The Crippling of Satori
"I'm glad I finally found the time to actually meet you on your vacation time," said Kai, "normally, you're usually too busy to see me. Well, now we have a chance to get to know each other a little better." "I hear you," said Guan as he sat around on his side of the fountain, "Azula's been working me to the bone lately. But now I think I have the chance for a breather. The city's nice…very befitting of a port city actually."
"Guan, not to pry or anything, but how'd you get those burn marks all over your torso?"
"My master was actually the kind to want to do something ritualistic—he made sure that on my way out of that cave, I'd remember a philosophic scripture or two…" His thoughts became pensive as to the past. He remembered the day he was officially initiated into the guild.

A little while after the success of his first mission, he was walked down stone stairs to the secret underground sanctum shirtless with a group of nine female elites in cloaks to begin the official initiation somewhere in the Earth Kingdom. It was a hidden temple where its construction was started before the Fire Nation's invasion, and finished fifty years into it, with a hall in which twelve statues of meditating giants, sitting down cross-legged, with looks of concentration on their faces sat along the walls of the hall facing each other until it got to a set of steps leading to a large circular chamber. The chamber itself, and the whole sanctum for that matter, glowed a baby blue color due to the fact that it was naturally carved out of the cave walls, and at the end of the chamber was a statue larger than the giants lining the halls, facing directly towards the entrance and the exit to the sanctum. Right in the middle of the chamber was a naturally formed, shallow pool of water surrounded by the eight symbols of the bagua (eight trigram emblem) carved around the rim of the pool that moved away from it enough that the large statue sat on an empty ring outside the trigrams. Directly in the middle of the end of each trigram was a pair of tall candlesticks and an incense urn arranged in an equilateral triangle in which the urn was placed towards the direction of the pool.
Once everyone made it to the chamber, Guan stepped into the shallow pool and sat directly in the middle of it in meditation. As he did that, eight of the elites took a spot on the bagua, while the ninth stood in front of the giant. "Let the ceremony begin!" she said, and everyone lit their candles, and an incense stick, and then sat down cross-legged after unraveling themselves to be dressed in loose clothes befitting of priestesses. The ninth woman revealed herself to be Rin, who then proceeded with the ritual by bringing out a kunai knife, and then breathing fire on it to make cut burn marks all over his torso. Once she finished, the words were written in kanji, and then cauterized by the heat of the knife—it was a good thing that the incense sticks emitted a painkilling effect upon Guan, or else he would have felt something extremely painful.
As soon as she was done writing, the whole thing read in the Chinese style in the front from the left side of his chest; "The words of the great master says that all suffering in life is based upon selfish desire, only by attaining true enlightenment and practicing moderation of such desires will one be free of such sufferings. Also remember that all things with form eventually die, but in time, a new life will begin for them." The right side of his chest continued on, skipping the direct center of the rib cage, "To attain enlightenment, to attain freedom from suffering, is to attain the highest state of mind in the body—it is the time when you finally find a truth of life. To practice moderation is to simply know your limits—an excess of spiritual desire can cause one to forget to live their own lives, and an excess of luxurious desire can cause one to forget morality. Living with a balance between both is a road towards enlightenment." The words on his back read, "To live life without regret is to follow these guidelines; do not do the unnecessary, there is no such thing as a trifling matter when it comes to listening, seek out the balance in your life, do good things, do not what you wouldn't want done unto yourself, recompense injury with kindness, do not celebrate the failure others or parade your merits, and be as learned in as many arts as possible."
Once done, everyone hurried towards him with bandages, and carried him away from the pool. As soon as Rin was done carving the words on his body, she simply put out the lights, and allowed the sweet-smelling incense sticks to burn out. After today, until he leaves the guild for good, there is no turning back. These scars will remind him of his allegiance, and to remind him of the code he chose to live by…

"But seriously," said Guan, "these scars are to remind me of what I should be doing—how I should be living my life without any regret." "That had to hurt," said Kai, "so, forgive me if I'm off topic, but why are we out here?"
"You know that colleague of mine I told you about? Well it seems that she's in town today. So, I asked her if she and I could compose. She agreed, and said she can meet us here at the fountain."
"And compose we shall Guan," said a woman behind the fountain. As she walked out from behind the fountain, she revealed her appearance—she appeared to be about 25, was dressed in yellow robes, and wore a square-topped hat. Her whole appearance was almost like Guan, only much more feminine, and her skin was a few shades darker. Hung around her shoulder was a man-sized guzheng made of cherry wood, and having 21 strings, each one made of finely spun double-woven silk.
"Rin, it's been a while," said Guan, "how have you been? Ah, what's wrong with me…Kai, this is Rin, my colleague from music school. Rin, this is Kai, Azula's personal spy and thief." "It's an honor," said Kai, "Likewise," answered Rin, "Guan, you said you wanted to compose?"
Guan simply took out his flute, and said, "Ah yes, let's play that one song with the prince on a quest shall we?"
Rin then sat down, put the guzheng on her lap, and said, "Ooh, yes, let's play that one!"
Once both were ready, Guan with his hands readying the flute, and Rin putting her hands to the guzheng. Rin began the song with her usual melancholy sound, as the story was told through the musical notes:

Once there was a prince who started off content with his life, and his future to become the king. He had everything due in part to his status as a heroic kind of a prince—wealth, fame, and power. But one day, he came to realize that something was missing in his life. He went to his priests to help him find out what was missing, none have succeeded in telling him of what was missing.

Guan chimed in with his flute to continue the story:

After the failure of so many priests in an attempt to find out what was missing in his life, the prince began a crusade to find the solution to his bewilderment. Among his travels, he continued to find things he had never seen before, things he had never experienced. But despite experiencing all the things he had been missing out on, the prince was still bewildered—what was it that he was missing in his life?

The tone of the song began to become more upbeat at this point, as it had begun to conclude:

One day, during his travels, the prince had run into a woman. She was in danger from a group of bandits who tried to rob her. The prince jumped in and rescued her from danger, and then something had happened to him upon seeing her up close. His heart had frozen, his hands were shaking, everything he said began to turn into a stutter, and upon getting close enough to the peasant girl, it could be seen easily that he was blushing. At that moment, the prince finally found what he was looking for—his bewilderment had come to an end. He had finally come to realize that in his travels, he had finally found what he was looking for: love.

"That was extremely beautiful," said Kai, clapping, "you are both professionals at this if I had ever met any." "Thanks Kai," said Guan, "but in this, we're not composing simply for the artistic value, we're doing it as a means of contemplation. In other words, when we want to think, we play music." "We've also been taught that our instruments are our lives," continued Rin, "as they take wear and tear from time, it's the same as breaking our lives down with sin. With enough sin, you can destroy your life. But when your life has been destroyed by sin, don't just sit around; pick up the pieces you have left of your life, and start anew, and don't do what you've done to destroy your life again."
"Wise words—it has a lot of truth to it. Oh my, it's late, we'd better go."
"Let us meet again one day. But before we go, I'd like a private word with Guan."
"Very well then, but remember, we have to be back at the palace in about five, ten minutes so that we can avoid the curfew penalty. Since a spy was listening in on the princess' conversation with Long Feng, and he successfully escaped, she doesn't want to lose trace of him. There's a possibility that he's here in the city—but that's only a possibility. That in mind, you can have your personal time."
Watching Kai leave around the corner was the signal to begin speaking, and in whispers for Rin. "She's actually quite a nice girl," she said, quietly, "and preferably, I'd marry her too if I were a guy. But we both know why we can't do that." "I know," Guan whispered back, "because when you marry among our guild you are dismissed from active duty within the guild. The ones dismissed by marriage are still members; it's just that they can't participate in missions anymore."
"I really hope that this ends soon too. But knowing the stubbornness of this nation's leader, that's a tall order—but we've got to carry on anyway. If we don't, then all is lost. By the way, have you found a map or a studio yet?"
"I've come across her majesty's war room. It has a map of all the territories the Fire Nation had conquered and initially owned on it. We may need to take advantage of the mayhem in order to steal or even copy it, but in order to make things less suspicious, bring out the cartographers with photographic memory we've got in case the thieves won't be able to do the job. When will the attack take place?"
"Everyone is ready to attack at any time. Our thieves and cartographers among us will be at your disposal—they'll report to you tomorrow. Meanwhile, we'll begin the attack, creating chaos so that you have time to get the map. If it's all right with you, then we are clear: we attack tomorrow!"

The next night…

Guan sat at his desk, calmly reading a scroll on philosophical thinking until he heard a bang from behind him as the door was kicked down. He turned around to see Fire Nation soldiers flooding the doorway. The commander then stepped up, and said, "Guan Liu Zhang, by the order of Princess Azula, you are to be executed on the spot for the high crime of treason!"
Before there was any response from the Fire Nation soldiers, Guan picked up the desk from behind him, and threw it at the Fire Nation soldiers, causing them to be knocked by the impact, and then they watched as something impossible happened: Guan began to breathe black fire at the soldiers, causing them all to run away in fear, as the darker color the fire is, the hotter it is. He had been compromised, and now he had to improvise—he had to assume that the cartographers and the thieves have been captured by now, so he'll have to go this alone. He also had to assume that everyone else was captured, so he'll have to take into account of his priorities—his first job is to take the map of the Fire Nation's turf, and keep it in one piece.
Suddenly, he heard an explosion—it had begun. As the sound of explosions continued to sound off, Guan knew that his mission had truly begun. Cartographers and thieves, or none, he'll have to do this. He then began to walk out with his flute in hand. Looking up and down the hall, he saw Fire Nation soldiers charging in on him with spears, dao, and jian in hand…

Earlier…

Soldiers surrounded Rin and the escorts she had prepared on all sides. They had one job to do, and that was to light the trail of gunpowder started in the well no matter the cost. Rin and her colleagues had successfully snuck their way to this well, and they've come too far to fail now…she simply put down her guzheng, slid the bottom cover open to take out a palm-sized ceramic jar with a cork top, popped the cork, breathed fire at the top causing it to be set alight, and then dropped it into the well. Upon hearing a crash, and a slight trace of hissing, she pulled out a sheathed jian from her guzheng, and unsheathed it, swinging it in a graceful manner; her colleagues did the same with their instruments, revealing their hidden weapons. As soon as the first explosion sounded off, that was the beginning, as many members of the Shadowbenders dressed in Fire Nation civilian garb had flooded out of alleys and some out of houses to attack all the emerging Fire Nation soldiers, some armed and some unarmed, effectively fighting them all off until they are all stunned or TKO…

Back in Azula's palace…
Guan had defeated all of the rabble in the hallway. In the process of defeating all the soldiers, he managed to get his hands on one soldier's katana, and he had proceeded to take down the rest of the Fire Nation soldiers that had crowded in the hallway, stunning everyone with his many single-hit cuts. After he had slashed his last opponent to stun him, he sheathed his sword in the samurai-style as his opponent's wound opened, and fell to the ground slowly. Knowing the location of the war room, he immediately ran there to try and get his hands on it before it was too late. He immediately ran into the middle of the archives, and breathed black fire on the ground to cause the stone to melt a man-sized hole in the ground. When the hole was in its desired diameter, Guan jumped into it to see a horrifying scene—his mission had failed! Azula sat at the head seat, smiling at him evilly from across the long table with the map in flames behind her.
"I've been expecting you traitor!" she said, "But then again, I should have expected that from a spy to begin with. Your mission for this map of the Fire Nation has now been for nothing, but since you're here, I think I should entertain my treacherous guest, what do you think?"
"I've no time for you," said Guan, "and besides, the map was only a means of getting an advantage. The real target was hitting your military and government buildings now, and crippling your ability to pursue the Avatar by sabotaging your mechanized vehicles, making your steeds sick, stunning and or knocking out most your troopers by injury, and the most regrettable hit of all (or at least to me) is burning all of your rice wine. We're just here to weaken you a bit with those destroyed building. In other words, our job is already done, and whether I failed or not is a moot point, and so fighting you now is pointless—I have nothing to gain from it."
Azula was angry at those words, and said, "Oh you will now if you want to live!" Once she said it, she fired a bolt of lightning at Guan who seemed to vanish in a blur, and then counterattack by landing an uppercut to her solar plexus with his left hand, and then performing a knock-out hand chop with the outwards motion of his right hand to the back of her neck, knocking her out. He then picked up her unconscious body, and put it outside of the now blazing war room. "Rest assured," he said, "we'll probably fight again, just not anytime soon." At that, he walked away from Azula, and left the palace with his backpack containing his rosary, his basket, and his normal Shadowbender garb…

An hour later…

Guan sat down on the branches of a tall tree, he still had his gourd of rice wine from a while ago, and he was drinking it in one gulp from a wine cup he swiped from a bar on his way out of Satori, watching as smoke rose from the wine production factories. As he sat there, Rin landed from out of nowhere, and sat down next to him. "You fail your mission?" she asked, "Yeah," he answered, "Azula set fire to the map before I could even get to it. When I got there, it was already completely engulfed in flame. Wine?"
Rin accepted the extra cup he had in his sleeve, as he poured it full, drinking hers in one gulp. "Well, we may not have a map, but at least we did the real job here. It's going to be hard, knowing that the Fire Nation burns all maps that are outside the military buildings, but we still have skilled cartographers all over, we can send them to survey the lands, and make separate maps. Cheer up, we may get another chance." Upon finishing her second cup of wine, Rin gave her cup back to Guan as well as his ringed staff, and vanished into the night with the guzheng hung on her back.
Guan simply watched as his sister-figure disappeared into the midnight sky. Knowing that this was his cue to leave as well, he put the cup in his jacket, and let himself drop to the ground, light as a feather. "I knew the spy showed extreme expertise in the martial arts and firebending from what I've seen and heard," said a voice from behind him, turning out to be Kai, "and judging from what I've seen you do up until today, I'd say that Azula was not paranoid in suspecting that you were the spy—especially with the short fight between you and Azula."
Guan's voice was calm—he knew something screwed up his mission, and now he knew why, but he asked anyway, "How did you figure?"
Kai sighed as she continued to say, "I kind of added it all up. Two weeks after you were given the position of a court official, a spy comes along in a demonic outfit listening in on the princess' conversations with Long Feng—I should have seen that one coming. The next morning, I actually believed you when you said that it was hunter's reflexes for the first time, but a while after that, I figured that if you could stand up to Azula, and knock out a gang of brigands with a single stone, you were not simply a nobody hunter. In between those times, I followed you quietly through the trees on your so-called 'restroom break' and overheard your mission from Rin.
"The burned words on your body may or may not be believable as per your alibi there—the words on your back seemed more like a code for a club more than anything. I also overheard your status on your mission with Rin, whom I recognized by her scent from the last time I saw her—being raised by big cats in the wilderness has heightened my senses, so I can hear whispers from more than a few feet away, and recognize people's scents. It then hit me at that point in figuring out that you were in fact the spy—I didn't know what else to do, so I told her about what I had heard—I didn't tell anyone else because I doubted anyone would believe me. Can I ask you something?"
"Shoot."
"Is anything between us actually true?"
Guan sighed, hurt by her words, and said, "Some of my lies were based upon truth, but the feelings between you and me were real. I really do love you, even now I forgive you simply for being human and betraying me out of confusion—you were torn between your loyalties to Azula and I…you were only loyal to Azula out of survival, but you were loyal to me because you loved me, and even now, I can see in your eyes that you still love me. I would have left my guild to be with you, I even considered marrying you, and telling you the whole truth about myself, but it can't happen. Not now at least, and it's all because of the evil that the Fire Nation had wrought upon the land—all the chaos, all the imbalance. I promise you this, and I swear this oath, that when this is over, when the balance has been restored to this land, whenever that happens, there will be hope for you and me, as I will find you, and we will be together from that point on, and I promise, to never deceive you again. This, I swear. Farewell, for now…"
Kai was stunned after hearing this speech—she was touched by his confession to having the same feelings she has for him all this time. She only stood there, watching as he kicked off quickly, thus vanishing in a blur. There was no sign of deception in his voice at all…only sincerity, and hope for their relationship to finally come to be a stable one. As she watched into the horizon, she finally knew what to do to start off…she simply made a break for it into the forest, never to be seen in civilization again…