Chapter 17: The Soul Goes Through The Mandatory Beach Episode With Emotional Bonding

Three days prior, Zuko's beach house had been destroyed. Analialiated. Blown into oblivion. Blown into the ocean. So the Gaang had been camped out, about 20 dwarf carcass lengths away from where the house had once been.

Kakyoin and Katara had gone into town with absolutely no money, and had come back with a construction company who was willing to rebuild their house. After looking through the options on what their new house could look like, the Gaang was excited, and had forgotten all about the Veronica Lodge, and the mention of other servants of Robert.

In the Gaangs minds their were only two cons in this situation. JET MURPHY had somehow survived the wreck, with only a few, major, life threatening injuries. They had left him alone 'to heal! His body needs to breath the fresh air!' for a few hours, and when they reluctantly came back to check on him, he was completely healed. "Dude! You guys should have seen it! This dude with mad drip used a diamond to heal me or something! It was crazy. I need to write a rap in his honor." Jet had said about the experience. The rap he had written was awful.

They had all been sitting around the fire together, eating a supper of anonymous food that Kakyoin had gotten from somewhere. He wouldn't tell them any more about it.

It was almost entirely dark out. The beach-grasses rustled, which was the only sound around. Normally the ghosts would be out, but they hadn't come back since being swept out to sea. The stars were beginning to shine overhead, with constellations that Jotaro, Kakyoin, and Joseph didn't know.

The fire crackled like fires tend to do. Not that the fire was needed; it was a warm night. But Kakyoin had insisted they make a fire, "To keep the Dark Things away.".

Jotaro was still mourning the loss of his hat. He had gotten a new one in town, but it was just a straw hat; nothing like the one he had had before, and JET MURPHY kept on stealing little bits of it to put in his mouth (Jet's mouth, not Jotaro's mouth).

Katara kept on subtly suggesting that JET MURPHY leave, but he wouldn't.

Kakyoin was in the process of getting his Stand to stop drinking, but it was very difficult.

Joseph was now more or less up to speed on everything that had happened. He kept on trying to give Jotaro advice on how best to live his live, and Jotaro invariably responded with

"I'm not taking advice from you, old Man. You're just trying to trample the little guy, and you cheated on Suzie Q. Why should I listen to you?" That was usually enough to make Joseph stop talking.

Zuko, of course, still hadn't stopped talking about ZINKO, and about how dark his soul was, and about how only Jotaro's new hat brought him happiness. This scared Jotaro very much.

Aang was still trying to be a 'good person', which mostly consisted of terrorizing younglings with his fashion choices.

They were all sitting around the fire, as I said before (try to keep up), when Jet swaggered to his feet, with an unnatural undulating motion. Toasting his glass of anonymous gray liquid, he said obnoxiously,

"Yo, homies and my girl Katara! I've been dropping some sick verses and beats about the man of my dreams. The very chill bro who saved me. I just gotta let him know that I'll never forget him."

The Gaang groaned. Jet stood up, amd started rapping, (also beatboxing):

Uh! Yeah yeah !

The diamond boi,

The diamond bro.

I love you more than I can throw

Verses on the haters!

Verses about my shawty and you.

No thoughts head emtyyyyyyyy

You pulled up

Like from a dream

And saved me

Just when I felt like some ice cream.

Never saw your face

But still I remember your pace

And the place

Where our eyes met.

You didn't spit verse

Only saved me from the hearse.

But it was enough.

Now you are the fluff,

O my shawty so buff.

My one and only

With you, I'd never be lonely

Uh

Aw Yeah

Yeah yeah

I looked up to the sky

And only saw you

And I knew it was true

Our love that we knew

But it wasn't gay or anything

Aw YEAH

I saw that hat hair

And your fashion with flare

And I knew no despair

Cause I know that you care

Uh

Oh yah

Yeah yea

My Diamond Bro

I know, I know

That you had to go.

Go with the flow.

Now you're gone

I feel used, like a pawn.

My heartbreak

It makes my heart ache.

Every day, I'll wait for you

Cause I know our love was true

I'll never forget you

My Diamond Boi

My Shawty so buff

My Diamond Bro

But not in a gay way or anything.

Uh

Aw Yeah

Yeah yeah"

They were all silent, they were so emotional. Not positive emotions, though.

"Listen, Jet. I think it's really sweet that you were in love with the Diamond guy, and we do support you, but I literally don't care." Jotaro said, gazing into the fire with angst. The rest of the Gaang sat there, trying to forget what they had just heard. All of them except for Aang.

Aang stood up, tears in his eyes, and gave JET MURPHY a huge hug.

"JET MURPHY, I'm so sorry you had to go through heartbreak, and I know he's out there! I'm sure he feels the same way about you!" Aang tried to comfort JET MURPHY, but Jet recoiled.

"Whoa bro, no homo. Like, just because I have a deep emotional conncection with my Diamond Bro, and really love him, and want to spend the rest of my life with him, and want to maybe adopt some children with him and get a dog, and move to the suburbs together and live in domestic bliss til the end of our days, til we're both old and are watching our grandchildren grow up DOESN'T MEAN IT'S GAY, AANG. Don't get it twisted, bruh. I'm not like that, like, I'm only into chicks. Strictly girls. Yes. For sure." Jet stared into the fire, longing for his Diamond Bro.

Aang uncomfortably went to sit back down.

"Hey, Kakyoin, didn't you also see the diamond guy who healed you? A couple days ago, when you got donuted." Aang looked at Kakyoin questioningly

Kakyoin furrowed his eyebrow, deep in thought. Then he nodded.

"Yeah, come to think of it, I did see the guy. He healed me."

JET MURPHY leapt up 5 feet in the air.

"WHAT?! YOU SAW HIM?!-" Then Jet got all quiet, and sat down next to Kakyoin, and his voice got low. He looked pleadingly at Kakyoin, "Y-you saw him? My diamond bro? Was he okay? Did he look happy? Did it look like he'd eaten that day?! ANSWER ME!"

Kakyoin sighed, exasperated. He had been sitting out in the elements all day, sleeping only in a tent. He hated it.

"You know what JET MURPHY? He looked awful. He actually looked like he'd been crying. He looked malnourished, too. And he had a black eye, cause I actually punched him in the face! On top of that, he had like 4 wedding rings on! And I could just tell by looking at them, that they were from 2 men and 2 women!" None of this was true, but Kakyoin said it with so much confidence while looking straight at JET MURPHY, JET MURPHY had no choice but to believe it. Jet slumped over onto his side, and didn't say anything.

The Gaang looked at Jet with pity. They had never seen him like this before. It stirred up emotions in Zuko that he hadn't felt in a long time. The past few days, ever since ZINKO took over, had been a blurry haze. His life had been so confusing, and he had spent so long wondering who he truly was, and when ZINKO came into the mix it made it even more confusing.

"I thought when I became ZINKO, I wouldn't have to worry about my identity anymore…. But I still don't know. I tried to capture Aang, to please my father, but that didn't work. I've always been second-best to Azula… I wanted to be exactly like her. She was the ideal child, like a strongly powered automobile. Then I had the whole identity crisis with my two grandfathers, and that was a hot mess. All that time, I should've been thinking about my uncle… I let him down. Oh god, I let him down so badly…. Like, WAY down. Like, 50 000 leagues under the sea. And then I just wanted to get away from that…. And there was you, Katara… I still love you. I know that you don't love me back, but…. I don't know. Maybe I just latched onto you in the place of my family. And I didn't expect this. I don't know what I thought would be when I was ZINKO. I thought Zuko would be gone. But… I'm Zuko. Zukos still here. I remember everything. My mom and my sister and my dad and my uncle. And all of you guys. But I just… screwed it all up with ZINKO. " Zuko looked sadly at Katara, but also with trust. Katara reached out her hand towards Zuko. He took it.

"Zuko… I'm sorry. I know I've said it before, but it just wouldn't work. But you are my friend. I think you probably understand me better then anyone here, even my ex-husband Jotaro. When you think about it, we've had similar experiences. I mean, both of our mothers died or left, and we're both adrift in this cold, cold world. We may never get together, but we are friends. Even if I mercilessly bully you most of the time… I'm sorry for that. I'll stop once Mercury is out of retrograde." Katara smiled at Zuko, he smiled back weakly.

Jotaro poked the fire with a stick, and put a rock in it (for no reason). Kakyoin muttered some indiscernible words under his breath, and the rock left the fire. It didn't float, exactly, it more just wasn't there all of a sudden, and was on the ground.

"If you put rocks in the fire, they can explode. We should probably avoid that." said Kakyoin, looking at the rock. Picking it up, he put it in his pocket.

"This could be useful later, you never know. If it's got a lot of emotional residue I could probably use it for something." He smiled faintly.

"Alright, this is ridiculous. Kakyoin, what exactly is going on with you? You're always saying cryptic stuff, like about the Dark Ones, and breaking out of the Institue of the Insane or something? And then you literally banished Toph's letter, how did you do that! And I don't even know what I just saw with the rock there, because that definitely wasn't your stand moving it. What's going on with you?" Jotaro demanded.

Laughing in response, Kakyoin just patted Jotaro on the head (as was his habit).

"That's what you're wondering about? It's not that big a deal, Jotaro. More importantly, what's up with you? What happened with Jay, your brother? And Motaro, Yotaro and Kotaro? I know there's things you aren't telling us."

Jotaro glared at Kakyoin, adjusting his straw hat so he wouldn't have to look at his friends.

"I told you already, I don't remember anything about Jay. I have literally no idea who that is! And my brothers, Motaro, Yotaro and Kotaro… they're gone; my dear Papa disowned them. I'll never see them again, and I can't change that, and neither can you!" he said loudly, echoing slightly into the night. It was now entirely dark, and the firelight on all of their faces was slightly eerie. Kakyoin sighed and stood up.

"We're gonna have to do this the hard way, aren't we. I'm sorry about this, Jotaro, but this is for you're own good." Kakyoin leaned over to Jotaro, arm outstretched. Jotaro moved away, nervous.

"Hey, Kakyoin, what are you doing? What are you-" Jotaro scrambled away, but Kakyoin quickly reached over and grabbed his straw hat off. Patting Jotaro on the head, he lightly chucked the rock (with emotional residue on it) at Jotaro, which bounced off the side of his head.

Jotaro flopped over, like a puppet with its strings cut.

"...Oh no." Kakyoin leaned over him, shaking him slightly.

"Jotaro? Uh, could you please wake up?" Kakyoin started to shake him slightly more frantically.

"Kakyoin, what did you do?! Did you kill Jotaro? What did you do?!" Katara demanded.

"I don't know! I'm usually good at stuff like this; I told you mental stuff was my specialty!"

"Well, clearly it wasn't enough of your specialty! You've just killed my ex-husband!"

Kakyoin and Katara's voices got steadily louder, getting more and more annoyed, but also more and more worried. Jotaro still wasn't moving. His head was also smoking slightly; a faint stream of reddish mist.

Suddenly, a flash of pinkish light lit the air.

"Kurazy Diamondo!"

Another flash of pink light, and Jotaro moved a bit.

"Jotaro! Are you ok?" Kakyoin asked, concerned and slightly frantic. Jotaro sat up, confused.

"Kakyoin, please don't mess with my head again…" he said faintly.

JET MURPHY scrambled to his feet, looking around wildly for where the flash of light had come from.

"Diamond Bro! Where… where did you go? Come back, bro! We gotta talk!" He trailed off, looking around wildly.

Kakyoin shook Jotaro slightly. "Well? Do you remember anything? That should've worked."