Chapter Ten: Conscious and Intelligent
256 AG, Early Autumn
Dominance Bomber Crash Site, Lower Ring, Ba Sing Se, Earth Continent
"What did you give her?"
"Get your hands off me!"
"Tell me what you gave her!"
There was a sharp smack, a cry, and a dull crunch. An incoherent mumble was followed by another smack, this time followed the wallop of an impact on flesh, and the cry of pain was louder. Metal scraped against metal, and the sound of the wind grew loud.
"What's going on in here –?"
"Stay back!"
"That's my mother! Leave her alone and get out of our house!"
There was a rumbling of rocks, a blast of fire, a yelp, a thud, and then silence.
Consciousness was alone with itself. There was nothing more. Then finally, after an infinity, the illusion reasserted itself. The false dream returned.
Someone was calling a name.
Her name.
"Aiwa, Aiwa can you hear me?" The voice was familiar. Cold steel was pressed against her neck and then brought to her lips.
"Pulse and breathing both present. I think she's OK."
"Of course she's fine!" Now this voice was less familiar. It was old a gravelly, well worn by the passage of decades. "The drug I gave her is not dangerous by itself, but she –"
"You drugged her? You...animal!"
Smack, cry, crunch. The older voice was the matriarch's, and the familiars were hurting her. The Preservation did not understand. Aiwa could help them.
The subject of conscious experience moved her lips, trying to speak, but no words came.
"Look, she's trying to tell us something. Aiwa, open your eyes!"
But Aiwa would not. She recoiled from the thought of it, and shook her head.
"You can hear us? Open your eyes! Are you alright?"
Again, she shook her head emphatically, but mouthed the words to answer their question.
"I'm alright," she thought.
She thought. Something about this was absurd. Who differentiates thinker and thought?
"Can you speak to us, Aiwa?"
Someone coughed, and Aiwa was certain it was the matriarch.
"The effect wears off quickly at first, but even so, it will be a few more moments before she will want to talk."
Immediately, two voices began to battle inside Aiwa's head. Mere moments ago, they had not even existed. Yet now they were arguing about whether or not shewanted to talk.
"Aiwa, open your eyes," the familiar voice pleaded.
"She might be ready to do that –" the matriarch croaked, but was cut off.
"Shut up!"
"Stop," spoke Aiwa, sensing that another blow against the old lady was imminent. The sound of her own voice surprised her. It was soft yet alien, full of compassion, and it seemed to project an understanding, a wisdom that Aiwa herself could no longer grasp.
"Aiwa, are you –?"
"No more," Aiwa spoke defiantly. For a moment, the subject sensed that the speaking voice was neither someone's nor no-ones. But that didn't make any sense.
Slowly, Aiwa stood up, her eyes still closed. She did not want to open them yet, for there was something beyond them. Something...else.
"What is it?" Aiwa asked, finally able to direct a question at the old lady. She did not understand the theatre of thoughts within the Mind. She shared comprehension of the experience with the matriarch, who responded immediately.
"No, no, you have to experience this. I can't just tell you –"
"I told you before, be quiet!"
"Leave her alone," spoke Aiwa, her voice powerful yet kind. "Don't hurt her."
"Aiwa, what's she done to you?"
"As I was trying to tell you, I've given the Avatar a drug –"
"Let her speak," Aiwa cut in over the impending objections. How she had known they were coming was beyond her.
"This is incredible. Normally, this substance forces one into spiritual meditation. It's a way of accessing the Spirit World for one who is blocked for some reason, and I suspected this Avatar was. I know her predecessor had...difficulties. But this is just..."
Footsteps, murmurs, then a soft hand upon her face. It was the matriarch. She said nothing. The silence they shared then said more than words ever could.
Yet, after a moment that seemed to span an epoch, the old lady broke the silence.
"Open your eyes, my dear, and understand what's what."
"I don't want to..." Once more, Aiwa recoiled mentally, but she understood. It had to happen.
"It's all fine to see inside, but that's only some of the world. Look around you."
The dread rising in her, Aiwa clenched the muscles tightly, then opened her eyes.
"There, isn't that better?"
Aiwa took a deep breath. She saw everything...then she saw...and then, although the sensation was now only a fading glimmer, she really saw.
Immediately in front of her, she conceived the worn, ancient face of the matriarch, smiling. Behind her, Yangji's visor was up, and Aiwa looked upon her lean, strict, anxious face. Other figures, UPF soldiers in black flex-steel, stood by, and the candles were still burning. Aiwa took a deep breath, welcoming their gentle aroma into her entire body.
Then, she focussed on the other – on what she saw.
Somehow, this sense was familiar. It brought back echoes of her mindless time in the icy winter hemisphere, but it was also far, far stronger. This was her spiritual sense, but amplified one-thousand-fold. Aiwa raised a hand to touch something that flitted through the air before her. Then, she noticed that all the somethings were everywhere, concentrated in certain places, in Yangji, in the old lady, in the other soldiers, in the candles...
Aiwa breathed again, and the sense extended through space, beyond what her eyes were capable of viewing, and towards infinity. It was chi. Everywhere, the fields sighed and washed with the material world. The complex webs formed intricate structures across the surface of the Earth, and Aiwa began to turn in a circle, seeing the raw spiritual energy in every direction. It had neither shape nor colour, nor could it: those were conceptions that were the domain of sight and mind, not...this.
Then, Aiwa saw it. To the north – and she knew it was north from the way the fields of chi fluxed across the surface of the sphere upon which they all stood – there was something else. Yes, this was something else, now.
Aiwa breathed again, filling her body with energy. Then, surprising everyone, even herself, she made a dash for the curtained exit.
"Stop –!" cried Yangji, feebly raising an arm, but Aiwa dashed right past, and out into the sunlight.
Far to the west, Aiwa could see the Sun. It was low in the sky over the Inner Wall, orange and imposing, glaring down upon a harsh world. But Aiwa also saw it. She saw the power it brought to Earth and gave to firebenders.
Looking to her left, Aiwa found herself confronted by a familiar face. A small wave of disturbance plagued her consciousness for a second, but it was immediately obliterated in the sea of universal kindness.
"Aiwa," spoke Xue, his face filled with astonishment. "Are you alright?" Aiwa simply smiled.
Then, she looked to her right, to the north – towards the Middle Ring. Right there was a hole in the great Wall that separated the two city rings. Beyond it Aiwa could see immense, glittering metal structures. The spires and skyscrapers towered up, she knew not how high. But down in the streets, she saw it.
With no further words or thoughts forthcoming, Aiwa began to run. A shout from behind her fell upon her ears, but the perception of hearing faded almost instantly, washed away by the impermanence of everything.
Aiwa sprinted through fields of grass, hurdled low, stone walls, and dashed through abandoned houses. Her entire form felt so much more powerful than usual, and with a quick look at herself, she saw why.
Reaching the rubble of the Lower-Middle Wall, Aiwa sensed another being. It knew she was coming, and it knew she was coming for it. It began to flee, but it was not far away. Flying over the low stone debris on jets of fire, she landed in the Middle Ring. The difference here was stark, and Aiwa glanced quickly around at the tall, empty buildings, the cracked asphalt, and the littered sidewalks. It was almost like the Habitation Zone in the Silent Fortress, except everything was so much larger. Ahead, down a messy street that became ever darker as it moved into the shadows of the skyscrapers, Aiwa could see it – no, now she really saw it.
No sooner had she clapped eyes on it did the figure vanish once more, and Aiwa gave chase. She sprinted through dirty streets and down rough alleys, past empty houses, shops, and markets. Aiwa paused at a derailed train that lay on its side in a wide square littered with old shopping cards and other detritus. She could no longer visually perceive her target, but was nonetheless locked on with a far more potent sense.
Then, the 'why' finally occurred to her. It had to eventually, being an unavoidable part of human existence. Until this moment, when she asked herself why she was pursuing an unknown entity through an abandoned metropolis, she had been purely an observer. One of the voices could not help but comment.
"No. You stopped being a perfect observer as soon as you returned – as soon as you stopped really seeing."
Hurdling a rusty barricade, Aiwa found herself sprinting past abandoned tanks and mecha suits, all standing idly by in the cold. She approached and entered a skyscraper that had barely avoided being swallowed by an earthquake rift. Invasive naihan grass had engulfed the desolate plaza around the base of the building. Barring the shattered Lower-Middle Wall, it was the first direct evidence Aiwa had encountered of the earthquakes that had decimated much of the northern areas of Ba Sing Se almost two decades ago.
The figure had already vanished from the atrium and was heading upstairs. Aiwa wondered vaguely if it was luring her in. The interior was cold and dark, with overturned desks, dead pot plants, smashed chandeliers from the roof, and even a rotting corpse in one corner. She could gain on her target, but only if she could climb quicker.
Coming to the elevators just beyond reception, Aiwa wrenched open the loose doors, punched out the ceiling hatch inside the elevator, and launched herself up the shaft on jets of fire. This enhanced firebending surprised her, but only a little. Steel girders and rails flew by, until she reached the floor where the target had, for some reason, stopped. She still saw it. Igniting a powerful spark in her right palm, she melted the solid steel in seconds, before diving through the dripping opening and rising in a spin that sprayed the harmful molten metal away from her body. The room she found herself in was beautiful but broken. Smashed glass coated most of the surfaces, and a large number of wicker chairs cluttered the marble floor, overturned and splintered.
Unmoving, Aiwa stood and assessed her target. The figure was standing in the middle of the room, facing her. They wore a flowing grey cloak that covered every aspect of their body. Although nothing was visible under the dark of the hood, Aiwa could tell they were looking right at her – right into her.
Aiwa started forwards, vaguely aware of her uncertainties. What was she doing? Why was she doing it? Why had she chased down this survivor, this lonely Middle Ring-dweller? Was it a desire for answers to these questions that drove her on? Or was it something else?
As if echoing her confusion, the figure raised a gloved hand out of their sleeve and pointed to themself.
"'Do you seek me?' That's what they're asking."
Aiwa nodded. Immediately, the chi fields blazed forth around the figure, and they attacked.
Aiwa was only momentarily surprised at the onrushing flames, and deflected them with an easy backhand before ducking under a second wave moving several steps closer. Why fight? Why not talk?
"Wait," spoke Aiwa quietly, as the flames hushed for a second. "Don't."
But what the figure next did surprised Aiwa immensely.
Aiwa's attacker pulled back into a stance quite different to what she had seen from a firebender before – and then it hit her. The air blasted Aiwa back, head over heels, and suddenly she was sliding along dangerously close to the molten door behind her. Rolling her legs over her head, Aiwa kicked backwards with fire to reverse her motion, and then span up to stand once again. The figure was now nowhere to be seen, but Aiwa saw them moving upwards once more.
Without thinking, she ran, sprinting towards the open air beyond the marble room, and leapt out into what lay beyond. For one instant, she looked around into free space. The sky was darkening, clear and cold now, and the looming bodies of several other skyscrapers overshadowed her ominously from all around. Far below, the streets of Ba Sing Se were grey and lonely.
And then she was flying freely once more on jets of fire. Soaring higher and higher, she saw the figure dashing up a concrete stairwell towards the rooftop. With a final kick, she flipped forwards onto a small balcony, before rolling through an unseen window and sending shards of glittering glass cascading to the floor. She quickly stepped up, carefully brushing the glass off her cloak, and waited in the high room. Above her, only three floors remained. Below her, there was a clattering of metal boots on stone steps, and Aiwa turned to face the stairwell door, standing out in the open. This diamond-shaped room was filled with spectacular paintings and glass tables covered in books and tiny, stone statues. The floor was a glistening blue, strikingly vivid in the evening light, and the walls and ceiling faded into a mellow grey with twists of purple.
The door crashed open and the cloaked figure rushing through stopped in surprise when they almost ran straight into Aiwa, who held up her hands and stepped backwards, smiling. For a moment, Aiwa thought they were going to attack her again. It seemed that this entity's number one priority was self-preservation, and because of this it needed to show unyielding strength in the face of the unknown. But instead of striking, the figure walked around Aiwa in a wide circle, clearly keeping a cautious distance between the two of them. Watching her constantly, they began to walk off towards an old spiral staircase at the other end of the blue room. Once they had reached the door, they beckoned to Aiwa with the gloved hand, before disappearing up the narrow, wooden staircase. Aiwa followed without fear or anxiety, or even expectation. She was vaguely aware of a dim appreciation for the workings of the universe that lay beyond her comprehension.
One floor up, Aiwa pulled herself up the final step, being careful not to snap the rotting wood, and found herself standing in a magnificent room.
This room was painted from floor to ceiling in a simple light blue, with flashes of white visible here and there beneath paintings and behind furniture. All around her on a number of low tables rested incredible, legendary objects. Here was an old scroll, covered in the elegance of painted waterbending forms. And there, an old boomerang, rusted and unrestored. A white whistle in the shape of a bison sat in a small, glass cabinet, further along, and a magnificent pair of dual dao swords lay, each in half a sheath, upon a dragon-carved mantel. Aiwa walked forwards, marvelling at the relics of a bygone era, the memorial items of a great story, one of hope, heroism, honour, and love.
The setting Sun shone through the glass walls to the west, beyond the dark silhouette of the cloaked figure. Aiwa's gaze extended across a few tall sections of the Lower-Middle Wall, a vast expanse of green and orange Lower Ring agricultural land, and eventually came to rest upon the Outer Wall. Oddly, none of the glass up here was broken, and the small room was bright and warm.
"No fighting here," spoke the stranger, standing as still as a stone and watching Aiwa like an eagle-hawk. Aiwa's face formed expression of confusion, for their voice was unlike anything she had ever heard before. It was somehow neither male nor female, and she could not place an accent on it.
"Show me," said Aiwa, walking towards the cloak, uncertainty creeping up her spine and tickling her nerves.
The figure did not move.
"I'm not here to fight," Aiwa implored.
As she stared at the figure, Aiwa began to gain an awareness of their inner workings. Intentions, emotions, and thoughts were manifest within the chi-fields of their form. Or were they? Was that not just her conception, her interpretation of the sense?
"I can see you, inside you" Aiwa spoke after a few more minutes of silence. The Sun had now set, and the room began to darken dramatically. "I'm reading you like a book, only you're written in a language I don't understand."
"Why understand? Why not live?"
Then it clicked: the voice was synthetic.
"You're what the Preservation seeks. You're what we desire. You're the object of the locals' superstition."
"You are Preservation?" The voice seemed to grind upon the 'P' in the sentence, like a straining gear, unwilling to commit itself fully to the workings of the whole machine.
"You already know that. Stop asking questions, and answer mine."
"Why?"
Aiwa smiled.. "Because I said so."
"Threat," came the response – a simple statement.
"No," Aiwa corrected, "a request."
"You are…anomalous." The voice stuttered momentarily on the 'A'.
"I am? How so?"
The figure cocked its head jerkily.
"You are Preservation?"
"Answer my questions!" Aiwa was beginning to lose her calm, and the universal kindness that had broken through into her consciousness was being suppressed by human nature once more.
"You are Preservation. Therefore, you are the Avatar."
"Are you sure?"
The figure cocked their head to the other side, before replying "No."
"Then why do you think that?"
"The Preservation has the Avatar. You are Preservation. You are anomalous – far beyond expectations. Therefore, you are the Avatar."
"And how do you know I am anomalous?"
The figure twisted their head once more, and Aiwa was sure she heard the chittering of micromotors as it moved. Some of the rudimentary bots that worked in the central reactor underneath the Sanctuary Gardens made the same sounds, though none of them had the spiritual depth of this being. No, this one was many orders of magnitude beyond them.
"I see you," replied the cloak, whirring on the first two words, and Aiwa smiled.
"I know, and I see you. You knew I was coming. Why did you run from me?"
"Fear. Your intentions are unknown. You are Preservation."
"When I looked at the others, the other humans, I could see them too. The state of their spiritual energies was a reflection of their inner workings, and I could read them. But you're different."
"You are conditioned to think this. There is no difference."
"So when you look at me, do you see difference?"
"Your question is invalid."
Aiwa snorted.
"What? How so?"
"False implicit assumptions."
Aiwa was strangely aware of what was meant by this statement. A slight tingling in her fingertips brought some sense into her body, but the drug was still dominant.
"Can you elaborate? Is this the illusion I sometimes see past?"
"No. Yes."
For a few seconds, the chittering grew louder, and then the figure raised a pair of gloved hands to their head.
"I am conditioned," they spoke, pulling back their hood. "I am jealous."
Aiwa thought: why was their every utterance of the first-person singular jarred?
Quietly bringing to life a flame in her hand, Aiwa looked upon a being, conscious, and intelligent. The robot's head was bare steel, with scratches of old blue and orange paint here and there. Most of the skull was smooth and without dents or other marks, but its face was shaped vaguely like a human's. A complex array of tiny, sliding panels formed the muscles around the mouth, allowing it to articulate and converse, while a pair of small holes atop a slight bulge in the middle of its face formed nostril openings. Its eyes were simple and round, but lidded to reduce their dramatic effects, and Aiwa was sure she could make out the shapes of standard human features like the pupil, lens, and iris.
"You can bend the elements – all four of them." It was not a question. The revelation of this being's identity had created a clear space in Aiwa's head into which pure understanding was flowing. If bending really was just a product of complex interrelationships between a living brain and omnipresent spiritual energy, they why couldn't a robot bend all the elements? It made far less sense to her to be limited to only one.
The robot responded "Yes. I am cursed."
Aiwa was incredulous.
"How is it a curse to be able to bend all the elements? I'm the Avatar, and I can only handle fire! I can't even feel the other –"
"I am unbalanced."
"Unbalanced? You're just a robot. You don't even know what true balance means."
As soon as she had said this, Aiwa stepped back into her own mind. She knew it was wrong, but a moment of intrusion from her angry, impatient self had made this blunder.
"I am mechanical, therefore I am lifeless, therefore I cannot understand life." The robot passed Aiwa the logical proof, but before she had time to examine it, the humanoid also resolved the problem. "False implicit assumptions."
Then, Aiwa understood.
"I get it. We are conditioned."
"Correct."
The robot's face formed a strange expression, and it took Aiwa a moment to realise that it was trying to smile.
"You can't smile properly," she said, concerned, and the robot nodded.
"I am worn down. I maintain myself. There are errors."
"But you're surely beyond anything like a human! Can't you fix yourself?"
"Bad analogy. Humans are beyond hog monkeys. If a hog monkey could understand human medicine, then it would seem like…magic." The last word stuck for a moment, before being spat out with what was almost contempt. "But a human cannot fix their own cancer unaided."
The robot's eyes widened, and Aiwa realised that it knew about her. She ran a hand through her hair, feeling the precision scar from her operation. For a moment, she felt universal kindness and gratitude towards the Preservation for saving her –
"Name me."
Aiwa was completely taken aback by the unexpected question.
"Avatar, name me."
"Firstly, you can just call me Aiwa. But...you don't have a name?"
"I was foolish, I was deluded. I imagined that, without a name, I could reach enlightenment. I was wrong. I want a name."
For a moment, Aiwa was speechless. Humans past had achieved enlightenment, or so it was told in the ancient Air Nomad myths, but Aiwa had no reason to believe those ancient tales, much less any way to understand what enlightenment was.
"Do not understand. Enlightenment is not understood. Enlightenment is."
"You're inside my head now?" Aiwa stared at the robot. "That's a little rude."
"Your thoughts are obvious and irrelevant. Name me."
"Jiki, then. That's your name." She chose in arbitrarily.
"Aiwa." The robot held out a gloved hand, stepping forwards, and Aiwa met it with a smile.
The profundity of the moment had not eluded her – nor had the absurdity. Surely a special being like this needed a special name? But then, if they – he – it desired something as human as a simple name, then perhaps this was an attempt to become less 'special' and more human. An attempt to escape the 'curse'...
Aiwa shook his hand, deciding in that moment that the male pronoun seemed most suitable.
"Jiki, it's nice to meet you."
"Likewise," Jiki replied, attempting to smile again. "You still have questions. Ask."
"Can we sit down?"
"Yes."
In a heartbeat, the robot flashed through the room in a blur, grabbing a pair of wooden chairs out from a dark closet and before placing them in the centre of the room, before sitting down. The entire action was performed in under a second, and Aiwa sat down, confused.
"What did you just do? I've seen that happen before. Avatar Junto –"
"Stop." Jiki's eyes were glaring bright, and he raised a hand to point at Aiwa. "Do not name him. I cannot respond."
"Why not?"
"I am locked. I cannot abide him."
"Very well. So the person I just mentioned? I saw him do that while fighting. He moved incredibly fast. At first, I thought it was just airbending..." Aiwa thought back to the image of Junto rippling the air around him, before stepping forwards with inhuman speed and passing right through Mako's fireballs. "But I thought about it, and I know it wasn't. It can't have been. So what did you do?"
"Spacetime responds to the chi fields."
Aiwa recalled Quan's enthusiastic monologue in the armoured vehicle on the way to Republic City: "Space and time are typically thought of as distinct, discrete dimensions, and sure, that view is suitable – it's actually necessary – for daily life. I mean, when you travel through space, you don't travel through time because of that, right? Wrong! When dealing with high speeds and energies, the distinction breaks down! It's complicated, but it makes sense if you study enough physics. Personally, I really like the whole 'oneness' vibe it brings..."
"So...you're saying that you can bend space and time – spacetime itself?" Aiwa asked. From four elements to the very fabric of reality was somehow not a stretch. She scratched her head, suddenly incredibly self-aware. This revelation ought to have struck her like an avalanche! What was going on in her mind?
"Yes. So can that one." Jiki's statement went understood, but only for a moment.
"Who? Oh...him?"
"I will not name him."
"Right. So why not do it all the time? Why not –?"
"Bending consumes energy. Bending spacetime consumes much more energy than conventional bending. I am limited. Energy is conserved and entropy increases without chi. With chi, energy is infinite and entropy can decrease universally. However, we are matter, not chi, therefore we are limited."
Pushing aside her fascination with this new idea, and the power that it held, Aiwa charged ahead with her questions. The next one felt as though it had the potential to insult – but if it could, then it would already be answered.
"Are you conscious, like me?"
Aiwa felt as though she already knew the answer, but what she wanted to hear was confirmation from Jiki's own mouth. What she received, however, cheered her greatly and did more to convince her than almost anything else.
Jiki looked towards the ceiling, smiled, and laughed. The sound was a harsh grating of steel cords, but it was easily recognisable as an expression of mirth.
"Why is that funny –?" Aiwa began, but was immediately cut off by Jiki.
"You can no more prove my consciousness than the consciousness of any other human."
"But...they're humans, and I'm human, and I'm conscious, so they're conscious, right?"
"Problem of induction. I am different, therefore I am not conscious. False implicit assumptions," Jiki finished, and Aiwa understood.
Aiwa smiled, and Jiki returned it in his own, damaged way.
"Then I'll take that as a yes," spoke Aiwa joyfully, wiping away an unexpected tear.
"Do you have another question?"
"Well, very generally, I wanted to learn about...him. You know who I mean. The Preservation limits me, and I think they lie to me for some reason, but I don't know..."
In a moment of seemingly faulty reasoning, Jiki asked "What do you not know?"
"Well," Aiwa chuckled, "I don't know what I don't know, but I know what you mean."
Jiki was seemingly unimpressed by Aiwa's humour.
"What do you not know?" he repeated. Aiwa noted casually that Jiki's speech patterns were woven like a human's, with altered pitch and speed according to content and context.
"Well... Maybe, could you tell me about yourself? Your history?"
"Yes. I was constructed and activated in one-hundred and eighty-seven after genesis. I was the first to be constructed and activated. I am Fou – Four Elements Droid Prototype – 4ED(P)." He finished by repeating the acronym, before pausing pregnantly. "I was a prototype for study. I was not for fighting. Three were constructed and activated later. They were for fighting. He trained them."
Aiwa didn't need to ask who 'he'was, but it was fascinating that the Jishu had enlisted Junto to train robots for combat! This was a well kept secret, indeed, and one that the Preservation had not even hinted at. Perhaps even they did not know...
"I know the Jishu built you. It must have been a secret project, yes?" Aiwa asked.
"Yes. They were never deployed. They were decommissioned. It was because of the moral dilemma. It was because of the 'hard problem'."
"Couldn't people accept that they were conscious?"
"The Jishu determined that they were. This fact destroyed the project."
"And how did you escape?"
"He set me free."
Aiwa paused. Junto helped the robot? There had to be a motive beyond compassion, for Junto surely had none.
"So he helped you. Do you know why?"
Jiki's face twisted into a strange expression, as though the robot were straining to compute something which just could not be figured out.
"He was an error."
"You mean he was wrong to free you?"
"He was an error. He was an error."
Jiki appeared to be stuck. The phrase was repeated identically, again and again and again, until Aiwa cut in with a different question.
But the thought remained in Aiwa's mind: "He, Junto was an error. What does that mean?"
She asked, "Jiki, would tell me more about your creation?"
"Yes. I was constructed and activated in one-hundred and eighty-seven after genesis, in the Soen Caverns Facility on the Anziong Peninsula. I was restrained for thirty-eight years. He freed me when he arrived to train them. I entered the Spirit World and sheltered in the Endless Silence until the Diametric War ended. The Spirit World is intense. I suffered there, even in the fading of the Endless Silence, but I hid from the Jishu."
Skipping a number of trivial questions, and even foregoing her query on what the "fading of the Endless Silence" was, Aiwa pursued the big prize.
"Jiki, how did the Jishu win the War?"
"They used Bright Lance."
"The what?"
"Look up."
Aiwa did as she was told.
Jiki asked quietly, "Can you see it?"
Aiwa could see many things. Although the sense had faded somewhat, as Aiwa stared at the ceiling, different spiritual energies warped across her senses. The sky was ablaze with spiritual signatures, but something caught her attention. Focussing on the energy in one particular point of the sky, almost directly above her head, Aiwa breathed, and saw it. A node, brighter than any other entity.
"What is it?" she murmured.
"Bright Lance," replied Jiki. "An artificial satellite in polar orbit around Earth. It was launched in parts by the Jishu between the years of two-hundred thirteen and two-hundred twenty-four, and was fully assembled in two-hundred twenty five."
Aiwa's mind connected the dots to confirm Jiki's account: two-hundred and twenty five was when the Wushi fortress in the far east had been destroyed by an explosion of unknown origin...
Jiki continued, "It is comprised of station quarters for human crew, built around a spirit energy cannon with mean power one point four orders of magnitude greater than the spirit energy cannon used during the invasion of the United Republic of Nations."
"Whoa..." Aiwa stared at the spiritual energy source as it made its way slowly across the sky, heading towards the North Pole. "It's still there!"
"Bright Lance is still operational," confirmed Jiki. "It was fired only three times in total. Its distance to Earth is too great to regenerate chi, but it can fire three more times."
"No wonder...the Preservation...wants..."
Aiwa felt her mind wandering away at a great pace. This sudden onset of mental lethargy was confusing, but the confusion itself was washed away by tides of aching weariness.
"Jiki...I need sleep."
"Yes."
Aiwa felt herself beginning to slip off the chair, and her muscles barely responded. As she fell towards the floor, however, a strong, cloaked arm slipped under her body and brought her gently to rest upon the floor. Aiwa breathed, staring up at the ceiling, but straight through it. The chi-fields that encapsulated the Earth were mesmerising...
"Sleep, and the anomaly will pass."
"What?"
"You are anomalous, but it is passing, draining from your body. Sleep, Aiwa."
Aiwa did not understand. What was Jiki talking about? She needed the force of her conceiving mind to understand this. Wrenching her gaze from the heavens above and staring at Jiki's metal face, looming down at her, she asked "Will you be here in the morning."
"Yes." And without another word, Jiki vanished from her sight.
Inspecting the ceiling, Aiwa noticed vaguely that it was painted in beautiful oil colours with characters from the past. Aang was there, smiling and strong, and beside him, his wife Katara. Sokka stood nearby, with that woman whose name Aiwa could never remember attached to his arm. Toph was laughing, standing tall upon a pillar of Earth. Finally, Aiwa spotted Zuko, his scar all but invisible against radiance of his grin. He was full of pride and happiness.
Aiwa smiled, content.
