Avatar: The Spirit Wars (Aang's Legacy)
Notes: I should be studying right now, but I just had to finish this chapter. And I did! Yay for me :-). My loyal readers of this fic will see (or have already seen) where this is heading for now. This chapter is another (important) scene on their way. By the way, I don't know if anyone noticed this, but I usually write from a tv-series point of view. That is, I partially see this as a script for a follow-up series, and one chapter is roughly one episode. If I could draw well enough to make a storyboard, I would :-P. Anyway, read and enjoy, and please leave a review, I'd love to hear my reader's opinions! :-D
Disclaimer: See chapter 1, 2 or 3.
Chapter 4: She's The Avatar
The following morning the ferry docked in an Earth Kingdom town called Hosh, about halfway up the river connecting the Great Lake to the sea. After letting people go on and off the boat, and load some cargo on and off the ship, it would continue its journey towards Ba Sing Se by the end of the day.
While taking a stroll Enai and Daku were viewing the town and finding the differences between Earth Kingdom people and theirs. After a while they noticed a number of houses was burned down, some of which were already being rebuilt by the villagers.
While they were standing and watching one of the burnt down houses, a villager noticed they were not from the Earth Kingdom.
"In case you were wondering, these houses were burnt down by fire nation rebels."
"Fire Nation rebels? But the war ended like 16 years ago! Why haven't they been rid of yet?" Enai asked.
"The rebels friom the rebel stronghold at The Rift near Ba Sing Se have held out for years. But under the pressure of the Earth Kingdom army, a small part of the rebels had deserted and went for a safer place. We only have a few qualified soldiers and benders here, so this is a safe place for them. Plus they can live by stealing our supplies. We think they have their hideout down at the mountains south from here."
"But why doesn't the Fire Nation or the Earth Kingdom send any reinforcements?"
"Because most of the soldiers are busy with either attacking The Rift, maintaining order or searching out other rebel scum. There aren't a lot of attackers here, maybe a few dozen, so they don't think it's that much of a problem."
"But that's terrible.."
"Oh no, except for the occasional burnt down house or supply caravan stolen, they are pretty calm. But still, they're very annoying."
And after saying that, he walked along to wherever he was going.
"Daku, if no-one else is doing something about this, we should."
"What? You're kidding me. We can't take on a few dozen firebenders!?"
"You're right, we can't on our own. But I got a plan."
"Oh well, if you're really really sure.."
Kozan was sick and tired of being a rebel. For years and years he had fought off Earth Kingdom attacks, and taken part in numerous attacks against them. After all this time, he found it hard to remember why exactly he didn't just return to the Fire Nation and live a peaceful life. Was it the money? No, ever since the war 'ended' they stopped getting paychecks. Not that they would need money in their safe fortress.
Kozan arrived just before the war ended, when the so-called Rift was nearing its completion. A magnificent piece of engineering, this gigantic fortress was situated at the foot of a volcano, within a few days travel north of Ba Sing Se. This strategic yet risky location was the reason they could fend off the earthbenders for so long. With the river in the west, the volcano in the north and the real rift, a volcanic canyon hundreds of feet deep which would fill up with lava from time to time in the west, the only way to attack the fortress directly was from the south.
Even though Kozan had to admit the army from Ba Sing Se was powerful, attacking firebenders in a fortress surrounded by steel walls situated on highly volcanic ground was hopeless. The Earth Kingdom's best chances lay at mother nature growing sick of the Fire Nation and smoking them out.
But it wasn't the feeling of safety that kept the rebels going. No, it was the former princess Azula. Kozan had seen her a few times, and that woman breathed authority. If it were the fire in her golden eyes, or the way she commanded her subordinates with her chilling voice, he didn't know. But the ability to keep thousands of loyal soldiers in the only warzone in this peaceful world had to account for something, he figured.
The only thing he knew for sure was that he couldn't hold out much longer, and he would leave this place, accompanied by other people or by himself.
"Hey. Pssh. Come on Hoi, wake up." A slightly plump man said to a skinnier man.
By giving him a little nudge, he almost made him fall of the tree they were hiding in.
"Urgh.. What's wrong Kou?"
"Look, you see those persons walking over here?" Hoi said, pointing at two people in blue clothing, heads down.
"Yeah, so?"
The big man nodded towards them. Hoi noticed the big bag he was referring to.
"Money." He said with a confident nod.
The pedestrians were slowly walking by when Hoi and Kou let themselves fall from the trees onto the innocent bypassers. With a few swift moves, they managed to pin them down and tie them up. Both faces showing a confident smile, they grabbed the bag and walked their prisoners towards their camp.
Step 1 completed, Enai thought.
"Is the plan still in effect?"
"Yeah, we're leaving at midnight." Kozan said.
He had a plan to leave with two other soldiers. At midnight, they were supposed to leave using an upside-down sail-less sloop, and swimming down the river, using the sloop as cover and as a source for air. Getting out of the Rift was almost as hard as getting in.
Azula had introduced very strict rules to execute deserters, so simply walking out of the stronghold was not an option. Normally the guards would keep their eye on the river too, but Kozan asked a few friends who were supposed to be on shift to let them slip through. Now he could only hope that they kept their word.
"Look what we got!" Hoi yelled when they arrived at the rebel camp.
It was situated in an open place in the forest by the foot of a mountain. A few large tents were set up, there was an extinguished bonfire in the middle. Some ostrich horses were tied to trees around the camp. Some men in old weary Fire Nation armor were scattered around the place, some taking a nap, others talking or playing a game, one rebel munching on a possum chicken leg.
A fairly tall bald man with a moustache and pointy beard came walking out of the central tent. Judging by the scar on his right cheek and his fierce look, he was a soldier who had lots of war experience. Both Enai and Daku figured he was the leader of the camp.
He started talking.
"Who have you brought here?"
"These are two very rich water tribe people. Look at this huge bag of money!"
Hoi threw the bag towards the leader, only to show a lot of stone coin imitations when it fell on the floor and opened. He shook his head.
"Someone please tell me why I let you guys come along."
"Actually you-"
"Rhetorical, Hoi!" He said before walking over to Enai and Daku, who were still looking at the ground in front of their feet.
When he stood in front of them, he grabbed Daku's vest and fiercely pulled him closer, forcing Daku to look him in the face. What he got in return was a filthy look from a 15 year old.
"Hmm, your skin colour, blue eyes, blue clothes. You are a water tribe boy, aren't you?"
Daku didn't answer.
The general looked back at him angrily and pushed him back, causing him to fall on the ground.
"Rebels of the Fire Nation!" He shouted.
The people stopped with whatever they were doing, stood up and turned towards their leader. Some came out of their tents.
"Today is the day we can prove ourselves worthy to be true Fire Nation soldiers once again! Today we will serve Azula as she ordered us. Today, we will find the avatar and bring him to Azula! Mount your ostrich horses, because we're riding to Hosh!"
The soldiers cheered a bit before gathering their armour and weapons and mounting their ostrich horses. Enai had to control a lot of emotions. Shock, because she didn't count on the soldiers heading to search for her in Hosh. Fear, because this would be leading to a change of plan, which may not turn out very well. Anger, because the general thought the Avatar was going to be a boy.
Old-fashioned sexist.
"Go go go!" Kozan whispered to his fellow deserters.
They grabbed the sloop and quickly ran into the cold black water and put the sloop over their heads. They paddled and paddled some more, fiercely hoping they would make it out alive. After about ten minutes of swimming what seemed like an eternity, their hopes of escaping got better, until they bumped into something hard and metal-ish with their cover.
Kozan, who was in front, lifted the front of the sloop. He saw something hard and huge. Slowly he turned his gaze upwards, and as the moonlight reflected in the object, his stomach twisted.
"Guys, there's a battleship in our way."
"A battleship? Let's go around it then!"
"It's.. It's sideways. They knew we were coming, and they're blocking our way."
Kozan looked to the right, and saw a small boat with rebel soldiers heading towards them. Realizing he couldn't evade them by swimming to the side, he knew his only option was to dive under the battleship. Hoping the spirits would support him, he took a deep breath and went underwater. While swimming for his life, he knew the others were being captured, and they were ratted out by his so-called friends.
He couldn't see a thing underwater, and by the time he felt he was at the keel, he was nearly out of oxygen. He went up as quickly as he could, but just before he reached the surface, he blacked out. The last thing he faintly saw through the water was the moon, shining just over the edge of the battleship.
After a while the duo finally got to Hosh with the Fire Nation rebels. As they looked out over the town, they noticed a few of them went ahead on their ostrich horses to rally the citizens onto the town square. Now Enai and Daku saw that the earth- and waterbenders together were still outnumbered two to one, apparently there were more rebels than they had thought.
"What is it you want now, Jeron?" The town head said, apparently speaking to the general.
"There are waterbenders among you now, and we know the avatar is here too."
He nudged towards a couple of soldiers, who fired fireballs to the ferry to set it on fire, much to the citizen's and guest's shock.
"We don't know, please don't do this." The town head said, and looked towards the Water Tribe guests, who spastically shook their heads.
Enai felt terrible because she was the reason for all this, but she couldn't let them know she was the avatar. Jeron overlooked the crowd and picked out another adolescent Water Tribe boy, grabbed him, and put his palm to the side of his head.
"Now, I'm giving you three seconds to tell me who's the avatar, or this boy gets it."
Enai really didn't know what to do now. This plan went terribly wrong, and she was afraid she couldn't do anything to stop it.
"One."
"I told you, we don't know! Don't hurt that innoce-"
"Two."
"Don't do this!" The elder shouted.
"Thr.."
Jeron was cut off by a heavy wave of air which blew him a few feet away, just like everyone else. When Daku looked up from the ground, he saw Enai was the source of the blast. She didn't look normal, her eyes and mouth were glowing, and she didn't say a thing.
For a short moment, Jeron was shocked, but that was quickly replaced with anger.
"She's the avatar! Get her!"
The Fire Nation rebels turned towards her, surrounded her and started attacking her, most by firebending. Enai drew a huge amount of water from the river and deflected every fireball headed towards her with great ease and fluent movement, even though they were fired too fast for Daku to tell how many there actually were.
After the first strikes, Enai started counterattacking. After she deflected a fireball, she struck down the caster with a water whip or water blast, steadily knocking down or blowing away each opponent. When all ordinary rebels were finally struck down, Jeron went to fight her too.
He lasted a lot longer than the other rebels, and Daku saw he was a much more experienced fighter, but after a few minutes of fire/water-dueling he was defeated too.
Jeron was lying on the ground, and Enai slowly approached him.
"Untie my friend and leave this place, or I will strike you down again."
Knowing he and his rebels couldn't take her on, he mounted his ostrich horse and left, as for his bruised rebels. When they were all gone, Enai got out of the avatar state and collapsed. Daku quickly ran towards her and supported her. She looked towards the town head.
"I'm sorry." She softly said before she passed out.
Kozan slowly woke up. He could barely breathe, and when he looked around, he saw he was in the detention center of the Rift. The room he was in was dark, with only a candle in front of him to illuminate the place. The place smelled like putrid flesh, probably from previous visitors, who had stayed there for too long.
After he was done observing his whereabouts, the metal door opened, and he saw the silhouette of a person coming in.
"So you tried to escape our stronghold?"
Kozan didn't say anything. He looked up to the person, who turned out to be a woman according to her voice, but couldn't see anything but her silhouette in the faint lighting.
"We don't leave this place. If you're here, you'll live here, you'll die here, you understand?"
Kozan knew he was going to be punished severely. He had failed, and he was going to die there.
"I'll personally teach you a lesson, you should feel honoured to be tortured by me."
As the woman walked closer, Kozan could finally see who was about to punish him. Azula. Those golden eyes pierced his soul, and he was horrified.
"I think I know where to start. I'll start with.."
Kozan braced himself for a searing pain. He never was this afraid before.
"Your toes!" She shouted.
He had no clue, his toes?!
He looked up to Azula, and saw her laughing maniacally. Suddenly he felt pain in his toes, and the room blurred out to a clear blue morning sky.
After coughing up some water, he found himself lying on a small beach on the other side of the river. When he looked down to his feet, he saw a clamshellcrab trying to win a one-sided fight with his toes. He picked it up and threw it back in the river. He slowly sat up and looked around.
In the distance, he saw the Rift, with countless dents and cavities in the wall, inflicted by earthbenders through the years. And finally he realized, he was going home. Kozan, the first deserter in sixteen years to leave the Rift alive.
Just out of sight for the citizens of Hosh, the rebels were heading northwest. A soldier went up to Jeron.
"Sir, may I ask where we're going?"
"We're going to the Rift. Azula must know."