Kaliy: Hey Elari, wouldn't it be weird if somebody totally mary-sued the idea in our story about there being two avatars because of a prophecy?
Elari: Dude! That would totally piss me off!
Kaliy: To bad we don't own avatar, but we DO own our story...
--
Book One: The Rise of Shouri
Chapter Twelve: Fate Steps In
--
As Aang and Katara were walking, Katara was planing out what to say in her head. She knew she had to decide upon something now and she had to tell him. Aang turned and grinned goofily at her, making her feel sick to her stomach. This was killing her. After how much she confused Aang, and how much emotional stress she put him through, he still walked by her side, smiling.
"I'm really glad we're going together Katara..." Aang continued to smile.
What was wrong with me?! How can I possibly put Aang through all of this?! "Heh...heh, me too." Okay, come on, tell him... Come on Katara, suck it up and tell him! "Uh, Aang, can I talk to you?"
"Uh, sure Katara" Aang replied giving her a worried look, "Oh my gosh! Hold that thought!" He was suddenly distracted by a big box sitting in a vendor's booth. He dug through it quickly as Katara sighed impatiently. He spun around wearing a long cotton jacket, a strange hat, and holding a magnifying glass up to his eye, "I look like-"
"An idiot!" called out a familiar voice, feeling the vibrations through the Ba Sing Se street.
"Hm, really, I was going for more of the detective look..." Aang muttered.
"Toph?!" exclaimed Katara. "What are you doing here?
"Yeah, like I was going to let you guys have all the fun!!" Toph laughed and then ran over to join Aang by the box of clothing. She pulled out long baggy pants, a large top hat, a pair of glasses, and ended her attire with a mustache that she attached to her face. "Now this, this right here Twinkle Toes is a detective's outfit!" Aang bellowed out in laughter because she put her mustache on sideways, and then the two began searching around on the ground talking in strange, low pitched voices.
"See here detective Aang, looks like foot prints," she said jokingly.
"Hm detective Toph, do you believe it was the magma bender?"
"Yes indeed I do, detective Aang, I think we're on to something," Then the both howled in laughter.
Katara stared at the two feeling utterly alone. She hated it when Toph and Aang got along. She knew she shouldn't feel that way, but she couldn't help it. Toph was always so much fun, and her and Aang clicked so perfectly. Whenever Toph was around...Katara couldn't help but feel boring and too motherly. Toph would always tell her she was. She hated it when Toph was like that. Katara wanted to be fun, too, but she couldn't change who she already was. Maybe Aang would be better off with the fun and carefree Toph, instead of her, strict, boring Katara.
"Ahahaha!" Aang continued to laugh until he began coughing. He looked up at pouting Katara and suddenly felt bad. "Uh, I'm sorry Katara, was there something that you wanted to talk to me about?"
"Uh..." Katara began, then looking back over at Toph, "No... never mind, forget it..."
--
Suki and Sokka's search was going no better. They had asked around for quite a while, but the only responses they got were strange and uncomfortable looks. "Maybe we should check here..." Suki said pointing out an old fortune telling shop. "Maybe the fortune teller would have already expected us and will have an answer!"
"Ohhhhh no," Sokka grunted, pulling Suki back by her hand, "I've dealt with fortune tellers before, and it did not end well!"
"Oh come on Sokka! What if she really has an answer for us?! It's worth a shot!"
Sokka sighed. He knew he would give into her soft protesting voice and her deep needy eyes. "Fine, lets go in, BUT ONLY FOR A SECOND!" Suki giggled and dragged Sokka into the small hut.
"Hellooooooo," called out a deep raspy voice behind a wall of candles.
Sokka began coughing uncontrollably, "Geez, there's so much smoke in here!"
"I knew you were going to do that," proclaimed the fortune teller, "That is why I have this," she then pulled out a tissue from her pocket, and handed it over to Sokka.
Sokka glared at the old lady, "Coincidence..."
"Well ma'am," started Suki, "I know this may sound crazy... but we are looking for a person who may know some magma bending. Or maybe you know any information about magma bending that you could share with us...?"
"Poor creature," replied the fortune teller, "I can see the pain in your eyes... Something is holding you back,"
"Wha, whaaaa?"
"You care for it dearly don't you? I can tell...if you love it, you must let it go, in order to let yourself go..." Suki stared intrigued by the teller's words, "You are putting yourself through something that is not what you please. Your dream is different. Your dream is important to you."
"Alright, I've heard enough of this. C'mon Suki, she obviously doesn't know anything..." Sokka whined.
"Wait, wait, please continue..." Suki whispered, mesmerized by the teller's voice.
"You are not where you should be, let go of what you think is glued to you, and become what you've always desired..."
"Alright, that's it!" Sokka exclaimed, grabbing Suki's arm and pulling her out of the hut, "I'm sick of crazy fortune tellers!"
"Yeah..." Suki laughed nervously as they continued in their search. Suki couldn't keep it in any longer, "Sokka I think we need to break up!" Suki blurted out.
--
They finally left the tea shop. Elari waited a while for him to talk her, but he was taking to long, and wasting precious time. Elari tried with all her might not to start up another conversation, she didn't want to change the subject, she was very interested in whatever Zuko had on his mind.
Elari and Zuko had been walking for quite a while. She was still patiently waiting for his problem. Elari was surprised she was being so patient with him, she was never this patient with anything. She could tell it was important though, and wanted to give him all the time that he needed. Plus, while he was getting the courage to tell her whatever he needed to tell her, she was scoping out hot guys
Zuko gulped as he nervously stared at Elari. "Well..." Elari seemed to be a rational person, and if she was able to spill her feelings to him he should be able to spill his to her. He never was good at talking about how he felt, "It's about... the Fire Nation..."
"Uh what's wrong Zuko?"
"It's just, I feel like I am abandoning my duties as the Firelord... Am I choosing the wrong thing by staying here?...Am I being...disloyal?"
Elari thought it was kind of cute that Zuko came to her with this, "Zuko, you do realize your saving the Fire Nation by staying here with us. You are fulfilling the duties of a Fire lord."
Zuko sighed, "I know, I do realize this. It's just... well, I kind of just got up and left them... I never acknowledged the fact that I was coming here, and I honestly didn't know I was going to be dragged into all this mess."
"Zuko, I'm sure the Fire Nation people will understand that you are staying with us for the protection of the world. You did it once, and I'm sure they'll be fine with you doing it again."
Zuko's voice lowered down to a whisper, "But what if things get out of control?" Elari gulped and stared nervously at Zuko. "What if the Fire Nation is destroying itself, and I'm not there to stop it?"
--
Kaliy stopped dead in her tracks, "Azula is seriously not that twisted!"
"I'm afraid she is..." Jet sighed. He wasn't too ecstatic about the magma bending search, considering all he's done so far is talk about his mother...ahem, Ayumi. "Long Feng was there...and well, he's very talented at hypnotise . He hypnotized me once..."
"Yeah, I know all about that... I mean...really?!"
"Yeah, they have a whole army of brain washed prisoners...including Ayumi." a tear almost fell from Jet's eye, "She tried to fight, she truly did. I can still hear her screaming for help as she struggled continuously in the straps..." Kaliy tilted her head as she admired Jet, even in his weak state. "They tried to brain wash me too..."
"Jet, they seriously have some issues. I'm glad I am apart of this...I will not let her live another day. Not after everything she did, and not just to you and your mother, to everyone."
Jet sighed, "We are going to have to fight her..."
"What?"
"Ayumi...my, well, my mother..." He stared up at her with eyes full of sorrow, "I'm not going to be able to do it...Kaliy, I won't do it..." Kaliy stared at him and tried to think of some comforting words, but none came to mind. "I wish I was brain washed just like the rest of them... At least then, I would be fighting along my mother's side,"
"Jet...why weren't you brain washed?"
"Because I was brain washed before, I was able to keep myself by being affected by Long Feng and his stupid contraption...unfortunately," he mumbled at the end of his sentence. Kaliy sighed, this was tough, and she was usually good at being an optimist in these kind of situations.
"Jet...there's only one thing I am going to ask of you...be strong...for me." Jet beamed up at Kaliy and went in for a hug, she was really helping him out.
"KALIY!!" Suddenly Kaliy pushed away from the hug, turning around to see Elari on the other side of the street.
"HEYYYY!" Kaliy responded jumping up and down. Jet smashed his hand into his forehead feeling trouble coming on. Zuko trailed not to far behind Elari, looking more worried and depressed than usual. "C'mon Jet, lets go meet up with them, it's about lunch time anyways. We could all get lunch together!"
Jet looked around at the packed streets of Ba Sing Se. People were pushing and shoving there way down the streets trying to find a good place to settle down and eat lunch. I guess a lot of people had the same idea... "Kaliy I don't know about this, there's too many people in the street, I can barely see Elari and Zuko on the otherside..."
"Oh stop complaining, this is your chance to work everything out with Elari and Zuko," she responded grabbing his hand and dragging him through the stampede of people.
"Wait Kaliy come on! Slow down!" his hand was beginning to slip. A lady,obviously in a rush, shoved Jet aside causing him to spin around and knock into a man, who responded by pushing him onto the ground. Kaliy spun around searching for Jet. She saw him crawling on the ground trying to avoid the other people. Kaliy dove down to try and reach out for him, but was kneed in the stomach by a stranger. Kaliy fell to the ground but quickly brought herself back up, otherwise, her and the ground would have become to close acquainted. She tried pushing back to get to where Jet was, but the stampede was only going one way.
--
"Zuko...where did they go?"
"Uh... they were right there...Now they're gone..."
"Seriously what the crap. I'm going in there to find them," Elari jerked her head towards the crowded street.
"No way!" Zuko said, "Everyone knows it's dangerous to jump in during the lunch rush! You are either in the crowd, or you're not."
"Zuko! We have to find them! I saw Kaliy and Jet pushing their way through the crowd...What if...ya know, they went with the crowd and are lost now?"
"And so you want to hop in the crowd and get lost too?"
"No! But I'm not going to stand on the sidelines and let my best friend get swallowed up by a mob!" Elari yelled pushing her way into the crowd.
Zuko sighed and knew he couldn't leave her on her own. So he followed her. I know I'm going to regret this...
--
The "lunch rush" had dyed down, and Jet groaned on the dirt street. His arms and legs were all bruised up from being stomped on, and he felt his ring finger was broken. "Ohhhh man...Kaliy?...Kaliy!!" The street was empty, there were no familar faces in sight. He pushed himself up on his feet groggily. He knew Kaliy wasn't thinking.What was he supposed to do now? The streets made him feel eerie and cold, so he decided to take a different route instead. Jet launched himself onto a barrel and began climbing the side of a wall until he made it to the roof top. From there, he pounced from roof to roof, trying to find a glimpse of his dear friends.
--
Everyone pushing behind her had finally grown apart, separating into different establishments. Kaliy opened one eye and peered around. Where...the HELL...am I? There were rotting homes, and open shacks. People chewing on dirt, resting aside what Kaliy assumed was suppose to be a building. She saw drunks not to far away, mumbling sweet nothings to themselves, and falling over. She assumed she was in the ghetto...
--
Zuko felt terrible. There were just too many people... Zuko jumped into a small alley during the lunch rush, to avoid all injuries. He tried to pull Elari with him, but the crowd was too strong, where could she possibly be now? He stood up noticing that the crowd had dyed down, and began to brush himself off. A man grabbed him from behind, and Zuko was suddenly happy that he decided to bring his twin blades along with him today. He pulled them out and swung them around swiftly, ending with each tip pointing at the man's neck.
"Ok! Ok! I surrender, just leave me alone! I don't want your money any way maaan!" Zuko swung is swords behind his back and into their cases, and made his way out of the alley. The street was empty, no worries though, Zuko would stop at nothing to find his friends...
--
Elari's ears rung, the sudden silence caused it. She felt a little stupid for dragging herself into a mess that Zuko had already warned her about, Well whatever.... The place looked familiar to her though, she was still in the middle ring of Ba sing Se. However, the problem was...were her friends still there?
--
Sokka's shoulders sank and his heart slowly stopped beating. And if it was still beating, he definitely couldn't feel it anymore. "You...want..." He collapsed onto the street side, his hands trembling, repeating over and over in his head that it was only a dream...a nightmare. The dirt soon became a puddle of tears below him. Suki began to cry as well, she couldn't believe what she was saying.. but it felt right. "Suki... I know I don't deserve a girl like you..." He slowly wiped the snot from underneath his nose. Tears were now slowly seeping down the side of his face. "But...what did I do wrong?"
Suki placed a soft sweet hand underneath Sokka's chin, and lifted up his head, so they could be eye to eye. "Sokka," tears continued to fall from each face, "I just can't do this anymore."
Sokka tilted his head, "Suki..."
Suki placed her finger over Sokka's lips, "Shh... please, let me finish." Suki sat down staring at kneeling Sokka, "The fortune teller was right... I don't want to involve myself with another mission. My warriors need me at Kyoshi Island. I just can't take anymore of this. This is the avatars' mission, not mine. They will be fine without me."
Sokka sat up and folded his legs, staring at Suki with sincere sorrow, and pain. "Suki... you're breaking up with me because... you don't want to be apart of the avatars' mission?" Suki shook her head, "Suki... I don't want this either...But I'm not going to leave my friends Suki... I understand that you have to get back to Kyoshi Island, and I wish I could come with you, but don't want to abandon my friends...I don't want to abandon the world."
Suki smiled slightly, "Sokka, you are so brave... This is not my mission. I know it, you know it, and the fortune teller knows it. My destiny is back at Kyoshi Island...that is where I am needed. I am not needed here..."
"Suki... I love you..."
Suki pushed her lips onto Sokka's "I'm sorry..." She got up and walked away, leaving Sokka alone and the street side, crying.
--Thoughts of Elari and Kaliy as this chapter was being made.--
Kaliy: Hmmmm whats going to happen to us in this chapter?
Elari: I dunno... I think I should be like hit on by some guys or something
Kaliy: Hm, yeah, ok... OH OH! I should be attacked by those bearded cat things! Ya know the things that attacked Momo in that one episode!
Elari: Yeah, but they were so cute in the end...
Kaliy: Oh yeah true... OH MY GOSH! I SHOULD BE MUGGED!...wait I was already mugged.
Elari: Hey well, second times the charm ;)
--
Kaliy: Oh my gosh, you know what I just realized?!
Elari: What?!
Kaliy: Both Jet and Zuko have dual swords! Well... except Jet has twin hooks and Zuko has like...machetes or something.
Elari: MACHETES?! What is he going on some jungle expedition?!
Kaliy: SHUT UP I DON'T KNOW SWORDS!!
