Instincts Info: The battle for Omashu continues. If at any point you believe that I've crossed the line into the M rating (I don't think I will) tell me. The last thing I want is my story getting yanked by the admins. Speaking of getting yanked: I don't ATLA in any shape way or form. I really got to start doing that more regularly.

Chapter Fourteen: Lava

Before shock could even register on Seizu's face of seeing Jouku he'd sent a fire blast towards the Sky Bison which made it panic and leap skyward with it's rider fighting for control. Seizu looked around in panic knowing that she didn't stand a chance against him and neither did Saiben in his current state.

Jouku continued to advance at the same steady pace, sending out the occasional fire blast at anyone stupid enough to attack him or anything that got near Saiben. Seizu panic got the better and she wound up and gave Saiben a huge slap across his face to try and bring him back to reality. When that didn't work she grabbed the closest air bender and told him to get Saiben out of there.

It was quite impossible to get out of the city with the massive jets of flames that went after anything sky born, but with the city in chaos it was very easy to hide somebody. As she saw Saiben dragged away she numerous hawks go into the air, but no one shot at them.

Now she understood how one piece of chaos could be used over such a wide area. This would put the other cities on high alert. The time when the militias and armies would prepare themselves would leave them exposed for a short time. Fallen Fire would strike then and cripple them leaving all the major cities undefended.

Jouku dragged her attention back to the present. She had to try to slow him down. She summoned the dregs of calm that were in her and summoned lightning. Jouku realized what she was doing and copied her. The bolts connected and the effect was unexpected. No explosion or fire was created but an incredibly intense wave of heat spread outward from it that set off numerous Blind Seer puppets in the area.

Seizu started sweating immediately and barely noticed when Jouku launched towards her with a contained ball of the heat in his hand. He drew back for a huge punch and drove the ball of heat at her solar plexus (generally, if you get hit there you want to die but don't). A moment before contact his hand stalled. He looked at it curiously, then it flew backwards and it dragged him with it.

The sky bison rider that had brought her and Saiben to the eastern air temple landed besides her.

"Looks like you could use some help." She smiled and chanced a look at Seizu.

"Thanks, but were over our head. I was trying to slow him down."

"Now we have numbers on our side though." She used her glider and sent a giant gust of wind at Jouku.

"NO!" Seizu screamed but it was too late. Jouku sent a blast of fire into it and took over the wind, turning it into a tsunami of fire that charged back at them. The wave engulfed them and they were thrown back to the edge of the pavilion that was over 100 feet away. All either of them knew was blackness. Jouku walked towards and stared at the pair for a long time. He reached down.

Saiben was scrubbing madly at his hands in someone's house. He didn't know who's it was and he didn't care. He needed to get the blood off. He was vaguely aware of someone tapping him on the shoulder. He didn't turn around he just kept on scrubbing.



"Avatar, please, listen. Stop washing your hands, there hasn't been anything on them for the past 10 minutes. They're going to be so raw they'll start to bleed on their own soon." Saiben didn't know who was talking but the thought of even more blood was enough of an incentive for him to stop scrubbing.

His eyes slowly refocused and he came back to himself. He was standing in a bathroom with the Water Tribe Ambassador.

"Look, I know that you just killed someone, but for the sake of everyone in this city you have to pull it together." Naeki seemed to be able to think of the words he needed now.

Saiben drew in a shaky breath, "I'll try." Another more steady breath, "Okay, what's happened while I was like that?"

"Well, the city is in almost complete chaos, the pavilion almost clear of any fighting and our main force is…oh crap, what is that word?"

"Based." Saiben finished for him a much steadier voice.

"Yes, that's it, we're based at Omashu's peak. Are those people actually air benders?" Naeki asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, they are. I've been living with them since I was chased out of the Fire Nation."

Naeki gave him a accusing look, "Why would that be?"

"The governments being controlled by a shadow organization. They posed as the Special Forces as you found out. What are we doing to regain control of the city."

"We're currently trying to locate the base of these radicals so we can get rid of their puppets. They're causing us a lot of problems."

"All right, I'm heading to the top to see how I can help." Saiben tried to walk and found his legs were still fairly wobbly. He persisted and he walked out of the house with minimal help from Naeki.

The city really was in chaos. There were brawls happening up and down the street. Many of the citizens were even joining the fray. Hitting anyone that they deemed an enemy. Essentially whoever damaged their property. Saiben picked his way through the fights, helping on the way.

When they finally reached Omashu's summit both he and Naeki were winded. The air nomad leader from before greeted them.

"Excellent, we could use your help, and you got the Ambassador out of the pavilion safely, more good news!"

"What do you have to tell you where the Bind Seer base is?" Saiben cut right to the chase.

"The only clue is that we can see where the fighting is most intense, but the area switches around and even when we pick an area after the fighting's been bad we haven't found anything."

"Okay, contact any security forces that are active and tell them to start checking under houses. That's where their other base was so that's probably what's happening. They close the entrance when they start to lose."



"Very well, oh and one more thing. Your fire-bending teacher was brought in. She was supposed to stay with you, what happened?"

Saiben vaguely recalled someone landing near him after he'd called the fake avatar. That must've been Seizu. She'd been the one that had had him hauled out of there.

"I don't know. I'll be at the pavilion looking for her. If you find the base or anything else happens come and get me." Saiben turned around with a bad feeling growing in his gut and flew off towards the pavilion.

He landed and collapsed his glider. This place didn't look like a fight had been here. There were massive burns across the whole area, the buildings on one side had been incinerated and all the statues that were horribly disfigured by intense heat. The odd thing was was that that whole thing was caused by one attack, which was unheard of as far as Saiben knew. Then the answer came to him of what had happened.

Jouku was here. He'd taken Seizu to make Saiben come to him. Saiben could bet he was still trying to help him in his own sadistic little way. He'd be at the entrance to the Blind Seer base. Saiben hit himself in frustration since he knew he couldn't Jouku on, yet.

Something made him pause though. There was something where he'd hit his pants. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a copy of the Blind Seer scroll. Riado must've made him a copy! Saiben now had a good idea in his head. The only problem was that people usually didn't like to hear that their family is dead. He just hoped that it'd stall Jouku long enough for him to get Seizu out of there.

Instincts Info: I think I might have underplayed Saiben's trauma here to be honest, or at least the recovery. Please let me hear your opinions, just hearing mine is really getting boring.