Instinct's Info: Nothing to put here really. I started a new story for anyone who wants to read it. It's a far faster pace than this one is, well, will be is better. There's only one chapter so far. Back to the norm: please review, they mean the world to me!
Chapter Seven: Home Away From Home
"Whoa." Toph's eyes shot open in surprise when she got off the boat and could see clearly again. She'd just got her first good look at the Central Air Temple and it had the same effect on her as it had everyone else. That was kind of surprising since she couldn't actually know that the people in it were air benders.
"The only hard part is getting to it." Sokka warned her.
She squinted a little, concentrating, "Great, a rope. Everyone knows I just love having my feet leave the ground."
"I'll help you, don't worry about it." Sokka smiled at her as they started towards the entrance.
He stopped, apparently considering something before he turned around, "Bato, I'm leaving you in command. You can stay or go, it's up to you."
"It's safer here with fewer people knowing about it. We'll make sure we weren't followed." He turned and got the crew back on the ship. Aang and the others filed off and started towards the entrance to the temple.
"Looks like you were busy Twinkletoes." Toph commented. It was assumed it was about the temple.
"What? Oh, I just refined it a little. Not all the Air Nomads were monks apparently. I'd never heard of anyone that wasn't and apparently no one else had either. Some of us lived in the Earth Kingdom and when some settled on this island the some earth benders in the family made it for them."
"There's people in there?" Toph blinked.
Aang blinked back, "You can't feel them? A few should be on the pillars at least."
"What are you talking about? They'd have to be...Way to go Twinkletoes!" One jubilant punch in the shoulder later and she gave him a loose hug. It almost seemed like it was unnatural for her, probably because it was usually Sokka's arm.
Aang barely rubbed his shoulder, used to the punches. Less than a minute later they'd reached the entrance and Aang sent a blast of air at it and it rolled open. The tunnel seemed to suppress conversation like it had last time and no one spoke until they came back to the rope.
Aang snapped his glider open and shot off like a bullet. Toph wanted to delay the inevitable and waited until she was the only one left.
Sokka called over to her, "Come on Toph, I'll catch you."
"It's pretty comfy over her actually." She answered; there was no strength in though.
"You know I'll catch you. Come on!" Sokka called over, pleading even though he didn't have to. It was clear when Toph was going to swing after that as she yelled to try and psych herself up for it. Sokka realized his mistake as soon as she left the ground. No one had told her to go slow. She flew through the air and crashed into him. Both fell backwards and rolled to a stop.
"Good thing you landed on something soft." Sokka muttered sarcastically with a wheeze as he recovered his breath.
Toph rolled off him and got to her feet a little shakily, "If you'd told me I wouldn't have done that."
Rayk's voice sounded close to them, "Toph must have come there was an earthquake."
"Come here so I can give a big hug." Toph answered threateningly.
"Just get over here, dinner's ready." Toph settled with a punch in the shoulder. Just like Sokka, Rayk barely flinched.
--
Unlike the meals at every other air temple, there was meat in this one. The temple wasn't just home to monks so meat was present, though not in large amounts. Sokka was forced to give up his monopoly on it after almost everyone ganged up on him.
After the meal the climate was much more relaxed and Rayk took the opportunity to get some help from Sokka, "All right, I got a few ideas to keep us around indefinitely."
"Does any of it involving getting rid of Lanorit?" Sokka asked hopefully, he was tired of playing the villain.
"No, but that will happen, don't worry. I've got three ideas, two really. One is to do what Aang did. We seal ourselves inside an iceberg. The problem that poses is that we won't know where we'll end up so we might be able to help when we're needed. The second option is to find a way to get all of us to the spirit world. I needed Iroh's help and that took a lot out of him. We'd all need to go at the same time to land in the same place. The last way is to fake our deaths and hope Cordow is encouraged by our deaths and makes his move early. That's not really likely, but it could work."
Sokka lay down onto his back, a little peeved at having to think on a full stomach, "Well, I'm sure we could get some of the people from the Southern Water Tribe to keep track of the iceberg if we had to. I think the spirit world is our best bet. It doesn't leave many loose ends."
Rayk's shoulder slumped a little, "Why is the hardest one always the one with the biggest pay off? Okay, I'll get to work on it."
In truth Rayk was much farther along in the plan than he let on. He'd started to guess what Cordow was planning next time already as he had a pretty good idea of what he'd tried to do before. By eliminating
two elements that weren't opposite the world would fall into chaos. With Lanorit there things would turn out different than they normally would. The destruction of the world held nothing of interest for Cordow so that wasn't his goal. Lanorit, therefore, must be there to unite the remaining nations. That would be their only way out they wouldn't really have a choice. After that Cordow would have complete control of the world and could whatever he wished.
With the information he'd gleaned from Jericho's mind Rayk had been able to start to fit pieces together for the next plan as well. He'd caught glimpses of the world being brought under a completely new flag which meant that either a new nation would emerge or there would be a coup somewhere to raise an army. He guessed the second as it was far easier if the world's populations where complacent.
There were two main possibilities after this. One was that an army would actually be raised to march across the world. With Cordow's help it would be possible to win. The appropriate response to this would be to have them come back and sweep the floor with the army. Rayk had no doubt that with the power concentrated in their group they good tip the scale easily. The second possibility was that guile would be used to take control of the other nations. The response was the same in this case. They all came back and would cause a ruckus to make Jericho slip up and then he'd be caught or dragged into the open where the new avatar would be able to catch him with little effort.
The next problem in the plan was Lanorit however. His attack on the Water Tribes would shake his followers to the core. In would most likely come down to whomever one would decide their position. With the Avatar on the side of the Water Tribes it was guaranteed that Lanorit would lose. He'd lose his following and Rayk and the others would move in a silence him. The world would unify again because of the common enemy Lanorit presented and the bias against the Fire Nation would disappear.1
The truth about Aang and Sokka and himself would be revealed and they'd be hailed as martyrs. When they came back there would be such an uproar the world would become one again despite whatever Jericho might try.
Now all he had to do was wait for the proper news to come so that the war could begin. A moment later a bat-turn shot through the volcano's peak and shot off towards Sokka once he'd seen him. Sokka sat up bewildered about the intrusion. He unrolled the letter it had and his eyes grew wide and Rayk had to keep a smile from his face because he knew the 'proper news' had come.
Everyone was looking at the letter and Sokka began to explain, "It's from Bato. It says that Lanorit's pressuring the Northern Water Tribe to give his boats protection against us." He looked around before he explained the implications, "Aang, you can't bring Katara back. You do that and the tribe will take it as a threat. They won't and Lanorit might attack."
1 Anyone whose read Book Five knows something you don't.