Following the culmination of the battle of Republic City, in which Korra and Tenzin were successful in quelling the anti-bending riots, an uneasy peace settled throughout the land. Still, as tensions remained high, benders started to return to their nations, where they felt safer. Republic City began to lose its diversity, and once again anti-bending sympathy grew. Korra and Tenzin, however, refused to give in and abandon the city. Both were assassinated in the night. Not a fortnight passed before a new fourth nation, the nation of the non-benders, was born, and war was declared. A war that now has lasted for twenty long years…
The Legend of Haiken
Haiken ran through the empty streets of Ba Sing Se, a comfortable smile gracing his face. Running directly behind him, two nobles in earth kingdom uniform gave chase. It was the moments like these that Haiken lived for, enraging the earthbenders of the city until they fell into one of his traps. For all their talk of sturdiness, the earthbenders were truly quite easy to anger. And people made mistakes when they were angry. Of course, assassination attempts generally made anyone angry.
Haiken used the lift from a quickly erecting earth wall to jump the corner onto the next street and dodge between two head sized rocks. Landing and looking up, he saw the balcony that he and his friends, the others from the Order of the Grey Rose, had rigged up. Unsheathing the short sword strapped to his back, he cut the main support for the fake balcony.
The earthbenders crashed through the wall they had constructed, and turned the corner just in time to see the falling balcony, and two large boulders rolling down toward them. Haiken slowed, waiting for the fulfillment of his plan. Almost immediately he heard the cracking sound of stone hats attempting to break through the fake rocks, and two sharp cries. He turned around to see that his trap hadn't worked on the third man, who ran and jumped off the balcony to land not twenty feet in front of Haiken. As the earthbender took his stance, Haiken sheathed his sword, drawing instead his lesser pair of throwing knives.
The two faced each other in the abandoned street, and Haiken could see the certainty in his foe's eyes, the very reason he so despised the benders. In one lightning fast movement the knives went zipping towards the earthbender's calves, while Haiken began to run. The trick to defeating a bender, especially an earthbender, Haiken knew, was to destroy their stance.
Just before the knives met their target, they were intercepted by a small wall of stone, and bounced harmlessly to the ground. Having blocked the attack, the earthbender returned his attention to his enemy, just in time to see that Haiken was using the wall of a building on the left side of the street to shift his momentum the other way, crossing in front of the bender. Turning to follow Haiken's movement, the bender felt his foot come up against the rock he had used to block the knives. The split second necessary to remove the obstruction proved enough, and Haiken was able to sweep both feet out from under the bender.
Haiken looked down at the man powerful and stubborn enough to command rocks, and snorted.
"Your kind thinks that they're better than us," he said, feeling the comforting sharpness of the knife in his hand, that both knew would be faster than any earthbending at such a short distance, "but your greatest strength has made you weak. Look at your companions, dead because they believed that everything that they saw was true. Nobody deserves to wield such power, for all it does is remove everything else of value. There will come a day, Bender, when everyone realizes this and we can once more be equal. I only find it regretful that there will be some who cannot live to see that day."
The man's eyes widened as Haiken drew back his arm, when that arm became suddenly enclosed in rock, which continued to pull Haiken until he was pinned at the other end of the street.
"You're under arrest for the murder of two men, and for being linked to twelve others." Declared another uniformed bender, with two following behind him.
Haiken barely heard as he tugged at the rock pinning him, wishing only that he could use his knives.
"Guys, they've got Haiken!" Jin yelled, rushing into the hideout.
It was a quiet place, adorned with mis-matched furniture from various successful heists against the benders. Around the room various Pai-Shao tables were erected, most being used with a sense of ritual. All heads turned to Jin at this pronouncement, however.
"What do you mean, they've got Haiken?" Asked a girl of average height and stolid stature, though with a pretty face that showed just the barest trace of concern behind her anger.
"Oh come now, Helen, don't tell me you're worried." Said her opponent, placing a tile with a smile, leaning back in his chair. "you know as well as any of us that what Jin meant to say was 'following a minor setback in the original plan, Haiken has, once again, been escorted to prison, where he will then convince the guard to hand over his keys, his wallet, his hat, maybe even his smallclothes, before disposing of said guard, some of said guard's friends, and finally escaping. Again.'"
Helen spun to face the speaker, seething, "that may very well be true, Jiraye, but Haiken isn't as invincible as you all make him out to be, and we need him."
The room stared at her blankly, and she blushed, once again realizing what an outsider she was. The Order of the Grey Rose held emotional stability as one of its core tenets, and she often forgot to hold the reins of her own.
"I'm sorry." She mumbled, turning her eyes downward.
"As am I." Replied Jiraye, "I was wrong to be snide. It was rational of you to believe that the absence of Haiken could be of detriment to this team."
Helen sighed. In a way, his apologies made things worse. Why did they all have to be so emotionless all the time! Of course, not all of them were. After all, there was her first meeting with Haiken. And other times, times when they had been alone, when he had shown some emotion. Once they had even almost-
"But of course, it wasn't the team that you were thinking about, was it?" Jiraye noted. Upon seeing her reaction, he knew that he had hit a nerve, but he did not smile. Even after such a clear victory, he expressed no satisfaction.
And for that, Helen ran. She ran because she couldn't stand another moment with them, because she couldn't understand them, nor they her. At first, she didn't know where she ran, but slowly a thought formed. She would break Haiken out. Then they could run away together, just the two of them. That was all she really needed, after all.
The cell that they threw Haiken into was new. He could tell because it was made of stone, not because of anything else. If he hadn't known that stone prisons were a new concept here, he never would have known that the cell was new. Grime from the moisture allowed into the cell mixed with soot from the torches aged the area quickly.
Outside the cell, however, where the guard paced, the place was immaculate. In the fashion of a large part of the city, stone carvings and new angles were abound. Giving the city over to the earthbenders had most definitely had an effect on architecture. In all places but the slums, where Haiken had been born, anyway. There lived all those who couldn't bend, but lacked the resources to travel to the land held by the non-bending movement. The earthbenders of the city hadn't the heart to execute them all, but would not lend a hand either.
But that was the past, and now, Haiken was in a cell. Worse, they had recognized him before he went into the cell, and remembered his past escape. It was for that reason that he found himself naked in his cell, and condemned to death come morning. Left with absolutely nothing that could be used as a weapon, not even one as feeble as a couple stitches of cloth. Just his wits, an empty stomach, and a full bladder.
He reprimanded himself. He was thinking of the problem, not the solution. Letting his fear control his thoughts. His wits had always been weapon enough for him before, and so they would be this time.
Helen spent her time listening to the guards entering and exiting the prisons, waiting for the cover of darkness to arrive. Not surprisingly, the talk centered largely around Haiken, though to Helen's disappointment, nothing of much use was said. It was all either recountings of Haiken's past exploits, detailed with heated hatred in the voice of the teller, or talk of how "The Prisoner" was sentenced to die with the rising of the sun.
That part didn't please her in the least, either.
And so, as the talk became repetitive, Helen's mind began to wander, remembering the first encounter she had had with Haiken…
Helen slowly crept up to the man, eyeing the coinpurse hanging from his side. Her stomach gave a large growl, and her heart jumped, thinking that the man would see her, or rather, hear her. He continued to walk, however, and she allowed for the tiniest sigh as she followed suit.
The man turned the corner, onto an abandoned street (not that the one they'd just been on was full by any means) and slowed his pace. Giving thanks for the sudden lack of witnesses, and for the slower pace that allowed the purse's rope more steadiness, Helen attacked. Drawing her knife, she reached and pulled the purse until the string was taut, then cut it with one swift movement of the knife.
She hadn't known that the man had been expecting such a move the entire time that she had been following him.
Whipping around, he sent two fist-sized rocks directly at her. Flinching and screaming, Helen almost missed the swordbreaker that came down to block the two stones, and the man who held it.
Long black hair, not cut cleanly, dark skin that wasn't entirely from a tan, and the rags of a resident from the lower ring didn't seem to match the intense eyes or perfect form of the man at the end of the swordbreaker.
The new arrival's hand darted into the rags, and pulled out a fist-sized rock of his own. The earthbender's face returned to calm from the surprise it had just borne. As the hand holding the stone drew back, the bender took a stance. Then, in a blur, it was released. The bender raised his hands, and made as if to push the stone back from whence it came. Much to his surprise, and Helen's, the stone sailed straight through the outstretched hands, hitting the bender square in the face.
"Painted metal," The arrival, Haiken, explained with a hint of a smile. "Now run!"
Darkness fell around Helen as she allowed thoughts of Haiken to drift by. The time that she had followed him, due to his acting strangely, all the way to the graveyard, where he told her his mother's story; the time he had briefly joined a group of children in play, because he had not thought that anyone from the Order of the Grey Rose was watching; the time they had fought because she'd shared her feelings with him, but he didn't want a relationship to cloud his thinking; the time, shortly after, where they had almost kissed, if it hadn't been for Jiraye walking into the room…
The night became a sea of darkness around her. With a happy, nerve-relieving sigh at the thought of the new memories she and Haiken would make, she rose to break him out of prison.
Haiken stopped pacing the cell just as the guard outside it did the same. For hours they'd been doing this, Haiken pacing as the guard paced, sitting against the wall as the guard sat, rubbing his hand through his hair at the same time, anything to annoy the guard as he thought. And now he was trying to keep a straight face through sudden inspiration. Sitting, this time on the chamber pot, as the guard sat, Haiken realized his bladder was still, not surprisingly, quite full. He also saw that, though the cell itself was truly neglected, the hallway was quite another story.
Without a word, Haiken walked to the bars at the entrance of his cell, and initiated his plan all over the floor of the hallway.
"Hey! What- What the Hell are you doing! Get back!" The guard yelled, catching onto what Haiken was doing. As Haiken didn't respond, the guard stepped up to the bars, and punched between the space just large enough to allow his fist, catching Haiken right on the chin. The blow knocked Haiken to the floor, where he lay only a few moments, before standing back up to resume his pacing as if nothing had happened.
The guard stared at him, clearly at a loss of ideas. "If you weren't already a dead man…" He muttered, walking down the hall.
Haiken just paced, waiting for the guard to return, so as to put into action the last part of the plan. It wasn't long before the guard appeared with a mop and a bucket, grudgingly cleaning the floor, with exaggeratedly large strokes of the mop.
Haiken paced closer to the guard, who was too lost in his anger to realize that, with every pass of the mop, he was sticking the tip of the handle through the bars of the cell. Waiting for the right moment, Haiken grabbed the mop handle the next time that it poked through the bars, giving it a hearty pull.
Gripping the mop too hard from his anger, the guard was pulled along with the mop to hit his face against the bars. His grip suddenly loosened as he went to hold his face, and Haiken was able to pull the rest of the mop all the way into his cell. With a quick movement, the mop was turned so that the handle was facing the guard, and with a strong thrust, Haiken hit the guard in the gut, knocking him back.
Taking a step back and regaining his orientation, the guard looked up to Haiken in anger. "Damn the morning. Your execution is now!" He shouted, taking a stance, and bending a large rectangle of rock towards Haiken.
Haiken dodged to the right side of the cell, as the stone passed through the bars on the left, completely removing them from the wall as it crashed into the back of the cell. Not wasting a moment, Haiken shot through the opening, cracking the mop handle over the head of the still dazed and angry guard.
"Hey, stop him!" Someone yelled from down the hall.
Haiken looked to the left to see an earthbender raising a large chunk of floor, sending it down the hall towards Haiken. As he began to run to the right, Haiken saw the same thing with another earthbender guard. He quickly threw himself back into the cell, just as the two pieces of rock collided, sending the entire cell into darkness, shutting off any way to escape.
Haiken cursed, beating his fist against the new fourth wall of his cell. He'd ruined his one chance at escape. At least, his one chance before the actual execution itself. Suddenly, there was a grinding noise, and Haiken felt the fourth wall moving closer, pushing him back.
This is the execution he realized.
His anger began to boil as the rock moved closer, reducing the already tiny space of the cell. What right did they have to use powers like this against him? What made them better than him? Haiken walked angrily to the other side of the cell, that piece of rock that separated him from the outside of the prison.
They weren't better than him, Haiken decided. If they could move rocks, then so could he.
The space grew smaller as Haiken summoned all of his anger and stubbornness.
In the secluded darkness, nobody would be able to see as Haiken's eyes began to glow.
A/N: Currently in search of a more appropriate name for Helen. I simply can't seem to find a good one for an earthbending nation girl. Also, I am sorry for all the POV shifts, that will not be present in the other chapters of this story. It was simply a good way to introduce the cast and the world in a quick, non-textbooklike fashion.