” Scar exclaims as BigB helps him stand. “I just see Martyn blastin’ fire at one moment and the next I’m tumlin’ into Cleo to get her out the way!”

Pearl is helping Cleo up while checking them over for any injuries. “Scar, buddy, I’m pretty sure I felt a poof of wind when ya hauled yourself over to Cleo.”

“That’s what I’m saying, man! You flew!” Bdubs throws up his arms to underline his statement. 

BigB chuckles at Bdubs’ over exaggeration before adding his own comment, “Yeah man I’m pretty sure I saw some airbending there, I would know.”

Scar stares at BigB, then Pearl, then Bdubs. It takes him a comically long moment to process what the others are telling him, until finally he bursts out, sputtering and stumbling over his own words, “Wha- what are you talking about? Man, I must’ve really hit my head if you’re sayin’ what I think you’re sayin’! I’ve never airbended in my life! I grew up in Ba Sing Se, not an air temple! I’m not one of you wind tootin’ hippies!”

BigB has moved away from Scar at this point and eyes him with curiosity. “That might be true.” He examines Scar up and down, hand resting on his chin, “But I’m pretty sure about what I saw. Hey Scar, could you do me a favour and try to follow my movements?”

BigB starts what Tango can only assume to be a typical airbender move. Scar clumsily follows, at the end of which Scar produces a gust of wind he shoots directly at Bdubs, who lets out disgruntled yelps. Scar is so shocked he jumps back and falls directly into Cleo again.

“Woah, there is absolutely no way I just did that! Cleo, I didn’t just do that, right?” Despite having Scar crash into them twice, Cleo chuckles at his display. 

“Yeah, no, I think we all saw that Scar. You just airbent.”

Pearl has made her way over to BigB and the two share a few words Tango isn’t able to make out from his position beside Martyn. BigB’s gaze is fixated on his own hands, eyebrows pulled into a frown.

Tango looks back to his group to see Lizzie has long finished healing Martyn. They all seem to be listening closely to the Scar situation. It looks like they had also got distracted from the whole Martyn firebending thing when Bdubs started shouting about what he’d seen. As is often the case with Bdubs, grasping the whole group’s attention through pure volume.

“Alright, roll call everyone!” Skizz calls out, having stood between both groups and heard both conversations concerning Martyn’s firebending and Scar’s airbending. “Who can now do what? Benders, you first! Bend your element, or at least try to.”

BigB is the first to speak up, “I can’t bend. I felt weird as soon as we started. But when I was showing Scar the move, I should have produced a gust of wind like he did.”

Frantically, benders begin attempting to bend the element they’ve spent their whole lives mastering. Tango successfully summons a flame to his hand, Scott and Lizzie look at each other and each lift the water they’d shared to heal Martyn with, but that seems about it in the sphere of any of this making sense. Little groups form and chatter breaks out over the rocky hill the players still find themselves on.

Lizzie and Martyn suddenly go silent and share a look. Tango can only assume that the Watchers are speaking in their minds. Martyn’s frown deepens as he gets up and pushes past Mumbo and Tango.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m gonna gear up. There is no way I’m getting stuck out in the open when it gets dark.” 

Tango watches the Listener jump down the cliff and into the river. Tango looks over to Lizzie, eyebrow raised in question.

She sighs and explains. Eyes still trailed towards where Martyn vanishes into the treeline. “The Watchers are concerned how we’re not doing what we’re supposed to. Martyn is trying to avoid any punishment that might come from refusing to play their twisted game.” 

“I agree with Martyn,” Skizz’s voice sounds over the group again, drowning out the rest of the chatter, “No matter if people want to play the game or not, there’s no denying that starving is not a good way to go on strike. Let’s split up and get some stuff like always and people report in when they start setting stuff on fire or somethin’.”

Most of the group disperse. Cleo, Bdubs and Scar still stay around the spawn area, continuing their discussion. Tango finds himself going in the same direction Martyn had just disappeared off to, Skizz and Impulse on his tail.

—

The initial resource gathering is so ingrained into Tango's mind that he’s sure he could do it in his sleep. He practically does this time; thoughts of the Watchers, what this change in bending could mean and Jimmy’s absence are taking most of his focus. Tango is sure Jimmy and the others are working on a way to get them out of here as soon as possible. 

“Something weighing on your mind there, Tango Top?” Skizz brings Tango out of his thoughts by swinging a pickaxe in front of his vision. Tango shakes his head to properly bring himself back to the real world. Or… well… the simulated world.

“Just about everything,” Tango admits, “We could start with the fact that we were so close to escaping, only to be thrust back into one of their tests. Add to that we have a literal timer ticking down to our demise this time and suddenly people are bending different elements!”

Impulse picks up and inspects a sword he had just crafted, before placing it in its hilt. “Yeah, not liking that timer either. And I’m also very much hoping I get my earthbending back when we get out of here. It’s weird not being able to feel the ground below me. It’s like losing one of your senses.”

Skizz swings his pickaxe over his shoulder and gathers up the coal he’d just mined.

“I’m gonna be honest guys, I kinda wanna see if I can suddenly bend something. Wouldn’t that be cool? Tango, show me a fire move I can try!”

Impulse chuckles and steps forward before Tango can consider showing Skizz anything. 

“I’m actually not sure if that would work,” Impulse leans against the crafting table, “I have a theory.” Both Tango and Skizz stop what they were working on and move closer, like Impulse is about to entrust them with a great secret.

“So currently we’ve got-” Impulse holds up his fingers to start counting them, “Martyn who can firebend, Scar who can airbend, me and BigB who can’t manage to bend anything. Scott, Pearl, Lizzie and you, Tango, can all still bend your element. Just now in chat, Bdubs confirmed that he was able to lift a boulder. And there’s a couple of people where we don’t know anything yet.”

Impulse pauses for dramatic effect, Skizz immediately becomes impatient “C’mon Dippledop, don’t leave us hanging? Why d’you think ya buddy Skizz here isn’t gonna be commanding the water from that stream over there in five minutes?”

“Well, I don’t know if I’m right, but I’ve just noticed a pattern. Bdubs was my soulmate in Double Life, and now he can bend earth and I can’t bend anything. And I have studied other bending techniques in the past and tried a couple of movements already like BigB did with Scar, I got nothin’. Scar was paired with Grian, an airbender, now Scar airbends? And Pearl and Scott are both waterbenders and they seemed to keep their bending”

Tango has moved his hand to his chin to ponder on what Impulse is saying, “So you think that soulmates from Double Life have traded elements? What does that mean for Skizz, Lizzie and Mumbo? Lizzie is still a waterbender.” 

“That’s what I haven’t quite figured out yet. Again, this is just a theory. We need to see if Cleo starts earthbending, or if Etho starts firebending. But honestly, what I’m most curious about is if our local avatar passed on any skills to his soulmate.” Impulse gives Tango a gentle nudge, a wide grin spread on his face. Tango feels a stone land in his gut at the mere thought.

Him? Bending multiple elements? Possibly having the powers of the avatar? No way that’s gonna be a thing! 

“There’s no way the Watchers would give me any more elements. They were furious enough the first time around when they found out they had the avatar in their game.”

“Yeah I don’t think so either,” Skizz interjects, “Didn’t you hear the Watcher at the start. They ‘removed the anomaly’ that let you guys escape Double Life. That ‘anomaly’ was Jimmy and the avatar state, right? So no way they add that here.” Skizz adds quotation marks with his fingers. 

“You know what, you’re right, they wouldn’t give Tango the power that got us out of the last game. That would be a really stupid move on their part. But I’d still really like to hear what the other can bend now-”

“Anyone found a cow yet?” Etho suddenly emerges from behind some trees. Skizz jumps up and rushes forward to the masked man, slinging an arm around his shoulders.

“Etho! Just the man we wanted to see!” Skizz practically beams at him, “I have gotten you a super duper awesome private firebending lesson with Mr. Tango Top here!”

Etho raises an eyebrow. “Why would I need a firebending lesson?” 

“To check to see if you can firebend of course!” Impulse also gives Etho his biggest possible grin. Tango immediately clocks the uncertainty in Etho’s eyes, so he himself is hesitant to join in on the shenanigans. 

Etho wriggles out of Skizz's grip and makes sure to put distance between himself and the other three so as not to get cornered. “Honestly, I’d rather go without trying to bend an unfamiliar element. I don’t need to know. I see you guys haven’t got any cows, so I’ll see ya around?” 

He moves to sneak past the group before Skizz calls out “Waitup Etho! We’ll help you get some cows together, right guys?”

Before Tango can answer, he’s being dragged along by Skizz, Impulse breaking the crafting table behind them and following after. Skizz whispers to Tango while he’s got him close.

“Try and coax some fire out of him if you can, we gotta find out more if we’re gonna get outta here.”

—

The rest of the day is spent trying to bring two cows together that they can store as a food source for later. Despite not so gentle encouragement from Impulse and Skizz, Tango is hesitant to ‘coax some fire out of Etho’. Whatever that’s supposed to mean. It’s not like Tango could shoot a fireball at Etho and expect him to put it out. That’s advanced firebending. Besides, as Tango watches Etho move, something feels off, like Etho is dragging himself around. Perhaps losing his bending is weighing heavier on Etho than he cares to admit. If Tango’s being honest, he’s unsure how he’d be handling it if he didn’t have the constant fire flickering atop his head that he’s had since birth. It’s already difficult enough for him to be going through another game without Jimmy by his side. 

As Impulse and Etho herd the cows, Tango and Skizz are left to gather some wood to make fences out of. Skizz is uncharacteristically quiet. As Tango looks over, his eyebrows are knit together and a frown has made itself at home on his face. Tango has a sneaking suspicion what’s weighing on Skizz’ mind.

“What are the Watchers saying?” Tango breaks the silence, snapping Skizz out of the trance he was in. Skizz hesitates for a moment, obviously debating what to tell Tango.

“I promised myself no secrets-” Skizz mumbles to himself, barely loud enough for Tango to hear, then he sighs and looks up at the firebender. 

“They say they’re keepin’ an eye on who they call ‘the Boogeyman’, they wanna avoid what happened in Last Life to happen here.”

“Who’s the Boogeyman?” Tango raises an eyebrow at the unfamiliar codename. He knows Jimmy was affectionately referred to as the Canary, Martyn the Hand and Grian was known as their Pesky Bird. Perhaps Skizz has some more insider information from having been able to hear the Watchers back in Last Life. Having him and Lizzie on his side for this game would actually be a good shout to learn as much as he can.

Skizz’s frown deepens. He grips his pickaxe tightly and locks eyes with Tango, his gaze dead serious. The change from the happy go lucky Skizz Tango has always known is almost jarring.

“That’s me,” Skizz replies, a dark glint in his eyes. “Back in Third Life, my bloodlust created the Boogeyman that followed me into Last Life and glitched the game. I figure that’s why they put me aside while you guys went and did Double Life. They didn’t want me tainting their test.”

Tango’s eyes go wide, so the Boogeyman from Last Life had been an unintentional game mechanic? One that Skizz had somehow created? “And the Watchers think that the Boogeyman will return for this game because you’re in it?” 

Skizz shrugs, “They’re not the only ones thinking that, buddy.” Skizz lays his pickaxe down, staring at it for a long while, pondering his next words before ushering them. “I have no idea why this curse is attached to me, but something deep inside me knows it’s back. I’m just waiting for the thunder to strike.” 

Tango isn’t sure what to say. All he can do is lay a comforting hand on Skizz’s shoulder, “Even if the Boogey is back. You know we’d never blame you for its existence, right? Like you said, you have no idea how this happened.” 

“Thanks man, means a lot,” Skizz gives Tango a crooked smile. He glances over Tango's shoulder and in the blink of an eye his demeanour is once again bright and sunny. He shakes Tango’s hand off of him and calls out, “Look, it’s Martyn!”

Tango turns around and sure enough, Martyn has appeared and seems to be in a deep conversation with Etho and Impulse. The three former earthbenders look up when Skizz starts making his way over to them, Tango in tow.

“Martyn, brother, you doing alright? How’s firebending?” Skizz is never one to dance around a subject, is he? Tango finds himself smiling and shaking his head at Skizz’s direct nature. It seems Martyn is unbothered by the question, a smile also strewn across his face.

“Honestly, not tried a lot so far. I’ll have to get Tango to teach me some stuff before I accidentally burn myself again,” he nods his head over to Tango, who smiles in return. A silent promise passes between them that Tango would show him some moves. Martyn continues, “Although, if I do burn myself, it looks like teaming up with Scott would be a good shout. Did you guys hear? He can heal now!”

“Oh really?” Impulse comments, eyebrows raised in surprise. 

Martyn nods, “Yeah, I popped back to spawn when I heard Bdubs could earthbend. He’d apparently hurt himself and Pearl was there trying to heal him. Turns out she can’t heal anymore. Scott turned up and gave it a try and he was able to do it! A frustrating moment for Pearl though.”

Impulse gives Tango and Skizz a knowing look, “This adds to my theory, though I didn’t think that skills could be transferred…” he scratches his chin again. 

Etho and Martyn look at Impulse with raised eyebrows. Skizz clarifies for them, “Impulse thinks you guys have swapped elements with your Double Life soulmates.”

There’s a moment where Martyn and Etho don’t answer, seemingly mentally going through the duos and what they know of bending changes.

“Yeah, that checks out so far. Is this why I need personal firebending tutelage with Tango?” Etho turns to Skizz and Tango, the question directed at them.

Tango sheepishly rubs the back of his neck, “Only if you’re up for it. It would help us figure out what the Watchers are testing here. But I suggest we find a place to lay down for the night. The sun’s about to set and I do not want to be caught out with the mobs.” 

“Sounds like a good idea, we wanna go back to the cliff face we mined out and set up camp there?” Impulse suggests, “We’ll keep the cows we’ve caught here, but we’ll be close enough to where we can come and get them in the morning.”

Etho and Tango nod, while Martyn shuffles forward, “Well, actually I should go and find Scott. We were thinking of teaming up this time around. I assume you four are together?” He gestures to the gentlemen in front of him. 

They all share a glance as Skizz speaks up, “I don’t see why not! I’d love to team with you guys!” The excitement is evident in his voice, “But am I good to come find Scott with you, Martyn? I’d like to have a chat, maybe figure out more about this ‘twist’. Am I ok to leave the cows with you guys?” 

Impulse nods, ensuring the leash around one of the two cows is secured tightly as Etho tends to the second, “Be careful out there bud. Don’t go getting yourself killed, alright?” 

Skizz smiles and nods, “Of course, Dippledop! Careful is my middle na-”

Skizz is interrupted by a great flash of lightning that lights up the twilight sky and is very quickly followed by deafening thunder that shakes the earth beneath them. The former earthbenders expertly widen their stance as Skizz and Tango almost tumble to the ground. Once regaining balance, Tango opens his communicator. 

One new message has appeared in the public chat, highlighted in red text. 

The Boogeyman is being chosen in 1 minute.

Tango immediately looks over to Skizz, who himself is breathing heavily and clutching his heart. He looks up to Tango, panic spreads across his face. That’s where he sees Skizz’s eyes. Tango has to blink a few times to realise it isn’t a trick of the light. Skizz’s eyes are consumed by black, no iris or sclera to be seen. Just void orbs staring up at him. Glowing turquoise particles float off of his form. The hairs on the back of Tango’s neck shoot up and his fight or flight senses kick in. But just as soon as it appears, Skizz’s eyes are back to normal, the pupils shrinking to a normal size, albeit constricted in shock. Tango blinks and the particles are gone too.

“Oh jeez, not this again,” Martyn sighs, only now looking up from his own communicator. It seems the others hadn’t seen Skizz. It's a moment only he and Tango had shared. Tango makes a move towards Skizz to ask if he’s ok, but Skizz grabs Martyn by the arm and starts moving away, slightly hastier than would be normal.

“Well, I do not wanna be around a group of people when that happens. Martyn, I promise not to kill you if it’s me but we should go find Scott.”

“Oh, oh ok I’m coming.” Martyn turns to properly walk beside Skizz. The two leave, Tango still stretching his hand out, stunned by their sudden departure.

“Well that was weird.” Impulse looks after the two before turning back to Tango and Etho. They’ve finished tying up the cows, so the three of them start making their way back into the woods they had done their initial resource gathering in. “We tellin’ each other if we’re Boogey? I’m good to help either of you get a kill.”

Etho shrugs, but then nods, “Sure why not. Tango, you doing ok there?”

Tango is still looking after where he last saw Skizz and Martyn, the image of Skizz’s void black eyes burned into his mind. He shakes his head once he realises he’s being talked to, “What? Oh, yeah, I’ll tell you guys. I gotta say though, I don’t like this. I really don’t want to have to go after anyone.”

Impulse sighs and nods, “I don’t like it either, but it’s like Martyn said. We gotta play the game, until we find a way out of here.”

The three stop when they get another notification from their communicator. They stand in a circle, holding onto their devices, a practice they’d gotten into while in Last Life. Whoever you’re with, you stand in a circle with them and then tell them you’re not the Boogeyman, no matter what your communicator tells you.

The Boogeyman is about to be chosen.

Tango hadn’t ever been the Boogeyman in Last Life. A fact Tango isn’t sure he’s thankful for or not. The others had described the experience as stress in a box, an itch they had to scratch, the constant prickle of bloodlust underneath their skin even if they were on green. At the same time, Tango would’ve loved to get revenge on Bdubs for backstabbing him. As much as Tango has forgiven and forgotten most things in the games so far. He has to be honest with himself, that one still stings just a little. 

And now they get to go through the constant anxiety of potentially getting backstabbed again, or perhaps this time, being the one doing the backstabbing. Tango hopes with all their memories intact, that this time they’d be more honest with each other on whether they’re the boogeyman or not.

Tango holds his breath as the words pop up on his screen;

3

2

1

You are…

Chapter Text

NOT the Boogeyman

Tango exhales the breath he’d been holding and looks up to his teammates, eyebrow raised. They too look at the others with shifty eyes.

“Not the Boogeyman,” Impulse reveals, his voice laced with relief. 

Tango nods, “Me neither.” 

Their gaze shifts to Etho, who’s eyeing them, trying to discern their honesty. He relaxes and shakes his head, seemingly content with what he could gather from the others, “It’s not me either.”

Despite the group promising to tell each other the truth, there is still unease in the air as the three set up camp by the cliff face they’d gathered resources at earlier in the day. Tango lights them a fire to keep away the mobs. As he’s doing it he sees Etho watching his movements closely, more so than is normal for even Etho. Tango looks down to where the masked man is sitting.

“You wanna try to get the flame to burn higher?” Tango asks, pulling Etho from his gaze. Etho blinks at Tango a couple of times, registering the firebender's words. 

He then shakes his head, “Nah, I’m good. We don’t have a waterbender around to heal any damage I do.”

Tango nods, feeling Etho’s excuse to be a little weak, but understanding all the same. Tango himself did need a waterbending healer around when he was growing up. 

“Firebending is not all about destruction, you know. Sure it’s dangerous, but it can also mean light and warmth and security.” Tango finds himself scooting closer to the campfire, desperately missing his Rancher by his side in the cold night. 

Tango can’t help but remember the first night he’d spent with Jimmy. His non-bending Rancher had tried to light their campfire and then looked at Tango bending it to life full of wonder and curiosity. And now, weeks later, Jimmy is the avatar, saving everyone and trying to get them all out of the Watcher compound. And then there’s Tango, who’s gotten himself captured and thrown into another test. Waiting it out until Jimmy comes to wake them up again. Gosh he’s useless isn’t he?

“Aren’t you just a little bit curious, Etho?” Impulse asks while settling down on a woollen blanket he’d just crafted. “If it were me, I’d be eager to learn a new element. I mean who ever gets the chance to do that? Apart from the avatar, of course.”

Etho simply shrugs. “I dunno, I’ve always been happy learning earth and metalbending. It’s really weird not having it. Maybe some time down the line I’ll try some firebending, if that’s even what I’m supposed to be able to do now. But at the moment, I’m just gonna take my time readjusting to the world without bending.”

Impulse looks ready to interject but is interrupted by a chime coming from their communicators. They all share a concerned look before each pulling their devices out. There usually isn’t any general chatter at this late hour, so the only notification they’d be getting at this time would be a death notification. Tango hopes it’s just another bending update.

He’s wrong. The message on Tango’s communicator glares at him, illuminating his face in the dark.

Skizzleman was slain by Smajor1995

“Skizz!” Impulse exclaims, having shot up from his lying position. “Was Scott Boogey?”

Smajor1995: I didn’t want it to go on, I felt bad. Sorry Skizz

Etho nods, “Yeah looks like a Boogey.”

Tango eyes his communicator. Something about it doesn’t seem right. Skizz had been determined to see Scott, who just happened to be the Boogeyman. Considering Skizz’s connection to the Boogeyman curse, did he know it was Scott? Or were the Watchers sending the Boogeyman to kill Skizz in hopes of getting him out the game?

“Skizz is still on green.” Etho comments. This gets Tango looking at the player menu and sure enough, Skizzleman’s name has yet to change colour. 

Impulse stifles a yawn. “We gotta go find Skizz tomorrow. But I say we sleep now. At least we can rest easy knowing that the Boogey has already killed.” 

Tango looks over to acknowledge Impulse's suggestion. His communicator illuminates his frown, worry reflecting in his brown eyes. Despite not having ever teamed up in any game, Skizz and Impulse seem close. Perhaps they just clicked so well immediately that the care they feel for each other will very quickly run deeper than most lifelong bonds. They have truly all been through a lot together. Tango is sure, after this is all over, that a lot of the people who have met in these games will be friends for life. He could just take himself and Jimmy as one such example.

“Yeah, I guess we don’t need to set up watch, if there isn’t a Boogey out and about anymore.” Etho positions himself to lie on his back, his sleeveless jacket acting as his pillow. “G’night.” 

And with that Etho closes his eyes, Impulse is soon to follow, leaving Tango to curl up under his own freshly crafted blanket, missing his Rancher.

—

The following days are filled with what most of the first week in these tests is usually taken over by. Building alliances and bases. Tango does end up teaming with Impulse, Etho and Skizz, calling themselves the TIES. 

Maybe it’s nostalgia of building the Ranch that makes Tango offer, but he soon finds himself building them a tower to settle in for now. Sure they need to figure out how to get out of Limited Life, but no one wants to sleep on the ground and in danger of Boogeyman attackification if one can help it. Etho disappears off to build a mob farm for the remainder of the first few weeks. 

The game mechanics of losing time if you die and gaining time if you kill become second nature. Boogeys find their victims, more people die (mainly from bending accidents). Nobody has yet dared to speculate on what happens when you run out of time, although the obvious answer to that question looms heavy.

While Tango is working on their tower word spreads of Cleo also being able to earthbend. Skizz and Mumbo remain non benders, despite being taught a couple of moves from bending masters. So the general consensus is accepted that the Double Life soulmates did actually trade elements and that those who weren’t a part of the previous game just kept their abilities from before. 

There are whispers spreading within the game's borders of Tango and whether any avatar qualities have crossed the soulmate bond. These whispers reach Tango more often than he’d like to admit, but he pays them no mind. Since waking up he hasn’t moved a single rock or controlled a stream or a breeze. And Tango is sure it’s going to stay that way. Right now he is content with building his tower. The early days of these tests can be peaceful and Tango takes the time to appreciate these moments, trusting that any day now he’ll suddenly be pulled out of the game and into a big Jimmy hug.

“Tango Top!” Skizz calls from the bottom of the tower. Tango peaks his head over the railing he’s just installed to see Skizz and Impulse at the bottom, ushering him to come down.

Tango jumps into the water beside the tower and heats up his body to dry his clothes quicker as he walks up to his team members. There is a slight unease swirling in Tango’s stomach as he approaches. Skizz went yellow a few days ago when his timer dipped below 16 and Tango has never before felt his anxiety spike around a yellow life like this, so far it’s only around red lives he’s ever felt uneasy. 

Tango explains it away as just being Boogeyman nerves. Last week Martyn and Lizzie had been Boogeymen, Lizzie even roping Mumbo into building a bridge with her to launch a TNT minecart at the Clockers, as Bdubs, Scar and Cleo’s team has been dubbed. The Good Guys, as Lizzie and Mumbo call themselves, had solved the group’s food problem in the process though by planting wheat along the whole bridge, so it does seem that they are still working to help them all. But there hasn’t been any sign of a Boogeyman yet this week, despite the whole server insisting it's not them. Someone is lying and Tango’s boogeysense is tingling.

“Tango! Impulse has had an amazing idea! We’re calling it Skynet. We’re gonna go up high and we’re gonna own the sky!” Skizz throws his arms up for dramatic effect. 

Tango raises an eyebrow, “We’re what now?”

“I thought we could pillar up above people’s bases so that when the time comes we can rain TNT down on their entire existence!” Impulse seems way too giddy considering the best case outcome of this plan is them murdering their friends in the near future.

“Ok and why do we feel the need to put ourselves in an extremely dangerous situation? Isn’t the goal here to not kill our friends and try and find a way out of here?” Tango takes no issue in voicing his thoughts, but when Skizz walks up to him and puts his hands on both Tango’s shoulders, Tango feels the hairs on his neck stand and his survival instincts kick in.

“Tango, I’m gonna be honest with ya. That green name of yours? I hate it. I hate all the green names in this entire game! It’s bad, homie buddeh. The bloodlust starts early man and I know as soon as we get everyone down to yellow, my skin will stop crawling and I will stop waking up in cold sweats, wanting nothing more than to rip your green little throat out!”

Tango swallows, stiff as a board with Skizz’s nails digging into his shoulders. Skizz blinks at him a couple times before loosening his grip and swiftly stepping away. He clears his throat and sheepishly looks at the ground, “Ahem, sorry about that. I’m obviously not going to go for my teammates. You guys are safe. But the rest of the server had better be dropping time soon or I’m seriously gonna lose it.”

Impulse looks at them wide eyed. It seems Skizz hadn’t had that sort of an outburst in front of Impulse yet either. It comes as a shock to all three of them, judging by the awkward moments of silence that follow. 

Tango swallows again, the realisation that the bloodlust is ramped up to 100 this time is something he didn’t want to hear today. He decides not to argue and leads Skizz and Impulse to the top of what he’d built so far. He gives Skizz all the blocks he might need to cover some ground high up above the rest of the world. Impulse places water at the foot of the tower in hopes of preventing anyone from losing any more time to falling. Over the course of the afternoon, Tango and Skizz both utilise it multiple times as a quick way to get down to collect resources. 

At some point Impulse calls out to Tango who’s just about to start work on the final spire, “Tango, I’m sick of climbing up these ladders! I’m gonna build us a bubblevator.”

Tango chuckles and calls back down, “Don’t let Etho hear you say that!”

Impulse’s laugh rings up through the interior, but stops abruptly. Assuming something has happened, Tango peeks his head over the side. Impulse is standing in front of a little tower he’d started building up to make room for the bubblevator. He’s removed the water at the bottom to give himself a dry environment to work in. Something at the back of Tango’s mind wonders if they should let Skizz know that it’s currently not safe to fall. Impulse is scratching his head and looking around. 

Tango calls down to his friend, “Everything alright there, bud?”

Impulse looks up, his face laced with confusion “Tango, did you build the top off centre? The middle down here doesn’t line up with the middle up there.”

Tango’s heart sinks, without another word he scurries to the edge of his tower and counts equally sized steps to find out the distance each part of the tower has to the edge of the railing. As he frantically mumbles to himself he can hear Impulse’s chuckle from down below. “Shut up!” He calls as he measures out the other side, and sure enough. Tango’s tower is exactly three feet off centre. Tango is sure his pained cries reach Impulse’s ears as his chuckle turns into a full on belly laugh.

Tango looks over the edge to lock eyes with Impulse, fully ready to scold him for making fun of Tango’s mistake. But when Impulse looks up again his face turns pale. 

“Skizz!” he shouts. “The water!”

Tango too looks up to see Skizz has just jumped from the top of Skynet, fully expecting to land in water. As he too realises, far too late, that the water has been removed, Tango can hear his scream edge louder as his friend plummets to his assured demise.

Without thinking Tango reaches out his hand. Some sort of inkling inside of him believing that perhaps he could catch Skizz, grab onto his hand. It’s not like he’s falling at terminal velocity. 

He calls out to his friend, focusing on his rapidly growing figure when there’s suddenly a strong breeze that whips around Tango and upwards towards Skizz. The wind circles around him, creating a little tornado, with Skizz at its centre. It slows him down enough for Tango to be able to grab onto him before he plummets to the bottom of the tower. The momentum still yanks Tango forwards as he grasps onto Skizz for dear life, dangling him over the tower’s unfinished roof. 

Tango grits his teeth and tries to pull Skizz up but he’s too heavy. Firebenders aren’t known for their strength as much as earth benders or non bending warriors. “C’mon.” He squeezes his eyes shut and pulls with all his might, but he’s slipping. 

“Skizz, work with me here.” Tango opens his eyes and looks down at his dangling friend. Skizz is staring at him, eyes wider than he’s ever seen on the man and mouth agape. Skizz is making no move to climb up to safety. It’s like something has him paralysed. There’s only so long Tango can hold on for before the strength in his grip gives way and Skizzle’s hand slips from his own.

“No!” Tango calls out and reaches his hand down. Another gust of wind fills the tower and whips around Skizz, a tornado forming again to slowly lower his friend down and place him safely on the ground. 

Tango leans over the edge, the breath stolen from his lungs by the wind. As soon as he relaxes his hand the tornado disperses and both Skizz and Impulse look up at him speechless. It is only then that Tango realises. That wasn’t just a well timed breeze that caught Skizz.

Tango just controlled the wind. 

Tango just airbent.

Chapter Text

“Tango!” Skizz’s calls barely register as Tango slips down the edge of the spire, and lands on the balcony area, promptly falling to his knees and staring down at his hands. He did not just do that, no way that he just did that!

Tango can hear his heart racing, drumming in his head as his breaths come up too short. He is completely unaware of the heavy footfalls on the balcony and his friends kneeling down on either side of him. He doesn’t even register the hands that are placed on his shoulder or hear the voices speaking to him. 

All Tango can see is his hands, they’re shaking and turning blurry as his eyes fill with tears. 

This can’t be happening. This has to be a dream. There is only one avatar and it’s not him. It could never be him, he’d never be good enough to bring balance to the world. The avatar is Jimmy, not him. His Rancher is mastering all four elements and is going to save them all. The avatar can not be Tango!

But he just airbent. He stopped Skizz from falling to his demise. Even if Scar had been around or heck if BigB could suddenly airbend again. Tango knows immediately it couldn’t have been them. He felt it. He felt the freedom of the wind coursing through his very being, it was like he was flying. 

Tango just airbent. And the implications that brings with it are too much for Tango to process. 

Tango just airbent but how is he not getting any air!

He’s breathing too quickly. Tango knows what a panic attack feels like but he is just not able to get enough oxygen into his system to deal with it.

Breathe in. One, two, three, four. Hold. One two- this isn’t working!

His eyes dart up and he can just make out blurry figures in front of him. He tries to blink to focus them but it’s no use. He recognises their mouths moving, are they talking to him?

Tango tries to focus on the voices, but they’re still being drowned out by his hammering heart. He needs air! He was just bending it, where did it go?

All of a sudden Tango’s hands are plunged into cool water. It tingles and he looks down to see water moving around his trembling hands, lacing around his fingertips. It moves slowly in beautiful patterns and Tango is able to focus on it. He times his breathing to match the water’s ebb and flow. In and out, in and out.  

Tango’s eyes refocus to see Scott sat in front of him, commanding the water around his hands. He gives Tango a soft smile. Impulse and Skizz are on either side of Scott, faces contorted with worry. 

Finally, Tango’s heart calms down and he is able to hear the others again. His head is ringing from the heavy breathing.

“You back with us bud?” Impulse's words are the first he can decipher. Tango gives him a weak nod and moves to stand up, feeling very trapped by the three surrounding him. 

“Woah there, take it easy Top.” Skizz is immediately there to help him stand steady as Tango leans against the wall. 

“Maybe give him some space guys?” Tango looks over to see Martyn leant against the railing and gives him a thankful smile. Upon Martyn’s request, Scott and Impulse take a few steps back. Skizz remains at Tango’s side, in case he needs the support.

“I’m good, thanks guys.” Tango pushes off from the wall and steps back from everyone, his head is still throbbing and their crowding around him is suffocating. Tango doesn’t seem to have the others convinced, judging by the looks they give each other.

“Tango Top you just did the wind tootin’!” Skizz so eloquently exclaims.

“So about the Watchers not being stupid enough to give you multiple elements…” Impulse trails off, feeling very smug with himself judging by the grin on his face.

“Oh they didn’t do this on purpose.” Martyn pushes himself off the railing, concerned eyes still locked on Tango. “I suddenly hear this screaming about the avatar’s soulmate airbending. That’s what got us rushing over here. I can tell you the Watchers are not happy.” 

“So does this mean Tango is the avatar here?” Scott questions, unaware of the way Tango’s hair flickers with anxiety at the prospect of that being true. “You can get us out like Jimmy did!”

“I-“ Tango backs further away from the others, wanting nothing other than to get out of there and process this development in peace.

“Dude, I could teach you earthbending!” Impulse exclaims with excitement.

“I don’t-“ 

“Jimmy entered the avatar state to get us out. Is that something you think you could do, Tango?” Martyn asks, tentative hope flickering in his eyes.

“Guys! Give the man some space!” Skizz places himself between Tango and the rest of the group, a protective barrier against the bombardment of questions. Tango realises he’s backed up against the tower’s wall, feeling incredibly small and just altogether overwhelmed.

Skizz looks back at him. “Tango, are you okay?” 

Tango looks into the eyes of the surrounding party and sees wonder, hope and worry reflected in them. Too much attention, too many expectations. 

“I-“ Why are words so hard right now? “I think I just need a moment.”

Tango couldn’t be out of there and away from the suffocating gazes any faster. He practically jumps down the ladder, not completely unaware of the instinctive poof of air that softens his fall just before landing. He stumbles out of Ties tower and towards goodness knows where. Tango doesn’t care, as long as he’s alone to process what just happened. 

He, Tango, notorious firebender and very definitely not the avatar, just airbent. Well, not the avatar in the real world, right? But apparently in this simulated world he is? Nope, Tango does not like that. 

“Spirits Jimmy, did you have to go through this all alone in Double Life?” Tango asks the wind. “I wish you’d’ve just come to me, I could’ve helped you.”

Tango hugs himself as he walks. Goodness does he miss his Rancher.

“Airbending eh?” Tango jumps out of his skin at the sudden voice above him. Etho is sat on the ledge of his mob farm, clothes dusted in redstone. Tango must have made his way over there in his absentminded wandering. 

Etho hasn’t been around for a hot minute. Tango blinks up at his ally that he hasn’t seen for half the game. “How’d you know?” 

Etho holds up his communicator. “Word travels fast. Lizzie heard the Watchers mention you airbending.”

Tango grips onto his arm and looks to the ground. Why does everyone keep talking to him about something so terrifying? Etho notices his hesitation and hops down off the ledge of his mob farm to stand level with Tango. Etho eyes him, taking a moment to analyse Tango’s demeanour. 

“I’m guessing you don’t wanna talk about it?” Etho stands a comfortable distance from Tango and gives him all the time he needs to answer. 

Tango chuckles, a little hysteria laced in the sound. “No, I really don’t want to talk about it.” Tango loosens his grip on his arms, feeling leagues more comfortable with Etho than he did with the others. “I’ve just run away from that very conversation with Impulse, Skizz and the Mean Gills.”

Etho hums in response, understanding in his voice. A couple of beats of silence pass between the two that are admittedly a little awkward, but Tango is thankful for them, for it helps further lessen the throbbing in his head and calm his racing heart. 

“You wanna sit down?” Etho gestures towards a tree at the top of a little hill beside the mob farm. “I’ve just finished the farm, so I’m good to take a break and watch your six.” 

Tango has no idea how long the two of them sit in the oak tree’s shade for, barely any words exchanged. If he closes his eyes, Tango can remember the fresh breeze that wafted through the ravine by the Ranch, the warm body of his Rancher by his side. The air here has much more of a salty tinge to it, and his partner beside him smells more like metal and redstone than Jimmy ever did. 

After a while, Tango finds himself retelling the story of his airbending all the same. With the distance he now has to it, it’s probably not a bad idea to process the event by putting it into words. Etho gives him the attention and space he needs to get his thoughts out. A little bit of pride flows through him as he retells how he heroically saved Skizz from falling to his death.

“Why do you think that this means you’re the avatar?” Etho asks, eyes trailed on the rustling leaves above them.

Tango shrugs. “Isn’t it obvious? The only person who can bend multiple elements is the avatar. Plus it confirms Impulse’s theory. I was soulmates with Jimmy in Double Life.”

Etho raises an eyebrow, seemingly unconvinced. “I mean you don’t know until you bend water and earth right? Or enter the avatar state. Maybe you just got the airbending from Jimmy. As weird as it is to say, everyone else only got one element.”

Although Tango doesn’t directly believe what Etho is suggesting, he is able to take comfort in maybe not being the avatar. Tango saw how Jimmy expertly took charge after waking everyone and how all of a sudden the whole group looked up to him as a leader, just because he’s the avatar. Tango never doubted Jimmy’s ability to take charge, but he is fully aware of the teasing Jimmy used to have to endure and is pretty certain that half of their group wouldn’t have taken Jimmy seriously then, if he wasn’t the avatar.

The thought of people looking up to Tango, expecting him to know what to do, expecting him to be their saviour. He doesn’t think he could handle that. For now Tango is content in believing Etho’s theory, that airbending is where this all stops.

Tango’s eyes trail to Etho’s mob farm. As wonderful as it is that Etho took the time to get them a stable flow of resources, this kind of build doesn’t take over a week to complete. There is an elaborate and incredibly obvious staircase that serves as the entrance to the mob farm. It won’t take a lot for people, intent on stealing its loot, to find the entrance. As annoying as it is, easy access to their resources is something they want to avoid.

“Why make stairs on the way down to the drop chests? Wouldn’t it’ve been quicker to just have a ladder leading down? You could hide the entrance better too.”

Etho’s eyes briefly flicker to the mob farm and then to his left side and he takes a very long time to contemplate his answer. He rubs an usure hand over his left arm.

“I’ve already trapped it. If someone goes down there the chests will explode.”

“Oh” is all Tango can respond with. That’s a fairly simple answer for how long Etho took to reply. A moment later Etho sighs and slumps his shoulders.

“Also, ladders and I aren’t exactly… friends at the moment.” 

Tango raises a confused eyebrow at him. “What? But doesn’t Bdubs call you Ladders? I thought that was kinda your thing.”

Etho lets out an unsure chuckle. “That’s a story in itself. But-“ he hesitates and Tango realises there’s more to the answer than Etho might be prepared to share. Etho has always been a very private person and Tango has always respected that.

“If it’s not something you wanna tell me that’s fine.” He waves his hands in front of him, hoping the sincerity in his voice comes across.

Etho sighs. “Nah, I figure you’ll find out one way or another, just don’t like the idea of people figuring out this weakness in a test where our goal is to kill each other.”

He looks down at where his hand is gripping onto his left arm. Slowly, he moves to roll up the sleeve, revealing the glistening metal of Etho’s prosthetic left arm.

“I uh, used to move it with my bending.” Tango’s mouth falls open as Etho’s words register. “It’s kinda useless now. I can’t move it.”

A lightbulb blinks to life in Tango’s head as everything makes sense, Etho’s sluggish movements, how he’s hidden himself away and spent so long building a fairly simple mob farm. Etho can’t use his left arm. 

The lightbulb then promptly shatters as Tango’s head burns high with rage. The Watchers are able to make Scar walk, and heck even mess around with everyone’s bending, but they couldn’t give Etho a functional arm in this simulation? They’re going to pay for that little oversight. Of course that’s why losing his bending has weighed heavier on Etho than most of the others Tango has talked to. 

Etho is looking at Tango with wide eyes, waiting for him to answer and cautiously eyeing the fire burning higher atop Tango’s head. The firebender takes a deep breath to gather himself. He doesn’t have Jimmy here to calm him down so he needs to keep cool, although he’d love nothing more than to explode right in the Watchers’ faces. When he exhales, a trail of smoke leaves his mouth.

“Sorry,” he gathers himself. “I’d love to give those Watchers a piece of my mind right now.”

At that Etho chuckles. “You and me both. Don’t worry about it, I’ve learned to work around it. I will say though, I’m not looking forward to being at a disadvantage when people start turning red.”

Tango wishes then for the hundredth time for Jimmy to pull them out of the simulation, any moment it could happen. But he can’t blindly rely on his Rancher. Sit twiddling his thumbs like the damsel in the tower waiting to be rescued. Tango doesn’t doubt for a moment that Jimmy is doing everything in his power to save them. But in the meantime, Tango needs to at least try and do the same.

Tango leans over, only briefly entering Etho’s personal space to lay a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “My friend, I promise you. If I do turn out to have all of Jimmy’s avatar powers, I will do everything I can to get us out of here.”

Etho’s eyes crinkle, indicating a smile hidden behind his mask. He puts his right hand on Tango’s and nods. “I know. Thank you.”

– 

When the sun begins to set, Etho and Tango return to the Ties tower. Upon daring to look at his communicator again, Tango isn’t as surprised as he should be to see that in the time he had been away, Impulse had landed a Boogey kill on Pearl. The nosey neighbours will not be happy with them.

The TIES, since they’re all together for the first time in a while, decide to have an impromptu team meeting. The fact that a Boogey kill had just occurred in their ranks is immediately forgotten. It’s almost a common practice nowadays, in no need of further discussion anymore. 

Kill, get cured, move on with what limited life you have left.

Etho fills the others in on the mob farm and they tell Etho about their ideas with skynet. Impulse also talks about potentially setting up a ghast farm to get end crystals, although he does admit with the bloodlust suddenly out of his system, that idea isn’t as pressing as he’d previously considered it to be. 

Tango promises to finish their tower within the next few days. His teammates find great joy in the fact that the tower has been built off centre, but he enjoys the teasing. Tango is thankful that for the entire meeting nobody brings up his bending predicament. They all seem to have gotten the hint.

They once again fall into their routines, finding a strange normalcy in the game of death. The days grow longer as the hours tick down. Unease spreads the more yellow lives emerge. And Jimmy has yet to show up.

He’ll save them. It’s only a matter of time.

Chapter Text

The dull thud of Tango’s pickaxe hitting the stone echoes repeatedly as he digs through the lonely stripmine. Despite him regulating the temperature around him, Tango still feels a shiver run down his spine. His Rancher’s absence makes itself very apparent in moments like these.

“Gosh, this world is more sparse in resources than Double Life! Can you believe that Jimmy?” Tango often talks out loud to himself. He knows Jimmy can’t hear him, but still he takes comfort in telling his Rancher how his days have been going.

“Not a single diamond and I’ve been down here for hours.”

The lack of a response weighs heavy in the dark mine. 

“You know, I’ve been through these games a couple times.” The pickaxe hitting stone creates a rhythm to go along with Tango’s monologue. Plink plink plink.

“And I’ve had a few great teams. I’ve got a great one now. Great supportive people around me. What more could you ask for in a deathmatch?”

Plink plink plink.

“Skizz has had amazing ideas to keep our team high on time, well excluding himself, I guess.” Tango chuckles humourlessly. “Etho and Impulse are doing amazing at getting us geared up…”

Plink plink crack!  

A couple of rocks tumble to the ground, opening a little cave system where an underground spring trickles down the cavern wall and into a subterranean lake. Tango sighs.

“But I’ve honestly never felt more alone,” he admits, letting his pickaxe hang loosely in his grip. He leans against the wall of the cave before sliding down it. Tango places his pickaxe to his side and brings up his legs to his chest, resting his head on his knees.

“How did you do it?” His voice echoes into the larger space and Tango tiredly looks in the direction of where it bounces back, only now thinking to look for mobs that could jump out at him from the dark. Thankfully, no zombie groans or hissing from spiders can be heard from deeper in the cave.

In truth, this is the first time in the entire test that Tango has been entirely on his own. And despite the suffocating loneliness that constantly weighs on him with his Rancher’s absence, he enjoys the peace and quiet.

Ever since everyone found out that Tango could airbend he’s been getting looks. Nobody’s mentioning it, sure. But Tango notices that whenever he joins a conversation all eyes turn to him. He knows what they’re all thinking. They’re hoping he gets them out of there before one by one his friends lose their minds as their timers tick down. To them, Tango is their only hope of getting out of this hell. 

They’ve already been here for weeks. It seems for most of them, hope is fading that Jimmy and his team are in the real world, doing all they can to get them out. Theories have started spreading that they might have also been captured, or worse. Those thoughts weigh especially heavily on Lizzie and Mumbo.

Tango’s hope and trust in Jimmy hasn’t wavered since the day he woke up in this world. He is still completely convinced that they will get each and every one of them out of Limited Life. They’re just… experiencing some delays, that’s all.

Tango refuses to even consider the fact that he is everyone’s last hope. It doesn’t help that the rest of the players view him as such. It’s not even certain that he’s got all the avatar powers! He hasn’t moved a single rock or lifted a drop from the Mean Gills’ ocean. And it’s not through lack of trying. 

He’s spent some time training his airbending with BigB. And although it is difficult with BigB being unable to properly show Tango what the moves are meant to look like, Tango is picking it up surprisingly quickly. 

Whenever Tango is certain that nobody’s looking, he reaches out to the sea in a way he’s seen many waterbenders do, or stomps his foot into the ground, expecting to see a rock shoot out of the floor. It’s strange, he never had the urge to bend other elements before. He’d never even considered it since he knew for sure he wasn’t the avatar. 

But since bending air, there’s been this longing in Tango’s very being, a longing to control all the elements, to feel the earth beneath his feet like a true earthbender or flow with the current of a stream.

Is this how Jimmy felt for his entire life before suddenly bending in Double Life? It’s like an itch deep below his skin, almost within his soul. That he will never feel complete until he is able to bend every element. Tango hates the feeling and that Jimmy had to go through that for so long. 

His attention is drawn to the soft trickling of water flowing from cracks in the wall and landing in quiet splashes into the underground lake he’s sat next to. Tango dips his hand into the cool water and swishes it around. When he pulls it out again he expects a little stream to follow it. Of course it doesn’t. It never used to, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating that it just won’t work!

Tango huffs and gets up, suddenly filled with energy and determination. He can get this to work! If he can bend the elements, maybe he can free his friends and himself from the Watchers’ grasp. He owes it to them, and to Jimmy, to at least try.

Taking a deep breath, he draws up his hands and holds them out in front of him. They hover above the water. One foot goes in front of the other, to where he’s almost dipping his boot in the lake. He knows how waterbenders move; he’s seen it countless times. It’s very different to what he’s learnt as a firebender. 

They flow with the water. The power doesn’t come from inside them like it does when he bends fire or air, but it comes from the water around him. Tango focuses on just that. He can hear the trickle of the steam, the droplets dripping from the cave’s stalactites. With his eyes closed he can almost feel the flow of the water around him, he can visualise the shapes of the cave at the bottom of the lake that he wouldn’t have had a chance to see beforehand in the dark cave.

Wait, is this waterbending or earthbending? Tango scrunches his eyebrows to focus. It doesn’t matter. If he can just move something…

Another deep breath, muscles relaxed, Tango reaches out over the water, focusing on the ebb and flow and-

“What in the world are you doing?”

Tango snaps out of his trance and lets out a less than manly scream. He jumps away from the sudden voice behind him, tumbling right into the lake. Skizzle’s obnoxious laugh rings throughout the little cavern. Tango sits up in the shallow water he suddenly finds himself in and looks up at Skizz, giving him the biggest death glare he can muster.

Skizz is bent over, tears streaming down his cheeks. “I can’t-” He’s unable to catch his breath between laughter. “Your face! I just-” Skizz looks down at Tango’s sad and soggy position and bursts out laughing again. Tango can feel a smile form on his lips. Sure Skizz’s laugh is obnoxious, but also terribly contagious. 

“Here, hold on, I’m sorry.” Skizz manages between chuckles to walk over to Tango and offer him a hand, which Tango takes.

While Tango is being yanked up, a shiver runs down his spine as ice cold water trickles down his back. Once they’re out of the water Tango takes a step back from Skizz and lets a whirlwind engulf himself, drying his clothes almost instantly. Much quicker than the firebending method . Skizz is briefly caught off guard, but gives Tango the biggest grin once the wind settles down.

“Becoming quite the tooter there, homie buddeh.” Skizz chuckles. Tango gently punches him in the side.

“Very funny.” Tango takes a deep breath to slow his beating heart. “You scared the life outta me.” 

Skizz’s smile turns slightly sad and there’s a fond twinkle in his eyes. “That’s something Jimmy would say.” 

Just as quickly as the sadness appeared it’s gone again. Skizz immediately moves on with the conversation before Tango can even register what Skizz meant with that.

“What were you trying to do there? The Watchers say that the Boogey will be back soon so I come to let you know and you’re praying to the water or what?”

Tango rubs his arm and shuffles at the pebbles by his feet. “It’s stupid don’t worry about it.” He turns to walk past Skizz towards the cave’s exit. While passing Skizz, his friend gently grasps onto his arm, stopping Tango in his tracks.

“If it’s stupid you can tell me.” Skizz points both thumbs to himself. “I’m king of stupid!”

Tango smiles; it’s impossible to feel bad around Skizz, Tango came to understand this back in Last Life and realises he’d missed the man’s infectiously positive demeanour. Still, anxiety bites at him and Tango rubs the palm of his sweating hand before admitting, “I just wanted to see if I could bend the water… you know, like-”

“The avatar?” Skizz looks at him with kind, understanding eyes. 

Tango ponders for a moment before answering. “Like Jimmy. He got us out of these games. But I feel like I need to be everyone’s saviour this time, like I’ve got Jimmy’s airbending for a reason. But it’s so impossibly hard with the pressure everyone is putting on me and I won’t be able to help anyone if I can’t bend any of the other stupid elements.” 

Tango’s hair flickers as he lets out his frustrations. He can feel his fists getting warm. No, Tango, calm. Now would be a really bad time to explodificate with firebending.

He can feel a hand on his shoulder and he looks up to once again meet eyes with Skizz. 

“Hey, you helped me! You saved my life with your awesome airbending, dude! That’s helping someone! Look, I know what people are thinking: they want so desperately for you to be the avatar. They need to have some hope to hold onto in this hellhole.” 

Tango’s shoulders slump and his lip quivers. This is too much pressure. How did Jimmy handle it so well?

“But-” Skizz gives Tango a reassuring squeeze. “That doesn’t mean you have to immediately be the perfect avatar! Even if you aren’t the avatar. Even if it just stops with airbending, which is still super cool, by the way! We’re gonna get out of here. I believe in us together, Tango. The weight isn’t just something you need to bear.” 

Skizz notices Tango’s gaze dropping and shakes his friend to get him to properly listen to what he has to say. “You know how Jimmy got us all out the first time around? He had you to support him! I’m super certain if he were here right now he’d tell you he couldn’t have done it without you! So let us be there for you! You’re not doing this alone Top!  We’re all here and we all are trying to get out of here.”

Tango relaxes his fists and looks down defeatedly. “It’s so frustrating, Skizz. I feel like I should be able to bend water and earth too. But there’s just some sort of barrier. Jimmy felt like this too at the start of Double Life. He confided in me on the first night that he’s felt like this his whole life. I can’t stand it.” 

Skizz looks at him for another moment before pulling Tango into a squeezing hug. Tango is startled at first but also wraps his arms around his friend, taking comfort in the contact. He exhales a shaky breath into Skizzle’s torn suit.

Both of their communicators hum and Skizz goes stiff in Tango’s arms. Tango pulls away and when he looks at Skizz, he doesn’t even need to check his communicator to know what’s happening. 

Void black eyes meet with his as Skizz grasps onto Tango as if he is the only one keeping the other from tumbling to the ground. 

“Skizz! Skizzle! You’re okay!” Tango tries to hold his friend steady. Skizz blinks a couple of times, turquoise particles forming around his face. His breath comes out in a mist and Tango suddenly realises his friend is freezing cold to the touch. 

Like last time, Skizz is back to normal just as quickly. His breaths are ragged as he looks at Tango, eyes wide. “It’s you.” He barely whispers. “Tango, it’s gonna be you!”

Skizz is shakily grabbing onto him and Tango decides to lower them both down while he tries to calm his friend. “Skizz, you’re good, it’s over. What are you talking about?”

Skizz takes a deep breath and gathers himself fairly quickly, kneeling on the stony floor. The look he gives Tango makes dread simmer in his stomach. “What’s going on, Skizz? What does the announcement of the Boogeyman do to you? You’re worrying me.”

A long moment passes before Skizz answers, unsure himself of what to say. “I just… everytime the Boogey is announced I get a terrible ringing in my head. My vision goes black for a moment, and I know, Top! I know before the Boogey announcement who it’s gonna be! I don’t know how! I think I’m linked to this stupid glitch and it’s driving me nuts!”

Tango’s eyebrows furrow as he keeps ahold of Skizz, doing his best to keep him grounded as Skizz’s words process. “Do you know why you’re connected to the Boogeyman?” 

Skizz sighs and shakes his head. “I feel this presence and it feels so freaking familiar but I just can’t put my finger on it. I thought with my memories intact I could figure out who or what is doing this but I have no clue.”

Tango keeps his worried gaze locked on Skizz. “If there’s anything I can do, my friend, tell me.”

Skizz meets Tango's eyes, a sad smile on his face. “My Boogey stuff is the last thing you should be worrying about in the near future. Please don’t immediately go for me, dude; I know the bloodlust can be overwhelming at first. Or well, I don’t know exactly, but I’ve heard.”

“Skizz, what are you-?” Before Tango finishes, realisation hits on what Skizz had said in his void eyed trance. Their communicators ding once again. Tango pulls his from its pocket and looks at the most recent message. 

The Boogeyman is about to be chosen.

Instead of looking at his own device, Skizz gets up and pulls out his shield. Fear and determination on his face. Tango looks up helplessly at his friend, the answer already weighing heavy on him like a bag of rocks. 

Tango already knows what will appear on his screen before the countdown starts. 

3

2

1

You are…

The Boogeyman

Chapter Text

An ethereal screech shatters Tango’s ears. 

The whole world around him stops, all he hears is his heartbeat. His vision is consumed by a pulsing black. Skizz merges with the shadows in front of him. If he hadn’t already been on the floor he’s sure he would’ve fallen. He leans forward and grasps the ground, eyes squeezed shut and nails digging into the gravel. 

When Tango looks up at Skizz again the pulsing black is gone, but his heartbeat still rings in his head, adrenaline pumping through his veins. He slowly gets up on shaky legs and grips at his trembling hand. Skizz tentatively holds his shield higher. When Tango sees the fear in his eyes he enjoys it?

He can already picture his friend’s blood spewing across the cave wall. 

Nope! Not going down that path! Come on, just focus!

Tango shakes his head and lets out a strained growl he didn’t know he’d been holding in. That seems to clear his thoughts a little and he is able to relax his tensed shoulders and let go of his hand, without it immediately reaching for the pickaxe to put it through Skizzle’s teeth. 

Skizz slowly lowers his shield, his guard still up. “You good there Top?” 

Tango takes a deep breath and nods. “How in the world are people able to keep a straight face when that happens? I was with Impulse when the Boogey was announced last week!”

Skizz chuckles and relaxes. “I don’t know man, you saw how well I take the one minute notice!” Tango’s heartbeat only slightly spikes when Skizz leaves him an opening to attack. Gosh this is intense!

An eerie silence spreads between the two where Skizz analyses Tango head to toe, face scrunched up in worry. Tango suddenly feels far too encased in the tiny cavern they’re in and starts making his way down the corridor of the mine. He needs some fresh air to clear his head. 

Skizz quickly trots up behind him. “You know who you’re gonna go for?”

What kind of question is that!? Everyone in this simulation is Tango’s friend. He can’t fathom going off to kill them! No, he needs to resist! If he is to save everyone he needs to fight against any sort of bloodlust thrown his way! Tango’s voice feels hoarse when he answers. “Nobody.” 

Skizz splutters as he stumbles up the steps of the mine, barely keeping up with Tango’s determined march. “Tango buddy, that's not gonna fly! We can’t have you going crazy on us, the bloodlust is only gonna get worse.” 

Tango abruptly stops and glares down at Skizz, who shrinks down, looking impossibly small for someone with such broad shoulders. Tango shakes his head again. He hadn’t meant to act intimidating. 

“No, I can do it. I won’t play into this stupid test. I won’t do what the Watchers want. I’m just going to continue on like nothing happened.” He huffs, crossing his arms. Before turning back towards the mine’s exit he looks down to Skizz again. Eyes as pleading as he can get them. 

“You won’t tell anyone, will you?” Tango’s voice shakes more than he would’ve liked it to. Skizz stands straight, hand on heart. 

“You can count on me to keep it zip locked up!” He carefully leans forward, a determined look in his eyes. “But if you need anyone to help you take someone out; you have my sword!”

Tango starts making his way back up and out, the Ties’ basement’s light already shines at the end of the tunnel. “Thanks, but I won’t be taking you up on that Skizz. I’ll be fine.”

There is already tense chatter coming from the basement and the hairs on Tango’s neck stand at the prospect that he’s going to have to immediately hide his secret from the rest of the group. Bdubs’ shouting rings down the cave and Tango sighs. Why does he have to be here?

“I can’t believe you got shot by a friggin skeleton! What’s going on with you!” 

Tango and Skizz emerge to find Bdubs standing in front of the remaining members of TIES, arms in the air. Tango notices he’s got his back to him and hasn’t seen them enter. He could get this over with if he just- 

“Tango! Skizz!” Impulse greets and Bdubs whips his head around to them. Tango snaps out of whatever that was when he sees his friend’s angry but worried face. Was he just thinking about killing Bdubs? Without questioning it?

Impulse is knelt in front of Etho, tending to a fresh wound on Etho’s leg. Bloodied rags lay on the floor and the scent of blood hangs so heavy in the air that Tango almost goes feral there and then. The only thing stopping him is Skizz’s hand on his shoulder. Okay this is gonna be harder than he’d thought .

“Tango! Have you gone and finally learnt waterbending so you can heal this idiot’s leg!” Bdubs throws exasperated arms towards his best friend. Etho is looking very guilty to be fair. Him and Tango share a look, where Etho silently apologises for Bdubs’ blunt nature. 

Tango isn’t sure how to react and is very thankful when Impulse steps in. “That’s not how that works, Bdubs. I’ll go find Scott or Lizzie once I’ve stopped the bleeding.” He turns to Tango and Skizz. “You two okay? You were gone for the Boogey reveal.” 

Tango is just about able to nod as Skizz answers as smooth as always. “Yep! All good here! No Boogeys in spooky caves, how about you guys?” Tango is eternally thankful for Skizz’s masterful lie; the question isn’t lost on Tango on what Skizz hasn’t been particularly truthful about on other occasions, if he is so good at avoiding the truth. Tango files that thought away for later. 

Etho is the first of his group to speak up, the pain he must be in from the open wound on his leg not audible in his voice at all. “No Boogey here either.” 

The awkward but familiar silence of post Boogey confessions spreads across the room. Tango knows exactly what the others are thinking. Are any of them lying, will they be safe from the curse this week? Tango has also posed the exact same questions for the past few weeks. This time he is asking himself if he’s putting up enough of a front to avoid suspicion. 

“So are we gonna talk about why the heck Bdubs is in our secret lair?” Skizz has stepped past Tango and is staring down the shorter man, who sends an equally intense gaze back towards Skizz. 

Impulse huffs. “Yeah, I was wondering that too.” He also stares at Bdubs. Tango looks between the two former soulmates and raises an eyebrow. Hadn’t they been incredibly close in Double Life? Where has this tension come from?

Etho shrugs. “Come on guys, it’s Bdubs! You know how clingy he is, wherever I go, he follows.” 

“Only so I can save your backside from being killed by mobs!” Bdubs points an angry finger at Etho. “I get your arm is busted, but how in the world are you suddenly incapable from running from skeletons shooting at you!” 

Skizz and Impulse’s eyes widen, Tango facepalms as Etho looks down. Expertly reading the room, Bdubs goes silent, all anger robbed from his stature.

“Oh did they not know?”

Etho sighs, rubbing his metal arm. “They do now.” 

“Oh my gosh Etho! How did I not realise!” Impulse eyes flicker towards Etho’s left side, hand over his mouth.

Etho leans forwards to fasten the bandage around his leg, before gently lowering it to the ground and wordlessly makes his way towards the exit. “I’m gonna go find Scott for this cut.” he says before leaving the rest of the group in stunned silence. 

“Oh man I messed up.” Bdubs places a hand on his forehead and stares wide eyed at the floor. Tango walks up to him and rests a hand on his shoulder. 

“I’m sure he’ll forgive you, he always does.” Tango sighs. “He knew people would find out.”

Bdubs looks at Tango. Massive eyes gaze up at him, like Bdubs is pondering on whether to say something. It makes Tango sweat. Is he so obviously giving away his boogeyness? 

“Tango,” He starts, Tango bites his lip. Oh shoot he’s been had!  

“Do you think you’re the avatar?”

… What?

“Bdubs are you trying to piss off our entire team in record time?” Skizz steps between them, discreetly pushing Bdubs towards the door. Tango is left dumbfounded as Bdubs tries to justify his jump in topic.

“Hey! No! I’m not trying-” He huffs. “It’s a valid question, I- Stop tryna push me out! Just listen!”

Skizz stops, hands on his hips. “You have a minute before I kick ya out of here! You, my friend, are still a green name, giving me all the excuses I need to scrape back some of the time you stole from me.”

Impulse and Tango share a look. Skizz truly can be scary when he needs to be. Bdubs shrinks under his gaze. His Adam's apple bobs up and down as he gulps. 

“Okay okay, jeez, let a man breathe!” Bdubs steps away, seeming suddenly unsure with all angry eyes locked on him. 

“It’s just… some of us have been talking. Cleo sent me here to check up on you.” Bdubs looks over to Tango. “We uh, we think you’re our only chance of getting out of here.”

Skizz rolls his eyes. “Tell us something we don’t know. How about you mind your own business ‘Dubs!” 

“Yeah,” Tango so eloquently adds. “Plus, Jimmy is gonna come get us-”

“No!” Bdubs interrupts, suddenly more determined than before. “Tango, I don’t think he is.”

Tango’s fire flickers, his blood pumping and energy spiking. Bdubs is pushing his luck here and making this whole being the Boogeyman thing insanely difficult. “Pick your next words very carefully.” Tango manages to keep his words calm, just about.

Bdubs takes a deep breath. “We know how time works in these games. It’s slowed down. What has only felt like weeks here must have been months already in the real world. And where are Jimmy and the others?” 

Tango’s hair sparks, but still Bdubs continues. “I think we need to start considering the fact that they’re not coming for us. That they’ve been captured… or-”

“I dare you to finish that sentence.” Tango roars, he can feel fire lick down to his shoulders. Impulse has a water bucket in hand and is trading looks with Skizz on whether or not he should use it.

Bdubs’ eyes widen as Tango storms up to him. His gaze is so intense it sends Bdubs scrambling towards the exit. Before he is out, Tango sends a blast of wind after him, to get him out quicker. Then without looking back at his teammates, he too storms out of the basement. 

As soon as the fresh air hits him he feels like he can breathe again. Bdubs is already nowhere in sight. Tango goes to lean against the Ties tower and closes his eyes, forcing his heartbeat to slow down and his blood to stop boiling.

Jimmy has not been captured. He’s still trying to get us out. Tango repeats to himself like a mantra. 

There is no way he is- . Tango almost breaks down. He knows for sure what the Watchers would do to Jimmy if they captured him. They’d kill him. He has to hold a hand in front of his mouth to silence a sob racking through his body. That can’t have happened. Jimmy is the avatar, he’s much stronger than the Watchers. 

But- Tango thinks back to how his group was captured. Right after taking down the Watchers in the power room and smashing up the generator, black gas had seeped through the ventilation system, almost immediately paralysing the team. There was nothing they could have done. What if the same had happened to Jimmy’s team and the Watchers-

No! Tango refuses to let that train of thought continue. He will not lose hope and play into the Watchers’ hands!

Tango doesn’t know how long he sits out there for, but he’s there for long enough to watch the sun set and the stars come out. He tries to combine his airbending and firebending to keep himself warm against the bitter ocean breeze but still feels a shiver down his spine. All the adrenaline from earlier has flown from his body, leaving him cold and exhausted. 

“Want some company?” Tango turns his head to see Impulse, a thick blanket thrown over his shoulder and two steaming cups in his hands. Tango offers him a tired smile and pats the ground beside him.

Impulse takes the invitation. He hands Tango one steaming mug and sits down beside him, tossing the blanket over them both. Tango sniffs at the steam before taking a sip from the cup.

“How’d you make hot cocoa?” He asks, relaxing as the warm drink flows through his freezing body. 

“I traded cocoa beans with Scar.” Impulse smiles sheepishly. “Although I did lose my enchanted iron chestplate for it. Felt worth it, cheers.”

Tango chuckles and clinks his mug with Impulse’s. The two lean back and a comfortable silence spreads between them. Any kind of bloodlust Tango felt before has been drowned out by exhaustion taking over. 

He looks up to the stars, tracing the patterns of constellations Jimmy taught him the names of. If he closes his eyes he’s almost back on the ranch, drinking hot cocoa with his buddy. Those times felt a lot simpler. Before Jimmy had started bending anything, when their greatest trouble was trying to get goat horns. 

Not that he regrets Jimmy being able to bend, he’s immensely proud of his Rancher. Tango does however wish that Limited Life hadn’t thrust those powers onto him. 

“How you doing buddy?” Tango opens his eyes to notice Impulse has been staring at him, eyes crinkled with concern. “You look exhausted.”

Tango leans his head back against the tower and looks back up at the stars, a humourless chuckle escapes his lips. “Been quite a couple of weeks.” He sighs.

Tango can see Impulse nod in his peripheral vision before also turning his head to look up at the night sky. “Yeah I’m not surprised.” Impulse pauses, letting his hands dig deep in the sand beside them. “These tests are intense.”

“You could say that again.” 

The ocean breeze ruffles Impulse’s hair and sends Tango’s embers shooting over the water. Once again Tango pushes down the urge to get up and try to bend the waves to his will. It won’t work anyway.

“Is there any way I can help? With, you know… everything going on?” 

Tango ponders on Impulse's offer. He’d previously ignored Skizz’s offer to help. Although he supposes Skizz was offering to help him go and kill someone. Right now, he could do with anything that doesn’t include confrontations with other players. An idea pops up.

“You feel like building that ghast farm?” When Impulse eyes him with a raised eyebrow, Tango is quick to backtrack. Shoot, did that sound suspicious? Tango swears he isn’t bloodthirsty, he just needs something to take his mind off of his brain being in kill mode! And building a farm would be the perfect activity.

“I mean, I could really do with a distraction from everything that’s going on. If you’re still up for it, that is.” 

Good save, Tango!

Impulse gives him a warm smile, eyes as innocent as ever. You’d never guess in the years they’ve been here this guy’s been a betrayer, a killer, a trap setter and most recently a bloodthirsty Boogey. To be fair, they’ve all earned their fair share of terrible traits from these games. As Tango has most recently gotten to know Impulse, all he sees is a kind and caring friend. 

“Sure bud. First thing tomorrow we get a portal up on the nether roof! But I think we should get a good night’s rest first.”

Neither makes a move to go inside and sleep, both perfectly content, cuddled up under the woolly blanket, sipping on their cocoa. Tango sneaks a peek at his wrist, something he tries to avoid due to the existential dread that accompanies it. His mouth forms a line.

17 hours left… What happens when their time runs out?

Chapter Text

Building the ghast farm provides the perfect distraction from the ever growing bloodlust during the days Tango and Impulse work on it. Skizz had been understandably hesitant to leave Tango and Impulse alone on a platform high up on the nether roof. But Tango was able to reassure Skizz he had the Boogey urges under control. 

Totally . There isn’t a single moment where Tango debates throwing Impulse off the side of the tower. Absolutely not… or at least that’s what he tells Skizz.

In truth, it’s on Tango’s mind far more often than he’d ever admit. Alongside the uncomfortable feeling of needing to bend earth and water, a new itch has made itself at home within him. It scrapes along his bones and pierces his gut, often making him feel dizzy on the tall platform and his hands tremble. His muscles ache from constantly being on edge and his mind feels increasingly foggy.

If Impulse notices he doesn’t mention it.

Instead his friend fills the days with conversations on what his plans are once they’re out of the Watchers grasp. He tells stories of inventions he’s thought of in the years they’ve been in the games. These chats Tango happily joins in with. 

Although the prospect of finally escaping and reentering the real world does terrify him a little, Tango can’t wait to finally get his Connectificator working. And once he does that, he’ll be able to join Jimmy to travel the world so he can master all the elements. That is, if Jimmy will want him to join. They haven’t had that conversation yet, but Jimmy does still need to master firebending and it’ll be a lot easier if Tango joins him in his travels.

Tango is gathering up the final stack of cobblestone to finish off the platform, listening to an idea Impulse is pondering on about helping Etho get his metal arm to work again, when an idea pops in his hazy mind. He probably would’ve thought of it sooner if he weren’t trying to physically keep himself from unsheathing his sword. 

“You know, my parents run a STEM university in the fire nation capital. You’d be a great addition to the engineering department.” 

Impulse’s eyes go wide. “Wait, no way your parents run TEK Uni!? It’s always been my dream to attend!” 

Tango chuckles. “I’m sure I could pull some strings, get you a scholarship if ya want. Well if we get out of here that is…”

Impulse hesitantly takes the cobblestone Tango offers him and looks up at his friend, concern twinkling in his eyes. “What do you mean if? We’re totally getting out of here! D’you not think Jimmy and the others are gonna get us out?” 

Tango turns away. He is vaguely aware that his hair has started anxiously flickering, as his friend’s gaze pierces the back of his head. Tango gets to work laying out the rest of his half of cobblestone. They’re so nearly finished and Tango is itching to go and let loose his fire on some ghasts.

“You’re not seriously considering what Bdubs said to be true?” 

Has Tango been considering that? No! Of course not! Jimmy is the avatar! The most powerful bender there is! And he’s accompanied by more powerful benders and warriors. No Watchers could ever take them down.

Tango’s hesitation to answer tells a different story.

Impulse still hasn’t started placing his half of the cobblestone. Instead he shuffles over next to Tango, who has to grab onto the ground as tightly as he can so as not to push Impulse off the platform then and there. Impulse notices Tango’s trembling hands.

“Come on man! Don’t you think the Watchers would be throwing a party if they captured Jimmy’s group? The Listeners would’ve heard them at least mention having caught the avatar! Surely you’ve got nothing to worry about!”

Tango abruptly gets up and steps back from the ledge. Away from arms length when he looks back up at Impulse. He crosses his arm to physically stop himself from gathering a gust of wind to push Impulse off to his assured demise. Tango briefly squeezes his eyes shut in an attempt to stop his throbbing head. Why is he so happily standing right by the edge! Is Impulse trying to get himself killed?

Admittedly, the Watchers have been very quiet in general for this test, Martyn left an offhand comment on that a couple days ago. But they also haven’t mentioned Jimmy and his team at all. 

Tango suddenly realises something. “How’d you know the Watchers haven’t mentioned Jimmy? Since when can you hear them?”

“Oh no I can’t! But Skizz has been keeping me up to date on everything they’ve been saying. You know, keep us non Listeners in the loop and all. He’s been telling you everything he knows too, right?”

Tango nods and ponders on Impulse's logic. It is, well, logical. The Watchers wouldn’t keep quiet about having the avatar in their filthy grasp. Especially since he’s pretty sure it’s the head Watchers the Listeners can hear, they’d know for sure if Jimmy had been captured. And as far as Tango knows, they’re still ignorant to the fact that the Listeners can hear them.

He supposes Impulse is right. No news is good news right?

They both go back to placing the final bit of stone, which doesn’t take them long. Thank goodness, Tango is very ready to get out of the sweltering nether. No amount of airbending can keep the nether’s heat at bay.

“Oof man!” Impulse wipes the sweat from his brow and gets up, cracking some joints. “That took so annoyingly long!” 

Tango chuckles. “Is this where you tell me how long it would’ve taken if you still had earthbending?” 

Impulse ponders on Tango’s question a little before answering, only a little lighthearted pain in his voice. “This wouldn't have taken even half a day and we’ve been at it-” Impulse takes a peak at his wrist. “Oh man, Tango! We’ve been in the nether for four days!” 

Tango almost gives himself whiplash by how quickly he looks down at his own wrist. “Oh-” he mutters. The number glaring at him, sending unease in the depths of his stomach. “I uh, I turned yellow not too long ago…”

Impulse’s body goes tense as he eyes Tango with sudden caution. He subconsciously steps away from the edge. “Oh.” He echoes Tango. “You feeling okay? The bloodlust took Skizz by surprise when he ticked down.”

Tango shrugs. “I’m feelin’ as good as I have been the last while-“ no additional bloodlust on top of being the Boogeyman . He keeps that last part to his inner monologue. The less people know about him being Boogey, the better he’ll be able to ignore it.

It would be best not to ponder too long on the fact that Tango has reached yellow and is still no closer to finding a way out of this simulation. So he ends the conversation there and stops Impulse’s next question by stepping away, clearly showing he has nothing more to add to that topic. Tango makes his way over to the cauldron they’ve set up to wash the grit from his hands. Strange that of all things a cauldron is the only way to store water in the nether. The Watchers did come up with peculiar physics for this simulated world. 

He dunks his hands in the cooling water and exhales deeply. Ever since Scott was able to calm him down from his airbending panic with his waterbending, Tango has taken great comfort in surrounding himself with water. Feeling the soft trickle between his fingers has proven to be a great grounding tool for whenever Tango feels overwhelmed at everything that’s happening. He’s looking forward to a nice long swim in the river when they get back, to clean off all the nether grime.

Tango’s moment of peace is interrupted by the feeling of being watched. Well, more so than usual. He turns to see Impulse, who has started making the rounds, picking up torches, without which the ghasts can finally spawn. He eyes Tango all the way, hesitant like prey that knows it’s being stalked. Tango tries to ignore how this makes his mind buzz.

Impulse is so preoccupied watching for the potential danger that Tango as a yellow could pose, that he doesn’t clock the ghast that spawns right behind him. Before Tango can call words of warning to his friend the pale beast has already charged a fireball in its mouth and spewed it out towards Impulse.

As soon as Impulse hears it he rolls to the floor and stomps his foot on the ground on instinct, obviously expecting a wall of rocks to shoot up and stop the ghast’s onslaught. But of course no wall emerges. Tango is forced to watch as the fireball hits Impulse square in the chest, flinging him backwards in an explosion of fire. Impulse does survive the hit judging by his pained yelps as he takes ticks of fire damage. 

Tango yanks his hands from the cauldron and shoots his fists towards the ghast, not really thinking about whether he wants to shoot fire or air at the creature. He figures instinct will decide, as it often does in these situations.

What he doesn’t expect, however, is for the water to follow his hands out the cauldron. And when he shoots his first at the ghast, instead of having fire spew from his fingers, the water he drags along forms a sharp tip of ice that pierces right through the beast, killing it instantly. 

Tango relaxes his arms and his heart jumps when realises there’s just water floating in front of him. Waterbending! He’s waterbending! 

He moves the rapidly evaporating water and clumsily hurls it over the fires surrounding Impulse. 

Tango books it over to where Impulse landed, a cloud of smoke obscuring his friend’s figure. He shoots a gust of wind to clear it and skids to a halt when he arrives, very inelegantly landing beside Impulse. 

He’s on his side, faced away from Tango, he has his arms wrapped around himself and is shaking lightly. Tango tries to lightly coax him to turn over so he can see the severity of Impulse’s burns.

When Tango turns his friend to lie on his back, he is gripping at a nasty looking burn, which peaks through the singed fabric of his shirt. Streaks of tears coat Impulse’s cheeks. However, Tango is left more confused than concerned. Impulse’s mouth is upturned, he is gripping his stomach and shaking with guffaws of laughter. He’s lost it.

Tango hovers over his friend, unsure of what to do. Has the pain of the burn sent him to delirium? Should he put him out of his misery? No! Stop it, Tango!

Impulse meets Tango’s puzzled gaze and wipes a tear from his cheek, his chuckles soften as he tries to regain composure. He sits up, completely ignoring the burns on his chest as he puts both hands on Tango’s shoulders .

“Tango, buddy, you are the most firebending firebender I’ve ever met. I think firebender and I think of you.” Impulse beams at him, still chuckling every few words.

“Um, thanks?” Tango tries to avoid eye contact and attempts to instead evaluate the rest of his friend’s injuries.

Impulse shakes Tango to get his focus back on his face. “The most firebening firebender ever just saved my life, with waterbending!” Impulse breaks out laughing again. “Dude, that was so amazing!”

Tango keeps a blank stare while Impulse’s words register. He then finds himself also chuckling at the absurdity of the situation. He has had firebending his whole life. It’s been a constant for so long, and now he is suddenly able to bend the opposite of fire. Something that has for so long been his kryptonite and he has only recently learnt to take comfort in. And he can bend it!

“And you even turned it to ice! In the nether of all places!” Impulse has returned to a full on belly laugh and is lying on the floor again.

Tango has to be honest with himself, if he weren’t laughing along with Impulse, he'd probably break down crying. He is once again filled with this overwhelming sense of relief and purpose, like he’d had when airbending for the first time. He lays himself next to Impulse and the two of them chuckle at everything and nothing at the same time.

He has no idea how long he and Impulse lay there like giggling idiots, but at some point they run out of steam and both stare up into the nether’s red fog. As he runs his hands over the stone beneath him, Tango now feels the tug of earthbending more than ever. He now knows for sure that he’s meant to bend all the elements like Jimmy, as ludicrous as that sounds. Earth, Tango’s coming for you.

Impulse is smiling to himself when Tango looks over. “Impy,” he starts. Impulse hums in response.

“What’s it like to earthbend?”

Impulse’s smile deepens. He looks over to Tango before giving his response, but instead of meeting Tango’s curious gaze, Impulse looks past him, eyes widening.

“Tango look out!” He leaps up and practically throws himself forward to where he’s almost hovering above Tango.

The firebender looks behind him to see a ghast has snuck up on them and in an uncharacteristically quiet manner spat out a fireball that is flying directly towards them.

It’s too late for Tango to react but thankfully Impulse noticed it sooner. He pulls back his fist to at the perfect time, just as the fireball is about to hit them, punch it right back at the ghast, which explodes in its own ball of fire. 

Tango splutters, shooting up and almost knocking into Impulse in the process. “What was that?! Did you just bend? What element is a ghast ball? Earth? Fire?”

Impulse is holding his fist close to him. The impact must have hurt him some more. With his other hand, he takes a hold of Tango’s shoulder to stop his senseless questioning.

“Tango chill buddy,” he chuckles lightly. “That wasn’t any bending, that’s just something you can do with ghast balls being shot at you. Mumbo found that out the hard way back in Last Life. It saved us from dying on multiple occasions back then.”

Once Impulse figures Tango is satisfied with the answer, he lets go of the other’s shoulder and properly cradles his hand. That’s when Tango realises. 

“Goodness Impulse, you’re seriously hurt! What are we doing up here in an active ghast farm? You need to get some healing!”

Impulse waves it off with his good hand. “Ah it’s alright, I work in a blacksmith, I’ve gotten worse burns than this.”

Tango looks him up and down, completely unconvinced. “Dude, I know my burns and I know you’re in a lot of pain. We’re getting you healed right now. I’m texting Scott.”

Impulse sighs and stops trying to put up a front. He slumps his shoulders and starts making his way to the edge of the platform. “Yeah, you’re right. I don’t know why I thought I could fool you of all people.”

Tango raises an eyebrow and follows his friend. “You know you don’t need to try and fool me. I’m your ally and your friend, I want to know if you’re hurtin’ so I can help.”

Impulse doesn’t answer, but gives Tango a grateful smile. He briefly hovers above the crafting table, where a boat suddenly emerges. Right, the quick way down. Impulse gets in and sends an expectant look towards Tango to join him. 

Tango scratches his chin as his gaze is drawn back to the cauldron and the remaining water inside it. “Dude, can I try something?”

Impulse’s eyes lighten up and Tango’s sure he knows exactly what he’s thinking. “Oh absolutely! Get in and wash us off the edge!”

Tango focuses on the water, he can feel it sloshing around in its cast iron casing. He moves his arms up and down a couple times, imitating the movement of a wave, before he’s able to lift the water from the cauldron again. He makes sure to keep his movements fluid when he guides it towards Impulse. 

It’s quickly evaporating so Tango has to work fast. He floods it around Impulse’s boat and starts moving it forward. His friend’s confused calls mix with splashing water.

“Tango, jump in quick! Or you’re gonna have to come down the ladd-“ 

Impulse isn’t able to finish as Tango guides the boat off of the edge. He smirks and quickly follows, leaping off the edge himself. He passes by Impulse as he falls, hearing his friend shout his name in panic.

Just before Tango splatters to the ground, he sends a whirlwind around himself to slow his fall. He lands just before Impulse touches down with his slowly falling boat. Another strange mechanic in this simulation.

Impulse scrambles out of the boat and despite his injuries rushes up to Tango, grabs him by the arms and shakes him furiously. 

“Don’t ever do that again! You scared me so bad! Dude I got PTSD from all the times I’ve seen my friends fall to their death!” There is no bite to his voice and when Tango finds himself chuckling, Impulse can’t help but join along.

“C'mon man, let’s get those burns looked at.”

The two walk back towards the portal and one after another step through it. Tango has never been particularly fond of the swirling particles consuming his vision and whisking him off to another dimension. It always leaves him feeling quite nauseous when he steps out the other side. What also doesn’t help is the burning sunlight which his eyes suddenly need to adjust to after days of the nethers dark red hues.

Tango doesn’t have a chance to gather himself either, because as soon as he steps out of the portal a hand grabs ahold of his shirt and yanks him forward. He lets out a yelp and shoots fire forwards to repel whoever’s holding onto him.

It doesn't work. The fire dissipates in front of him and Tango feels himself start to panic. He sends a whirlwind around himself, but the hand just holds on tighter. His vision starts to adjust and he hears his name being called out.

When the light no longer blinds him, Tango finds himself face to face with a fiercely determined Martyn. While Tango only slightly regrets teaching him how to stop fires, most of him is impressed at how Martyn managed to stop a direct attack. 

His grip still tight on Tango’s shirt, Martyn locks his gaze with his fellow firebender. “Tango, I’m getting you to earthbend right now!”

Chapter Text

Tango isn’t sure how he got roped into this, or well, he isn’t sure how he hasn’t managed to rope himself out of it yet. They’ve set up on the coast, just off of the Mean Gills’ island, to bend on solid ground and also not mess up Scott’s backyard. 

Somehow, Martyn has managed to convince Cleo to demonstrate some earthbending moves with, you know, actually earthbending. It seems the two former soulmates have put their differences aside and actually helped each other with the element they gained from the other. It does make sense since the Mean Gills and the Clockers are close allies. To be fair, every alliance that has Cleo and Scott in it is sure to be on good terms. Tango supposes the two just click so well, that in every test they’ve found their way back to each other. They seem to have such a deep connection that moves past memory blocks. 

It reminds him once again of his connection to Jimmy. Tango is sure the Ranchers would’ve had the same bond, had they been allies in the tests before Double Life. Tango’s heart spikes once again as he misses his Rancher. To be honest he hasn’t thought about Jimmy very much at all recently, the Boogey has kind of consumed his thoughts over the past week since the curse was placed upon him. Skizz was right, the bloodlust is getting increasingly difficult to control. 

What doesn’t make the situation easier is the sadistic joy both Cleo and Martyn find in watching Tango leap out of the way of rocks being flung at him. Tango will be eternally grateful that BigB focused on showing him evasive airbending manoeuvres first and foremost in his airbending training. BigB has certainly been a better teacher than Martyn is right now.

His strategy hasn’t really changed from when Martyn had taught Jimmy back in Double Life. Hurl rock after rock at him, until he catches it. Tango is slightly painfully reminded that this way of teaching had led to his and Jimmy’s death last time, even if it had been intentional. 

Tango is getting increasingly frustrated with every boulder thrown at him that he has to leap out of the way of. It doesn’t matter how many pointers Martyn gives him on form and movement, or even the tips Cleo shares with him as a fellow firebender turned earthbender. Tango has tried to bend earth already, just like he futilely tried to bend water for so long. It’s not lost on him that Jimmy wasn’t able to bend any element either until it was completely necessary. Tango is sure that he or one of his friends need to be in a life or death situation for him to finally unlock earth.

To be fair that might just be what Martyn has instructed Cleo to do. Some of the rocks fly by dangerously close.

Cleo suddenly decides to bend a bunch of little rocks his way, which he has no chance of evading. He is bombarded with an onslaught of pebbles that will surely leave behind bruises. That’s when Tango decides he has had enough. 

He sends a gust of wind to shoot the pebbles back towards the former soulmates. Cleo stops them in front of themself but Martyn gets the same treatment Tango just received. Tango can’t help the satisfied smirk that briefly forms on his lips. 

He quickly lets the smile fall, frustration taking over. Tango is bruised and tired. He hasn’t slept since becoming Boogey in the fear that he’s going to wake up with his sword at someone’s throat. Martyn isn’t one to allow breaks or moments to breathe either. The mix of a stubborn earthbender and determined firebender both his teachers have make for a terrible combination. 

It dawns on Tango that there is absolutely no reason to be putting himself through this.

“This isn’t happening.” Tango lets his guard down, hoping that his teachers notice his form fall and give him a break. And although Martyn is still grumbling about having pebbles shot at him, Cleo doesn’t spare him the luxury. She already has another boulder raised to fling towards Tango. 

He sees this out of the corner of his eye and is forced to react quickly. He flings his first forward, pulling the water from the ocean behind him to meet with the bolder mid air and freeze it in place. 

Tango steps back in shock, still very unaccustomed to waterbending. He looks over his shoulder to see he’s created a stream of ice that arches over him, anchored in the ocean and holding the rock so it floats a few feet in front of him. 

This display earns him a pause from his teachers, as they both step out from behind the stream of ice. Tango huffs at them and crosses his arms. 

“This is completely pointless. We’ve been at it for hours and nothing’s happened. I’m done.” Tango turns to leave, but is quickly stopped by a wall of earth shooting up in front of him. Ohohoh, they dare!

Tango’s eyes hold far more poison than before when whips his head back to glare at the former soulmates. The Boogeyman within him screams to slit their throats. Cleo strides towards him, full of determination. Tango’s hair sparks higher the closer she gets. She jabs her finger against his chest. Tango makes no attempt to hide his scowl. 

“You, sir, need to pull yourself together!” It takes every bit of self control Tango has left not to grab their hand and burn it off. They continue. “It’s obvious that you need to get into the avatar state and get us out of here. So why haven’t you done it yet?” 

Martyn steps up, joining the onslaught. “You know what you need to do Tango, so do it. Or do you enjoy watching us slowly lose our minds in this hell?”

Tango is so taken aback by their accusations that he has to take a step back, only to be met with a stone wall. His fire flicks and his voice cracks. “Are you serious?” 

“I can’t stand to see Scar and Bdubs go crazy in their yellow haze of bloodlust!” Cleo persists. “Doesn’t it pain you to see Skizz barely holding on? To see Impulse succumb to the Boogeyman?”

Cleo has stepped back, voice laced with disappointment and spite.

“I know you’ve felt it too.” Martyn is next to stalk him. “The yellow bloodlust. I saw it in your eyes when Cleo joined us. You wanted to reduce her to cinders.” 

Tango feels trapped between stone and ice walls. His breathing picks up and the fire starts to seep to his shoulders. Martyn doesn’t back down.

“Timmy would have gotten us out by now.” 

Finally, Tango snaps. His grasp on any ounce of sanity he had left vanishes in an instant. How dare he bring up his Rancher. Tango knows that Jimmy would’ve managed to get them out by now. He knows that Jimmy would’ve immediately known what to do. But he’s not Jimmy. Tango can’t do the things Jimmy can. In Double Life they didn’t have a clock ticking down to their demise and they didn’t have to deal with being the Boogeyman. This is not easy!

Tango’s hand is completely consumed by fire as he grabs onto Martyn’s throat. Cleo rushes to pry them apart but before she can reach them, Tango uses his other hand to blast air at her, flinging Cleo into a tree and knocking them out cold.

“I’m not Jimmy.” Tango growls. “You have no idea the pressure that comes with being the avatar. The pressure that Jimmy felt and that you’re forcing onto me. I can’t do it.”

Martyn tries to gather fire on his own first to throw back at Tango. But Tango grabs his hand and dispels the flame. “You seem to have forgotten that I am still a firebending master. There is no fire you can burn me with that I haven’t already felt.” 

Martyn squirms under Tango’s grip but is powerless to escape him, as his body surges with the curse’s energy and his mind screams at him to squeeze harder, to burn Martyn with his choking grasp. 

“Leave me alone.” Smoke bellows from Tango’s mouth as he speaks. His voice cracks as he squeezes harder. Tears stream from Martyns eyes as he chokes out pleas that fall on deaf ears. 

Tango is gone. The Boogeyman has emerged. 

—

When Tango comes to his senses his hands are burnt raw and Martyn is nowhere to be seen. Cleo is still leant against a tree, unconscious. Droplets of water from the melting stream of ice drip onto Tango’s shoulders, sizzling on impact. He can feel his communicator go crazy in his pocket, but he pays it no mind. Tango’s eyes lock on his trembling hands.

He’s brunt them before, countless times in fact, but never to intentionally hurt anyone. He’s just brutally killed Martyn. He can’t even imagine what the death message says. Martyn will surely have hand shaped burn scars for the rest of the test, a vicious reminder that if Tango doesn’t get them out quickly enough, they will all lose themselves. 

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the Watchers have put them in this game with all their memories and the ramped up bloodlust just to punish them. Tango weakly wonders why they haven’t killed them yet. Put them all out of their misery. They are a liability after all. Will they kill them one by one as their time runs out? Have they already killed Jimmy?

Hot tears stream down his face. He doesn't know when his legs gave out, but he distantly notices his knees are digging into the increasingly soggy mud. The air around him grows colder as the ice above him melts into a freezing rainfall, soaking his clothes. Tango can’t find it in himself to care. He waits, unsure what for, all the energy robbed from him as the bloodlust has left his body. Part of him wishes for a stray creeper to sneak up on him. A respawn would heal his burns. And maybe like the last time a creeper blew him up, it would return him to Jimmy.

Distantly, Tango hears his name being called. He is unable to gather the strength to call back, but not too much later, Skizz is knelt beside him. He’s cradling Tango’s face, trying to get Tango’s eyes to focus on his own. When they do, Skizz tries to give him a strained smile. When that fails to get a reaction from Tango, Skizz wraps his arms around the other, careful not to graze any burns. 

Tango melts into the embrace and passes out.

Chapter Text

When Tango opens his eyes he is immediately blinded by daylight. He raises his hand to block out the sun trying to blink away the light and take in his surroundings. 

He finds himself sitting on a forest floor. There are birds twittering and rustling leaves in the trees that loosely encircle him. The terrain seems to slope down around him, indicating that he’s at the top of a hill. The area seems annoyingly familiar, but Tango’s sure there aren’t any such forests in Limited Life.

His joints pop as he gets up to have a look around. There are signs of civilisation through crafting benches and floating trees. As Tango wanders, the nagging feeling that he’s been here before only increases. It’s on the tip of his tongue.

When Tango turns a corner he is not expecting to immediately be charged by a goat. He yelps as it hits his shins. “What was that for? What did I ever do to you!” He notices the goat only has one of its horns, perhaps it’s had a bad experience with other players?

He feels a little prick on his hand. Like a light pinch, not enough to hurt, but enough to register the feeling. Tango freezes. Did he just imagine that?

He peaks at the back of his hand, a slightly reddened area in the centre. His heart spikes and tears well in his eyes. Surely he must have caught his hand on the goat right? It can’t be-

He feels another pinch, more pronounced this time, in the exact same spot. Tango watches the skin on his hand go red again. It is!

Tango jerks his head up again to take in his surroundings. He has no idea how he didn’t notice before, he’s at spawn on Double Life. Those little pinches are coming from his Rancher. Tango doesn’t hesitate to lightly pinch the palm of his hand and starts booking it towards the Ranch, the smile on his face bigger than it’s been for weeks.

In Double Life, Jimmy and Tango had set up a way of communication through the soulmate bond fairly early on, especially since Jimmy was so prone to getting into trouble. If one of them took any damage, the other would ask if they were okay with a light pinch to their hand. The other would reply with a pinch to the palm of the same hand if all was good. If they needed support they’d pinch the back of the hand. This way of communicating did become rarer as things amped up. But at the start of the test they’d use this to frequently check up on each other. 

So if Tango is feeling phantom pinches, that could mean only one thing.

“Jimmy!” Tango is at the Ranch faster than he had ever sprinted. He shoots fire to the ground to give him a little boost over the wall and straight into his home, their home.

“Tango?” His Rancher’s call is music to his ears and Tango quickly catches a glimpse of Jimmy’s blue coat by the goat pen. Jimmy has stopped what he was doing upon hearing Tango’s call but is in no way prepared for the shorter firebender to launch himself at him once he’s in jumping distance.

All Jimmy can do is drop the wheat he was holding and barely open his arms for Tango to tackle him with a hug, throwing them both to the ground.

Jimmy’s laugh rings in Tango’s ears as they tumble in the grass, eventually coming to a stop. Tango’s grip on his Rancher doesn’t loosen in fear that if he lets go, Jimmy will be gone again. Quickly Jimmy’s laughter stops as he notices the death grip Tango has on him. He tries to pry Tango away only slightly so that he can get a look at him.

Hazel brown eyes lock with his, Jimmy’s eyebrows scrunch. “Are you okay Tango?”

Tango sniffs, when did he start crying? But plays it off with a little chuckle, wiping away the stray tear that is rolling down his cheek.

“I’m good.” He gets off of Jimmy and finds a genuine smile has found its way to his face. “I just missed you is all.” His voice cracks only a little but that’s fairly usual for him, years of breathing fire does that to you. 

Jimmy’s chuckle is just as genuine as he sits up, leaning on his hands. “You’ve only been gone for a couple hours!”

Tango gives himself a moment to take in his Rancher. A sigh crosses his lips when he answers. “It feels like it’s been longer.”

A horse’s frustrated grunt interrupts whatever Jimmy was going to say next and the Ranchers' heads snap to the pen, where Scar’s horse impatiently awaits his lunch.

“Oh! Sorry Oreo! Let’s get you some lunch shall we? Jimmy gets up and offers Tango a hand out of habit to help him up too, which the other happily takes. 

Tango eyes the horse and briefly finds his gaze flicker over to the Ranch as Jimmy gathers the wheat that he chucked on the floor before catching Tango.

The main building of the Ranch is just the same as it was before Scar had burnt it down. Standing tall above them, a watchtower for their haven. They never got it to look like it had before, it was never the same after the Ranch burnt down. Tango once again locks his gaze on the horse. Is this just before Scar burnt down their home?

“Jimmy, we need to get this horse back to Scar right now!”

Jimmy looks at his Rancher and tilts his head questioningly. “Why? Look at how happy he is here.” Jimmy smiles as he pets Oreo’s snout, but he’s still looking at Tango to show he is attempting to understand what Tango is trying to say.

“I just don’t think Scar’s very happy that we have his horse.”

The look of confusion on Jimmy’s face only deepens. “But Tango, Scar gifted us this horse, in exchange for a little earthbending help to terraform his panda sanctuary, remember?”

Tango’s mouth opens and then closes again. No, he doesn’t remember that part. Jimmy notices Tango's confusion and sends a smirk his way. 

“Wait, don’t tell me you’d forgotten?”

Tango crosses his arms and tilts his head up, badly attempting to deceive his soulmate. “What? Me? Forget something? Nah I was just testing if you still remembered.” 

His display earns a laugh from Jimmy. “Oh my gosh! You did forget didn’t you? Good thing I reminded you! We’re heading over this afternoon so you can work your earthbending magic over there.”

If Tango had been drinking, he’d have surely spat the water out at that. He does nearly choke on his breath.

“What do you mean, my earthbending?” Tango quickly pulls a hand through his fire without burning it, yep still a firebender . Jimmy gives him a confused look.

“Yeah Mr. Avatar, your earthbending. Haven’t you just come back from training with Martyn?”

Tango splutters, Jimmy’s face is far too innocent to be deceiving him, in fact Jimmy seems to be growing increasingly concerned. Still what he just said does not compute for Tango.

“But, I’m not the avatar. Jimmy, you are.”

Now it’s time for Jimmy to splutter about. He’s finished feeding the horse and is fumbling with the gate to get it closed. 

“Tango, what in the world are you talking about? Oooh I get it, you’re having me on! Very funny Tango.” He wags one finger at his Rancher and continues to fiddle with the pen’s lock. There’s still a smile in his voice. There always was at the beginning of Double Life, Tango realises he’d come to miss it. Oh who is he kidding, he’s missed all of Jimmy and he can’t believe that his Rancher is just right there!

Finally the lock clicks and Jimmy turns to Tango, who has been unashamedly staring. Jimmy’s smile falls as he finds the absence of one on Tango’s lips.

“Oh you’re serious?” Jimmy quickly walks up to Tango and holds a hand to his forehead.

“Do you have a fever? You’re running pretty hot, but there is a fire on your head so I don’t actually know if that’s normal.” He starts fussing over Tango, checking him up and down for injuries.

“Did Martyn give you a rock to the face in training or what? Oh you wait until I get my hands on him-“ Tango gently takes Jimmy by the arm to stop him from storming off to Martyn’s blob. Jimmy refocuses on Tango.

Actually perhaps he is hallucinating, or dreaming. Maybe he did get hit in the head while training earthbending with Martyn. Maybe he was knocked out by Cleo and didn’t kill Martyn. And somehow he’s ended up back at the Ranch in a weird alternate reality, but boy is he going to savour every moment he’s here.

“You know I think Martyn might’ve hit me in the head now that I think about it. I might need to sit down for a bit.” He makes his way over to his and Jimmy’s favourite spot in the grass which gives a beautiful view over the ravine. It looks just like the day that they left it to be plunged into an underground complex and constantly running for their lives.

Once Tango’s sat down, he looks back at his Rancher who is still stood by the horse pen, looking over to Tango with worry.

Tango pats the grass beside him. “You joining me, Rancher?”

A warm smile spreads on Jimmy’s face and he takes his place beside Tango in the already dented grass, which would probably never recover with how often they sit there together. A comfortable silence stretches between them as they both take in the view and enjoy the warm breeze wafting upwards from the ravine.

“How would you react if you suddenly found out you were the avatar, Jimmy?” It’s Tango who eventually interrupts the quiet. He looks over to Jimmy when he doesn’t get a direct answer to find the other staring up at the sky. He’s chewing at his lip, meaning that he’s deep in thought.

It’s a long moment before Jimmy answers. “I honestly don’t know.” Tango sighs and looks down. He was hoping to get a longer answer out of Jimmy, but before he can properly despair, the blond continues. Tango snaps his eyes back to take in every one of Jimmy’s words.

“On the one hand, I’ve always wanted to be able to bend an element.” There’s a smile on Jimmy’s face and wander in his eyes as he gazes to the blue sky. “I’ve never felt what it’s like to control the wind or create fire! I think it’s a beautiful gift.” 

He finally looks back at Tango and he can see a glint in Jimmy’s eyes that Tango himself has never had when it comes to bending. To Tango, bending has always been more of a burden than anything else, a reason for his mother to keep him locked up, a surefire way to hurt himself with burns (pun intended). Sure it can be useful, but he’s never viewed it as a gift before. 

A little “Huh.” escapes his lips. Jimmy’s perspective is surely one he should learn to appreciate. 

Before Tango can respond, Jimmy holds up a finger to underline the following “But, I can imagine it being quite overwhelming. I’ve heard some earthbenders can feel the ground beneath them and waterbenders sense the tiniest ripples in water. I’ve been at the centre of an airbender’s whirlwind before and yeah, it’s a real attack on the senses. I don’t know if I could handle that very well.”

Tango pulls up his knees to his chest. It does feel nice to be understood, even by a Jimmy that has never bent anything before, but having those feelings laid out also makes him feel terribly small. Jimmy places a gentle hand on his back.

“But-“ Jimmy makes sure to have Tango’s eyes locked on his own before he continues “I know I’d be okay, you know why?” Tango hesitantly shakes his head. “I’d be okay because I’d know you’d be by my side every step of the way. You and Martyn and Pearl. Heck even though they’ve been awful to us, I know Scott and Cleo would have my back if I asked them to! Deep down we all want the same thing.”

Tango breaks away from Jimmy’s eyes and lets his gaze wander over the ravine again. He digs his head into his arms, hiding the lower half of his face.

“But what if you can’t do the thing that everyone wants. It seems so simple to everyone else so they don’t understand why you can’t do it? I feel like such a failure.” 

It comes out muffled but Jimmy still hears it, judging by how Jimmy shuffles closer, to give his soulmate as much physical support as he can. He wraps his arm around Tango in a side hug and pulls Tango to lean against him. Tango offers little resistance.

“Just because you’re the avatar doesn’t mean you have to be perfect.” Jimmy says after a little while of holding Tango close. 

He chuckles lightly. “Honestly if you were suddenly perfect, you’d be real annoying to be around.” Tango also feels a light chuckle rise in his chest.

“You’re still human Tango. Sure you can do some things others can’t, but that doesn’t mean you don’t make mistakes, that doesn’t mean you don’t struggle. But you know why that’s ok?” Tango pulls his head back to meet his Rancher’s eyes.

“It’s ok because you’ll never be alone. I mean what’s an avatar without a team, without his bending teachers, his friends. We’re here for you every step of the way. Sure, we want you to succeed, but we won’t leave you if you don’t. We’ll be by your side until you do succeed or we find another solution. The weight of the world doesn’t just rest on your back. Feel free to share the burden. I’ll happily carry it with you.”

Jimmy gives him the brightest smile he’s ever seen and Tango can’t help but mirror it. A warm feeling spreads inside of him. Jimmy’s right. He’s not alone in this, he can share the burden. He enjoys his Rancher’s company, feeling more and more drowsy as the moments pass.

Jimmy says something that Tango doesn’t quite catch. In his sleepy state he hums at his Rancher, it’s getting increasingly harder to keep his eyes open and focus on him.

“Tango, were you the Boogeyman?”

Huh?

—

Tango shoots up so quickly, he nearly flings himself out of his bed. It doesn’t take him long to recognise the Ties’ bedroom. So it was all a dream. Tango sighs and hugs himself, already missing his Rancher’s comfort.

“Tell me, was Tango the Boogeyman, Skizz?!”

Tango’s ears are assaulted by shouting coming from just outside the bedroom. He slowly creeps out to see Skizz standing at the top of the staircase to the Ties’ basement. He appears to be arguing with what sounds like Martyn, who is just out of view, around the corner at the base’s entrance. Tango cringes as the memories of before his blissful dream on the Ranch return.

“I’m not telling you anything! Tango’s resting, leave the poor guy alone!”

“You don’t get it Skizz! He killed me! Yellow on yellow violence and Cleo was just there! She was still green but he went for me!? I’m running out of time and I’m here to get back what he stole from me!”

“Martyn, I'm only saying this once. If you continue to threaten my buddy then you’re going on the Ties’ bad list and I’m not letting you anywhere near Tango!”

Skizz’s voice is calm and stern, a stark contrast to Martyn’s manic rambling. He sounds almost feral, it makes the hairs on Tango’s arms stand aloft. Skizz glances down and meets Tango’s frightened eyes. When his gaze returns to Martyn his face holds more resolve than ever. He makes himself wider to prevent Martyn from forcing his way through the entrance.

“He’s down there isn’t he? Tango! Give me back your delicious green time and this will all be forgotten!” Tango catches a glimpse of Martyn trying to push past Skizz, but the nonbender stands his ground.

Tango hears a growl and suddenly a flicker of light springs to life, the flame Martyn has just summoned dances on Skizz’s face, casting dark shadows as his frown deepens. Tango reaches out to pull some water from the sugar cane farm and holds it ready to put out any fires. Skizz notices this.

“Go on, do it. I dare you to burn me and make an enemy of the Ties.” A shiver runs down Tango’s spine at the tone of Skizz’s voice. Tango’s flight instincts are currently trumping his fight, but he has to be there to support Skizz if he needs to.

An eternal few seconds pass before the fire dissipates and Martyn turns to leave without another word. Tango can hear the splash of Martyn exiting through the water and finally lets out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.

“Good riddance!” Skizz brushes his hands before coming downstairs. As Skizz approaches, Tango’s anxiety spikes. They don’t need to tell him he’s back on green, he can certainly feel it, even more so than before. There’s a dangerous chill in the air, most of the players will be after his blood until he’s back to yellow.

Skizz sighs and shakes off the aggression. When he looks back up at Tango, the kindness in his eyes and his bashful smile have returned. Albeit mixed with the more or less constant worried look Skizz has been giving Tango recently.

Tango clumsily drops the water back into the sugarcane farm. Skizz watches the water for a moment before turning back to Tango.

“Impulse made dinner if you're hungry. He went to the mines quickly to get resources before you woke up. We thought we’d eat together.” 

It’s only then that the smell of a meaty stew reaches Tango’s nose. Skizz walks towards the stove and opens the lid of a large pot resting above smouldering embers. Tango looks to their meeting table to see it dished out for three and a warm feeling spreads in his chest. This feels so homely, almost like he is back home in the fire nation. 

“I’ve just let Impulse know you’re up and about, he’s making his way back up.” Skizz pockets his communicator and leads Tango to his seat. 

Maybe he’s fussing about Tango a little too much, but honestly? Tango’s limbs still ache and his eyelids hang heavy. With exhaustion still consuming him, Tango appreciates that his friend is taking care of him. He’s going to take what dream Jimmy told him to heart. He’s not weak to accept help, it just makes him human. That’s something he’d forgotten since having the title of avatar thrust upon him.

As Skizz turns back to the kitchen area to hover over the soup, Tango looks across their table again. Something is missing, they’ve only laid the table for three. Last time Tango checked, their team had four people in it. They’re not called the TIS after all.

“Isn't Etho joining us?” 

“Nah, he’s eating with the Clockers. You know how he is with Bdubs. There’s no separating those two, even if we’re on pretty bad terms with the Clockers at the moment.” Skizz huffs and crosses his arms, soup ladle in hand. 

“He’s been spending an awful lot of time down there and I’m honestly not sure how I feel about it. I think they’re trying to convince Etho to split.”

Unease settles in Tango’s stomach. He does not like that thought either. “Is he safe there? I heard Bdubs and especially Scar are bloodthirsty yellows.” Tango wraps his arms around himself, guilt nibbling at him as Cleo’s words ring in his mind. 

“Naah” Skizz turns back to stirring the soup. “He’s also yellow and you were Boogey, there’s nothing to be worried about. Tango’s eyes widen and he pulls out his communicator. The tab list shows a bunch of glaring yellow names. Only he, Impulse and Scott remain as greens. Tango raises an eyebrow. 

“When did Cleo go yellow?” 

Although Skizz has his back to him, he can see his shoulders tense. Skizz closes the lid to the soup and turns around, a sheepish look on his face. 

“There was a little face off with Cleo after they woke up. We were trying to get you back to base and she was throwing accusations left right and centre. I might have lost it a bit and, well, took ‘em out. I’m getting dangerously low, dude, the bloodlust is screamin’-”

“Hey-” Tango interrupts his rambling. “I am in no place to judge. Look what I did to Martyn.” Tango stares at his open palms that have since been healed. Did Lizzie come by to help? There’s no way Scott would want anything more to do with him after he killed Martyn, right? He balls his fists. 

“When Martyn was here just now, could you see-?” Tango doesn’t have it in him to finish. Part of him doesn’t want to know if the burn scars are visible, but he knows he’ll have to face Martyn at some point.

Skizz looks at him with sad eyes. He simply nods.

“Soup time!” Tango nearly jumps out of his chair as Impulse calls out from the entrance to the mines. His cheery face falls as soon as he gets a read on the room. “Woah, who died? Or wait, wrong thing to ask, I guess.” 

Skizz forces a chuckle. “We’re just lamenting the fact that we’re both losing our minds here Dippledop. No biggie.” Skizz tries to lighten the mood. Impulse eyes him, completely unconvinced by the bright smile Skizz manages to immediately put on. 

Still, Impulse jumps at the attempt to keep things as positive as can be. He strides over to the pot, pride in his voice. “This soup is a family recipe! It’s my sister Gem’s favourite. I always used to make it for her when she was going through a rough time. I can’t wait for us to make it together agai-” 

Impulse lifts the lid to the soup and as the scent hits him he stops dead in his tracks. 

“Did you mess with my soup?” He glares at Skizz, who lifts up his arms. He’s been caught ladle handed. 

“I made it better! It needed some firenation spice to it! Believe me, you’re gonna love it!” Skizz grins and serves him a portion, as Impulse’s glare deepens, so does Skizz’s grin. 

Skizz hands Impulse two bowls. Impulse grumbles his way over to the table and places a bowl in front of Tango, who has been watching the friendly bickering with a great smile on his face. He could almost forget about the dangers outside when he has his friends in here with him. 

His own serving of soup in hand, Skizz places down the ladle and makes his own way towards the head of the table. 

All three communicators chime and not a second later there’s a loud crash, as Skizz’s clay soup bowl falls to the floor and smashes on impact. He stumbles into his chair and leans on it for support.

Both Tango and Impulse shoot up and are beside Skizz in an instant. They know what this means. Skizz has his eyes squeezed shut, but Tango is sure that if they were open, all he’d see is void reflected in them. 

“What? Already? But Tango only just boogied someone, surely we get a break before another one is chosen?” Impulse gently helps Skizz into his seat. Tango hovers to the side with a glass of water in hand. Skizz takes it once he’s back.

“Tango took so long, the timing is right. We get a new boogey about every week. Tango if you had waited just a little longer, you would’ve been toast!” Skizz splashes the water to his face instead of drinking it. Once Tango and Impulse are satisfied that he’s okay, they return to their seats and push the soup aside. There is no way they could stomach anything until they know who the Boogey is.

“Well Skizz? Who is it?” Impulse pushes. “They are gonna be out for a green name, so Tango and I are top of the list. We need to avoid them at all costs.” 

Skizz’s eyes are fixed on the table. “I uh-” Tango leans forward. More concerned for his friend than ever. Skizz is never at a loss for words.

“I don’t think they’d want me to say.” Skizz finally pries his eyes from the table and meets with Tango’s. You’d think he’d look to Impulse since he was the one to ask the question. Unless…

“Oh come on Skizz! We need to have an advantage here-”

“It’s me again, isn’t it.” Tango cuts off Impulse with less of a question, more of a statement, which silences the room. Two sets of eyes are locked on him.

Their communicators buzz again and Tango abruptly gets up, knocking his chair to the floor and tries to put as much distance between him and his friends as possible before-

The Boogeyman is about to be chosen.

He treads between sugarcane, the farm’s water freezes around him as he steps deeper in it. Impulse has gotten up from his chair to follow Tango. But he is stopped by Skizz’s outstretched arm. The two of them can only watch as Tango crawls behind reeds until he hits the stone wall. He squeezes his eyes shut and awaits the inevitable.

3

2

1

You are…

The Boogeyman

…again…

Chapter Text

The second time around isn’t nearly as bad as the first. Sure, the scream still shatters his earbuds and his heart begins racing again. But Tango is so used to being Boogey by now, that the bloodlust very easily makes itself welcome again inside of him. He opens his eyes and lets out an exhausted sigh.

Skizz takes this as a sign to slowly approach, careful not to slip on the ice covered farm (Tango should really learn to keep that in check) . Tango looks up at him and gives him a nod, showing that it’s safe for him to approach.

Once he’s close enough, Skizz offers Tango a hand to help him up. He takes it, his vision only slightly swirling as he is yanked to his feet. Jimmy was always a lot gentler when he helped Tango up. 

“You are not waiting this one out buddy. Even if I have to grab your arm for you to shove your sword through someone. I don’t care what you have to say, I-”

“Okay.” Tango sighs

Skizz stops when Tango consents, his voice is lanced with an intense tiredness that runs through him. Sure, bloodlust has adrenaline pumping through you, but Tango is fresh out. He just wants this to be over with so that he can finally focus fully on trying to get everyone out of here. Before any of them run out of time.

“Oh” Skizz has all his steam robbed from him too. It looks like he was ready to go on a full on rant about why Tango needs to go and pick one of his friends to murder. “Who we going for then?”

Tango freezes. Oh yeah, he needs to choose someone. He’s got half a mind to randomly pick a name from a bowl, although they’ll need to craft a new one since Skizzle’s still lays shattered on the floor. The soup is getting cold. 

“Can I give you a suggestion?” Impulse slowly moves forward, still apprehensive of being in the presence of a Boogey.

Tango shrugs, then nods, he guesses he can take away some of the guilt if he isn’t the one to choose his target. “Sure. Shoot, Impulse!”

“Go for Bdubs.” Both Tango and Skizz raise an eyebrow at him.

“Wait, weren’t you two like as smitten as a married couple in Double Life? Why would you want me to go after him?”

Impulse crosses his arms and huffs. He avoids eye contact while he continues. “Yeah, we were as close as can be. I’d even guess closer than you and Jimmy, Tango. But as soon as we leave Double Life, he completely ignores me. He clings to Etho and doesn’t even acknowledge me when I try to talk to him. It’s like I no longer exist for him.”

Impulse curls in on himself, making him look impossibly small. Skizz and Tango move closer to try and comfort him, but he makes no move to show that he is ready for a hug. 

“I know we’ve done some really bad things in these tests. I especially can’t judge. But this was outside of the test, with all our memories back. I just wish he didn’t pretend that all we went through didn’t happen. I gotta be honest, that hurts.” Impulse looks up at Tango, brown eyes big and glassy, as tears threaten to fall.

“Imagine if Jimmy wanted nothing to do with you after he woke you up from Double Life, Tango.” 

His fire pops and Tango can’t help the frown that appears on his face at even the notion of Jimmy outright ignoring him after Double Life. Yeah that would sting real bad. 

Taking a brief look at the player tab on his communicator, Tango can’t really think of anyone better to go for. Of course it’s in everyone’s interest to go for someone who’s still green, but Tango can’t take himself out and there is no way he is going to attack Impulse. As for the Mean Gills… no need to make a greater enemy of them by targeting Scott. Bdubs is still pretty high on time because of his Boogey kill in the second week. And he did go for Skizz back then after all. Bdubs is a logical choice as a Boogeyman target. Or at least that’s what Tango tries to convince himself of. 

“Bdubs it is then.” Tango pockets his communicator. His mind only lightly buzzes with joy at the prospect that he has a target. “It works well since he got me as the Boogeyman back in Last Life and he killed Skizz without a second thought weeks ago. This is revenge.”

The three sit down at the table and enjoy fresh bowls of soup as they flesh out a plan on taking Bdubs out. Tango no longer questions what they have become, casually planning the murder of their friend over dinner. It’s necessary. He needs to kill so that he can get them out of here. It’s just a means to an end, another step towards saving everyone. This is fine. 

—

Tango sits on the sweltering nether roof, his entire body shaking. He’s only been Boogey for half a day, but the plan is already in motion. It’s surprisingly simple to plan your friend’s murder. Bdubs had left his dog in the nether in the short moment where Impulse had given him and Etho a tour of the ghast farm.

It’ll be simple. Impulse gets Bdubs to come and get his dog on the nether roof, just as Impulse comes through the portal, he books it away. Bdubs follows and Tango sends a minecart, filled with lit TNT his way. In case Bdubs tries to get away, Tango will pull the water from the cauldrons on either side of the portal and freeze him in place for long enough for the minecart to hit. Bdubs won’t be able to bend the obsidian or bedrock around him. It’s the perfect trap. 

It’s simple, but the only caveat is that Tango is left to his own thoughts for what feels like half an eternity. Sweat runs in streams down his brow as he sits poised above the minecart, ready to snap his fingers and light the TNT as soon as Impulse comes through. No, his legs aren’t cramping up and his bloodthirsty mind isn’t driving him nuts, not at all.

He does his best to ignore the whispers that surround him on the silent nether roof.

Tango hadn’t ever taken note of the voices in his head. But since he was blessed by their absence for a short moment, only to get them right back when he turned Boogey again, he doesn’t quite know how he didn’t notice them sooner. 

He can’t really make out what they’re saying. To be honest, he hasn’t tried. He figures if he starts listening to the voices in his head, then he really will have lost it. But as he waits in the dull red fog of the nether it gets increasingly difficult to ignore them.

“Tango…”

He whips his head to look over his shoulder. That voice had been much clearer than the others. It whispers down his spine, rattling his entire body with a harsh shiver. Okay, it’s getting worse. When did the voices learn his name?

“Tango”

Tango properly spins around this time and takes a step back, almost knocking into the minecart. 

“Okay the creepiness levels just shot up. Who are you?” Great, he’s talking to the voices. He’s officially lost it.

“Avatar”

Oh he hates that. Tango turns in a circle in small steps to hopefully find a body to connect the voices to. “C’mon creepy voices in my head, what do you want?” Tango tries to keep his voice strong and assertive. It only squeaks a little.

“We search the Avatar”

This voice is different. It’s lower, a grumbling, warbling roughness to it.

“Woah woah woah, you’ve got the wrong guy! I’m no avatar. This is just a simulation. You gotta go find Jimmy!”

The whispers are getting louder, they’re coming from all around him. No matter where he turns it doesn’t lessen the noise bombarding his ears, even if he holds them closed. He’s starting to regret answering the voices. 

He still can’t make out most of them. Every now and again he can pick out his name and the blasted word “avatar” amongst the cacophony.

“You are the avatar” the harsh whisper from before breathes down his back and Tango spins again, still expecting to see some sort of ghostly figure attached to the voice. What he does notice is little glowing turquoise particles. He’s seen these before when Skizz blacks out on the Boogey announcement. But as he stares further into the dust that slowly surrounds him, he recognises it from somewhere else.

Where has he seen little turquoise orbs before? He can’t put his finger on it. They remind him of the pollen from a flower, or the spores of a mushroom, or wait! They’re from the-

“Tango”

That whisper catches him off guard. It sounds different from the others but very distinctly like a voice he knows well.

“I’m here” it’s getting less distorted, more audible, more recognisable as-

“Jimmy?” Tango calls out over the empty roof. He starts walking in the direction the voice is coming from, away from the minecart. 

“Tango!” That one was as clear as day, he hears it right behind hi-

When Tango spins around he comes face to face with an ethereal projection of his Rancher. He’s right there, eyes white and glowing. Tango yelps in surprise and falls back to the ground. As soon as he looks up, Jimmy’s figure is gone, along with the voices. Their final tunes echo out over the vast nothingness and Tango is once again left alone.

He gets up again and steps to where Jimmy’s figure had been. He might just be imagining it, but as he stands there he feels energy surging through him, if only for a moment. Had that been Jimmy? Tango has heard of airbenders who are able to send their spirit to distant places and other planes of existence. Could Jimmy do that?

For just a moment Tango feels like he can take on the world. But just as quickly as the feeling arises, it is gone again like smoke dissipating as a fire is put out. Still a sense of hope stays. His Rancher is by his side, he can get through this test.

“Tango what are you doing? Bdubs is coming!”

The firebender is flung back to reality as Impulse’s shout echoes across the flat landscape. Impulse is running away from the portal. “Why aren’t you in position?”

Just as promised, a second later Bdubs emerges from the portal. Tango is miles away from the minecart and his target is right there! How could he have messed this up?

“Where’s my do- wh HEY! What’s this?”

Tango needs to be quick. He sprints towards the minecart, with one hand he flings the water from the cauldron which latches onto Bdubs boots, freezing on impact. The other hand snaps a small ember to life which Tango flicks towards the minecart, expertly lighting the TNT’s fuse. Then he pulls both arms back and shoots them forward to send a mighty gust of wind towards the minecart, low enough so it wouldn’t put out the spark and powerful enough to get the minecart rolling and rattling right at Bdubs.

“What are you doing? You can’t go for me? I- WAI-“

Bdubs disappears in a blaze of explosions. Tango drops to his knees and lets out a relieved breath he didn’t know he’d been holding as the Boogeyman curse leaves his body. Hopefully this time for good.

“Dude! That was amazing!” Impulse is by his side in an instant. He offers Tango a golden apple which the other takes happily. The regeneration effect takes hold immediately and Tango feels he can get to his feet and stand independently again. 

“I mean Bdubs came through and I thought you weren’t gonna make it and then you take the water and BAM! Feet frozen in place! …”

Tango chuckles at Impulse’s dramatic reenactment of the scene. Most of it Tango misses as his eyes are drawn to the spot where he saw Jimmy. He isn’t sure what to make of that encounter. Perhaps he should ask BigB or Mumbo about airbending astral projectification or whatever it’s called. Add that to the never ending to do list in the limited time he has.

“You make for such an awesome avatar, Tango! We need to tell Skizz how it went!”

Impulse practically skips towards the portal, looking back every so often to make sure Tango is following. It fondly reminds Tango of a Tigerdog pup. 

“You really mean that?” Tango interrupts Impulse's excited ramblings, a soft smile on his face. Impulse raises an eyebrow. 

“What? That you make an awesome avatar?” Tango nods. Impulse calms down as he waits for Tango to also arrive at the charred nether portal. He mirrors Tango’s smile.

“Of course I mean that! Look at what you can do! So what if you’re not meant to have these powers, you’re getting fantastic at using them! And I’m not saying that because I’m expecting you to save us. I’m saying it because I think it’s awesome seeing my friend do such amazing things!”

A warm feeling spreads through Tango’s chest. He might not have Jimmy with him and that will always hurt, but he’s thankful to have people like Impulse, Skizz and Etho by his side. 

He playfully raises an eyebrow, as he flicks his finger to create a spark that relights the nether portal and turns back to Impulse.

“Do I make a better avatar than Jimmy?” Tango’s smirk is as big as can be. Impulse chuckles.

“That’s a trick question and you know it! I’m not answering that one, get through that portal and tell Skizz how awesome you are, you multi bender!”

Tango chuckles and gently pushes Impulse through the portal. He takes one last look back to where he saw Jimmy. Specs of turquoise dust have settled on the floor, any whispers from before have returned to the wind. Tango steps through the warbling nether portal with more questions than answers.

“-gotta go!” Tango hears the tail end of a patented Skizz shout. As his vision adjusts, Tango sees Skizz grasping onto metal bars that weren’t there before, dividing him and Impulse from the yellow name. A chest that was also recently placed sits on their side of the barrier. 

“Tango! The yellows are huntin’ you guys. I’ve put food in the chest, take it and run for the woods! They’ll be here soon!” Skizz is visibly shaking and gritting his teeth. Impulse looks as shocked as Tango feels. They seem to take too long to answer according to Skizz, so the yellow name continues.

“They swarmed the base looking for you! And I gotta be honest, I put these bars up in case they come up here. But they are also the only thing keeping me from jumpin’ at your throats right now.”

Impulse takes a wordless step towards Skizz and reaches out. Skizzle yanks himself away from the bars, still shaking as he hugs himself, like it’s taking all his willpower not to lash out. 

The yellow names suddenly snapping? This has to be the Watchers doing. They can’t be happy with all the time Tango has managed to amass with his double Boogey kill. His flame burns higher with rage and Tango swears once again that the Watchers won’t know what hit them when he finally escapes Limited Life to give them a piece of his mind. 

“Go! I can’t take it any longer!” Skizz nearly growls. Tango steps forward and gathers the supplies from the chest. Impulse remains frozen in place, mouth hanging open with words he can’t find. Tango places a hand on his shoulder to bring him out of the trance. 

“C’mon, let’s go.” Impulse wordlessly turns to walk down Skynet and away from his friend. Tango spares one last look at Skizz who is crouched on the other side of the bars, wild eyed like a caged animal. Before turning to follow Impulse, Tango takes a moment to salute his friend. A small smile forms on Skizz’s lips.

“You better not get yourself killed, ya hear me?”

Tango nods and turns to join Impulse running along Skynet and away from their tower. Before leaping down into the Mean Gills’ ocean, Impulse stops abruptly. His balled fists shake. Before Tango can say anything Impulse speaks, voice laced with a fury Tango has never heard from the man. 

“The Watchers are gonna pay for their actions.”

Any other threats go unsaid. Tango simply nods, his gaze holding a promise, that the days of the Watchers’ torment are numbered. They drop into the Mean Gills’ ocean and disappear into the forest. 

Chapter Text

Tango’s mind is set to pure survival, there’s not much time for anything else. They spend two whole days, ducking in the forest, trying to hide in caves, running for their lives. For these long hours, Tango is eternally thankful for Impulse. They have each other's back, take care of each other, share their food and resources more than ever. Lend an ear and a voice when the other needs it. 

It isn’t easy when there’s ten people out for your blood in a very small area. It also doesn’t help that as his stress levels spike, so does Tango’s hair, making him visible from afar. 

That’s how, on the second night, one Scott Smajor finds them. The final other green joins them in their hiding, they figure strength in numbers is worth the heightened risk of being found.

Scott introduces the practice of hiding their tracks by washing them away with waterbending. It serves them well for a while, even if it does slow them down. Tango finds himself watching the waterbender elegantly swish the water back and forth behind them, eliminating footprints and any scent a wolf might pick up.  

It doesn’t take long before Scott notices Tango’s stare.

“You know, we could move a lot quicker if there were two of us covering up these tracks.” Scott comments. Tango is only snapped out of his trance of watching the waterbender when Impulse elbows him in the side. 

“Ow! Oh wait, you mean me?” Impulse chuckles as Tango’s voice squeaks. Scott briefly bottles his water in his elaborately decorated waterbenders flask and folds his arms. 

“Yeah Mr. Avatar. I could do with some help here, let’s go to the river to get you some water. Do you have a waterskin?” 

Tango taps his sides, looking for a pouch he already knows he doesn’t have. Scott smirks and dramatically rolls his eyes. “How have you two survived this long? You don’t even have a pouch for drinking water?” 

Tango and Impulse share a sheepish look. Scott slips his bag off his shoulder and goes digging in it again, his tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth and eyes looking up at the stars as he searches. After a short moment his hand reemerges, holding a hand crafted flask made with red leather and little iron details. He hands it to Tango. 

“I made this for you after I found out you could waterbend. Every waterbender needs their own flask.” 

Tango takes it and gently cradles it in his hands. His finger trails over the metal details that take the shape of a flame on the front.

“When did you find the time to make this? It’s beautiful!” Tango looks up at Scott, eyes wide. “You didn’t need to do this for me, I killed your partner.” 

Scott waves Tango off. “Pshh it’s nothing. It was nice to make a custom pouch again. It was my mother’s business she tried to force onto me when I was a teenager. I haven’t made one in ages, I kinda do miss it.”

The waterbender steps down to the riverbank, stopping at right at the river’s edge. “And as for you killing Martyn. I took out Skizz when I was Boogey, seems fair. There’s no hard feelings from me.”

Tango follows him to the riverfront. Impulse stays up on the hill in the shadow of some trees to keep watch.

Scott is emptying and cleaning out his flask by the time Tango is by his side. In practised movements he swishes the water in and out the flask, removing all the dirt he had picked up while he was covering their tracks. Tango watches Scott for a while before deciding to fill up his own flask.

He almost kneels down by the riverbank to scoop up the water by hand, until he realises he’s now got a far fancier way to collect water. Tango focuses on the ripples and carefully lifts up an unsteady stream. 

A laugh catches in Tango’s throat. It still hasn’t quite registered for him that he is able to waterbend, or in general that he is able to bend anything other than fire. Usually only one person per generation is gifted with such abilities. Tango could almost thank the Watchers for this unique experience they have unintentionally gifted him, if it weren’t for them torturing him and his friends in their sick tests for so many years.

So far Tango has only used waterbending to instinctively attack or defend. He’s got the big splashes and the freezing down to a tee. But shaping the water and delicately filtering it into a bottle is a whole different ball game. Tango struggles to keep the water in a narrow stream, it ripples and droplets splash out the longer he tries to hold it and the harder he focuses on it. 

“My spirits, your form is awful!”

Tango is snapped out of his focus and his waterstream splashes to the ground, soaking his boots. He huffs at Scott’s comment.

“Well I only started waterbending less than a week ago! I haven’t had the time to get a teacher.”

Scott sighs, lets his own water drop and steps up to Tango. The waterbender mumbles to himself as he starts moving Tango's arms and shifting his stance.

“I was gonna suggest you wait until you’re yellow, but I can’t let this stand. It’s just painful to watch.”

Tango begrudgingly lets himself be manhandled until Scott is satisfied with his position. He does his best to stay in the exact stance Scott forces him into. Scott steps around Tango, like a sculptor analysing his statue. While Scott passes behind him, Tango stays looking straight ahead. He notices Impulse’s figure at the top of the hill, illuminated by the moonlight, watching them with amusement.

Tango is suddenly splashed in the back by a gentle whip of water. He yelps and stumbles forward, his hair sparking at the assault. “Hey!”

When he turns around, the water dripping from his back, Scott is giggling to himself. Tango crosses his arms. “I can tell ya now, Martyn didn’t fare very well when he assaulted me with the element he was trying to teach me!” 

“Gosh Tango, relax! You’re so tense, you need to loosen up.” 

Tango huffs as his hair sparks higher once again. “It’s pretty hard to relax if you’re being hunted by a hoard of your friends. Sorry if I’m not as easy going as usual.” 

Scott’s smile turns more genuine, understanding reflecting in his eyes. “No Tango, I don’t mean in general. I mean you need to relax your muscles to perform waterbending moves effectively. Like this.”

Scott stands straight before him, his hands held up to his chest. As Scott closes his eyes, Tango can see his shoulders visibly relax, his body slumping closer to the ground. With this he reaches down and when he lifts his arm again, a gentle stream of water follows. Scott continues his dance, movements loose and fluid, just like the water he bends. Just watching him eases the tension in Tango’s own back and he feels the fire on his head reduce to a calm flicker. 

Scott opens his eyes again when he finishes his demonstration, gently lowering the water back into the river. He smiles when he sees Tango. “See? Much better. Your back looked as tough as rocks.” The waterbender positions himself, mirroring the stance he had put Tango into, which the avatar is still doing his best to hold.

“Let’s try this, shall we? Try to follow my movements. Keep your shoulders relaxed and try to breathe, in and out with the ebb and flow of the water. You move too fast and you’ll turn it into ice.”

Tango takes a deep breath and nods. In the quiet night, in the refreshing air and the light of the full moon, he follows the waterbender's movements. It’s clumsy at first, but very quickly Tango picks up the dance. He and Scott swirl the water all around them. At some point, Scott closes his eyes again, but still somehow knows where the water that they bend needs to go next. Tango can somehow also feel the flow without even touching the water. 

He too tries to close his eyes, but as soon as he does, Tango hears the quiet click of a crossbow. Without thinking Tango grabs the water he and Scott were sharing and shoots it in the direction of the sneaky attacker. Icicles shoot out behind him and thud into a shield.

“What in the world are you doing!” Impulse shouts out from behind his shield. Tango grasps at his chest in an attempt to calm his racing heart. The crossbow bolt Impulse had primed is sent in the direction of a creeper that had been sneaking up on the waterbending duo. Scott, having been snapped out of his trance when Tango snatched away their water, looks towards the creeper and sends a shot of water its way, freezing the beast in place.

“You can’t just click a crossbow without warning man! You coulda been a yellow!” Tango calls up the hill, trying to relax again, taking deep breaths to recover from the scare. Impulse has an apologetic look on his face.

“Sorry, didn’t want to disturb you there, you seemed like you were having a moment. I’ll leave you to it. Promise I’ll call next time you got something sneaking up to ya.” Impulse returns to resting against a tree at the hilltop, crossbow still in hand and primed with another bolt.

“You waterbend like a firebender.” Scott comments when Tango turns back to face him. Tango blinks at the waterbender. 

“Well yeah, what were you expecting?” 

Scott shrugs and pulls another stream of water from the river.

“Waterbending is very tied to emotions, a lot like firebending I hear. I’ve had the honour to base with quite a few firebenders in these tests.” Scott starts swishing the water back and forth as he speaks.

“If you let your emotions take over-” The water freezes to a sharp ice crystal that takes the shape of an explosion. “It will freeze. This is when you try to force the water to places it doesn’t want to go.”

Scott lets it melt again and returns to swirling the stream around his hands, keeping his movements fluid. “If you flow with it, you’ll eventually be able to guide it where you want it to go. But be gentle, water doesn’t like being pushed around.”

The water flows around Tango. He watches for a bit, before reaching out, not to grab ahold of it, but to join with the flow and after another moment, he manages to send it swirling around the two of them. Scott by this point has lowered his arms and given Tango full control. He watches with a smile. 

After his little performance Tango looks down to his flask and flips open the lid with one hand, as the other still flows with the current of the airborne stream. He guides it down in a careful spiral, trying to convince the water to trickle into the bottle, rather than force it like he had before. 

Really, waterbending reminds him of the type of firebending he had taught himself when he was young to gain control of his inner flame. Don’t try to force it down, flow with it or it will consume you. This way of bending feels incredibly natural and Tango wonders if he can use similar practices to calm his own flame in moments of heightened emotion. 

When the flask overfills, Tango gently guides the rest of the water back to the river. When he finishes and looks back to Scott, there is a warm smile on his teacher's face. Thoughts of his childhood swirl fresh in Tango’s mind, prompting a question he’s been pondering ever since he started freezing the world around him when overwhelmed. 

“Have you ever lost control? With the ice stuff? If I recall correctly, you usually have quite the affinity to ice.” 

Scotts smile drops. The stars sparkle in his eyes as he looks over the river to avoid Tango’s eye contact. Oh gosh, has he overstepped? Tango waves his hands, trying to backtrack. “I mean you don’t have to tell me if you don’t-”

“Yeah.” Scott interrupts. He ponders a moment before continuing. Tango gives him the space he needs.

“It was actually really hard to control it back in Third Life, after I lost Jimmy.”

There’s an ache in Tango’s heart at the mention of his Rancher. He understands the pain of losing Jimmy, unsure if he’s alive and safe. He is alive, Tango, get any doubts out of your mind!

“It hurt, like a lot. I may have frozen over the flower valley in grief.” Scott hugs himself as he keeps his eyes trailed over the water. When he eventually turns back to Tango his eyes are glossy. 

Tango may not know the guy very well, but he knows he once had a deep connection to Jimmy and anyone that Jimmy cares for deeply, so does Tango. He walks up to the waterbender and wraps him in a warm hug. Scott is at first startled by the gesture but then returns the hug, grasping onto Tango’s vest, like he’s the only source of warmth in a snowstorm. Although Tango is trying to comfort Scott with his traumatic memories from Third Life resurfacing, the firebender also feels that Scott’s tight hug is trying to give Tango some comfort, any kind of reassurance that their Flower Husband, their Rancher is out there, trying to save them. Tango melts into the embrace. He couldn’t ever make Scott understand how much he needed that.

When they finally pull apart, both have tears in their eyes. 

“I have faith.” Scott smiles. “Jimmy’s gonna come get us. If there’s one thing I learnt from him in Third Life, it’s that as long as he’s breathing, Jimmy will never leave you hanging.”

Tango returns the smile. Any heartfelt reply dies on Tango’s tongue as he’s interrupted by an almighty explosion that rattles the ground and illuminates the night sky for a split second, blinding the waterbenders. Tango’s communicator chimes and his heart drops as he looks up the hill to where the explosion had come from. He can distantly hear cheering.

“They got him.” Scott already has his communicator out. He shows Tango the screen and sure enough…

ImpulseSV blew up

“It’s just us.” Tango holds hand in front of his mouth. Scott has already pocketed his communicator and is scanning their surroundings. 

“We need to move.” He starts dragging a shell shocked Tango along.

Tango’s eyes trail upwards, only to see an expansion off of Skynet has been built right above their heads, without them noticing. There are two figures above them, one in the process of pushing a minecart, presumably stuffed to the brim with explosives, off the platform.

“Look out!” Tango shouts. In one swift movement, Tango gathers the wind around them and airbends Scott forwards and himself backwards. Both of them narrowly miss the TNT that blows up in between them as soon as it hits the ground. 

Tango loses sight of Scott in the smoke, but his communicator hasn’t chimed, so he assumes the waterbender has survived and is hopefully running for the hills. Tango himself turns around ready to book it, and in the process almost runs right into Pearl’s unsheathed sword. She grins at him.

“Found you!” Her voice is full of glee, there’s a manic twinkle in her eye. Tango starts backing up towards the TNT’s crater. BigB also emerges from the shadows, the yellows are cornering him.

“Pearl, come on! We’re friends.” He tries to reason with her. She crookes her head and laughs.

“D’you hear that, BigB? This silly little green boy thinks we’re buddies!” Her sword glints in the moonlight and Tango wonders why she’s hesitating to take him out with waterbending. He would be no match for her right by a river. 

There’s a splash to his left and Tango whips his head around to find that Mumbo and Lizzie have just landed in the water after jumping off Skynet. It hurts just a little that they had just launched a TNT minecart at him, but he tries to remind himself of how he felt when he was a yellow Boogeyman. They’re not in their right minds. All they can think of right now is some good old ‘Tango murderfication’ and they’ve got him surrounded. 

He can’t take on four people at once, but he sure is going to die trying.

Tango takes the opportunity to attack Lizzie and Mumbo as they rush along an ice path Lizzie created to get to him. He first sends out a gust of wind to make them slip on the ice. Mumbo tumbles and splashes into the water but Lizzie stands her ground, wrapping ice around her boots to keep herself upright. 

At this point Pearl and BigB advance, Pearl swipes at him with her sword, but Tango leaps out the way with another gust of wind and shoots water at Pearl’s sword. It freezes into a heavy cube around the blade. Pearl grunts and uses her other hand to take the water and fling it right back at Tango as dozens of tiny icicles. 

Tango shoots up a wall of fire, which evaporates the water immediately. An arrow then flies through the fire and lodges itself into his left shoulder. He yelps in pain and lets the firewall dissipate, yanking the arrow from his shoulder and scorching the wound with some firebending to prevent it from bleeding out. On the other side BigB already has another arrow notched in his bow. Tango throws up his right arm to send a gust of wind so that BigB’s next arrow flies off target. 

He hears a splash and before Tango can turn he gets whipped in the back with a nasty stream of water mixed with ice crystals. He stumbles to the ground, but manages to shoot a bolt of fire behind him on his descent, burning Lizzie’s arm. 

Mumbo is on top of him not a second later, holding his hands down in an attempt to stop him bending. Tango summons fire to his hands, heating up the rest of his body so it burns to touch him. Mumbo loosens his grip at that and Tango manages to throw him off of himself and send the nonbender tumbling into the burning crater. He reaches out a second later, regretting the action which will surely give Mumbo terrible burns. He has no time to act on it as two cubes of ice shoot at his hands and freeze them to the ground. 

Despite his burning hands this move locks him in place and he looks over to see Lizzie is actively refreezing the ice as he’s melting it. Tango is trapped. 

Pearl steps up to him. Her sword drags along the floor, scratching against the stone. She halts when her sword is right next to Tango’s head. His flames flicker around the blade. She stomps her foot roughly on his chest, knocking the air from Tango’s lungs.

“Hold still there you little fake avatar, when we get you and my sorry excuse of a soulmate, there can be peace again.”

When Pearl raises her sword to pierce it through Tango’s chest, he swears he can see a purple glimmer in her eyes, along with a tear rolling down her cheek. 

Tango closes his eyes, accepting defeat. Dying in these tests is never fun, but he’s done all he can. He just hopes to at least in the short term find peace after the hunt for the greens is over. He waits for the final blow, but it never seems to come.

“Pearl!” Tango hears BigB call out and opens his eyes to find the sword hovering no more than an inch above his chest. 

Pearl is shaking, trying her hardest to force the sword down, but it’s like she’s hitting an invisible wall. Tango holds his breath, eyes locked with his attacker’s. It’s like she’s a statue, her muscles only lightly spasm. 

Tango notices the ice keeping his hands locked is gone. He gathers his own ice to his palms and grabs the sword with it, so as not to cut himself. Gently, he moves the blade off of his chest and rolls to his feet as quickly as possible, giving himself a light push with airbending. 

One look over to Lizzie explains why she is no longer able to keep him locked in place. She too is being held still, her eyes dart around erratically and her breath comes out in shallow gasps as she fights against the force controlling her body. BigB looks the same. Tango has seen this before.

“Show yourself, Scott!” Pearl calls out through gritted teeth. “If you’re going to bloodbend us you might as well own up to it.”

Slowly, with cautious steps, Scott emerges from the smoke. His teal hair has been dulled by ash and parts of his clothes have been singed. There’s a pang of guilt in Tango’s chest as he realises he didn’t push Scott far enough away from the explosion to avoid harm.

Scott’s hands are outstretched, he’s tensed up from his shoulders to his fingertips, slightly shaking in rhythm with his victims.

Tears run down his face and his lip quivers. He is barely holding himself together, his voice is laced with pain and disgust. Scott locks eyes with Tango and speaks a singular word.

“Run.”

Chapter Text

Everything that follows is a blur. Tango knows he’s running. His legs and his lungs burn, figuratively and literally. He knows he’s been hurt. Scratches and scrapes litter his body where rocks and arrows graze past him. His clothes are marked with burns, his own or another firebender’s, he can’t tell.

Tango knows he’s being followed. His fire lights a bright beacon in the night sky. No matter how much distance he puts between himself and the yellows, there’s always someone new trying to murder him just around the next corner. 

Somewhere along the way his communicator chimes and something in Tango knows that Scott didn’t escape, that he is the last green. The whole server is now hunting only him.

It’s as they say that all roads lead to Ba Sing Se, somehow Tango’s sprint leads him back to the Ties tower. Back to his temporary home. Without thinking he bolts to the (not so) secret entrance to their basement. He bursts out of the water stream and down the staircase, no idea if someone saw him enter. He should grab food and healing potions and escape to the mines. 

Tango has himself buried far too deeply in a chest to notice a figure step up behind him. When a hand is placed on his shoulder, he jumps up and shoots a blast of fire at his assailant.

Etho reaches up his right arm and cuts right through the trail of flames, extinguishing them instantly. Tango blinks at him, dumbfounded and frozen in place like cornered prey.

“You just bent fire.” Is all he manages to say. Great final words, Tango, real memorable.

“Yeah, I’ve been practising. What in the world are you doing here? This is the first place they’ll look for you!” Etho speaks in hushed whispers, eyes darting between the base’s various entrances. Tango is only able to continue blinking at the yellow life.

“Wait, you aren’t gonna murderficate me?” 

Etho steps away and starts trailing his hand along the stone wall of the base like he’s looking for something. 

“Nah, never been one to feel the bloodlust. You earthbent yet?” He pauses to look back at Tango. The lack of hostility in his movements finally reaches the avatar and Tango allows himself to relax, if only slightly. He hesitantly follows Etho.

“Not really had the time since I’ve been, you know, running for my life.”

Speaking of, muffled shouts sound from the surface and heavy footfalls rattle the earth above them. Etho’s eyebrows pull into a frown. He stops at a point where there is a slight crack in the wall, similar to the one that lead to their hideout in the Watcher compound. 

“That’s not good. This’ll have to do.” Etho steps back and swings his pickaxe at the wall, breaking open the crack with surprising strength considering he’s using just one arm. It reveals a small alcove, a chest and furnace in the corner. The footfalls grow louder, a splashing can be heard just by their entrance.

Before Tango can register anything else, Etho thrusts his pickaxe at him and shoves him into the alcove. 

“Keep quiet, I’ll run distraction.” 

Just before Etho can close up the opening, Tango reaches out to place a hand on his right arm. “Thank you.”

Etho simply nods and blocks Tango in, dousing him in near darkness. Only the flickering of his flame casts an eerie shadow on the stone wall. He dares not even breathe. All he can do is listen. Heavy boots land on wooden floorboards. Tango can’t tell how many yellows they belong to.

“Hey guys, nice of you to visit-”

“Out of my way Etho” Lizzie’s voice sounds loud and clear. “The Watchers said Tango went here. Where is he?”

Tango gulps. If the Watchers are actively broadcasting his location to a bunch of bloodthirsty Listeners, he’s surely toast-

“He’s in the walls!” That’s Martyn. “Where are the earthbenders?” 

Tango fumbles his pickaxe in panic and starts digging in the opposite direction to the voices. 

“Through here!” Mumbo sounds like he’s just on the other side of the thin wall. “I can hear him mining!” 

Tango’s heart bounces out of his chest as he struggles to dig further away. The walls rattle with pickaxes crashing into them. He’s managed to dig a small tunnel about thirty feet away from where he entered when light suddenly floods the alcove. Mumbo steps through and Tango can just see the licking of fresh burns and ash dusted clothing illuminated by the little light that seeps past Mumbo’s looming silhouette.

They lock eyes and not a moment later, Mumbo is darting towards Tango, not even bothering to swap from pickaxe to sword. He charges the green name so quickly that Tango hasn’t got a chance to equip his shield. All he can do is shoot up his arm to put at least something between him and the pickaxe and hope that it doesn’t do too much damage.

There's a rumbling of rocks and the attack never lands. When Tango dares to peak out from behind his arm, he sees the tip of the pickaxe inches away from impact. But that’s all he sees. The rest of the pickaxe is embedded in stone and Mumbo’s frustrated cries can be heard from the other side of the wall. 

A wall that Tango just pulled from the ground.

A stone wall. 

Tango can’t help the hysterical laugh that rings in the little cave he’s trapped himself in. He looks down at his dirt covered fist and kisses it. “ThankyouThankyouThankyou!”

The pickaxe tip shakes in the stone, bringing Tango back to the danger of the moment. He scrunches his eyebrows and focuses on his connection to the earth around him. He doesn’t have the space to position himself in a typical earthbender stance, but he places his feet as far apart as possible, leaning one hand on the opposite wall to ground himself to the best of his ability. 

He brings back his other hand and launches it at the wall, knowing full well that if this doesn’t work he’ll break his fist. But it has to work, he knows it will. He is the avatar in this strange world. And he can bend earth. 

The stone wall shoots backwards, taking Mumbo with it and crashes into the opposite wall, crushing the yellow behind it. Tango’s heart drops as his communicator chimes. 

Lizzie enters the alcove not a second later and growls at him. “You’re gonna pay for that, green!”

Tango scrambles to his feet and pulls up another wall between them. 

“Curse you!” Lizzie shouts from the other side. “Where are the earthbenders!?”

There is no way Tango is going to hang around for Bdubs or Cleo to arrive. He turns and punches the wall ahead of him, digging a tunnel further away from the yellows and filling it back up as he goes. He loses track of how long he does this for until his muscles scream for him to take a break. Earthbending is far more physical than any of the other elements.

When Tango’s tunnel opens up into a familiar ravine he allows himself to rest. He crashes beside an underground waterfall and washes his hands in it. Cuts and bruises litter his fists and his whole body is covered in wounds of varying severity. Tango grunts as he cradles the shoulder where BigB shot him and tries to prop himself up against the cave’s wall.

Adrenaline quickly seeps from his body, leaving him exhausted and in pain. Tango dares a peak at his wrist. 16:40 hours left. Those forty minutes equate to almost two days. Tango sighs and drops his arm again. 

“There is no way I’m surviving another day like this.” He says to himself. His voice echoes in the cave, giving him the shivering feeling of intense loneliness. Tango pulls his legs up to rest his head on his knees.

“Oh Jimmy, what do I do?” He’s finally managed to bend all the elements. All the weeks in this hell have led up to this. Tango never thought he’d feel this helpless when the moment finally arrives. But here he is. Alone in a damp cave, all his friends are out to kill him and honestly, in his current state, it wouldn’t take much to take him down. 

“Wait.” Tango nearly jumps up as an idea pops up, his flame shines just a little brighter, like a lightbulb being lit above him.

“When the avatar is close to death, they enter the avatar state, right?” He gets up with newfound energy and paces up and down the ravine. 

“It’s a last resort, a form of self preservation.” He stops to turn to empty space, almost expecting to see someone standing there, nodding along to his rambles. He frowns, but continues.

“That’s what you did, Jimmy. Just before getting us out of here. You entered the avatar state before that enderman could kill you and got us out!” 

When he looks up again, he swears he can see Jimmy’s ghostly form shimmer in the light of the waterfall, eyes aglow. Tango blinks and he’s gone again. 

“I know what to do.”

–

Tango is grateful to have taken note of the most important coordinates in this world. He emerges from the caves on the other side of the mob farm. Hearing chatter from around the corner, he carefully rounds it, shield at the ready, in case he gets bombarded as soon as he’s sighted.

“There he is, come on over Tango.” Skizz stands tall at their agreed meeting sight, but Tango can tell he’s shaking. His knuckles are white from how tightly he’s gripping his sword and dark bags have formed under his eyes. It’s good to see his buddy again, but goodness does Skizz look worse for wear. 

The yellow life is flanked by Scott and Etho, they will serve as mediators, since the bloodlust hasn’t gotten to them yet. Despite this, Tango’s anxiety spikes upon seeing them and he raises his shield. Everything inside him hates being outnumbered by yellows. This is good, the more his survival instinct kicks in, the better the chance to enter the avatar state. With any luck they’ll all be out of the test soon.

Tango takes note of how Skizz’s feet have been frozen in place to stop him launching himself at Tango. His friend is the lowest on time of all of them, he wouldn’t blame him for it. Tango nods at Scott as thanks. This will be a lot easier if they stick to what they agreed upon.

A platform of ice stretches out over the ocean. Far enough from land to avoid any damage to the mob farm. It’s connected to where Skizz is stood by a thin ice layer, which has been dusted in redstone. A stack of TNT rests on the platform, waiting for Tango to nestle himself amongst it,

“Are you sure about this?” Scott asks. Judging by the look on Etho’s face, he was about to ask the same thing. His mask is hiding a deep frown, yet he remains silent. 

Tango sucks in a breath, but nods. This is necessary. This is how he’s going to get everyone out of here. He’ll save them all, just like Jimmy did. 

Scott reaches out and creates an ice path for Tango to get to the platform on. Tango locks eyes with the waterbender again.

“You okay after the respawn, Scott?” 

The yellow nods. “I let Martyn get me in the end. It’s for the best that you let Skizz take you to yellow.”

With a deep breath Tango walks across to the TNT platform. He finds himself wondering if there’s any kind of preparation he needs to do to enter the avatar state. It’s not something he’s ever taken the time to read about. How did it work for Jimmy? He wishes he asked his Rancher after they woke up, isn’t hindsight just wonderful.

Tango positions himself amongst TNT and looks back at his friends who are about to blow him up. Skizz has already swapped his sword for a redstone torch and seems to be holding back as best as he can, waiting for Tango’s signal.

The avatar simply nods at his friend, salutes them and prays to Raava that the next thing he sees will be the Watcher compound. 

Skizz swishes the torch across the line of redstone. All four watch as the redstone springs to life, reaching Tango’s island. There’s a hiss of ignited explosives, a searing heat consumes Tango from all sides and his vision goes white.

Tango jolts up, breathing heavily. He blinks into the blinding light, but he already knows that something is wrong. The light is far too warm for the Watcher compound and he feels no metal pod surrounding him, but the soft covers of a bed.

When his vision adjusts, his fears are confirmed. He’s in the Ties bedroom. 

“No.”

Tango stumbles out of bed, and grasps at the door, swinging it open to reveal a scene he hoped he’d never see again. Their base stands just like it was before in all its simulated glory. Impulse is interrupted from where he was patching up their stone walls from when the yellows ravaged them in their hunt for him.

Tango is still in Limited Life, he didn’t escape.

“NO.” Tango shouts. He knows full well how tall his hair is burning but in this instant he can’t find it in himself to care. He turns to punch the wall next to him, only for his fist to go right through it, creating an unintentional window to their bedroom. Part of his fury evaporates as Tango stares at the hole in shock. Earthbender rage is probably more dangerous than he’s considered. 

“Hey! You got earthbending!” Impulse sounds far too cheery. If he knew what Tango had just failed to do, he wouldn’t have such a big smile on his face. 

Tango shouts into his hands and paces up and down. He does his best to pat out the flames on his shoulders but he’s too far gone to avoid injury. 

“I couldn’t do it! I’m so weak! I’m such a failure! What kinda avatar am I supposed to be if I can’t even enter the stinkin’ avatar state?” He turns to Impulse when he finishes his rhetorical question. 

What he doesn’t expect in response is to get a face full of water. Impulse stands in front of him, empty bucket in hand and expression reading only worry. Tango has to admit, the shock of being doused in cool water is enough to extinguish the rest of his fiery fury. 

“What in the world are you talking about? You’ve just respawned, chill out man!” 

Tango deflates and leans against their meeting table. “That's the point, Impulse. I shouldn’t’ve respawned. I should’a gotten us all out of Limited Life.”

“What, did ya think blowing yourself up would launch you out of the test?”

Tango looks to his feet.

“Oh, you did.” Impulse goes to sit next to Tango, hesitating to place an arm around his burnt shoulders. A few beats of silence spread across the base, just the cracking of fire on Tango’s head and the dripping water droplets gathering in a puddle at his feet. 

“I don’t know what else to do.” Tango sighs. “I don’t know what I’ve done that Jimmy hasn’t. What if I can’t enter the avatar state?” 

He can feel his fire growing again. Impulse notices it too. 

“Jimmy had a lot more time to figure stuff out. Tango, you haven’t been bending water for even a week and you didn’t have earth back when I last saw you a few hours ago. Maybe, like Jimmy, you just need time. Get more training in the elements, meditate to connect to the avatar spirit, that kinda stuff.”

Tango nods as he processes Impulse's words. He jumps up, suddenly filled with energy again. “Alright then, teach me earthbending. I’ll get more airbending lessons with BigB, I’ve got a whole bunch of waterbending teachers to learn from! And maybe I need to hone my firebending a bit more. I’ll do that after our earthbending lesson. C’mon Impy!”

He tries to pull Impulse up from the table, but his friend stands his ground. 

“You are not bending another element until you take care of yourself! I know how little you’ve slept recently or how meagre your meals have been! We gotta get Scott or Lizzie over here to heal your burns as well! You haven’t even let your respawn wounds heal properly! Have you looked at yourself?”

Tango pauses and takes stock of his body. Impulse is right, everything hurts, he is exhausted. Tango deflates again. 

“It would be easier if we didn’t have a clock ticking down to our death.”

Chapter Text

Getting some proper sleep and taking care of yourself is easier said than done. As soon as Tango closes his eyes, his dreams are plagued by whispers of turquoise particles. A warning, or perhaps even a promise? In these dreams the seeping itch of the Boogeyman curse permeates his skin. Tango often watches, without control over his own body, how he selfishly steals time from his friends. Killing them with blow after blow of bending. 

He loses count of the times he’s buried Impulse and Martyn below rocks. How often he’s frozen Pearl and Scott to solid ice statues. He’s burnt Bdubs and Cleo countless times and suffocated Skizz and Etho by bending the air around them. 

But in the dream the bloodlust never lets him rest. With the turn of each new week, he is cursed anew. No remorse in his eyes as he desperately tries to satiate the gnawing hunger of the Boogeyman.

He doesn’t let these dreams get to him. Nothing will stop him from improving his abilities in every element. He’s just doing it with less and less rest. And no amount of gentle encouragement from his teammates will help Tango get a proper night’s sleep. As the day of the cursing, as they’ve come to call the day a new Boogeyman is chosen, draws closer, Tango can’t help the gut wrenching feeling that he will once again be its target. 

Those specks of turquoise. Tango knows where he’s seen them before. Not too long ago he spent days surrounded by them in a dark damp cave. 

So when Tango hears word of the Clockers discovering deep dark caves below their base, the avatar has one thing on his mind.

He grabs Skizz and drags him along to the Clockers’ tower with mad ramblings and promises of finding a solution to the Boogeyman conundrum. Skizz lets himself be led along, but voices his concerns that Tango really should be getting more sleep.

“I don’t have time to sleep, we need to find answers!” Tango snaps back. The rest of their march is done in silence. 

As they crest the hill, the first Clocker that comes into view is Bdubs who is tending to his horse. He crosses his arms as they approach.

“Well look who it is, the Murderous Traitors !” He shouts down the hill.

Tango has learnt not to take Bdubs’ temper too seriously, but he can’t help but feel that this time, there’s more bite to his words than usual. Tango cringes slightly. He knows he hasn’t been particularly nice to Bdubs recently, but he could argue that Bdubs has been the same. He won't gaslight himself into believing all hostility between the Ties and the Clockers is his fault. Both parties are to blame, but that doesn’t make this negotiation any easier. 

“Heya Bdubs!” Skizz waves with a friendly smile. Bdubs doesn’t buy the cheerful demeanour for a moment. “I ain’t coming to pick up my stupid dogs if that’s what you want!”

“What? We’re not askin’ ya to-”

“We need to find the deep dark.” Tango cuts to the chase, stopping Skizz from annoying the earthbender any further. Bdubs doesn’t let his guard down.

“Now why in the world should I tell you where the deep dark is? There’s no way I’m lettin’ ya bring another warden to the surface! You still trying to get me killed?”

Tango takes a deep breath in an attempt to gain more patience for this negotiation. Him being full of anxious energy to get to the bottom of the Boogeyman before the next one is chosen isn’t helping his cause. 

“I’m sorry about that Bdubs.” Tango begins, hoping he can lower the hostility with a genuine apology. “You know how it is with the Boogeyman-”

“Yeah I know how it is.” Bdubs huffs, the bite to his voice less prominent than before. “Doesn’t mean I gotta be happy about it.” 

Tango finds himself chuckling. “Yeah I wasn’t too happy when you got me in Last Life. Call it even?”

“Even?” Bdubs explodes. Whoops, wrong move . “How can it be even when we didn’t have our memories back then! Look at the history we’ve shared and you still go for me?”

Suddenly Skizz pushes forward, pointing an accusatory finger at the earthbender. His own voice elevates to a shout. “Oh that’s big coming from you brother! What did our history mean to you when you immediately went for me weeks ago! And how about Impulse! You two share so much history but you can’t even bear to look him in the eyes! Do you know how much that hurts him?”

The three of them are stunned into silence. Even Skizz looks taken aback by his outburst. He slowly steps back from Bdubs head hung low. He doesn’t apologise. Tango figures that if he did, it wouldn’t be genuine. Skizz had held an anger towards Bdubs ever since Impulse confided in them. In Skizz’s eyes, that needed to be said. Tango just wishes he’d been a bit nicer about it. 

Bdubs avoids eye contact, so Tango is not too sure if the glistening of tears he can see in the other’s eyes is just a trick of the light. 

“What in the world is all this shouting!” Cleo emerges from their tower. Their expression softens upon seeing Bdubs. They walk up to him to see if he’s alright, but Bdubs doesn’t let Cleo get too close.

“These two wanna see the deep dark.” He mumbles, before turning away and barging into the tower like a teenager throwing a tantrum. Tango bites his lip. There was surely a better way to handle this. 

Cleo stands tall at above the two and crosses their arms, mirroring the hostile stance Bdubs showed upon their arrival. Perfect, back to square one.

“We’re sorry.” Tango speaks for them both. Skizz still has his head hung low, there’s obviously some regret to his actions. 

“Impulse hasn’t been doing well about how Bdubs is treating him. The tension kind of snapped the rope I guess.” Tango can’t help the frown on his face. Bdubs is right. They’ve all shared so many years of bonding moments. Their friendships shouldn’t be so easily broken by some stupid Watcher test. 

Cleo sighs and drops their arms to their side. “I’m sorry about Bdubs too.” 

Tango looks up at Cleo, eyebrows raised in confusion. Why should they be the one apologising?

“Limited Life has been hard on him. He’s grappling with all his actions in the past tests.”

Cleo leans against the tower, getting comfortable before continuing their explanation. “Where he came from he prided himself in taking care of others. He had a lot of people rely on his kindness and willingness to help out.”

Skizz and Tango share a look, this doesn’t really sound like the Bdubs they know if they have to be brutally honest.

“He doesn’t like the person he’s become in these games. The person he turns into when all his memories are stolen. He feels his actions are irredeemable, because he believes that these tests have shown him who he truly is on the inside. He thinks he’s an awful person undeserving of love. His words, not mine.”

Tango feels his shoulders slump and his frown turn sad as Cleo talks about his friend’s struggle. A well of guilt overfills in his stomach at his own actions. He’s just confirmed Bdubs’ fears, that he is deserving of his friends betraying and killing him. Oh what have the Watchers turned them into?

Cleo continues. “When Impulse gave him a clock in our first week here, Bdubs was thrown into a pit of self loathing. Reminded of how he had stabbed Impulse in the back in Third Life. I urged him not to get rid of the clock. That it was a sign that Impulse had forgiven him. He’s still not doing great, but I’ve been helping him and he’s been getting better. But Bdubs isn’t ready to face most of the others yet, including and especially Impulse. I hope you can understand.”

There is a long moment of silence that stretches between them. Tango in his own pit of guilt at his actions. They’ve all been through so much. They need to cut each other some slack in their damaged states. He needs to get them all out asap! Once they’ve escaped, Tango will make personally sure that no Watcher ever lays a finger on his friends again.

“Why are you telling us this?” Skizz finally breaks the quiet. His own voice is thick with tears he’s only just holding back. Cleo gives him a kind smile. 

“In the hopes that we can all learn a little empathy.” Cleo eyes the floor. Something tells Tango, this is a lesson Cleo herself only learnt recently.

“And while we’re at it” Cleo locks eyes with Tango. They place a hand on their heart. “I’m sorry for what I put you through with Martyn. I was going through a bad moment, desperate to escape before any more harm could come to us. I wasn’t considering the harm I was doing whilst trying to achieve that goal.”

Tango is taken aback by genuine apology. That’s probably the last thing he was expecting to hear from Cleo. He feels his lip quiver and a warmth spread in his chest at the simple notion of someone saying sorry for hurting him. Tango swallows and gathers himself before he bursts into tears.

“Thank you. That means a lot.” He gives Cleo a wobbly smile. “I want you to know that I’m doing everything I can to try and get us out. There’s just so much that I don’t know how to do.”

Skizz jumps in. “I can attest! This guy is so determined to figure out a way out that he won’t even sleep!”

Cleo eyes Tango up and down, a frown forming on her face. “Well-” She begins, voice stern like a teacher’s, “if you promise me to get better sleep. I’ll promise to try and see things from your perspective and help you in your avatar journey in any way I can.” Her voice turns soft towards the end, almost like a caring mother’s. This is a side of Cleo, Tango has never seen before.

Tango smiles at her, a silent thank you passing between the two.

“Can you tell Bdubs we’re sorry? And that we don’t blame him for what’s happened between us?” Cleo nods, a gentle smile on their face.

“Well as nice as this is.” Skizz steps up and flings an arm around Tango’s shoulders. “This guy wouldn’t let me breathe earlier until we got to this deep dark place he keeps going on about.” 

Cleo rolls their eyes and turns to walk around the tower, waving a hand at the others to follow.

“Yeah, we’ve got a tunnel to it just down here. As long as you promise not to bring a warden up to the surface!”

Skizz raises an eyebrow at his buddy. “That’s the second person to mention a so-called warden. What did you do when I wasn’t around?”

Tango feels a smile form on his face as they follow behind Cleo. “That’s a great story for another day!”

Just at the entrance to the mineshaft, Cleo holds out a hand to stop the other two before they descend to the depths. 

“Here it is, have fun and all that. And by the way, don’t you dare tell the others I’ve gone soft!”

Tango chuckles, “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

—

“Tango Top you gonna start explainin’ why-”

“Shush!” Tango interrupts Skizz. They’ve been slowly creeping down the dimly lit tunnel for a while now. Tango can feel the air growing damper. He’s unsure at what point the sculk is gonna detect their noise. He’d rather keep it quiet.

“But what are we-”

“Quiet!” 

Skizz is growing increasingly frustrated judging by the huffs behind him. Suddenly Tango feels a hand grab onto his vest and jank him back. He comes face to face with an angry Skizz.

“I am not going into a dangerous cave with promises of solving the Boogeyman curse until you explain why you think the answer lies in a damp cavern! Let a guy in on the secret!”

Tango sighs and wriggles out of Skizz’s grasp. He sets himself down on the stone steps. Skizz follows suit, eagerly awaiting Tango’s explanation.

“So you know when you go all black eyed and scary faced when the Boogey is announced?” Skizz nods. “Well when that happens, I see these turquoise specks of dust flying about. I saw them around me too when I was Boogey.”

Tango pauses, wondering how best to explain this. Skizz grows impatient. “Come on man! No need to pause for dramatic effect!”

“I’ve seen these particles before.” Tango continues. “They’re spores from something called sculk that you can only find in the deep dark. There was a lot of it back in Double Life but I had never seen any before which is why I guess you’ve never heard of the stuff.”

“So you think the Boogeyman has something to do with the sculk?” Skizz ponders, Tango nods, his mouth pulling a thin line. He’s gotta be honest with himself, after the time he spent trying to get the warden out in Double Life. Tango isn’t looking forward to risking his life again in the deep dark. 

“And with the pulsing darkness you have too. That’s something that happens if you disturb the warden, which by the way is definitely something we want to avoid!”

Skizz locks eyes with Tango, then abruptly gets up. “Alright then, I trust ya. What are we waiting for? Let’s get to the bottom of this!”

Tango smiles at Skizz’s enthusiasm but still holds a finger to his mouth, shushing Skizz again. Something in Tango knows that they’re going to be bolting it back up this staircase and away from a warden in the near future. Tango just hopes he can bend the entrance closed in time to stop any sonic blastification.

As they creep down the rest of the staircase the air grows colder and damper. Tango resists the urge to light a flame to warm himself. He pulls an instinctive hand to the water flask at his hip and gently swishes it to make sure he has enough water to defend them if need be.

Tango feels the sculk before he sees it. Black tendrils have spread up the mineshaft ever so slightly. He jolts away his hand when he comes in contact with it. He looks back at Skizz and puts a finger in front of his lips one last time before entering the cavern. 

It opens up farther than the torch's light reaches. Veins of sculk creep up the walls, leaving almost no stone exposed. Tango crinkles his nose as a pungent smell hits it. As he lets his eyes adjust to the darkness, that’s when he sees them. Turquoise spores float in front of his vision. Tango suddenly wishes he had his bandana that he wore back in Double Life to complete the Rancher look. Back then he could avoid breathing in the spores by covering his mouth with it. 

It looks like the Clockers have removed the closest shriekers which is relieving to see. Still they should keep as quiet as possible. Tango looks back to make sure their exit is torched out fairly obviously, so that they could still scramble to it if they’re hit by blindness. 

This is when Tango notices Skizz. He’s frozen by the entrance, taking in the sights and smells. Understandable if this is his first time seeing the deep dark. What Tango doesn’t understand is the smile that’s creeping on Skizz’s face or the shimmer of tears in the corner of his eyes. 

“Tango! This is-”

“Ssshhh!” Tango hisses at his friend, thankful that they didn’t trip a shrieker. Skizz looks at Tango with glee in his eyes.

“No, you don’t understand!” Skizz won’t shut up. He ignores the absolute death glare that Tango gives him.

“Hello!” Skizz cups his hands and calls out into the cave, his voice echoing over the walls and tripping multiple shriekers. 

“My friends! Is that yo- oof!” Skizz tumbles to the floor with Tango tackling him. The avatar holds a hand over Skizz’s mouth to stop his suicidal chattering. 

“Are you crazy! You’re gonna get us killed!” Tango hisses as Skizz struggles under him.

There’s a rumbling in the ground and Tango freezes with dread as he knows exactly what that means. When he looks up he is met with a blast of air that throws him backwards and into the wall before landing hard on the ground. With a quick flip of the lid on his water flask, Tango already has a stream of water out and ready to attack before he even looks up at his attacker. There’s a little confused voice in his mind commenting that wardens aren’t really known to airbend. Had the sonic shriek just immediately blasted his earbuds so that he couldn’t even register the sound?

“No no no! Wait, stop! He wasn’t tryna hurt me! He’s my friend!” When Tango looks back up into the darkness. Skizz has positioned himself between him and the warden. He has his back to Tango and arms outstretched. He’s blocking Tango’s view to their assailant.

“Skizz watch out! He’ll-”

“Skizzle!” A high pitched voice rings through the cave and all Tango sees is Skizz fall to the floor laughing as a dark shape, no bigger than a fire ferret launches itself at Skizz’s chest. Tango quickly fires a blast of fire at it, careful not to burn Skizz in the process. It jumps up and floats in front of Tango, hissing in his face. Tango takes a defensive stance, water at the ready.

“Stopit!” Skizz shouts. It echoes in the cave again. To Tango’s surprise no shriekers are triggered. This causes both Tango and this void ferret to freeze in place. Both halfway through an attack directed at the other. Tango’s water freezes as he stops its flow. 

“Tango, put the water away! And Bubbles! Where are your manners!”

The tone to Skizz’s voice immediately has Tango bottling his water and he’s left standing there, feeling ashamed of himself. He isn’t particularly sure why. “Bubbles” as Skizz called the being, also looks ashamed, although Tango isn’t quite sure how he knows this either. Now that he can get a proper look at them, Tango recognises it takes the shape of a bunny. Black fur is accented by long turquoise ears and paws. Their eyes hold the entire night sky in them, as speckles of stars sparkle in a gaze far too wise for such a small creature. It hovers midair before Tango, but he doesn’t feel the breeze of airbending keeping them up. This being is from another realm entirely.

“Bubbles, this is Tango. Tango, meet Bubbles. They’re a spirit friend from home!” 

Bubbles slowly turns towards Tango. They eye him up and down before suddenly stretching out a paw. Tango flinches slightly before realising they’re offering it to him to shake. Tango briefly meets eyes with Skizz who urges him to take it, before reaching out his own hand to shake the bunny’s paw. “Nice to meet you.” Tango gives them the kindest smile he can muster.

Bubbles giggles and flies up in a spiral. Their giggle turns into a joyful trill as they dance in the air, turquoise particles trailing behind them. “Hihihi the avatar says hi! Skizzle! The avatar said hello to me!”

Tango’s eyes go wide and he’s quick to correct the springing spirit. “Oh no no no! You’ve got the wrong guy! I’m not the avatar!”

Bubbles tilts their head as they look back at Tango. “But only the avatar can bend more than one element? We were looking for the avatar.”

Skizz ushers the spirit to fly back down to them. “This is a confusing world, Bubbles. Things aren’t how they’re supposed to be.” He ruffles Bubbles’ fur when they get close enough. Their giggles continue to ring through the cavern. Tango finds himself laughing along, the fear of the deep dark no longer rattling at the back of his mind. 

“What in the world are you doing here?” Skizz holds the spirit close. The smile on his friend’s face is brighter than Tango has ever seen him wear, and that’s saying something. He obviously missed his friend. Tango’s heart aches to be able to hug Zed again. He’ll be able to soon. He just can’t lose faith.

“We’re trying to find you, silly!” Bubbles lightly punches Skizz in the shoulder. “You’ve been gone for so long, we miss you!”

“We?” Skizz’s voice cracks with joy. “Who else is here?” 

Bubbles twirls around themselves as they talk. It seems the spirit is incapable of staying still.

“All of us! Well the others are not here here. But also out there trying to get into this world and help! I couldn’t find the previous test like others because you weren’t there. We didn’t know where you were and got really worried. Uncle sent us all to find you!”

Skizz’s chuckle turns sad as he locks eyes with Tango. “I was taken, Bubbles. By big mean guys, who have put us into this world.” Bubbles nods.

“We know! We’re trying to get you out! But none of the people I try to talk to are helping us! I thought you were listening, fake avatar. So when you sent me away, I came back!” Bubbles floats towards Tango and boops his nose, before putting their paws on their hips and glaring at Tango. The avatar gets lost in the galaxy eyes. 

“Wait, Bubbles buddy, are you causing the Boogeyman?” Skizz brings Tango out of the gaze and his eyes widen as Skizz’s words register. 

Bubbles trills again as they float back to Skizz. “What’s the Boogeyman?”

“It’s someone that gets taken control of every week. They have your little specks around them and they suddenly get the uncontrollable urge to kill someone.”

Bubbles huffs and crosses their arms, their ears twitch in irritance. “That’s not me. I try to talk to people but the big bad guys block me out by giving whoever I talk to really bad anger issues! I don’t do that!” They pull their arms further around themself, giving themself a hug. “It’s been really lonely without anyone to talk to.” 

Tango’s heart breaks just a little and he has to hold back the urge to cuddle that poor bunny-like spirit and protect them from all harm. Skizz beats him to it, wrapping an arm around Bubbles and pulling them close. 

“I’m so happy you’re here.” Skizz whispers into their fur. “But you’re making the Watchers hurt my friends. What have you been trying to tell people?”

Bubbles looks up at Skizz with their twinkling eyes. “We don’t know many things. But we know you can wake up yourself if you try hard enough. There’s weak points in this world where it’s easier, like outside the invisible walls and in the middle, where you first entered.”

Tango and Skizz share a look. Tango’s stomach swirls with hope. “Bubbles,” he steps towards the cuddling friends. Bubbles meets his eyes. “How do we wake up?”

Bubbles drifts from Skizz’s embrace to float in front of the two players. “You need to have a strong spirit. I thought the avatar would have the strongest spirit because Raava is with them. But you’re not the avatar, so I don’t know if you can do it.”

Tango deflates and looks to the ground. Before he can wallow in his feelings of inadequacy, he feels Skizz’s hand grab his shoulder. 

“Tango here is stronger than any avatar!” He turns to Tango and winks. “Apart from Jimmy, of course.” he whispers before continuing. “I have full faith that he can do anything! And there’s a whole bunch of people on here who are in tune with the spirit world! Surely one of us could also help!”

Bubbles bobs up and down before the two, paw to the chin as they ponder something. 

“Well-” They start. Tango and Skizz both lean forward in anticipation. “You need to be a strong bender too, so maybe it’s possible.” 

“That settles it!” Skizz claps his hands together. He looks at Tango, hope glimmering in his eyes. “Tango Top! This is totally doable! We got this! Let me teach you how to meditate! And you gotta keep bending, you hear me?” Tango nods vigorously. He does his best to ignore the sinking feeling of the confirmation that the world does depend on him to save it. He’s slowly accepted the fate thrust upon him, but having that daunting task confirmed by a spirit doesn’t exactly help his anxiety over the situation.

Skizz turns to Bubbles. “Buddy, you need to promise me to stop trying to talk to people! You’ll only hurt them because of the Watchers.” Bubbles looks down, floating towards the ground, then nods. 

“I didn’t want to hurt your friends.” Their lip quivers. Skizz crouches down to be at eye level with them. 

“Hey it’s all good.” He boops their nose. “I know you’d never hurt a fly on purpose! You were only trying to help, and look now! You’ve helped us a bunch!”

“Most importantly,” Tango adds, “you’ve given us hope.” 

He smiles down at the spirit, who returns a toothy grin with their buck teeth. “That’s super!” They giggle.

Skizz calls attention to himself, his voice turning serious. “Bubbles, tell me. The Watchers aren’t hurtin’s you for being here?”

Bubbles’ ears flop and they avoid looking in Skizz eyes. “They’re meanies.” They mumble. “They’re trying to get me to go away. I have to hide here so they don’t hurt me. But then your friends found this cave and they started attacking me when they found out where I was hiding.”

Tango closes his eyes and takes deep breaths so his flame doesn’t burn higher. He didn’t know it was possible to feel any more loathing towards the Watchers. Ooooh they’re gonna pay!

“Is he alright?” Tango hears Bubbles innocent voice beside him. Then Skizz’s chuckle reaches his ears.

“Don’t worry, he’s havin’ a moment. Bubbles, listen to me. You gotta get out here before the Watchers hurt you anymore. I can’t have it on my conscience that you’re getting hurt trying to save me!”

Tango opens his eyes again once his fire is more manageable. 

Bubbles voice shakes as they answer. “But I don’t want to leave you alone Skizzle. What if the meanie Watchers want to hurt you too?” 

Skizz looks up at Tango from his crouched position beside his spirit friend. “You don’t need to worry about me. I got super awesome buddies that will watch my back until I find a way back to you!”

He looks back at Bubbles and holds out his hands for them to land on. “Please, take care of yourself. Tell the others I’m alright and tell Uncle I’ll see him soon. It’s been really good to see you!” 

He holds the spirit close as Bubbles hugs his cheek. “Okay. But you can’t break your promise! You’ll be back soon?” They look up to Skizz, stardusted eyes bigger than ever. Skizz leans down and gives them a kiss on their fluffy forehead.

“I promise. Now get outta here and tell the others I’m doing alright!”

Bubbles nods and then floats up to Tango, giving him a quick kiss on the forehead. With a determined look in their eye they say; “Make sure he stays out of trouble, keep him safe!”

Tango chuckles and holds a hand up to salute. “Aye aye, captain! I’ll do my best!”

Bubbles turns back to Skizz and tackles him with another hug, sending him sprawling to the sculk covered floor. 

“Come home soon.” They squeeze their eyes shut and Tango can see them slowly phasing out of existence as Skizz holds them tightly. 

“I will.” He promises as tears roll down his cheek. 

It takes only a few moments, but as Tango blinks in the darkness, the sculk in the cavern disappears along with Skizz’s spirit friend. Tango smiles and offers his friend a hand. Skizz sighs before letting Tango pull him up. The two stand for a moment in the large and empty cavern. Stone walls have been freed from the black tendrils and the air has returned to a temperature more akin to a normal cave. 

“Gosh they had made a mess with all the sculk, hadn’t they?” Tango smiles. There’s a weight lifted from his shoulders at the knowledge that the Boogeyman won’t plague them anymore. Poor Bubbles was just trying to help, but the bloodlust came from the Watchers afterall as a way to distract the player.

Skizz is frowning when Tango looks over to his friend. “That’s not normal for them. The sculk was a defence they had to set up to fight the Watcher’s onslaught. How many mobs did those monsters send their way?” 

Tango looks down. He truly can’t wait to let some of his bottled up rage out on some Watcher face. 

There’s a rattling of bones in the distance. “Speaking of mobs, we should head out-” When Skizz doesn’t follow Tango towards the exit, the avatar lays a hand on his shoulder.

“Bubbles was able to help us, Skizz. We know what to do now, well vaguely, and they’re safe. You’ll see them soon.”

Skizz snaps out of his gaze over the open cave. He turns to join Tango in exiting the cave. “Yeah” he sighs quietly. “We’ll be free soon.”

Chapter Text

“Spread your feet further apart, bend your knees more, arms up! Right, try it now!” 

Tango stomps his bare foot to the ground. The floor below him shakes but he stands steady. A large boulder is lifted up right in front of him, which he promptly punches into the ocean. 

“Great job! You can add more power to it next time, I’m sure you can shoot it all the way to the world border!” 

It’s been days since Tango and Skizz found Bubbles in the deep dark. The day of the cursing has been and gone without a new Boogeyman emerging, much to the confusion of the rest of the players. Skizz and Tango smugly hold the information on how they banished the Boogeyman to themselves and their world experiences a couple days of peace. A time to breathe, a time to rest and a time to heal. Well, perhaps for everyone else. But for Tango this means more time for intensive bending tutelage.

The way Impulse teaches earthbending resonates far better with Tango. Not one to hurl rocks at him repeatedly (not that he could), Impulse has a far more practical approach, starting with how to position his body and then let him hurl his own rocks. Far better than Martyn’s monkey see monkey do approach, and you’re the monkey.

During their lessons, Etho sits and watches from the treeline, scribbling something into a book and giving the occasional bending tip.

“You gotta make sure you spread out your toes more.” He comments and then returns to his book. Etho refuses to elaborate on any tips he throws at Tango, and even Impulse is none the wiser on how his hints would help Tango’s earthbending. 

Tango does find himself wondering what Etho is writing down, but the masked man avoids any questions concerning it. Maybe he’s taken up drawing as a stress relief, who’s Tango to judge.

Despite the short term peace, the players all still feel the heavy weight of time resting on their shoulders. It’s running out quickly, literally. After a couple days of very little action, the Watchers turned up the dials on their timers. Now an hour is lost every day and the first reds have already emerged, Skizz being one of them. The yellow peace lasted only a week in the end.

After their timers were sped up, the mobs became increasingly hostile. Being out at night is a death sentence nowadays, which has severely hindered Tango’s waterbending training. It seems like the Watchers are growing desperate for the players to turn on each other. And although Tango is holding out hope that they learnt their lesson in the green hunt, he knows only too well how persuasive the bloodlust can be. All the more important to keep working towards getting everyone out.

Impulse offers Tango a flask of drinking water. (Rule one of waterbending is don’t ever drink from your bending pouch)

“You’re doing really well, Tango. I say we call it for today.”

Tango raises an eyebrow at his teacher. “But we only just started?”

Impulse shares a look with Etho who also seems happy with stopping now, although his contributions to Tango’s training are few and cryptic. 

“Bud, we’ve been at it for hours. Earthbending is a physically tiring job. You gotta take a break here and there.” Impulse insists.

Tango huffs, knowing he won’t succeed in making them teach him any more. Stubborn earthbenders as they say. They’ve had this conversation almost daily for the past week. 

“Fine, I’ll go see if Scott’s about.” 

Impulse crosses his arms and blocks Tango’s route to the Mean Gills’ island. 

“This isn’t to immediately move on to waterbending training, right?” 

Tango tries to hold back a grimace, voice only slightly squeaking as he lies. “Pshhhh naaah, we got a trade deal to finish! Pearl stole their enchanter so he’s gotta pay up for us letting them use ours.”

Impulse seems fully unconvinced. Not budging an inch. Tango helplessly looks back to Etho but finds no support. Their teammate has somehow snuck off again. For a guy with a metal arm, he sure does move quietly. 

“C’mon, Tango. Please?” Impulse gives Tango the biggest puppy eyes he can. “I put Skizz to work making my soup about an hour ago. I’ve even let him add his own spices this time, I’m sure you’ll love the fire nation twist he’s put on it! It’s really good!”

When Tango makes no move to join him, his voice softens, a sad and tired look in his eyes. “Will you at least come and eat something before you move on to the next element?”

Tango is ready to protest when his stomach growls. He looks down in betrayal and Impulse takes the opportunity to grab him by the arm and drag Tango back to Ties tower. The avatar grumbles all the way.

As they approach the tower they see a small group gathered at its base. Skizz, Cleo and the Good Guys seem to be in the midst of a heated debacle. Skizz and Cleo look like they’re having a go at Lizzie and Mumbo about something. The other two seem far more reserved, sad almost. 

“It’s his own right to decide if we’re right or not, Cleo. He deserves to know.” Lizzie’s voice has a bite to it, but is also choked up, as if she were holding back tears.

Skizz stands his ground, uncharacteristically uncaring for his fellow Listener. “I don’t care how important this is to you! There is no way I’m letting you tell Tango!” 

“Tell me what?” Tango interrupts. All eyes dart to him in shock and dread. Well apart from Cleo’s. She was quietly watching them approach while the others were far too distracted with their arguing. 

She shoves Mumbo into the centre of the group. “Go on Mumbo. Even if I think your theory is ridiculous, it’s been bothering you enough to where you haven’t been able to stop blabbering on about it.”

“Hey Clebert!” Skizz stretches out his arm to hold Mumbo back from saying anything. “Tango’s got enough to worry about! This is not something we need to add to that pile.”

“Well maybe he can give us some answers!” Lizzie pulls Skizz’s arm down from blocking Mumbo, who is getting increasingly anxious about the whole situation.

Tango takes this moment to step in. “Tango can decide for himself what he does and doesn’t want to know about! Now stop pushing Mumbo around and tell me what’s going on.” 

Skizz looks ready to interject, but Impulse walks up to him and places a hand on his arm, prompting him to stand down. Skizz shakes his head. “Brother, believe me. You don’t want to hear this.”

“If it’s something Tango can help out with, surely we should hear them out? What’s on your mind Mumbo?” Impulse smiles at his Southerner friend. 

Mumbo fidgets with his fingers, blatantly uncomfortable with being put on the spot. “You see, it’s not quite that simple actually.” 

Lizzie sighs and steps up to her ally, offering him support. She starts for him, hoping to help him ease into the tale.

“So back when you guys were running around being Boogey, Mumbo locked himself away to meditate for a whole week. He was completely dead to the world! I had such a bad time trying to keep him alive and stop Scar or the Mean Gills from kidnapping him. He did look really cute on that llama though.”

“That’s beside the point.” Mumbo deadpans, but then picks up the story himself. “I was trying to reach out to Grian’s spirit, see if we could exchange information. If he were able to reach me, he might see where the Watchers are keeping us. We’ve done this kind of thing countless times, they taught us how to connect to people that mean a lot to us early on in the Western air temple. I grew up there as an air acolyte. After those lessons Grian was no fun in playing hide and seek any more.”

“Timers are ticking down, Mumbo, get to the point.” Cleo interrupts, arms crossed.

“Yes right, well. The point is I couldn’t reach him. I tried for days and got nothing. I don’t think even the Watchers can block off this kind of spiritual connection.”

“What’s this got to do with Tango?” Impulse asks as Mumbo briefly pauses his tale.

“Well yes I’m getting to that. So when I couldn’t reach Grian, I started looking for Jimmy’s spirit, well the avatar spirit to be more precise. That’s something we did fairly often as well, since the avatar was missing for so many years, we did what we could to try and find them.”

Cleo tries to interject again to get Mumbo to finish but he beats them to it.

“My point is” He hesitates, gulping. Lizzie puts a supportive hand on his shoulder. “My point is, whenever I searched for the avatar spirit, without fail, it lead me to you, Tango.”

Tango takes a step back, now all eyes on him. “I’m not sure I like what you’re alluding to, Mumbo.”

Now Lizzie steps in. “Tango, Mumbo can sense Raava and the spirits of past avatars within you.”

The Good Guys share a look before Mumbo continues. “Even Jimmy. That’s not something a simulation can fake.”

A pit of dread forms in Tango’s stomach, but he won’t consider it until they explicitly tell him. 

“What are you saying? Spit it out!” There’s far more spite in his words than he expects there to be, but his throat is suddenly very tight.

They hesitate, their words also catching in their throat, like the Good Guys also haven’t quite come to grips of what their theory suggests. 

“We’re saying-” Lizzie’s voice shakes and it is only now that Tango notices how red her eyes are, like she’s spent a long time crying. 

“We’re saying that they failed. That the Watchers got them and Joel, Ren, Grian… and Jimmy are dead.”

There it is. The worst possible reality layed out in front of him on a silver platter. Tango stares, disgusted at the meal that life has prepared for him. How terrible could he have been in a previous life to have this fate thrust upon him.

“And…” 

Oh spirits they haven’t finished. 

“I think the reason I felt Jimmy’s spirit with you isn’t because you’re just the avatar in this simulation. I think Double Life connected your souls with a bond that surpasses death. And I don’t think the avatar was reborn when Jimmy passed.” Mumbo takes a deep breath before finishing his statement.

“Tango, I think you might legitimately be the next avatar.”

The world stops. 

Jimmy is dead. 

Tango is the next avatar. 

He is the only way out of this prison. 

His Rancher is dead. 

He hasn’t nearly mastered all the elements. 

He is unable to enter the avatar state. 

His friends have timers on their death sentences. 

Jimmy is dead -

“Tango, buddy, talk to me.” Skizz steps closer to offer him any kind of support he needs. Right now, as his world implodes, Tango needs space.

He takes a few steps away from the group, then without a word turns and books it away. Tango runs further than anyone has dared so far. Past the Clockers, on the other side of bread bridge, he hasn’t a clue of his destination, he just needs to get away .

Away from prying gazes. Away from the avatar’s burden. Away from this prison. Away from a reality where his soulmate is gone. Taken from him by the monsters that torture them with these tests.

“I will murder them.” Tango screams to the wind. “I will kill every last one of them!”

He is forced to stop when he hits the world border. He collapses to the ground by a cliff that passes through the nearly invisible wall. As he looks out into lifeless unreachable landscape a ghostly figure stares back from the other side of the border, eyes still shining a brilliant white.

“How?” Tango cries as he places a hand on the border separating him from his Rancher’s astral projection.

“Is that what you are? Are you his spirit? Is that why I’ve been seeing you here?”

The ghost remains silent and unmoving. It's such a stark contrast to Jimmy’s bright and bubbly nature, it causes a shiver to run down Tango’s spine.

“Why won’t you say anything?” Tango slams his fist into the wall, causing it to ripple and shimmer. His hot tears sizzle into nothing before they can drip from his face.

Still Jimmy’s figure says nothing.

“Aren’t previous avatars supposed to be there? To give advice?” Tango shouts at it. 

No answer.

“Please, talk to me. How did it happen?” Tango slips down the border to land on his knees. He hunches over, weeping, mourning his fallen friend.

“How can I do this without you?” When Tango looks up, the figure has moved closer. Jimmy’s blank stare is replaced by one of despair, mirroring the feeling that’s eating up Tango’s heart. Still the ghost remains silent. He simply places a translucent hand against Tango’s on the other side of the border. A sob rakes through Tango’s body.

“I miss you.” He lays his forehead against the border. Jimmy mirrors the movements. 

“We were gonna travel the world together. I couldn’t wait to watch you master the elements. I never wanted these powers, they don’t feel right. They should be yours.” 

Tango’s energy has been robbed from his being. His bones ache from the intense training he’s putting himself under. Repeatedly performing movements he knows he wasn’t ever supposed to do. This isn’t who he’s supposed to be, this was Jimmy’s fate.

Tears stream down Tango’s face, refusing to dry. He stays leant against the border for what could be minutes or hours. Tango just has his eyes shut and head resting on the border, begging for his Rancher to take him out of this hell and tell him it isn’t true. It can’t be true.

“Tango!”

Tango opens his tired eyes. He distantly registers his name being called. The first thing he knows is that the voice isn’t Jimmy’s and Tango just wishes the world would just leave him be. Let his timer run out. Let the Watchers do what they want with him. He doesn’t want to fight anymore. 

“Taaango!”

The avatar forces his head to look towards where the call is coming from. He is just able to make out three figures emerging from a distant treeline. When he looks back at the border, Jimmy’s ghost is gone.

He does his best to wipe his tearstained face as the three players approach. He can see them clearer now. It’s Skizz, Cleo and strangely enough, Bdubs, whose voice rings through the valley, repeatedly calling Tango’s name. His calls are laced with distress and panic.

All three are out of breath when they arrive. Tango says nothing to them, he has nothing to say. He’s far from ready to face the world.

“Tango!” Bdubs repeats between gasps. “I’m so sorry. I know you’re hurtin’- *huff* but you gotta come quick.” 

Tango gives him an unimpressed look.

“It’s Etho. He messed up real bad. He’s hurting, please! You’re the only one that can help!”

The mention of his teammate makes Tango’s heart jump in sudden panic. Etho wouldn’t ever need help unless something really is wrong. Especially if Bdubs is here begging him to lend aid. He gets up on wobbly feet and takes a deep breath. Although he’s a little lightheaded from crying, his friend needs him.

“What happened?” He asks. As soon as he’s up and before he can get an answer, Skizz engulfs him in a massive hug. Tango is taken aback for a moment but returns it full force, fresh tears streaming down his cheeks and soaking into Skizz’s jacket. 

“Tango.” Cleo approaches, an unusual softness to their voice. She hesitates to join the hug, but places a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “You know Mumbo could be wrong. Sure your souls are intertwined after Double Life, I think that’s something we can all agree on. But I could imagine the Watchers being able to somehow cut off spiritual connections to the outside.”

Skizz loosens his grip on Tango to nod. “They have. I can’t enter the spirit realm and it’s something I used to do all the time. I believe they’re still out there.”

Tango gives them a half hearted nod. He looks back towards the border, expecting to see Jimmy’s ghost there again, staring at them. There is nothing Tango wants more in this world for Cleo and Skizz to be right, but the evidence he’s received speaks against it. He has always been a scientific guy, not one to ignore evidence. Although he supposes he should get more into the spiritual stuff if he really is the next avatar.

Bdubs stands off to the side, anxiously shuffling his feet. Not one to intrude when such a sensitive topic is being addressed, but he is also obviously in need of a little more urgency. 

Tango takes a deep breath. He’ll have more time to meditate on this later (and actually maybe properly meditate for the first time). But right now, actual avatar or not, his friend needs him, so he’d better pull himself together.

“Where’s Etho?” 

Bdubs jumps at Tango’s question, he starts sprinting off back towards civilisation. “At the clocktower! Quick! I don’t know how much time we have!” 

The others share a look before scrambling to follow after Bdubs.

Chapter Text

A group of three is gathered at the Clockers’ tower when they arrive. Mumbo is trying his best to calm down a frantic Scar, who is pacing up and down, ranting to himself. Lizzie is off to the side, opting to keep her distance from the rambling red life. As soon as she sees the others approach, she runs over to meet them on bread bridge. 

“Bdubs, Cleo, he’s killed your horses and dogs, he can’t have much longer before he takes himself out!”

Tango skids to a stop at the end of bread bridge. He looks over to the tower to see all openings have been blocked up with earthbending. There’s a thrum of energy emanating from the base. “What is he doing?”

“He wanted to see if he could retrofit his metal arm to work with his new bending.” Bdubs is nearly hysterical as he looks back at the tower. Tears fill his eyes. 

“He wired it up and everythin’, ran some tests. He just needed a consistent power source. What better to use than pure concentrated energy itself.”

Tango’s eyes go wide as he puts two and two together. An engineer like Etho, coupled with the abilities of a firebender, which if you’re trained enough, comes with the ability to-

“Etho shot lightning into his arm, but he lost control! He zapped me and Scar and it just kept coming! It bounced off the walls and everywhere. He ordered me to close him in and to wait it out until he takes himself out! I immediately came looking for you, but you weren’t at the Ties tower! You gotta bend that lightning away from him, Tango!”

Of all the elements people have expected Tango to bend recently, somehow this is the most ludicrous. “I can’t lightning bend! That’s a technique only the royal family knows! Cleo, you didn’t warn him?”

“I didn’t know!” They exclaim. Despite their distaste for the masked man, even Cleo shows distress at what Etho has gotten himself into.

“Please Tango! You’re the only firebending master here! I can’t have Etho hurt himself with any kind of firebending! Please, you have no idea what this will do to him!”

“Bdubs, I wouldn’t know where to start!” Tango feels helpless as he looks over to the tower. His heart breaks a little as he imagines Etho in there, slowly and painfully whittling down his health. 

“I think I can help you there, Tango.” Lizzie steps up beside him. “Joel wanted to learn lightning bending for a while. I helped him research techniques and apparently it works just like waterbending. I tried to show him some moves but he was awful at it. But you’ve been improving like crazy in your waterbending this past week! And you don’t need to bend the lightning, just redirect it!”

Lizzie reaches out and pulls up the water from the bridge’s wheat farm. 

“It’s the same move if you were to shoot water at something. You gather the lightning with your fingertips on one side, let it flow through your stomach and send it away on the other side. Arms outstretched.” She demonstrates a move with water that Tango has done a hundred times in the past week. 

“But-” she freezes the water right as it passes her torso. “If you let the lightning pass through your heart. It will kill you.” Tango gulps.

With one last look at the clocktower, his decision is made. He has to help Etho, even at the cost of his own time. He pulls out his own water to practise the move once, before creating a frozen slide to lead him down to the tower’s base. Here he hears the electrical buzz far more clearly. The others keep their distance, watching from above. 

“I got you Etho, hold on!.” he calls through the walls. With one last deep breath he stomps down his foot, bending the entrance open. 

Tango is immediately hit with a bolt of electricity, making him yelp. Lightning spews out of the base. It bounces off the walls all around him, creating a dangerous lightshow. Etho is at its centre, eyes squeezed shut. He doesn’t seem to have noticed Tango enter. 

Tango has very little time to assess the situation. He can already feel his hearts dropping at an alarming rate. How Etho has lasted this long is beyond him. Although upon closer inspection, he seems to be able to keep the lightning away from his body, apart from the electricity surging through his arm, burning off the sleeve and the left part of his jacket. 

As difficult as it is to keep his muscles relaxed and step into a waterbender stance, Tango somehow manages to reach out with the tips of his fingers and the lightning gathers there. For only a moment the full force of Etho’s bending surges through his being. Etho, by every means, is an incredibly powerful bender, and here Tango realises, his abilities aren’t just limited to earth and metalbending. 

Tango reaches out to the sky outside of the base. The bolt fires off into the open, ridding the tower's interior of electricity. An almighty thunder rings throughout the world, eerily similar to the bolt of lightning that is summoned when a player loses their final life in these tests. Tango hopes to never see such lightning again. 

Etho slumps forwards, muscles finally relaxing. He manages to catch himself with his right hand, his left still hangs loosely at his side, heavy metal dragging on the floor. Tango rushes in to help him up. Etho meets his eyes, his gaze a mix of exhaustion, disappointment, but also gratefulness.

When Tango tries to help Etho stand, the other hisses at any contact. Tango steps back, to properly assess the damage before he can help. There are black scorch marks stretching out along the floor and furniture from Etho’s position. His clothes have been burnt with pure electricity. The skin that has been exposed is raw with jagged lines of electrical burns, blistering in some areas. Tango sees the lines reach up to Etho’s face, above his mask. 

Etho closes his eyes again and stays where he is, face contorted in pain. He says nothing when Lizzie and Bdubs rush in. Lizzie has her water already primed for healing and Tango does his best to hold Bdubs back from checking him over, despite the earthbender's begging sobs and pleas. Etho makes no move when Lizzie asks him if he can remove his shirt and mask, so Bdubs bends a rock to hit Tango in the face so he can break free of his grasp and dart to Etho's side. As Tango cradles his jaw, he watches Bdubs gently remove clothing that covers horrific scars, both old and new. Etho doesn’t protest, he simply sits there and stares into nothingness as he is healed. 

It takes a long time and leaves behind a nasty scar that blooms out from Etho’s metal arm all across his torso. Those types of scars stay for the rest of the test as a reminder of the hardships the players go through. Lizzie suggests he rest for as long as he is able after this. 

Skizz and Tango walk him back to their base. Etho remains mute as he takes some food and then moves on to their bedroom, closing the door behind him. His movements are fine after healing, but there is something more to this experience that hurts more than Etho is ready to talk about. 

The Ties members eye the room for the rest of the day, concerned for their friend. Tango stays in touch with Bdubs, who had to stay behind to clear up their base. Bdubs suggests they leave him be for a couple of hours, but then go and check in on him. Which is exactly what Tango does. 

He knocks on the door and waits. Tango takes the lack of a “go away” as an invitation to enter. 

Etho is sat on the edge of his bed, back to the entrance. He has his metal arm propped up on his knee. Tango makes his way over to sit on his own bed next to Etho’s. He crosses his legs and makes himself comfortable, waiting for Etho to initiate conversation if he is so inclined. If Etho wants to sit in silence, that works for Tango too. His goal is to be quiet and non judgmental company for Etho if he wants to talk about it. 

The silence does stretch out a while and Tango takes the time to relax and try not to think too much about everything that’s occurred today. He can’t let himself drown in thoughts about Mumbo’s theory, he doesn’t have time to mourn. If what Mumbo says is true, Tango will properly take all the time he needs to remember his Rancher after he rescues all the friends he still can from the Watchers grasp. 

Etho does in the end begin a conversation.

“I’m not really one for the ‘thank yous’ and the ‘sorrys’.”

Tango looks up at him, surprised to see him speak. His voice is raspy, but not all too different from normal. Etho isn’t one to show his emotions through his voice.

“That’s completely fine. You have nothing to be sorry about.”

There’s another long pause to where Tango thinks that’s all Etho has to say, but then he continues.

“I’m also not one for being taken advantage of. So I can’t be seen as weak.” Etho starts rubbing his metal arm. He hasn’t bothered to cover it up again with a new shirt. The useless metal glistens in the torchlight. It is here where Tango can get a look at the circuitry that Etho has put together. It looks about as roasted as whenever Tango’s Connectificator would blow up in his face. 

“So having people view me as washed up and incapable of fighting. It’s dangerous, it makes me a liability for the team.” 

When Etho finally makes eye contact, Tango’s not sure what he sees reflected in Etho’s eyes. Pain? Frustration? Disgust?

“Etho, we’ll have your back no matter what, you know that right? You’ve been so good to the team, you’re far from a liability.” Tango leans forward to underline his statement and hopes Etho can hear the sincerity in his voice. If he can, Etho takes no notice of it. He huffs and looks away.

“We haven’t been in a fight yet. Look at all the reds looming. I couldn’t hold my own with this heavy weight on my shoulder.” Etho’s gaze softens and he lets his shoulders slump. His metal hand slips from his lap and clanks against the bed frame.

“We’re runnin’ out of time here and as much as I trust that you will be able to get us out of here, I want to do my part and try to find a glitch that can get us out.”

Tango is left silenced, unsure what to add to the conversation. Etho’s explanations make complete sense as to why he tried to shoot lightning at himself. And although that was still a really bad idea, Tango appreciates Etho wanting to help in his own way and not just waiting for Tango to save them all like the rest of the players. 

“Tango, when you used to make your inventions, did you cut and weld the metal plating you needed yourself with your bending?” 

Tango blinks, the sudden change in topic taking him by surprise. He stutters. “Uh well, usually the materials came pre-cut, but if I needed to do some adjustments, I would use my firebending to do so. Why’d you ask?”

Etho sighs before turning back to look Tango in the eyes again. “I need you to cut my metal arm off.”

—

It ends up being a multi person job. After Tango finally agrees to help and to not tell Bdubs of their plans, they employ Impulse who is able to get them the right tools and set up with his blacksmithing background. Scott is called over to aid with cooling the metal just by Etho’s arm and actively healing any damage Tango does. 

Initially, Tango feels fairly confident in his ability to fine tune his firebending, but quickly notices his lack of practice over however long they’ve been in these tests. His firebending has been primarily used for offence ever since he was kidnapped. And over the past couple weeks, he hasn’t had a chance to work on his firebending as much as he used to, since being overloaded with other elements to furiously practise. He really should fine tune his firebending again. Maybe try to console with Martyn and give him another lesson? Perhaps Etho could join?

Etho casually refuses the offer of firebending lessons from Tango once again. Deciding after his mishap to avoid firebending altogether as much as he can help it. After the long hard work of removing the solid metal arm (gives Etho more material to bend with if it’s solid), Etho thanks those that helped him and immediately gets to work on trying to find an alternative way out of Limited Life. He immediately seems revitalised, like a great weight has been lifted from him, well that is quite literally what happened.

Etho never speaks of the meaning his firebending related injury has to him. But it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the long healed injuries below his mask are a telltale sign of firebender burns. Nobody attempts to pry information from him. With Etho doing better, Bdubs too seems to open up a little more. The concern for his friend weighed far heavier on him than he wanted to admit. Tango can’t help but hope that they all may not be broken. That a chance and a time for healing is just on the horizon.

—

Once Etho is back on his feet, Tango immediately returns to practising his bending.

Martyn joins him for firebending. He searches out Lizzie and Scott for waterbending, Pearl seems to be avoiding him since their face off during the green hunt. He makes sure BigB is looking out for her when he goes to get more airbending tips from BigB. Impulse continues to teach him earthbending.

Tango does masterfully avoid talks with BigB and Mumbo about meditating to connect to past avatars. He isn’t ready to face Jimmy’s spirit yet, and besides, he needs to get better at bending the elements before he can stand before the spirits of past avatars. If that were to even work. In addition to that, it’s practically a death sentence to enter the spirit world with the amount of reds popping up here and there. That’s exactly how avatar Dan was taken out, according to Jimmy and Tango would like to avoid that fate.

He has also gotten better at avoiding Impulse and Skizz and anyone else telling him to take breaks. His and his friends’ timers are ticking down and he doesn’t have the liberty of taking a break when all lives depend on him succeeding. 

The red life bloodlust looms over the world. More and more people are dropping to below 8 hours and those who drop low enough, find the desperate, instinctual need to regain time at the cost of others. Skizz, considering he has some of the least time, is a true angel at trying to hold the peace. He goes around every day, reminding people of why they all care for each other and telling people what is special about them, helping everyone hold on to what little humanity they have left with his affirmations. 

But even Skizz comes to his limits eventually. One day, a week after initially turning red, he calls the Ties to meet in a secure corner of Skynet.

Chapter Text

Tango and Impulse are training earthbending when Skizz calls them to meet up on Skynet. 

A twinge of frustration eats at Tango when they begin making their way up. They barely get any time to practise bending anymore, what with avoiding traps and running from arrows being shot their way. He huffs. “Doesn’t he know we’re busy? We don’t have time to waste on his pointless team meetings.”

Impulse is far more sombre as they ascend the tower. Tango picks up on this quickly when his friend doesn’t reply. “What’s on your mind, Impy?” 

Impulse looks over to where Skizz’s figure comes into view in the distance. Skizz is pacing, is all they can tell. Impulse frowns. “It’s been a week since he turned red, Tango. You done the math yet?”

Tango stops in his tracks as Impulse continues along the precarious path that is Skynet. Surely that’s not what Skizz has called them up for. He can’t be on his last hour, right? He must’ve gotten some time back over the last week like Martyn and Scar have been doing.

When arrows fly towards him from another point in Skynet, Tango is forced to run after Impulse. He can feel it, they’re entering the endgame, he’s not got much longer. He himself has also dipped into red hours and has no idea when the bloodlust is going to start kicking in. 

“We need to get you some time back!” Impulse is saying to Skizz when Tango arrives. As a safety measure, he bends up a wall of ice to block anyone pursuing them. 

“Gentlemen” Skizz begins, pulling their attention to him. “It’s been an honour. I love you guys.” He starts removing his armour. 

Tango’s heart starts racing. “No- What are you doing?”

“My time is not going to anybody else!” Skizz cuts him off, throwing his shield to the ground.

Impulse’s distraught “no-” mixes with Tango’s hysterical “What’s happening?”

Skizz takes a deep breath, before holding out his axe to his allies, his brothers. “I’ve got less than an hour. This is my final order. One of you has to kill me now.”

Both Tango and Impulse shy away from the axe being presented to them. Tango moves past it to grab Skizz by the shoulders, shaking him. 

“Are you insane? You know what the Watchers will do to you once you’re out? We know their secrets, we’re a liability to them, they want nothing more than to kill us and that’s exactly what they’re gonna do when you’re out of their test.” 

Skizz grips onto Tango’s hands with a strong first to get the other to stop shaking him. His face is covered in deadly determination. “You don’t think I know that? I hear them whispering their schemes in my mind! That’s why I know that I’ve gotta go so you guys have more of a chance to get everyone else to safety! I’ve made peace with it!” He shouts. 

“What are you not telling us, Skizz? What are the Watchers saying?” Impulse steps forward, trying to keep his voice low but it’s obvious he is struggling not to strangle Skizz for having such a stupid idea. 

Skizz ignores Impulse’s question. “Visit me in the spirit realm after this is over, okay?”

Tango lets go of Skizz, forcefully pushing him back. “This is not happening, we’ll find another way!”

Skizz steps back towards Tango, shoving the axe in his grasp. “Tango! Take me out and promise to save everyone else! It’s one life for the rest!” 

Tango’s fists tense as he grasps onto the axe. His tears fall onto the polished blade. Is this it? Have they truly run out of time? Has Tango failed his friends? There’s a small voice at the back of his head, wanting him to swing the axe at Skizz. Tango knows from experience, that voice will only get louder as it clouds all of his other thoughts. 

He squeezes his eyes shut. If there ever were a time to enter the avatar state and free everyone, that time is now. He could only unlock all other elements when he or a friend was in danger. Surely this merits unlocking the avatar state now? He can feel the avatar’s power surge through him. It’s gotten stronger. His head burns high with fury and despair. He feels the ground below him, the ocean breeze fills his lungs, he can reach out and sense the great body of water below them.

But when Tango opens his eyes, they remain the same fiery red they have always been. Skizz’s gaze holds all the determination he can muster. Still Tango refuses to swing. He throws the axe to the side, sending it flying off of Skynet. 

“That was a really good axe, man! What are you doing?” 

Tango’s flame flickers as he steps back from Skizz. “This is not the way to do this Skizz, I promise you, I will get all of us out.” He wasn’t there to save Jimmy. But he will do all he can to prevent the Watchers from taking anyone else he cares about. Even if that were to cost him his own life. 

Skizz stumbles back and grabs onto Skynet’s railing. His hand clutches his heart and he sucks in quick, greedy breaths. It is only now that Tango notices how much his friend is shaking. Impulse rushes over to calm him down. It is obvious that Skizz didn’t truly want to die, but the Watchers must have whispered something at him to where he saw no other choice.

“Well then what now?” Skizz asks once he’s calmed down. “There is no way I’m sitting here twiddling my thumbs until my timer runs zero. We gotta act now, mister Avatar.” he’s propped up against the railing, Impulse by his side. His face is deathly pale and Tango is left wondering if running out of time results in a slow and painful death, like falling mercy to a terminal illness. 

Impulse looks up at Tango, eyes reflecting pain and worry for their friend. “I think there’s only one option.” Tango gulps. He knows exactly what Impulse is going to say.

“I need to reach out to my past lives, right?” 

Impulse nods. Tango closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He’s been avoiding this, but he’s known for a while that sooner or later he’ll have to reach out to Jimmy. Tango looks over the land they have called their home for the past couple of months. People are running along Skynet, shooting arrows, fires have spread across the forest and craters of TNT litter the landscape. There’s a sort of finality to the scene, like the arena has served its purpose and soon there will be no one left to inhabit it, no one left to blow it up. 

“How are we gonna do this then?” Tango turns back to his friends and crosses his arms. “As soon as I start meditating the Watchers will see and send everyone after us. I can’t talk to my past lives if I’m being killed. Aside from that I have no idea how I’m supposed to contact past avatars.”

Impulse jumps up, going through his arsenal of fireworks he’s been working on to fire with his crossbow. “We’ll defend you! I can get Etho up here, maybe Scott and Cleo too, since they’ve not been red for too long. This is a pretty defensible position, so I say we hold up here.”

Skizz also stands, albeit on shakier legs. “I can guide you through the meditation part, but Tango, time in the spirit realm passes differently than here. Don’t take too long in there or we’ll all be toast.”

—

Tango’s heart is racing as he sits down with Skizz in the bunker he and Cleo have managed to throw together. They’re in the far corner of the world, just by the border. It’s not perfect, they can’t hold up at spawn and Etho has yet to find another way through the border. But they hope that even on the world’s edge, to have weaker points where Tango can successfully reach out to the spirits. 

This is it, this is their last stand, their last chance. Cleo blocks them in as the others guard the only path to their airborne bunker. Tango sits across from Skizz, very little light leaks into the room from defensible pokey holes they can shoot arrows out of if need be. 

“Tango you gotta calm down, take deep breaths, control your energy and your emotions.” Oh it’s that simple is it?

He does his best, sitting cross legged on soft mats across from Skizz, who already has his eyes shut and is breathing deeply. 

“Stop looking at me Tango and close your eyes.” Tango startles at how Skizz can see his stare with closed eyes but does what he’s told.

“Now,” other than Skizz’s voice, the room is quiet around them, the other reds have yet to attack and Tango tries his best not to ponder on how long the silence will last.

“I know you can feel your energy bundled up inside you.” Skizz continues. “Try to open the cage you have created for it and let it go. You won’t be losing control, you’ll be setting it free.”

Tango takes a deep breath and focuses on his energy. All his life he’s had to keep his explosive spirit inside of him. But he tries to follow his own teachings and releases his energy, he himself flowing with it so it doesn’t take control of him, more so that they can coexist, not one taking control of the other.

“Good” Skizz’s voice seems more distant than before. “Now see what that energy presents to you. There will be multiple facets to this energy, just like there are multiple things that make up your spirit, Tango. Somewhere there will be the avatar's energy. Go towards it, reach out-”

Tango follows his friend’s guidance. He sees a bright light ahead of him and a sense of warmth and familiarity washes over him as he reaches out for it. Skizz's voice fades into the background. When he touches it, the world around him changes.

The grey cobblestone walls crumble, revealing a brilliant night sky filled with twinkling stars. He can feel soft grass against his back as he’s lying down facing up at the sky. He can feel a hand holding his own. Tango looks over to who’s hand is affectionately cradled in his palm and finds Jimmy. His Rancher has a big smile on his face as he looks up at the stars, which twinkle in his eyes. 

Tango’s breath catches in his throat. Did he really do it? Is this where he meets the past avatars? Tango can’t quite believe he’s seeing Jimmy lying right there next to him. It’s like they’re back in Double Life. Like the horrors of the past few months have only been a dream.

Jimmy looks over to Tango and his smile falls as he sees Tango’s face, replaced with worry. “Tango? Are you okay?”

Tango frantically sits up and squeezes Jimmy’s hand within his tightly. “Jimmy! I can’t believe it worked! I’m so happy to see you!”

“What’s going on?” Jimmy asks. He too sits up and holds Tango’s hand tighter. Jimmy reaches out to wipe a tear from Tango’s face. Tango could sit there weeping into Jimmy’s arms for an eternity but Skizz’s words ring in his mind. He can’t spend too long here. 

“Is this you? Is this really you? Not some sort of dream you from another reality?” Jimmy raises an eyebrow to Tango’s question. “I don’t think so?” His voice goes high pitched, unsure of what Tango wants him to say.

Tango ponders for a second. “Who burnt down the Ranch?” 

Jimmy pauses for a moment before answering, confusion still written all over his face. “Scar?”

“Why?”

“Because I stole his horse?” 

Tango gulps before asking one final question. “Who’s the avatar?”

“Me?” Jimmy’s answer is formed as a question due to the continued confusion. Tango lets out a breath he’d been holding and pulls Jimmy into a tight hug. Jimmy pauses for a second before hugging Tango back.

Skizz’s warning rings in Tango’s mind. But Tango will be damned if he leaves here without having one question answered.

“How did it happen?”

Jimmy pulls away, the confusion returning to his face. “How did what happen?” 

A knot twists in Tango’s stomach. He really doesn’t want to say it but he pushes himself to do so anyway. “How did you die?”

Jimmy’s eyes go wide. He sputters a bit before managing to form a sentence. “What do you mean? I’m not dead! We’re trying to find a way to get you out! Look! I’m spiritbending right now to find where they’re keeping you!”

The joy and relief that floods through Tango is almost overwhelming. Jimmy is alive! And he’s looking for them! How could he have ever doubted his Rancher! And Tango knows it’s true, something inside him knows that they’re coming to save them. 

Jimmy continues. “I know we’re almost at the end of the 24 hours the Watchers have given us, but we’re so close! I just need to find you!” 

Tango’s world stops for a second there. “24 hours…” he blinks. The Watchers have given Jimmy and his team 24 hours to find them. But as stupid as it feels to ask, how long are those 24 hours?

“Jimmy, how long has it been since we were captured?”

Jimmy shakes his head. “I don’t know exactly, I haven’t been keeping an eye, but before I came to find you, Ren reckoned that it’s been about 18 hours since you’ve been gone.”

Tango can’t help the hysterical laugh that rings out at this realisation. The Watchers have slowed down time in the simulation. The hours ticking down on their wrist equate to the time outside of Limited Life. He meets Jimmy’s worried gaze.

“Jimmy, we’ve been in another test for the past two months.”

Jimmy’s eyes go wide and he scrambles to check Tango over. Tango is sure none of the simulation’s scars would carry over here, but he lets Jimmy fuss over him.

“Oh my gosh Tango! I knew you were in another test but I didn’t know it’s been two whole months for you! Tango, please believe when I say we’ve been looking for you non stop! We’ve searched every room in the compound and I know we’re so close to getting you!”

Tango does his best to calm him down but Jimmy won’t let himself be comforted. Suddenly Jimmy pauses.

“Is that why you thought I was dead?” The look in Jimmy’s eyes breaks Tango’s heart. “We didn’t come for you for months so you thought we’d been captured or killed.” Jimmy holds hand over his mouth. Tears gather at the corners of his eyes.

“Oh my gosh. Does Lizzie- and Mumbo- and Martyn.”

Tango sits up to calm Jimmy down. “Yes they think that Joel, Grian and Ren are gone too, but I can go and tell them now that you’re all alive and we’re gonna get out!”

Jimmy sits back, a frown still on his face as the news of his friends sinks in. Tango gives him the best smile he can muster. “Hey, you’re coming to get us, it’s all good.”

Jimmy nods and tries to smile back at Tango. “How has it been?”

At that Tango’s smile falters. “Tough.” He says honestly. 

Jimmy leans forward. “You wanna talk about it?”

Tango sighs. “Everyone thinks I’m supposed to know what to do. They all look up to me because-“ Jimmy’s eyes sparkle at him, reflecting the stars. “Because I’m the avatar’s soulmate, you know.”

Jimmy has too much to worry about right now, he doesn’t need Tango to add to that.

Jimmy looks down and scoffs. “Yeah, a lot of pressure gets placed on you for no reason. You’re still only human but they somehow think that suddenly you’re something more.”

Tango takes Jimmy’s hands in his own. When his Rancher meets his eyes he smiles. 

Part of Tango wonders if he should tell Jimmy that the Watchers’ game gave him avatar powers. That by keeping that from Jimmy he’d be no better then when Jimmy didn’t tell Tango he was the avatar. It makes him feel like an awful hypocrite but the part of him wanting to keep quiet wins. He can tell Jimmy the whole story when they’ve escaped. But right now he still needs to know how to enter the avatar state. Even if Jimmy and the others are coming to rescue the players of Limited Life.

“How do you enter the avatar state?” 

Jimmy blinks at him. Whoops, maybe too direct .

“It’s just, I’ve always wondered. What goes into it?” Tango does his best to backtrack and thankfully, Jimmy buys it.

“Well it depends on the situation, really. But I think the most reliable way is when I’m thinking about you and Martyn and Joel and everyone else that means the world to me. If you’re in danger and I’m the only one at the time who can save you. I just picture your warmth and how lost I’d be without you guys. But then I know you’re right there by my side. And you’ll be there whenever I need you. That’s what gives me the strength to enter the avatar state.”

Jimmy smiles at him and Tango can feel the warmth Jimmy is talking about spread within his spirit. When he thinks about his Rancher, about his friends he can feel an energy rising inside him. As this newfound strength rises, the sky brightens and the area around Tango starts to go fuzzy.

Before he is pulled from this world he reaches out to Jimmy and smiles. “Thank you, see you soon, Rancher.”

Jimmy smiles and replies. “See you soon. We’re on our way.”

-

When Tango opens his eyes, the sounds of battle reach him. He’s still in the dark room, now littered with the odd arrow someone managed to fire through the bunker’s openings. Tango looks around.

“Skizz! Jimmy’s alive I know what to-” 

When his eyes land on Skizz, he freezes. His friend is propped up against the wall next to a window. His breathing is laboured and his eyes flutter. Tango scrambles over to check Skizz’s wrist. The number, coloured a deep red, glares at him. 

3 minutes.

Skizz is barely conscious. Tango takes his pulse to find it racing, beads of sweat run down his forehead. His friend is on his last legs in this test, but three minutes should be enough time for Tango to do what he needs to. 

He races towards the bunker’s entrance and throws open the door with a kick of earthbending. Arrows fly past him and Scott looks at him wide eyed. The waterbender has a battered shield held out in front of him. Etho is ducked behind an ice wall, reloading a firework crossbow. They both look beaten and exhausted.

“Where’s Impulse and Cleo?” Tango asks. Scott and Etho share a look. “They were taken out hours ago. They’ve been trying to fight back from the other side but are pinned to the ground.” Etho calls out as he shoots a firework at the oncoming storm. 

“Where in the world have you been?” Scott scowls at Tango. Tango darts past the bunker's opening and whips up another shield of ice to stop him from getting bombarded with arrows. 

“He’s alive Scott! Jimmy and all the others! They’re almost where the Watchers are keeping us!” Although Tango didn’t answer Scott’s question, the waterbender’s face lights up. 

“I knew he’d be alright.” 

Tango shares a look with his friends, the warm feeling Jimmy showed him spreads in his chest. He knows what to do and he knows he can do it. 

“I need to go. I’ll see you two in the real world. Thank you.”

Scott smiles at him and Etho bows his head. Tango then steps off of the platform and slows his fall with airbending. He lands on the mob farm with arrows and daggers of ice and stone being shot his way. The reds that can, jump down to chase him. He can tell Lizzie is one of them. She’s lowering herself down in a water stream, her pink hair flying with Scar’s whirlwind he summons to reach the ground. 

Tango wishes he could tell Lizzie that Joel is okay. Tell Scar that Grian is coming to get them. But Skizz is almost out of time. He has to go. Tango bends open the roof of the mob farm and jumps down the side. The mobs start shooting at the incoming reds, occupying them for a moment to let Tango escape.

He catches himself with the ocean's water and when his feet finally hit the ground he’s running as fast as they can take him. He knows he needs to get to spawn. That’s where this can happen.

“Tango!” the avatar skids to a stop as and looks for the voice calling his name. Impulse is by the coast just outside of Ties tower. His friend also seems to have sustained a number of injuries, the way he limps up to Tango tells plenty of tales.

“Skizz!” Impulse says when he’s closer. “Is he-” Impulse stops his question when he sees the frown on Tango’s face.

“He’s barely holding on. I need to hurry.” Tango turns to sprint towards spawn, but Impulse catches his arm. The distress in his friend’s face is deeper than Tango has ever seen, only enforcing his need to get them all out and to safety. 

“Please-” Impulse starts, tears already rolling down his cheeks. “I can’t get past the others, I need to be with him.” 

Tango faces him again. He grasps Impulse’s arm, eyebrows knit in determination. “What do you need?”

“I have an ender pearl.” Impulse pulls out the turquoise orb. “You think you can airbend it through the bunker window?”

Tango looks up to where the fight against Etho and Scott still rages on. The reds that had chosen to pursue Tango are still fighting off mobs, but they’ll soon resume their hunt for him. He looks back at Impulse’s desperate gaze and nods. 

“I got you bud-” He gathers up a small whirlwind in his palms and then gestures to Impulse to toss the pearl to its centre. He eyes the opening where he knows Skizz is just on the other side and keeps his hands flowing with the wind, trying to hold the pearl steady. 

“Look out!” Impulse calls and jumps to Tango’s right, just in time to block an onslaught of arrows. “Hurry up! They’re coming!”

Tango refocuses on his target and bites his lip. He then reaches back to gather the largest gust of wind he ever has and shoots the pearl towards the bunker. Impulse watches the pearl fly and then encompasses Tango in a tight hug. 

“Thank you, go do what you need to do, bud.” 

Tango hugs back until Impulse’s body vanishes into purple particles. Not a moment later another flurry of arrows descends from the sky. Tango only just manages to pull the ocean’s water as a protective barrier above him. He doesn’t waste another moment, immediately resuming his sprint towards spawn.

He speeds up with puffs of air and earth catapults, putting good distance between him and the reds. He can’t let them take him out, lest the Watchers know when to grab him. And with the knowledge of time moving slower in the real world, he needs to hurry to maximise his time before the Watchers clock on to what he’s trying. 

He clears the canopy of trees and propels himself over the river to the top of the rocky hill they all spawned on so long ago. Tango freezes in his tracks when he sees who’s stood there waiting for him. 

“I challenge you to an Agni Kai, Tango.”

The avatar sighs and runs a hand over his face. “This is a really bad time, Martyn.”

“No, I’m done with the niceties! This is a deathmatch for a reason! You’re going down, Tango!” Martyn stands his ground, fists outstretched and ready. There’s a glimmer of purple in his eyes. A frown forms on Tango’s face. Does Martyn even know what an Agni Kai is?

“I promise, Martyn, they’re never going to have control of you again.” 

Martyn doesn’t answer, instead he launches himself at Tango with a fiery fist. Tango easily dodges and trips up Martyn’s landing by shifting the earth beneath him. The blonde stumbles, but shoots another bolt of fire at Tango on his way down. He pushes the flames away with a gust of wind. 

Just at the end of his move, shots of water hit Tango’s hands from behind, freezing into heavy ice blocks on impact and sending him tumbling. Before he can hit the floor he twirls in the air, unfreezing the ice and shooting it back towards whoever snuck up on him. Tango airbens himself upright again.

Pearl catches the water and twirls it around herself. “Hi Tango” she grins. “Fancy a dance?”

Before Tango can come up with a witty retort, he feels a searing pain along his back. Hissing, he turns around to cut through the flames Martyn is firing at him. At the same time his left hand gets pulled back by a water whip from Pearl.

Tango looks between his two friends. The onslaught of fire and water continues. Tango allows it, only blocking, encouraging them to tread closer. They surround him, giving him almost no space to bend. Right when they tread where Tango needs them he stomps on the ground, propelling himself up above them. 

The earth shakes when he lands and Tango pulls his fists up to create a wall on either side of Martyn and Pearl. Before they have a chance to react, Tango punches his fists together and pulls the walls closed, trapping his friends in a stone prison. 

He can hear shouts from inside. Tango finds himself chuckling as Pearl shouts at Martyn to stop stepping on her foot in the tightly enclosed space.

“I’m sorry, we’ll all be out soon.” He gives his friends a sad smile. 

Suddenly, Tango is thrust forward and a piercing agony blooms in his left shoulder. He cries out in pain and looks down to see blood seeping into his grey vest. Tango turns with a whip of air just in time to prevent another arrow from lodging itself in his heart. 

The avatar curses, he’s taken too long, the rest of the reds have caught up. 

He stomps his foot on the ground and yanks his arms up, but only one follows through, pulling up half the stone wall he meant to, the other refuses to move and he almost blacks out as the pain spreads throughout his entire left side. 

“Okay-” Tango says to himself as he continues to stumble towards spawn. “Can’t use left arm anymore, that’s suboptimal.”

He looks around. The avatar’s energy surges through him, stronger than ever. Spawn always had a different energy about it, the bond to the outside world is stronger here and he feels its pull more than ever. But Tango will have no time to focus on that energy if he needs to defend himself from attacks. 

He eyes the clocktower. It’s high up enough to where no arrow or bending attack could reach him. He has to hope that it’s close enough to where he can still feel his connection to Jimmy outside. He knows his Rancher is on his way, but he too needs to do his part. 

Just as his attackers crest the hill and enter bending range, Tango stomps his foot on the ground and just like he did with Pearl and Martyn, launches himself upward. With his functioning hand he guides the wind best he can to land on the spire of the clocktower. He opens his waterskin and pulls out enough water to create an ice platform for him to stand on. 

Below him, the reds swarm the tower. He sees the faces of friends. The people he has shared this terrible experience with. He looks at each and every one of them and knows for a fact that he would give his life for them, no hesitation. And that without the bloodlust’s influence, every single one of them would do the same. Tango feels a warmth in his heart as he remembers the moments he’s shared with these people. Strangers at first, (and second and third to be honest) this shared experience will keep them all bonded for life, Tango is sure of that. 

He spots Cleo looking up at him with wide and hopeful eyes and thinks back to the sleepless nights they spent together, guarding the Crastle with crossbows in hand. He remembers burying her with Bdubs and how the poor guy was never the same for the rest of that game. 

Etho, having chased after the party, also comes to a stop by the tower. Tango is reminded of Etho teaching him how to make potions in team Best’s snowy fortress. And then how he jumped in front of the TNT minecart Martyn rolled towards them to protect his friends.

Martyn and Pearl have been released from their rocky prison, now also staring up at him. Tango smiles fondly as memories of those two hanging out at the Ranch prop up in his mind. Pearl playing with her wolf, Martyn resting in the sun. Tango closes his eyes and lets the memory play out. He can hear arrows thud into the tower and ice shatter below him but he pays it no mind. 

He focuses on this vivid memory of the Ranch. The sun is setting and he is almost sure he can sense the cool breeze that would waft through the ravine at this time of day. He looks back to their home, standing as tall as ever, the large R practically glowing in the sunset’s golden light. Jimmy is standing on the porch, smiling at Tango. 

Jimmy offers Tango his hand. The warmth in Tango’s chest blossoms as he reaches out to take it. When the Rancher’s hands meet, a power surges through the connection. Tango looks up and finds Jimmy’s eyes glowing. The brightness spreads, consuming Tango’s vision.

When Tango opens his eyes, they shine a brilliant white. He releases the energy surging through him. Shouts and cheers just reach his ears before the world stops. Tango hangs in the air, his heavy breaths the only thing he can hear before the world goes black.

Tango gasps and shoots forwards. Cables and tubes tear away from him as he stumbles out of his pod. He lands on the cold stone floor where he stays for a moment, taking stock of his aching body. Tango looks back at his pod. He’d expected to be trapped behind glass like last time, but is surprised to see that these pods have been haphazardly thrown together. His face contorts in disgust at the shoddy engineering work. After a moment of staring, it hits him.

He did it. 

He’s out. 

Tango scrambles to his feet and takes off down the long row of pods, looking for one in particular. His heart jumps when he sees it. Skizz is still there, they haven’t taken him yet. The heavy knot in Tango’s stomach unfurls as he stands before Skizz. He could burst out crying there and then. His friend is alright! Well, as alright as he can be if he’s still stuck in Limited Life. 

Tango takes a look at the cables plugged into his friends. He hesitates before yanking them out like he unintentionally did for himself. He was already awake as he disconnected himself from the system. He has no idea what it would do to his friends if he were to do the same to them while their spirits still reside in the simulation. 

The cables coming off the pods themselves all group up and lead to a central point, Tango notices. He eyes the trail and finds they meet at what looks to be a large generator and control point.Tango smirks. Destroy the generator, cut the power to the test, save friends. Simple.

Just as Tango is about to rush to the control panel, a shiver runs down his spine. He hears the light buzz of electricity behind him. Tango leaps to the side just in time to avoid a deadly lightning strike to the back. When he spins to meet his attacker, Tango comes face to face with two of the cloaked Watchers.

“Attacking from behind, that’s poor sportsmanship.” He grins at the Watchers, ready to finally get revenge for his friends. Tango widens his stance and raises his fists to send back whatever they throw at him. The Watchers pause, sharing an unimpressed look.

“What do you think? Take him out so we can study him? Or rid ourselves of the nuisance?” The Watcher that shot lightning at him ponders, voice void of emotion.

“It would be interesting to see how his connection to the avatar manifests, once the avatar hands himself over and we kill him.” Tango recognises this Watcher’s voice from the announcement at the beginning of Limited Life. 

Tango’s fire sparks and his blood boils at the prospect. They’d better keep their filthy hands off of his Rancher. 

The first Watcher shoots their fists forwards in quick succession, bouts of fire spewing towards Tango. He slices through some and dodges the rest of them like a trained airbender, before sending his own onslaught of fire right back. 

The other Watcher jumps above the fireballs and hovers in the air, freezing Tango in his tracks. He’d heard of airbenders that have unlocked the power of flight after letting go of all worldly attachments. No wonder they have no emotions to them. 

Both Watchers launch a coordinated attack at Tango. Air and fire spews towards him and he instinctively stomps his foot on the ground and shoots his arms up to block the onslaught with a stone wall. 

No stone wall emerges. Tango is caught off guard and only narrowly manages to avoid being burnt by the firebender’s flame. He does, however, lean into the full brunt of the airbender’s attack, which sends him flying backwards and almost into Mumbo’s pod. 

The Watchers pause to laugh at him, their voices cold and echoing through the room, still somehow void of emotion. 

“Oh we must take note of that. The avatar’s soulmate believes he can bend the other elements outside of the simulation, how amusing.”

Tango lays his hands flat against the floor and for the first time in weeks, he no longer senses the ground beneath him. Or, now that he focuses on it, feel the air around him the same way he did in Limited Life. His heart aches as he feels like he’s lost something, but at the same time, Tango feels more like himself than he has for weeks. He has his fire and that’s all he needs to fight with.

His body protests as he gets up again, the exhaustion of being put through two months of hell in less than 24 hours is starting to weigh on him. Still Tango resumes his battle stance, before firing a few more fireballs at the Watchers, interrupting their moment of amusement.

The firebender blocks the attack, but one of the shots manages to graze the airbender’s arm, singing their dark cloak, but not nearly burning through. Their clothes must be made of a fireproof material. 

The airbender swings their arm and sends a mighty gust of air at Tango. He widens his stance like an earthbender and crosses his arms over his face, taking the attack full force. It fails to throw him to the ground and he can’t help but grin and silently thank Impulse for his teachings. 

The airborne Watcher growls at him and launches themself at Tango, throwing them both to the floor instead. Tango grasps hold of where the Watcher is holding onto him and summons fire to his hands, finally burning through their garment. It’s not nearly enough to hurt the airbender though before the other Watcher also grabs ahold of him. 

They have him pinned, strong hands keep him down and Tango does his best to shoot bolts of fire anywhere he can, praying that one hits. The Watchers start dragging him back towards his pod. His chest explodes in panic. No, he can’t go back. There’s no way he can go back! He’ll die before they put him in another test!

Tango makes his hair burn high and he can hear the Watchers hissing from the heat, but they keep their grip firm, bringing him closer and closer.

No, please no-

“Tango!” a familiar voice cuts through the panic. Between firing off desperate spouts of fire, Tango manages pull his head up to where he heard-

“Jimmy!” He calls when meets his Rancher’s eyes. He’s there. He’s alive. He’s going to save them all. Tears of relief pool in his eyes and Tango continues his struggle against the Watchers with a newfound strength. 

Jimmy kicks his foot down in front of him and raises his hands. Earth flies from the ground and latches onto one of the hands of the Watcher holding Tango’s right arm, pulling it and locking it to the floor. Then, he leaps forward and whirls around, kicking a blast of air at the one of the left, knocking them into the back wall with a thud. Tango pulls himself to his feet and falls into Jimmy’s arms.