I awake at sunrise as usual, I check my chi which is thankfully back to full strength. With a small amount of growth that I only recognize due to my awareness of my own power. After getting fruit for breakfast and thinking of how to spend my day and only coming up with checking the deserts for survivors, maybe befriending Toph. I could kill Jets merry band of morons, or remove their memories leave them in an orphanage. I could kill that General Fong, taking his base wouldn't cause too much damage too the timeline. I'l consider all of the above, after packing my camp I teleport to the outskirts of Gaoling.
Scene Break
After arriving, I conceal myself with illusion and walk towards a nearby cliff to carve runes for Protection, destruction, absorption and a rune of concealing. Over the next few hours I repeat this on the outskirts of the village, while Gaoling doesn't need this protection technically, since the Foggy Swamp zone protects it, I want the back up in place, in the event of the zone shrinking due to lack of energy. After doing all this I decided to check the deserts for survivors of the tribes I wiped out, after I get money for bribes for information of course.
Scene Break
I teleport to the outskirts of the Oasis, and begin walking towards it, while looking for signs of Sandbender tribes, or beetle-headed merchants and seeing none. I head towards the cantina looking for trouble. When I enter and see nobody including, Sandbenders or merchants, I walk towards the barkeep while withdrawing five gold coins from my money pouch.
"Do you know if any Sandbender tribes or Beetle-headed merchants have come by recently?" I ask him while displaying my wealth for him to see.
"I might know something, rumor is most of them were wiped out on the orders of the Earth King." That is unexpected, but beneficial to my plans. "They were our best customers spent a lot of money here. With them gone there's going to be a large shortage of income, certainly more than five gold can fix." He says slyly. I like this guy, he's already figured out my game. He knows he has the leverage and can demand more money. I sense no deception with my spiritual powers, I really need to use those more.
"Perhaps if I find the locals friendly I'l invest in the community. I just need to make sure the criminal types aren't a problem, after all can't have my property destroyed." I say while taking out five more gold.
"Perhaps," He says almost mockingly. "But there is corruption in this small town, you may have to bribe certain people. With large sums of money." Aww, we could have had such a nice conversation consisting of subtle suggestions and double speak.
"Very well, fifty gold for all information you have regarding the remaining Sandbender and Beetle-headed merchant tribes. I'l also offer another hundred and fifty if the information is proven reliable. Meaning they're brought to justice, with your information proving to be near accurate."
"Deal" He says with a cruel smile. "The survivers are grouped together, scavengers and hunters that were out during the attacks. I overheard there's at least two hundred people grouped together to survive. Their west in a large rock grouping." That explains the cruel smile he thinks i'm gonna die, and he got paid for sending me to my death. I'l be sure to pay him a visit afterward, he's obviously affiliated with them. Possibly sending me into a trap, or just thinks i'l lose without tipping them off, hopefully the latter.
"Thanks" I say with a voice devoid of emotion. Which he mistakes for a tone of resignation about my death and smiles even more. I then hand him fifty gold as agreed, and walk out.
After getting out of sight, I conceal myself with illusion and negate gravity and fly west. After twenty minutes of flight I see the rock grouping, and fifty guards posted. This should be interesting, I land on top of a tall rock for a good line of sight. Well there is "at least" two hundred people. More like three hundred at minimum, I'm unsure whether or not my targets were spreading misinformation, or just miscalculated. I will need huge numbers, and the element of surprise, or use gravity bending. The guards are watching, but no one is watching the guards to make sure their doing their job.
Perfect, I use gravitybending to crush their skulls. Then quickly summon a hundred clones, then send them to positions surrounding large groups of people due to shared fashion i'm not sure what their function is. But I can't leave witnesses or survivors. All together there's a hundred and fifty.
I start the attack with a coordinated lightning storm from the clones, which serves to cause panic while I cut them down with a sweeping lightning attack from myself. While my clones are raining down dark energy blasts after the lightning storm. We surprisingly killed the hundred and fifty targets very quickly, lost the element of surprise I hear the reinforcements closing in, I quickly conceal my clones with illusion while project the illusion of a false battle group to lure the enemies in while the real threat attacks them from all sides. The reinforcements only number at fifty, I guess they thought no one could take the main force out so quickly. We repeat our winning strategy of barrage attack. Enemy casualties number at two hundred. I send out a pulse of electromagnetism to find loot and find none in a large, but empty cave. I levitate the dead bodies into it with gravitybending, I then kneel at the entrance and direct heat into the rock, I expand it to include the entire cave structure, turning it into lava which then consumes the bodies.
This has so far taken ten minutes of battle.
I levitate high into the air to look for other people hiding. Only to see the cowards escaping and quite far away, I decide to deal with them myself, so I will my clones to stay while I pursue them. I will jets of fire out of my fists and take off while negating gravity, granting me speeds that greatly surpass that of bi-planes. I caught up with them in less than a minute, from there it was easy to crush them with gravitybending. After searching I found large stores of wealth which I teleported into my vault. I dismissed my clones before burning the bodies of the dead. I create more anti-spirit wards.
Then teleported back to Oasis.
When I arrive I immediately walk towards the cantina. When I arrive I search for my informant for a moment, he's walking back to the bar. I meet him there, thankfully the bars still empty.
"Hello" I say coldly. "Miss me?" I ask enjoying his look of surprise at seeing me alive and uninjured.
"Your not my type princess." He sneers. "You run away from the big bad sandbenders already? Do I need to find your mommy for you?" He questions me mockingly.
"No I just came to celebrate, and pay you your hundred and fifty gold." I say calmly.
"There's no way you killed them, even with an army behind you it would take you hours." He says with a slightly raised voice.
"Its easy to verify, you know where they were last." I say with a smirk "It was a surprise attack from an elite, but numerically inferior force. It was easy." I say with a sneer. "You made it all possible, so how about I give you four hundred and fifty, giving you an even five hundred gold." I say all this while watching him. He's affiliated with them somehow, that was just to provoke him.
"You killed my family! You bastard!" He says while reaching for his sword. I let him, I need him confident in his safety so he'll reveal information.
"Why do you hate our culture so much?" He asks while pointing his sword at me, tears running down his face.
"Its simple, your thieves who leach off others, you feed off the suffering of others." I say as if its obvious. "Are there anymore survivors, I would like to know before I die." I ask calmly. Omitting the fact that I don't plan to die for several centuries.
"No, you killed them all, but don't worry they'll torture you in the afterlife for wiping out our tribes, even the children!" He yells hatefully, spitting some. I sense no deception from him. I immobilize him with gravitybending having gotten what I needed.
"That's good to know, thank you. I'l send you ahead and you can tell them to expect me. I must apologize in advance, but I don't know the exact time. Bye!" I say before teleporting us to where the last Sandbenders were and crushing his skull before letting him fall on the ground, then destroying his body with a blast of fire after reclaiming my fifty gold. I claim his sword, a Katana as my trophy. Which I then send to my vault.
Scene Break
I teleport back to near Gaoling, to think away from this horrible heat. I need to decide what to do next, if I move against the "Freedom Fighters" I'l just remove their memories and put them in a good orphanage. No need to kill them, at least not yet, Jet is messed up in the head and a budding mass murderer, but can be saved. Smellerbee isn't a violent anti-firebending terrorist who refuses to accept that firebenders aren't gonna destroy the world without her saving the world through genocide, at least they aren't monsters yet. I will have to decide later today, weigh the risks.
I'm interrupted from my musing by a vaguely familiar face, a girl staring at me like I have two heads. Well two visible heads, and my pants are on.
"You lose something over here kid? Or do you just think i'm attractive?" I ask with amusement in my voice. She blushed, I made Toph Beifong blush.
"No, i'm just wondering why your sitting on the ground staring at a tree. I thought you might be dead." She states annoyed by my teasing. I bring my body under control for this next part, if it works I may turn Toph into an even bigger powerhouse.
"I'm just thinking, I have been traveling you see, studying other bending styles, even trying to replicate facets of them. I have even developed theories for potential new uses for bending arts, new sub skills and techniques." I say with a bored tone. I caught her interest as I hoped.
"What kind of theories for sub skills?" She asks excitement and curiosity clear in her voice.
"For example i'm here trying to observe badger moles, I believe that if they can detect impurities in metal, they can bend it. That's just one of my theories for Earthbending." I say knowing I'm leading her down her path even sooner.
"What other theories do you have? She asks, she's hooked.
"If I tell you will you inform me if there successful, if you try them?" She nods yes. "Then I believe its possible for earthbenders to change solid earth into lava and bend it. I know its possible for firebenders." Her eyes widen as I say that last part.
"Your a firebender?" She asks nervously. "Yes I am, but I mean you no harm." I say to calm her. It seems to have worked.
"Are you an earthbender?" I ask knowing the answer already. She nods yes.
"You know any sub skills like sandbending?" I ask curiously. But I already know she has seismic sense.
"Well I learned earthbending from the badgermoles." I feign surprise at this. "I'm blind like them, I see with my bending." She finally admits uneasily, seeming to wonder how i'l react.
"Incredible, I'm curious do you know anywhere with lots of metal?" I hope there is I really wanna get her started on this path.
"No I don't." She says sadly. I can't stand to see her sad, even if she's not my Toph.
"You want me to demonstrate how I Lavabend with firebending?" I ask hoping to make her happy. "You may be able to replicate it. I would suggest with small rocks above ground, not buried in it. Willing the rock to heat up then trying to move it, making sure your body parts are safe from burning." She nods excitedly.
I find a medium sized rock, and set it on the ground. I then use firebending to heat it up liquefying it, then manipulating it focusing on the heat aspect. I return it to the ground then remove the heat.
"Could you tell the difference between the stages of the rock?" She nods yes.
"Do you wanna try?" I ask, she responds with an excited nod.
"Okay" I say putting a rock in front of her. "I want you to try on your own first by willing it heat up, then try controlling it with caution since its a new experience." She gets it on the first try, not too surprising given that she's a prodigy.
"Excellent." I say as she controls it flawlessly. "Now I want you to try reversing the process by willing it cool, and therefore solid." She succeeds. "Do you know how to put out fires by smothering them with earth?" I ask wanting to make sure she's safe.
"I get the basic idea now that you described it." She says sarcastically. Making me smile a little.
"Then it should be safe for you to experiment if you take precautions. Studying waterbending forms sometime may help considering your liquefying the rock and bending it. I'd teach you myself If I weren't traveling so much."
"Why are you travelling?" She asks, curious.
"I'm searching for the Avatar, to return to my home." I admit nervously. "I was banished for speaking out in a war meeting, my father burned my face in an Agni Kai and sent me away, My uncle used his influence to get a ship and soldiers for me. I'm technically a Prince of the Fire Nation, My name is Zuko, I forgot to introduce myself." Because we met in my previous life, and were lovers I left unsaid.
"I'm Toph Beifong, and don't worry, I have no problem with you being Fire Nation. Since your obviously not here to burn the town to the ground and murder people." She says with a slight teasing tone. She seems to think because I haven't burned the village yet, and me being nice to her means i'm a good firebender.
"You sure? Maybe I just befriend people before I kill them to lure them into a false sense of security." I say completely seriously. Causing her to laugh. "I do have to go soon." I say making her smile vanish. "But if you want I can come visit Gaoling when I can." I say to try cheering her back up, which seems to work. "I'd like that maybe we can fight sometime." she says excitedly. "Maybe once your at your peak in terms of skill and power, it would be extremely interesting then. That would a show worth charging admission to see." I say with just as much excitement.
"I need to go Toph." I say with sadness. "It was nice meeting and talking with you."
"Bye." She says with equal sadness, her parents don't let her have friends. I'm her only friend, maybe I can arrange an accident for them when she gets older. Wow I sound like a triad member. I teleport to the outskirts of Gaipan, wishing I could have seen her face as I disappear.
I just realized, its midday I'l need to sneak into the "Freedom Fighter" hideout at night while people are asleep. I'l just do recon under illusion.
Time Skip one hour.
It didn't take long to find the base, and memorize the lay out, I will watch it at night then remove their memories and separate the group into different orphanages. I have several hours to fill, i'l check my vault. I need to see how close I am to my funding goals. I teleport to the mountain my vault is buried in, took me a week to dig into the mountain a week to form the vault with precision firebending, metal bending and gravitybending to fortify the location by moving the removed stone back in. I put in molds for metal bars, and ingots in the event that I need more on hand. I put anti-spirit, anti-earth, air, fire and water bending wards around it along with concealing runes imbued with my blood. Only someone of similar blood, my sister Azula can enter. But only I, or people I allow can use bending here.
After five hours of counting, and guessing I came up with these numbers.
80,537 Gold coins of various nations.
22350 Gold ingots.
116,426 Silver coins of various nations.
450,832 Bronze coins.
Thank you Beetle-headed merchants for being such criminals, I'l be sure to thank you when I use this money against
the Earth Kingdom.
Countless uncut gems.
massive piles of unrefined precious metals.
roughly 1000 Gold bars, from Hunduns stashes.
2000 Silver bars
I should be able to fund my goals, easily. But i'l still keep hoarding wealth even if its to deprive the enemy of resources. I'm just glad I studied engineering and the sciences for a few decades, I can reverse-engineer the method that Republic City used to power the city with Lightning Generation, even apply it to ships and cars with modification.
Since I have time to kill I decided to wipe out a known hive of Buzzard wasps. So I teleport to a short distance away from Si Wong Rock, and conceal myself with illusion before flying closer. Seeing none outside I summon a shadow clone per entrance/exit, which is extremely taxing in the long term so I will have to make this quick. I order them to their positions by the holes and we all launch fire deep in them. While they keep the fires thick enough to contain the Buzzard wasps I turn the ground into Lava, entombing and burning them all to death. I repeat this process in three areas on top of the rock. I then decide to lay multiple sets of runes for Anti-spirit wards, also with concealing runes considering its a landmark.
While I still have several hours till sun down I decide to return to my vault, and create more metal bars with precision firebending, and its sub-skills. By controlling the heat of my fire ranging from anywhere to white hot, to red hot I can target specific metals which melt at certain temperatures. I can use magnetism and gravitybending to tear metals apart into smaller pieces, in situations such as having metals with similar melting points too close to each other, so they remain separate.
This takes four hours, during this time I create a hundred more gold and silver bars. I have also considered targeting the investments of pro Earth King families and business, thereby destroying his support base for when I replace him with someone else. The former Earth Kingdom and Empire only started to truly prosper when Kuei's worthless, weak, selfish, and corrupt dynasty was removed from power. I have killed enough time, its night now, I can go finish warding Gaoling, which shouldn't take more than two hours.
My theory about the time it would take to ward Gaoling was accurate. After completing that, I teleported to Gaipan then concealed myself with an illusion of the night sky, and took flight towards the Freedom Fighter hideout. While planning and mentally preparing. Is it worth the risk to leave Jet or Smellerbee alive? They could grow into the evil they did in my timeline, yes they were in a war, but they sunk to the levels of their enemies, I have decided they will die. I'l use their life-force and chi to bolster my own, i'l convert the life-force of one of them into energy focused towards healing and lock it behind a seal for emergencies. Same with the life-force of the other, but i'l seal it till i'm physically thirty years old, unless I unlock it myself.
Time Skip one hour.
Removing the Freedom Fighters as an issue was easy. I decided to use part of Smellerbee's life-force to speed up my recovery from my slaughter of the Sandbenders to a mere moment. My powers grew by three percent all together, two percent represents the power of a slightly above average bender. After teleporting them to different orphanages, I decide to return to where I planned to camp near Gaoling, which is where I talked with Toph, to go to sleep.