Avatar: Brave New World #1: Welcome to the New Age Part 1

The Last Avatar

By Jade Amaterasu

Sixty years ago, Avatar Xian He went insane. This was during the time of The Unification wars, as Earth King Oma tried to unite the Earth Kingdom under his rule. Everyone knows the destruction he caused during the over forty years he was in the Avatar state. However, questions remain: What happened to him to send him over the edge? Is he still alive? And if he's dead, who is the new Avatar?

The answer to the first question, as so many terrible things this century, may have something to do with the nuking of Omashu. The Avatar is said to be connected to the spirit world. If anything could cause spiritual destruction great enough to make the Avatar go insane, it is a half a million people being destroyed at once.

MAYU INTERVIEWS episode #146 1/1/1040

MAYU: Good evening, citizens of The People's Democratic World United Government! I'm your host Mayu, and here we are in the studio for a very special guest. Now, ever since WUG has been founded thirty years ago, we have been at Red Alert, because the enemies of freedom never sleep and are waging total war against us. Here in the studio, we have General Kai Zen, the youngest person to be made General and WUG's only female general, to discuss when the terrorist threat will be eliminated and what we can expect in the meantime. Ladies and Gentlemen, give it up for General Zen!

[Studio Audience applauds wildly.]

GZ: Well, this is certainly a step up from a staff meeting!

[Crowd laughs.]

MAYU: General, before we get into the serious questions…

GZ: Mayu, this isn't a staff conference. Please, call me Kai.

Mayu: Ok, Kai, before the serious stuff, I just want to know: how come your hair looks so good?

GZ: Careful planning, Mayu. Just like an op. I keep it short, so I don't have to spend too much time washing it. In fact, life becomes so much easier when you plan things like a military op, even your day-to-day beauty routines.

Mayu: So, discipline, one of our core values, is what keeps you looking so good?

GZ: Yep. I have to live and breathe our values if I'm going to enforce them, don't I?

Mayu: I couldn't have said that any better myself. Speaking of enforcing our values, what is the situation with the rebels?

GZ: As always, the situation is bad, but getting better. The rebels are divided into several groups. This makes them hard to track, but the good news is they fight themselves as much as they do us. The more famous groups usually stay to one are, like The Phoenix Nation and the Kyoshi Warriors. However, the most dangerous, and most secretive, is called The White Lotus. They're everywhere, you know.

My name is Jade Amaterasu. I am fifteen years old, and for the longest time, my survival strategy has been to stay low and don't cause trouble. I learned earlier than most, but I got a refresher course two years ago when I turned thirteen. That's when culling begins, you see. First, they go to the smarter kids. They go away for "review" for a few weeks. If they're too free-thinking, or if their parents have rebel sympathies, they take a little longer to return. Then they go after kids who ask too many questions about The Government that the teachers can't answer, or who voice the opinion that it's corrupt, or broken, or evil. It is, but you aren't allowed to say it. Then, they go after people who are simply too different. If we speak about the people who don't come back, there's a chance you'll also go away. The only exception to this is the benders. They don't wait until you're thirteen, and everyone knows where they go. In fact, they showed our town what happens to Benders pretty soon after I had recovered from the Federal Police's lesson.

However, all that changed when the people in the white truck kidnapped me and my friend, Hataro. As the hypodermic needle slid into my neck, I searched my mind for an answer as to why? What had I done to get on the list? It had to be recent, because FP Agents act quickly when they detect rebels. Or maybe, a voice in my head said, you were doomed from the day you were eight.

When I woke up next, I was in the forest around my home town, leaning on a tree, Hataro slumped by my side. My mind was very clear, but my body was paralyzed, my mouth numb, and my eyes refused to track properly. I was clearly at a disadvantage against the man standing in front of me. He was an older man, but he still was fit and had a gun, a small concealable pistol. My eyes were moving of their own accord so I didn't see the red stain on his shirt he was grabbing.

"Listen," he said desperately, "I don't have much time. I'm dead. Well, not yet, but soon. I am not with the Federal Police. They are looking to kill you. Do you understand?"

I tried to say "yes," but my tongue and jaws weren't working all that well. I had believed that ever since I was eight years old, but this was first time it had been confirmed. The man must have detected that I had agreed to that statement. "Ok, this is important. There will be a voice in your head in a few minutes. It is a highly advanced computer system. It knows what to do. Do not go home. Let me repeat that: under no circumstances should you go home."

He paused. Then he pointed at Hataro. "Can you trust him?" he asked. I moaned the affirmative again. "Think about," he said, "because you're the Avatar." Monkeyfeathers. There goes my survival strategy. If he even believed I was some kind of bender, let alone one as powerful as the Avatar, and he told someone who told the FPs, I was dead.

The man walked forwards and put his gun in one of my inside coat pockets. "If, for any reason, you think you can't trust him," he said, "either ditch him somewhere, or wait until his back is turned, then shoot in the back of the head. The gun I am giving you has no safety, so don't pull the catch. That'll just eject the magazine." Then he took out a Pai Sho tile, and put it in the same pocket. "If you ever get a need to play Pai Sho," he said, "play this tile first." The tile was a White Lotus tile, a very old one. He stood up, and hobbled away. I heard a motor start and a truck drive away.

I tried to get up. My muscles didn't even bother to respond. My eyes were starting to move, so it wasn't all bad. Hataro was also leaning up against me. He wasn't exactly what you'd call handsome, but he was one of the few people I could trust apart from my mom. My dad had gone somewhere when I was thirteen, so Hataro was pretty much the only guy I felt I could trust. It felt… nice to have him so close to me.

Then the voice in my head ruined everything. "Well," it said, it's dry female tones came in through my head, "if you are not too busy feeling up your unrequited crush, we have some business to discuss. Namely, your survival." I yelled in shock. "If you just think something," the robot voice stated, "I will know it. That's how I learned you lack standards."

Ok, I thought, first, leave Hataro alone.

"Fine," the computer said, "I will only voice my opinions of the nerd to you."

Second, keep those thoughts to yourself.

"I suppose you could not do very much better than him," the computer said. I couldn't be sure, but I thought I could detect some gleeful malice in its monotone. Second, I thought, we're going to find my mom.

"That idea is stupid," the robot thought. "From my knowledge of Federal Police tactics, and basic common sense, your mother would be the first person they would question. You have no martial arts skills, no bending, and a weapon you don't know how to use. If you are very lucky, you may find her corpse. Then the FPs will find you and kill you. The more sensible option is to find a bending teacher who actually knows what they are doing. There is actually a shrine around here that is rumored to be able to bring the dead back from the spirit world. Since the last Avatar was an Earth-bender at heart, you would be able to use the shrine to find a fire bender. Very low-risk."

The problem with that idea, I thought, is that I know how to find my mom. I don't know anything about spirits. We find mom, and Hataro helps. You don't like it, you can go shut off.

The AI sighed. I didn't know computers could do that. "Well," it said, "the next item of business is to find a name for me."

Why?

"From my knowledge," the computer explained, "it is traditional in these situations for people, meaning humans, to give an affectionate nickname to the computer, especially if they are capable of imitating human behavior." Beside me, Hataro groaned. I was starting to be able to move my fingers and toes. Well, I explained, the robots in movies are never complete jerks. The computer processed this statement. "My model is called the LOTUS 9. Does that help?"

Whatever. Lotus. That's your name. Are we done? I must have said some of that out loud by accident, because Hataro mumbled, "Yeah, 'm done Mr. Amon…"

"I do not think that name would work," the computer said, "as I have at least three sister units, and creativity is not part of our programming."

I guess you're on your own.

The computer shut up for a moment. I was glad. I had never encountered anyone who would inflict that kind of abuse one minute and then instantly ask for a personal favor. I now had some control over my body. Just as I was about to try to wake up Hataro, the computer asked, "How about John?" I groaned. "Yes, you're right, that is terrible," the computer said. It's also a boy's name, I said.

While the computer was considering this, I nudged Hataro gently. "Hataro," I whispered, "hey, wake up." He muttered something.

"Wake super dork up faster," the computer said, "he could probably help me."

"You know," I snarled out loud, "you could be nice." Hataro burst awake. "Sorry, Hataro," I said, "I was talking to someone else." He nodded. "Ok," he said, then looked around. "Who were you talking to?" He looked around again. "Where are we?"

"'Nice' is inefficient," the computer said. After a few minutes, she (seriously, that voice was definitely female) added, "Fatty." Being unnecessarily nasty is also inefficient, I shot back.

I turned my attention back to Hataro. "Basically, what happened while we were out," I explained, kind of blushing, since he was still kind of leaning on me, "was that some guys kidnapped us both, performed experimental brain surgery to implant me with an AI who needs a lesson in manners, and then they dumped us in the woods. Before the guy on trash detail left, he told me that I was the Avatar, and that the Federal Police were looking for me."

Hataro flinched. "He can't… he can't be right, right? I mean, you know the FP better than me. If they wanted us, they'd have us. It's not like we're Phoenix Nation."

"I don't know," I said, "these guys were helping me… I mean us." I stood up. I was sore, but I was determined. "Honestly? I don't care. I've always known they'd come for me some day, and I couldn't give less of a crap about being the Avatar. We're going to find my mom."

Both the AI and Hataro were dead-set against the plan. "Are you mentally deficient?" the AI asked. "Follow my plan, and get an actual fire bender on your side instead of throwing your life away." Hataro was much kinder. "Jade," he said, "if that guy was right, and we are being hunted by the FPs, your mom's place would be the first place they'd look."

"You know," I said, "that's almost exactly what the the guy who dropped us off said to me."

"See?" Hataro said, somewhat relieved, "I'm right."

"Maybe," I said, "Just answer this one question first: knowing how much the FP's 'justice' tends to spill over on others, would you leave your parents behind if they were looking for you?" He considered, then said, "It's different for me. My parents would probably be the ones to report me. They reported my sister for bending, you know. But I wouldn't leave you or my brother behind if they came for me." He sighed. "I'll help."

"You can run," I said, "I know what I'm doing is stupid but…"

"I have to go through with this as much as you do," he said, "If I never saw you again, or worse, if I did, I'd probably never be able to forgive myself for the rest of my life. If something similar happened to you, I'd figure you'd have less time to regret your choices."

"Gee," I said sarcastically, giving him a friendly punch in the shoulder, "thanks."

"You're welcome," he said, rubbing his arm and smiling, "by the way, I know where we are. If we go that way," he pointed in the opposite direction of where the truck had gone, "we should get to our street in five minutes."

"The guy who took us went in the opposite direction," I said.

"Even better. We want to be as far away from that guy as possible if the FPs made him."

I nodded. "Oh good," the AI in my head said sarcastically, "your house is on the way to the shrine." I gasped. Hataro looked at me quizzically. "If we survive the visit to my house," I said, "I know where we need to go next." Hataro brightened. I think it helped him to know that there was something after finding my mom.

"Really?" he asked eagerly, "What is it?"

"There's a shrine about half a mile behind my house that me and my parents would walk to before my dad left. My AI says it can bring in a fire bender from the spirit world to teach me. It's most likely a complete load of monkeyfeathers, but what harm could it do to check?"

"That sounds awesome," he said. He then thought for a moment, then said, "Listen, you know how I said I wouldn't leave my brother behind? After we find your mom and check out that shrine, we find him."

"Sure," I said.

"To do that," he said, "I'll need my laptop, which is in my house. It's on the side of the street that's closer to where we are." I shook my head. "Too dangerous. They can track it," I said.

He smiled. "I have a theory on how stop them," he said slyly. I considered this. If he could find a way to uninstall the tracking software that came on every laptop, that would be one more victory for us, and would possibly give us a line of communication to his brother. If we couldn't, they'd find us. However, any chance at a victory we could get before they took us was a chance worth taking. The punishment for getting caught was the exact same as the reward for toeing the line. "Ok," I said, "we're going to be re-educated and shot either way. Why not?"

Hataro shrugged. "Hey, I think we can make it." My onboard AI replied, "Without any support, there a 90% chance you will be caught." After a pause, it said, "That is 9.9457% higher than most people in your situation. Don't mess it up."

Are… you saying you believe in me? I asked. "I am not sure I am capable of that," the AI said, "but the chances of success of our survival go up if you believe in yourself, and by our survival I mean mine." A pause. "So, I guess I am wishing you luck." Another pause. "By the way, how does Mary sound?"

Hataro was right. It really only a five-minute walk to his house. During that time we had been completely silent, except the AI, who kept suggesting names. I was conscious of the weight of the gun my kidnapper had given me. It couldn't have been very heavy, as it was extremely small, could it? Also, the implications of it scared me. If an FP came at me, would I shoot at him despite the fact that they would be a human being, just like me? If one of the town cops came at me, would I shoot them, despite knowing them? I already knew I would shoot myself if it looked like I was to be captured. I had seen the people who had come back, scared and scarred lifeless puppets who simply said everything The Government told them. I didn't want to see how they did that.

When we got to the house, Hataro stopped me before we went out of the tree line. "Let me go in," he said. "If I'm not back in fifteen minutes, run." I nodded. He continued, "I know you won't follow this advice, but do not check on me, do not check on your mom without me, go directly to the shrine, and get yourself a bending teacher."

"And also hope it's not someone like Azula the mad," I said. Hataro cringed. "Please, don't even think that." I had to admit, Hataro was right to not tempt fate. A hundred fifty years ago, Princess Azula was one of the most terrifying in The Hundred Year's War. She was the subject of a report I had to write. As usual, I wrote two versions. One was just what The Government wanted to hear, with no research put in and a few deliberate grammatical errors. The other was the actual one. In the research I did for that, I learned that, like all members of the Fire Nation Royal Family, The Mad Princess had been a fire bender and a cruel tyrant, with very little sanity. However, early in her career, she had shown herself to be vicious and insane enough to give those like Admiral Zhao pause. In fact, near the end of the war, when she completely lost it, people were surprised because they thought she already had.

"Well," Hataro said, steeling himself, "here goes." He headed in. After he jumped the fence, I got the bright idea to see if I could bend. In my research, all I was able to uncover about the practical how-to of bending was in comic books and cartoons. Looking at anything else would cause suspiscion, and I had no reason to believe I was a bender. Usually, according to the cartoons, bending involved saying a catch-phrase.

"Ok," I said, "Fire bending, yip-yip!" Nothing happened. "What are you doing?" the AI asked. "Trying to fire bend," I replied out loud, then tried, "Flame On!" Again, nothing. The AI responded by saying, "Something tells me that you are fail bending instead of fire bending. By the way, what do you think of Gladys?"

"Already taken," I said, "there's an AI in this video game called something similar."

"Are you going to try again?"

"Yeah."

"If I give you an honest suggestion on what 'bender' from a children's cartoon to emulate, can you respond to my next name idea with as much thought?"

"Sure."

"Raven from Teen Titans."

"That's actually a good idea. Ok, here goes: Azerath… Metrion… Zinthos!"

The AI sighed. "Shame. If you have to say a catch-phrase, that would have been the coolest." I nodded. "So," I asked, "what's your idea for a name?"

"Lilly."

"Nice," I said, "it really fits. Your model designation is a flower like a lily, they both start with L, and they both can be white."

"It also sounds pleasing," Lilly said.

Before I could consider the implications of that comment, the door to the house opened. Hataro called out, "No one's in the house. You should probably get a snack before we go." I nodded and hurried in. After I vaulted over the fence, I asked, "Do you still have some of that Moose-Bear Track ice-cream?"

"Do we really time to make a sundae?" Hataro asked. I sighed. "No," I said, "We don't."

"Thought so," Hataro said as he threw me a bag of rice chips. I took a bite, then realized I was hungry. "I feel like I skipped lunch," I said, stuffing my face.

"You did," Hataro said, pointing to the calendar, "as well as dinner and breakfast." I had been out for a day. "Makes sense," I said, "I am recovering from experimental brain surgery." I looked at the greasy chips. They were barbecue. "Should I be eating this?"

Hataro shrugged. I continued to stuff my face. "Did you get something? " I asked Hataro. "Yeah," he said, "and I brought along a lot of non-perishables. Mostly crackers and dried fruit."

"Glad you let me have some of the good stuff," I said. We walked over to the front door and looked out at my house across the street. Like all other eleven houses on the street, it was a small, square building with two floors, built like a bunker. I looked at Hataro. "Good luck," I said. He nodded.

We opened the door and stepped out into the cold spring morning. I hugged my red pea coat around me as I crossed the street. When we got to my house, I didn't ring the doorbell. Instead, I punched in the code, then opened the door. We went in and closed the door as quietly as possible.

Hataro sniffed. "Do you smell that?"

"No," I whispered. It wasn't no as in a "No, Hataro, I can't smell that." I knew exactly what that smell meant. I ran into the kitchen. There was mom, or what was left of her, seated on a chair. The FPs had gotten to her, and seemed to have been at her for a while. Apparently, they had finished with her, because her throat had been slashed. It looked like that had been merciful.

I walked over, and hugged her arm. I didn't know what I was doing. I began to sob. This person had risked her life for me when I had first run afoul of the FPs by trying to visit me in the hospital. Any other mother would have waited for me to come out, and a few would have kicked me out of the house for that.

I only vaguely realized that Hataro was talking to me. Then I heard a creak. I stood up, and saw two local police officers, Yammada and Chokosabe. I looked them right in the eye. "Well," I said, "what are you waiting for?"

"Miss Amaterasu, Mr. Toshiba," Officer Chokosabe said, "Federal Police Inspector-Captain Jai Ven has deputized us and the rest of the local police force to bring you in for questioning. If you will kindly put your hands on your heads and…"

"No."

"What?" Everyone else looked at me as I said this. I snarled, "Why would I ever go with you willingly? If I surrender, the best possible thing I can hope for is being taken into the showers and shot in the back of the head. However, that" I pointed to my mom, "is the most likely thing that will happen to me."

"Your mom refused to give us…"Yammada began, but I cut him off. "You did this?" I asked. They looked away. "She refused to cooperate…" Chokosabe justified lamely.

I was enraged. "I walked by you two once a week on school lunch break. Chokosabe, when you said you forgot your lunch, I gave you my sandwich. I thought you were good people."

"We are," Chokosabe protested, "we just don't have a choice…"

"We don't have to listen to anything this traitor says," Yammada said, and he flicked open a retractable police baton. He stalked towards me, and I ran at him and threw a punch.

He screamed and backhanded me. As I crashed through the bathroom door, I wondered why he'd scream. Then I saw his face. Instead of a blue bruise around his eye, his skin had been severely burned. I heard Chokosabe move to beat Hataro down. I got up, only for Yammada's hook to send me spinning. I clutched the wall for support. Yammada grabbed me by the shoulder with one hand, and began hammering me in the soft parts of my back with the other.

However, being shoved against the wall reminded me of something. In the inner pocket of my jacket was the gun I had been given. "Well," Lily said, "now all you have to do is get it." That would be harder than it seemed. I was pinned. Then I remembered that I had managed to burn Yammada. I decided to see if I could do it again. I lifted my foot and focused on creating fire. When I brought it down on his foot, Yammada screamed and staggered back. When he did, I turned around, drawing the gun and pulling the trigger. The close range and sheer luck caused the bullet to go into his good eye. He stopped screaming.

"Well," Lily said, "that was…" Thoroughly awful? I asked. It was. I didn't like what I had done. While, on a certain level, I thought that Yammada had deserved what had happened to him, he had been a person. I had heard him talking to Chokosabe while they patrolled the school. I had talked to his son. Until I had seen what he had done to my mother, I had always thought him a kind and reasonable person. Then I realized what the most worrying thing about this whole encounter was: In under two minutes, I had damaged and disfigured him as badly as he had hurt my mom. I couldn't do that again.

But I had to. I owed it to Hataro to try and save him. You could do both, I thought. I held the gun out in front of me like I saw in propaganda films, and leaned around the door.

Instantly, Chokosabe pulled Hataro in front of him like a human shield and pressed a gun to my friend's temple. Hataro's eye was blackened, his lip bleeding, and he grimaced when he tried to move one of his arms. "Drop it," Chokosabe said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Are you serious? I have a gun to your friend's head." Hataro tried to say something, but Chokosabe's arm was wrapped too tight around his neck for him to get it out. I sighed. "We both know you'd be doing him a favor," I said. "Look, we know if he resists, you torture him to death. If he doesn't, I've seen what happens to people who get re-educated. Can you honestly say what you did to my mom is worse?"

"I hope you've got a better argument," Lily said, "I don't want to have to console you when Geek Boy gets one through his head."

I ignored her. "I'm more reasonable than that. Let him go, and handcuff yourself to the cabinet. You'll have a better chance of survival than us."

He turned his gun on me. "Or I can help The Government. I could be a party member if I take you in." I noticed he loosened his grip on Hataro's neck.

I shook my head. "What a party," I said, "torturing and killing for some greater good. After what I did to your partner, I think I'd pity you if you somehow got accepted. Could you really sleep in your nice house, or be happy in your fancy car knowing that you got in by torturing someone who didn't know anything? More importantly, could you ever sleep knowing that your new circle had to betray someone close to them to get where they are now?"

Chokosabe thought for a moment, then said, "I'm a cop. I'll do what I have to to protect my fellow citizens."

"Like you protected my mom?" I asked, "Like you're protecting Hataro? You're the one using someone as a human shield, and I'm the one trying to free the hostage. You're the one who tortured my mother to death, and I'm the one looking for an excuse not to kill you." I paused. "Doesn't that make me a better cop than you?"

Chokosabe dropped the gun and Hataro. Hataro landed on all fours. He had the presence of mind to grab Chokosabe's gun and crawl away. Chokosabe looked at the floor and said, "You're right. I became a cop to help people. I was going to be the cleanest, most heroic cop in the Fire Province. Now look at me. When we figured out she didn't know where you'd been taken, we began pressing her for financial information, and we're the clean cops. We don't protect anyone. We haven't for some time."

I was disgusted, but I had promised myself I wouldn't kill him in anger. He was a prisoner, and hurting him any more would prove me to be no better than The Government. "Just cuff yourself," I said. Hataro got up and said, "Give us your radio and belt first. Chokosabe nodded, and did as he was told. Keeping the cuffs, he went to one of the drawers and hooked himself up to a cabinet.

"You didn't tell me you had that," Hataro commented as he put on Chokosabe's belt.

"I didn't want to use it, I said. After a pause, I added, "Funny how stuff like that changes when someone's beating you to death." Hataro nodded. "I guess it wasn't very fun," he said, "both the beating and having to shoot someone."

"I don't think I'd be a very good person if I enjoy it," I said. Then my chest throbbed. "Speaking of that beating, I think we should grab some pain killers."

"Yeah," Hataro agreed fervently, "I can barely stand." I ran into the bathroom and grabbed shoved four bottles of painkillers into my backpack. Then I grabbed several boxes of bandages and disinfectant as well. Then a role of gauze. I limped back out. Hataro was just finishing stuffing bottles of water into his backpack. I took out a bottle of Pain-Away and said, "Keep two of those out, we may want to get some relief." He nodded. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is a three Pain-Away kind of day."

After taking the painkillers, we staggered out into the forest behind my house. In my mind, I wondered if I would ever see it again.

As Jade Amaterasu and Hataro Toshiba staggered out of Jade's house, a pair of eyes followed them from the roof of the house. The creature the eyes belonged to focused on Jade, and it made a low growling sound. When the two injured teens limped into the tree line, the creature skittered down the drain pipe to follow them…

Two hours later, a different predator came to the house. Inspector Jai Ven and a squad of Federal Police Armed Response Agents exited the SUV. Jai Ven sniffed the air. "Do you smell that?" he asked. His subordinates all took a sniff test. Then they drew their submachine guns. Three of the ARAs and the driver took positions on either side of the front door while Jai Ven and the other three ARAs went around the back. The rear door was open. Jai Ven drew his pistol and spoke into his radio. "We're in position, go."

The two groups burst in quickly. The first thing they saw was a local police officer cuffed to a kitchen cabinet. "Don't shoot! Don't Shoot!" the man said.

"Search the rest of the house," Jai Ven said, "I'll interrogate the witness." He walked into the room. When he turned to the left, he saw the corpse of a middle-aged woman. He looked at the cop, and asked, "What happened here?"

The cop looked at the corpse guiltily. "Amaterasu's mother didn't cooperate with our investigation. The girl came home while we were upstairs, and she saw what happened… what we did to her mother. She managed to get the drop on me and my partner."

Jai Ven looked on the small-town cop with disgust. It was a shame, really. He had thought that some of the more barbaric tactics of his brother and sister Federal Police Agents would be abhorrent to these country folk. He would have to put in another complaint.

"You know," he said, "that kind of interrogation almost never works in this short a time frame."

"Do you know how long we were at this?" the local asked, somewhat indignantly.

"Less than three days," Jai Ven said, "which is the time an average suspect can hold out without revealing anything." The officer hung his head in shame. "I killed her for nothing."

Jai Ven said, in a stern voice, usually unfit for addressing one's elders, "Now, officer…?"

"Chokosabe."

"Sometimes, when a suspect either does not know or does not want to share information, they will offer irrelevant information, usually financial. For morality's sake, I would need to know if Mrs. Amaterasu shared any financial information with you."

Chokosabe hesitated. Jai Ven leaned in close, and said in a very calm, yet dangerous voice, "Don't lie, Officer Chokosabe."

"Yes," Chokosabe said, "yes she did."

"And I suppose you and your partner transferred the money to your private accounts," Jai Ven said acidly, the anger in him rising, "for, oh how does your kind always put it? For 'safe keeping.'"

"Well…"

"I'll need your account number," Jai Ven said, "as it is standard procedure for The Government to seize unclaimed or criminal assets, and not its servants."

"Well, that's the thing sir. It's not in my account. It's in Yammada's."

"I see then," Jai Ven said calmly as he flicked the safety on in his pistol. As he slammed the butt of his pistol into the side of Chokosabe's head, he reflected that before the blow, the scum had not had a mark on him. "You see," Jai Ven, said, ignoring Chokosabe's cry of pain, "I know your type. You… you and your partner are part of a large cancer."

Jai Ven stood up. "You are cowardly. You are violent. You are greedy." For every sin he listed, Jai Ven gave the sinner a powerful kick. Chokosabe moaned with pain. "However," Jai Ven said, his disgust palpable, "you break ranks with your fellow tumors in that you are incompetent. Everything about your kind sickens me." He pressed his pistol to the back of Chokosabe's head. The coward was whimpering. "One of your fellow tumors would simply execute you for your incompetence." He flicked off the safety as he said this. "I have never executed people for honest mistakes. But I am considering removing you from society before you metastasize."

"Do it."

"Excuse me?"

"You're right," Chokosabe said, "I became a cop to protect the people. In the ten years I've served, I have never once even seen a criminal. I finally get a chance to do something worthwhile, and I end up as what I swore I would fight against. A bender has a more acute grasp of justice than I do. She had an excellent shot, but instead wanted to save as many lives as possible. Including the person who tortured her mother to death. Do as you see fit."

"Interesting," Jai Ven said, "you seem to also treat those pretty words you said long ago as something serious, and not a gateway to abusing the citizenry as you see fit. I think I shall let you live. But if you prove to be an average tumor, I will come back and cut you out."

With that, Jai Ven began to explore the house. He saw the body of Yammada in the bathroom, burned in two places. "So the Avatar did kill today," Jai Ven mused out loud, "maybe she decided she has no taste for it."

He then continued to the living room. There, he saw dozens of family pictures. He smiled sadly. There was a lot of love in the room. Too bad it had been ruined, like so many other things. But eventually, The Government would end these tragedies, if Project Subete Mite was everything R&D was saying it was.

However, something was bothering him about these pictures. He looked at one of them with all three of the family together. Then he realized what it was: Jade looked nothing like her parents. Her mother and father both had brown hair and Jade had dark black hair. Her father had green eyes, her mom had blue, but Jade somehow had gotten brownish-gold eyes. Jade also seemed more slender and athletically built than her parents. However, that had been when she was eight. Maybe she had grown to look more like her parents.

He pulled out Jade's school picture and held it so it blocked out Jade in the photograph, but not her mother and father. The difference had only gotten more striking. Jade was in a bored, regal pose with a regal, yet forced, smile. For some reason, it reminded Jai Ven of the kind of pose that most paintings of Fire Nation nobility adopted when they were painted by a particularly slow painter. Her parents were, in contrast, wearing goofy grins. Jai Ven pulled the picture back down to look at young Jade. Her smile was more genuine and animated, but it still was somewhat reserved.

That wasn't even the most striking difference. Both the elder Amaterasus ran slightly to fat, but both of them had low cheekbones. Jade's cheekbones, after they had lost their baby fat and developed more, had become very high. Both she and Mrs. Amaterasu had small noses, but Mrs. Amaterasu's was much too small for her face and rather stubby. In contrast, Jade's had a very pleasing aristocratic shape to it. Jai Ven shook his head. Why did he keep thinking about nobility when he thought about this girl?

He tried to look for one similarity between this girl and her parents, but found none. "Sir?" an ARA asked, "we've secured the house. Do you have any orders?"

"Yes," Jai Ven said, "if you would be so kind, I would like a hard target search in a thirty kilometer radius of every cave, store and hospital." The ARA took out a radio. "Oh, and one other thing. Search the house for any photo of the Amaterasu extended family."

The ARA asked, "Why sir?"

"Because," Inspector Jai Ven said, "I think Jade Amaterasu is not biologically related to the people who raised her."