Well, I was about to say don't expect much activity from me since I'm still knee deep in Legion, but my good buddy Powershade117 is helping me wrap up the story. I'd say about 2-3 chapters after this one? Plus I gotta have something to do when I'm not at home playing WoW.
The elevator came to a stop on the second floor as Rai cautiously stepped out and the elevator door closed behind her. The lift hadn't taken her all the way to the top; she hadn't even pressed any of the buttons to get it to move. Someone else was controlling the lift, which meant she wouldn't be able to ascend the tower further until she did something on this floor. The room was completely empty, except for the doorway leading to a viewing balcony to her left. When she stepped out onto the balcony, she found a broad shouldered man with a mohawk and large warhammer resting on his shoulder waiting for her.
The man snickered under his breath as she stood opposite to him. "So, you're the one causing the boss all this trouble? Eh, I don't see it. How can one small fry like you create such a mess? This'll be easier than I thought," he said, readying his giant weapon.
"So, Ryota wants me to play his game, huh? What do I have to do? Fight a henchmen on every level until I reach the top of the tower while each level gets progressively harder? Seems trivial," Rai remarked, crossing her arms.
"Aw, don't spoil all the fun. If you make it to the top, you get to pick a prize. But you won't be making past me," he declared confidently.
"We'll see about that," Rai replied.
Her opponent raised his giant warhammer to bring it down on Rai, but she easily flipped back to avoid the massive weapon's strike. She didn't waste any time dashing towards him as he lifted his warhammer and raising her fist to deliver a punch to his jaw. Her aim was true and the strike hit, but he didn't seem that affected by it. Instead, he brought a hand up from his warhammer and wrapped it tightly around her wrist and slammed her into the wall. Her head struck the wall hard, causing her ears to ring and her sense dull momentarily, but she managed to recover in time to avoid another strike of that warhammer. She thrust her arm forward, unleashing a jet of fire. She had to put some space between him and her so she could recover.
"He said you were an earthbender!" she heard him exclaim loudly over the flames. She felt the dizziness in her head begin to fade just as he burst through the flames with his hammer. Rai leapt up onto the railing behind her, but he brought his hammer back up and rammed the head of it into her stomach. The force of the blow knocked her over the edge of the balcony, but Rai was able to stabilize herself with small fire jets from her feet and palms. Just as her opponent leaned over the railing to look for her, she quickly moved under the balcony and emerged from the adjacent side. She surprised him with a sudden and powerful jetstream of water from her concealed waterskin, knocking him back into the tower as his hammer fell to the floor of the balcony. Drawing the water back into her waterskin, Rai picked up the warhammer with a heave and threw it head first towards her target, striking him right in the face as he began standing up. The blow instantly knocked him out, not before breaking his nose and knocking out a few of his teeth, which scattered to the floor.
"You were right," she remarked to the unconscious man, "That was easier than I thought." Upon hearing the unmistakable ding of the elevator, Rai turned her head just in time to see the elevator door open again, beckoning her to enter so it could carry her to her next challenge. She stepped inside as the door closed in front of her. She had to play Ryota's game for now and he would be watching her every move.
When she stepped out on the next floor, there was nothing and no one in sight. This floor had no viewing balcony or windows, instead the walls were decorated with old sepia tone pictures detailing the tower's construction. Rai had expected to find an opponent waiting for her, another person for Ryota to send as cannon fodder to stall her arrival. She couldn't help but get an eerie feeling as she stepped into the middle of the room. Suddenly, a black cable appeared from above her and wrapped firmly around her neck. Rai's hands shot to her neck as she tried to grasp at the cable as it lifted her into the air by her neck, cutting off her breathing. She didn't have much time to act; she moved one hand behind her neck and felt the length of cable going up to the ceiling. Rai could already feel her consciousness begin to slip and her arms slowly limp, but she managed to whip out one of her arm blades and slice through the cable. She fell to the ground on her side and coughed hoarsely as she took in desperate breaths. As her breathing calmed, Rai grew aware of the presence behind her. She heard them take a step forward, followed by a metal sound not unlike the one made by metal cables being ejected from their spools. She rolled to the side and blasted a powerful stream of air from her fist, but her opponent - a slim female figure dressed entirely in black with a hood concealing part of her face - easily side stepped away and bent another cable towards her. The cable wrapped firmly Rai's wrist as the cloaked woman pulled, causing Rai's air attack to stop as she was yanked forward. When she felt the cable release her arm, Rai grit her teeth angrily and prepared to blast her opponent with a massive fireball, only to suddenly be whipped by the cable on her cheek. She flinched and couldn't help but cry out as the painful sting brought back a flood of memories, memories of a whip on her back, arms, legs, face… over her eye.
Rai heard the woman chuckle at the sight of her. "I bet you miss that, slave," she heard the woman remark. As much as the pain brought back all those memories, it also brought back all the rage and anger.
Without turning her head, Rai cast her eyes towards the woman, just spotting her in the corner of her eyes. She brought her right hand up to her cheek, gently laying it against where the cable whipped her. Her left hand clenched into a fist as she swiftly brought it up and thrusted it forward, unleashing a torrent of flames. However, the woman easily avoided them by grappling to the beams on the ceiling. A cable wrapped firmly around Rai's left arm as the woman pulled on Rai's arm, ending the stream of fire. The woman swiftly advanced on Rai, who tried swiping at her with fire attacks, which she was either able to avoid entirely or use her cable to prevent Rai's other arm from properly firebending. Once she was in range, the woman grabbed Rai's wrist and pinned it behind her back while holding her other arm around Rai's neck. The woman leaned in close to Rai's ear and Rai heard her lips part, ready to say something, probably a taunt. But Rai was hardly in the mood. Before the woman could get a single syllable out, Rai stepped backwards and slammed the woman into the wall before headbutting her in the face. Once she felt the woman's grip loosen, Rai pulled away and stepped away from her. Noticing the woman's cable still wrapped around her wrist, Rai gripped the cable in her hand and pulled, yanking the woman forward as Rai jumped, spun in the air and delivered a swift kick to her face, sending her to the floor.
Rai stood over the woman, knocked out cold, as she unwrapped the cable from around her wrist. She was about to move back to the elevator, which had once more opened for her, but she stopped and cast one more look at the cable spools around her fallen opponent's waist. Rai moved to the unconscious woman and removed the cable spool belt from her and strapped it around her own waist. "Might come in handy," she said to herself.
The elevator doors opened for her for a third time as Rai stepped out. Unlike the last two floors, this one had a chair in the middle of the room. A young boy sat in the chair, a bag over his head, as he leaned forward limply while his arms were tied behind the back of the chair. She immediately recognized the red shirt and yellow sash and rushed to the boy in the chair. "Takumi, are you ok?" she asked in bated breath as she sliced through the ropes around his wrists. When she received no answer, she moved to kneel in front of him and pulled the bag off his head. However, while she expected to find amber eyes and spiky black hair, instead she found an unfamiliar boy with brown hair and green eyes.
"I'm sorry! He made me do it!" the boy cried, quickly raising his arms to protect himself.
"What? Where's Takumi?" she cried, however, the boy mistook her the desperation in her voice for rage and flinched in fear under her. In her panicked state, Rai failed to notice someone slowly and quietly come up behind her. The assailant swiftly drove a small dagger straight into her left thigh. Rai cried out in pain and immediately fell to one knee as she reached for the dagger that stuck out of her leg. With a pained hiss, she wrapped her fingers around the handle of the dagger and with one swift movement, pulled the blade out, causing some of her blood to splatter on the floor.
"The game's not over yet, sis," the assailant spoke. Rai gasped and turned around to see Ryota standing over her with a confident smirk plastered across his face. As he circled around her, the boy dressed in Takumi's clothes ran off and hid in the corner.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked, clutching her bleeding leg.
"Why does anyone do anything?" he replied. "Because it's fun!"
"And dressing up another kid as Takumi? What does that do for you?"
"It was easy enough to find similar looking clothes to those rags he wears. As for why, I like seeing that spark of hope in your eyes, that relief that you've found him safe and sound only for it to disappear when you realize you're too late. Or maybe I want to mess with you, the same way you used to mess with me," he glared at her viciously.
"We're were children then!" she argued. "It was harmless!"
"Harmless is the last word I'd use to describe it. And some could say that we're still children now."
"Then why take Takumi? He's innocent in all of this. This is between you and me! If you wanted me dead, you could have already killed me by now."
"Ah, but I don't want to kill you. At least, not anymore. You see, I've learned my lesson. Shoot you in the chest twice and kick you over a cliff, you survive. Drop a mountain on you, you still survive," he counted off on his fingers, "I'd just be wasting my time and resources trying to come up with a plan to top that. Rest assured sister, you'll walk away from this alive."
"And what about Takumi? Why take him?"
"Because Takumi is the thing you love most in the world. You can deny it all you want, but I know love in another person's eyes when I see it. I see it a lot in the slaves we sell; crushing that love, that hope, has become a favorite hobby of mine," he grinned, clenching his fist, "And that's what I want to do to you. I want you to be grovelling at my feet, broken and shattered, a shell of your former self. I'm going to do what the slavers never could do to you; I am going to break you. Takumi's survival depends entirely on you. I think it's sweet how much you care about him. It reminds me of the good old days," he remarked sarcastically.
"You sound jealous," Rai pointed out.
Ryota's confident grin disappeared and was replaced by another glare as his lips curled up, forming a contemptuous sneer. "I'm. Not. Jealous," he said each word individually with emphasis. "I just want to see how far you're willing to go to save your precious little brother," he said, walking back towards the elevator. "I think it's sweet, the relationship you two have formed. But no doubt a pale imitation of the original."
"That's not true," she muttered, gritting her teeth angrily.
"Now here's one thing I don't understand: why in the world the spirits picked you of all people."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, don't play dumb with me, sis. I saw the bending you did against my henchmen. As if you needed one more thing to rub in my face like you did with your earthbending," he spat, "But guess what? I don't care! I could care less if you're the Avatar! It doesn't change anything!"
"Are you saying that to convince me or yourself?"
All that did was anger Ryota further, prompting him to angrily shout, "Shut up!"
"I never asked to be the Avatar, Ryota!"
"Oh, it must be so hard for poor little Rai," Ryota taunted in a fake sobbing tone with a pouted lip. "It must be awful being able to bend all four elements. Boo hoo! Give me a break! I bet you love it; I bet you love having all that power, having people worship the ground you walk on like some god! Well guess what? All you are is vermin. That's all you'll ever be and that's all anyone will remember you for. Whether Takumi lives or dies is entirely up to you. See you at the top," he said, ignoring her protest and stepping into the elevator. As the doors began closing, Rai leapt forward to hold the doors open, but the wound in her leg sent a paralyzing shock of pain through her entire body, causing her to fall back to her knees. She gently pressed her hand against the wound. When she drew it back, her fingers were covered in red. If her waterbending was any better and if she knew how, she would heal it. But it wasn't. All she could do was tear a piece of fabric off her dark green wrap and tie it securely around her leg. She hissed and winced in pain, but she had to tie it tightly. As strong as she was, if she kept losing blood, she would pass out. As she finished the knot, she placed her hand on her other knee and slowly pushed herself onto her feet. She kept most of her weight on her right leg and gently put some weight on her left, but drew back when she felt another surge of pain. She took a deep breath and, biting through the pain, began to limp towards the elevator. She drove one of her gauntlet blades between the doors and pried them open with her hands. She looked up the elevator shaft and saw the lift several floors above. Taking a step back, Rai raised her hand and swiftly brought it down, but the elevator did not move. Even the button wasn't summoning it.
"Platinum," she muttered. And seeing as Ryota clearly had some control over the elevator, he wouldn't send it down to her unless he wanted to, which meant she had to find another way up. There was the obvious solution: stairs. But with her injury, getting up so many flights would be difficult enough, not to mention costly to the amount of time she had. The more energy she expended getting up those stairs, the faster her heart would beat and the faster she'd bleed out. She needed a faster way. She limped towards the viewing deck on this floor and turned her back to the horizon to look up the rest of the tower. If she had to guess, she'd say there were four floors between her and the roof where Ryota and Takumi were waiting for her. She could easily use some firebending to propel herself straight to the roof, but with her injured leg, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to sustain the fire propulsion well enough. If her leg wasn't strong enough to propel at least the same force as her uninjured leg, she'd lose her balance and fall out of the sky. She same would likely happen if she tried airbending her way up there, she wagered. She needed a more secure method of scaling the tower.
Rai's hand brushed against the cable spools attached to her waist. That's right. She took the cable spools from the second henchmen she fought, figuring they might come in handy. She thrust her arm up, firing the cable end up to the roof. The cable wrapped tightly around a pipe and Rai gave it a firm tug to test its security. When it seemed secure, she pulled her arms down, causing the spool to begin retracting the cable and pull her up the side of the tower. She landed on the roof roughly on her feet, causing a shock of pain to travel up her leg. She groaned in pain, falling to one knee while biting her lip until the pain subsided. The cloth she had wrapped the wound it was already turning completely red from her blood. She had to move fast.
"Ah! She finally joins us!" Rai looked up to see Ryota on the opposite end of the roof holding Takumi - whose hands were bound behind his back - with one arm around the boy's neck and shoulders while the other held a dagger to his throat. She sighed in relief upon seeing him. Despite his disheveled clothes and hair and a bruise on his cheek, he looked well enough.
"Rai!" Takumi called out to her. He tried lunging forward towards her, but Ryota kept a firm grip on him and kept the dagger close to his throat.
"Takumi, everything will be fine. I promise," she smiled sincerely as she pulled herself to her feet.
"Oh, don't lie to him like that, sis. We both know he's going to be far from all right," he said, threateningly bringing the dagger right against Takumi's skin.
"Ok, ok, I'm here. What's your endgame?" Rai asked, holding up her arms in surrender. So long as Ryota had Takumi in his grasp, she couldn't act, not without risking Takumi's life. She'd have to play along until she got Takumi away from him.
"This," he replied, bringing the dagger away from Takumi's neck to gesture to the whole of the roof before bringing it back. "You choose, right here, right now, which little brother you want to save."
"What?"
"You heard me! Which is it gonna be? Your precious little brother Arata," he began, using his birth name for the first time since she they had reunited, "or my replacement. That's all he is, isn't he? Someone you took in to replace me, to fill the hole in your heart?"
"That's not true," she said, shaking her head.
"Oh yes it is! I know it, he knows it and you know it! How long did it take before you took him in? How quickly did you replace me?"
"It wasn't like that!" Rai yelled.
"Don't lie to me!" he shouted across the roof. "How easy was it for you to forget about me? Did I really mean so little to you? Is that why you never came back for me? I suppose I shouldn't be too upset about that, I never tried to come after you. But I never forgot about you, Rai! I could never forget you!" His voice almost sounded sentimental, if not for the pure malice and venom he spoke with. "But just because I hate you with every fibre of my being doesn't mean I'm not insulted by the idea of being replaced by this weak little twerp! I'm your brother, not him!"
Rai kept a straight face, calm and collected, as she watched Ryota rant. She closed her eyes and said softly, "No, you're not. You were right from the beginning: my brother is dead. Arata died a long time ago." Her tone was firm and decisive. She wasn't just saying this; she believed it too. "Arata is dead and I couldn't save him." She opened her eyes. "You, I don't know who you are."
With a blank expression, Ryota looked down to the floor as he sheathed his dagger. "If I didn't already hate you so much, that little speech would definitely do it. Yuck," he gagged. "You see, when I say I hate you, you know it because I've tried to kill you twice already! But do you think it's really that easy to just denounce me? You can say all you want that your brother is dead; you can try to convince yourself that you don't care about me." As he spoke, Ryota slowly stepped back towards the edge of the roof, bringing Takumi with him. Rai gasped when she saw this and stepped forward, but Ryota's feet were already right at the edge. "But actions speak louder than words. What you choose to do will show which one of us you love more. Like I said, two go in, one comes out. Time to choose!" With a maniacal laugh, Ryota leaned back and fell over the edge of the roof, bringing a flailing and screaming Takumi with him.
"No!" Rai shouted, running to the edge of the roof at full speed, completely ignoring the pain in her leg. However, just as she reached the edge, her left leg gave out beneath her and she fell to the ground, sliding to the edge of the roof. She saw Ryota and Takumi falling to the street below, Ryota completely calm with a smirk on his face while Takumi screamed in terror. Not even thinking, she thrust both arms forward, firing two cables from the spools around her waist. Both cables raced to reach their targets as time seemed to slow all around them. One of her cables looped and wrapped firmly around Takumi's ankle. Despite her strength, the sudden weight of Takumi's body threatened to pull her over with him, but she managed to keep herself in place. His descent was halted as the cable held him high above the ground and pulled him back towards the tower, Takumi's back colliding with it. Rai turned to her second cable and watched as it tried to reach for Ryota, who made no effort on his part to reach for it. Rai gasped in shock when she heard the click of the cable spool, indicating that she had reached the end of its length, forcing the cable to just stop short of Ryota. Realizing this, Ryota looked up at his sister, a wide-eyed look of horror on his face at what this meant. She expected to see him start flailing wildly as Takumi had and call for help, but instead he narrowed his eyes at her and moved his mouth as if to say something, but Rai couldn't hear him..
Rai flinched and shut her eyes tightly as she heard Ryota's body land on the pavement below with a bone shattering thunk, followed shortly by the screams of horrified civilians. Her breath shuddered and her body trembled as she looked down below to Ryota's broken and bloodied body. She managed to focus her thoughts and remember Takumi, still dangling below. She bent the cable to retract while pulling Takumi up with her hands, trying to get him back up to safety as quickly as possible. When his body was within reach, she grabbed him with both hands by his shirt and arm and pulled him back onto the roof.
"Takumi! Takumi, are you ok?" she cried frantically, undoing the ropes that still bound his wrists. When he didn't answer, she called to him again more urgently. "Takumi!" She turned him around and gasped in terror at the sight of his closed eyes. She quickly felt for a pulse and placed her hand over his nose, relieved to feel both a pulse and his exhale. Not dead, just unconscious, either passing out from the fall or when he slammed into the tower. She gently lay him down on his back and placed her hand on his face. "Takumi, wake up, please!" She lightly tapped his cheek with her hand as he began to stir.
"R-Rai?" he groaned.
"Yes!" Rai exclaimed with teary eyes and a smile of relief. "You're ok, it's ok," she whispered reassuringly both to him and herself, taking Takumi into her arms and hugging him tightly. Takumi was alive and ok, and that was all that mattered to her.
And so ends Ryota... I knew the second I concepted the idea of his character that this was how he was gonna die. I did not envision any sort of redemption for his character whatsoever. So tragic...
And Rai finally has some metalbending cables! I think I had wanted to give her those from the start, but as I was writing the story I kinda forgot to incorporate them lol.
I hope it doesn't need explaining, but if it does, here it is: the contradiction that Ryota hates Rai but can't stand the idea of being replaced as her little brother is intentional. I like to think that it makes him more realistic and I like a bit of contradiction in my villains every now and then.
Apologies if the two fights in the beginning were a bit quick. I think I'm just mentally drained and exhausted from all the Legion playing .
Next chapter: Rai grieves the death of her brother while her friends fall into the clutches of her oldest enemy.