Hey everyone! I kinda looked back on the story so far, and I thought there needed to be a bit of a transitional chapter between when Kai leaves Jinora and gets thrown into prison by Chou. So I wrote this! Sorry to be adding a new chapter in the middle of the story. Ik it's a bit confusing…
The room was dimly lit but glowed with a faint green light. Chou was staring at the wall, more specifically, at a small framed picture of his family—including Kai. He closed his eyes: all the wonderful memories of his childhood washed over him like the warm currents of the the Ember Island beach his parents would take him to.
He pushed them aside, and let the coldness he'd become so accustomed to over the years return. Instead of reminiscing about the period of innocence and joy, Chou dug into the period of fear and bitterness that had come to define his time on the streets—the period which he was still living in. It was a period of his life that he would not leave. He would never never forgive, never forget about, and never move on from. At least not intentionally.
Being resentful and hateful was all he knew at this point. It disgusted him at first, but now—he simply did not care.
He forced his thoughts back to his street life once again, drawing energy from its anger. It was interesting how even though he now knew what Kai must've lived through, he refused to feel any sympathy for his nemesis. It was Kai's fault that his family was thrown on the streets. It was Kai's fault that the thugs had found his father and killed his parents in the most brutal manner. It was Kai's fault that bitterness and rage consumed Chou to the point of no control.
"Everything that I do is your fault, Kai!" Chou screamed at the picture before smashing his fist into the wall.
Chou breathed deeply. Compose yourself because you're gonna get your justice very soon, Chou thought to himself.
Soon, the sound of hurried footsteps approached the room.
It was time.
Kai was thrown into the room by two of Chou's largest body guards. As he picked himself up, he heard the metal door slam shut behind him. His heart pounded. He had no idea what he was going to say to Chou or what was going to happen.
The two boys sensed each other's presence, but they didn't say anything. They remained quite, just standing there, waiting for one of them to make the first move.
Kai felt beads of sweat trickle down his neck. He knew this was something he had to do; he had to confront what he'd done wrong, the product of his poor decisions. Yung, Daw, Jinora, and the others' lives would be at stake if he didn't take a firm stance, if he didn't act now.
"I know what you're all about…And I know you know I know." Kai stated curtly.
Chou didn't respond. He instead gently, calmly lifted the picture hanging on the wall. He then turned around, staring at the picture, before taking a few steps towards the former criminal and stopping. Chou lifted the picture besides Kai's head, comparing the two.
"Isn't interesting…how someone seemingly so innocent could be harboring a deep, dark secret? Could be more sinister than meets the eye? And isn't it interesting, how even after years of do-gooding, they haven't changed one bit!" Chou said as he glared at Kai in the eyes.
Kai felt anger simmer inside and nearly splatter outwards.
"I know I did some horrible things! Okay…But I've changed. And I'm gonna make it up to you, right here, right now. I've got your back until the end." Kai replied, trying to calm himself.
"Ha! As if you could do something like that!" Chou bit back.
"Chou, I wanna help you," Kai explained, biting down on his lip.
"You ruined my life! You murdered my family! And, you murdered me…" Chou hissed.
Kai stared dumbfounded at the last comment. He was frothing like a saber-tooth-moose-lion, positioned in a hunting mode, ready to spit tear Kai to shreads. Nevertheless, he shook it off and began his plea once more.
"I'm going to offer you an ultimatum. The air nation and Republic City police chief are here. They're gonna bust your operation. In the end, you won't be committing anymore crimes, and you're gonna hand over Yung and Daw. There are two ways to do this. One, they can attack and force you to surrender. Or two, you can surrender peacefully: you promise to disarm and disband your group, and in turn, you can avoid unnecessary fighting and walk away with some dignity. That's what I'm offering." Kai finished.
Chou jerked himself around and away from Kai. For the next few moments, there was no sound but the heavy breathing, panting from Chou. Finally, the gang leader lifted his head. Still not facing the air-bender, Chou inaudibly whispered something.
"What?"
"I said, 'No!' I deserve more, and I won't stop until you've paid for what you've done. I am your worst nightmare." Chou growled.
Kai was speechless.
"You know, I'm not even sure if you deserve to be an air-bender," Chou taunted with a contorted smile.
Suddenly, Kai felt himself lose control, lose control of every emotion and sense of reason in the moment, just like Chou. He felt his rage surge out of him and manifest itself in the form of an air-blast, one so powerful it smashed Chou against the wall. As Chou fell to the ground, Kai realized what he'd just done—again. Now, there was no hope of de-escalating the situation
Kai watched in dread as Chou lifted his head. Chou smiled, dropped his eyebrows and half-laughed, "I was hoping you'd do that."
Kai stood watching Chou, utterly confused. It was then he felt a 'thud' on the ground. Kai jerked himself around, only to discover two earth-bender servants of Chou's.
They launched disks of rock at him, tried to encase him in earth, tried to capture him. Kai responded with an equal amount of force. He dodged their disks and threw air-swipes. However, they soon proved themselves to be amateur benders, and Kai overwhelmed them easily. As he prepared to throw an air-bomb at them—he felt a metal chain wrap around his wrist, then another around his ankle, pulling him to the ground!
He struggled to get up, struggled to fight, but he soon felt the bodies of the two guards pile on top of him. They twisted Kai's arm around his back, put all their pressure onto his spine, and jerked his head painfully upwards.
Chou smiled as he approached a subdued Kai, coiling the metal chains as he did.
"Did I forget to tell you I learned how to metal-bend?" Chou taunted as he bent down.
He looked Kai in the eye, spat in his face, and pulled out keys from his shirt.
"Throw him in with the rest…We've got a lot of explaining to do."
Alright, so I hope that chapter was good. Let me know what you think about it. Reviews are greatly appreciated.