This chapter has been rewritten. Please read again, and see author's note at the end.
35: Retribution
"Final straw?" Ikki asked, her luminous smile giving way to a look of confusion as she looked up from her bow, only to flinch back in fear as Wan Shi Tong's piercing obsidian gaze finally shifted from Mako to her.
"By far." Wan Shi Tong hissed coldly as his dark form began to shift before their very eyes.
Like all spiritual transformations the changes were almost instantaneous, and jarring. Within seconds once pristine obsidian feathers grew ragged and feral in appearance, while his already towering dark form seemed to stretch and elongate into a more serpentine almost draconic shape. In less than a moment the jaded librarian gave way to the fiercest of creatures from her grandmother's stories, and he was furious.
Flaring his massive wings wide, and losing a horrible avian screech; Wan Shi tong lunged forward, his head striking with speed that any serpent would envy, and his razor-sharp beak was aiming right for the petrified air bender's heart. Only to miss by an inch, and shatter the stone floor where she'd been standing, as metal cables suddenly lashed around her middle, and swiftly pulled her back into Kuvira's waiting arms.
"Mako now!" The metal bender ordered, as she made to raise an earth shield between them, and the furious spirit, only for nothing to happen. The surrounding stone refused to yield to her will. Realizing just how ineffective she was in this place a sense of panic threatened to set in as Kuvira turned away instead, shielding the young girl with her own armored body. All the while hoping that the Dark Avatar could handle this without her.
Hardly needing to be told twice, and with Ikki no longer caught in his line of fire; Mako raised his arm, pointer, and index fingers extended just as Wan Shi Tong pulled his beak from the floor. Their eyes locking together again, cold amber clashed with obsidian for a moment more before everything disappeared in a blinding flash of light, and a roar of thunder.
"It's not possible. It's not possible. It's not possible." Sakuya muttered to herself as she bolted up the ancient stairways; seeming to believe whatever frightened her so could be banished through sheer denial and desperation.
"For balance's sake Sakuya! What's not possible?" Ayeon demanded angrily as he struggled to keep up with the panicking yokai.
"That he's still alive!" the kitsune shrieked, her ears pinning back against her head, and her amethyst eyes flaring crimson. "Over ten thousand years, and yet somehow he is here! Now! Alive! It's just not possible!"
Flinching back from the dark spirit's outburst Ayeon growled in frustration. While his personal experience with yokai was almost laughably little; he did know that they were generally proud, arrogant, aggressive spirits that did not scare easily. By any means. So, to see Sakuya so panicked was truly an unnerving experience, and to top things off it was likely that his friends were in even more danger than they'd initially thought they'd be in.
Waltzing into Wan Shi Tong's domain with a fire tosser in your company was dangerous enough. The last thing the others needed was to be blindsided by an adversary powerful enough to scare a yokai. Especially if Wan Shi Tong was already at their throats. For the sake to team 'Dark Avatar' as Icky so enthusiastically dubbed their little group; he needed to find out what exactly they were dealing with, and with any luck it would be something Lord Vaatu, and Mako could deal with.
Unfortunately, that wouldn't be as easy as it could have been had he been paying attention. Having lost himself for a moment to his own thoughts, worries, and the monotony of running up countless stairs; he'd failed to realize how much of a lead Sakuya had gained until at last he looked up only the tips of several tails disappear around a turn.
With his spiritual senses seemingly dampened in Wan Shi Tong's domain; Ayeon felt a twinge of panic at the prospect of losing his only lead, and quickly launched into an all-out sprint. Moving as swiftly as he could it took less than a moment before he found himself bursting onto the landing nearest to where Sakuya had believed Wan Shi Tong, and Vaatu were clashing.
Having gained a roughly forty second lead on him he'd half expected the elusive yokai to have disappeared altogether, but to his immense surprise he found her standing barely five feet from the stairs seemingly frozen with a look of shock on her face.
Focused entirely on the kitsune spirit Ayeon took several slow, wary steps forward until he stood by her side. "Sakuya?" he asked carefully, hoping not to startle her.
She gave no response.
Determined to serve his master, and help his friends; the aye-aye spirit sighed before reaching out, and gently touching the kitsune's shoulder. "Sakuya, who is he?"
"I…I don't know." She whispered, her eyes unblinking and unwavering from what lay before her.
Frowning Ayeon followed her gaze, and swiftly found himself equally stupefied for his trouble. "Master?"
For several tense moments Kuvira held Ikki close, her armored body wrapped protectively around the air nomad as they waited for the deafening thunder to die off as it echoed ominously throughout the ancient structure.
When silence finally prevailed, and no sound of further attacks could be heard, the two slowly opened their eyes to find a scene so surprising it could only be matched by how surreal it was.
There before them now several meters away was Wan Shi Tong with his wings spread wide, seemingly for balance as he crouched low over the floor. His feral form slowly shifting back to normal as countless volts of electricity arced painfully over his black form.
Looking down from the stunned owl spirit to the floor between them she felt her heart rate spike. There gouged deeply into the unyielding stone were six terrible grooves stretching from where the jaded librarian was now to just about where Ikki had been. A truly frightening testament not only to the lethality of the knowledge spirit, who likely could have torn through her armor like tissue paper, but to the sheer power it would have taken to force the great spirit back so far.
There was no doubt Mako was both a skilled, and powerful bender. His capabilities with lightning being nothing less than prodigious. Between taking down both Brutus and Arctos, there had been little doubt in her mind he could hold his own against a great spirit like Wan Shi Tong when things went south; anything involving Vaatu inevitably seemed to go south in one way or another, but to draw that much power with so little time, and movement? It was almost as unnerving as the unnatural chill that now filled the air, causing everyone's breath to fog before them.
"How dare you?" Wan Shi Tong seethed, having finally purged enough of the foreign energy from his body to speak. His hateful obsidian glare now solely focused on the fire bender behind them.
"How dare you?!" He hissed again, his fury mounting as he slowly rose back up to his full towering height, finally shrugging off the unexpectedly powerful strike. "You dare to wield that accursed element in my domain!"
"You'd be surprised just what I would dare to do when my loved ones are threatened." Mako stated coldly. His voice completely devoid of emotion as he began to move forward.
With the surrounding stone still refusing to bend to her will; Kuvira was hesitant to take her eyes off of Wan Shi Tong for even a moment, but feeling an increasingly familiar chill run down her spine at the Dark Avatar's icy tone, and hearing Ikki gasp in shock she finally glanced back, and felt her heart skip several beats for her trouble.
While the voice was colder and tone more dangerous than she'd ever heard before; the voice definitely belonged to Mako. The eyes however were something else altogether.
Instead of the warm amber she'd become so fond of over the past few days, or the full eyed red that made so much more appreciative of the amber; she beheld something far fiercer. While Wan Shi Tong's eyes were an unnerving obsidian; the entirety of Mako's eyes had become consumed by a darkness so black it could only be described as abyssal. Except of course for the irises, something all spirits seemed to lack, which was a searing crimson that easily made the glow of Vaatu's eyes appear rather dull in comparison, and could potentially rend any soul unfortunate enough to receive its focus.
After spending a year in near total isolation she'd become very familiar with the concept of staring into the abyss, but here and now through Mako's eyes; she could honestly say the abyss was staring back.
Neither Kuvira, or Ikki could bring themselves to look away as the fire bender stalked forward, without sparing them so much as a glance as he moved to face the great spirit of knowledge.
"We came here in peace, at the behest of others, seeking answers to some very serious questions, and you attack us. You attack a child, who has shown you nothing but respect." Mako stated coldly.
"Peace? Respect? Lies!" Wan Shi Tong hissed. "What would a fire bender know of peace? What would any of you miserable mud monkeys know about respect? If I've learned anything over the last few centuries it's that humanity's treacherous nature knows no bounds. All your kind does is lie, steal, and destroy."
With every word the owl spirit's fury mounted. His anger already grown to the point of blinding him to the unnatural change in the fire bender's eyes. The owl spirit's fury continued to mount with every word, while his aura grew to fill the vast hall with a malicious intent that even Kuvira could sense. Even without Ikki now trembling in her arms.
Slowly rising to her feet Kuvira gently pulled the young air nomad her, and carefully began to back away from the escalating conflict; momentarily drawing Wan Shi Tong's attention back to them.
At least until Mako ignited a furious orange flame in his right hand. Instantly reclaiming the librarian's attention.
"Pretty big talk from the spirit that just tried to kill my little sister." Mako snarled as he glanced pointedly at the countless surrounding book cases not to far away; only to suddenly clench his fist, snuffing out the flames. "You trusted people, you gave unto them, and they betrayed you. I've been there. You want retribution, to lash out, and force others to feel your pain. I get that."
"You get nothing!" Wan Shi Tong screeched, flaring his wings out threateningly. "I built this library to serve as a haven. A place where any and all with a thirst for knowledge, and a desire to learn could come, and find solace within these halls. Just look at it now, what it has been reduced to."
"And you think that justifies murdering children in cold blood?" Mako demanded coldly. The only indication of his own mounting fury being the small volts of electricity starting to arc around the clenching fingers of his scared left hand.
"Yes!" The knowledge spirit snapped viciously as he slowly began to shift back into his dark spirit form. "Desecration is the very foundation of human nature; every man, woman, and child. All of you follow the same path, abusing, and ruining everything your kind comes in contact with. It's human nature, and not even the Avatar can rise above it."
"For so long I've held out hope for humanity; that there might be others like Unalaq. That's why I didn't slaughter the lot of you last night on my doorstep. I gave the Red Lotus a chance, and they bring a fire bender into my domain! No! No more humans! No more Lies! Only retribution!"
Finally at the end of his fuse Wan Shi Tong lunged forward once again with a furious avian screech. His talons raised to rend the fire bender before him to shreds.
"Idiot." Mako muttered as he swiped his left hand, fingers curled like claws through the air before him; seemingly ripping the ambient energy to shreds, and manifesting it into five massive arcs of lightning that swiftly disappeared into the corresponding digit that created them.
Feeling the massive surge of energy traveling up his arm, he almost didn't even have to think about it as his chi seemed to instinctively guide the foreign energy down through his stomach, and up through his right arm. However instead of releasing the energy as lightning, like any normal human must; Mako lunged forward to meet Wan Shi Tong with a punch aimed directly at the great spirit's center of mass, and unleashed an all-consuming inferno.
Unlike the previous lightning strike which knocked the great spirit back with momentous force, the inferno devoured its victim. Swiftly covering Wan Shi Tong's dark form in ravenous orange flames, and transforming his screech of fury into a piercing cry of agony.
Slamming to the floor Wan Shi Tong thrashed wildly about trying desperately to smother the flames, as his own energy instinctively surged in an attempt to counter the damaging heat. After several agonizing seconds the he managed to push through the pain, and regain a measure of focus. Sinking his talons deeply into the stone floor for purchase the great spirit rose yet again, and with a powerful flap of his mighty wings the flames were extinguished.
It was a short-lived victory however, for the second the agony began to fade Wan Shi Tong noticed the ambient temperature had dropped to near arctic levels. That realization was the closest thing he got to a warning before another massive lightning bolt struck him squarely in the chest, driving him back with so much force his talons tore away chunks of the floor with him, and launched him into the back wall which in turn cracked on impact.
Dazed, stunned, and smoldering the great spirit of knowledge could only crash to the floor helpless as his core struggled to purge the lightning from his system yet again, as well as repair the damage to his physical form. His fury was gone now, only to be replaced by pain, and confusion.
Fighting through the pain to reclaim his wits Wan Shi Tong could scarcely hear a someone crying out as the following thunder roared throughout the ancient library. Slowly opening his eyes; the first thing he could make out was the blurry form of Ikki back near the grand book cases, struggling against Kuvira's hold. As focus returned to him, he could make out a look of desperation on her young face as she fought to get away from the fearful metal bender trying to protect her.
As he lies there defeated, he could only wonder what the two humans could be so afraid of? Only to slowly turn his head to find Mako slowly stalking towards him.
With his rage no longer blinding him so, Wan Shi Tong could finally see his adversary clearly. From head to toe he appeared to be what he'd initially assumed, a man of fire, but now upon looking him in the eyes, and suffering under his fire, powerful beyond any mortal man; Wan Shi Tong could truly see. He was not human.
"This game is getting really old you know." Mako stated coldly as he came to tower over the felled spirit. "This is the third time now a spirit has picked a fight with me, and threatened those I hold dear. The first I put down, to stupid to see reason. The second I showed mercy, after putting him back in his place. They were minor spirits, stronger than most minor spirits, but young and ignorant. You however are a great spirit, the great spirit of knowledge in fact; therefore, there is no excuse. I expected you to be smarter than this. Such a pity." He concluded as he raised his hand, index and pointer fingers extended, and aimed directly at Wan Shi Tong's face.
Still unable to move as lightning continued to course through his being, and sensing the tell-tale chill of what was to come; the great owl spirit merely closed his eyes and prayed that his beloved library would be spared this demon's wrath.
Before Mako could discharge the bolt however; a powerful gust of wind slammed into him, knocking him away from his would-be victim.
Caught off guard, and furious at being interrupted; Mako whirled around, his hand raised and ready to unleash his fully charged death strike. Only to find Ikki standing before him with a look of fear on her face, and tears in her eyes.
"Mako?" She asked hesitantly, her voice shaking.
She was afraid of him.
"Vaatu!" Kuvira yelled finally breaking free of her own fear to rush forward, putting herself firmly between him, and the young air nomad.
"Master?" Called yet another voice, this one more sounding more confused than fearful.
Unable to look away from his companions the Dark Avatar instinctively reached out with his spiritual senses.
Ayeon, and he wasn't alone. Mako realized as he felt the terrified aura of another spirit. Young, slightly stronger than the aye-aye, darker. A yokai. What was a yokai?
Abyssal eyes widening in shock Mako gasped as though he were just awakening from a nightmare only to find a reality he couldn't comprehend. His heart which had been beating so slowly as he overwhelmed Wan Shi Tong was now beginning to race.
With his anger sundered, the possession of knowledge he shouldn't have, and no longer able to look his terrified companions in the eye; Mako raised his arm straight up, and discharged all the pent-up energy he'd intended for Wan Shi Tong.
Having seen this twice now Kuvira and Ikki had instinctively covered their eyes as a blinding light once again filled the vast hall, while thunder roared throughout the ancient structure.
When the sound of thunder finally faded to a distant echo, and the startled minor spirit's vision cleared the Dark Avatar was gone.
Hey everyone. first and foremost I want to say I'm sorry it's been so long. There are so many excuses I could give, but if you are anything like me you prefer results, and after rewriting this chapter I believe I can finally carry on with this story. when i first posted this chapter I thought it was fine, but i soon realized I'd left myself on unstable ground plot wise, and i just couldn't bring myself to move on until I fixed it. Despite all this time, lack of updates, and lack of responses this story has never been far from my mind, and the fact that so many of you care enough about this story to stick with it after so long. You guys are amazing. With any luck reposting this chapter will finally kill my writers block, and the hiatus will be over! Now as always read, review, enjoy, and I hope to see you next chapter.