The last time Kaguya had seen a throng this size was during that Bamboo Festival she had seen once in Osaka for old man Ebisu. Granted, the present gathering was not in the business of selling bamboo; rather, their trade was that of war. The scene below was impressive, for humans; dozens of tents flying red flags litter the open landscape. The princess leading this army was certain of her invincibility, and Kaguya can't help but smirk.
She doesn't play around.
Kaguya descends from the hill, sauntering towards the camp's centre. She reaches the main tent adorned with royal embroidery and three large flags fluttering against the afternoon wind. The men guarding the tent stood more stiffly at her approach; their suspicion made clear in their narrowed eyes. One of the guards enters the tent to inform Azula of Kaguya's arrival, leaving the latter alone outside with one soldier.
To Kaguya, time spent idly is a shameful waste, so she decides to converse with the guard. "The princess in that tent, do you like her?" she asked, wanting to inquire more about her employer (quest giver, more accurately). Kaguya was met with further silence and narrowed eyes. It was somewhat disheartening but expected. Soldiers who guard their leader's tent tend to be the elites' elite and thus are quite professional. However, professionalism is not conducive to stimulating and honest conversation, so she finds another way to coax an answer from him.
Thus, Kaguya decides to tread on treasonous ground, if only to get a reaction out of him. "Does she treat her subordinates well? Are you more loyal or more fearful of her?" Her eyes spot an almost imperceptible twitch that slipped through the man's fine control—a reaction, a small one, but a reaction nonetheless. Something in what she just said had resonated with him or was so off that it either amused or offended the man. Whichever the case, the ice was slowly, and all it needs is just one more pus-
A guard came out of the tent, "the princess will see you now", he says before moving to his previous position.
Kaguya holds back a sigh and enters. Maybe next time then.
Inside a tent was a table covered by a map that took almost the entire room. It stood across Azula and her desk, which was filled to the brim with documents. It was the first map of the world that Kaguya had seen so far, and it intrigued her. A gigantic landmass covered most of the map, surrounded by many islands and the planet's poles. To its west was a large archipelago, which the Fire Nation calls home, though it was littered with volcanoes and little farmland. So it was only natural for the Fire Nation to invade the continent to their east. Already, the Fire Nation has occupied the land mass's western half, if the red lines were of any indications.
"Sorry, it took so long...oh forgive me, what was your name again?" Azula asked. A lie, to Kaguya, the Fire Nation princess seemed to be the type to remember people's names very well. Thus, the question asked was supposed to either belittle her or gauge her response. A solid tactic, impressive for a mere child, but she had seen it executed far better in Lunarian high society.
"Kaguya." She replied absentmindedly. Her eyes were glued to the Fire Nation archipelago and its rather messy shape.
"Right, Kaguya. Again, forgive me for taking so long; my guard had raised his concerns about you. I told him you were an asset rather than a liability. Was I wrong?" Again came the subtle threats. Though it was somewhat tiresome, it spiced up the conversation at least, so Kaguya decided to play along.
Kaguya shakes her head, "You were not," she reached into her sleeves to retrieve a scroll that she found in How's room. It was found in a small locked chest placed in a compartment below the carpet. She was sure that the key was somewhere in the room too, but she had decided to lockpick it instead. Thus, it took many tries inside suspended-time to get it to open, but open it did. She placed the scroll on Azula's desk, "I've got this too as a bonus to completing the mission you gave me." Azula reads the scroll, which detailed How's conspiracy against the Dai Li. Kaguya gave her report and observations to supplement the reading.
"So, Ba Sing Se's government might face a coup?" Azula asked.
"Or even a revolution, depending on the circumstances."
Through the holes of her mask, Kaguya could see Azula raising her eyebrow. "But the scroll said the Council of Five wanted to replace the king's advisor, not overthrow him."
"Well, with How gone, some of the Councillors have secretly chosen to pursue their own ideas of how Ba Sing Se should be ruled. They only follow Sung's plan for appearances, a consequence of having...different-minded allies."
A smile appears on Azula's face. "Hmph, so they can't even rule themselves." She stands up from her chair and faces Kaguya. "I don't say this lightly, but for an assassin, you're an impressive spy."
Kaguya shrugged, "I like to wear many hats."
Azula brings out a small chest from under her desk. "Now, before we discuss your payment, I'd like to ask you about something, if you don't mind, of course," she said, leaning towards Kaguya with her everpresent smile. Her eyes, though lacking in visible malice, glinted with a calculating shine.
Kaguya has experienced the Lunarian court life long enough to know that Azula's innocuous request was more than what it seemed. The Immortal Princess could tell that simply refusing would lead to a "bad end", one that would force her to stop playing assassin for this Fire Nation, which would be no fun at all. So she keeps plays along, entertaining both Azula and herself.
"What do you want to know?" Kaguya replied.
"I want to know what you want," Azula queried.
"Pardon?"
"When you walk out of this tent with all this money, what are you going to use it for?"
Like glass, Azula's intentions become crystal clear. Kaguya sees that this line of questioning's expected outcome is to find out ways of incentivizing Kaguya to do her bidding other than mere gold. Not that money is a bad incentive; rather, knowing a person's core desires and promising to fulfil said desires can be far more effective. So effective that it can inspire a significant amount of loyalty and even fear through the threat of retracting said promises. Kaguya infers that she's proven to be a valuable asset; thus, Azula desires a tighter hold on her. Just paying for her services isn't enough. From Azula's point of view, her enemies could buy Kaguya's services by outbidding Azula. Kaguya's title as "Azula's assassin" could potentially hold more than one meaning if the Fire Nation Princess isn't careful. Something Azula seems keenly aware of, even more so considering that Kaguya has seemingly exceeded expectations.
Kaguya cups her chin, "What do I want?" she murmurs to herself. Hmm, just enjoying myself could be enough, I never really thought about it.
"Didn't I already answer this question?" Kaguya asks.
"You did..." Azula replied, "So you were serious when you said--"
"I was bored? Yes, I meant it," Kaguya replies.
Azula stare turns icy cold as her smile disappears; she brings her arm up and conjures a blue flame at the tip of her fingers. "Do not interrupt me again; this is the second time you've done so; do it again, and I'll make sure you can never speak. Do we have an understanding?"
"Yes," Kaguya replied meekly with insincere fear. In truth, she was unfazed, and the sight of the fire made her reminisce on her death duels with Mokou. Before her memories could distract her further, Azula sits back down.
"Good," she crowed and continues her questioning, "so you're an assassin because...you're bored?" Azula said, "I'd call you pathetic, though you are effective. I guess you and Mai may have a lot in common."
"Mai? You mean the one with the double buns?"
"The very same," she answered, "Well since you're such a thrill-seeker, I'm sure a new mission would be a better payment than any amount of money." Azula puts the small chest away.
Kaguya stifles a chuckle; well, she's got me there. "Is there another general you want out of the picture?"
"As a matter of fact, no. You might not be aware, but your one-woman campaign against the outlaws of the Earth Kingdom has given you much notoriety. You're the most feared person among the daofeis, and I would like to make use of that fear. Submit the bandits to your will and report back to me."
"Forgive me, Your Majesty, but I'm just an assassin," Kaguya lied while a part of her wants to shake in excitement, "I wouldn't know how to control them."
"You said you wear many hats, correct? Then bringing these bandits to serve me should be childs play. Besides, you wanted to do something fun, correct? Well, here it is."
The Hourai Elixir: the font of life, the eternal spring, a creation that defeated entropy itself. It afflicts the user with the curse of eternality and deprives them of the gift of sickness and death. With the soul, body, and mind made unassailable and perpetual, it is then curious that memories are left vulnerable to the caress of time, an odd flaw within a near-perfect creation. Perhaps it is due to its makers not taking into account human physiology, which hosts a million more imperfections than Lunarian ones. Or rather, it may be by design, a faint reminder of mortality through the birth and death of memories. To Mokou, it does not matter. Despite the desire to rid of her perpetuity, the distinctly mortal quality Mokou's memories possess within her immortal form is a curse.
The amount of information an immortal like her would retain will eventually exceed biological capacity. For the Elixir does not improve but preserves. The brain, however large, is not designed to store thirteen hundred years worth of sensory data. Thus, Mokou's memories fade in the foggy depths of her crowded mind, and so does her grip on herself. They are her anchor, and without it, she becomes less than human—an animal, enslaved by instinct, incapable of higher thought. Such an instance had occurred once, which lead to three hundred years of mindless carnage followed by another three hundred years spent catatonic. A nightmare that lasted more than half a millennia and the sins she committed during that time still stains her soul.
Ironically, it was Kaguya who saved her from going further down that path. The princess had reminded Mokou of a time before the Elixir, which centred her, and gave purpose to her then aimless rage. Though she is immensely grateful towards the Lunarian, their blood feud, however mellowed, continues. Because for Mokou, revenge sustains her sense of self. Because it makes her remember, which helps her preserve her identity when the Elixir could not. So her desire for retribution is fueled not by hate, not really, but by necessity.
And that is what it all comes down to, necessity. Everything Mokou does are but necessary reminders to stave off the encroaching mindlessness and prevent a repeat of the past. She eats, sleep, and talks because it is a human thing to do. She wears clothes and practices reading and writing so she can be a part of human society. She exacts revenge on Kaguya because it gives her purpose, which is a human thing to have. All these things remind her of what she was, a mortal human. The alternative is to forget, and to forget, is to be entombed in thoughtless, motionless eternity. But despite her efforts, Mokou finds herself slipping from time to time, which scares her.
The sun sets, the crowds disperse, and Mokou packs up her stall. A man, no--a kid rather, approaches her. On his back were two hooked blades and in his mouth was a single sprig of wheat. His shaggy hair framed his tanned face, which held a severe expression.
"Mokou, right?" he asked. The kid was rather tall, standing a head above Mokou.
"Who's asking?" Mokou continues to unpack her cart, placing down an uncooked piece of chicken in one of its compartments. The kid smiles and leans on the cart, holding an aura of self-importance, whether deserved or not.
"A freedom fighter. Well, right now, a concerned citizen, you can call me Jet." He points at himself, speaking with unabashed, boyish confidence, "I wanted to ask you about your co-workers, Mushi and Lee." Iroh and Zuko, he's on to them.
Mokou proceeds to count the money she earned. She has a feeling that Pao's cut is a tad too large, but it doesn't matter. Mokou already has all that she needs, and any coins she has are just collecting dust in her hovel, "What about them?"
"Have they done anything suspicious? Anything involving firebending?" Mokou raises an eyebrow, "Anything?"
"No," a good liar Mokou is not, but why lie when the truth is more convenient, as Kaguya once mentioned. The royal fugitives had not firebend a single time and were quite insistent for Mokou to do the same. Jet stares at the rather reticent woman before him, expecting her to continue.
"No?" he asked perplexed. Mokou nods and notes to herself to warn Iroh later and wonders how to get into the city's inner ring districts. "You mean you haven't seen anything remotely weird about them."
"Oh, they're weird people," Mokou admits, "but I haven't seen them firebend."
His eyes narrow, "you covering for them or something?"
"I'm just telling you what I saw; you should take it up to them if you've got a problem, not me."
Jet sighs, frustrated, "you worked with them for weeks in a kitchen, and you're saying that not one time they, I dunno, turned up the heat without any spark rocks, for example?"
With everything accounted for, Mokou prepares to get the cart moving. "You sound awfully sure that they're firebenders," she asked.
Jet gesticulates in anger, "Because I've seen the old man do it!" he takes a breath to calm down, "He heated his tea when no one was looking; I saw it."
Mokou suppresses a sigh; she wouldn't put it past Iroh to do that. "I don't know what to tell you then. You saw him firebend; I didn't. Whatever it is you wanted out of this," she shrugs, "you won't get it. Look, my shift's over, and I got something important at home. Can you hurry this up?"
Jet slumps, exasperated and defeated, "Yeah, I'll leave you alone, but you gotta understand that Mushi and Lee are not who you think they are."
At this point, Mokou would've just moved on, but curiosity compels her to inquire. The possibility that the kid could be with the Dai Li brings with it disturbing implications for Iroh and Zuko. "They seem nice when I worked with them," Mokou reconsiders the thought, " 'cept for Lee. But even if they're firebenders, so what? They're not hurting anyone."
Jet's face transforms into a rictus of rage, "What do you mean so what? We bring them to justice; kill them too if they don't cooperate, like any firebender scum." This was approaching dangerous territory. Asking any further would put some suspicion on her too, but she trudges on.
"Because they're firebenders?"
"Yes! Firebenders kill thousands every day, including my family. And I'll make every last one of them atone for it." Jet's eyes glinted balefully, though there was an undertone of suspicion and realisation.
Mokou winced internally; the kid was an idiot but in the worst way possible. He reminded her of herself. So Mokou pities him, for the path he's taken will end in tragedy, one that will leave him hollow. She should know. Which confirms what she had hoped: the kid was some lone misguided vigilante rather than a disciplined agent. Satisfied, Mokou starts moving her cart back to Pao's restaurant, "good luck with that," she tells him.
After she had returned the cart, she went straight to her hovel. As she stepped into the empty market street, her thoughts bring her to Iroh and Zuko. Already that damnable fog has set in after spending weeks apart. Mokou finds difficulty in recalling specific moments she spent with the pair, and it is only a matter of time before their faces recede to the corner of her mind. She resolves to spend some money on a pen and an empty book to bolster her memories against time's eroding force. It's quite a shame she didn't bring her old diary with her on that ill-fated trip to Mt.Fuji.
When Mokou arrives at the alleyway leading to her hovel, the moon had already risen. Pure white moonlight kissed the still forms of the people sleeping in the alleyway. The lucky ones were dressed with rags upon rags that covered them from neck to toe, acting like a blanket and a second layer over their clothes. While the unlucky ones were dressed in only rags. It had become a daily sight to Mokou, and she had thought she would become numb to it as the weeks past by. Yet strangely, the scene still resonated with her, for it was a visceral reminder of a time before she cracked. It brought back long-forgotten memories of starvation, dying week after week, cold, alone, and unseen. Perhaps that was why the sight felt like a stab to her heart because she understands; she empathises. Detached indifference gives way to an uncomfortable disquiet as Mokou reaches her hovel. She opens up a small, rickety drawer and picks up a few coins before going to Pao's restaurant.
The moon was at its zenith when she comes back to the alleyway with her cart. Most were asleep, but the few that were awake look at her curiously. Mokou sets up her stall, lights up the grill, and cooks the chicken. The smell permeated the air as the sweet sizzling sound perked many an ear. One of them rose and approached her; it was a man who may have been a farmer or a construction worker judging from his build.
She hands him a stick of yakitori, "Here," she said, "you don't need to pay."
The man's eyes dart up and down from Mokou to her hand as if confused. He takes it reluctantly and bites into it, "thank you," he spoke sincerely.
Mokou doesn't believe she deserves such gratitude; after all, she only did this to rid her growing frustration. Her action came from a selfish reason. Yet she cannot deny this warm feeling that gnaws at her confused heart, a joy she had forgotten --or perhaps, never understood. Mokou remembers being like the refugees before her, like wanderers without a home. Though, she had never been in a position to help them, which made this experience novel. New. Unique. It was an activity that transcended the warmth she felt cooking for paying customers.
Many more come to fill their empty bellies as a sort of joy permeates the air. For one night, a small part of Ba Sing Se's oft-forgotten slums come alive. A gathering forms around her stall. Re-energised, many begin to converse with one another, and which helped form a comfortable atmosphere. The refugees were a very diverse group, yet they were united through shared pain which acted as the source of their growing camaraderie. Many try to include Mokou into this nascent brotherhood, and she tries to respond in kind in her curt and clumsy way. Yet there was this chasm, large and absolute, between her and the mortals. She understood their pain, certainly, but didn't know what it meant.
There are, coded in all humans, primordial fears that stem from their mortality. A fear that no longer exists in Mokou thanks to that damnable Elixir. What many consider a danger to be avoided was a mere inconvenience to her. The mortals absolutely feared starvation because it leads to a slow hollow death. But to Mokou, who did not fear death? Starvation was a temporary pain while her body wastes away before coming back with a full stomach. In other words, though Mokou had suffered as they did, she didn't quite suffer as they did. So it was hard for her to relate to them sincerely and close the distance between mortal and immortal.
But despite that, Mokou is...satisfied seems to be the right word. The scene before her made her feel warm, happy. She wouldn't mind seeing this again. And so, a new joyful memory forms in the mind of the immortal. Whether it will fade into the fog or shine like a burning beacon, only time will tell.
But happy as it all may be, Mokou shouldn't let it distract her from her main goal. This joy was ultimately ephemeral and will not sustain her for an eternity. Because the danger of forgetting, of losing herself, was still everpresent. So she needs to contact the other Hourai Immortals and find a way back to Gensokyo.
So like all things, the gathering came to an end as Mokou moves her cart elsewhere and gets into her hovel. She wasted a lot of time today and would need to meditate a little longer this time to compensate. Mokou desires to try something new for this particular session, which was to reflect on past sins. Perhaps if she can come to terms with her actions and maybe find a proper means to atone, she could truly be at peace with herself. Unshackled, as Iroh would describe.
Mokou tries to piece back her scattered memories to immerse herself in the past. Like puzzle pieces, they slowly form an image from a time during that nightmare.
A town burns before her, and its residents make hopeless escapes from the omnipresent flames. The town's protectors, both natural and supernatural, make their bid to stop her. But it was futile, for she was a force of nature, fire incarnate, and her power was endless. One tries to talk her down, but words fail against an unthinking being. And so the fire spreads until the town was no more.
As Mokou remembers, she drowns herself in self-loathing.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Jet was starting to piece everything together. The white-haired woman was a firebender, he was sure of it, and many of her actions begin to make sense when thought that way. He at first, given her the benefit of the doubt when he saw her grill's flame rise up as she rose her finger; because no firebender would be stupid enough to do that out in the open plaza of Ba Sing Se. But the guilty verdict was sentenced when the woman tried to cover Mushi and Lee's actions and defend them. That was all Jet needed to know that they were in cahoots. So he will expose her first when tomorrow comes.
Fire spilled into the streets as house after house burns with unceasing wrath, while people choked under ash and ember. Men dressed in black and red rode in their mounts, spitting out hot fury from their hands, feeding the monstrous flame. It grew and grew, encompassing the village until only red filled the horizon. The bad men chased down anyone escaping, and Jet sees his mom cry out for help.
To the Freedom Fighter, he lived his life under the shadow of that long ago inferno. That was why he got into that life, took arms against the unjust occupiers, and rallied many to his cause. Further and further he went against them, until he went too far. Ba Sing Se was supposed to be his second chance to live normally, but it's impossible when everywhere he went, he saw the cost of the war they started. He couldn't just let them get away with it, any of them. There was no way Jet could just ignore and live happily-ever-after; he had to do what he can to make them pay.
He walked towards the plaza, determined and ready for a fight. All he needs to do was provoke that cook to firebend right in front of everyone. That way, justice can be served. So he quickens his step and found that she wasn't there. Some of her regulars stood around the plaza, as confused as he was. Jet walks to Pao Tea, finding most of the chairs empty in the once-thriving teahouse. The owner was taking orders from a couple of guards, and there was visible concern on his face.
Jet approaches him, "where's your cook?"
Pao just raised his hands in my frustration, "I don't know where Mokou is; she hasn't been here all morning!" His eyes narrow in suspicion, and he points accusingly at Jet, "Why do you want to know? You trying to poach her like my other employees?!"
Jet shakes his head, " No, just--Do you know where else she could be?"
Pao shrugged, "Nope, she told me she got a new house, but that's it. That girl doesn't like to talk." He grumbled.
Jet could only groan, "Well, thanks and..." he struggles with his words, "good luck." Pao rolls his eyes as Jet left the building.
Back to square one.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The flames crackled in a calming melodic rhythm. Long Feng never understood the need for a fireplace within the palace library. For a long time, he had always equated its addition as a result of royal indulgence: impractical, hazardous, and ultimately unnecessary. What use was a fireplace when candles are safer and more effective? But as the soothing hiss of the flames graced his ear like a sweet caress, he understands why.
Lately, Long Feng finds himself scratching his chin and tapping his foot more often—unnecessary yet involuntary actions on his part. But the fire soothed him with peaceful euphony and a warm embrace. And so he finds himself sitting straighter and stiller, becoming immersed in great tranquillity.
He only wished Ba Sing Se was this calm. It had always been his life's work to bring tranquillity to the great city, to turn it into the utopia that it could be. But the inadequacy of the simple and the short-sighted, coupled with the schemes of the powerful and the greedy, prevented Ba Sing Se's ascendence into something greater.
Long Feng stroked his book's well-worn pages, which told of Chin The Conquerer's fall, both literally and metaphorically. And although the book depicted his fall in poetic and flowery language, it conveyed a cold hard truth. That without order, which guides the Earth kingdom's citizens into peace and prosperity, mankind is destined to a world of carnage and senseless slaughter, as warlord after warlord carve up the land to themselves. That is why the Fire Nation's conquest is doomed to fail.
Despite their advancement in technology and their preaching of order, they are married to the concept of war. Their people bloodthirsty and led by warmongers. Peace might as well be alien to them; even after the war, how will they maintain their overstretched empire? Easy, they won't. Why then should he expend resources against an enemy that will fall from its own weight? He only needs to play the waiting game.
A knock stirs him from his contemplation, and a Dai Li aide enters, scrolls in hand. As he reads the scrolls, he questions his aide sharply, who answers back in kind. Long Feng could feel a tug at his lips, that despite the increasing unrest, the Dai Li was working as smoothly as usual. Feng leans at his chair when the aide leaves, soft and comforting, and takes in this one small moment of serenity before placing his book down and standing up. There was work to be done, and the path of greatness and tranquillity is littered with obstacles. But such is the fate of those that continue Kiyoshi's legacy.
But a thought, intrusive and unwanted, worms its way into his calm mind. The lack of information on How's fate was still an issue, and it made him think of the interloper. The very idea made him sweat, for it was the great unknown variable that may ruin an otherwise perfect plan. Feng finds himself unconsciously pacing around the room and scratching his chin. He centres himself with a breath.
The path to peace is rife with hard decisions that require great sacrifice. And for harmony to exist, there must be cooperation between two opposing forces. Long Feng forces himself to stop tapping his foot and centres himself. He breathes again to find his determination. Long Feng had toiled for too long and sacrificed too much to face the possibility of losing it all. He will not fall to pride's folly now that he stands at an important threshold. So as he leaves the library, he arranges a plan.
A plan that, without the presence of this interloper, is impractical, hazardous, and ultimately unnecessary. A plan that forces him to expend his resources in a wasteful endeavour. A plan that involves asking for help.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Team Avatar had spread themselves throughout the city, sticking posters of their missing bison anywhere they can. Aang and Sokka had decided to post around the city's lower ring while Toph and Katara handled the middle ring. Momo hung around Aang's shoulders while the latter asked the market vendors about Appa's whereabouts and for permission to place their posters. As always, it was to no avail, and the pair find themselves scouring through the lower ring with nothing to show for it.
As Aang and Sokka walk towards a nearby plaza, they see a Dai Li pair arrest one of the city guards, whose partner watches without interrupting them. The guard in question thrashed violently in his restraints before the Dai Li pushed him into a prison wagon and locked the door. A crowd had formed around them, tense and confused.
"What's going on?" Aang asked.
One of the Dai Li turned towards Aang, his faced bruised and beaten. "That man attacked me without provocation."
Aang looked towards the guard's partner in askance; he nods, "He's..." he speaks with great difficulty, "right."
"This," The Dai Li agent continues, " will reflect poorly on the military."
"Oh, just hurry this up and go," the guard replied. Sokka takes a quick peek into the wagon, seeing its captive staring blankly at the door, he's eyes glazed over. Must've calmed down.
The crowd dispersed as the Dai Li leaves. Aang continues questioning the guard.
"I don't know what came over him. We had strict orders to provoke, not attack, but he just...Well, he just came at them with no warning."
"You got any idea why he would do that?" Sokka inquires.
The guard shrugs, "I mean, we all have something against the Dai Li. But again, orders, and he wasn't the type to just disobey."
"Did anything happen recently to change that?"
The guard mulls it over until his eyes widen in realisation, "Come to think of it...He disappeared for some time a few days back because of a family emergency. Our captain disciplined him for leaving his post without warning, but nothing more. We needed all the men we can get for what comes next."
"I'm guessing the family emergency had something to do with the Dai Li," Aang asked this time.
The guard shakes his head, "I can't say for sure but, I heard his father was taken by the Dai Li sometime ago. I guess being with his family reminded him more and more about his missing father, which is why he completely lost it when he saw the them earlier. But that's just speculation on my part. Other than that?" he shrugs again, "I got nothing."
They thanked the guard and continued their journey towards the plaza.
"Another disappearance case," Aang began, "and we still have no idea where thei--"
"Uh-uh-uh," Sokka interrupted, "grub first, think later." He pats his stomach, "Going around the city's making hungry."
"Sure," Aang acquiesced, admittedly, he's been quite tired too because of the investigation. Some food will do him good, "where are we going to eat?"
"Well, everyone's been talking about this new dish in the lower ring, heard the cook should be in the plaza ahead."
"What's it called?"
Sokka scratches his head as he tries to remember, " I think it was...something about a yuckytory...?"
"Yuckytory?" Aang replied with a deadpan.
Sokka reconsiders before nodding, "Yeah, yuckytory."
"Is it suppose to be gross?"
He shakes his head, "No, I heard it's pretty good." There was an undertone of excitement in his voice; the rumours he heard must've described the dish as something really delicious. Aang chooses to rely on Sokka's instincts this time, despite the dish's weird name.
"Then why call it yucky?"
Sokka shrugs, "Look, I don't always have the answers. Anyways, here we are."
They reach the plaza and begin searching for the vendor. Sokka heard that the cook was hard to miss, wearing a red shirt and white trousers. Or was it the other way around? Well, the cook supposedly had ankle-length white hair, which shouldn't be too hard to find. But after a few minutes of searching, they found nothing.
Sokka approaches a man nearby, "Yo, do you know where I can buy a yuckytory?"
"Yakitori?" the man asked before answering when Sokka nodded, "sorry, kid, you're outta luck."
"Huh, why?"
"Cook's been gone for two days now; not even her boss knows where she is. It's kinda like she--"
"No, don't tell me..."
"-disappeared," the stranger finished.
"No!" Sokka shouted to the surprise of everyone around him.
His knees give way, leading him to collapse on the ground. Aang tries to help him up, but Sokka lightly pushes his hand away. The Water Tribesman begin to tremble with fury and despair. He punches the ground in anger, "They can't keeping getting away with this!" he wailed. "Alright, this is personal."
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
In a Firenation tent, Kaguya stares at a bonsai tree placed on a table. It had begun its slow, gradual blossom as tiny crystalline buds had formed around its branches. The Lunarian beamed behind her mask as her twitching hands hid inside oversized sleeves. Kaguya wants to shout, jump, skip and dance, but restrains herself. It would not do to be caught in such an undignified display of joy. For once in Kaguya's life after Eientei's stasis, she finds herself at history's epicentre, which brought with it the impurities of mortality. It was a taint that permeated the air and seeped into the udonge, slowly overpowering the mere fragments of Kaguya's curse. What was once eternal transformed into a mere transient thing, blessed with impermanence and filth. And so do the buds begin to bloom, with the tree slowly perfecting itself with its newfound imperfections. The udonge had begun to grow.
Gone was the encroaching ennui of idleness, replaced by a new routine and unique stimuli. Kaguya now has a job that directly involved her in the world's affairs. Although she had missed the peaceful NEET days of Gensokyo, it was tainted by the fear of the moon and its maddening shine. This world was lucky, Kaguya contemplates, in the sense that its moon seemed much more benevolent. Thus, she can ride the wave before her rather than calmly floating on still waters with little concern. Kaguya, who had no place in Earthling society, finds her role in this world instead. Truly, getting isekai'd have done her wonders. Now, if only Mokou and Eirin were here, then it'll all be perfect.
She hears light footsteps coming towards her tent and placed the udonge in her sleeve. Her employer's acrobatic minion steps inside, "Hiya, Azula wanted me to check on you before you go. You all set?" She asked.
Kaguya turned around to face her, and her grin widened. It's hard not to be excitable around the Genki Girl, what with her easy smile and outgoing, positive nature. "Hah, I always am; just give me the word, and I'll be off."
Ty Lee widened her smile, "Gosh, you're really reliable!"
Kaguya preened at the praise, "Oh please, I'm not even trying."
"Really? Could've fooled me," Ty Lee replied, "You know, you've got this one-of-a-kind aura around you."
Kaguya widened her eyes, surprised that the girl could possibly have a unique sight. The Lunarian had thought the extent of this world's magic only involved elemental manipulation, but the girl's power brought with it exciting implication. That is if she isn't lying, of course. "Really?"
Ty Lee nodded, "Yeah, it's all rainbowy and happy, and it makes me feel comfortable around you." Rainbowy? Huh, so she was telling the truth. But enough of that, Kaguya feels like she'll collapse under the barrage of compliments. No one ever straight up told the princess they felt comfortable around her. Blinded by her presence, sure, she's been told that many times. But never comfortable. Though, as nice as it all was, Kaguya begins to question why Ty Lee was sent here in the first place. The Lunarian did not believe Azula to be so considerate as to send a trusted companion to check on her. Unless-- "Which makes me wonder why you wear a mask at all. You're not comfortable with yourself?"
A-hah! Very cheeky Azula, how very cheeky of her. Luckily, it isn't troublesome for Kaguya to be honest in this case. So she answers truthfully, and what better way to be truthful than to inject it with ambiguity, "Well, my face makes me stand out for all the wrong reasons." Better luck next time, Azula!
Ty Lee blinked in confusion and tilted her head, which made Kaguya squee internally. No one was ever this cute in Gensokyo! Even the fairies, who were supposed to be the cutest beings out there, were all rowdy simpletons. And the inabas especially have lost their cuteness a long time ago for Kaguya.
"Do you have a scar, or like, an embarrassing birthmark?" she asked, which brought Kaguya, whose head had been in the clouds, down to reality.
"I've been scarred..." The Lunarian lied through omission.
"But scars make you unique!" Ty Lee exclaimed.
Kaguya scratched her cheek in thought, "Well... my face, in general, makes me too unique." Ty Lee's eyes further widen like dinner plates, which prompted Kaguya to continue before the acrobat could interrupt. "I simply wanted to be treated like everyone else, and having my face revealed conflicts with that desire."
"So you're not doing it to hide your identity?" Kaguya shakes her head which prompts Ty Lee to pout. "You're really confusing..."
"The best kinds of friends are the ones you don't always understand," Kaguya stated sagely, without really understanding what it meant. It just sounded cool to say, and what better reason is there than that?
"How can you be friends with someone you don't get?"
"How can you not?" Kaguya fires back.
"I-uh, um, ok." Ty Lee scrunches her eyebrows in confusion and moves on, "wait, are you saying we're friends?"
Kaguya shrugs and offers her hand, "Only if you want to be."
Confusion gives way to joy, and Ty Lee shakes her hand, "Only if you don't die to bandits, sure."
"No promises," Kaguya replied, and they both laughed at that for entirely different reasons. The Lunarian moves out of the tent, ready for another exciting adventure.
-----------------------------
In a Firenation tent, Kaguya stares at a bonsai tree in front of her. It had begun it's slow, gradual blossom as tiny crystalline buds had formed around its branches. The Lunarian smiled behind her mask, unmitigated joy seeped through her, and she could barely stand still. Kaguya was at history's epicentre, which brought with it the impurities of mortality. A most wondrous taint surrounded her, one she revelled in; the taint of human conflict. It accelerated the udonge's growth, which had been cured of Kaguya's curse.
Gone was the encroaching ennui of idleness, replaced by a new routine and unique stimuli. She now has a job that directly involved her in the world's affairs. And although a part of her missed the peaceful NEET days of Gensokyo, this change was exciting. For there was momentum, a wave to ride rather than calmly float on still waters. Kaguya, who had no place in Earthling society, finds her role in this world instead. Truly, getting isekai'd have done her wonders. Now, if only Mokou and Eirin were here, then it'll all be perfect.
She hears light footsteps coming towards her tent and placed the udonge in her sleeve. Her employer's acrobatic minion steps inside, "Hiya, Azula wanted me to check on you before you go. You all set?" She asked.
Kaguya turned around to face her and grinned at the sight before her. It's hard not to be excitable around the Genki Girl, what with her easy smile and outgoing, positive nature. "Course I am. I was just taking a breather."
Ty Lee widened her smile, "You're really reliable!"
Kaguya preened at the praise, "Oh please, I'm not even trying."
"Really? Could've fooled me," Ty Lee replied, "You know, you've got this one-of-a-kind aura around you."
Kaguya widened her eyes, surprised that the girl could possibly have a unique sight. The Lunarian had thought the extent of this world's magic only involved elemental manipulation, but the girl's power brought with it exciting implication. That is if she isn't lying, of course. "Really?"
Ty Lee nodded, "Yeah, it's all rainbowy and happy, and it makes me feel comfortable around you." Rainbowy? Huh, so she really was telling the truth. But enough of that, Kaguya feels like she'll collapse under the barrage of compliments. No one ever straight up told the princess they felt comfortable around her. Blinded by her presence, sure, she's been told that many times. But never comfortable. Though, as nice as it all was, Kaguya begins to question why Ty Lee was sent here in the first place. The Lunarian did not believe Azula to be so considerate as to send a trusted companion to check on her. Unless-- "Which makes me wonder why you wear a mask at all. Why hide it?"
A-hah! Very cheeky Azula, how very cheeky of her. Luckily, it isn't troublesome for Kaguya to be honest in this case. So she answers truthfully, and what better way to be truthful than to inject it with ambiguity, "Well, my face makes me stand out for all the wrong reasons." Better luck next time, Azula!
Ty Lee blinked in confusion and tilted her head, which made Kaguya squee internally. No one was ever this cute in Gensokyo! Even the fairies, who were supposed to be the cutest beings out there, were all rowdy simpletons. And the inabas especially have lost their cuteness a long time ago for Kaguya.
"Do you have a scar?" she asked, which brought Kaguya, whose head had been in the clouds, down to reality
"I've been scarred..." The Lunarian lied through omission.
"But scars make you unique!" Ty Lee exclaimed.
Kaguya scratched her cheek in thought, "Well... my face, in general, makes me too unique." Ty Lee's eyes further widen like dinner plates, which prompted Kaguya to continue before the acrobat could interrupt. "I simply wanted to be treated like everyone else, and having my face revealed conflicts with that desire."
"So you're not doing it to hide your identity?" Kaguya shakes her head which prompts Ty Lee to pout. "You're really confusing..."
"The best kinds of friends are the ones you don't always understand," Kaguya stated sagely, without really understanding what it meant. It just sounded cool to say, and what better reason is there than that?
"How can you be friends with someone you don't get?"
"How can you not?" Kaguya fires back.
"I-uh, um, ok." Ty Lee scrunches her eyebrows in confusion and moves on, "wait, are you saying we're friends?"
Kaguya shrugs and offers her hand, "Only if you want to be."
Confusion gives way to joy, and Ty Lee shakes her hand, "Only if you don't die to bandits."
"No promises," Kaguya replied, and they both laughed at that for entirely different reasons. The Lunarian moves out of the tent, ready for another exciting adventure.
This is one part of a pretty big chapter here, and I wanted to get different sections posted first before I become inactive over the next months because of uni
Also, Kaguya's story with the bandits will be shown in a Sidestory Chapter rather than the main one, since it is a side-plot and like, not very relevant to main plot for now.
As always, comments, likes, and corrections are always appreciated.
.
Kaguya lands in front of Honghui with neither a thud nor a grunt but with soundless grace. Her hair, ankle-length and jet black, resembled a black cape. Akin to the heroes found in the comic books from Kourindou, which is fitting, considering that she had jumped down to save an old man from bandits. Kaguya shifts to a regal stance that conveyed utmost confidence in her abilities. A belief that is most undoubtedly not misplaced. This,
The men stare, eyes as wide as dinner plates, and their breathing hitched. There is an undertone of desire in some of their eyes, which frustrates her to no end. She is very much used to the reaction her features aroused from mortals, which has grown rather dull over time. Kaguya had prepared such a grand entrance only to be ogled at, her efforts wasted. She curses her beauty yet again, for it added to the monotony of immortal life. Always the same reaction, always the same expression. Perhaps a mask is in order? That,
The only way now to get through their heads was violence, which she had intended in the first place. Words fail against addled minds, so something clear and decisive is needed to break through the fog. She needs to establish herself as a threat. Three men stand before her, one in the middle and two at either side. Perfect. and the pivot between.
Kaguya shifts her body into something that is reminiscent of a horse stance and pummels the middle man in the gut with her palm. With strength that belies her delicate appearance, her strike knocks the wind out of him, and he collapses to the ground. The other two were shocked out of their stupor, and their minds went into fight or flight, a feeling more primal and overwhelming than mere attraction. The Lunarian smiles to herself, satisfied that a proper battle can begin. Wisdom from a world where
The two lunge at her with spears while she procures her Lunarian Dao, which resembled a two-handed variant, from her sleeve. She holds it with a single hand and parries both strikes before backing away to a more interesting position to fight. It would not do to win on a dull, flat ground, and there was this one particular move she always wanted to try out. She blocks and parries but does not strike back. So she pretends to stagger from every hit, encouraging the two to keep pushing and pressuring her. Worms glow and speak of old dreams.
Kaguya couldn't help but giggle in excitement. The act of battle has a way of kicking her creativity into overdrive as her mind goes through thousands of permutations and tactics. Rarely do two fights end up the same, and each unique instance is something to be savoured, bringing with it new experiences and lessons, like this one. Kaguya had never been in an armed duel, as Mokou had always preferred to fight with her arms and legs. So she greatly relished the novel feeling of steel against steel as she cheerfully blocked every attack. She does so with a tad bit of theatrically, letting slip a twirl and an acrobatic jump to dodge the oncoming spears. Though it is not essential to look good while fighting, it is very entertaining.
Kaguya brings them from the porch to the very door of the house. And there it was, her chance! The man at the right slashes horizontally with his spear, starting from Kaguya's left. She ducks and let the spear pass over her.
NOW The Wheel, The Wheel,
Pushing the limits of her flexibility, she brings her leg up and pushes the spear into a wooden wall, using its momentum against it. "Aha!" she hollers in a very un-royal way, "yes!" The man tries to pull the spear out but to no avail; Kaguya had embedded the blade too deeply with her foot. The Lunarian could see from the man's eyes alone how he would respond. While parrying another stab, she brings out a right hook which prompted the bandit to release his grip and protect his head. On and on it goes Predictable Turning and
She completely halts her hook as it reaches his guard and worms her hand around his instead, grabbing hold of his forearm. Kaguya opens her mouth in pleasant surprise; everything was going according to plan. Before the bandit could grab her back, she pulls him into a headbutt, which staggers him. She follows it with a punch and an elbow to the nose, blending both attacks seamlessly. Churning,
Her eyes dart towards her remaining opponent until she notices someone else coming from the corner of her eye. More pleasant surprises! The middle man had recovered, what a resilient guy, and was charging her with his Jian. Though full of aggression, his eyes hold a calculating glint that distinguishes him from his two partners. His grip looks steady, and his charge seems intended to exploit an almost unnoticeable opening in her guard. Overall, he appeared to be the most competent of the three. So the Lunarian darts towards him and strikes him in the chest with her palm and a tad bit more force. He flies backwards and lands on his back with an "oof", which amuses her greatly. With no repose.
Kaguya switches to her last opponent and changes her grip; the Dao's blade now points towards her. She redirects a stab with the blade and uses the man's momentum against him. Her elbow meets his nose. He clutches it in pain, allowing room for her to ready her favourite move. At least one among hundreds of favourite moves with the Dao. The sword's hilt slaps his cheek and then another cheek before hitting his neck; all done in quick succession.
At this point, Honghui had left the scene a while ago, most likely entering the house from the other side, if the trail of blood were any indication. Which leaves Kaguya with the bandit's leader, who sits atop a...a...Something that looks like a mix between a horse and a chicken. Horshicken? Chickorse? Choco..bo? Yes, Chocobo!
Their eyes meet as Kaguya approaches the leader. He huffs to himself, "You want to take this fight somewhere else?" he asks. Kaguya tilts her head in askance, and the man looks away, his cheeks tinted pink. "I wouldn't want to start throwing rocks at where my men are."
Throwing rocks? Kaguya wonders if he has some kind of rock-based danmaku or an indiscriminate AOE ability. She looks back to see three motionless men lying on the ground. At least this leader is considerate but also potentially cunning. He could be leading her to a trap under the guise of nobler intentions. It would be fun to spring it, but...
Her eyes shift to the unmounted Chocobos beside the leader. One connected to a wagon while the other two stood next to the leader's mount. "Sure", Kaguya replies, "but first-"
She dashes towards the third Chocobo with great speed. By the time she had mounted it, the leader had barely started to mouth a response. Now, she wonders, how do I start? Kaguya shifts awkwardly on the saddle, looking for some biological equivalent of an ON button. Her legs move onto the spurs, and her hands hold the reins. All the while, the leader looks at her bewildered. "umm...hiya!" She swings the reins, which prompts the Chocobo to dart forward. It catches her off-guard, and she falls off the saddle, barely hanging on the Chocobo with a single arm.
Kaguya would've used her flight to stabilize herself, but this perilous feeling was much too euphoric. So she climbs, slowly but surely. Her body starts to burn from friction as the bird rapidly rose up and down at each step. It didn't help that Kaguya's face kept bumping on the saddle. Her long skirt flutters against the wind as her sleeves cover her eyes. But she grits her teeth and finds purchase, clawing her way up in a not-so-graceful manner.
Kaguya could somewhat hear the shouts of the bandit leader chasing her, and she doubles her efforts. The struggle to the top is most enjoyable. For too long, she had lived a life of diamond spoons and diamond platters, sustaining herself on mere ephemeral distractions. First, she was a prisoner in all but name, encaged within decadent red chambers before her banishment. Then she lived within Eientei's stasis under a fearful overseer, turning simple insouciance into stifling ennui. Then comes The Fool and The Magician,
But then came Mokou. Mokou, Mokou, Mokou. A human phoenix wreathed in fire and revenge, covered in her ancient ashes. Mokou showed the Princess the concepts of consequence, passion, and challenge, which lit a spark within Kaguya and gave her world colour. She was Kaguya's nebulous desires made manifest and replaced life's tedium with glorious, oh so stimulating death. Phoenix and Queen,
But her greatest gift to the Princess was something no suitor nor royalty could ever hope to give her. It was something real, realer than any simple distraction or heartfelt confessions. It was so very tangible yet abstract. A gift that the Lunarian treasures and will never forget for eternity. And in her own, twisted way, Kaguya loves her for it. Living in the pivot,
But right now, Mokou isn't here, and Kaguya has to find some other way to utilize her gift. So she chooses not to fly and struggles. With one hand on the reins and another holding its wings, Kaguya hefts herself up, and her butt lands on the saddle. "Yahoo!" She cheers, holding a dumb smile. She tests herself on the Chocobo, and once she finds a stable position, she leans forward. "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" She shouts, swinging the reins, commanding the Chocobo to go faster and faster. This feeling she feels in her heart was hers and hers alone. Given not by an extraordinary power or the generosity of others, but earned by the pride of labour. Kaguya keeps on going, knowing not where she'll end up. Away from The Wheel.
-------
Whew, managed to whip up this short chapter before things get super busy. Can't guarantee any updates on April and May, but I'll see what I can do.
Also, was very conflicted on the paragraph about Mokou's gift. I had a couple of paragraphs explaining it, but it didn't flow really well and I felt that its better for readers to guess. So I scrapped them to use for later, though hopefully this change doesn't make the chapter too confusing. Gotta keep reminding myself that less is more.
Anyways, feel free to comment, correct, and/or like. See you guys in a bit (and hopefully not next a year )
Sokka paced through the living room, his mind in overdrive. Their little trek around the lower ring had garnered more questions than answers, and the same went for Toph and Katara's investigation of the middle ring. All that's left is the higher ring and the palace, which the Dai Li has near-absolute control of. It's one reason why they haven't put any Appa posters yet; the possibility of Dai Li retaliation is too high and severe. Sokka was sure they had Appa with them, and he worries what they might do to him if the Gaang acts out of line.
"What's up with him?"
This is why they need to search for their headquarters; it's where their Sky Bison would most likely be. If they strike it fast enough, they might just be able to get the Appa out before he could get hurt or worse. Toph had sensed tunnels all around the city leading to something big under the royal palace. But again, being under intense scrutiny by the Dai Li had prevented the Gaang from conducting a more comprehensive examination. Coupled with the fact that they have to look neutral to hide their newfound ties to the military, their search was heavily hindered.
"I think he's mad."
And the disappearance cases were just the cherry on top of this dung pile of a cake. Ba Sing Se is a ticking timebomb, and having people disappear and reappear left and right was just adding fuel to the fire. Sokka wants to bang his head on a wall, the city was falling apart, and he and the gang had their hands tied behind their backs. The situation had become far too complicated. The hope for a taste of the rumoured yuckytory and Ba Sing Se's assistance during the eclipse had grown ever bleaker.
"Over what?"
Disappearance and reappearance...that sounded familiar. A soldier, his eyes glazed, lifeless, sat in an empty wagon of steel bars and locked doors—a man who disappeared and came back violent. Sokka's eyes widened like dinner plates. The military aimed to provoke the Dai Li into a confrontation where they were clearly the aggressor. The water-tribesman believes it's possible that this shady organisation would know of this plan and have thought of ways to disrupt it. But how does one turn a man crazy in a matter of days?
"I dunno, you tell me, Katara; Aang didn't say anything before he left to put up posters."
Sokka would've opened his mouth to mention why that was a bad idea, but the encroaching chill down his spine had paralysed him. He had begun to connect the dots and formulated a disturbing theory on how the Dai Li worked. He is reminded of Joo Dee and her sudden vacation to...what was it again? Sokka racks his brain for an answer but is interrupted by Aang barging into the living room. On his hand was a white tuft of Appa's fur, to the astonishment of everyone, except Toph, who stands confused.
"I got a lead on Appa; he was held in a warehouse before he was moved to a place near some lake in Ba Sing Se!" Aang exclaims.
Somewhere, in a city of prisoners, a royal fugitive holds the poster of Appa. Fury grips his heart, pumping determination through his body.
Mokou sits before a small mound of dirt. Her meditation had brought her back to a scene of the past, the ancient past. Names she had forgotten, events both grand and mundane had disappeared in her mind all the same. But this scene had endured time's erosion and stood in her memory like a beacon amidst a fog. In her long life, she had witnessed the great monuments of man and nature; destroyed some too. Uncountable in number, indescribable in their majesty. She saw snow-topped mountains that reached the heavens and great gleaming castles of stone and wood. She had walked atop hills and swam through tsunamis that swallowed cities. She saw volcanoes whose ashes covered the sky and storms that strip the land. But of all these creations, whether made by accident or design. None had loomed over her more than the mound before her—a simple mound made by a mere shovel. Where beneath it was a jar of ash.
There's a feeling of emptiness within Mokou that she cannot describe. Nebulous yet all-encompassing. It made it hard for her to focus, to concentrate. Her trains of thought derail into incoherent distractions. It didn't help that she felt somewhat lethargic, fatigued even. She centres herself and focuses on the objective. She was here to face her sins and twisted emotions to become unshackled from them. It's how she'll get to the spirit world. Kaguya is going to owe her after all this trouble; if Mokou finds her, that is.
The Fujiwara girl shifts closer to the mound, not exactly knowing what to do. She wonders how her cheeks had gotten so wet with tears. Mokou wipes them off and leans forward, mouthing words of apology, half expecting the mound to reply back. It's a pathetic, childish display, she would readily admit, but one done in the privacy of her own mind.
Perhaps it is grief that clouds her so, obscuring the way forward. So she focuses not on the despair of her parting with the one buried before her, but the pleasant memories they had together: of times spent brewing tea, catching bugs, or simply speaking to one another. Mokou smiles, comforted by the warm days of her misspent childhood. But even then, these vivid recollections are made less solid, more abstract, by the passage of time. A few had degraded into simple sensations lacking the image of the specific scene. But despite it, it was enough for Mokou, who learned to be grateful for the few things she possessed.
Then that emptiness came back, more overwhelming, harder to ignore. It gnaws at her from the inside as pain blossoms within her gut. The scene simply darkened to a deep impenetrable black, as the immortal's form wastes away. Mokou chokes when her lungs shrink, consumed by a desperate body. She would let out an annoyed groan if she could. The immortal had forgotten to eat for a few days, even before she decided to meditate. With however long this session had gone, it was likely she was dying of starvation. She mentally chides herself to be more diligent about such matters and falls to death's cold embrace. Her last thoughts were her wondering what this world's equivalent to the Sanzu would look like.
In another part of Ba Sing Se's lower ring, a lone vigilante searches for the starving immortal. After an afternoon spent fruitlessly searching, Jet is intercepted by his two comrades, Longshot and Smellerbee, in an alleyway. The former stared silently as he usually does while the latter furiously approached him.
"Ah, I was wondering where you guys were," Jet said, "I need some help finding this one firebender-"
"Jet," Smellerbee interrupted, exasperated, "I thought we were done with this stuff."
Jet fetches his notes from his pocket, " We will be, once I'm finished with this investigation", he hands her his notes, "here, that'll get you up to speed."
Smellerbee reads the notes and sighs, "Look, even if she's a firebender, so what. It's not like she's hurting anybody."
"You don't know that," Jet gritted his teeth, threatening to cut his sprigg of wheat with a bite. " she could be scheming to burn Ba Sing Se for all we know."
"Jet, do you even hear yourself?"
"I dunno, have you?" He answered in kind, "She meets up with two other firebenders--"
Smellerbee groans.
"-- And lives with them for weeks, you don't mean to tell me that they're not planning something. Now the other two firebenders live in the Higher Ring of Ba Sing Se, closer to the King. Do you know what kind of damage they can do now?!"
Smellerbee puts a hand on her temple, "Jet, just stop; you're obsessed. Didn't you say we were going straight? What happened to that? Cause this isn't it, Jet."
"Well, I was wrong," Jet spoke with great difficulty, the shame of his mistake hindering his speech. "I didn't realise it before, but now I do. We can't live our lives normally anymore. The Firenation took that away from us. You think we can just go about our day willfully ignoring that the enemy is at Ba Sing Se's gates, let alone inside the city. Smellerbee, Longshot, please," he implored, "we can't just live straight when everything is still at stake. They won't give us that chance until we beat them." He looked to Longshot in search of support, but he only stared back impassively.
Smellerbee crosses her arms, tired and disappointed, "This is how it starts, Jet, you're walking down a slippery slope. Remember what happened before we came here? We went from stealing and thieving to drowning out an entire town. What do you think will happen now? You go on to arrest a couple of firebenders, and then sooner or later, you'll start purging the entire ring. The Dai Li will catch you at this rate for being disruptive."
Jet opens his mouth to respond, but Smellerbee continues, "We lived our entire lives just, fighting. Every single day. Longshot and I just wants to stop-"
"Fine", Jet interrupted, starting to move out towards the plaza. "I'll do this myself."
And so he did, spending day after day garnering the barest of clues, alone. His only company were his thoughts, which stoked the flames of revenge higher and higher. Eventually, he struck gold, one of the refugees he questioned spoke of a sudden gathering at the slums. This "Mokou" gave her yakitori away for free and was living inside a hovel within the slums.
Jet was struck with an odd feeling, one that made his heart respond...strangely at that. Whatever it was, he suppressed it and focused on the matter at hand. It was time to reveal to the city the wolf hiding amongst them.
The Dai Li will catch you at this rate for being disruptive.
But Jet halts his advance to inform the authorities of his suspicion. That way, justice can be served.
But this "wolf" Jet had sought to reveal had already died, with its body becoming a broken, malnourished shell. However, her soul had embarked its two-way journey across the other side of the Great Divide.
It was no river that awaited Mokou after death. Instead, she finds her self floating amidst a formless blue sky. Below her were great billowing clouds that exuded a blue mystical shine, obscuring the ground below. But it was what she saw above her that gripped her heart with awe.
A white band stretched across the horizon and beyond. It undulated lazily like an ocean's current, moving without order and shimmering like the foamy edges of a wave hitting the shore. It was, after closer inspection, filled with a million twinkling lights, forming an elegant constellation made by pure chance.
All Mokou could do was stare, for there was an indescribable paralysing majesty that she could barely comprehend, pressing heavily on her soul like the weight of the sun. Thus, the cobwebs of apathy that grew over millennia were burned away by simple wonder.
For but a single moment, Mokou was a kid again, looking at a world that was oh so very large and incomprehensible, beholding nature's silent monuments with beady eyes and open mouths. She flies towards the band as if it were an oasis in the desert. Then she sees the wisps of white that made up the shining current, in the exact shape of the souls she found in the Sanzu. However, the souls before her were ferried by no shinigami but guided by some invisible force. Mokou reaches her hand into the band, hoping to be swallowed by the current. But it rejected her as the Elixir begins to take effect, and she was violently pulled into a world she did not belong to.
The Phoenix rises from her own ashes as white-hot flames reforms a formerly broken body and ragged clothes. Parts of the fire turn into wild strands of hair, starting from her head to her ankles, falling down like a red wave. Mokou disdains being resurrected, as it was to her, like being woken up from a peaceful slumber with searing pain. But she begrudgingly endures it all the same since complaining didn't help vent her frustration but instead worsened her mood.
She rises awkwardly on the mat she calls a bed while the flames that wreathed her body dies out into embers. A choking sound alerts her, and her eyes spot the kid she met at the end of her shift. Terror and confusion burned alight in his eyes as his hands tightly held the pommel of his hook blades, trembling ever so slightly. An overwhelming silence weighed upon the two, a silence Mokou breaks.
She puts her hand on her face and sighs, "You saw." she states, and Jet was too numb to nod. Mokou approaches him, "Look-" Jet backs away quickly and trips on himself, falling onto his back. He yells in a panic, bumbling his way out of the hovel. Mokou groans and follows suit, hoping he won't--
"Firebender!!!" He screams.
"Fucking hell..." Mokou transforms into a ball of flame and speeds towards Jet, who looked to have somewhat recovered from his shock. He was still yelling though, to Mokou's dismay. She reforms her body as she reaches him and grabs his arm. But before she could, a rock gauntlet traps both her hands, effectively cuffing her. A pair of robed men jumped down from the rooftops and restrained her further with more rock gauntlets, which now blocked her mouth and tied her legs. The speed at which they secured her surprised the immortal so much that she couldn't respond fast enough.
This was planned, and he was the bait all along. Damn, I should've known he was with the Dai Li.
But before Mokou decides to melt her restraints, she decides otherwise. Her cover was blown, so even if she did escape, she couldn't live peacefully anymore. Thus she comes up with a plan to rid of the Dai Li permanently. The last thing she sees before getting knocked out was Jet arguing with another pair of Dai Li before getting cuffed himself.
The Blue Spirit runs from a lone Dai Li agent through the streets in the dead of night. He had bumped into and insulted the agent, who now chases The Blue Spirit with all his fury. The masked man weaves through the Higher Ring's darkened streets, jumping from rooftop to rooftop of the gargantuan houses in which the nobles lived within.
The masked man jumps down into the streets, and the agent follows. But the labyrinthine layout of the Higher Ring helps The Blue Spirit to elude the agent. The agent's eyes dart left and right for clues, but his search ends when a sword's blade touched his neck.
"Now," The Blue Spirit began, "you're going to tell me everything."
Mokou finds herself inside a cold cell, sitting atop a stone chair to which her arms and legs are chained to. The only view she had was through a small window on her cell door, though heavily obscured by steel bars. She had woken earlier in the wagon, thanks to the Elixir, to the surprise of the Dai Li. So they had her blindfolded and her ears plugged by rocks during the entire journey to wherever she is imprisoned. All the while, Mokou plotted their demise.
She could hear talking from the outside and perks her ears up.
"---Really wants---"
"----too few--us---swamped--"
"---bender--"
"-----welcoming----"
Their footsteps drew closer before stopping in front of the door. A key enters a lock, clinking as it's twisted. Mokou beheld a mechanical orchestra as a hundred metal parts shifted to place, accompanied by the turning of copper rings and pulling springs. A dozen clicks barrage her ears, followed by the door's ugly groan.
Three men enter; one holds a lantern and places it atop a circular metal rail in front of her. "Alright, let's get this over and done with." Mokou smiles imperceptibly; this is finally it. The lantern begins to move on the rail as one of the agents speaks soothingly to Mokou. The Elixir detects an intrusion within her mind and utterly devours whatever spell it was.
Mokou ignores the man's words as she wrestles with a bit of a dilemma. If she were going to destroy whatever place she was in, it might lead to quite a few deaths. And am I really fine with that? Granted, the Dai Li were no saints, but would she stoop to their level? Mokou had spent some time reflecting on the suffering she had caused for others, feeling a deep shame for each horrible memory, which is why she is so hesitant to go through with the plan.
She sighs, wanting to hold her temples in frustration. This surprises the Dai Li, who had thought her enthralled by their spell.
"What are you thinking now?" One of them asked soothingly.
Mokou gave them an honest answer, "Whether I should kill you or not."
Jet wakes up to the sound of an explosion in the room next to his. Moments later, a hand covered in fire pierces through the cell door. The hand tears the door off its hinges with an ear-piercing metallic scream. Mokou, wreathed in horrific flames, approaches Jet, who freezes in terror. The only part of her that was truly visible was her face, as fire hid most of her body. It covered her like an extra layer of clothes, and it cut a terrifying silhouette.
She tears off Jet's restraints, "Get out," she demanded, "I'm wrecking this place."
------------------------------------
Huzzah, a couple of assignments were given an extension which has given me quite a bit of time to work on this.
And now this story has officially reached, no, past the prologue and the plot has finally started. It was fun while it lasted, writing about Mokou moping around, that is. But now is the time to kick her ass into gear. Also fun fact, simple plain ol wolves exist in the Avatar world, not just bears. I spent an embarrassing amount of time finding what other wolf x other animal combo there was other than wolfbat, only to find nothing else (excluding the wolf species in the spirit world). So I just stuck with wolf for the metaphor in Jet's POV.
Part three will involve fights and drama as everyone converges unto Lao Gai (plus will involve POVs of how the other characters got there), and it will also involve my most favourite character to write
Appa
Nah, its still Mokou, although Kaguya comes at a very close second (researching and writing up her backstory has been a really fascinating experience, but I won't tell ya why just yet ).
Anyways, did the events of this chapter come out of left field? Did certain plot threads not get enough development/build up before it reached this point? Did this chapter move too fast? Do tell, it's something I'm worried about.
Well, whichever it is, hope you guys enjoyed it!
Oh yeah also, Jet witnessing Mokou's resurrection was supposed to be in the second chapter of this story, but I went with writing about Mokou's arrival instead, which completely changed the story's direction. So here's the original scene I wrote a year ago before I dropped it. Something I felt sharing now that I've reached this point.
------
Jet is a brave and honourable man. He's a freedom fighter that bit his thumb at the armies of the Fire Nation and saved hundreds of innocent lives. He's a rogue, a hero, and a ladies man.
He is for sure not the kind of man who would let out a girlish squeal at the sight of a moving corpse. No he is not, nada, zilch. Must've been a catowl that made the sound, not him.
"uhhhh" the raspy voice came from the corpse itself, which prompts Jet to bring out his hook blades. Definitely a brave man.
The corpse points its bony finger at its head as fire suddenly appears and engulfs the firebender. The body burnt fast and bright until nothing was left.
Jet had to take a breath, he was lucky nothing else caught fire but what the hell did he jus--
"Hey." said a voice.
Jet takes a deep breath ( Because he didn't gasp) and turns to face his opponent. His hook blades stop a millimetre away from the interloper's neck as Jet takes a good look at...her...
Why is that firebender standing in front of him? More importantly, didn't he just see her die? After starving for god knows how long. Now she's...right in front of him...and not the decrepit corpse that was laying on the mat just now.
Was it a twin then? Or was his eyes playing tricks with him and that the corpse was an illusion all along. Yeah, that was pretty weird...there's no way something like that could happen...right?
"Anything I can help ya with?" The woman says unamused, she crosses her arms.
His mind is a vortex of doubt and confusion, Jet could barely concentrate on replying. "I..I-I" he says dumbly.
The Avatar was here in Ba Sing Se, looking for his sky-bison; the poster had said as much. Yet again, fate has landed opportunity on his lap, presenting the chance to wash away dishonour with success. Twice he was given the promise of that coveted salvation, and twice he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. He will not, cannot, fail, for second chances are rare, and a third rarer still. So the banished prince fuels himself with hate, incandescent and blinding. But like a muscle suffering from disuse, it had atrophied, diminished. It was weak. But there was strength still, a strength that could be replenished.
Zuko knocked out the Dai Li agent he was interrogating and ran like a man possessed, still donning his disguise. But with that inner flame dimmed, hesitation stays his feet. He's crossing a line that he can't come back from; this he knows. To capture the Avatar meant coming back to the nation, to the family that banished him and sought to hunt him down, to abandon Iroh. But such second thoughts could not stem the tide of anger and shame. He had embarrassed them long enough, and it was time to regain his honour so the world could be right again.
Zuko steeled himself and sprinted. He is done running away. The prince had strayed from his path, but now he has returned to it, and that path lead him to Lao Gai, to destiny.
From across the city, Zuko's quarry sat tensely within General Sung's residence, filled to the brim with guards. Sung paced about his living room nervously sweating bullets as Aang proposed a plan against the Dai Li. The past weeks had not been kind to the general who had aged several years, gaining numerous wrinkles and losing much of his hair. The weight of leadership, hoisted upon him through a technicality, was heavy. Sleepless nights he had spent organising and wrangling the warmongering generals whose respect he's yet to earn. And although the Military heavily outnumbers the Dai Li, the latter is better trained by far. They comprise of precise and agile agents while the military was but a dull, lumbering beast with multiple bickering heads. Even worse, the coming conflict would occur in the city, further stacking the odds against him.
Every step was precarious, every mistake fatal. Fortunately, General Sung was not a reckless man; he'd described himself as careful to a fault. Thus he would not seek defeat by a thousand well-placed cuts, choosing to achieve victory through restraint. There was already growing opposition against the Dai Li, and the Council's actions have helped grow that flame into a sort of nascent revolutionary spirit; popular support will be guaranteed. The Avatar's assistance certainly helped on that front too. But the one thing that will decide the coming conflict is the Royal Guard, who are leaning towards the Dai Li's side despite their stated neutrality. They are the key to victory, and if he could cast the Dai Li as clear aggressors who provoked the military to justifiably rebel, Sung might just be able to get them on his side.
So he needs to be careful and give the Dai Li the initiative to screw up. It all takes one small instance of unnecessary force or unreasonable arrests for Sung's screams of tyranny and bloody murder to ring across the city. The commoners will rise, and the Dai Li will respond in kind, while the Royal Guard will lose faith as the situation escalates. Sung will plunge this city into chaos to ensure his safety, for he was a cautious man who intends to sit still and watch. Ahh, "cautious" such a magical word that frames inaction and self-preservation as heroic. But his peers had ranted and raved restlessly, branding him a coward and threatened mutiny. To appease the other Generals, Sung makes one concession and allowed the troops to provoke the Dai Li instead of merely waiting. But that concession had seemed to have blown up in his face. It will not be long before the Dai Li convinces the Royal Guard that the Army has turned into a senseless well-armed mob. Time was running out, which lead back to the Avatar's potentially disastrous plan.
"Y-you have found the Dai Li's headquarters and plan to rescue your sky-bison?" Sung asked.
"Yeah, and give Long Feng a good whacking!" the water-tribe boy replied. Sung wanted to cover his face and cry; this was sounding worse and worse. Here he was trying to buy time while they plan to gamble it all away.
"What makes you so sure that it's in Lao Gai?" Sung asked.
"Toph," the water-tribe girl said, pointing at the Bei Fong kid, "can sense if a person is lying or not through their heartbeat. The old man who told us about Appa's location was speaking truthfully-"
"-But, when we asked if it was some Dai Li trap, he denied it and...well," Sokka added with a shrug, "we saw through it pretty quickly."
"Well, technically, I saw through it," Toph said, grinning.
"Yes, we get it, Toph," Sokka replied, exasperated, "you've got a good eye for detai--never mind." He took a breath to compose himself. "Anyways, since Long Feng was using Appa as leverage over us, it wasn't hard to put two and two together. We're at least sure Lao Gai is important to the Dai Li."
"Then this is a trap," Sung stated.
"Oh, we're sure, the plan's to spring it and get Appa back."
"And I assume you need some of my soldiers to aid you."
"Yes. This could be your chance to wreck the Dai Li, maybe even completely beat them," Sokka suggested, "We don't have the time to wait for an opening; we need to make one ourselves or the invasion during The Day Of The Black Sun will fail."
Sung stops pacing around to stand and think.
They're fools...or maybe I'm the fool for clinging to my position for so long?
"If you do this and if this fails, the Royal Guard will be against us, and it will be bloody. We will lose."
The kids dared to look confused. "It's an open secret that the Avatar is partnered with the military," Sung continued, "assisting you in your assault would paint the Army as the aggressors. That we have coerced the Avatar to undermine the King's authority by attempting to destroy the Dai Li."
"Well," it was the Avatar that spoke, rolling his eyes, the gall! "it's also an open secret that the Dai Li are the bad guys here. No one likes them; why would anyone support them?"
Naive.
"Yes, but the people fear them more than they hate them; this is an issue the Army is slowly fixing. But most importantly, the King loves the Dai Li; he was practically raised by Long Feng, for goodness sake!" Did the Avatar believe that his status alone would quell any opposition? The fool!
"But doesn't the Royal Guard--"
"It doesn't matter what they think," Toph interrupted, "Even if the King were some dumb bear, they'd do anything he says."
At least the Bei Fong kid had some sense about her, yet it seemed the Avatar was immune to good advice.
"Then I'll convince him," the Avatar said, "I'll rescue Appa and fly the Earth King to Lao Gai. This is the only way we can expose Long Feng and finally bring Ba Sing Se into the war."
War...Sung chaffed at the thought of it. War, war, war. He was the only one in the Council not to want it, having only joined How's faction in fear of the Dai Li. Though, if war did occur, he had trusted How to conduct it competently while Sung guarded the walls. But things are different now, and for better or worse, Sung was now the head of the Council and would be responsible for aiding the Avatar's offensive.
Invasions are a costly thing that requires perfect coordination; he at least knows that much, but to only have a few months to plan it? Many things need to happen before that, logistics, troop movements, prioritising objectives and the like. A few months is not enough, and it will be a disaster waiting to happen under his watch. Sung considers resigning after the coup but, he would be made a laughing stock. He would be known as the general who ran. That is, if he survives the current ordeal.
Please wake up How, for my sake!
"You think the Royal Guard will let you?!" Sung replied, "and what's stopping the Dai Li from destroying any incriminating evidence in Lao Gai, if that is where they operate, as you say. What's stopping them from destroying Lao Gai itself?! It will all be for nothing, I tell you."
For the first time, Sung's words seemed to have resonated with the young Avatar, who had grown silent. Sung could see the gears turning in his head, and he hoped --a rarity in these times-- that the Avatar would choose the more sensible course of action. Time was running out, and Sung would not let some upstart child with more power than he could manage, make him lose it all.
"No, you're right," the Avatar replied, and Sung breathed a sigh of relief. Then the Avatar's eyes widen, "I got it; I'll show him the drill instead!"
---------
The base under lake Lao Gai, Zuko had learned, was a sprawling underground network with tunnels all around Ba Sing Se, with the main entrance hiding in the lake itself, accessible only through Earthbending. Yet there were several other entrances around the city, with the least guarded located under a warehouse in the lower ring. Travelling there was easy; Zuko still remembered his way around from when he and Iroh worked for Pao. And though Zuko wouldn't want to relive the times he spent here, he felt the barest hints of nostalgia. It comforted him like a warm sun, despite the cold, lifeless gaze of the moon.
Zuko sped up, almost running himself ragged, and reached the warehouse. It was midnight, and he needed to capture the Bison before dawn, or the whole city will see. He reached for the door to find it locked; no good, guess he's going in the loud way. Zuko kicks the door open as it reverberates a powerful cracking sound. The former prince enters in a blur, startling a single old man holding a small crate, the only person in the warehouse. The man brings his hands up in surrender, dropping his container, which spilt out empty lanterns.
Zuko brings his broadswords on the man's neck, which petrified with fear. "Where is it?"
"W-w-w-where's what?"
"The entrance to Lao Gai."
"I've n-never heard of a Lao-" Zuko pushes his sword almost deep enough to draw blood, "You have to press a stone slab on that wall over there and the floor will open up," he points to a corner of the room littered with several crates.
"Show me."
Zuko follows the man as he pressed a hand into the wall. The floor reforms itself, creating a hole at the centre of the warehouse. Zuko stared into the abyss leading towards Lao Gai, readying himself for the infiltration.
"U-usually, the Dai Li would bring a platform up to pick up the crates, but-" Zuko knocked him out before he could finish and jumped. He could make do.
Meanwhile, the Gaang, along with a small contingent of soldiers, arrive at Lao Gai. The lake reflects the shimmering moon on its calm surface, creating the image of a white path leading into the horizon. To The Last Airbender, it felt as if Yue herself was shining the way for them, guiding them. It made Aang feel a little bit warm inside and more assured of their success. He wants to savour this warmness, to bask in it, but there's no time, there's never enough time.
"Found it," Toph smashed her foot down, and a stone pathway rises out of the lake. They find a hatch at the end of it and enter. In it, they find themselves inside a stuffy, humid tunnel that seemed to stretch from miles upon miles without end. It felt harder to move around as if there was a weight pushing down on him, and the thick hot air made it harder to breathe. The tunnels themselves appeared empty, but he could hear sounds of conversation from within the walls. On the side were sturdy metal doors leading to spirit knows where.
"Can you sense Appa?" Aang asked. The girl put a hand on the wall and shakes her head.
"This place is big, and it gets fuzzy at the edges. There's a lot of people over there, though," she points to a tunnel heading east, "they're all just sitting around in small rooms."
"Those could be the cells," Sokka posited.
"Which means our men are there," the accompanying Guard Captain said, "we'll go free them."
"We'll help," Aang said.
"No," Katara said with difficulty, "Appa's the priority here; we can help them get out after we've got Appa."
"The Dai Li could move Appa out if we take too long helping them, Aang," Sokka added.
"Right," was all Aang could say. There's just never enough time.
The Captain nodded in agreement, "You kids find your sky-bison, and we'll create a distraction." And that was that.
Further east of the Gaang's location was Zuko, who was heading north into the storage area. But first, he had to cross the prison without alerting any of the guards or prisoners themselves. He spots a pair of Dai Li coming his way, and he hugs the wall as much as possible, hiding behind a small pillar. He could beat them, sure, but they could warn the others, and he'll be swarmed soon after. Using firebending wouldn't do either; the prisoners would hear it, and they'll raise hell.
Think Zuko, think!
His heart sank bit by bit as they draw near. This could be it, all or nothing. Time slows down for the royal fugitive as he clenches his fist and works up the courage to fight. Zuko quickly rises and--
Boom!
"What was that!"
"I think that came from block 2-A"
"That prisoner?!"
Zuko peeked out to see the Dai Li's backs towards him and breathed a sigh of relief. Now it was time to find that sky-bison.
Mokou dashed out of Jet's cell; the kid in question still sat there with fear shining in his frozen eyes. Perhaps she had overdone it? It's hard to know sometimes. Whichever the case, she had a base to wreck. Fire materialised around her arms, reaching towards her wrist, forming an incandescent ball of flame. All it takes is a snap to turn the whole place and the land around it into a crater. Just a snap, then everything would go back to normal, or at least a new normal where she gets to meditate in peace.
A man jumps out of Mokou's cell, and she prepares to engulf the entire hallway in flames. But Mokou stopped herself. She had almost given in to her bloodlust so casually despite everything she had done. It lingers at the corner of her mind, a seductive whisper that lulls her into sweet apathy and thoughtlessness, left unsatiated without Kaguya's presence. The stain of three hundred years.
But she's better now; now she takes control. Mokou dodged the Dai Li's gauntlets and let loose a smaller ball of flame. He barely avoided it thanks to his training, but it didn't matter. The ball exploded beside him and pushed him with enough concussive force to knock him out, or at least Mokou hoped it did. When he didn't get up, she moves into her former cell to see the remaining agents knocked out too.
Fire hugs her form as she advances deeper into the prison, but a group of Dai Li intercepts her. It was five of them against one of her. A dozen rock projectiles are fired at her, and Mokou fuelled the flames covering her without bothering to dodge. Like mad dogs free of their leash, the flames burst out with wild abandon and gave even the Dai Li pause. But it was a careless move; an arrogant move meant to intimidate the fearless. The smaller rocks disintegratd, while the rest melted into yellow molten orbs and lands on her skin, sizzling --digging into her body. The pain was extreme, but she was still able to focus, able to fight even when parts of her skin were peeling off.
The Dai Li saturated the tight tunnel with more projectiles, while two of them climbed up the ceiling, quickly advancing towards Mokou in a bid to flank her. The Fujiwara girl dodged with violent sweeping movements within the cramped space. She could feel her lungs start to burn with exhaustion, but it mattered little if she grew tired quickly, she could always get a new body. But despite her ferocity, the Immortal's retaliation was remarkably timid, launching an occasional fireball or two. A stone pillar rose behind her and fell, forcing Mokou to feed it to the hungry flames, disintegrating the pillar with a wave of her hand. But it distracted her and gave the Dai Li pair an opening to exploit, falling unto her from the ceiling.
"You got anything, Toph?" Sokka asked; the quiet was getting to him, and he couldn't keep himself from twitching at every corner.
"Nothing yet, and I'm not sensing anyone else but us," she replied.
"Looks like their distraction is working," Katara added, "we need to hurry this up."
"Look, chief," Toph chastised, "Appa's a pebble compared to this place, so if you've got a faster way of doing this, then I'm all ears."
"Ughh," Sokka groaned, "why can't we just find someone to interrogate instead? This is going to take us days."
"Well, lucky us, I'm sensing someone further ahead," Toph sarcastically informed, "we could talk to him."
"Wait, just one guy? You're not seeing anyone else?"
Toph stops and scrunches her eyebrows, her hand touching the damp centuries-old stone of Lao Gai. Her senses sharpen, picking the ambient vibrations with ease. The world gains a kind of clarity only she could experience, and for a moment, she was blind no longer. Toph focuses on the beating heart of the individual ahead, who sticks out like a sore thumb. "There's a lot of background noise but, he's the only one I can sense clearly. He's just...standing there."
"Only him?" Katara worriedly asked.
"It's a trap," Sokka said.
"Definitely some kind of trap", Aang replied, nodding sagely as if dispensing some ancient Airbender wisdom. Sokka also nodded sagely in agreement.
The Gaang cautiously approached the door leading to the individual. Toph sensed he was in a rather large room, maybe some kind of storage room, she posited. Though strangely enough, she didn't perceive anything in that room that could be a trap; no gears or intricate machinery, just nothing. The room ahead was, to her senses, rather plain. Not that the others knew, of course, and when Sokka asked her to "untrap the traps", she was happy to oblige.
Toph embedded her foot deep into the ground, creating tremors that threatened to collapse Lao Gai. The Gaang kick the door down to find Long Feng surrounded by debris, yet unscathed. The room was a mess, with parts of the ceiling gone and the floor a twisted mess. Though no water had leaked, they must be far below the lake. Feng raised his arms in surrender, but his smile said otherwise.
"I was worried you would never come," Feng spoke jovially, "forgive me, I had an entire welcoming party for you but...It seems I didn't account for other guests. So you will have to do with just me."
"Where's Appa!" Aang yelled.
"Safe, hidden in one of our storage rooms, healthy and fed."
Water spilt out of Katara's gourd, wrapping around the waterbender, Sokka brandished his boomerang, as Aang and Toph looked on silently, with the latter on the lookout for new arrivals.
"If we find a single hair out of place..." Katara threatened, but Feng's smile grew just a bit wider.
"Not to worry, it wouldn't do to trade damaged goods," he assured.
"Trade?!" Aang exclaimed.
"Yes, trade, that is why I'm here, alone. To negotiate."
"Oh, we're far past negotiating, pal," Sokka said; gone was that boyish cadence, replaced by a voice filled with authority.
"Oh, are we?" Long Feng asked with a raised eyebrow, feigning surprise, "That is unfortunate," he sighed, "well, since that bison is of no use now..."
"You wouldn't dare!" Katara yelled.
"Oh but I would. Do not underestimate a man with nothing to lose, child."
Nothing to lose? Aang looked on with surprise; he never thought the Dai Li would be so desperate. Aang didn't consider this possibility at all as dread sets in.
"Yeah?" Sokka asked, " and what's stopping us from knocking you out right now?"
"Nothing. But good luck finding the bison. Let's see if you could reach it before my men finish off your little distraction or before he's shipped off somewhere else." And he was right; time was on his side.
Aang, wracked with indecision, could only stare at Feng's insufferable smirk. He had been outmanoeuvred--no, rather, he had foolishly faced this issue head-on with little preparation, his excitement, his impatience, had gotten the better of him. Even worse, the longer this went on, the stronger Feng's position was. He considered just knocking him out, but finding Appa would be a huge uncertainty. Aang couldn't help but clench his fists. "If we talk, you promise to give Appa back?" he asked.
"I will," he said sincerely. Aang looks at Toph, who nods. Truth.
The Dai Li laid unconscious within burnt tunnels filled with smoke and debris. Craters littered the floors and the walls, defiling the centuries-old structure made during more civil times. The Phoenix, in the shape of a human covered in ash and soot, surveyed her surroundings, remarking how fragile the world around her was. Fighting without intent to kill was like walking on a field of eggshells. She only had two modes for fighting, either harmless danmaku (in which she could fight with lethal intent without actually killing) or brutal murder. Trying to place herself in the middle was difficult, and she had to experiment through trial and error; the injuries wrought by jagged stone were proof of that. Now she stood, bruised, bleeding, and dying. Blood covered her eye while her body was a swollen red mess. But worst of all, she was starting to get pissed.
There's a constant ringing in her ears, maybe some kind of alarm or had something hit her head? No dark spots, then it must be the former. She was at the crossroads between four tunnels; two were closed off by debris that covered from floor to ceiling while unconscious bodies littered the third and fourth. More Dai Li, numbering at six pairs, seeped out from the third firing rock columns all the while. Another pair recovered the bodies and retreated back into the tunnel, sealing it with a stone barrier. They're trying to contain her.
Let them try.
Three pairs stood on the floor; two clung to the walls, one stuck to the ceiling. No side was safe, and any fireballs she shot were quickly intercepted. It was a solid formation.
There's a rumbling beneath her feet, and she took flight, dodging the rising spikes. It distracted her, and she hovered with gritted teeth as she took blow after blow; her body was nearly beaten to a pulp. Mokou swerved, blocked, and fired back, but her restraint had made any retaliation ineffectual, and every move was more laborious than the last. They were testing her patience. Her only chance to finish this was through overwhelming force, without it being lethal, a near impossibility. To her, there was little distinction between adequate force and overkill. At least now she has the opportunity to break bad habits and become more creative.
Her side of the tunnel deformed into spikes, pillars, and walls that limited her range of movement. Right, the environment was as much the enemy as they were, and this was Lao Gai, their home. She took more blows now and was at the edge of death, despite the Elixir's powers. Mokou was cornered and faced the real possibility of dying over and over again. They had forced her hand.
With a yell, she zoomed towards their centre. The Dai Li propped up barriers and sharp obstacles, but she smashed through them all, earning a broken arm and another gash on her stomach.
CRACK
CRACK
CRACK
They were unyielding; she was unstoppable. Her foot kicked an agent's jaw before landing on the floor and kept going. Mokou propelled herself with a jet of fire, all while superheating her body. She tunnels through, going underground, looping around a tight arc and emerging from the ceiling, collapsing it.
Mokou smirked savagely as she kicked the Dai Li pair falling with her to both walls, disrupting the others. The agents below her erected shelters from the oncoming debris. She opened her mouth and fired a beam. They didn't stand a chance.
Fuelled by a bloodthirsty high, she exploded towards a recovering pair. She was smiling wide now, battle and violence was her drug, and she was a junkie. It was a miracle she managed every attack to be just short of lethal. Mokou crashed, they fell. But this high had made her even more sloppy. She missed a pair.
The surviving Dai Li duo had waited and listened, now was the time to strike. A spike protruded out of the ground; it was immensely sharp, a testament to their focus and training. It rose with speed and precision, going through her chest. Mokou noticed her heart first before feeling pain. She spat blood and saw red. Despite seeing their comrades fail, the remaining Dai Li still fought on.
They were fearless.
She was furious.
They were cold and calculating.
She was apocalyptic.
BOOM
She was on them in an instant, smashing one agent's head on the wall, again and again, while screaming a bestial scream. His head was sturdy and did not break, fueling her rage. The other agent pulled her off with his surveyor chains, but she used the momentum to headbutt him instead. They tumble down, and a struggle ensues. The man she wrestled was well built, but Mokou, with one good hand and a missing heart, overpowered him. Feral instinct had won over diligent training.
She dug her thumbs into his eyes and prepared to heat it with fire. Her eyes were wild and wide while cold satisfaction seeped into her burning veins. The man screamed as if knowing what would happen next. I broke him, her rage addled mind noted with delight before the thought was washed away by her internal screams. Mokou's smile was a horrific visage of blood, drool, and broken teeth. She wanted to hurt him really bad like it was the only thing worth doing.
But before her fingers even warmed up, instinct gave way to judgement, and she punched him instead, screaming in rage. Mokou had crashed from her high, and it made her think, regret, and notice the piece of stone still lodged in her chest.
Too close.
It seemed she still was not used to this 'fighting without lethal intent' thing. But it was worth it, she reminded herself. It was all to prevent falling down a slippery slope into barbarism. Like she once did. To be in control was to be human; to be wild was to be beastly. Being human was good. It meant saving the parts of herself she's slowly losing. It meant...
Mokou coughed up a torrent of blood that had flooded her broken lungs. Her vision darkened; she was drowning. Her eyes spot the wall that sealed the tunnel. Whatever it is on the other side must be important, though she bets there was more waiting for her there. No matter, that means she'll have more opportunities to practice.
She hobbled towards it as the world grew darker. The Elixir maintained her heartless body, but it was a matter of time before blood loss sets in. She was running on fumes. Mokou touched the wall and smiled to herself. The Hourai Immortal needed a new body, but it would be a shame to waste her recovered energy to go through the wall. So she decided to hit two birds with one stone. Mokou heats the surrounding temperature causing the debris, alongside parts of the surrounding walls, to melt like wax. As solid turns to liquid, Mokou walks through the viscous, lavalike material. It sizzles and burns off her skin, leaving only muscle and frayed nerves while the Elixir worked overdrive to regenerate her skin. The pain was, like always, extreme, but she didn't bother to scream, having grown used to worse.
The Dai Li at the other side, who were battle-hardened men, gaped in horror at the red flesh-thing emerging from its waxy womb. The birth of a monster. It flopped to the ground once it went through, causing them to stir. Every part of the men wanted to run, freeze, or puke but training had overridden these impulses, and they formed a defensive formation. That was what made them elite.
Mokou's body twitched involuntarily as fire covered her form, creating flesh and blood from thin air. She rises, reinvigorated, and immediately dodges an oncoming gauntlet. Sharp stone needles embed themselves at her side, and she turned to throw a fireball. It explodes, but she didn't have the time to concentrate on its effect, shifting her focus quickly on the other Dai Li. A pillar rises from the ground, aiming for her stomach; it stands between her and an agent. How pathetic. Fire wraps around her hand and superheats it, allowing her to slice it off and charge, ignoring the many rocks pounding her side.
Practice. She needed practice.
------
Jet was numb, zombie-like. He walked through the debris and saw the Dai Li agents all knocked with injuries of varying severity. The destruction went further on and he saw more bodies past the liquefied debris that was once a wall. There's a hole in the ceiling, and he wonders who could've made it.
No, that was a stupid question. It was Mokou. That dull reticent food vendor wasn't human. She was a monster. For the first time in a long while, Jet felt a primal fear.
His ears barely registered another wall crumbling down and what came out was not Dai Li, but rather the army.
"Captain," one soldier called out, "I think I know why resistance has been pretty light."
The 'Captain' followed out and cursed in surprise. His eyes find Jet and walked towards the freedom fighter, "do you know what happened here, was there another prisonbreak? Are you deaf son--"
"F-" Jet began, "f-firebender."
------
It was here.
Zuko had finally found the bison whose limbs were chained to the ground. It was a good thing his information was reliable. Otherwise, it would've taken him far too long traversing this cesspit. Plus, whatever was happening in the prisons had the guard's attention, making the bison's capture much easier to pull off; another stroke of luck. It was as if the universe was sending a message to him; finding the bison was his destiny.
He hears the door open behind him and turns around.
It was Iroh.
-----
"What do I want?" Long Feng asked, "it might surprise you, but How's condition was not my doing."
"What's your point?" Katara asked.
Long Feng's eyes grew serious, losing whatever cordial quality he had exuded, "We believe it was caused by a third party, in an attempt to orchestrate a civil war."
Sokka crossed his arms, "Sure you did; I guess all the random kidnappings in the city was caused by someone else too?"
"If I wanted to end the military," he growled, " I would've been far more thorough. With only How gone, it has put the Dai Li in a crisis. The Council under him were united, stable, and predictable. We were at odds, yes, but there were certain things we tacitly agreed never to jeopardise. The city's peace was one of them. Now, look at the military, scattered and chaotic, rousing its soldiers and the people into open rebellion. Though each general wants to defeat us, they follow completely separate goals."
"And you're any better?" Aang shouted, noting he didn't answer Sokka's question, " why do you think they want you gone in the first place?"
"We keep the peace."
"You push everyone down so you can have all the power you ever want. Maybe the Council right now are just like you, but at least they see the bigger picture; they want to fight the Firenation!" Aang was at his wit's end trying to explain what was so obvious to him.
"Perhaps," Long replied, to the surprise of the Gaang. Was he finally seeing reason? "let me give you a generous offer then. If you help me find whoever perpetrated this crisis, I will release your bison and give you elements of the Dai Li and the Royal Guard to assist in your invasion. They are the elite of the elites and will serve you well in whatever you seek to accomplish beyond these walls."
"You want us to work with you?" Aang asked.
"Is not the Avatar's purpose to bring stability and peace to the four nations? You mustn't let your immature view of the world keep you from fulfilling your intended purpose. One can't always choose their allies."
Aang clenched his fists in anger but chose not to say a word. Staying in Ba Sing Se was becoming more and more unproductive, and he would be damned to leave empty-handed, and without Appa.
But on another part of Lao Gai, one woman became more and more frustrated and mentally exhausted over her battles. She knew the Dai Li could be broken, so she needed some way to intimidate them, to scare them off; Mokou fires a searing beam upwards. It works a little too well.
Before Aang could even reply, a large boom reverberated around him, and his world shook. Toph noted a single Dai Li agent was coming before they entered the room, "Sir, we need to evacuate now!" The ceiling cracked, and water gushed out. Katara and Aang pushed it back, and Toph sealed it.
"What's just blew up?!" Sokka exclaimed.
"The firebender, sir, " the Dai Li informed, "she's escaped, and we can't contain her."
Feng's reply was cold, "Are you telling me we're abandoning Lao Gai because of one individual?" he questioned. Another cracked formed, and out came more water. The world had given him its answer. " If the water's reached this far down...dammit! Gather your men and follow me" he ordered.
The fight scenes had to be trimmed a bit because it was full of explanations that slowed down the frenetic pacing, so I'm saving it for the next chapter. Though I'm still iffy about the middle parts of this chapter, might revise again later. Also, I hope I didn't go too far with the gore.
Also coming up in the next chapter: Iroh confronts Zuko, Jet is tad scared, and the Great Escape. Oh and Kaguya is captured and stuff.
Without Mokou and Mushi, the Tea House had lost what meagre brilliance it had. It was rough for old Pao, and he thought things were finished when Mokou up and left without a word. Just gone, with nary a hint of her ever existing. But the world moves on; he moved on however he could. Mokou and Mushi's dishes had left him with a fortune and some popularity. It was a good place to start. He then hired new waiters and cooks to alleviate the burden on his ageing body. And though he can never quite emulate Mokou and Mushi's dishes, Pao's Tea House managed to be full nearly every day. The Teahouse rarely had a quiet moment as the noisy song of lively conversation filled his ears. Each day had him sporting a wide smile as his coffers grew fuller and fuller. Though he was quite curious why it was mainly soldiers nowadays who filled his shop. They come in large groups and say the darndest of things, but no matter, it wasn't any of his business.
In short, Pao was happy now. Mokou and Mushi had given him the momentum to succeed and to keep succeeding. Money had long since been an issue, letting him bask in newfound prosperity. But as always, there were blemishes on an otherwise picturesque scene.
Fights had started to break out, abrupt and violent, always involving a soldier. So he started hiring security, but they only helped stop fights rather than prevent them. Even worse, more brawls began to occur, and his guards were pushed to the breaking point. Pao played with the idea of banning soldiers outright, but he'd lose most of his revenue. Besides, they might be angry enough to just barge in anyway if he did. So he was back to square one.
Pao wondered where all this aggression was coming from, had there been some sort of scandal within the army? Could it be something to do with the war? Pao would like to ask around, but the walls have ears.
So he hired some more guards and kept going business as usual. He would be like stone and endure whatever troubles may come.
Until he couldn't.
"Screw the Dai Li!" one soldier had shouted, drinks in hand, "there's a thousand of them and a million of us. What gives them the right to boss us around?!"
"Shut up," his friend furiously whispered, "you want to get arrested again? They might hold you longer this time."
"Bah!" he scoffed, "that's cause they jumped me; I'm ready for em this time."
"You ain't ready for--"
"I said I'm ready," he bellowed, flipping the table over, shattering plates and glass. The room's atmosphere had up and left, now replaced by an air of caution and danger. A guard came up to him to ask the soldier to leave. The soldier stood there, quiet and even surprised, and despite the guard's prodding, stood there for several moments. His arms quickly gripped something in his pocket and charged the guard.
Madness. Madness and carnage ensued.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Rocks fall, water seeps, and a ceiling crashes on the Gaang. Lao Gai was falling apart from the weight of the lake itself. Whatever it was that caused the explosion had brought the base crumbling on its knees, screaming. The thunk of falling rocks signalled Lao Gai's death cry. Aang was close, very close to Long Feng, until a broken section of the base had separated the two. Moving it would take too long, even with Toph's help. But he tried all the same.
"Are you insane? Aang, we need to leave!" Sokka cried out, almost begging him to do so.
"Feng knows where Appa is! We can't just leave Appa to die, not again!" Aang yelled back, the thought of Appa dying alone, imagining his panic as his cell filled up with water, " I-I can't, we can't!" a part of the ceiling fell next to him. Toph widened her stance and pushed her arms up to prevent any more pieces from falling again. Aang had noticed Katara's arms on his shoulders, eyes peering deep into his. It surprised him; he hadn't noticed how she got this close.
"Aang, we need to go now." She firmly spoke, trying to summon all she could to seem strong. But Aang could see the subtle panic in her eyes, how they jittered with fear and how her fingers had dug bone-deep into his body. "You need to let go of Appa, Aang. I'm-I'm so sorry," tears had welled up in the edges of her eyes, and Aang found it difficult to see as his vision blurred.
"Katara...He's all I have." Appa was one of the few links he had to the past, for Sozin's war. But, with Appa gone, that part of him grew empty, and the words "Airbender" rang all the more hollow.
"You've got us, Aang," Katara yelled, shaking him. "You have us!" Aang tried looking away, but Katara was persistent and forced his eyes to stay on hers, "come on, Aang, please", she spoke, her voice on the verge of breaking. The two stared silently at each other, whole conversations occurring through only their eyes, all the while Toph grunted from keeping the ceiling intact. Katara had knew it then, but it was so painfully clear, as she stared at Aang, that the Avatar, the one destined to defeat the Fire Nation, was really just a kid. Carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, a world that sought to break him, forcing him to choose between love and duty. There was no escaping it, no matter how hard he tried. That was just how things were.
Finally, with despair written on his face, Aang nodded, accepted it, and now lived with it. Appa was truly gone now, and all that's left was saving his friends. "Let's go," he spoke quietly, sounding defeated.
"Oh no, take your time, twinkle toes, don't mind me just bearing the weight of the entire lake here. No biggie." Toph chided.
"Oh shoot s-sorry," he replied, reinforcing the ceiling as Toph held it together, all the while Katara sealed up and cracks with ice. "That should do for now." The Gaang ran like the wind; well, Aang did. Toph swam through the rocks while Katara glided over seeping waters. Sokka just ran as best he could, panting like a moo-sow.
"Hurry it up, Sokka!" Toph demanded.
"I-" he sucked in a deep breath, "what do you think I'm doing?"
"Tch, screw it," Toph launched Sokka with a flick of her wrist and caught him in a bridle carry, "heavy!"
"Oh, I'm so not gonna live this down," Sokka cried.
"Least you'll live, dummy!"
The Gaang took a turn into a tunnel, only to be pelted by a wave of heat and steam. "Heck's this?" Sokka asked.
"Someone's been boiling the water," Katara murmured; she gave Aang a wary look; as if her panicked eyes spoke, "Firebender". Was Long Feng right about this whole third-party spiel? They didn't have time to think it over. Aang sucked in a deep breath and blew. Steam and heat gave way, revealing a tunnel littered with the prone bodies of the Dai Li, groaning and drowning in sweat, struggling to even breathe. At the centre was a woman dressed in white and red, blasting a solid pillar of flame into a large hole; a new torrent of steam flooded the tunnel.
"The steam's killing them," Aang murmured; he took a wide stance, and so did Toph, and with a solid push, sealed up the hole the woman was blasting into. Yet the firey pillar still stood and threatened to break the seal; it seemed the woman was on a world of her own. "Stop her!" Sokka was way ahead of Aang, and after jumping off Toph's arms, he threw his boomerang, which bounced off the woman's head with a clunk! The flame abated, but the Gaang had her attention and met her baleful red eyes, seeming less human and more feral with her mouth openly displaying teeth.
"Looks like Long Feng's right," Katara said as his boomerang flew back to him, "someone else had been messing around in Ba Sing Se. What do we do now Aan--"
The woman was upon them in a boom, launching herself right at Toph, who raised a wall that melted on contact.
Aang and Katara tried freezing her in place, but the water boiled before it could reach her. By then, Toph was standing an arm's length from the woman; Toph threw a boulder at her, who, with one hand, redirected the rock back towards Toph. Aang sped forward and broke the boulder with his arms while Katara sent out a water whip, which boiled into steam. A haze of heat surrounded the woman, one that distorted her surroundings, a shield that was impervious to waterbending. But there must be a weakness or a trade-off. There must be.
Aang blew a strong gust of wind that arrested the woman's flight. She planted her feet to the ground, melting the stone beneath and submerging said feet, giving her support against the wailing wind. The two stared each other down as if locked in a contest of wills.
"So you're the reason this place is falling apart," Aang spoke tensely.
"Blame the Dai Li," the woman spoke with gritted teeth, slowly inching forward against the intensifying wind, "they brought this on themselves."
"So you're gonna burn it all down? What about everyone here? They're all going to die because of you!" that got her attention, and her feral eyes widened in realisation and shock but only momentarily.
Mokou chided herself mentally as she stared the kid down. But, having been frustrated from her earlier battle, Mokou cared a bit less. In the end, it was all just practice, the deaths of the Dai Li were regrettable, but it wasn't intentional. To her, that was progress, the first step towards betterment. She showed restraint for once in a century. And besides, there's always another time, for she had time aplenty. Starting with this kid.
Mokou started walking forward, pushing against the wind as her burning feet sunk at every step. The short Dai Li kid summoned a pillar of stone behind Mokou and willed it to fall on her, a smart move. If it liquefied from her heat, the slag would melt her. She couldn't dodge it either thanks to that strong gust of wind. So the Immortal took it instead, letting it smash her into the ground; something in her sternum cracked, and she had the wind knocked out of her. The Elixir had begun knitting the broken pieces together, no matter how much easier it would be to just die. No, she was forced to live through this torture instead. A prisoner in her own body.
The pillar receded and so did the wind. The bald kid stood over her with his stick pointing towards Mokou, "Who in the Fire Nation sent you? Why do all this?" Mokou's heart skipped a beat, shocked. They knew, just like Jet did, they knew of Zuko and Iroh. Of course, they did; why stop her from destroying this base? They were with the Dai Li. Which meant Iroh would be in danger, and that would not do.
"Who was it, Azula? Zuko?" The tan girl had asked after she had noticed Mokou's shock.
The Immortal let out a deep sigh, "dammit," she murmured. Mokou tried to rise, despite the painful protest in her chest, but the little Dai Li restrained her arms and legs with rock and stone.
"Stay down," the little one commanded.
"No," Mokou whispered between ragged breaths, willing herself to move, "I can't let you leave."
She felt her stone restraints tighten, "Aang, hurry it up."
The bald kid, Aang, prepared to knock her out, but Mokou had other plans. Her mouth blasted hot flame, forcing the four kids to retreat. The force, the recoil of the blast, unhinged her jaw, which the Elixir fixed, only for it to be broken again. So came a cycle of mending and breaking, which would only end if she stopped breathing fire. But it was only the beginning.
The fire intensified into a hot solid beam, a molten laser that burned white. The kids dodged it, but barely, their bodies scalded by the discharging heat. Slowly the beast that Mokou once was seeped into her mind, fueled by pain. She started to see red. A single-minded focus to fight had overtaken her judgment; after hours of fighting and the frustration that came with restraint, she was beginning to lose total control.
The beam pierced the base's walls, creating new holes for the lake to flood into. More of the ceiling began to crack, slowly taking the kid's stone seal with it.
Aang was not a violent individual. Nor was he quick to anger, but the fresh pain from accepting Appa's death, which this woman had some hand in causing, coupled with the near-death of his friends... He wasn't feeling very charitable. One could say he was feeling unpleasant.
Aang let out several jabs, launching several air blasts on the restrained woman, finishing it with one solid kick. A pillar of stone rose below her, shutting her mouth and killing the beam. Mokou tried to open her mouth again, but she was struck by invisible punches to the head. Mokou recovered quickly and broke out of her restraints, only for the ground to shake her off balance.
With slow and purposeful movement, Toph shattered the ground into several floating boulders, launching them at the woman. She dodges them deftly, like a natural.
With the pressure on, the woman wasn't able to summon her shield, allowing Katara to get water to creep under the woman's feet and turn them to ice.
Mokou nearly slipped, but that pause allowed one human-sized boulder to crash into her, mauling her right side. It became clear to Mokou that these four (three perhaps? The tanned boy wasn't doing much.) were the Dai Li's ace in the hole and the momentum was on their side. It was time to flip the table.
She raised her good hand, and with a snap of her finger, Mokou shot scores of fireballs at the kids. But getting the shot out had allowed another boulder to crash into her from behind.
The woman fell to her knees, but the Gaang were pushed to the defensive. Aang jabbed at the firey projectiles, extinguishing them while sidestepping from the ones he couldn't. Katara covered herself in a cloak of water while commanding a floating stream to slap away the larger fireballs. Toph built herself a thick wall, which Sokka also hid behind.
However momentary it was, Mokou had allowed herself time to breathe, time to think. The Immortal kicked her leg out and launched another fireball onto the stonewall. Then, with practised precision, she brought her leg down in a blur to shift into Bow Stance: One leg lunged forward and both fists facing towards the enemy. A gout of flame blew out of her fists, following the fireball. The wall didn't stand a chance.
It broke immediately, and the gout of flame swept Toph and Sokka away, "Sokka!" Katara called out in shock. The waterbender didn't notice the sharp blade of flame that cut through her armour and slammed her away.
That seemed to piss the kid off. In a blink, Mokou found herself pushed into a wall enclosing itself on her. She had been blown quite far by that gust of wind, the same wind that kept her still within the rock.
"You hurt my friends," Aang yelled, "and you get Appa killed! What is wrong with you?"
Mokou was too deep into bloodlust to even comprehend his words. All she could think of was the fight.
"I'll kill you all," she slurred out, laughing, "like I did Appa!" The name sounded familiar, but she couldn't remember exactly why. Thinking in general was difficult for Mokou in her blood-drunk state. It must've been another Dai Li agent...
Another blink and the kid floated face-to-face with Mokou, eyes glowing white. Mokou could sense an almost ethereal, otherworldly presence from the boy. Souls upon souls upon souls, looking down on her with contempt. She was being judged by an entire cosmos of people.
"Reincarnation," she murmured to herself, eyes wide with curiosity, "immortal, like Akyuu..." A thousand generations, connected to a single soul, one larger than hers, Mokou reckons. Perhaps enlightenment can be achieved by assimilating it, as she once did with the Ho-ou of the past.
Something burned in her heart, something resembling hope. Hope mixed with bloodlust. Maybe it could be her cure, to hijack whatever reincarnation cycle was occurring within that body, this vessel, so she may be freed of her memories and be born anew. He might be her way out.
She just needed to find a way to pluck his soul, and a fight against him would give her the opportunity to learn.
Mokou smiled a beastly smile, one that would have set Kaguya's heart to race. In the end, no matter how many times Mokou would push her away, they were two rotten peas in a pod.
"How dare you!" A thousand voices spoke at once, forming a choir of rage, "to take life as if it were nothing!" the gust intensified and pushed her deeper, "who are you to decide! Who are you to mock our sorrow!"
Her body heated up, causing the walls to melt, leading Mokou into the lake. She boosted herself out of the shrinking lake and into the surface obscured by a tower of steam. Half the lake had just been boiled.
"Don't you dare run!" the voices spoke. Mokou had no idea where it was coming from; she could barely see past her arms from all this fog.
"I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere! Come, show me the depths of your soul!" She spread her arms out as if to taunt the kid.
The lake-sized tower of steam begins to undulate, moving as one. The sky revealed itself as Mokou's vision cleared, and the steam pillar had condensed into a ball resting on the kid's open palm. The boy floated above Mokou, "You need to go down," he commanded.
Voom!
She didn't even see the kid shoot it, but a thousand years of fighting had helped her narrowly dodge the condensed ball. But the ball had distracted her from the real attack. A water whip from below had slammed her onto the shore. Her ribs cracked, and she could feel a burning pain all over her body. This kid was good.
The ground below had split into a chasm, but Mokou flew out before it could shut itself. She stared at the floating kid preparing another set of attacks.
The Immortal grinned, "my turn."
Outside Ba Sing Se, Azula stood out of her camp to stare into the sky. A beam of solid red had reached into the world's ceiling, gradually changing its colour to yellow, then blue, then white. Perfection.
And by the base of the Tree of Time, a pale-haired woman dressed in red and blue had finished speaking with an ancient evil.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Been another hot minute eh? Honestly, I should probably post my outline in case the next hiatus becomes permanent. This is what I got done, for now, the next part will involve the fight in full, and Zuko and Iroh's argument. Lots of stuff in the story had been modified/shuffled in the meantime, like the Great Escape becoming more metaphorical than it was literal in this chapter, and things that were meant to be revealed later on, are now shown much earlier, for example.
The flames flickered on a boat's edge, reflected on the lake as a sun amongst a sea of stars. No lantern contained the flame, sitting still on the rowboat. Under Mokou's watch was it subdued, never to grow unless permitted. And beside her was Kaguya, who leaned furtively under the watchful gaze of the moon, her sharp chin stabbing into Mokou's shoulder. It didn't bother the Phoenix. This pain was nothing compared to all the things she'd been physically subjected to by the Lunarian, whose mind held a depraved inventiveness. Though it was nice of Kaguya to ask if it was annoying her, to which Mokou merely grunted.
The Immortals stared out into the still waters of Misty Lake, with Mokou's rough sand-paper hands gripping a bamboo fishing rod that was primitive even for her standards. There hadn't been a tug for the past half-hour, so the pair sat silently on the boat. Naturally, it was Kaguya who broke it first, "You made quite a racket yesterday," she said, her voice an effortless song. Mokou searched her memories for any deaths or battles that day but came up with nothing. Another fabrication from Kaguya, possibly, it was something of a habit. "And you scared dear Eirin too," that stretched Mokou's suspension of disbelief. Fear wasn't a concept one would attach to the good doctor. Kaguya, perceptive as she was, sensed Mokou's scepticism, "Why are you looking at me like I'm lying?" There was a hint of bewilderment, genuine bewilderment, in her voice.
"You're bored," Mokou stated gruffly, "You'll say anything to pass the time." She grunted; there was something in her chest.
"Oh, don't be such a boor," Kaguya whined, moving her lips into a pout, "I'm not trying to trick you right now. Honest!" Mokou wondered if the Lunarian really was over a thousand years old. It was hard to tell sometimes. Regardless, Kaguya seemed to have embraced eternal infantility, the woman-child that she was.
"You know why I don't give the benefit of the doubt?" Mokou began, "Here's a recent example: twenty years ago, you tried convincing me my hair had a pH of zero."
"But--" There she goes again, trying to weasel her way out.
"Ph is for water, Keine told me; Eirin confirmed it. Has nothing to do with hair." That this three-step process took Mokou five years wasn't a fact Kaguya needed to know.
"No, Mokou-" Kaguya's voice strained in near-laughter; instantly, she buried her face onto Mokou's shoulder, her fist lightly tapping the Immortal's back. When she recovered, her eyes had gained a wet gleam, "Mokou, it was a joke! It was a pH of zero 'cause I was about to pour acid on your head." The Lunarian's eyes widened like dinner plates, "don't tell me you had asked other people about pHs. That's boneheaded even for you!"
"It was a crappy joke," Mokou murmured.
"Come on. I'm trying to have a serious conversation here! Or am I just someone you kill from time to time? I thought we were much more than that." Kaguya moved away from Mokou, her arms crossed, eyes feigning hurt.
There was a long pause; Mokou knew precisely what she meant by that, sensing the hidden meaning beneath the lines. The question itself was a trap, shaped in a way to give the coward enough room to backtrack and obscure. The Fujiwara girl knew the kind of answer Kaguya wanted: the truth. But the truth can be nebulous, and to pin down what they are into words was to give it shape, rigid and limited. That won't do. Ambiguity brought with it comforting flexibility. There was no need to change that. So Mokou decided to ignore that conversational landmine and focused on whatever it was that got Eirin "spooked." The Immortal shifted so her eyes met Kaguya's, "Fine," the Fujiwara girl finally said, "How did I scare Eirin?"
Disappointment rippled across her brown pools before it was buried with practised precision.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"-I'm begging you Prince Zuko!" Iroh yelled at the prince, while the chained bison stared impassively. "It's time for you to look inward and begin asking yourself the big questions, who are you and what do you want!"
Zuko gritted his teeth, and the part of him full of shame screamed to kill the bison. Without it, the Avatar's capture would be a certainty. Redemption was at hand. But cooler heads prevailed, and he threw his blades on the ground with a scream. It didn't feel right; in his core screamed voices clamouring for the bison's death, to pick up the blades and fulfil his princely duties. Whichever the case, the deed was done. The bison was spared.
A sickly heat permeated his entire body. Something was tearing away the chrysalis of his mind, birthing something new. For the first time since he left to hunt the Avatar, Zuko has never felt so small, so lost. Words failed him. He didn't know what to say to Iroh. And it still didn't feel right.
The base rumbled and shook, and the faint sounds of an explosion were heard. "That cannot be..." Iroh whispered to himself.
"What?" Zuko asked worriedly, a bottomless pit in his soul. A lethargy was setting in, but now was not the time for rest. Cracks were starting to appear in the walls.
"If who I think that was is correct, then we must leave, and quickly!" Lao Gai rumbled. Lao Gai roared; debris fell and covered their exit under a stony mound. The Dai Li's base would have its prey.
"What now?!" Zuko asked. Iroh eyed the bison, his eyes twinkling.
-----------------------
Long Feng had escaped through the skin of his teeth. Unfortunately, the path towards the usual exits was either a flooded mess or guarded by Earth Kingdom Army. So he and his men had to improvise their own escape. Their arms moved as one, shifting stone and dirt with their will alone.
It surprised Long Feng that Sung had grown the spine to raid his base and that he found it in the first place. But with the Avatar working with him, Feng supposes anything is possible. It would've backfired catastrophically on Sung; Long Feng had nearly broken through with the Avatar until the unknown variable had shown itself. He scolded himself for his sloppiness, to think he had brought a monster into his own base. She should've been vetted, tracked, and not arrested immediately. His men's zealotry had proved to be his undoing, and now Feng found himself the victim of someone else's schemes. There was a game being played here in which he was the pawn and not the player. Feng hoped that the Avatar would deal with that Firebender soon enough. Once he comes into contact with the Royal Guard, recovery should soon follow.
Light seeped into the Dai Li's improvised tunnel, and Long Feng stuck his head out to see. Lake Lao Gai hid deep within the Agrarian zone of Ba Sing Se, separated from the city proper. It nestled between several hills that offered a picturesque view worth a fortune—and many hidden entrances. Unfortunately, one of the hills had just been obliterated into dust. A hazy burst of heat had swallowed it whole, melting it. Feng immediately went back down. He wasn't keen on becoming collateral in a battle between gods. Another tunnel needed to be made.
Floating in the sky, Avatar Aang surveyed the destruction below. The woman lay in a crater, the soil boiling around her thanks to the beam Aang had dodged. He shielded himself in a floating ball of air, and though it obscured his vision, Aang had never seen so clearly. Fury coursed through his veins, and his past lives fuelled his righteous anger like a fire given kindling. Yet, there was a part of him that worried about what he could do to the woman. He didn't have exact control during the Avatar state. But this woman needed to be taught a lesson.
=========================================
Kaguya's delicate fingers brushed across Mokou's wild mane, feeling the pale waterfall caress her skin. Restless one, that princess, idle hands always needing something to do, even during a conversation. "You always come over Eientei crashing and burning. But yesterday, you didn't. You were so quiet and polite, which surprised everyone." Her fingers found a tangle of hair stuck into a knot, another monument of neglect writ upon the Phoenix's ashen body. Kaguya tried to untangle it slowly and precisely but, after several false starts, decided to brute force it. Stings of pain seared across Mokou's scalp, which bothered her none. "That scared Eirin. She hates surprises, especially after that business with Yukari and the moon. Then you asked around for me, and when you found me, you just nodded and left."
Oh, that. Mokou thought as her breaths grew peculiarly short.
"Now, if I didn't know any better, I'd've thought you were possessed. What was that about?" A small smile graced the princess's face. Even after all this time, the bastard Fujiwara child could still surprise her.
Mokou shrugged, "Heard a whisper from the grapevine and got worried."
The brushing stopped, "For me?" Mokou nodded, "why?"
"I thought you were going back to the moon since the vampire found a way to it, but..." Mokou explained, "Well, now you're here, and I realised that where you went wasn't any of my business." An uncomfortable silence reigned. Nervously, Mokou chose to break it, "I-" she began, her voice monotone. Then something catches her eye: something black and formless past the lakeshore, between the bamboo trees. At first, she thought it was a shadow, but no, shadows didn't stand up straight when touched by moonlight.
"Would you miss me if I left?" Kaguya suddenly asked.
"Course I would." There was more Mokou wanted to say, but she'll leave it at that for now.
"Then there's nothing to worry about. We'll see each other soon, even in this new world you found yourself in."
Mokou looked back to Kaguya, her eyes slightly wide with bewilderment, "How'd you-"
"See that mound over there?" Kaguya pointed east to another shore near a colony of fairies. A small dirt mound was near the water, currently being washed over by a small wave. The mound collapsed, revealing a jar of ash. "It's back. You died again."
Mokou tried to sigh but couldn't; something was in her lungs. She blinked and found a black door-sized square staring at her from across the lake.
"You really should get used to your life flashing before your eyes," Mokou's mental facsimile of Kaguya chided.
"I usually ignore them....while preparing to cross the ....Sanzu," Mokou justified to herself between choked breaths. She could never make it to the other end of that damned river. Even with Komachi's help, the Elixir always pulled her back. Speaking of "where's...that blue sky, with the sea....of souls?"
"This world's afterlife? Guess you're not dead, but dying." Kaguya playfully smacked Mokou's head, "That's what happens when you tire yourself out before facing the final boss."
"He..took me by surprise....next time..."
"Are you really trying to assuage your pride to your own mental image of me? Mokou..." Kaguya shook her head, disappointed.
The black square drew closer as she blinked, standing near the boat and the flame at its edge. Suddenly, the black square turned blue, showing her a nightmare vision. It was water and beyond that, the blurry figure of the bald kid. The Phoenix was drowning.
Kaguya poked at the lake, freezing it into a single point in time. The princess elegantly stepped out of the rowboat, standing on the lake's surface and turned towards Mokou. " Oh, and Mokou." Kaguya gave a smile which held no mischief or malice, "I do mean it. I will see you again."
"What...makes you so sure?" Mokou replied, "I could be...chasing ghosts."
"Because the real me would want to see you, and I always get what I want," Kaguya answered; she walked towards the Bamboo Forest as Mokou clutched at her throat. Once Kaguya reached the shore, she poked the still lake, which began to churn, jerking Mokou's boat towards the square.
=========================================
The base in Lao Gai was at its end. Entire sections were flooded, and those that weren't were falling apart. Jet was running ragged alongside a squad of soldiers, helping guide the freed prisoners into safety. But then came an inhuman scream, the scream of water charging at them. It was a trickling beat that grew into a roaring current. One of the walls began to crack before crumbling and letting out liquid doom. A trio of Earthbenders raised a wall to stop the flow, "it won't last!" one of them warned, and everyone picked up their pace.
On the far side of the base was the Gaang, minus Aang. A distraught Katara was trying to flow water away into another tunnel. Toph was placing the unconscious Dai Li into a hollow ball of rock while sealing up any leaks she could. Sokka led the way, navigating the group into a possible exit.
There was an emptiness in Katara that gnawed at her; not only was Appa gone, but Aang had gone on without them. The boy was hurting, and without her to reign him in, she could only wonder what was happening above the lake. She should've been quicker, she should've-
"How're your senses Toph?!" Sokka yelled.
"Not good, it's hard to focus! Whole place is shifting something fierce!" Toph shouted as she willed the hollow ball to follow them. There was an undercurrent of panic in her voice. Whatever she's seen of the state of the base had her spooked. The walls were closing in, and Sokka needed to find a way out ASAP.
"Katara!" Sokka yelled, "how about that trick you pulled off in Serpent's Pass? The air bubble!"
Katara focused on the raging torrent that threatened to engulf them. She was in an enclosed space with little room to do anything. To make it worse, the way the base was built had inadvertently guided water into large rooms for it to pool into. It made it very difficult to redirect them anywhere, and she'd be going against the current's flow. The concentration required to make an air bubble was hard enough, but to do so without getting swallowed by the strong current was close to impossible. It was a gamble she wasn't willing to pull off. If only Aang was here to help. "I can't, Sokka, water's too much!"
"What do you mean too much? You pulled that off in an ocean!"
"The ocean was different; it's too difficult to concentrate here!" It didn't help that there was flying debris everywhere in this base.
Sokka fidgeted. He was running out of options. Maybe they could outrun the water if they left the Dai Li behind and bull rush through one of the walls? No, that's stupid; you can't "outrun" water.
But the universe gave his answer, and a flying beast went through one of the walls.
"Appa!" the three of them yelled. But their hopes were dashed when they saw who was riding him.
Sokka readied his boomerang, "Zuko!?" he screeched, eyes wide with surprise. The prince himself was shocked too; he couldn't believe his luck.
"I swear Zuko," Katara began, "if you've done anything to Appa!"
"This is not the time to fight; we all must leave quickly or perish!" Iroh yelled with his lungs.
"but-" Sokka began.
"We can continue this later," Zuko replied, "right now, we need to leave.
Sokka shook his head, hesitant of Zuko's offer, but with no other choice he could think of..."fine, how do you suppose we get out with Appa?"
Iroh pointed at Toph, "We need to make our way to the drier areas, and your Earthbending will help go through the walls."
"The water will catch up to us, fast!" Sokka exclaimed.
"Then we must find an escape before that happens," Iroh replied.
"My bending can slow the flow if only a bit," Katara added.
"Fine," Sokka acquiesced, "let's get outta this stinking place." The trio climbed up onto Appa as the deluge chased after them.
Toph rubbed Appa's head, " I miss you, Appa," the flying bison grunted and bit into the hollow ball. Toph turned towards Iroh, "glad to hear you're fine, old man."
Iroh chuckled, " Do not be hasty, my friend. We've yet to escape first."
"Don't forget the Dai Li!" Sokka yelled.
A torrent of water came crashing onto them, threatening to swallow them whole. Toph opened up a path into anywhere else but here while Katara initiated a Waterbending kata to divert it. They were assisted by Iroh and Zuko, who blew gouts of flame to the approaching lake. Meanwhile, Sokka could only stare helplessly, putting his absolute faith in the other benders. Except for Zuko. But then it stopped; thousands of tons of force halted in its tracks, the sound of the roaring lake quieting into an eerie silence. Then it retreated, crawling back into the cracks it once came from.
"The Avatar..." Zuko began with a haunted reverie, memories of the Avatar's wrath flashing in his mind's eye, "He must be pulling back the lake!"
"Let's get out of here before he puts it back!" Sokka desperately yelled.
All across the base under Lao Gai, the lake receded. Survivors of the initial wave were given much-needed reprieve to run. Jet and the Earth Kingdom army guided every prisoner they could out of the facility, their glazed-over eyes staring blankly at their rescuers. Like rats on a sinking ship, they made their way out one by one, eyes squinting at the rising sun. That was when they saw the lake itself emptied and a giant watery sphere floating above and a white figure at the centre of it. That which would've drowned them all now obeyed the Avatar's will, and they were reminded, like their ancestors and those before them, of the Avatar's strength.
Crushing despair gave way to hope in Jet's rebellious heart. That Firebender was a monster above all others, but the Earth Kingdom had the Avatar. And through that, justice.
====================
Mokou awoke coughing up water from her lungs. The Elixir stirred the dead neurons to life, comprehending the light spilling into the Immortal's eyes. Her spastic lungs calmed, its inflamed tissue healed by an impossible magic. Then she saw the kid crouching over her, his small hands on her chest. He was pushing on her sternum while his hands glowed with a blue sputtering light. A blink and Mokou saw not the glowing eyes of a vengeful god but wide grey eyes filled with terror. Whatever had happened to Mokou, the kid didn't mean to go so far. It was a feeling the Hourai Immortal could empathise with. But despite that, now was the time to strike.
With her strength fully recovered, she gripped the kid's red and yellow robes with a burst of impossible speed and pinned him down. The kid hit the ground with an "oof" as Mokou conjured two small jets of flame on her fingers and placed them near his neck. Now, there was nowhere this slimy kid could run. "H-how?" was all he could say.
She placed the jets of flame an inch closer, barely touching his skin, "don't move." She placed a finger on the kid's sternum, trying to surmise the make-up of his Neidan, his internal alchemy. Mokou used a technique she learned from fighting Taoists when she was feral by connecting herself to his dantian. The Immortal matched her breathing with the kid's panicked breath as they gradually became one. Or at least, as one as one could be without tearing his soul out and eating it. From there, she could get glimpses of whatever power this child possessed and how to hijack it.
From a glance, the kid's --as Keine and Eirin would call it-- genetic make-up was different from normal humans. That much was obvious. His was not a product of natural mutation but of intelligent design. There was a spiritual interference to his biological coding, showing a marriage between Jing and Shen, Mokou surmised. That meant a creator rather than an unknowable phenomenon. That simplifies things. Creators can be talked to or reasoned with. Or intimidated should the need arise.
What else is there....
The kid's body was a vessel for a single spirit rather than many. That was odd; Mokou was sure many other souls possessed him during their fight. How can a vessel so small fit so many? Unless something connected him to a larger pool of souls? Meaning there had to be a gate between the vessel and the pool. If only Eirin was here, she'd know straight away. But it came down to Mokou to flail around in the dark.
She needed to know how he could reincarnate and what ways were there to be part of that cycle. The Hourai Elixir, fundamentally, forbids any permanent changes to its soul, and since the body was so closely intertwined with the soul, that meant Mokou always came back after death. But if somehow she can "convince" the Elixir that nothing in her soul has changed while attaching it to this kid's own wheel of life, then maybe, just maybe, there's a chance she can be as close to mortal as possible. Or at least stop living this single uninterrupted eternity. Back in her world, the Bhavachakra, the wheel of reincarnation, was hidden away on the other side of the Sanzu under the auspices of the Yama. But in this world, it was here, right in front of her. That meant options.
Mokou can start by devouring the soul since plucking it, after further examination, seems much too tricky. That way, she can deconstruct and learn of its properties while it sits inside her stomach. It worked before with the Ho-ou. But...
Red eyes met grey. He's just a kid. What am I thinking?
"Mokou, stop!" The voice of Iroh shook Mokou out of her thoughts. Both the Immortal and the kid looked to the skies to see a flying bison with a boulder in its mouth coming straight for them. With Mokou distracted, her grip had loosened just enough for Aang to blow her away with Air-bending, distancing himself away from her. It allowed Appa to smack the boulder at Mokou, who dodged only to be hit by a boulder made by Toph. Reeling from the impact, Katara trapped Mokou's feet in icy shackles as Sokka's boomerang smacked her on the head. "Everyone stop, she is a friend!"
"Yeah, and you're friends with Zuko!" Sokka retorted, "So I dunno about that!" he caught the returning boomerang.
"What!" Zuko yelled.
"She tried to kill us!" Katara added, "You just saw her try to kill Aang!"
Blazing heat spilt out of Mokou's form, melting the icy shackles. Her sharp red eyes caught sight of Iroh's portly form, "Iroh!" she yelled with joy seeping into her tone. Mokou could feel the tug of a genuine smile on her cheeks, "You're safe."
"And so are you, it seems. Not many can claim that after fighting the Avatar," Iroh chuckled, "whatever conflict you have with these people must be a misunderstanding, is it not?"
"Is it?!" Sokka, Toph, and Katara yelled. Aang, meanwhile, was slowly walking towards Appa, eyes in disbelief. He wasn't scared anymore. Aang's walk turned into a run as he hugged the bison as hard as possible.
"I thought you were with the Dai Li," Mokou explained.
"How could you possibly make that mistake!" Sokka yelled, perched safely atop Appa.
"You hit me first after I took out some of the Dai Li!"
"We were trying to stop you from melting the wall we made for you!" Katara added. There was a wall?
"Couldn't you just shout instead?"
"Would you hear us over the fire you were spewing?!" Toph shouted.
"Course I would. I even heard one of you guys say something about a Long Feng and a third party. You think that's not suspicious at all?"
"She heard that?" Toph whispered to Katara.
"I did!"
Zuko buried his face in his hands, finding this exchange insufferable.
Iroh clapped loudly, "I'm so glad we have settled this. She isn't a foe like you thought she was."
"Hey, don't get chummy with us, old man. We still haven't decided what to do with you two." Sokka replied.
"Maybe she isn't an enemy, but she's still dangerous," this time it was Aang who spoke, having finished hugging Appa. "What were you doing in Lao Gai?" Aang asked.
"I got kidnapped," Mokou said, noticing Iroh winced, "they tried to do this lantern spell-thing, but it didn't work. After that, I tried to destroy Lao Gai so they could leave me alone permanently."
"That's so reckless!" Aang yelled, making his friends cringe. His anger must be a rare sight to them, "You could've killed Appa and everyone else there. In fact, why did you say you killed Appa?"
For the first time in a long time, Mokou's cheeks turned red. With the bloodlust gone, all she had was embarrassment, "I-it was the heat of the moment. I would've said anything to escalate a fight. Truthfully, I didn't know what Appa was. Thought he was a Dai Li comrade of yours."
"You didn't know who Appa is?" Aang asked, "We put fliers all around the city."
"Guessed you missed the slum I was in." Mokou shrugged and noticed Iroh wincing again.
An awkward pause reigned. Now, the Gaang had no idea what to do with Mokou. Was she really this powerful firebender who found themselves in the middle of a Dai Li conspiracy? It beggared belief.
"Do you at least know anything about this third party or what happened to General How?" Katara asked, trying to at least get something productive out of this.
"What happened to How?" It was the first time Mokou had heard of a general in this world.
"Dude froze up, but not like the icey way, it's like he's uh..." Sokka trailed off.
Cold dread filled Mokou's soul, "like he's frozen in time?" The Fujiwara posited.
Sokka snapped his fingers, "Yeah, like he's frozen in time! Wait, how'd you know that?"
Mokou clenched her fists in silent horror. She was looking for her in the wrong place the entire time. Kaguya was here, in this city! "Then I might know who froze him."
"Finally," Toph drawled, "a name. You do have a name, right?"
Mokou nodded, "Houraisan Kaguya."
=================
Kaguya sat behind Mai on the Mongoose lizard, with the stars on their backs. There seemed to be faster, more reliable animals in Azula's camp they could've used, but they were given a tracker instead. Kaguya ventured a guess that Azula might be worried she might run off. That's probably why Mai was assigned to her too. Adorable.
Right now, they had caught wind of a major bandit --or Dao Fei as some locals would call it-- encampment west of Ba Sing Se. Azula had commanded Kaguya to take over some criminal organisation, with Mai acting as Azula's eyes and ears. It sent a clear message that these bandits would ultimately be under Fire Nation's authority, not Kaguya's, as if Mai would even understand what Kaguya would be doing in front of her. She hasn't lived the Lunarian court life; heck, she's a mortal. The Lunarian's arsenal of rhetoric and magniloquence would simply fly over the poor girl.
It's just like all the other Isekai stories, Kaguya thought, for an OP protagonist like me to be so underestimated. The Lunarian relished this feeling of omnipotence. But despite that, it didn't wash away her feelings of shame. For the past hour, Kaguya had been trying to crack Mai's shell however she could. Kaguya wanted to know more about her, just as she would with everyone she met. But the princess had been treated with an hour-long silence instead; there was no conversing with her, which frustrated Kaguya, who tried to think of ways to break the ice until it hit her. Shame. Here she was, a woman old enough to see the rise and fall of empires, trying to get a seventeen-year-old child to talk to her. Compared to Kaguya, Mai was positively zygotic. Yet the Lunarian couldn't even get a single response for all her mastery in intrigue --an art she hadn't properly practised in millennia. Kaguya had never felt so lame.
Was this what they call a generational gap? No....that can't be right
Footsteps, miles away, fast approaching.
The thoughts came to her unbidden. She looked around the empty, arid landscape to see imperceptible glints of light. Blades. Finally, things were about to get entertaining.
=========================================
The world of spirits and fantasy was alight with whispers, causing a stir between the mover and shakers of that distorted dimension. It began from the mouths of lesser spirits before the whispers grew to a deafening conflagration.
The Baboon spirits speak of a story of curiosity. They speak of a woman lost in space and time. She was polite and wise, voracious and humble. Their kind guided this woman, for she offered many great things for their time. The baboons note how naturally she dealt with spirits and their innumerable eccentricities; if they didn't know any better, they'd assume she was a native like them.
The Shi-Shi weaved a story of warnings. They speak of power and will, an implacable, invincible wall of a woman. Tales of an arrow that tore the sky or the imprisonment of one of their kind by her hands were frequently told amongst their ilk.
But it was the Dragon-Fly Bunnies that told a tale of horror. They whisper of how a number of their kind had their forms perverted into something more...bipedal. Or of how the woman had polluted their minds, giving them the same sentience as Man, dooming them to repeat the horrors of Humankind. They say she's built a home near the base of the Tree of Time, constantly conversing with its prisoner over tea.
By then, Father Glowworm had made its move.
========================================
Damn!!! I really struggled with this. I had 80 percent of it done back in late December but it just kept not feeling right. Originally there was suppose to be this fight scene between Aang and Mokou but it just felt too gratuitous and the ideas it introduced felt abrupt and out of place. So to the people wanting a fight scene I apologise, it will be made up tho but I won't say how. Hopefully the Kaguya sequence was a good enough subsitute. Maybe if certain things went right I would have the chapter I would've liked but I really wanted to avoid another year-long hiatus (not that 9 months is that high of bar haha).
Xiang Wei wasn't your ordinary muscle for hire; he climbed up the criminal ladder through his strength alone, while his talent for numbers allowed him to stay on top. He was in charge of the protection rackets in Shangren Zhen and the surrounding villages, a rather prestigious position within his Dao Fei. Wei knew that dealing with the old veteran would've been tricky, but he never accounted for whoever this woman was. He lamented at the extra work.
The woman had led Wei into a forest, no doubt a ploy to trap him. It was smart fighting an Earthbender in the woods, with lots of cover and verticality and not much ground. Wei was slowly catching up to her, though; she was adept at riding the Ostrich horse and proved an elusive target. Wei launched sharp rocks at the woman, who zig-zagged around the forest, narrowly missing tree trunks and branches. No matter, her luck will run out soon.
Something catches him in the neck, halting his advance and pushing him off the Ostrich horse. He falls on his back on the leafy ground, and once he recovers, Wei catches a glint of light between two trees. It was a thin rope. Had she prepared a trap for him, how did she have the time? Unless the woman knew of him and his ilk and prepared beforehand. Dammit all, he lost sight of her. He wasn't paid enough to handle this; it was time to cut his losses and-
"Awww, leaving so soon?" A voice spoke out within the trees; Wei frantically looked around to find where it came from, "but we only just met!" There was a burst of light in the corner of his vision, he dodged effortlessly as he noticed the tree to his right had gained a scorch mark. Did she shoot a fireball? That meant Firebender, damn. "Do that rock thing again!"
"You mean this!?" With a grand sweeping motion of his hands and feet, a confluence of body and will, he summoned pillars upon pillars from the ground, denting the trees around him. The forest canopy shook violently as the leaves rustled as one, shifting the sun's rays. It was like viewing from under the ocean's surface, how the light penetrated the deep blue, only here it was green. Wei sighed; he hoped the move would unbalance her, assuming she was high on one of the branches.
"Yes!" the voice said ecstatically, "how do you do that?" He perked his ears up but got nothing. There was no single direction to pinpoint the sound's origin. It was as if the forest itself was speaking to him. But it was speaking to him; he just needed to tune the woman out. Wei closed his eyes and breathed deeply, listening to the whispers of the leaves flowing across the canopy like an ocean's current. "Oooh, are you powering up?" The winds caressed his cheek, and he could hear the branches creek and shake. Then came a discordant tone, or at least the absence of one. He opened his eyes to see a tree sitting still while its siblings swayed with the wind. It was an eerie sight, one that defied the natural order of things. He wasn't sure how it was possible, but he reckoned she had a hand in it.
With a sudden loud roar, Wei threw a large rock into the tree. It splintered against the tree's now invincible bark, shooting sharp rocks all around the canopy. "Whoah!" Yes, got her! Wei threw more, launching a barrage strong enough to tear down a castle's wall. Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! The tree seemed unharmed by it, but no matter, he knew where the woman was now.
"Amazing...." the voice came from behind him. How?! He turned around and launched a boulder at her. It broke as it landed on her flawless figure. Just what the hell is she? Then Wei caught sight of her, properly this time. He ignored it before, back by the veteran's house, but it was difficult now that he had a closer examination. She was, in every sense of the word, beautiful. He was lured in by her sensuous, piercing gaze and stayed for her captivating smile. "Hey!" she spoke, annoyed, her face crinkled into a scowl, "focus on the robes, not the eyes. It's easier for you to fight that way."
Wei did just that, focusing on the yellow bamboo patterns, and he felt that hypnotising spell recede from his mind. "Are you a spirit?" he asked, for no mortal woman could have such an effect, "A goddess?"
The woman tapped her chin in thought, "Well, I am part god, but also part human. Or wait..." she paced around, "No, I think it's more like one-fourth human and one-fourth immortal. Yeah, that makes more sense," in her reverie, Wei launched a sharp stone into her chest. It penetrates! Gouging deep into her heart and out the other side.
The woman seemed unfazed and pulled the spike with such nonchalance it boggled his mind. "What!?"
She theatrically posed her arms, "Magic! Speaking of, how do you do that rock thing? I'll let you go if you can teach me."
What the hell was she saying? "Can you Earthbend?" Wei asked, thinking of ways to kill her. Maybe if he crushed her between two stone walls...
"I'm gonna guess no."
"If you don't know how to answer that, then you probably can't," With a roar, he lifts his leg up, willing walls of earth to rise and crush her. They smack, but no blood splattered on his face.
"Hmmm, is it a thing you inherit? Like a magical bloodline?" That damned voice was behind him again! Just how fast is she? Once Wei returns to the others, he will make sure no one runs to whatever this person is. "I think I could work with that? Ok, how about this."
Kaguya approached the bandit before her. Ever since she saw Suwako bend the earth to her will, she desired to have abilities like that. The more toys at her disposal to use the better. Collecting powers needn't any justification but the act of collecting itself. Usually, most magics could be learned with time and innate energy, which Kaguya had plenty of. It was a neat quirk of her powers, being able to condense a hundred years' worth of training into a single second. Now, she never was able to inherit an ability passed down through blood, but there's a first time for everything. It was time to experiment.
Kaguya held him in a vice grip; he tried to resist initially but stopped once it proved futile. That was when Kaguya tapped into her powers. Parallel histories. A single second had within it an infinite aggregate of instants. Instants that can diverge and converge however Kaguya wanted. A hidden world of possibilities made itself known to her, timelines that became active only under her personal observation. Her powers had something to do with Quantum mechanics, Eirin had once mentioned, though Kaguya had forgotten the exact words. What matters most to the princess is that she can live through every possibility of this meeting with the bandit while simultaneously experiencing the "present". From there, she could try to merge these possibilities to her liking. Powers like that were what made her the OP isekai protagonist after all, not that she wants to act the part all the time.
She saw backwards and forwards, living multiple lives at once. Once she saw what the man saw, she immersed herself in his parallel history, which ran alongside hers and saw it go past their present. Here goes nothing. Kaguya tried merging their parallel histories together, aggregating all the instants in each timeline and condensing it. Maybe this way, she can assimilate his history, personhood, and this so-called "Earthbending" power. Time shattered with a scream until she finds herself in the forest again with the bandit convulsing on the ground. Power get? Kaguya waved her arms around, trying to move the earth around her.
Nothing.
Maybe it's a concentration thing. She moved her arms, but very intently this time.
Nothing.
Kaguya sat on the grass and sighed; maybe her power wasn't as OP as she thought. It could be that she was lacking in resonance. Kaguya posited that their histories couldn't merge due to a lack of commonalities and sympathetic connection. What if she were to have a kid with those powers? Nothing beats the bond between a mother and child; assimilation would be guaranteed. If what Kaguya thinks is true. But the princess couldn't bear children, another quirk of the Elixir, that meant farming affection points with an Earthbending woman and using Lunarian superscience. But if Kaguya does go through with it, is the power worth all that work knowing everything else she's got literally in her sleeves instead? Hell, would she want to subject a kid she might care about to--
Wei shook and shivered, his eyes wide while his mouth stretched into a silent scream. His pupils darted everywhere, seeing things that weren't there. An infinite, starry vision of the heavens lodged itself into his cosmic speck of a brain, a mere particle to the neurons of the universe. The visions pushed ever deeper into his ill-fitting container, threatening to fry his neural folds. A million visceral feelings and images, so little context. Blood spilt from his eyes and nose, the horror of it all.
Something shattered. Wei saw...his world, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, everything. There were...looming towers of glass and concrete, carriages without a horse, and a tan woman in blue. Visions of a night that lasted years, spirits invading from the poles, followed by a deep dark black swallowing the world whole. The world will end...the world will end!
--well, that.
Perhaps there was some spillover from Kaguya's history into his mind, or worse, Kaguya's potential history, too. That'd be overwhelming for a mortal but short work for her. It was natural, then, that some of that man's history spilt over to Kaguya's mind. The bandit's life flashed before her eyes, but Kaguya missed most of them since it went by fast. She blinked and saw him, old and dead, lying on his deathbed. What led to that was probably deep in her mind palace, assuming she cared to dig it up. Kaguya grumbled at the thought; she didn't like spoilers and vowed not to do it again, or at least to someone important. Having people's lives laid out to her just made things so dull. It's a good thing the guy didn't give off main character vibes; that's the kind of person Kaguya would hate to get spoiled about.
The Lunarian reached into her sleeve, retrieving a needle filled with a sedative possessing healing qualities. She then added a small tracker to put into his system. Kaguya wanted to continue the bandit questline since the potential for mindless fun through fighting couldn't be ignored.
But she wanted to deal with that later, once she checked up on Honghui. She found the old man sitting on his porch with bandages stuck to his wounded leg, his good eye widening in surprise. Kaguya gave a perfect bow, "Their leader will not be a problem. I made sure of it." Honghui nodded, grim respect shining in his eyes. Kaguya smiled, almost preening; she looked around to find the other bandits she knocked out, "and his cohort?"
Honghui smiled a reaper's smile, "Sent them running," Kaguya eyed his leg incredulously, "A-after Su stitched my leg up." He gestured towards the open door to his house, "Come on in, got a hero's lunch for you." That got Kaguya's attention, who sped right in. She found Su, who held Kaguya in a death grip and checked for any injuries. After finding none, the woman wrapped her arms around the princess tightly, whispering muted thanks. Kaguya gradually returned the embrace, something warm swelling in her heart. Then came an empty feeling; she wanted to share this moment with Mokou and Eirin.
The three of them sat down to eat, and Kaguya hit it off with them instantly. Lunch turned to dinner to tea by the front porch. The moon watched over them, its gaze welcoming rather than oppressive. This was a new world.
Kaguya recounted her fight with the bandit leader, omitting the more disturbing details to her rapt audience. She gestured theatrically how it went, her voice rising and dipping, giving the story momentum. Then the story turned into how difficult it was to ride the Chocobo, or ostrich horse as they called it. Honghui gave Kaguya's back a pat and said she was a natural before asking where it went.
"Must've run off when I went to fight that man," Kaguya shrugged, her language growing more lax. It was a shame. She wanted to tame it.
Su chuckled, "It helps to always keep an eye on them; they're free spirits, those things."
Honghui nodded, "That's why me and the other soldier boys had to double lock the stables every night back then. They always found a way to jump out of their enclosures." He let out a sudden laugh. It sounded like a dog's bark: "There was this boy, Shen, was always good to them. Ostrich horse whisperer, we called em. One night, I remember one of the Ostrich horses jumping out of the stables and sneaking into his tent to peck him awake. We teased him about how he's finally got a lady friend. The beast was male, by the way," he quickly added. Honghui took a sip of his tea, his eyes growing sombre, "The fool died with em. Stables were burning from a Fire Nation ambush and he rushed in to save what he could." He shook his head, "ended up saving none and dying with them. I had only saw my fifteenth summer then, and I learned the folly of giving your life up for others."
"Until you met me," Su gave a small smile and a cheeky stare.
Honghui barked another laugh and held Su close, nuzzling his face into her hair, "till I met you." He whispered.
Kaguya stayed silent, letting the scene play out. This feeling of missing something important was starting to sink in. But she needed to move on. It was a new world.
After some time, it was just Honghui and Kaguya on the porch; Su had gone to clean up and sleep. "What was the war like?" Kaguya asked delicately, curious about what kind of world she was in, "if you don't mind me asking."
"It was a different war back then. We were confident we could win. To us, the Fire Nation was this squabbling patchwork of islands that had been infected with pride. That thought, in hindsight, was more a reflection of us than it was for them. A hundred things went wrong, and now everyone's just waiting for it to be over. Whether by the Fire Nation falling on its own weight or the Earth Kingdom keeling over." He shrugged, "It's not my fight anymore, Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom...I stopped caring about what flag flies over the town hall anymore."
Some more time passed, and Kaguya moved to leave. "Where are you going next?" the old veteran asked.
"I'll be hunting some more bandits. After that, we'll have to see." Kaguya replied.
"Wait here." Honghui moved back into his to retrieve a rather shoddy mask; it was basically a wooden bowl with holes for eyes and some strings, "used to wear this during my Garsai days." He gestured at Kaguya's face, "Someone like you is bound to turn some heads, and I reckon you wouldn't like the attention. Take it, I don't really need it."
Kaguya smiled and took the mask; she gave her thanks before leaving. The morning after, Honghui and Su would find a single jewel from the Hourai branch on their sons' bed. A month later, an unknown, masked vigilante terrorised criminal organisations from Shangren Zhen to Hujiang. Tales of this vigilante would find itself in the ear of Azula herself.
"Houraisan Kaguya," the words had left her mouth like an excised tumour. There was an undercurrent of guilt within Mokou, for she had inflicted a fraction of Kaguya, however small, on these kids. Before, it was a mere name in her head, nestled deep in foggy memories, incapable of terrorising the world. Now, Mokou had just given this memetic cancer of hers a voice. "Putting a man in stasis sounds like something she does."
Sokka crossed his arms, "charming. Any reason why?"
Mokou shrugged, "entertainment, most likely." There was a listlessness to her voice, wrought by resignation. It was a weary acceptance that the princess was simply a glutton of the highest order, and no one could change that. Not Eirin, and most definitely not Mokou. And without a Yukari or Reimu to reign her in, Kaguya was an active threat to the world around her for the first time since the Imperishable Night incident. Mokou vowed to make sure Kaguya was her problem and hers alone. She just needed to find her first. After that, back to Gensokyo.
Aang sighed. He looked weary and very, very tired, "So there's one more person who's as powerful and reckless as you?"
"She's more reckless." The words held a hidden weight brought down by memory. There was a nervous twitch on the otherwise tepid Immortal. It was beginning to sink in that Kaguya was closer than she had thought. Mokou had resigned herself to a decade of searching, but now things were moving quickly.
"That's hard to believe," Aang replied, seeming unusually catty to his friends.
Mokou was getting annoyed. The rivalry between her and Kaguya had simmered, but the Fujiwara still held intense misgivings about the Lunarian. To be compared to her had stung to the point of piercing her numb hide. The Immortal was starting to take it personally. She pointed a finger at the kid, eyes full of malevolent promise, "That's cause you haven't met her." It was a two-sided warning, demanding to stop and to fear.
There was a sharpness to her tone that sliced through the air, worrying Aang. The Avatar didn't like his chances of fighting Mokou without being in the Avatar state. So he calmly brought his arms up in reconciliation.
"Zuko!" Iroh's yell had grounded Mokou's interrogation to a halt. The fugitive prince was lying on Appa's back, sweating profusely. The old man placed a hand on his nephew's forehead, "a fever..."
Toph shifted closer to the duo, hearing Zuko's difficult breaths. The young Beifong didn't care for the prince, but she didn't like hearing the old man's worry, "What's going on?" Toph asked.
Iroh placed a hand on Zuko's throat, feeling the erratic rhythm of the boy's heart, the drumbeat of an internal war. He had seen stress overtake his soldiers when he once led an army. It was an acute and sinister feeling that had frayed older men's minds, leaving numb or wrathful machines. And here was Zuko, sixteen years of age, combating this spiritual sickness. Saving the bison had clashed with his perceived image of who he wanted to be, a complete reversal of his moral compass. That led to a moral injury, and the boy lacked the proper tools to heal from it. The wound in his soul was worsened by the fact that here he was, colluding with the enemy, "a sickness of the spirit, saving your Appa has filled him with great doubt and worry." He turned to the Gaang, "You must bring him to our home so he may recover."
Katara was the first to respond, "So he could come back up and chase us again?" Zuko was royalty, meaning he was partially responsible for the Fire Nation's war effort. She had little desire to help those associated with her mother's killer, let alone their superior.
"Yeah, getting sick over doing the right thing ain't a good look," Sokka added.
"Guys," Aang called out softly, "he saved Appa; that means something."
"And so does invading my home and chasing us all the way up the North Pole." Katara rebuked. Something was bubbling up in her, made worse by the pain of Aang leaving her in Lao Gai. Toph and Sokka chose to sit by; this had seemed to be a personal matter between Aang and Katara. "Gosh, he even kidnapped you! You think that all goes away from the one good deed he's done so far?"
"I can think of several other deeds," Iroh offered.
"No," Aang conceded to Katara, "but it's a start. And what does it make us if we punish those who saved Appa?"
Mokou had passively watched the whole scene and was impressed. The kid was an actual monk and a true turn-the-other-cheek type, cut from the same cloth as Byakuren. This Aang boy really was pure of heart, which saddened Mokou. It even pissed her off; she wanted someone easy to hate, a brat given unearned gifts coasting through his lineage alone. She wanted someone she wouldn't feel bad killing, but Aang wasn't that kind of person. It made what she was about to do hurt all the more.
"Hey, while you two dunderheads were arguing, that Dai Li creep probably found a new safe spot. My bet's on the palace," Toph said, "can we save this for later?"
Aang and Katara stared silently before the latter broke, "fine," Katara said.
"Well, we're gonna need someone to watch over them," Sokka gestured at Zuko and Iroh, "we can drop Zuko off at our place before finding Long Feng," Aang eyed Katara, the group's healer, asking for her help. The waterbender withheld a long-suffering sigh and nodded. Toph offered to pair up with Katara but was rejected. The Earthbender prodigy was needed in the palace raid with the rest of the Gaang. If Long Feng was there, then Toph's truthseer abilities would prove more potent than Katara's bending. And besides, the Waterbender could easily watch over an old man and a cripple.
Then, all eyes were on Mokou, who suddenly felt very vulnerable from the scrutiny until she reminded herself that these were mere kids—powerful kids, but kids still. Aang nodded at Toph before realising the Earthbender couldn't see and called out to her, "Toph?"
The blind girl nodded and jumped off Appa's back, landing next to Mokou with a thud. Mokou placed her hands in her pocket, looking at the knee-high kid with some unease.
"So you have nothing to do with the Fire Nation or the Dai Li?" Aang asked.
"Or Azula!?" Sokka added.
"Same thing," Katara chided.
Sokka shrugged, "Nothing wrong with specificity."
Mokou shook her head, "No."
"She's speaking the truth," Toph said. Mokou's eyes widened. That changed things; she'll need to be careful around that girl.
"If you want us to trust you after everything that's happened, you'll help us against the Dai Li," Aang said, preparing a mental list of points to persuade her.
Mokou smiled, canines in full display, "You had me at Dai Li."
"Awesome!" Sokka commented sarcastically, "Guess we're making friends with everyone we've fought with."
Toph bellowed out a laugh that pierced Mokou's ears, "Yeah, who's next, Azula?"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Jet heaved a bulky man onto a table. Knocking him out had been difficult, but the poor man was finally resting. First, a prisoner of Lao Gai and now an unconscious body, Jet pitied him. But the man had to be stopped; he was causing a ruckus and picking fights with the soldiers rescuing him. Something clicked. It was a piece of a sinister puzzle that Jet was beginning to solve. Long Feng had been kidnapping Earth Kingdom army soldiers and turning them into unwilling puppets. Then they're sent back out to the city and wreak havoc, staining the Military's reputation and giving the Dai Li a blank check to do whatever they want. Jet felt small; he was starting to feel that a lot lately. All he saw were webs upon webs that he could not move out of. But despairing over it changed nothing; he could only focus on what was in front of him.
He heard footsteps approaching the tent he was in. It was Smellerbee and Longshot.
"Jet, you're alright!" Smellerbee yelled.
Jet withheld a tirade towards the two for abandoning him and smiled, "It'll take more than the Dai Li to kill me," it'll take a monster instead, he thought wearily. "How'd you guys find me anyways?" Longshot gave an elucidating look, "Yeah, guess it's easy to put two and two together."
Smellerbee and Longshot came up to hug Jet, to which the resistance fighter accepted. "When I heard the Dai Li got you, I thought I'd never see you again," Smellerbee said, untangling herself from Jet, " We shoulda gone with you, even if we didn't believe you. Make sure you were safe. I had a good thing going, and I was scared that--"
"Don't", Jet interrupted, "it's in the past. It was my fault for pushing you guys away. I-" images of a monster staring back at him and the water threatening to drown him. He thought he would die alone there, a fool suffering the same death he threatened innocent villagers with, "I'm just glad you guys are here."
Longshot looked Jet in the eyes and spoke, "You okay, Jet?"
Jet lacked the energy to put up a front, "No, but I'll be better now, promise. Helping the army against those Dai Li freaks feels real good. You know...Sometimes, I wonder if my parents would be alive today if the army wasn't shackled by them," fury coursed through his veins, tensing his muscles, " just think, this entire time they've been sitting in their little corner of paradise, doing nothing while the whole world burned around them. They're no worse than the Fire Nation. They need to go down before we even think about winning the war."
Smellerbee punched Jet in the shoulder and grinned, "I can get behind that. We're with you, Jet, so long as you don't go around chasing ghosts."
Longshot smiled, like old times.
Jet pointed a finger at Smellerbee, "Hey! She turned out to be a real Firebender, honest! And..." He trailed off, feeling a heat that wasn't there, "and the Avatar dealt with that ash-maker, so thank the spirits for that." That reminded him of the other two Firebenders that remain elusive. Mushi and Lee. But before he could finish his thought, he saw the dark green colours of the Dai Li through the slit of his tent.
In a blur, he ran outside to see the Dai Li agents themselves but shackled and chained. He approached the soldier pulling their chain while his friends caught up to him. "survivors?" he asked the soldier.
"Courtesy of the Avatar. The kid's pet bison spat out a hollow rock full of em." The soldier replied. The man mockingly smiled at the barely conscious Dai Li agent behind him, "The generals are going to love this."
"Is the Avatar still here?" Jet asked nervously.
"Nope," the soldier shook his head, "they hightailed it to the Inner Ring." That made sense; the camp they were in was in the Agrarian Zone, sitting in the middle of the route from Lao Gai to the city proper. "They also brought extra muscle with em, too, from the looks of it. Listen kid, I gotta bring these guys in quick so-"
"-last question, promise. What do you mean by extra muscle?"
"Yeah, they uhhh..." the soldier squinted his eyes in recollection, "there was this old man and a kid with a mean scar on his left eye. Poor guy was knocked out from the looks of it."
"Oh," Jet said, he was pleasantly surprised. That's one more problem of his that the Avatar handled.
"And there was this woman in a white shirt--"
"--WHAT?" Jet's voice rang throughout the camp. Everyone, from camp cooks to perimeter guards, stopped to listen in on the commotion. Jet centred himself; that may have been an overreaction. There was no way the Avatar would allow a monster like that to be free to terrorise the city. "Was she shackled, like these agents here?" That was the only reasonable explanation.
The soldier was getting a bit pissed. He didn't sign up to babysit the kid; he had an actual job he needed to do. "No, she wasn't. Now shoo."
The illusory heat returned. Jet's skin grew slick with sweat while his frantic heart beat against the walls of his chest. Red eyes stared back at him, each pupil a volcano's maw. His friends were talking to him, but their words were but a mumble. The beat grew louder, mixed with screams of the dead and the roar of flame. It threatened to shatter him.
Then nothing. Silence. Calm coursed through his hot blood. Blazing fear washed away by cold rage. There were questions that needed answering. His investigation was not over.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The royal palace in the centre of Ba Sing Se was more than a gargantuan monument to ingenious architects and immaculate stonework. The palace was a symbol to many as a piece of heaven on earth, and the Earth King was its divine tenant. It towered over the Upper Ring with its sky-high spires and mile-long compound. The area was beyond sacred, and to trespass meant death. Thus, it was natural for the Royal Guard to shoot boulders up into the sky to bring down an approaching flying bison.
Aang cracked the approaching projectile with his staff as Mokou blasted a solid beam into the defenders. The others were finding it difficult to hold onto Appa without his saddle under fire, so Aang brought the flying bison down. Katara was left with Zuko and Iroh, so it was Toph and Sokka who assisted the two heavy hitters. Though Toph wasn't a slouch herself. The knee-high prodigy took a wide stance and immersed herself in neutral jing. A contingent of Royal Guard Earthbenders stomped as one to send a massive wall careening towards the Gaang; Toph broke it with a push of her arm and willed the earth to swallow the guards up to their waist.
Aang busied himself, intercepting any attacks going their way, allowing Mokou to unleash crimson wrath from her mouth. The woman followed her own battle rhythm but gave great care not to get in the Gaang's way, focusing on the most immediate threats while everyone worked to defend themselves. It was two songs layered together, weaving the chorus of combat as one through harmony and wrath. Aang could not help but feel a sense of unease as he saw a Royal Guard company scattered by an explosive beam. The Avatar hadn't seen fire so focused before, at least in this lifetime. Her forms gave a glimpse of her inner will, and it was an unbreakable font of hatred distilled into the shape of a woman. But was it hatred of the self or of others? He saw a flash of Mokou ominously watching over him; just what was she going to do to him before Iroh showed up?
Aang felt a sudden force push him down; he swerved his head around to see Mokou take the brunt of an attack meant for him. She spat blood and smiled before wordlessly getting back into the attack. Aang wanted to protect her so she could recover, but a glance showed him that she was fine and without any injuries. Aang narrowly dodged a spike flying towards him, which he redirected with a mix of Earth and Air bending. Right, bad time to daydream.
Deep within the palace itself, Long Feng was sweating bullets. He could scarcely comprehend what was happening; the Avatar had teamed up with that Firebending monster! He rushed to King Kuei with his Dai Li guards in tow, trying to clamp down his rising panic. But then he centred himself and took stock of his position. The Firebender won't kill him, not with the Avatar coming with them, and they dare not harm the Earth King. That meant there was room to manoeuvre. Maybe he could finish what he started in Lao Gai; the Avatar had been willing enough to listen, so he might still have a chance to come out the victor. Steeling his nerves, he prepared to face them. But first, to set favourable conditions for himself.
Feng rushed into King Kuei's throne room with as much dignity as he could muster, giving a quick bow, "My king," he said with deference.
The mild-mannered puppet before smiled the same smile he had when he was little. "Finally, you're here! I was wondering about the ruckus outside."
"My king, The Avatar has betrayed us."
King Kuei gasped as if he had heard a scandalous rumour. Even if what Long Feng said was true, the Dai Li head doubted the King could appreciate the severity of such a statement. Good, that was the intended result of grooming him. "No...but Bosco was starting to like him!" Feng eyed the brown bear leaning on the King's throne, a strange creature.
"It is difficult to believe until you see it with your own eyes." Feng made a grand gesture to emphasise the point to King Kuei, "he is assaulting this palace with a Firebender." He carefully avoided mentioning his suspicions of Fire Nation interference.
King Kuei leaned towards Feng, looming over the Secretariat as he sat on the throne. " What happens now?"
Feng gave King Kuei an intense look, "do you trust me, your majesty?"
"Of course."
"The Avatar will want your forces to assist them on an internal Fire Nation dispute. He will frame it as an Earth Kingdom issue when it is assuredly not. And most of all, I ask you to let me handle them," Feng gave another bow of insincere obeisance.
The great metal doors of his throne room parted with a bang. A cloud of heat and smoke assaulted the throne room. The smoke threatened to swallow them whole. Several Dai Li soldiers stood side-by-side with the Royal Guard and advanced towards the door. Several of the Royal Guard noticed the slightly uneven cadence of the Dai Li's step. It wasn't a mistake usually made by an elite Earthbender who was one with the ground itself.
"Found them!" yelled a voice from within the smoke. A step echoed across the throne room, and Long Feng tensed up. Another step and the Dai Li shifted back to the confusion of the Royal Guard. Then came another as the smoke parted. Bosco bared his fangs; it knew a predator when it saw one.
A wiry woman on the younger side of twenty entered the throne room with a relaxed air about her and her arms in her pockets. She had hair down to her ankles and shoulders as sharp as her eyes. But with her unkempt mane, ashy white top, and muddy red shoes, the King wondered why there was a vagrant in the throne room. But to Feng and his guard, the end times had come. Behind her followed Aang, Toph and Sokka.
"It's over, Long Feng!" The last Airbender proclaimed, "you've got nothing to blackmail us with anymore. Now give up!"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The sun dipped, evening had come. Katara wrapped her hands around Zuko's warm head. Iroh was right; she started to sense a spiritual injury within the prince. But a rustle of the bushes in the backyard drew her away from her ministrations. She looked around for Iroh before realising he had gone to make tea. Cautiously she stood up, water spilling out of her gourd.
She started to wonder how long will it take for Aang to finish his business with the King. Katara drew herself into a compact yet flexible stance that could easily flow into several forms. Then she heard steps on the grass, drawing ever closer.
The Waterbender squinted her eyes out into the backyard before it widened in surprise. Katara caught sight of an old, hated face, present company not included.
It was Jet.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An old man passed through a busy market with his iron crutch in hand. He looked no older than seventy as he willed his rather defined legs to move. But despite his age and his use of a crutch, he was as healthy as men much, much younger than he. Unblemished hazel eyes saw with perfect clarity the bandits and murderers mingling with innocent civilians. Something was different in the air as if the town was primed to explode. He saw the familiar pickpockets sitting in the alleyways, leaving their usual haunts unattended. The old snake oil vendor was nowhere to be seen, and the usual bandit fronts in the town were eerily empty. The old man had seen this before, over and over again, in his many years. It was the build-up to a critical instant.
He scratched his beard again; the old man thinks he knows why.
The many Dao Fei of the North-Western region had undergone a calamity—many expected radical changes when the Fire Nation swallowed the western Earth Kingdom down its gullet, and they prepared for it accordingly. Cooperating with their new Fire Nation overlords was one such preparation, and Air Nomad blood was spilt on this very soil because of it. What was not expected, however, was an impossibly thorough and powerful vigilante hopping from town to town, uprooting corruption wherever she found it.
The criminal underworld was resilient and used to being harassed by government forces, small-town heroes, or even an Avatar. They had ways of dealing with them, this the old man knew. Despite that, none of their usual methods had worked on this fearsome woman. They did not know who she was, what she wanted, or why she was hunting down criminals in the first place. The vigilante might as well be this inescapable force of nature that could not be reasoned with. Money, plucking at heartstrings, putting innocents in the crossfire, nothing they did could sway this hurricane of violence and zeal. For her troubles, she earned the moniker "Nü gui," a vengeful spirit, for they assume she was wronged somehow and was out to get them.
)