Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN BEN 10 OR AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER. THEY BELONG TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS. THIS FANFIC IS BASED ON THE STORY, "BEN BENDER" BY CODECRASH.
XI: The Break in the Sunset
Walking back to his throne, thinking about his next action, Ozai rested on his flaming chair watching as the crispy blaze ignite the air around him. However, he couldn't stop thinking about a certain changeling that came into his colosseum. Was he a threat? It was difficult to tell. Where did this guy come from?
Troublesome questions only made the king more angry as time passed.
~What are you, boy?~ the FireLord thought with a grave tone in his voice.
"FireLord Ozai, do you got a minute?" asked a foreign voice, making the FireLord to jump.
"What?" the FireLord turned to look, but there's no one there. He got infuriated, "Who are you?"
There was no answer, no reply. The sounds from his throne room hurled an eerie echo of silence and grim. The crackling flames behind his royal chair was the absolute epitome to hence completed its ghostly moan; hearing the mechanical whirs from the throne room, it was not enough for the FireLord to be alarmed. Annoyed, he groaned and headed back to his chair.
"Why are you walking away you wretched filth?"
"Whoever you are, it is illegal to sneak up on a KING!" with tons of tenacity, the FireLord sparked a massive electrical blaze, only to hit his loyal Earl.
The earl screamed in pain, the electricity surging through his body was so tense that his body couldn't take it anymore. He electrical surges rushed through the man's circulatory system cutting off all blood from flowing, it rapidly flows to the heart and instead of the heart going into a swift cardiac arrest, since the electrical surges were supercharged, the heart erupted from the man's solar plexus, violently exerting bones encasing it to fly out, making a large hole in the man's chest, the floor was painted in crimson red.
The FireLord was horrified at what he did, but then quickly let's it go. His fear didn't reach it's apex when this happened.
"You wanted power, you wanted control."
"Who are you?" the FireLord roared in terror.
"With all your power, my name is a requirement?"
"Tell me who the hell you are! Show yourself or so help me I will..." The FireLord glowed his fist a furious orange.
"What? Kill me?" asked an unknown phantom in a grave tone, "With your current power, it's nothing but a mere grain of dirt compared to mine. You are weak compared to me."
"What are you?" Ozai called, igniting his flames, "Show yourself coward!"
Coming out of the shadows was inhuman; this being had scars across his face. His dried gashes were visible, still dripping with blood. You could see the bone through some aspects of his cranium, it was more like a white marble than it was for a skull. His black teeth was exposed to the oxygenated world, chipping off the frames bit by bit as time slowly decomposes them. He wasn't no average man, nor was he a god to some. He was a demon, lurking through the shadows to whom finally shown his face to the world, the world of the dead that is.
Ozai paled to see this inhuman figure walking around his presence. He felt chills rolling through his spine as this thing approached him as if he was nothing.
"Get back, monster! I said get back!" he roared.
"Dear Ozai, ruler of a nation that is about to fall. Why should you attack the man you worship?" the Being said with a dark, Satanically-deep tone in his voice.
"I worship no man, I'm the one who is to be bowed," Ozai told.
At this, the Being smiled a wicked grin one to which it would have made Azula to blink. He tidally locked his pitch black eyes at the FireLord, his pale yellow skin said it all. With his flaking scales littering amongst the floorboards of the royal room, Ozai ignited his fist in defense.
"You have made a death wish if you dare try to challenge me," Ozai said.
The Beast smiled a wicked grin, "Egridiuntur, et moriatur," he said in a Satanic whisper.
Ozai, now provoked to his apex, he threw another high voltage lightning strike at the Being. The electricity rushed through the air like a rapidly flowing river, tearing through like a knife slicing through tissue and bone.
BAM!
The electricity surged through his body, screaming in excruciating pain. It was so unbearable that his body couldn't take it anymore. He collapsed on his knees, wanting mercy.
Ozai with a wicked grin kept pounding him with electrical bolts left and right. He quickly got bored and stopped. Rendering the Being to sizzle on his knees, panting. Watching his body parts fall to the floor.
"Bowing to my mercy? Adorable. Why be a legitimate threat when you should have joined the voyage of failures? What was your purpose of being here? - so you can roust to my throne and seize power? I am Ozai, the FireLord of the FireNation, one of the most powerful empires in the entire world! What makes you qualified to rid me out of power?" he laughed.
"If you are as powerful as you are as stupid, you could've spotted a thespian when you had a chance," said the Being chuckling as if it were nothing, making the FireLord to blink.
"What did you say to me?" Ozai roared.
The Being looked at Ozai straight in the eyes, got up, body still sizzling, but however in a shocking vain, his body began to regenerate quickly. His pitch black eyes locked on the outraged and frightened Ozai.
"It's rather simple, one is one, two is two. Without one two cannot exist. Ergo, I'm the one who is above all of your rulers, and at any time, I can subtract that number many times fold until I'm the only one left. It's like a game of chess, a game of how politicians play. Strategy, strategy, strategy is sucha dirty word," he said in a smug tone.
Ozai twitched his left eye angrily so much that veins began to pop from underneath his tear duct, he fiercely pulled back his fist, his knuckles crackled with electrical sparks, his clenched teeth spewed saliva to reach the very air. His anger burst until his mind couldn't sustain anymore. Finally...
"DIE!" he roared, unleashing a powerful electrical surge, pounding everything within its range. Ozai poured a lot of energy from his chi so much that his eye became bloodshot, bloodlust for vengeance.
However, the Being didn't look all too worried; the Being channeled its own energy; the blast had struck the Being, but much to Ozai's surprise, that blast alone was powerful enough, moreso hot enough to incinerate the guy. The Being wasn't pushed, shoved nor cremated. He large amounts of electricity through a vortex through his mouth.
Silence.
Ozai shook, hands ready to gouge another attack, he was socked at what he saw. "You swallowed..."
Wasting no time, Ozai felt his limbs stiffing up, he was unable to move. What was worse was that the Being seemed to have blocked his ability to bend.
"I-I can't..."
Telekinetically, the Being thrusted towards him and gave him a swift high roundhouse kick to the chest. Ozai slid across the floor. He quickly got up only to see that the Being thrusted forward to move in. Ozai tried to firebend but it deemed to be impossible at the moment. Ozai was forced to fight without bending. Ozai charged towards him to try to give him a swift kick, but was blocked by when the Being caught his left leg and slammed him through several columns. As Ozai quickly got up, telekinetically he was thrust upwards towards the ceiling and was thrown across the room towards him; the Being tore a column from the throne room with his other hand and swatted the FireLord like he was a baseball straight towards the wall, only to be blasted by a barrage of electricity, the same voltage to which he blasted the Being.
Ozai was hurt but not down, he saw a knife by him and attempted to use it. Acting with caution, the Being teleported back to back to back, making it harder for the FireLord to land a gashing blow. But soon, the Being kicked he knife from out of his hands gave him rapid jabs on his solar perplex, he was so fast that not even an average person could see his fists penetrating through his chest. The bones protecting his heart was beginning to fracture. Getting bored quickly, the Being threw a powerful punch at the FireLord forcing him to exert out several of his molars; his gums exploded with blood and white fluids, disfiguring his face.
He grabbed the FireLord by the neck, only for the FireLord to use the knife to gash through the Being's neck.
"GAH!" he cried throwing him across the room as he was gargling up blood. Despite his fast healing factor, Ozai regained his bending.
"Oh yes!" Ozai yelled in an enthusiastic tone in his voice, he had no idea what caused his bending to be blocked, but he was sure glad that he regained it. With a powerful jab to the air, FireLord Ozai thrusted a powerful across the Being's face with his ignited fist causing him to fly to a ceiling, but instead of falling down to the ceiling, the Being climbed through column to column to column as the FireLord kept barraging him with a frenzy of fireballs, sending the room ablaze. Finally to end it all, the Being leaped from a column like a projectile missile, dodging most of Ozai's blazing frenzies by only a centimeter.
THWACK! The Being swiftly kicked Ozai in the neck, causing him to kick up liters of bloods and then with a huge amount of force, he telekinetically pushed Ozai close to his cardiac plexus, damaging the bones protecting the heart, a few pierced his heart causing him to bleed internally, to a rail hurting his back.
He was unable to move.
The Being teleported from his current position straight to Ozai's face. The shock and fear from the FireLord said it all.
"Please, let me live!" He gargled blood, the blood painted his lips, "Let me live please, I'll do anything! Ple..ase!" the bleeding was getting worse.
"That is the sheer power I possess," he whispered in a Satanic tone rubbing on his cheeks, "Worship me and I will give you these powers. Fail me and I will fal to keep you alive," he said.
"What are you? Who are you?" Ozai asked.
"Call me the god from Paradise Lost," he said, reddening his eyes as he transformed into black smoke and entered the FireLord's body laughing in a hellish manner.
...
The next day in that cool morning, Ben woke up only to find himself wrapped around Ty Lee's arms. Though, he couldn't help but giggle a little at her snoring. Albeit, it wasn't as bad as Kevin when he snores, it was bearable. He yawned and stretched, getting up from bed only to see Ship in between him and Ty Lee. He rubbed on her soft brown hair as the sun rose in that cool, summer morning.
Walking around the halls, he went straight to the bathroom to groom himself, like other normal people do. After he was done doing what he needed to do, he stared out in the mirror, looking at himself.
"Hiya there good lookin'," Ben said softly, grinning his cocky grin. Just before he removed himself completely from the bathroom, he opened the door to see Zuko waiting. Ben jumped.
"What the heck, dude?" Ben yelled in his inside voice.
"Ben, that is your name isn't it?" Zuko asked.
"Yeah," said Ben slowly.
"Come with me," he said, leading Ben out of the bathroom, "There is something I want to show you."
"Sure, whatever," he said.
...
In the courtyard, Zuko and Ben barely spoke to each other, maybe it was because that neither of them trusted each other, mainly Ben. He tried to roast him the first time he saw Ben for crying out loud! He was seemingly uncomfortable with Zuko, so he touched the dial of his Ultimatrix as a precaution, but...
"Whatever you are trying to do, you don't need it. Trust me," he said.
"It's just a precaution," Ben said.
Zuko didn't say anything else, he could tell that Ben didn't trust him still. It was early in the morning, so he didn't had the energy to fight him. Plus, Zuko's rage was entirely unpredictable. So holding on to the. Ultimatrix as a safe hazard proved to be very smart on Ben's part, but a little confusing on Zuko's part.
Zuko had some respect for Ben for all of his recent activities, but he also didn't trust him. He was unaware of Ben's true source thank god. When he first thought that Ben might be a spy working for the resistance at the beginning, he never contemplated at the mere thought of Ben's bizarre transformations. He could never forget about Rath. He remembered the vicious beating from him. Hell remembering and also hearing the name Rath would often clench his teeth. He still hated him for that. That was entirely unnecessary; in fact with Zuko, his actions were incredibly unnecessary. Because if he had never went off on Ben, he would have never been introduced to that creature.
Zuko wanted to settle the score in this courtyard, but knew that there was something in this God-forsaken place that he needed to show him, that and because he had shown some morality towards him - especially Ty Lee.
Ben seemed like a cool guy, and Zuko respected his morals. But that wouldn't change His hatred for Rath.
"Where exactly are we going anyway, um - I forgot your name."
"Prince Zuko," said Zuko uninterested.
"Um Zuko, yeah where are we going?"
"Something that you might want to see," he said, opening the door.
...
Ben entered a pitch black room. The warmth from yesterday was still present after all those hours. The room wasn't all that roomy, in fact it was a bit the size as an average single inn. There were no pictures by the walls, matter a fact, the pictures just lied there in an angle by the walls, sitting there like old heaps as they were. However, there was one picture that stood as tall of them all. The picture acted as the pharaoh of pictures.
"You brought me here to show me a picture of your...whoa is that you?" Ben asked looking at little Zuko by his father. He looked very innocent in that picture. Ben wondered what caused him to be what he was.
"No, I have brought you here to tell you a few things," he said, "This picture of my dad, he was a different man once."
Ben furrowed, "So he wasn't a stuck-up douche? No offense," Ben said.
Zuko smiled, "When I came back, I thought that I would be happy, but I wasn't. My uncle would always tell me great things," Zuko frowned, "but I betrayed him for the things that I wanted."
Ben knew the feeling, lo he never nor would he ever betray his grandfather, but it seemed that Zuko had admired his uncle for quite sometime. It reminded him of his grandfather, maybe these two do have something in common minus a few anomalies.
"I'm so sorry, Zuko," said Ben, sympathizing with Zuko, "I remember the time where I had lost my grandfather."
"You lost your grandfather?"
"Once, I had a lot of growing up to do. However along the way, I have met incredible friends and allies. Together we worked together not only to save my grandpa, but to save the lives of others on my world."
"Your world?"
Ben became wide-eyed, "Oh, I mean my land, I'm sorry," Ben nervously scratched the back of his head. Zuko furrowed and then lit up a small smile.
"You know what Ben you're all right," he said, "But there is just this one thing I want you to do," he said.
"I'm all ears."
"When we get back home, meet me at the tower from there, I'll assist you along the way," he said.
Ben nodded and then left. Ben opened the door to find Ty Lee alive and well with that tenacious - child-like smile across her face.
"Ty Lee! Hi!" Ben blushed seeing her along with Ship resting on her shoulders. Ship was often tired to having to slither to the ground. He was thankful that Ty Lee assisted him, that and Ty Lee thought that Ship was cute.
"Hey Ben!" Ty Lee greeted, Ben walked with her across the courtyard as they began to play with each other. Zuko chuckled.
"You're up early!" he said, "Very early!"
"An early bird must fly, right?" Ty Lee giggled, adopting Ben's mannerisms.
Ben smiled, blushing almost, "Yeah sure."
"Anyway, I really appreciated what you said yesterday. Thank you," she said smiling genuinely.
"Well, those jerks should have never messed with you, but wait, you could have kicked their butts to next week!" Ben noted.
"Ben?"
"What? You can stop a person's limbs without even trying!"
"But when you were Big Chill at the first time we met, my fist went right through you!" Ty Lee complained.
"But you're flexible," said Ben, "I mean albeit I an fight, but not like you. You're a master at this! Gwen is still teaching me about chakras and chi and everything. And its hard!"
"Learning chi is hard? The great Ben 10 thinks learning chi is hard?"
"Don't make fun of me," said Ben.
"No, I'm not. I will be honored to teach you - plus teaching you a little bit of..." she pulled Ben's shirt to her face, "Me," she said softly, pecking him on the cheek.
"Wow! Really?" Ben asked elatedly.
"Every second," she said, "By the time I'm done with you, you will be like a mini me!"
Ben laughed.
"Et hem!" Azula cleared her throat. She had her arms crossed. She had a furrowed expression across her face. Ty Lee and Ben were nervous about this. Last night, Azula had a meltdown, he had no idea what was that about, nor does he plan to find out. All he knew was that she was dangerous if provoked. She looked pretty upset. The two friends had no idea what was wrong. Did one of them did something wrong. Was something compromised? They had no clue.
"Morning Azula!" Ty Lee said with tenacity, "Great morning isn't..."
"Save it, I'm here for Ben," she said directly.
"Why?" Ty Lee looked pretty scared. She remembered the last time she tried to set Ben up for her revenge. She was practically worried.
"Because Ben had promised me something, isn't that right?"
Ty Lee faced Ben, "Oh yeah, that's right!" he exclaimed, "Hey, Ty Lee, I'm going to walk with Azula for a while, is that okay?"
Ty Lee was surely disappointed, she wanted to hang out with Ben, and thus get a little close to him. He treated her pretty fairly than the rest of the people in her group and thus stood up for her, not once but twice. But at a similar stance, she didn't want to appear to be selfish right in front of them, and plus this was Princess Azula. Nobody couldn't say no to her.
"Sure, I have no problem with that!" she said with a smile, "Just come back okay safely okay," she said in a soft tone.
Ben nodded, but then furrowed his eyes to how Ty Lee finished her sentence. She sounded worried. Worried for what really? Ben gladly walked with Azula only for him to look back to see Ty Lee's smile slowly waning. When they left, Ty Lee groaned. But then something came to mind.
~What am I worried about? If anything came his way, he'll handle it!~
Suddenly, a black and green blob jumped on Ty Lee, tackling her down. It electronically licked her across her face. Ship was ecstatic to see Ty Lee alive and well again.
"Hi, Ship!" Ty Lee laughed, cuddling the blob.
"Ship! Ship!" Ship said. Ty Lee sighed.
"You wont mind taking a walk with me? Do you?" Ty Lee asked.
Ship nodded, "Ship!"
"Alright!" Ty Lee exclaimed excitedly, "Don't worry, you are going to have the best time of your life!" she said throwing Ship to his shoulders; Ship flipped and landed. Ty Lee happily laughed and petted the adorable Galvanic Mechamorph. Just as they were preparing to leave for the new day, Zuko cleared his throat.
"What is that?" Zuko asked.
"Oh, this is Ben's peh..I mean loyal best friend, Ship!" Ty Lee jovially introduced the creature. Ship flipped on her ship with joy. Zuko furrowed.
"What kind of animal is it?"
"I don't know, but really I don't care. All that matters is that he's so adorable!" Ty Lee scratched the little guy's chin. Ship purred.
"Hm, well make sure you get Ben. The airships are coming to Ember Island to get us," said Zuko.
"Sure!" Ty Lee said, Zuko left.
"Ship, Ship, Ship, Ship?" Ship asked.
"I don't know, buddy. He's always like that," said Ty Lee said, "Anyway about that walk?"
"Ship!" Ship said excitedly.
Author's Note
This is your favorite FanFic author, Mr. Raleigh D who brought you the new chapter for the long awaited story, "Lost in the Uncharted Lands: Volume I". I know it took me a lot longer for me to write this. It was planned rather quickly, and originally it was going to be a lot longer than this.
When will Ben fight again? Don't worry, he will fight again. How, I will never tell! [laugh maniacally]. Personally, those are one of my favorite parts of the whole story. But I want to have something that is psychologically motivated in order for Ben to use the watch, and it will so be explained in the next chapter.
Who's the guy that attacked the FireLord? LOL, I will never tell! {laugh maniacally}
Come back when the twelfth chapter arrives! D-Magnets, this is Mr. Raleigh D signing out!
D-Man out!