Redemption of the Dark kind
Chapter 11: Salvaged Truths.
15th February 2900
Southern Fire nation, former waterbender prison facility/Fire rebel HQ.
Inside the courtyard, fire rebel soldiers fought fiercely against the force of earth kingdom soldiers, fire nation soldiers and water tribe warriors. Against them they were able to hold their ground.
Against the Avatar and master benders though, they were losing.
With a fierce swipe, Aang blew 4 fire rebels away with his airbending, not looking back to see them hit a group of other rebels in mid-air. Elsewhere, Toph was creating defensive walls for the attackers to shelter and attack from safely. The rebels were not just firebenders, but also archers and swordsmen and women. As such, Zuko and Katara were side by side now, using one of Toph's rock walls as cover while they lay down a long range assault with fire and water bending.
Hakoda had taken the fight to the enemy, and was engaging in close combat with a group of rebels with the help of Mai, who's knife throwing skills were invaluable in repelling any overwhelming numbers of enemies. As Mai pinned one more rebel, and killed another by a head throw, Hakoda briefly wondered: Where does she hide all of those? Tossing his curiosity aside, Chief Hakoda blocked another rebel swordsman, and hit him hard in the side with a quick swipe from his spear's shaft. Not caring to give him a chance to surrender, Hakoda raised his spear over the fallen rebel, and stabbed down.
With the last close by rebel dead, Hakoda yelled to his troops: "We need to take the main fortress, and those sentries are keeping us pinned down. Benders, take them out!"
At this, Aang and Zuko each launched a fire blast at two sentries each, incinerating their positions and setting fire to part of the upper level. Toph, having run underneath the second floor balcony, then punched into the fortress's metal walls. With a cracking and creaking noise, the sentry balcony twisted and collapsed above her, sending the sentries either falling to the ground or fleeing inside. Before she was crushed, Toph earthbended herself underground, and resurfaced after the balcony had landed. As she resurfaced, she restrained the rebels on the floor who were lucky enough to survive the fall.
With the sentry balcony gone, the group moved towards the fortress, and once inside the hallways, they split up to take each room.
Down in the basement level, Alex could only hear very faint echoes of the fight going on above.
Under invisibility, he progressed through the labyrinth of tunnels and corridors, having to frequently use his in helmet map to find his way around. In the dimly lit tunnels, he could still see that many of the prison cell halls had been converted for supply storage. Explosives, food and water, weapons, vehicle parts, anything the rebels would need for their operations if supplies grew short.
All of a sudden, Alex saw movement up ahead, two guards hurrying to the surface to stop the attackers. Knowing he needed information, he decided to act. Alex thrust out both arms, causing the rebels to run into them full force. Their painful cries echoed in the corridor, and before either could react, Alex formed a dark blade from his hand, grabbed the younger of the two rebels, and slit his throat.
The elder rebel gazed in horror as his younger comrade killed, a dark, masked figure having suddenly materialized over him and slit his throat. The, the masked figure turned to the elder rebel.
With a cry of surprise, the elder rebel saw a cloud of dark smoke surround his own neck and mouth, and he gagged slightly as it began to mildly choke him, constricting his airway. From the masked figure, a horrible voice asked slowly: "Where are the waterbenders and war prisoners being held? Lie to me, and you'll join your friend." As he finished, he used the dark smoke to point the rebel's head at the young rebel's corpse, a pool of blood slowly forming beneath the body. With the smoke clearing to allow him to talk, the rebel choked out: "F-Four doors down, on the left. The-they're all in the same place."
Then, the elder man's body shuddered and became still, as the dark smoke hit his head hard, knocking him out. Alex dropped the unconscious body, keen to leave no survivors except voluntary surrenders, as this man had done by helping him. As he left, he re-cloaked himself, and muttered to the elder rebel a sincere: "Thank you"
Four doors down, and to the left. Before Alex could open the door, he heard footsteps coming from the left again. Annoyed that he had yet another one to kill, he turned, invisible, to face the guard. Except, when he looked, he saw the face of the one man who escaped the Fire palace, the one that the guards failed to apprehend. This was the Commander.
Wanting to settle this more personally, Alex flattened himself against the corridor wall, letting the Commander walk past without touching him. As he passed, Alex reached into his pocket, and pulled out a tiny tracking device. As the Commander walked by, Alex brushed the man's sleeve with his fingers, letting the tracker stick to the underside of his arm. In case he escaped again somehow, this would prove useful.
As the Commander walked along, he dismissed a slight brush he felt on his sleeve as merely an illusion of his senses. He continued, ignoring the prisoner door to his right, realizing he may have to kill them before escaping to send a message. But for now, he was needed on the upper floors, to rescue precious documents concerning rebel plans.
As he passed the next door, he heard two footsteps behind him.
The Commander whirled around, and saw beside the prisoner door a dark figure, obscured by the dim lighting of the corridor. He wore a blank, black mask, with a dark grey jawbone structure beneath it. On his body, a black and red trimmed full body suit, made of a long sleeved tunic and trousers, and a jacket, all of which looked like it could hide armour. The feet were covered by featureless, black boots. All in all, the figure blended perfectly amongst the darkness.
At first, the commander thought he was seeing things. Then, the figure spoke, in a voice that seemed to come from a nightmare, speaking to him in a malicious whisper:
"You escaped my grasp once, you will not again."
The Commander spoke in an aggressive, quizzical tone: "Do I know you?"
"No, but your accomplices in the hostage situation at the Fire Palace did. In fact, I got to know them very well indeed."
"How did they know you?"
"I was the one who slaughtered them."
The Commander stared at the figure, shocked that he had come all this way to simply get him. The commander got into a firebending stance, and challenged: "Why you, I knew those men as friends, and I will ensure you now die."
The figure remained motionless, and the whisper returned again: "How noble, but like you, I too am devoted to my cause. For your escape that day, I saved some 'special' surprises specifically for you."
With a bellow, the Commander launched a fireball down the corridor, the figure having no chance to dodge it. As the fireball engulfed the figure, the corridor lit up brightly, and then dimmed again. As the smoke cleared, the figure was nowhere to be seen. Only a black cloud of smoke appeared. However, the smoke began to swirl and condense into a person, and from the darkness the figure emerged again.
In fury, the Commander sent a continuous barrage of fire down the corridor, illuminating it brilliantly in orange light. As each blast flew, it seemed to engulf the hallway where the figure stood, and the black smoke swirled around where the flames eagerly sought to burn flesh and bone. And yet, they found none.
The commander stepped backwards in fear, as he realized he could not harm this, this thing. This thing was not normal, it was like a spirit, nothing could not harm it. As he stood shaking in slight fear, the whole corridor darkened, and the figure advanced on him, gliding down the hall like a hellish demon coming to drag him away. The commander ran, and as he saw the hall light dim around him, the darkness gradually began to catch up to him. Suddenly, beneath him, a dark tendril seized his ankle, and tripped him up.
As the commander hit the floor, he twisted around and fired a massive fire blast at the demon. The flames engulfed the figure, harmlessly dissipating around it. With his life flashing before his eyes, the Commander began to freeze in fear as the figure leant down towards him, and whispered at a barely discernable level: "Run, or die."
With a traumatized yell, the commander ran as fast as he could down the hallway, eager to get away from this haunted corridor. He prayed that the spirit would take the prisoners, and not him. He saw the staircase, and began to run up it fast, not caring how loud he was being.
As he got to the top of the stairs, he rounded the corner to head for the exit. Seeing light, he silently thanked the good spirits, and practically leapt into the open sun. With a cry of panic, he hit the ground, scrambling away from the building like a frightened rat. He backed up, until he felt shadows looming over him. The commander whirled around, and saw Firelord Zuko, Fire Lady Mai and Master Katara looming over him. Off to the side, Aang recognized the commander, and ran over to confront him. As the avatar joined, the Commander surrendered, cowering beneath his recent captors, thankful that he was free from the evil spirit.
Aang spoke to him: "You're here, you're their leader?"
The Commander shakily nodded, and said in a stuttering voice: "Led rebels, prisoners in basement. Terrible curse, the mask, the horrible demon, he-he killed my men at the Palace, he can't be stopped, he's too powerful, too evil." As the Commander collapsed into the foetal position, the four of them looked over at the fortress, wondering what Alex was up to.
Beneath the ground, Alex had just recovered from laughing his arse off. He had completely traumatized that man, so much more satisfying than killing him. Of course, he thought, if the need arises, I'm sure I could easily administer execution.
With no guards on sensors, Alex walked over to the prison hall door, a more relaxed stride in his walk now that the fight was actually over.
He reached the prison door, and saw that the door was locked. Alex scolded himself:
Damn, I should've ordered the leader to give me the keys.
Regardless, Alex formed a small block of dark matter on his finger, and he thrust it into the keyhole. Then, using his onboard scanners, he began to morph and shape the dark matter in the keyhole to pick the lock. After 20 seconds, the lock clicked, and the door was now ready to open. As he pulled out the dark matter, Alex scanned the prison, detecting only people trapped inside prison cells.
With a cautious breath, ready for any ghastly sight, Alex re-cloaked himself, and pushed the door open slowly.
Alex stepped into the room silently, allowing the door to swing shut behind him almost silently. Inside the prison hall, windows provided small rays of light to illuminate the dark, dusty hall. Ahead, a catwalk of sorts extended down the hall, with raised prison cages lining the sides of the path. In the cages, the bodies of people rested almost motionlessly, only the scanners on Alex's helmet fully confirming their living status.
Looking on at the cages, Alex saw that the rebels had arranged the waterbenders in the cages on the left side, while the war prisoners occupied cells on the right. Seeing the age and life signs of some of the occupants, it was obvious that some would be better off not being moved, and help being brought to them before moving them. The rest however could be brought up for treatment.
As he reminded himself to get Katara and any medically trained force members to come down here, Alex picked out the prisoners he could move now, preferably all in one go under their own legs. Unfortunately, out of the 7 waterbenders, only the shortest stay occupant of 11 years was showing suitable signs for walking up to the courtyard, the rest were too old or weak. The war prisoners were better faring, as out of 2 dozen, about 1 and a half dozen could be moved now.
Tentatively, Alex approached a nearby cage, holding a group of 4 war prisoners, a young woman, a fire sage and 2 fire nation captains. He then crouched down, and dropped the cloaking field before standing up for them to see, so it would look like he had been there just now. As he appeared, the prisoners faces looked up in shock, and they recoiled slightly as they looked at Alex. Then, Alex realized his helmet was still on. Carefully, he removed it slowly, so as not to startle them. As he took it off, the other prisoners began to either look or listen in, especially when he started to talk to the four:
"I don't have much time, can you walk?"
The Fire sage was the one who responded, a pleading tone in his voice: "Yes, are you here to free us?"
Alex then lashed out, shattering the lock on the cage doors with his fist, aided by a cloaked dark matter armour coating. He then smirked at the old sage: "That I believe answers that question." He then addressed the whole hall: "Any prisoners who can walk well enough are coming with me to the surface. The rest I shall bring back medical help to heal you here. If I try to move you, I may end up harming you more than helping, so sit tight."
After the first cage, Alex went to each cage, 16 in total, and shattered each and every lock with a well placed punch. As each cage opened, the prisoners who could walk crawled or leapt out of their cages, whooping and crying for joy at their saviour. True to his predictions though, 6 of the 7 waterbenders could not stand up for themselves, their leg muscles wasted away. However, the last one, a middle aged woman, appeared fine for walking, slow and staggered as her pace was.
Suddenly, the woman stumbled, and appeared to be falling. In slight panic, Alex closed the small gap between them, and caught her mid fall. She caught her breath as she was saved from the fall, and thanked her helper:
"Thank you. For that and freeing us. I don not know how I can ever repay you."
Alex helped her up, and said: "All I ask in return is for you to be more careful, and perhaps a name also?"
The woman smiled, her shrunken face and ribcage ruining her otherwise pleasant appearance. Her long, brown hair was matted, tangled and loose, and the brown prison tunic and pants she wore clung to the angular shape of her thin, bony body. The ocean blue eyes though, remained unchanged from the imprisonment. She then said her name.
At hearing the name, Alex froze, having only heard it in passing, and yet, she should not be here. He thought confusedly: She shouldn't be in a waterbender prison, she should be pushing up the daisies somewhere! This changes everything!
Alex then pushed these thought temporarily aside, and ordered again: "I'll bring help back for the weaker prisoners! The rest of you, follow me, stick together!" With this, he opened the door, and guided the rest in the direction of the exit slowly. At the front, Alex had asked the waterbender to walk with him, to clear some matters over.
"My first question, are you a waterbender? And I can tell if you lie, so don't bother."
The woman shook her head, and said: "No, I'm not a waterbender." Alex nodded, and then said: "Well then, I can still say that I have some people up top who will be very interested in hearing what happened in your eleven year imprisonment, so be prepared to meet-watch your step."
Alex avoided the puddle of blood on the floor, having leaked form the younger guard's corpse completely, while the elder guard had yet to regain consciousness. The woman and the rest of the prisoners looked down at the body and corpse, then at Alex. At this, Alex shrugged his shoulders, and said: "Had to kill the young guy, the old guy told me where to find you, so I let him live, which reminds me."
Alex bent down and picked up the old guard, and as he led the still grateful prisoners towards the stairs, he said with a hint of humour in his voice: "I'll do him a favour in making sure he doesn't wake up next to a dead body, wouldn't that be a shock, huh?"
At the silence, Alex retorted to them as he began to lead them up the stairs: "Oh come on! Just because its dark humour doesn't mean it's not humour."
The woman laughed slightly at this, reminiscing how one of her children, before she was taken, would often attempt jokes, with mixed success. Then, as they rounded up to the top of the steps, the prisoners saw light ahead, coming from an open doorway in the corridor ahead.
The end of their sorrow was near.
But one last obstacle stood in their way.
Above the prison facility, a group of elite rebel members planned out their next move. They had held back, watching the disastrous battle from the roof. They ahd seen the invaders storm the prison, and had also seen their Commander retreat, almost hysterical about something in the basement. By the sound of it, they had penetrated the lower level.
The guards nodded, and moved in to ambush the prisoners when they came out.
"This way, hurry!"
Alex ordered the prisoners along, eager to taste freedom again for their sake. Indeed, as the prisoners burst into the sunlight again, they began to sprint even faster, the sun's welcoming rays like steroids to them. Beside him, the woman sprinted equally fast, and then she noticed a group in front of them.
Among them, a young, scarred fire nation man, and a fire nation woman with long dark hair, looked over at them, and then called over to their accomplices. With eagerness, a bald man in monk clothing ran over, followed by a water tribe woman. Before the woman could get a look at her, Katara noticed something behind them, and yelled: "Alex, BEHIND YOU!"
Instinctively, Alex spun around, and saw a group of guards land skilfully on the ground now between them and the facility. As they landed, they began firebending at the prisoners, eager to kill. With screams of terror, the prisoners ducked to the floor, cowering in fear at their would be killers. One of them stood over the Fire sage, and she fired a blast into the old man's face, yelling; "Traitor!"
Before he could react, he saw a guard aim an arrow at the non-waterbender woman, now on his right, and let it fly. Alex dropped the unconscious guard on his shoulder, and shoved the woman out of the way, letting her fall to the floor, as the arrow pierced his upper arm, imbedding itself in the skin.
On Alex's helmet, readings showed a hit on his synthetic skin, but his mechanical structure was unharmed. Even so, the artificial sensors simulated the pain to half the extent, which was enough for Alex. With a cry of pain, he fell backwards, the arrow stuck in his right arm. Beside him, the woman screamed in shock, scrambling over to help him, but he beat her back, yelling in a pained voice: "Get to them, get to safety, NOW!" As he yelled, he jerked his head towards the Gaang, who were now engaging the remnants of the guards and these new, elite rebels. The woman nodded, and sprinted off to the group, her matted brown hair flying as she ran.
As Alex struggled up, the same archer aimed another arrow at the woman, but he would never hit her. As he let it fly, Alex formed a dark shield between her and the archer, upon which the arrow bounced off, broken from the impact. Before the archer could comprehend what happened, Alex was on his feet, and he extended his hand out, forming a long, dark tendril, which coiled around the man's neck, and quickly snapped it by constricting. Before the man keeled over, Alex retracted the tendril, and ran over to a nearby elite rebel, who had been running up to two other prisoners, a young woman and an earth army captain. Roughly, with no dark matter, Alex seized the man, his taller stature allowing him to pull the man off his feet. Pulling out one of his swords, Alex slit the man's throat, not bothering to look back at the prisoners or the corpse as he moved on, determined to find that fire rebel who killed the fire sage prisoner. All the while, the arrow caused him indescribably pain in his right arm.
He found her, in combat with Mai and Hakoda, who proved to be an equal match against her together. Nevertheless, Alex had sworn to protect the prisoners, and she had caused him to fail. He drew his last sword, and aimed it like a spear. He threw it hard and fast, and with a sadistic smile he saw it plunge right through the woman's torso. Hakoda and Mai stared shocked at this intervention, as Alex walked over to the gurgling rebel, blood dribbling from her mouth, while he bit back the pain from his obvious arrow wound. He roughly withdrew his sword, left his helmet retracted, and muttered as the corpse fell down: "Consider that payback for the fire sage you killed."
Suddenly, a fire blast came from the side of him from afar. Whirling around, Alex saw that it was a random shot, and it was headed right for him. He had no time to react, and with a terrified expression, Alex prepared for a possible fiery end.
The flames hit his lower jaw and chin, and Alex fell to the floor, screaming in agony as the flames devoured one of the areas of his body that was still organic. He rolled on the floor to extinguish the flames, but by the time they were out, he began to lose consciousness from the pain, the unbearable pain in his lower right face. As he slipped out of consciousness, his dark matter clothing coating switched off and retracted, returning his black and red clothes to his original green, brown and yellow colour, leaving only the helmet, now open for all to see his face wound.
His last sight before losing consciousness was Hakoda and Mai screaming for help, and figures rushing towards him from distance.
The woman rushed over to the group nearby, as she had been bellowed to by the dark man, who had taken an arrow for her. As she ran, she looked back and saw him raise a black wall between her and the archer, and then grab the archer from afar with a dark arm-like extension. The archer's neck snapped, and the dark man struggled onto his feet.
As she looked around, she saw she was nearing the designated group now. Running up to the Waterbender girl, she yelled: "You have to help him! He's hurt badly!"
At this, the scarred male firebender looked over at the man, and said: "He looks fine to me." The woman, waterbender and the scarred man looked back, and saw the dark man slit the throat of another rebel, the arrow causing apparently little problem. Then, they saw him aim his sword, and throw it like a spear, over at a skilled female rebel, engaging a dark haired, fire nation woman, and-
HAKODA?
As the woman looked in shock at the southern water tribe chief, she only barely noticed a random fire shot head towards him. The dark man had whirled around to engage, but he took a face full of flames instead. As the man fell, he began to roll on the floor in a frenzy, screaming in agony as his face burnt. As this happened, the waterbender and nearby monk yelled out in shock simultaneously: "ALEX!"
Suddenly, the dark man's clothes changed colour, going from black and red to yellow, brown and green, earth kingdom colours. Then Hakoda yelled over to them:
"We need a healer NOW!"
The waterbender, monk and scarred man rushed over, with the woman following closely, wanting to help and to see if it really was Hakoda. The waterbender then knelt over Alex's charred face, the latter having slipped into unconsciousness. She said: "Dad, I need more water to work with here!"
"Right. Bato, get some more waterskins here for Katara!"
Hakoda had yelled over to another water tribe warrior, who the woman recognized also from her time in the southern water tribe. Within seconds, Bato had returned with two more waterskins, which Hakoda handed to Katara. Beside them, the woman fell to her knees, tears now pouring from her eyes, as she not only gazed at this dark man's charred and frighteningly damaged body, but also realized she had reunited with her tribe. She then watched as Katara expertly covered Alex's face in water, and made it glow. After a few tense seconds, Katara looked up in relief, stopping the bending.
"He'll live. I healed the skin, but he'll have a scar from what was burnt off."
The woman then said to her: "The arrow." At this, Katara noticed the arrow, still imbedded in Alex's arm. Thankfully it was not that deep, as it had entered at an angle. The barbs had not fully stuck in, so a quick yank from Hakoda caused it to come free easily, leaving Katara to only heal the wound. She then spoke again: "Aang, Zuko, get me some bandages."
The monk, obviously Aang, nodded, and ran off, followed by the scarred man, Zuko. Seeing the danger was over, the woman tentatively asked Katara: "Katara, is that really you?"
Katara looked at the woman, and noticed something vaguely familiar about her somehow, that familiar, warm voice, and those blue eyes, so alike her own. Hakoda looked at the woman now, a look of confusion and shock on his face. He cautiously leaned towards her, and swept away the woman's brown, matted locks, to reveal a familiar, yet thinned face, sunken with age and impoverishment.
Hakoda began to tear up, as he recognized who he was looking at. He slowly shuffled around Alex's form, and cupped the woman's cheek. He asked in a croaking voice: "Kya?"
The woman broke down, and embraced him: "Hakoda!" The two held each other close, the warmth of each other's body a comfort to the other. Beside them, Katara began to realize who this was, and reached up to her necklace, touching it for a brief moment. She began to crawl around Alex's body, and laid a hand on Kya's shoulder, asking the woman: "Who's necklace is this?"
The woman drew back, and said with a warming, motherly smile: "I gave it to you, my daughter." Katara threw herself into the embrace, her sorrow of 11 years of separation from her mother finally fully spilling forth, and yet now that sorrow would no longer live.
Aang came back over to them, the bandages ready for applying to Alex's right arm, he saw two things as he returned. First, he saw an old wound no one had yet seen on Alex's body. A large imbedded scar on Alex's right shoulder, as if a large section had been sliced out of it by something. Before he could apply the bandages to the new arrow wound, he saw a sight that left him confused, yet touched.
He saw Katara in a loving embrace with her father, crumpled on the floor, tears on their faces, as they both embraced [here's what really confused Aang] the waterbender prisoner woman. He asked sensitively: "Katara? What's going on?"
His girlfriend looked up at Aang, tears of joy in her eyes, and said: "Alex found my mom."
Before Aang could react, Zuko ran up behind them, and said to Hakoda: "The other prisoners say there are still some others down in the cells. They're too weak to move, so we need to help them."
Hakoda fought back his tears, the rest of the situation reminded to him: "Yes. Organize supplies of food and water to be brought to them, go down with a team to help them."
Zuko nodded, and yelled over to some fire nation troops the command necessary to begin prisoner rescue. After this, he joined Aang in watching the family reunion, long overdue by 11 years, 3 years after the war. Zuko thought to himself that fate had smiled on Katara for all her hardships, by rewarding her with the safe return of a person she had missed so much in life. Then, Zuko looked at Alex, still out of it on the floor.
If it wasn't for him, this rebellion would still be going strong, and this tor family will never be reunited.
Kya pulled away from Katara and Hakoda, and looked at her husband in incalculable relief: "Hakoda, you look not much different from that day." Kya then turned to Katara: "Katara, my sweet little girl, I dreamt of all of you in my time here."
Katara buried herself in her mother's embrace once more: "I missed you so much mom." As her daughter began to cry once more, Kya held her on the back, rubbing small circles in her back with her thin, frail hand.
Kya then looked around slightly worriedly: "Where is Sokka?"
Aang laughed slightly, and said: "He's on his honeymoon. We came here without him so as not to spoil his time with his new wife, we had no idea you were here."
Zuko then said: "Wait till he hears about this."
They looked down at Alex, and Zuko said: "That's two families he's helped reunite now. But now he has a scar like my own." Aang looked at him, and said: "Knowing Alex, he'll wear it proudly."
And they were right. He would wear it proudly, as it marked one step closer to his inner redemption. After so long causing pain and misery at command, even if it had been fro the greater good, Alex had finally begun to redeem his personal cause, and had now permanently earned the respect of not only the Southern Water tribe for returning not just the chief's proclaimed dead wife and many lost waterbenders, but also by critically wounding the fire rebellion effort and its leadership and HQ.
He was finally doing what he set out to do, protect, serve, and help for the good, no matter the method or cost.