Chapter Two: Tell Me the Good News First
"Land ho!" Shouted the soldier in the crows nest. "Aiy! And there's a shit to port and one to starboard! Ones watertribe and ones earth kingdom!"
"Good!" Zuko said from the deck of the ship. "Pile on more steam! I want to catch up with them!" The fire nation ships steam stacks belched forth heavier clouds of steam and the ship rocketed forward, easily slipping between the two other ships.
"What took you so long?" Toph shouted from the bow of the earth kingdom vessel.
"Yeah, I thought you wouldn't get here until next season!" Sokka jested from the rudder.
"I thought we'd give you a head start!" Zuko joked back. "How about a race into the bay? Losers have to pay for a feast for the crews!"
"You're on!" They accepted in unison.
…
"Katara! Use some waterbending to make the ship faster!" Sokka shouted to his sister as she ran to the bow.
"Right," she laughed. If they were going to race, then they were going to win.
…
"Tell the men in the engine room to pile it on full speed!" Zuko yelled to the pilot.
"Aiy aiy sir!" He said before speaking into the mouthpeaice by his side. "Attention all hands! We're racing the other ships to the mouth of the bay, if you want a free feast, then I suggest you pull your thumbs out and get this tub moving!" A cheer rose up from the crew as the men in the engine room began piling coal into the furnaces, and the captain threw all of the engines full speed ahead.
…
"Pile on all sails!" Toph shouted to the crew.
"Its useless m' lady," the captain said, discouraged. "We can't beat their waterbending er ther fancy engines."
"Just do it."
"I'ma tellin' yer, enless thers a gale o' a wind a comin' up behin' us, we're a gonna lose."
"Trust me," Toph said with a smile. Captain sighed before telling the crew to follow her orders.
As the captain predicted, the other two ships were beating the earth kingdom ship by quite a distance within a few minutes. "I tol' yer, it's useless!" The captain said, throwing down his hat.
"Just wait a minute…" Toph said, her smile still confident.
"Need some help?" A voice came from the port side of the ship. Toph knew who it was the second she heard it; not only because she'd spent nearly a year traveling with him, but because she could smell Appa miles away.
"If you don't mind,"
"Sure! Appa, yip yip!" Aang said as he steered Appa around behind the ship and had the giant flying bison push the vessel as he flew.
…
The three ships caught up to each other just as they reached the opening of the bay, meaning they'd all have to split the price for the crews feast.
"Aang!" Katara waved from the bow.
"Hey Katara! Just a second!" He flew up to the side of the waterbending ship, and let Katara and Sokka climb aboard before flying over to the firenation and earth kingdom ships to pick up Zuko, Mai, Toph and Iroh.
When they landed on the shore of Kiyoshi Island, they were met by an entourage of Kiyoshi warriors, including…
"Suki!" Sokka shouted, running up the beach towards the armor clad woman of his dreams.
"Hey there hot stuff!" Tai-Lee cart wheeled into his path, causing him to skid to a halt inches from her. "You've gotten even cuter since the last time you were here! Have you been working out?"
"Back off! He's mine!" Suki said, elbowing Tai-Lee out of the way before kissing Sokka soundly on the lips. Aang and Katara quietly held hands, not showing any public displays of their effection. They hadn't quite told Sokka about them yet, and Aang wanted to talk to him about it before they were officially a "couple".
"Oh wow Mai! You look great how've you been? How's Azula?" Tai-Lee flipped over and said rather expediently to Mai, whispering the last bit about the deranged fire princess.
"Thanks, I've been fine, and she's still crazy." Mai said in her bored but content voice. "You've been enjoying your life as a Kiyoshi worrier?"
While the girls were talking and Sokka, Suki, Aang and Katara had their moment, Iroh and Zuko hugged warmly. "Nephew! It has been too long."
"I know. It's not the same at home without you. Are you sure you don't want to came back?"
"No, I'm fine right where I am. Besides, what would the earth kingdom do for tea?"
"And what would I do for company?" Toph butted in. She'd been feeling left out, everyone else being too busy with each other to notice her.
…
"Alright, let the meeting officially commence." Zuko said from the head of a low table set up in the Kiyoshi Dojo. "Now, how's the Air Bending Nomads return coming along?"
"It's going well," Aang nodded to the firelord. "I've found many kindred spirits in all the nations, and a few out in the wilderness. There aren't any that I'd call masters yet, but they've gotten through much of their training. The Eastern Air temple is fully restored, but I don't have enough people to restore the others. That'll have to wait until we have more masters."
"Good, I'm sure we're all glad to hear the Air Nomads are making a recovery. Now, what is the situation in the Earth Kingdom?"
"It's so-so," Toph said in an offhand way. "There're rebels in the northwestern mountains, but we're not sure if they've gathered that much of a following. As far as the government knows, they're all just milling around out there grumbling about how they want more than just monetary retribution from the fire nation. What do the people have to say about all of this?" She asked Iroh, who could give a fairly accurate description of how the majority of the people in Ba-Sing-Se felt about the goings-on of the country.
"They are about fifty-fifty. Some want revenge for the past, while others are more forgiving. But on the most part, people are simply happy for the peace."
"We're investigating the situation with the rebels currently, using an agent that we simply call "Hunter"."
"Alright, give us word if there's any news on that. How is the Southern Water Tribe rejuvenation project?" Zuko asked Sokka.
"It's going fairly now that the waterbenders and worriers have returned. The southern tribe has almost reached the glory of the northern tribe."
"And how is the Northern Tribe doing after the siege?"
"They've completely recovered. Though they haven't had outright rebellion, they have had some soldiers and benders go a-wall. We still haven't found their location now, it's like they've disappeared. If they're on the ocean, then we'll never find them. If you could have your ports watch for a large Water Tribe vessel, and alert us to their movements, it would be most appreciated." He asked the collective leaders, all of which nodded.
"The Fire Nation has had some economic issues since the payment of the monetary retribution was paid, but we're finding ways of boosting it in peacetimes, including the invention of the steam locomotive, and the firebenders personal automotive vehicle. Also, we've experienced a mass rebellion from the more war hardened veterans of the Great War. They've taken the negotiators hostage, and have left us with no choice but military action. We've deployed the twelve imperial legion to eradicate them before they can attack first.
Otherwise, the Fire Nation is experience peace for the first time since the war began."
…
The meeting was about to end when a heavy rumbling sound came from above the dojo. Outside, the people started shouting, and one of the guards came in escorting a young Fire Nation soldier. "My Lord," He bowed. Zuko recognized him; he was the valedictorian from the academy graduation ceremony.
"What're you doing here? I thought I sent you and your platoon to take out those rebels?"
"Sir, that's just the problem. When we arrived at their camp, we found the entire group of them slaughtered." The soldier went on to describe the scene; dead rebels, obvious attempts to resist destruction, and the peculiar fact that there were no bodies from whoever attack the rebels. "It seemed that they didn't loose a single person sir. But that's not all, we also found the largest animal tracks we've ever seen. The investigators identified them as-"
"A Liger, a Wolf, a Bear, a Fox, a Cheetah, and a Hawk." The others turned in surprise and looked at Iroh, his head bent and his eyes closed.
"Yes General. How did you know?"
"Because they are the Beast Riders; all trained by the members of the White Lotus, and all great worriers."
"But six people can't take down two hundred experienced Fire Nation soldiers." Zuko disagreed. "Not unless they're benders."
"They aren't, not a single one. They have been trained by the best, and have developed techniques to fight against any bending style, even through study of old scrolls they're able to defend against airbending. And the fact that they're all mounted on extremely powerful beasts makes them, even more of a threat. It's like they and their beast move and think as one. As a group, they are neigh undefeatable, even against two hundred soldiers."
"Well then, we should thank them for doing our dirty work." Toph shrugged.
"That's not the point," Zuko shook his head. "The point is that there are people out there that the Fire Nation doesn't have any control over these Riders. We can't have people just running around killing, even if it was a bunch of rebels. They could've been Fire Nation soldiers for all they knew, they were still dressed in their uniforms. We're going to need a full scale investigation of these Riders, if anything, just to talk to them."
"That's not even the worst news my Lord." The soldier continued.
"What can be worse?"
"Well, as soon as we found out, we flew up here in the fastest air ship we had."
"Out with it soldier!"
"My Lord, Princess Azula has escaped."
Off in the distance, a peel of thunder struck the heavens as a wave of the blackest clouds began to move upon the island…