Instincts Info: Last Chapter for awhile so sorry, though I may post another if I get enough reviews (like, any at all is a good number). I've also started to update Book Six which you should check if you like this one, or five. I could really use some reviews on either of them.
Chapter Twenty-Five: Shattered Union
Rayk woke up with a feeling of dread in some stomach. He knew why it was there. They started along a path today that made a knife's edge look like a promenade. If anyone slipped up a fraction then a lot of people would die. He stopped himself before making a morbid correction: a lot more people would die. He got out of bed and his legs stopped shaking after a minute. He needed to look composed; like nothing was amiss or else Lanorit might suspect they'd managed to get around his trick from last night.
Speaking of which, he needed to think of a way to test if Suki and Haru were still with them. He got dressed and walked out of his room, lost in thought until he spotted Sokka doing the same thing.
"Have you been to see Suki yet?" Rayk tried to make his face a mask, but that seemed to tip Sokka off.
"No, why? What's the matter?"
"You know she heard a little a bit of the speech in her sleep. If her dreams showed anything then there was quite a mental war going on in her head. I don't know who won."
"I'll go see her. You should check on Haru. This plan of yours is more crazier than most of mine so we can't have any screw ups." Sokka seemed devoid of his usual happiness, not that it usually evident in the mornings.
"The line between madness and genius is often blurred." Rayk tried to speak in a solemn voice, "Good luck today, we're going to need it."
Sokka stopped outside Suki's door. He was really nervous about checking. He didn't know what he'd do if she hadn't made it. He steeled himself for the worse and knocked on the door like it might snap at him if he did it too hard.
Before he'd knocked twice the door to the room opened. Suki definitely wasn't herself this morning. She still looked like she was half asleep.
When she spoke her voice was fine though, "Hey Sokka, didn't know I ordered a wake up call." She certainly sounded awake.
Sokka recovered quickly from the mild shock the voice had brought, "I know you didn't, but, normally it's the other way around. I was wondering if you feel alright."
Suki her time thinking about and eventually answered, "Yeah, pretty much. I got a headache when I got up the s'morning. That's probably just because of what happened last night."
"You're sure you feel all right?" Sokka pressed.
"Yeah, I told you how I feel already. It's not going to change in a second so I'm still fine!"
Sokka backed off and answered sheepishly, "Sorry, I didn't want to take any chances after what Lanorit did."
Suki calmed down after hearing that, "Okay, sorry for that." She paused for a second before continuing, "You know, he might be slightly crazy, but he's got some really good ideas. If you hadn't woke me and the others up Rayk probably wouldn't last the day."
"I don't know, he can be pretty sneak when he wants to be."
"Yeah, I could see him finding a way to sneak out of here…hope he can take the rest of us. Thanks for the save."
Something tugged at the back of Sokka's mind but he ignored it, "Yeah, I'm glad my brain is so smart." Sokka tapped his head as he said it. It was lame attempt at trying to avoid the awkward silence he'd seen coming. It didn't work though and after a few seconds they parted company with a good bye of 'good morning'.
Haru, in stark contrast only woke up when Rayk knocked as loudly as he could. Rayk heard him actually fall out of bed.
The door opened a second later, "Thanks for waking me up." He paused for a second, "Okay, how did you give Sokka that idea last night?"
Rayk breathed a sigh of relief, Haru was fine, "That wasn't me. I was talking to Hannya last night and he gave Sokka the idea, though Sokka didn't know that. I was trying to figure out a new plan to get us out of this mess with Hannya for some of the night."
"You're not telling everyone this just now are you?" Haru was obviously concerned.
"No, just you and Suki don't know. I went through everyone's dreams last night and told them what we're doing. You and Suki were having some problems with what you'd heard so I skipped you in case you didn't go back to your old selves.
"I've only been able to come up with alibi's for Sokka, Aang and myself though. You're going to have to stay here and act as a spy for us. Katara and Toph are going to win Lanorit over and bring the invasion to a halt. Help them if you think they need it."
"Wait, so we're not going to try and stop the invasion?"
"No, he won't stop it no matter what we do. The best move we can make is to stun it so we can halt it. Once it's over we're going to regroup and put the squeeze on Lanorit and try to slow him down. If you're called on to fight go for it. We can't afford to make any doubt enter into this so fight against the Fire Nation. Just go easy on us if we end up meeting out there."
Haru gave him a weak smile, though he didn't meet his gaze, "I didn't know it was possible to feel tired this way when you're young."
Rayk knew what he was talking about, "Don't worry, hang on a little longer. Once you get your fix of peace you'll be fine. Get a good breakfast and be ready to start acting light the bigots that fill this place." Rayk gave him a sarcastic smile before walking away.
--
Sokka met with Rayk before they went to get breakfast and he beet Rayk o his own question, "How's Haru?"
"Fine, he hasn't changed at all and there's nothing out of place in anything he does. Suki the same?"
Sokka's face became slightly pained, "I'm not sure. She wasn't quite herself, but nothing seemed really out of place with her."
"Did you tell her any of the plan?"
"No." Sokka knew that Rayk agreed with his decision, but he still felt like he'd betrayed her some how.
--
Rayk had to hand it to the others. He didn't know if they'd come together before hand and thought of some of these details or not, but they were a nice touch. Rayk sat at one end of the table and Lanorit at the other. Sokka and Aang were seated on either side of them and the others had opted to leave a few chairs empty between the next group and Rayk. This made it look like they had sided with Lanorit.
Rayk feigned ignorance towards this and started where'd they'd left off yesterday, "So, have you decided to call of the invasion?" He intentionally put a note of pleading in his voice.
Lanorit grew a benevolent smile that barely his the malicious one underneath, "Yes and I've come to the conclusion to do this as diplomatically as I can. Everyone in the room gets a vote, majority rules. How does that sound to you?"
Rayk knew why he was doing this and he fought back a smile and kept up his act, praying that Sokka and Aang would do the same, "That sounds fair to us, everyone in favour of calling off the invasion raise there hand." Three hands were raised, just as everyone at one end of the table predicted.
"It seems one more than expected wasn't affected by my lullaby." Lanorit smirked as he said it.
Rayk was using all of his will power not to smirk back, "So that's what that was all about." He paused for a second and cursed under his breath before continuing, "I guess there's no point in staying here. You best be prepared, know that we will be."
Rayk stood up with a little more force than normal to show his anger. Aang didn't need to act, tears were running down his face. Sokka was one step behind that with his barely in check.
"You are no longer guests here then." Rayk's blood went cold. This wasn't foreseen or welcome.
"Iroh, get us outta here!" Rayk shouted into the air.
Everyone's eyes snapped closed and two things were shouted across the room. One was someone from the White Lotus telling Lanorit to close his eyes the second was Suki yelling to attack them.
Rayk was trying to wait patiently for the jump to start or end. He didn't know which, just that he really wanted to open his eyes. He almost did a second later when something hit him hard in the neck. He fought the instinct to open his eyes as he went down. He heard someone else hit the ground beside him.
A second later and there were hands hauling him up words. His eyes opened and he saw Sokka clutching his throat and staring at the ground. Now the situation had changed. Aang's tears had dried and Sokka's were flowing. Lying on the ground in front of himself and Sokka were Kyoshi fans.
--
Rayk was sitting with Iroh in the garden while everyone else in the base was running around in a hurry, trying to get ready for the rebellion tomorrow.
"Look, I told you, I can't comfort him! He's O for three now! His first girlfriend is the moon now; Suki will try to kill him if she sees him again and Toph's probably thinking he's still after Suki with the way he's been acting! I'd probably be in the same state given the situation!" Rayk was resorting to gesticulating madly to get his point across.
"Alright then, can you convince Aang to let go of Katara?" Iroh asked, his voice very commanding despite asking a question.
Rayk was appalled, "I know I'm overstepping myself here but…when did you turn into a Pakik follower?"
Iroh gave him a knowing smile before continuing, "I'm not talking about his philosophies. You can let people go and still love them. How do you think past avatars could go into the state yet have a wife and family?" Rayk opened his mouth and prayed an intelligent counterargument came out.
None did so Iroh continued, "I don't think I need to tell you that we're going to need something like that on our side to win today, but we're going to need Sokka too. You can do it, just use your heart instead of your head."
Rayk's shoulders slumped a little, but he nodded ascent and got up and left.
--
Aang was sitting in the bending area in the lotus position trying to meditate and calm himself. It wasn't working. He still had lines on his face that said worry all over him and his breathing still wasn't slow and even.
Iroh came in and sat down beside him in a similar pose. Iroh sat there until Aang couldn't take it any more and started asking for advice.
"How am I supposed to do this? Half my friends are going to be fighting against me tomorrow!"
Iroh cracked one of his eyes open when he responded, "They might be fighting on the other side, but they won't hurt anyone from our side and they'll avoid fighting any of us if at all possible. You need to trust them more."
That quieted Aang down for a second, then he spoke in a calmer voice, "What's going to happen if I can't defeat the Fire Lord?"
"No human on earth can stand up against the power of the Avatar State."
"Azula sure seemed to…"
"You were following Pakik's ideas then. They might help at first, but they aren't the right ones and hold you back later."
"You know Guru Pakik?" Aang was shocked, but was showing happiness for the first time in a while.
"Yes, unfortunately. He was thrown out of the order. After that he took up full residence in one of the air temples." Aang made to interject, but Iroh stopped so he could explain, "We agreed with his ideas at first, but as he got closer to what he called enlightenment we started to see a major problem with his ideas. Aang, what is darkness?"
It took Aang a second to realize he'd been asked a question, "Oh, well, um, the opposite of light?"
Iroh showed no emotion because of the answer, "That is exactly what Pakik thought. Darkness is the absence of light, not its opposite. When you cleared your chakras you removed part of the emotion they're a part of. This doesn't make any problems to begin with, but it gives you practice for something else. If you let her," Iroh intentionally the girl nameless even though he knew who it was, "go then you'd end up letting go every earthly connection, you'd stop being human. All emotions stem from love in some form. By letting that go you'd lose your humanity and the only thing left would be the avatar spirit."
It took Aang a minute to take in everything in, "Why didn't you tell me all this when we were going to the Crystal Catacombs?"
"I could only guess then and I didn't want to make assumptions. I thought that you couldn't do it anyways." That made Aang cringe at remembering what he'd done to save her down there.
Iroh continued before the air bender could look anymore hurt, "Letting someone go isn't what Pakik thought it was though. Letting her go is letting go of her earthly attachment." Aang looked a little confused so Iroh elaborated, "Do you lover the idea of her or just her body?" Iroh didn't know another way to put the last bit and he regretted it slightly; Aang's face was crimson.
Once the red had subsided Aang spoke in the calmest voice Iroh had ever heard, "Thank you. I think I'll be fine now." Aang stood up, his eyes still closed. When they opened they glowed. His body felt like it was weightless and every movement he made his bending became a hundred times stronger. He came out of the Avatar State a moment later and a slight wooziness hit him.
Iroh stood where he was with a solemn expression on his face. How was there still war when people knew you had to go up against that? How could any nation want war when a twelve-year old could wipe their armies from the map?
--
"Sokka?" The question was asked very tentatively. Rayk was standing outside the door to the lab with a look on his face that would make you think he'd just eaten something very unpleasant.
"What's wrong with him? He's been in there forever."
Rayk jumped when he heard Azula's voice, "Please stop doing that. I'm going to get a heart attack at twenty."
She smirked a little bit when he said that, "All right, I'll make sure to stomp around as loudly as possible."
"Much obliged, now, would you mind opening the door for me?" He moved out of the way slightly. She grabbed the handle at the base and waited for a moment then pulled it off with the end glowing red. The lock was behind and after flicking it in a few places the door swung open.
After that she turned to leave with an asking expression from Rayk, which she answered, "The situation is only laughable at face level. If you go deeper then that it becomes pitiable." He gave her a smile that hinted at him feeling proud of her. She was certainly acting more humane than she used to.
Sokka was inside the lab and it was in even more a mess than it was before he'd left, it also seemed more gothic. Many of the objects scattered across the tables were a bit sharper and more malicious looking than they'd been before. Sokka had his back to the door and turned around when Rayk approached.
"You don't need to worry about me, I'm fine now. I wanted to work in private." Rayk was worried for the simple fact that Sokka's face lacked the normal display emotion it normally held.
"You shouldn't bury grief in work. It doesn't work, take it from me." Rayk was solemn and was trying to force Sokka to look at him. No one could shrug off something like that in such a short amount of time, albeit they didn't have the time needed anyway.
"I know what you're thinking and I agree, just, near the end, I started trying to make up with Suki so I wouldn't have to end it on bad terms. It still hurts, just, not as bad you think it does." Sokka tugged on some strings and most of the room moved. Rayk ducked instinctively as things started to fly.
Things settled down with a clank and Rayk stood up with a confused expression. It seemed like something had just brushed around the contents of the room because nothing had changed. Then he saw Sokka.
Somehow Sokka had produced a full suit of armor for himself in the short time he'd been back.
"I started on it along with the experiments. Its actually been done for the last while, I just haven't tested it." Rayk could only look on incredulously.
The suit was a masterpiece. The metals it used had been fired so they shone silver, blue and black. There were crescent moons shining brilliantly on each joint, contrasted by the black covering the remaining area. The plating covering the legs and arms was a dark blue with tendrils of black snaking around from the back of them. The breast plating was the same blue with another crescent design being held in a wolf's mouth. The only thing missing was a helmet.
"How did you make this?" Rayk barely got the words out of his mouth.
Sokka took his time answering, "Toph helped me. It's the one time she didn't tease me about something."
"Yet you say you're not hurting." It was a statement and a question at the same time.
"I think she knows why I was trying to make up with Suki. It's why she hasn't tried anything I think." The emotion was slowly coming back to his face and his words became more animated, "Now, could you help me with this. I need to get the backscratcher working."
"You put in a backscratcher?"
"What? I'm supposed to get distracted in a fight because my back's itchy!" A laugh exploded out of Rayk. After he started to help Sokka. The backscratcher was only the first part. The crescent blades needed to be mounted as well as a few other weapons that could be dispensed at any time.
--
There was a gathering in the main hall with Zuko, Mai, and Ty-Lee at its heart. Aang, Sokka, Rayk and Iroh came through the crowd a moment later. Their dress had changed slightly. Rayk had a flashy red cloak with the Lotus emblazoned on the back and a halberd added to his arsenal along with a belt with numerous pouches along it, as well as another gauntlet on his other hand in place of the launcher. Aang had taken off the shoulder of his shirt to allow for better movement (I couldn't think of anything, just think of his new clothes for the second part of season three. Sorry about that!).
Zuko had his long swords with his mask over the scabbard. He was also wearing the clothes he had from Ba-Sing-Se, it was a tad obvious what he thought this would make up for. Ty-Lee had added a sparkling weight to her braid so it acted as a weight. Mai had a small blade in front of her launchers for close combat, but otherwise was unchanged. The only thing that had changed was that her face might have shown a little more emotion since her nerves were shorter than normal. Iroh had chosen to wear his old general's uniform.
Iroh raised his voice when he spoke so everyone could hear him, "We're going to be touching down at the far west of the Crater. We have to move as fast as possible to close in on the palace before the chaos created in the Flow gets loose. Don't attract attention and defend yourselves. Once we're in flush everyone out so they can be captured. The Minister of Public Relations is on our side. He's been rousing the people to arms delicately for the past several months. If you see him protect him! One more thing: don't cause any structural damage if possible. We'll need it for tomorrow. Everyone…Eyes closed!"
Aang's eyes snapped shut and his heart felt like it had skipped moving to his throat and had gone right into his head. He felt himself slip into the avatar state like he always did when he was jumped. This time he stayed in it and tried to get used to the power that flowed through him when he was in it.
There was a cry for eyes to open. Aang didn't know what he'd been expecting when they'd got there, but this wasn't it. Their group was squeezed behind the rocky escarpment that back the Crater and a giant metal wall that only turned at the edge of his vision.
"Okay, 'round the wall the palace!" Someone yelled.
Aang's heart dropped. If this was one wall of the palace how was he supposed to find one person in all of it?
--
Instinct's Info: Lots happen'n this chapter. Tell me what you think and I might be able to find some time to get one more chapter together before exams really start bogging me down.