Yay! New chapter update!
So I might've lied by saying that "Fight On" is divided into three parts because.. well you see now there is going to a fourth part which I promise you is going to be the real FINAL part to Book 1!
I'll keep this disclaimer short and sweet: Well we still pick up from the last chapter because these part chapters have been long AF lol and it gets slightly more interesting once you read what happens after this chapter! :)
Also, THANK YOU for your alerts, favorites, and reviews please continue to do so!
So hope you enjoy this one!
I own nothing except I do own the obvious characters that are NOT in ATLAS and LOK.
Fighting On Part III
The sound of a naval ship horn blew through the windy ocean air, all the way to the ship that caught the attentions of all four airbenders. Its been a full day since the airbenders escaped from Republic City, and surprisingly, the United Forces made good timing by arriving within a day rather than a week. Of course, Tenzin and Korra had contacted for help to the United Forces almost two weeks ago and notified them what was going on with the city and the Equalists.
Jinora sprinted to the edge of the ship they were waiting on to get a better look at the arriving one sailing towards them. Once the two ships met halfway and stopped as soon as they were shoulder-to-shoulder, Sonam helped the two of the crewmen to drop a plank to crossover to the other ship.
"Evening, Sonam," greeted a male voice from the second ship before continuing to greet everyone else. "And to you, councilman Tenzin, Rohan, and Jinora."
The man was dressed in a burgundy coat with gold badges and pins attached to the left side of his chest. His posture was straight with arms behind his back, and shoulders pointed up as he looked tall, almost enough to intimidate the whole naval ships.
However, as soon as the man's stern face broke into his greeting smile, everyone seemed comfortable with the person they called family.
Sonam went up to the man before the two respectfully bowed at the same time to one another. Soon enough, Jinora came along to give the man a hug while Tenzin and Rohan walked over as well.
"Please, Haruki," said the older airbender with a hand up. "I've told you many times to call me uncle Tenzin."
"That's right, my apologies," replied Haruki with another big smile.
Tenzin never really thought about how much his first nephew, Haruki, looked almost identical to his older brother in appearance, and yet, carried the complete opposite personality of Bumi's. Unfortunately, Bumi's wife has long passed away from a severe illness when his nephew was a young boy. It broke both of father and son into sadness after the lost, but it at least managed to bring them closer at its best.
"You've grown into an extraordinary general just like your father," commented Tenzin to his nephew.
"Where is uncle Bumi?" asked Jinora.
"He just finished his last requested mission off the coast of the Fire Nation, and should be returning no later than next week already," answered Haruki before turning to his uncle. "Also, my father wanted me to tell you that he really misses you, uncle Tenzin. And that he can't wait to see you again."
"Oh, did he now," replied Tenzin with a sigh and monotone voice. Surely, that would mean the airbender would have to keep his older brother entertained once he sees him.
"Well, shall we get down to business and discuss the situation?" said Haruki to the four airbenders.
"Officer Mika," spoke Tarrlok almost wearily.
"Why do you think he's behind bars?" inquired Kun to Mika.
But the metalbender didn't reply, she only looked at the councilman. His body posture drooped down just like his head and shoulders as if he were ashamed of something or grieving a lost.
"Where is Chief Beifong?" questioned Mika before snapping lowly at the other man. Mika edged closer towards the bars, taking a real good at the councilman. But Tarrlok only eyed the officer unyieldingly, and this made Mika upset by his unresponsive attitude. "You think I don't know what you've put Korra through?"
Tarrlok raised his head to circle his sore muscles in his neck and exhaled a gush of air out. "I don't know where your beloved mother is. She's probably held captive on the island somewhere else."
Mika's rising anger suddenly deflated once she heard this from the councilman, it seemed like he really didn't know where the chief was.
As Kun kept observing Tarrlok, he noticed how his voice was dreary and desolate toned. Every word the councilman said was woeful with his face staring solely at the floor only. It became clear to the earthbender why this man in front of them was like this, and it's because he had lost what's been taken from him.
Mika eased down a bit after Kun tapped her shoulder and whispered in her ear about Tarrlok's lost.
The metalbender sighed before turning back to the councilman and said, "I've been having trouble sensing her anywhere. But I would've seen her through the earth by now if she was still here on the island."
Tarrlok nodded his head slowly as he thought about another alternative that could be affecting the metalbender's detections. "Maybe he's putting a block in front of you. The prison could be…"
"Platinum," finished Mika and Kun at the same time when they turned to each other.
"Let's go," said the metalbender already heading down the exit.
Kun looked over to councilman again, noticing how he sat there on the ground in a motionless form.
"Shouldn't we set him free? I mean he did sort of help us just now," said the earthbender to his older sister.
Mika stopped in her tracks, only to look over towards Tarrlok as well. But the used-to-be waterbender didn't respond to anything that the two siblings were saying. As much as the officer noticed the way Tarrlok looked lifeless in that cell, it wasn't in their place to get involved with this. When they get their mother back, she will notify the avatar about Tarrlok's imprisonment and the explanation as to why Amon put him here.
"This isn't our fight. This is between Korra and Amon and him. We're only here to get mom back," said Mika. "Let's go."
The day passed on very slowly, so it seemed for the airbender. An hour has gone by that Rohan has been hanging around the ship deck, looking after the waters as the ship moved smoothly underneath. There was a lot in the young airbender's mind, and he felt absolutely useless just being here and waiting while his mom and other two siblings could be in danger with Amon everywhere. It hasn't easy for his father either, but the older airbender was trying his best to keep their spirits up and strong.
"I don't suppose you want some company there."
Rohan turned slightly as he saw his father walked over to join in and lean on the deck railings by his son.
"You missed supper with us," continued Tenzin.
"I'm not very hungry," responded Rohan.
Tenzin's released a slight frown before saying, "That makes the two of us."
Rohan noticed this and straightened up his back to turn to his father. "She'll be okay, dad."
"I hope so. I really do," sighed the older airbender after a moment.
Rohan hung his shoulders, not knowing how to cure his father's sadness. If only there was a way for the young airbender to go back and safe the rest of his family. But none of them could ever do it, mainly because airbenders shouldn't be put themselves in critical danger if it meant a malevolent man permanently taking away one's bending away.
"Enough with all this gloom now," said Tenzin, adjusting his posture and concealing his attitude to slightly more elating one. "How are your travels to the Spirit World going?"
Suddenly the young airbender felt his stomach drop from the inside. The moment his father mentioned the Spirit World made him realize that he was still lying to him. Rohan knew that he was going to come around and tell his father the truth, but after the whole Amon ambush, he completely forgot about confronting. It was time now, time to tell the truth and not feel such a heavy burden on his shoulders for pretending to have certain abilities that he didn't really possess.
"Listen, dad," said Rohan slowly before taking a deep breath. "I've been meaning to talk to you about that."
Tenzin waited patiently and was listening intently to what his son had to say. However, Rohan couldn't exactly find the courage to look at his father in that moment.
"I lied," said Rohan with his eyes closing shut before he could look at his father. "Like Sonam, I can't enter the Spirit World at freewill. I'm sorry that I lied to you, it was wrong of me to have given you that impression and proudness of me."
Tenzin looked at his son before turning to view the ocean water instead, his face gave away no reaction which made Rohan feel extremely nervous as to what the older airbender could be thinking.
After a minute of dead silence, Tenzin finally took a deep breath before speaking. "Son, you should know that I am always proud of you no matter what." The older airbender's face softened after saying this before he looked over to Rohan. "You and your brother have accomplished so much over the years, and I don't discredit that just because the both of you have had a difficult time meditating into the Spirit World."
"So you're not disappointed with me?" asked Rohan slowly.
Tenzin shook his head. "No. You worked hard all these years, haven't you? I still believe that you are ready to become a master, son. But I want you to be an honest man to the people most closes to you as well. After all this is over, you are grounded for lying."
The young airbender felt a huge weight lifted off of his shoulders. He looked at his father and nodded his head in understanding. A smile touched his face when they gave one another a brief hug before Tenzin started to head back inside.
"Thanks, dad," said Rohan when his father turned around and nodded his head with a smile too, then started walking back to everyone else.
Once Rohan goes back to leaning on the railing, he continued looking at the view and felt lighter than ever before. However, the young airbender couldn't help but sense that something was off from down below of the ship. There were sounds of the water hitting against the bottom of the ship, but Rohan kept searching below if there was more than just that sound coming from down there. Suddenly cables flew up and wrapped around the railings that Rohan was near, which lead the airbender to step back in surprise. He didn't know what was going on until familiar dressed men had jumped out of nowhere onto the deck.
There were Equalists coming straight for the airbender.
Rohan reacted by throwing a strong air current punch towards two of them, but more and more kept jumping over the railing. He was clearly outnumbered at this point, and they came at him in full aggression with ropes and nets. Rohan tried keeping up by throwing as much air currents as he could, but it wasn't until he noticed that a ship watch guard realized what was happening and rushed inside to notified everyone. The airbender had gotten momentary distracted before feeling something tight restrict his arms to the side.
"Let me go!" yelled Rohan. "Let go and fight me, you cowards!"
"Rohan!" Tenzin came rushing out on the deck and looked horrified by the Equalists' shocking presence here and their capture of his son.
"Stay up on high ground," instructed Sonam to his little sister when they rushed out after their father did. The two of them quickly went to retrieve their air gliders, flying on them in order to get rid most of the Equalists off the ship. Haruki came running out and witnessed what was happening with also a surprised look on his face. How could have found them out here? They were sure that they had gotten far away as possible.
Tenzin saw a few Equalists running towards him with ropes and electric shockers. He immediately attacked with air punches to them and blowing some off the ship and into the water. An Equalist came along to the general and tried tying him up, but Haruki deflected once he saw the man strike at him. The general fight right back, with years of experience as a martial art fighter.
Sonam and Jinora were circling in opposite directions around the Equalists above ground on their gliders, trying to get an opening to land down and quickly to get their brother out of there. But they couldn't get that opening since the Equalists were surrounding Rohan before lifting him away to the edge of the ship.
"Sonam, look out!" exclaimed Haruki in a warning tone. The airbender's attention was caught once he felt a rope wrap around his ankle.
Haruki gasped when he saw another cousin captured, he went off to call out for some help. "Guards, after them!"
Sonam was pulled down from high up and rolled onto the deck hard. Jinora saw this and tried going in, but more ropes were being launched at her when she would get closer down.
"Take them down!" ordered an Equalist.
Guards came towards the Equalists with a few of them being firebenders, waterbenders, and earthbenders. But it was too late.
The Equalists dropped a tied up Sonam and Rohan off the ship where they were thrown down onto a small motorboat that was stationed right next to the ship.
Jinora flew down to follow where her brothers were being kept and shook the small motorboat with an air current. However, she had leveled herself with the ship's deck, which gave an opening advantage for an Equalist to an aim a net shooter at her. Tenzin saw his youngest daughter covered in a net before she had no control of flying and fell.
"No!" exclaimed the older airbender before running and passing through Equalists men with air punches.
"No wait, uncle Tenzin!" warned Haruki. Once the general eyed Tenzin going towards the edge of the ship, the older airbender was heading straight for trouble with the mounts of Equalists ready to attack him. Tenzin fought as much as he could, but one of the electric shockers had stabbed him to the side that left him unconscious and captured.
Haruki gritted his teeth in anxiousness at the realization that these men had taken the last four living airbenders with them. The general needed to do something, and so he quickly rushed to get to the command room and reach to wire Prince Iroh about their troubling situation. Unfortunately, the general couldn't reach the command room once all of his guards were captured and there were Equalists men blocking his way, which meant that now he was captured too.
"We've been circling the entire island for hours, sis," said Kun. "How are we going to find mom now that the sun is setting?"
"That is exactly the reason," responded Mika. "I was able to get information from what those Equalists men talked earlier about where Amon placed mom and what he is planning next. Plus, those night guards aren't as vigilant as you think."
Kun's face broke into a knowing smile, as he finally understood what his older sister was plotting.
"Now I see what you did there. You're good!"
"And don't you forget that," appointed Mika. "Okay, let's go."
Mika and Kun headed towards the northern part of the island, reaching towards another temple. However, the prison wasn't in the attic this time since this temple had an underground built-in prison instead.
"You sure this is where they have her?" asked Kun.
Both earthbenders hid behind one of the abandoned air bison stalls before watching the night guards closely.
"Get ready. You're up," instructed Mika to her brother as they positioned their arms in preparation. "Go."
Kun came up from behind his sister and was the first one to step out in order to face the three night guards. Their masked faces spotted the earthbender and pointed at him before running towards Kun. With his arms in placed, Kun took a deep breath before stomping his left foot to the earth ground, pieces where extracted up that had the earthbender swing and kicked them towards the night guards. One by one, the pieces of earth that Kun throw towards them were small enough to capture their wrists and send them flying back towards the temple. Soon enough all three Equalists guards were trapped against the outer wall of the temple with earth-made chains on their wrists and ankles.
Mika came out of the bush from hiding and went to join her brother.
"I think you should do the honors, sis," said Kun bowing his head and waving his hands to direct her to three guards.
The night guards were shaking scarcely, not knowing what was going to happen to them in the hands of two of the best earthbenders in the city.
Mika stepped forwards before positioning her feet apart and swinging her arms in front that each Equalist shut their eyes in fear when they heard metal cables being released out. But the metal cables had only wrapped the three guards around on their torsos before Kun bended them out of the earth-made chains. The guards were dropped on their bottoms to the ground with the metal cable tied secure around them.
Mika bent her knees down to level with one of the guards before she went to grab the mask and take it off the man's head. Fear embedded the man's eyes when he saw the officer, his teeth clacking soundly.
"Is this the place where Amon is keeping his prisoners?" asked Mika.
"A-As far as we k-know, y-yes," answered the man.
"How many prisoners are in there?" asked the metalbender.
"Three more were brought in today, so there are about eleven."
"Eleven?" said Kun perplexed by the thought of Amon keeping more innocent people down there.
"Y-yes," responded the man.
Mika stood up and looked at her brother. "We're getting every single one of them out of there. They're probably mom's missing officers too."
Kun nodded his head in understanding, since there was no way that Amon was going to get away with this.
The two siblings took to moving on and heading inside yet again another temple, only this time they reached to a basement door on the ground level of the building. Both of them had their arms in position in case any more guards would pop up in front of them through the door. Kun faced the opposite direction towards the way they came from as Mika looked at the basement door and bent it open. They entered inside the lower levels of the ground, heading for the stairs into the large room with barely any lighting. Both earthbenders had trouble visually seeing where they were going, so they dragged their feet feeling slowly to the ground and felt the movements from underneath.
It was quiet. The air was silent and felt a cool breeze passed by them as soon as they got to the prisons.
"Hello?" said a weak voice.
Mika and Kun looked at one another in question before walking towards the voice. What they saw were four metalbending officers with dreary faces.
"Officer Mika," said one of the male officers.
"We are so happy to see you," cried another.
Mika lowered her arms to the side and placed her right on one of the bars.
"Its too late, its it?" responded Mika with a crestfallen look. "That monster took all of your bending away, didn't he? I am so sorry."
All four officers lost their momentary excitement once they heard this and couldn't help but stay quiet with those desolated look on their faces.
Mika hadn't realized that Kun walked down to the end of the hall where the last prison cell stood. And it was the only one that was made out of strict platinum. She first excused herself from her fellow officers before walking over to end of the hall as well.
But Mika noticed straight away who had been placed inside that prison when she saw how unmoved Kun was, his eyes looked away with an upsetting reaction. The familiar figure that they both saw in the near darkness of the room was their mother. She looked crushed and broken, but not externally from the outside; Lin was broken down internally from losing a huge part of herself. They were just as too late to save the officers, as they were to save their mom.
"Mom," whispered Mika softly before kneeling down as she held onto the platinum bars tightly.
There sat Lin, almost the same with the same dreary and sorrowful posture as they found Tarrlok. But when Lin's sad green eyes looked up to meet with her eldest daughter's, she managed to gently smile a little in a relieved way at just the sight of seeing her two children alive and okay.
Aw Lin :'( Mika and Kun are upset that their mom's bending was taken away, but thankfully Lin now knows that they are okay and that she is okay! Please leave any Reviews and let me know your thoughts about this chapter! Until next time with the final chapter of Book 1!