Ch 6 the library

The group was in the desert, and Wash wondered why they were wasting time.

"Any idea why we're here?" Wash asked.

"There's something here." Toph said, kneeling on the ground.

"It's a surprise. Don't ruin it." Aang said.

Aang aimed a flute towards the ground and played it. The music brought a groundhog towards the service, and the little animal mimicked the note. Aang then played a small tune, and several groundhogs came up, mimicking the same tune.

"This is great and all, but don't we have more important things to do? We should be making plans." Sokka said.

"We did make plans. We're picking mini-vacations." Toph said.

"There's no time for vacations." Sokka said.

"I'm learning the elements as fast as I can. I practice hard every day with Toph and Katara. I'm been training my arrows off." Aang said.

"Yeah. What's wrong with having a little fun in our downtime?" Katara asked.

"Even if you do master the elements, then what? It's not like we have a map of the fire nation. Should we head west until we reach the firelord's house? I don't think so. We need some intelligence if we're going to win this war." Sokka said.

"That's not going to be possible. The war lasted 100 years, so the fire nation has become really good at hiding their secrets. They must have to last this long." Wash said.

"So you don't think we'll get any intel." Sokka said.

"At the moment, no. And anything you do get a hold off, will be worth nothing." Wash said.

Completely ignoring Wash's warnings, Aang stood up.

"Your turn, Katara." Aang said.

"Okay. The Misty Palms Oasis." Katara said.

"I've been there. It's a pristine natural ice spring. And I usually don't use the word pristine. It's one of nature's wonders." Aang said.

"You were there?" Ursa asked.

"Yes." Aang said.

The group arrived at the Misty Palms Oasis, and saw how rundown it was.

"It must have changed ownership since I left." Aang said, nervously laughing as they went thru the gates.

"I can go for one of those fruit beverages." Sokka said, as they entered the bar.
"Lets stay together." Ursa said.

Aang accidently bumped into someone, resulting in a dropped drink. Aang simply cleaned the mess with his airbending.

"You're a living relic." The man said.

The group walked stood behind Aang, and Ursa rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration.

"An air nomad, right in front of me." He said.

"Professor Zei, head of anthropology at Ba Sing Se University." He said, grabbing Aang's hand and started to examine in.

"Tell me, which of the air temples do you hail from?" he asked.

"The southern air temple." Aang said, unsure of what was going on. Wash was also weary.

"Oh, splendid. Now tell me, what was the primary agriculture product of your people?" Zei asked.

"Are fruit pies considered agriculture?" Aang asked.

The professor just wrote the answer down.

"So professor. You're an obviously well-traveled guy. Do you have a more current map? Ours is dated." Sokka said.

"Certainly." Zei said. Sokka unrolled the map and looked at it. Toph sat in a chair and put her legs on another chair, cross legged. Aang had a drink in his hand, and sipped from it.

"What, no fire nation? Doesn't any have a map of that place?" Sokka asked.

Ursa rolled her eyes, grabbed Sokka's head and slammed it against the table.

"Didn't you listen to what Wash said? You're not going to get ahold of a fire nation map real quickly. Only the earth kingdom military has it, and I doubt they'll be of help. They've been losing this war for a century. Get your shit together." Ursa said, shoving Sokka off the table.

Ursa headed to the bar and asked for two drinks.

"You okay?" Wash asked.

"No. Paying attention to every detail is how both of us survived for this long. Those kids shouldn't be fighting in the war, because they are not prepared for it." Ursa said.

"You don't seem like the cynical type." Wash off handedly said.

"Any idealism I had were crushed years ago." Ursa said.

"Wash, Ursa. We're leaving." Aang said.

"Where to?" Wash asked.

"We're leaving to find some library brought by a spirit." Sokka said.

"Shit." Ursa said.

"What's the problem?" Wash asked.

"Spirits are not to be trifled with. I don't know a whole lot, but-" Ursa said.

"Hey, we need to move!" Sokka shouted.

Getting on Appa, Wash kept the sandbenders in view as he observed them via sniper rifle.

"Ursa. You said that spirits aren't to be trifled with." Wash said.

"A friend of mine got caught in the spirit world. How, I don't know. But it did change him. And for the better." Ursa said, talking about Iroh.

"Yeah. I was caught in the spirit world. Man, I couldn't use the bathroom for a day." Sokka said.

Wash raised his eyebrow. Sokka was trapped in an unknown dimension, and he chooses to complain about not using the bathroom.

"It shouldn't be this hard to find a library." Aang said, looking at a detailed drawing of the library.

Hours of flying passed, and it wasn't seen.

"Does this library even exist?" Toph asked.

"Some say it doesn't." Zei said.

"Shouldn't you have mentioned that before?" Toph asked.

"Sometimes a myth is just a myth." Wash said, shrugging his shoulder.

The silence was broken by Toph announcing something.

"There it is!" Toph said, pointing in a random direction.

Everyone looked, and saw nothing.

"That's what it will sound like when one of you spots it." Toph said, moving her hand in front of her eyes.

"For all we know, it either doesn't exit, or it's at the very far end of the desert." Wash said.

After a few more minutes, Sokka noticed something.

"Down there. What's that?" Sokka asked.

Landing on the ground, they stood in front of the tower. Ursa looked at the picture and furrowed her eyebrows.

"This has to be it." Ursa said.

"You sure?" Aang asked.

As if to confirm her claim, a wolf appeared and walked up the side of the tower and went inside.

"A knowledge seeker. We must be close!" Zei said.

"No. This the place. It's completely buried." Sokka said.

Zei went hysterical.

"No! My life's ambition is gone! Well, time to start digging." Zei said.

"Get a grip. You won't be digging that structure out anytime soon." Wash said.

Toph walked to the tower and put her hand on it.

"It's fully intact, and it's huge." She said.

"The fox went up that window. I say we go in." Sokka said.

"You sure about that? A spirit brought the library here. It may not be happy to see us humans intrude." Ursa said.

"If the spirit didn't want us inside, why would he keep the library in our world?" Sokka asked.

"I'm warning you. If it looks like trouble will brew, we run. Our lives are more important than whatever fire nation secret is in there." Ursa said.

"Count me out." Toph said.

"You got something against libraries?" Katara asked.

"I've held books before. And they don't do it for me." Toph said.

"Oh. Right." Katara sheepishly said.

"Let me know if they have something you can listen to." Toph said.

Getting into the library was easy. Wash waited until everyone, sans Toph, disappeared inside the library and he followed.

"Man. This is a large place." Wash said, as he slid down the rope, seeing the massive space.

"My word. Those exquisite mosaic handiwork of the tile rendered avion…" Zei said, when he saw some stuffed owl heads.

"That's not something you see every day." Wash dryly said.

A series of rustling noises gave the group reason to hide behind two pillars. Wash held his breath, and waited for something to happen. A giant owl walked over to look at the rope that appeared out of nowhere. Aang looked around the pillar, and Wash shook his head. That boy was very stupid. If Wash was an enemy sniper, he'd be dead.

"I know you're back there." The owl said.

Zei walked away from cover and approached the giant owl.

"I'm professor Zei, head of anthropology of Ba Sing Se."

"You should leave the way you came. Unless you want to be a stuffed head of anthropology."

Zei gripped his throat and backed away. The group walked out from cover and Sokka spoke.

"Are you the spirit who brought the library into the physical world?"

"I am Wan Shi Tong. 'he who knows ten thousand things' And you are obviously humans, who do not belong here." Wan said.

"What do you have against humans?" Aang asked.

"Humans only bother learning things to gain an edge against other humans. Like that firebender who came here, seeking ways to destroy his enemies." The owl said, glowering over Sokka.

"So, who have you come to destroy?"

"What? We're not into that." Sokka said.

"This is the worst attempt of bullshitting. Of all time." Wash said.

So it came to a surprise that Wan Shi Tong allowed them to stay for a limited amount of time. Wash and Ursa walked down an aisle and opened a book.

Ursa looked thru the pages, and saw it was about an ancient belly-dance. With a soft smile, she studied the dances and put the book aside. To Wash's amusement, she actually started to perform some of the movements she read in the book, and threw in a few movements herself.

"You're really good at dancing." Wash said, taking his helmet off.

Ursa smiled and continued her dance. Wash watched as she swayed her hips left and right, twirled on her legs, among other dance moves.

Hearing a noise, Wash peeked around the bookshelf to see Sokka running.

"Sokka, where are you going?" he asked.

"I need to find more about the fire nation's darkest day in history. It could be promising." Sokka replied.

Ura grabbed the book and followed, putting it in Wash's bag when she was close enough. The group ran into dead end, as they saw piles of ash and burned papers.

"Figures. Fire nation comes here, and destroys all the intel." Wash said.

"There's got to be some way to find out what happened." Sokka said.

"You're not going to find it here." Wash replied.

Just then, one of the foxes appeared and motioned for the group to follow him. They follow the animal guide into a large planetarium.

"Sokka, put in the date." Wash said.

Sokka moved the stone tables to the date and pushed the lever to activate the device. The room slightly darkened, reflecting how a person would see the sky and clouds.

"Great. You broke it." Aang said.

"It's not broken. It's a solar eclipse." Sokka said.

"Firebenders lose their power." Ursa said.

"Exactly. That's the darkest day in fire nation history." Sokka said.

Wash quickly put the pieces together and had to make a point they all should know.

"You're taking a big risk with this plan. Solar eclipses only last 12 minutes at the most. Not enough time to blitz past their defenses and kill the head-honcho. And you don't know when the next eclipse will happen. For all we know, it won't occur for the next year. And all of us can't take on the fire nation military by ourselves." Wash said.

"That's why we're heading to Ba Sing Se. We have the avatar with us." Sokka said.

"That's a bullshit plan. It takes more than words and a title to convince the king to send troops from defending the capital city, to attacking another capital city. And that's if they can attack at all." Wash said.

"Mortals are so predictable and such terrible liars. You betrayed my trust. From the beginning, you intended to use this information for evil purposes." Wan said.

"If anyone's evil, it's the fire nation. Look at what they did to your library." Sokka said.

"You think you're the first one to believe their side is justified? Countless others came before you, seeking weapons or plans to destroy their enemies." Wan said.

"We had no choice." Aang begged. "We're just desperate to protect those we love."

"And I'm going to protect what I love." The owl said, flapping his wings.

"That's not good." Ursa said.

Wash felt the building shake and knew they had to leave.

"What are you doing?" Aang asked.

"I'm taking my library back. No-one will ever abuse it again."

"Of course." Wash said, who couldn't help but find some similarity with the director from project freelancer. If he couldn't keep it, he destroyed it.

"He's sinking the building. We got to get out of here." Katara said.

"No shit." Ursa said, and ran towards the opening, but the owl blocked her way.

"You can't leave. You know too much." Wan said.

"Funny. Someone told me the same thing, and I'm still alive." Wash said, bringing his sniper rifle too bare, and shot the owl.

Wan Shi Tong let out a screech as the 14.5mm bullet tore into his neck.

"Run!" Wash shouted.

Everyone ran, and the owl chased after it. Aang sent the spirit over a railing, and ran back with Sokka.

"Where are you going?" Wash asked.

"To find the time of the next eclipse. We'll be behind you." Sokka said.

"God damn it." Wash muttered, and ran after the group.

The owl reappeared and cornered Katara, who pulled out some water to fight the enraged spirit.

"Your waterbending won't do much use here. I've studied northern water tribe, southern water tribe, and swamp bending." The owl said, closing in for the kill.

Wash pulled out a plasma grenade and threw it. The Covenant weapon stuck onto the back of the owl, catching its attention.

"Is it a spider?" the owl asked.

The resulting explosion showed it was not a spider. Wan Shi Tong grabbed his head in pain, as everyone climbed up the rope and made their escape.

Toph let go of the tower as everyone jumped out of the library and into the desert.

"Man. Never thought I'd encounter an angry spirit in my lifetime." Ursa said.

"It's best to be prepared for whatever might happen. Including the completely insane and out of this world." Wash said, standing up.

"Where's Appa?" Aang asked.

Appa was nowhere to be seen.

"How could you let them take Appa? Why didn't you stop them?!" Aang shouted at Toph.

"The library was sinking, and you guys were still inside." Toph said.

"You could have come in to get us. I could have stopped them." Aang said.

"I can hardly feel any vibrations out here. The sandbenders snuck up on me and-"

"You just didn't care! You never liked Appa! You wanted him gone!" Aang shouted.

Wash activated his helmet's microphone system and got their attention.

"That's enough! We need to get of the desert right fucking now! We can't do anything about Appa." Wash said.

Wash was about to open his rucksack when he heard Aang speak.

"I'm going after Appa!" Aang said, and flew away on his glider.

Wash looked thru the scope at Aang and put the rifle down.

"He'll be dead before he finds Appa, let alone leaving the desert." Wash said.