Successors to the Blue Spirit
Crossroads
By Violent Vi
Prologue
The Battle of the Black Sun marked the end of the hundred year war.
Many warriors on both side fell.
Katara, water-bending master, daughter of Hakoda, Southern Water Tribe.
Mai, noblewoman, daughter of New Ozai governor Tseng.
Hakoda, Chieftain, Southern Water Tribe.
General Fong, Ba Sing Se.
Hu, Swamp Water Tribe.
General Huo, Fire Nation Naval Infantry.
Colonel Tetsuo, Bodyguard to Lord Ozai.
The names go on. Ten thousand souls traveled to the underworld that day. However, two names would never be forgotten.
Ozai, Firelord, son of Fire Lord Azulon.
Aang, Avatar, the last Airbender.
The winners of the battle drank down battle lust and madness in big gulps of blood.
The victors decreed that Fire Nation would be no more. It's citizens would be banished to the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes where they and all their descendants would be slaves for the victors.
Fire- bending was outlawed. It's practitioners cursed with the sentence of a slow, painful death.
The winners sought to end Sozen's line permanently
However, Crown Prince Zuko escaped his prison cell minute before his public execution. His sister was not so lucky. Angered by the prince's escape, every indignity was inflicted upon the royal person. What was left behind was cast out so the people of the Fire Nation can see how far it had fallen. It's last princess was reduce to a mass of madness by the hand of Sokka the Destroyer himself.
Once day she vanished. Many suspected the princess in her madness cast herself into the boiling waters of Boiling Rock Prison, her body was never to be seen again.
Three months later, the earth benders of the Earth Kingdom loosened the seals and let the volcanoes of the Fire Nation erupt. Those that were not taken off the island to slave were doomed to perish in the lava flows. The ash hung in the sky for three years choking out the sun. As slaves, those of the Fire Nation starved and many died. Only one of four lived on to suffer the lot of a slave. However in the chaos, a few escaped into the woods, mountains, and wild lands that where inhospitable to those of the Earth Kingdom.
At first, the Earth Kingdom was not worried. A few ragtag survivors living at the edge of starvation posed little threat to the peace.
However, soon the Earth Kingdom learned that to ignore a smoldering ember was to invite the wild fire. Unlike the Earth Kingdom who sought the easy life, the Fire Nation was built upon the philosophy that suffering builds strength. While an Earth Kingdom farmer prayed to the gods for gentle rains and sufficient sun to bring in a good harvest, a Fire Nation escapee pray to Agni for strength and challenges to make them stronger.
While not having the numbers or united command to face the Earth Kingdom, those of the Fire Nation knew that Agni answered their prayers. Those that escaped the yoke of slavery became stronger. The Remnants or Exiles as they called themselves proved that subduing a proud people was like trying to fight a wild fire with a bucket of sand.
As for the Avatar, every child born into the Water Tribes was tested, but none proved to be the reincarnation. Soon it was concluded that when Princess Azula struck down Aang the Avatar, the avatar cycle was broken.
Sixteen years after the Fire Nation defeat at the Battle of the Black Sun
Li Ju An examined the billboard at the crossroads.
The usual posters of local bad boys gone too far in pursuit of fun and coin graced the billboard. However, one image had central billing. The blue and gray visage of a demon leered at all who passed the crossroads in the middle of nowhere.
To the Earth Kingdom, the Blue Spirit was the ultimate demon.
The mysterious masked figure had robbed from almost all the noble and merchant families of the Earth Kingdom. He had assassinated Earth Kingdom officials and merchants who bought and sold slaves. He had stolen the ransom of kings many times over. Hundred of bounty hunters sought the mysterious figure to only find humiliations at the hands of the laughing oni (demon). Not even the legendary Jun the Bounty Hunter with her beast could track down the assassin.
When the Blue Spirit stole the jade crown of the Earth Kingdom, the King of Ba Sing Se even went so far as to call upon the old Dai Li to hunt the Blue Spirit down. The Dai Li returned to Ba Sing Se defeated. Their ashes interned in a honey pot. That night, the Blue Spirit stole several of the royal jewels and paid the Earth King a personal visit. It was rumored that the Blue spirit spanked the Earth King with the flat of his sword. Since then, the Earth King kept a dozen guards in his room as he slept.
To the water tribes, he was the unstoppable terror. They feared him as much as they feared the black and white whales that prey upon all other creatures in the water.
Twice, he graced the Northern Water Tribe by violating their holy of holies. The first time he merely took two vials of water from the spirit oasis. The second he proved the not even a regiment of determined Northern Water Warriors and elite Water-benders were capable of stopping the legendary bandit. The world could heard the outcry of the Northern Water Tribe were heard when they found a mask at the Spirit Oasis. The spirits of the Moon and Ocean swimming in a fishbowl with a note taunting that next time he would partake of carp sushi. Since that day, a squad of elite water-benders remain on guard at the oasis.
Only once was the Blue Spirit defeated.
The Blue Spirit sought out the life of Sokka the Destroyer. The pair fought. The Blue Spirit had to flee for as much as he wanted to kill the man who ordered the destruction of the Fire Nation, his defeat would end the hopes of many.
To the slaves who once were the Fire Nation, the Blue Spirit was their hero.
Mothers would whisper tales of his exploits to their children. In the middle of the night, fathers would take their children into the woods and teach them the fighting arts of the disbanded nation in hopes that they too would be worthy of the Blue Spirit's efforts. He was the living embodiment of an enslaved race dream of freedom. He was the wild fire that earth, wind, and water could not contain. He was their leader in exile.
The world knew of the Blue Spirit. However, only one man knew the identity of the man behind the mask. And that man was far to cagey to ever admit to being the most wanted man on this world.
"Uncle will be upset if we are not home by sundown," moaned a young man.
Fifteen-year-old Li Ju An looked at her cousin, Li Ji An, and his twin sister, Li Li An.
The pair were opposites in temperament.
Lili, as Li Li An was called, was so energetic that she could even wear down Auntie Ty.
Ji An was so dark that he could suck out all the fun in a carnival by just walking by in the next district. Ji An, no one called save LiLi called him Liji, was too much like Uncle Li – all serious. The only time he ever had fun was playing with steel, fire, or pulling a practical joke on some unsuspecting fool. The only way one could tell the pair were brother and sister was the way they stuck up for one another when an
outside picked on one of them. Otherwise, the pair spent their time driving each other nuts and fighting one another.
Lili stuck out her pink tongue, rolled her eyes, and made a circling motion with her index finger by her ear. "Ji An, no wonder why you are in a rush. You want to kiss Meng."
Ji An glared and launched a fire blast at his sister's foot. Lili did back flip and easily avoid the flames.
"Take that back, sister. I would commit jumonji-giri (seppuku without a second to end the pain) rather than kiss that fat pig-cow again.
"Again..."
"It was dark...okay...I thought it was...Junai," he admitted reluctantly.
"So you admit kissing Meng," laughted Lili. The fourteen year old girl started singing, "Meng and Ji An kissing in a tree, oh my oh my what a mess it be. First come love, forget the marriage, here comes the ugly pig in a baby carriage."
"Shut up," snarled Ji An as he threw several more fire blasts at his sister.
"Stop it. If an Earth Kingdom patrol saw us, they would take us to the slave blocks," warned Li Ju An.
"You are no fun at all," taunted Lili as she danced around her twin brother. "Besides, we gave the last bunch of slavers a few scars. I know they won't be sitting for a couple months.
Ji An worked hard at perfecting the bland tone and face. However, a rare smiled did briefly appeared on Ji An's face. It was his idea to give the last group of slavers a permanent set of hemorrhoids via fire-bending. Li Ju An knew that when her cousins worked together, there was bound to be some interesting form of trouble brewing. However, Li Ju An could not keep a straight face. She too enjoyed the moment.
Li Ju An hated being the oldest, sometimes. Since she was three months older than the twins, her uncle expected her to babysit these two troublemakers.
Li Ju An wondered why she was stuck with these two.
If she was Uncle Li, she would have already drowned the pair and raised chicken-pigs. At least the chicken-pigs could eaten as meat.
The elder girl blew an errant lock of hair aside.
Li Ju An looked nothing like her cousins. She had inherited the mocha complexion and blue eyes from some unknown Water Tribe father. Other than Uncle Li and Aunt Ty, the only thing she had in common was her ability to bend fire. The problem was no matter how hard she tried, she had to fight to force fire to do her will. Lili was a prodigy. Ji An had a harder time mastering fire, but still had an easier time than the older girl.
Damn Water Tribe blood. It interferes with my fire-bending. I have to master that double kick before tongiht. Ahhh...damit it all to the nine hells.
Li Ju An hated the water tribes.
It was the Southern Water Tribe prince, Sokka, that enslaved the Fire Nation and exiled the entire populace. It was one of the barbarian tribesmen who raped her mother and ensured that Li Ju An would have contaminated blood. When she was child, she prayed to Agni that she would not become some slimy, fish-scaled water-bender. She refused to be near water. She refused to bathed fearing that if water touched her that she would lose her fire bending powers. Worse yet, she fear she would end up playing with water. In the end, Uncle Li had to throw her off a boat in the middle of a lake before Li Ju An learned who to swim. She prayed to Angi to forgive her polluted blood and give her power so that one day she could kill every filthy Southern Water Tribe bastard.
Ji An flicked a dart at the image of an Earth Kingdom bandit.
"Scum, don't desire to be on the same billboard as the Blue Spirit," he spat as he defaced the other images before letting them smolder. "One day, Lili, we will seek out the Blue Spirit and become his apprentices. I will be known as Bai Hu, the White Tiger of the West..."
"And I will be Quin Long, the Azure Dragon of the East, "interrupted Lili.
"And together we will topple the Earth Kingdoms and Water Tribes from their perch," chimed the pair simultaneously as they performed an advanced fire-bending kata (form) that Li Ju An would have sold her soul to be able to perform.
Li Ju An smiled, "And just whom am I suppose to be..."
"Why Xuan Wu, the mysterious warrior of the north, who with her icy cold claws send shivers that unman even the most foolhardy of Water Tribe scum."
"Not too hard as they already have their testicles frozen off from all the damn cold. The last one home is Zhu Que, the Vermillion Sparrow."
The twins ran down the road. No one wanted to be the sparrow.
Suddenly the pair were jerked off their feet.
Li Ju An sauntered by at a leisurely pace.
"You two have to untie yourself first. Don't even think of burning the rope. It was on Uncle's shopping list."
The screams of outrage could be heard in Ba Sing Se when the pair realized their cousin pulled the oldest trick in the book. While they were talking about joining the Blue Spirit, Li Ju An simply looped the rope about a post and tied the ends to their belts.
The twins were troublesome pranksters when they ganged up. However, they had nothing on Cousin Li Ju An, the best prankster this side of Ba Sing Se.