Finally the action starts heating up again and a few questions are answered. Very few.
Chapter 11
Iroh found himself walking through the Spirit World with the Speaker as the young man explained things to him. The young man had long since removed his mask and Iroh could see the exhaustion spreading through him. He actually found himself placing an arm around the Speaker as they sat down on a large crumbling boulder that had once been a majestic statue. Of what, Iroh couldn't tell. Still it was strange sitting there with the strongest living thing in their world, the aforementioned sitting with his head in his hands, all defenses dropped. He remembered vaguely how his books had described the Child of Those Forgotten as the 'ultimate half-breed, all the power of a god with all the emotions of a human.'
"So explain this to me again."
The Speaker laughed very lightly. Iroh just had that affect on people and apparently the all-powerful man before him was no different.
"Ziri cannot die of unnatural causes. You could cut his head off and he wouldn't die. He'd probably be in some serious pain and need therapy but he wouldn't die."
"And this is because…?"
"If he came into contact with the Light in his previous human state, it would kill him."
"So you killed him…to keep him from dying?"
The Speaker smiled wryly. "Now you understand."
Iroh shook his head lightly. "How do you manage to think like this?"
"Many many…many…years of practice."
At first Iroh began to laugh and then he realized just what the Speaker had been trying to say and he recognized the weight the falsely young shoulders bore. After a few silent moments, the Speaker stood and dusted off his clothes, the mask hanging loosely from his hand.
"Iroh, I need you to do something for me. I need you to rejoin the Fire Nation army and take leadership of the Elite squadron."
Iroh frowned as he stood. "I have a bounty on my head. How am I supposed to do that?"
The Speaker ignored him, his eyes scanning the trees above them.
"Nuri?" he called.
There was a rustle in the leaves and down dropped a young man, maybe early twenties, dressed in simple brown and green leather armor. He had a broad smile that took up most of his face, black hair, one amber eye and one sapphire blue.
"Yes?"
The Speaker smiled at the first son of Agni and Shasa, the very first Fire Lord.
"I trust you've enjoyed your vacation?"
Nuri shrugged. "Not really. It's been very boring these last few centuries. Seriously, I've already mastered Fire and Water and now I'm working on Earth."
Iroh gave the young man an odd look. It was hard enough to believe that the man he'd believed to be his ancestor, really his uncle, was standing next to him let alone could bend three elements.
"Fire and Water?"
Nuri laughed, flashing his nephew a brilliant smile. "Anyone can learn to bend all four elements. Most just don't live long enough."
The Speaker smiled as well. "And Nuri is the self-proclaimed god of hot water."
Nuri gave the Speaker a little salute before placing his arm around Iroh.
"So, what do you need?"
"You can assist Iroh."
Nuri nodded, still smiling. Iroh shook his head.
"I still don't understand how I am going to lead the Elite. I get within 500 feet of the recruiting grounds…" He paused as he noticed his voice was changing.
Nuri's grin took up most of his face.
"Have you ever heard of the Fountain of Youth, Iroh?"
Iroh nodded and the Speaker smiled. "It's more of a swamp really."
It was then that Iroh looked around him. They were standing in the middle of a swamp, a very beautiful swamp, but a swamp none the less.
Then he looked down at his new sixteen-year old body.
"You mean I've got to go through puberty again!" came the teenage voice squeaking out of his throat and both Nuri and the Speaker erupted into laughter.
Korosu stared, the only one still standing in the plaza. All the judges and the other recruits had fallen to their knees or lay prone on the dirt. The flames rose far above the plaza, twisting and roiling about each other until the formed the rough shape of a dragon. For the first time since the flames had erupted did Korosu seemed worried, his eyes widening ever so slightly as the dragon descended on him, striking through him.
Then the plaza was quiet and Korosu lay prone on the stage as the judges got shakily to their feet. From the shadows a young woman dressed in black Fire Nation armor came forward and took Korosu, throwing him over her shoulder, and disappeared into the palace. Then the recruit placement continued without a ripple. Any whispers among the recruits were quickly silenced with vicious blows.
Korosu woke a few hours later with the left side of his forehead pounding and his hand came away wet with blood for the second time in a couple months. There was a woman next to him dressed in a black version of what the Fire Nation army wore beneath their armor. A black piece of metal covered most of her forehead and came down behind her ears and also to a point in the middle of her forehead.
She took a clean cloth to the wound on his forehead.
"Relax, Son of Agni. You're safe here."
Korosu jumped and turned to face a man wearing a mask. Other than that, he wore the same outfit the woman did.
"Is that what this mark means?"
The man nodded. "It marks you as one of the Four. It means 'fire' in the Old Language."
The woman pulled his head around and continued cleaning up the blood.
"Because of what happened today, you will be placed with the Fire Nation Elite, under my command. Which I think was what you wanted."
"But you…"
The woman smiled and removed the metal plate from her forehead, revealing a small amber crystal there.
"I'm the Ki-Lin, Amabiku. I've been the commander of the Elite for about 20 years now, long enough to gain the Fire Lord's intimate trust."
She replaced the metal plate and Korosu relaxed against the bed. There was only one other person in the room besides the masked man. Amabiku followed his gaze and nodded.
"That is Niobi, the only other recruit to meet our standards. Rest, Korosu. You will need it."
She headed out of the ward and the masked man nodded to him before leaving. For a moment, Korosu wondered whether he was player in this enormous game or just a pawn. Then he blacked out once again.
"Faster! Get the rocks out of your pants!"
Jet skidded to a stop once again, the jabari he'd managed to create from the Shou's light glimmering in his right hand. He could now maintain it for three hours but still had yet to strike Kazearashi.
He had changed in the few months Kazearashi had been training him. She made him wear a formal white gi signifying that he was the trainee but he didn't see why what he wore had anything to do with her beating him senseless.
As she settled back to the earth, Kazearashi frowned. "Must I repeatedly remind you that you are an Air Elemental?"
"Half-air, half-earth," Jet spat back.
Kazearashi leveled a glared at him. "Why do you think you've always lived in trees, halfway between earth and heaven? Again!"
Jet flung himself forward and Kazearashi pushed off with one foot, simply gliding across the ground towards him. The jabari crossed in front of him, its edges crackling as he struggled to maintain its form.
"Like wind…like wind…" He no longer envied Aang, having to fight the elemental controversies in his very soul. Just as hard as it was for Aang to face down a rolling boulder, he had trouble forcing himself to flow instead of slamming himself into the heat of the battle.
Wind didn't just crash into something, it shifted, and flowed around it. At the last possible moment, Jet shifted, turning onto his back and gliding past Kazearashi to land behind her.
The jabari flickered and died as Kazearashi went to pick up her now missing arm and reattach it. After all, she was just a spirit. But she smiled at him for the first time in a long time.
"That's better."
A crash resounded through the air and Jet stood up straight, the Spirit World fading behind him as he watched an unnatural cloud climb above the horizon. Despite his exhaustion, he took off towards it, the amulet bouncing on his chest as he ran. When he reached the source, he was surprised to see a large piece of the ice shelf breaking off and falling into the sea.
"We were this close to the Northern Water Tribe?" And you didn't tell me. Why did my Heiki spirit have to be such a...
Jet frowned as he noticed a group of Water Tribe warriors were desperately trying to hold back a tidal wave of water long enough for the group of villagers to get out of the way. Holding back an icy river was no easy task. It crashed and roared like a living thing until it broke past their grip.
He didn't know where he found the speed but Jet got between the warriors and the water, holding it back with a solid band of light and wind from the Shou. As it crackled in the air, Jet stood with his back to the waves as the men looked on in fear. A single drop of blood from a cut he didn't know he had dripped over his eye onto his cheek.
"Move now!"
He glared up at the river raging above him then pushed off. The river roared forward by Jet was already a couple dozen feet above it. A whirlwind formed at his left hand as it stretched across his chest as if reaching behind his right shoulder. The Shou gleamed and crackled. The clouds above them parted and the stream of air pummeled into the river. For a moment it flowed over the edges of the valley then Jet floated down to land on a frozen landscape, tundra the way it was supposed to be.
The river beneath him was frozen solid.
He wiped a hand over his forehead then hissed at the minute pain. Staring down, a few drops of blood decorated his head. A woman came over and bowed before him and he turned his head to see them all bowing.
"Thank you, Son of Samir." The woman said.
He shook his head. "My name is Jet."
She rose, pressing a cloth wet with melted snow to the cuts on his forehead. As she watched, the cuts sealed over and she finished wiping away the blood.
"Would you join us in the city, Jet-sama?"
"Can I have a hot bath?"
The woman blinked. "Yes, of course."
"Then yes, I'll join you."
The camp was roused into awareness as the sounds of a large battle coming from the east. Azula found Shiroten and dragged him to the forefront as her warriors prepared for battle.
"Tell me what that is, teme."
Shiroten stared blankly forward until his gaze fastened on the dark cloud rising above the horizon. Then his eyes widened nearly beyond their capability.
"Azula, that is an Abyss. We need to move. Now."
"Abyss?"
He ran as fast as he could, the new snow tearing at his bare feet and he left tracks of blood behind him. He no longer felt any shame at being mother naked but let the white cloak Kanna had given him flow out behind him to gain more speed.
Ziri burst through a stand of trees and fell down the side of a small rise to land at the feet of a dark-haired woman and a man who appeared to be her captive. He struggled to his knees, gasping for breath until the woman's startled voice reached him.
Azula stared at the man before her. Naked and wrapped in a white cloak, she didn't know how it could be but it was.
"Zuko?"
Ziri stared at her in despair. "Not again."
Katara sat in the corner of the nearly freezing cell. Perhaps it had been made to keep fire-benders from bending but it was just as effective on water-benders. She would have to work twice as hard just to keep the water in a liquid state…if she had any to begin with. Raising a hand, she let her hair loose to help keep her warm and to hide the mark on her forehead.
The door to the cell opened and Katara was instantly on her feet. A man in Fire Nation armor walked in. She couldn't see his face due to the shadows caused by the flickering torches in the hallway. Then the cell was dark again. She could hear him moving around and then a lantern above them sputtered into life, swinging eerily. But it gave her enough light to recognize her captor.
"Peris," she spat. First he'd attacked Zuko then Azula. What was the point of attacking her? What was his plan?
"You may address me as Fire Lord, Daughter of Nen. I suppose I should pay you back for that incident in Tasha but I have better plans, more necessary plans, for you now. Of course, now that the Spirit of the Four as well as the Daughter of Kaia is dead, there is no hope for your world's survival. Yet, I can make Lord Kolyn's victory that much more sweet."
Hypnotized by his words, she didn't noticed how close he was getting until the light was gleaming from his predatory eyes and the blade flickered.
Katara screamed.