A/N: I'm still thrilled with how many people have been reading this story and giving comments. For my first fanfic, this is doing pretty well, and thanks for the support! I hope everyone enjoys this chapter.
Amon still had a hard time believing it, but he woke up with actual bruises the next morning from the twins punching and jabbing places they assumed were pressure points.
"Okay, let me try one more time," one of the twins said as Amon attempted to eat his breakfast.
In the purest form, he did want these rambunctious non-benders to be able to chi block one day, so he'd been letting them try the techniques out. He held his free arm out, assuming he'd try to put a bruise on top of the spot he or his brother had hit the night before.
"Fire chakra!"
The boy then jabbed his ring, middle, and index fingers into Amon's gut. While Amon attempted to push through the pain and not lose what breakfast he'd already eaten, Emi turned in a rage to her nephews.
"If you brats keep injuring Tak, I'm going to give you the punishment of a lifetime!" she yelled, flames appearing in her hands.
The boys took a step back, and Emi glanced at Amon.
"What're you gonna do to us?" one of the twins asked.
She let her flames die.
"No, I'll do something worse: Tak will chi block you two and we'll tie you to the chimney, where only your mother will be willing to pull you two down."
The boys turned to Amon in hopes of someone siding with them. All they got was an apathetic glance, partially from Amon's lack of experience with punishing children and his mind already elsewhere.
"I don't think Takeo would side with a firebender," Ran said. "Right?"
Without thinking in context, he nodded to the boys, making Emi's expression darken.
"This isn't over." She grabbed Amon's arm. "C'mon, let's go find you some clothes."
Amon had to admit, getting new clothes was a simple but tremendous pleasure. Wearing only the simplest layer of his armor felt wrong, and the black rags had done nothing but increase the heat on him as well as gotten dirty and sweaty.
After a quick bath, Amon pulled on the clothing presented to him without protest: a red shirt he pulled up his forearms, a light jacket and dark colored trousers that would be tucked into his knee-high boots.
"You look good," Emi commented.
The outfit was lighter than his made-for-his-fighting-style uniform he wore as the leader of the Equalists, and the red brought out the color in his eyes and contrasted well against his pale skin. He felt like a member of the Fire Nation again.
Amon found a place outside to settle down to think, swiftly avoiding any more chi blocking lessons. This would be his first true test of his skills without Koh. Fighting one person at a time was child's play; now he'd be against several opponents at once, with no shield whatsoever.
He thought back to the reflection he saw in the water this morning. His face still only had that one red splotch. Why would he have thought that Koh was going to take his whole face? He said that, didn't he?
Was it possible that Amon had heard him wrong, or misinterpreted his riddle? What if Koh giving him his face back was the spirit's way of pushing him to regain all that he lost? Was it possible to regain his extreme chi blocking abilities?
It had to be possible.
There had to be some human part to the inhuman abilities Koh had given him. Koh didn't just not take faces without purpose. That had to be the purpose the spirit had given him. If he could regain his abilities, he could stand back up as the leader of the Equalists, or start a completely new movement all together.
He glanced at the front door of Emi's home. All he needed was the money from this robbery.
He never thought of himself as a criminal, and it was strange to consider himself on a similar platform as the gangsters whose bending he'd taken. Of course, it was quite a bit different, but somehow still left a tiny crack in his pride.
Then he thought about who he was stealing from. The Moon Monster Triad. Pure locals, having taken their name from the supposed monster that terrorized the town seventy or so years ago, stopped only a couple mysterious kids who were later confirmed to have been Avatar Aang and his friends. The young firebenders were utterly ruthless, freeloading and going to extremes to get what they wanted. Amon's father had been brave, and he lost not just his own life, but his wife's life and his son's face.
He wondered if any of the men who killed his family would be still working in the gang. He took a meditative position and tried to clear his mind. It was distinctly an Air Nomad practice, but Amon found it comforting. He took several deep breaths and emptied his mind of every vengeful thought in his racing mind.
He stopped meditating when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Ready, Tak?" Emi asked.
Amon stepped to his feet. "Yes." They managed to walk across the town before Amon realized what he really didn't want to acknowledge. "The summertime slightly enhances firebending, doesn't it?"
"Believe so."
Amon took a slow breath, resisting the urge to lash out from his own anger at himself. He flexed his fingers, as if there was some actual technique to preparing to chi block.
"Who's on defense and who's going in?" Amon asked.
"Well, which would suit you better? Do you prefer stealth or full on attacks?"
"I could do either, but they wouldn't expect the chi blocking."
"How good are you with lightening? You know how to deal with it?"
He thought back to the Avatar's firebender friend and Lightning Bolt Zolt. "Yes, I'm adept at not electrocuting myself."
"I'd recommend you stay back and I'll grab the money."
Amon didn't mind the arrangement; it meant he didn't have to do on the spot thinking just to figure out where the money was. "Where will I meet you?"
She gave him a dismissive wave; maybe this Emi wasn't as tactile as he wished to believe. Swallowing his doubts, he allowed her to lead them to the base for the Moon Monster Triad. The building was the biggest in the town: three stories and the length of two village houses combined. Otherwise, it had the off white walls and red roofs of every other building in the town.
"Ready?" Emi confirmed before she pushed the front door open.
"We're not doing a stealth maneuver?"
"Sounds like it!"
Emi shoved the doors open and was met by about six Triad members lounging around, girls fanning them. One of them smiled upon Emi's entrance. "Finally decided to join us, Emi?"
Emi smiled. "Not today."
She sent one quick blast toward the guy standing in front of stairs and went barreling past him. The man whom originally addressed Emi seethed and ran after her, leaving with an action call to the remaining Triad members in the room. Mimicking firebender stances he'd observed, he waited for the attacks.
The benders in the room were all young, in their early twenties. Judging by the overly dramatic arm thrusts, he guessed they weren't disciplined benders. This was what had killed his family? How the mighty have fallen, he thought, thoroughly disappointed that he wasn't fighting a real threat.
Effortlessly, he wove his way through fire blast after fire blast. Picking out who appeared to be the best bender among the group, he slid up right to his face and, and when he tried to blast him at point blank, flipped around, so his back was all but touching the bender's.
With a huff, the bender kicked a line of fire behind him. Amon stepped forward, narrowly avoiding the fire. He let out a low growl of pain, causing the firebender to turn around.
And, as he did, Amon showered him in several jabs, causing him to fall to the ground.
In the moment of realization, Amon took jabs at everyone man he could, throwing down four of the six men a minute later. Flicking a stray hair out of his eyes, he studied his remaining opponents: one bulky guy with an angry glimmer in his eyes and a sheepish looking boy barely past manhood.
He allowed the bulky one a near point blank shot that a quick side step avoided.
Well, he thought he avoided it, anyway. He clenched his teeth when a soft burning sparked on the skin of his shoulder. Just like with Koh, he thought as he swallowed his grimace and continued to approach. The determination in the Triad member's eyes dimmed for just a moment. Amon stepped forward, but threw himself backward when the Triad member sent a wall of fire in front of him. While the fire died, Amon moved in a half moon shape to where he was perfectly behind the firebender, and took him down.
The fire vanished, revealing the fallen firebender and Amon, still looking as if he wasn't even breaking a sweat. The sheepish firebender stared at him with big eyes, and Amon smiled. Amon lifted his arm, and the firebender broke down.
"No, no, please, please don't paralyze me!" he pleaded, falling to his knees.
Looks like chi blocking is a novelty here, Amon mused as he moved into the next room to find Emi.
Once he stepped into the room, he caught himself in the middle of a scuffle between Emi and the original Triad member who ran after her. Amon attempted to jump in, but Emi motioned for him to stay out of it, instead throwing him the bag of money.
Ignoring the small part of him that wanted to run off with the money, he observed his partner in crime while she fought. She fought with a combination of non-traditional firebending moves, yet performed them with grace and precision. It was almost earthbender-like, with minimal dodging and lots of forward attacks. The Triad member seemed to be trying to tire her, constantly moving and performing defensive moves with the occasional offense for show. Amon would watch anxiously, tossing either jumping into the fight or being wary of their distance around his mind in indecision.
He shot his senses back into overdrive when a fire blast from Emi nearly hit him. She passed over an apology, proceeding to pummel the Triad member in subsequent blows. Using a shield as a final resort, the attacks sent him backward.
In fact, right into Amon, who had moved near the doorway. He glanced at Emi, still with that unyielding determination in her features, and made his decision. He stepped forward to meet the Triad member, and delivered his usual jabs. He resisted a smile when the bender fell. Emi smiled as she wiped her brow.
"Nice job. We'd make a good team," she said.
Amon shrugged. "One good maneuver doesn't tell that much. How are we going to divide this?"
Emi's eyes widened. "Tak, behind you!"
Amon whipped around, but didn't see anything. The moment of confusion only lasted a few seconds, soon followed by a digging pain in his back. The hit was so perfect that the pain was disorientating, and couldn't move when he tried. Not that he had much time to try; the following seconds were spent with Amon's head barreling toward the solid wood wall.
Amon regained consciousness while lying flat on the floor, his first observations being a constant breeze and the smoothness of wood. As his senses crept back, he took the discomfort in his stomach as slight motion sickness. Slowly, he used his hands to push himself up, his back still throbbing, not to mention the headache.
He was half surprised to find Emi captaining the speedboat that's floor he lay on. "Spirits, asking me on a boat trip could've saved us a lot of pain," Amon muttered as he held his head, faintness edging through his senses.
Emi chuckled. "I figured you'd be too stubborn." She kicked a bottle toward him, unable to leave the wheel. He reached for it and took a few sips, the water quelling the thirst he hadn't even realized he had. "Now, please refrain from the basic accusations." She switched into a bad impression of Amon's deep voice. "What the hell are you doing? Why'd you kidnap me? Are you crazy?" End impression. "I'm on a boat." It must've been his head, because he swore she said "Amon a boat." "I'm not crazy, and I think you'd benefit from us teaming up. I'm trying to run away from my life, and for all your cash, you just made major enemies with the controls of that island."
Anger welled inside of him. "You knew that by dragging me in I could never go home? That place was the only home I had!"
Perhaps still tender from the knock out, Amon began to see black dots across the bright blue of the ocean and sky. Feeling weak, he sunk his head into his arms, but the blackness didn't stop until it covered his vision and took over his conscious.
"I know, I really ought to stop baiting you," Koh's smooth voice said as the centipede form wrapped around Amon's tired form. "It's rather cruel, you know." His breath still smelled vile, but Amon wasn't going to fall for it this time. "But…I couldn't help it. You were just so pathetic looking."
Amon jerked out of the dream-like state, senses fully into the physical world, but still dull. He had to physically remember that he was angry.
Emi snickered. "You were living in the forest; I probably did you a favor. Now come on, where's your adventurousness? We're gonna go to the Earth Kingdom, maybe even the United Nations."
A twinge of dread joined the rage. "I wouldn't go to the United Nations; they're in the middle of a civil collapse from the Equalists. Republic City's under siege."
Her eyes flickered with uncertainty, and Amon couldn't stand it. He didn't leave being the leader of Equalists for becoming some self-taught firebender's slave. The blackness took hold of him and pulled him under once more.
"Don't fear, young one. I have other motives. You want your powers back, don't you?" Amon nodded. "You can get them back. Prove to me that you're worth a second chance."
"What about my face?"
Koh's expression etched into the Noh mask changed to confusion. "What about your face?"
If Amon pushed the subject, he'd surely show some emotion. "How do I gain my power back?"
He resurfaced, poured a bit of water into his hand, and rubbed the back of his neck. He really ought to take his jacket off; maybe he was getting heatstroke. When he looked over at Emi, her expression was still smug. Shaking his fatigue and confusion away, he decided he would end this little clash, and he refused to accept failure.
"That's it! I'm tired of listening to you and all your crazy plans," Amon said as he forced himself to his feet, despite the pain. "You obviously have no idea what you're doing, so we're going to let a more capable planner take hold of our little 'adventure.' We're not going to the United Nations, and that's final."
Emi raised an eyebrow. "Then where are we going, Captain?"
Now the hallucinations played in the back of his mind, as if he were crazy.
"You reach to me, reopen everything the mask closed when it broke. Go to the swamp…"
"What swamp?"
"The swamp. The only one with a strong enough spiritual hold to reach me."
Amon, in the moment of anger and desperation for controls on his own life, realized what Koh had meant in these visions: the Foggy Swamp, the swamp countless men had reached enlightenment in. "The Foggy Swamp."
Emi still didn't look convinced. "And, dare I ask what we'll do in a giant overgrown tree full of backwards people?"
"Spiritual experience."
Emi would admit that she was not spiritual in the least. But, it wasn't her old life, and there was still so much to learn from Takeo. "Okay then. Where do we go?"
Amon attempted to take control and walk over to Emi, but pain shot through his back. He groaned and returned to a sitting position. "Give me a map." A map slid over to him. "Southeast. When we get closer, I'll give you more specific instructions." Cautiously, he lowered himself back into a lying position. "Karma better pay for your stupidity in injuring me."
She laughed. "I'm sorry about your back. It was supposed to uh, chi block you."
Amon wanted to roll his eyes. "If you keep obedient, maybe I'll show you how to do it right."
"Ooh, goodie! I get lessons from Master Tak the Chi Blocker. Crawl over here so I can give you some pain killers."
Considering how he felt, painkillers were enough to drag himself over to the bow of the boat. "You're not going to knock me out again?"
"I have no reason now."
She handed him another bottle. He uncapped it and sniffed it. "This smells like straight liquor."
Emi smiled. "Alcohol is the best numbing agent!"
Amon blinked. "You didn't bring any medicine, did you?"
She shook her head. "Food, water, and blankets were at the top of my list." Amon continued to stare at her. "The medicine lady was out."
"Pathetic."
"So now the guy who can't make a fire—"
"Not that!" He took a deep breath. "It's been a long few days."
He lifted the liquor to his lips and took a healthy gulp. "Aww, tell me about it."
He could sense her joking tone, but wouldn't have talked even if he was in a good mood and she was talking with a life-or-death serious tone. He responded with a quirked eyebrow.
She turned back to the ocean. "I'll tell you if I need anything."
About an hour passed in silence, Amon replaying his meeting/hallucination with Koh over and over again.
"You mentioned the Equalists," Emi began.
Amon's attention fell on her. "Yeah."
"Did you live in Republic City before this?"
"Yeah."
"Do you believe in what the Equalists believe?"
He couldn't make his associations too obvious. "They have destructive means of getting their points across, but I wholeheartedly believe in their message. Non-benders need more representation and power in the world. It was sad seeing how my kind were treated; it was if we were animals and the benders were herders."
"I have a hard time believing that. If it weren't for the Triad guys, benders and non-benders live harmoniously together. Bending isn't the source of all evil; humans who abuse are."
"Bloodbending. You know the legend of Hama, of its illegality, its benders. What good could possibly come out of bloodbending?"
"Well, okay, so maybe bloodbending is pure evil, but the other disciplines can be lethal and improve life. Take uh…firebending."
Amon resisted a smile. "Firebending? All firebending has ever caused is death and destruction."
"And life." She created a small flame. "The wisest firebenders explain that firebending is about the life the fire creates, and bending it is like holding a life in your hands. It's born, it breathes, and if not taken care of, it dies. And hey, when you're freezing to death, generating fire can come in handy." Her eyes fell on Amon's scar. "Not all benders are like Hama and the Triad members who gave you that scar."
A/N: I guess if I had to divide this fic into three acts, this was the end of Act I. How is the story going? Do you like this interpretation of Amon? If the Koh parts were confusing, don't feel bad because they're supposed to.
Oh, and if anyone's looking for some more work of mine, I recently posted a one shot AmonxAsami fic.