Xin struggled to his feet – his body weak and numb as the whispers clawed at his mind. They yelled at him, pleaded – Find the Lotus – they said – You will never be so helpless again. Xin stared into the darkness, and looked down at the broken bodies of the men, their faces crushed like tinfoil against the earth around him. "What!?" He shouted in the dark, rubbing at his bloody hands. He felt the crack in his leg as he tried to stumble away, and felt the voices shouting again in the dark. You're not alone, Xin! You need to find help!
"Leave me alone!" Xin roared out to the darkness, as he dragged himself away. He finally found the courage to kick his foot in the dirt, stone encasing around his leg – it'd keep it from breaking until he found a halfway house – wherever he'd find one open at this hour. His legs carried him through the darkness, and the voices were silent. Small miracles were all that kept Xin going these days – and he growled his way through the darkness – a bow-legged child whimpering in pain beneath the streetlights. After a time, a dusty blue-painted Satomobile flickered on its lights, driving up behind Xin. The boy stopped, staring at it with tired eyes.
The man at the wheel stepped out – his police uniform wrinkled from long hours of patrol. "Kid." He said. "Why are you out at an hour like this?" He asked.
Xin looked down at his leg, and at his bloody hands. "I'm always out." He said. "Not like there's a place to go." He said.
"How bad is it broken?" The officer asked, bending down. Xin let the rocks drop, showing his off-angle leg. The officer shook his head, carrying Xin to the backseat and strapping him in. "You stay right here, kid." He said, stepping into the front seat and grabbing the radio. "Central, Unit 37. Local homeless medical intervention, off net." He whispered into the radio.
For awhile, the pair rode in silence, passing empty streets with flickering lights. Xin grunted at his leg, but stayed silent. There was no reason to speak. The man was just doing his job. "Not a safe night out there." He said. "We picked up two guys pulped down an alley on Kiro Way. You see anything like that?" He asked.
"Nah." Xin said. "Been keeping to myself." The cop swished his rear-view to look straight at Xin, his eyes appraising the child. "I broke my leg trying to get over a fence to check a lady's dumpster." He explained, lying perfectly.
The cop shrugged. "I feel sorry for you kids. Maybe if the King cared at all you'd be better off – but I'm not one to say anything." Xin folded his hands, waiting out the car ride in silence for the remainder. They pulled into the emergency dock – and a pair of nurses with a gurney rolled up to the car. Xin was pulled onto it, and dragged through the doors. The Cop merely gave him a nod as he was pulled away, and drove off into the night.
As the doctors worked on Xin's leg, and put him up in bed, a tray of food – real food – was laid before Xin. He reached out tenatively with his hands, only to have them slapped away by a nurse. She gave him chopsticks, pantomiming their use with her fingers. Xin grabbed a small roll, eating it with the chopsticks. He'd never had more bliss in such inconvenience. After all was said and done, Xin was left to rest – and he told himself something in the darkness of his hospital bed: "I won't live the poor life anymore." As he drifted to sleep, voices whispered once more at him, and two figures stared at him in his dream. One had short black hair, dark of skin, and very beautiful. Blue eyes stared at him, appraising, but not belying her opinions. The other was a glowing... kite? It looked like a spirit, like those that perched in the city or frequented various places, but had an aura of power he'd never seen before.
You know who we are, Xin. The kite-spirit whispered.
We're what make you who you are, Xin.The dark-skinned woman said. You may fear to succeed me, but you need to become the Avatar. If you don't, dark forces will take hold, as they always do. My legacy won't last forever.
And all the while, the other voice said, You will have failed to learn and grow as the Avatar.
Xin blinked, cradling his arms to his chest as his leg ached at him. I don't want to be Avatar. The boy whispered. I just want to be a normal kid, with a family!
So did many of your ilk. The spirit replied. All rose to the challenge in time, child. Fearing your destiny-
I make my own destiny. Xin whispered in his sleep. You could've helped when Mom was dying – and you watched. When two men were teaching me a lesson, you made me kill them. You're a monster.
We do what we do to balance the world! The woman shouted. We protected you! Those men would've killed you!
Maybe I deserved it. Xin thought. With a grunt, he dismissed them both, dropping into a full sleep. In the hallway, the nurse glanced into the room – to find a child sleeping normally in the dark. She could've sworn the room was lit not even moments before.
"So you're telling me the Water Tribe Civil Guard seized our priority shipment flameguns and engines?" Hiroshi said, holding his hands taut around the seizure orders, sitting at his desk in the captain's quarters – a marginally nicer wood-paneled room that Hiroshi called home. It had nicer windows, a fancier bed, and a desk with actual chairs on either side of it – complete with a small Avatar Korra figurine, a betrothal necklace draped from it in red strapping with an emerald sigil – still carved with the symbols of the southern tribe. Wear had made the strapping fray, but the emerald was polished beautifully.
Say what you will about Hiro's fantastical stories, one was absolutely true – his Gran-Grans had somehow had a baby. Though the story changes every time he tells it, and Xin wasn't about to go find out the truth, Hiroshi's collections of Korra memorabilia were something Xin had unfortunately grown accustomed to. What was more disconcerting was how familiar it all looked. He looked at these objects like he'd held them in his very hands, used them, worn them. They spoke to him in a way that haunted him.
Naturally, Xin avoided the room like the plague, which only made this conversation all the more uncomfortable. "Look, man, I just nodded. I'm not about to fight with any government authorities – nobody pays enough for that."
Hiroshi set the paper down, glancing at the three crewmembers gathered in his suite. Shao was perched precariously on a small nightstand, one leg in the air, her eyes concentrating on the sandstorm that had blown in during their arrival, pattering against the windows. "Whatever we do," She said, "We're going to need to get out of town fast. I don't like what this kind of weather does to the engines."
"Port lock is port lock." Hiroshi said, rubbing at his temples, "And we're not spending Gran-Gran's festival-"
"Forget the Avatar." Xin said, shaking his head. "Its been twenty-five years, and I'd rather not be in port when the cops come knocking – especially when they shouldn't be around."
"Something's fishy about all of this." Kysha said, quieting the room as she spoke. "This sandstorm – Water Tribe guardsmen running the ports. Last time we were in Sheng was, what?"
"Six years ago!" Hiroshi said, holding up a finger. "We were delivering water during the pipeline crunch by the Duke of Nanlu, and the Sultan was preparing to attack. Last I knew, the Sultan hated foreign influence, and was against Nanlu and Yi's alliance with Omashu."
Xin shrugged. "A little before my time." He said. "I was still in school."
"Still, strange." Kysha said. "The Sultan isn't the kind of man to hand over power to others willingly. He has a stranglehold on this part of the desert, and has the loyalty of hundreds of Sandbenders." She reached into her robes, withdrawing a necklace – an airbender sigil on it. "I can try to see if there's still an Eyrie in town. Perhaps my friends who walk the winds can explain some of this strangeness?"
Hiroshi nodded, folding the paper and stuffing it in a desk drawer. "A fair plan. In the meantime, I guess we should enjoy the festivities – if we can brave the sand."
Xin looked out into the dusty mass, which whirled about in angry roar. He frowned. Something wasn't right, and he knew it from the moment he saw the clouds while he was on the gantry. A wordless whisper tugged at his mind, but he cursed it aside in his thoughts. Now wasn't the time.
Now wasn't the time.
"Xin?" Kysha said, tapping him. "Did you hear me?" She asked, looking at him with her steely eyes.
"Sorry." Xin said, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. "I was somewhere else for a minute. What's up?" He asked.
"Kysha is headed out to speak with the airbenders. I'm headed to the Festival and to speak with the Port Authority. You and Shao have the ship – we'll stay in touch by radio." Hiroshi said, tightening his tie as he brushed off his suit.
Xin nodded, glancing back at Shao on the stand. She twirled off of it, nodding at her boss. "I won't let Xin get in too much trouble while you're gone. We all know what he does when he's restless!" Kysha and Hiroshi shot him a smiling glance. Last time they'd been gone without Xin for a few hours, he'd completely rearranged the entire bridge and made sculptures out of empty cargo containers. Boredom turned to industry for Xin – he could never sit idle.
As Hiroshi and Kysha departed, Xin stepped out the door and turned left, walking onto the bridge – the helm and radio stations arranged calmly around the central map, which spilled out over the rest. Engine monitors and other steam gauges whistled around him, and Xin removed a glove, feeling the very ship sing to him. She rumbled silently, groaning in the sand. Her engines felt like chafing – the sand scribbling at their intakes, and Xin knew immediately that they'd need work.
Shao stepped in behind him, closing the door. "You're doing it again."
Xin closed his eyes with a narrowing of his lips, gripping the metal tighter. It buckled slightly under the force of his chi, but he released – putting it back in shape. "Why do you feel the need to do that?" He asked.
Shao put her hands on her hips. "I'm not the one who goes around fondling metal like its' his only love in life." She said, shooting him a look. "Oh well. We're probably going to have to overhaul the engines if this sandstorm keeps up." She said, flicking her fingers to send sparks showering ahead of her as she idly paced the room.
Xin shrugged, pulling his glove back on. "Good luck finding any metal for that in the Si Wong. I'll do my best to keep it from coughing out the main intakes, but-"
"The engines are my business." Shao said, growling at him. "You're the structural engineer. I'm the mistress of movement." She said, with a sparking twirl.
Xin rose his hands in supplication. "Whatever you say." Xin said. "I'll let you get right on that, then." His eyes turned to the charts, where he looked over the string routes tied between various locations. Sheng was the furthest south the Zhu Li XIV had been in months, due to the trading boom between Omashu and Ba Sing Se following a great trade treaty between the city-states. There was lucrative money there – and Hiroshi had garnered them amazing contracts before the larger firms gobbled up exclusive rights.
It was always a race – a race to run the right cargoes, at the right price, for the right people. Today? Today was a bad gamble. Shao leaned over the map, squinting at it. "Nearest good spot for an engine overhaul is in Luoto City." She said, tracing a tattooed arm past the Fennu Mountains and into Yang, at the nexus between it and the states of Nanlu and Xi Bai. "Getting there, though, is gonna be rough if we take too much damage from the sandstorm."
Xin glanced out into the storm, which had still not dissipated. "Isn't it a little odd that the storm brewed so suddenly?" Xin asked. "Were you on the bridge when it came in?"
"No." Shao replied, turning to look at him. Xin stepped to the helm console, leaning out to look out in the silica fog. "Why? Did you see something weird?"
"It seemed to start on the north side of the city, past the wall." Xin said, shaking his head at the window. "Almost like someone was bending this mess."
Shao looked confused. "Who could bend an entire sandstorm?" She asked. "The entire city's socked it – it'd take dozens of sandbenders, and probably airbenders to cause something like this!" She looked at Xin, whose eyes were distant. "Xin?" She asked.
He stared off into the sand, and saw the burning blasts of flameguns frying the sand In the air on the street below. Something was going on.
Xin felt a clang through the hull, and doffed a glove. The cargo bay screamed as three metal devices entered the compartment, clanging angrily – their treads cutting into the thin plating and damaging the hull. He put it back on, and twirled. Ceiling plates clanged around his arms and chest in thin strips, stacking one atop another. "We've got a problem." He said, gesturing toward the noise.
"What?" Shao said, letting her sparking fingers cease. A bolt of sparkling flame hit the deck, fizzling out like Shao's energy. Several more clangs resounded. Xin reached down to his belt, triggering his radio.
"Hiroshi! Kysha!" He shouted. "I saw firebolts in the street, and we've got boarders – do you read me?" The radio squirreled with static and feedback, and Xin clicked it off entirely. Something was jamming the signal. "Shao." He said, looking at her. Her happy face had turned into a knot of concern, and Xin ripped a chestplate off the ceiling, wrapping it around her. "I need to get to the transmitter. Something's blocking the signal."
She nodded. "We don't even know what we're up against, Xin!"
"It isn't my first fight." Xin smiled. "It definitely won't be our last." He twisted, his metal armor scraping together with a shower of sparks as he opened the doorway. Whatever was going on, they'd find out soon enough.
Author's Notes
For reference, I think of Hiroshi as a modified version of Varric with stubble and a crazy mustache from Book Four, Kysha as a mixture of Kya and Suyin, and Shao as Ty Lee with a bit of Azula thrown in the mix.
