Chapter 27: The Soul Falls, Oh So Far

"Well, I'm glad you are all in one piece!" Sokka smiled at our protagonists. "Jotaro! You're hat, bought at the price of Appas life, is looking better than ever! It just… fits on your head so well. Have I ever told you that?"

Jotaro eyed Sokka with hate.

"I know it fits well, dumbass. It's my hat. Now shut up." Jotaro began casually smoking a cigar.

"But Jotaro! With your stage four lung cancer, you really shouldn't be smoking." Sokka added.

"What?! Do I have freakin lung cancer?" Jotaro cried.

"Anyways, Katara! My beautiful little sister! Are you well?" Sokka stretched out his arms, to give her a hug. Katara stepped away. She wasn't in the mood to be hugged, not with everything that had just happened.

"I'm fine, Sokka. We have more important things to discuss. Let's all go get something to eat, I'm famished." Katara's stomach growled. Sokka shook his finger at Katara.

"No no little sister! I must greet you all individually!" Sokka then turned to Zuko. His smile melted. "Zuko, are you okay man? I feel like you've gone through a lot ever since this fiasco started. And I'm going to be honest, I have no idea where you're at right now. LIke, as a person. No, as a man."

Zuko began to giggle softly, but after noticing the perplexed looks of the other, he stopped.

"I'm okay right now. Thanks, man. I always knew I could count on you to care about me, Sokka! You're my best friend, and this whole adventure has gotten in the way of us talking. Wanna really hang out sometime, and just be bros? It would be really fun." Zuko seemed to be feeling well.

"Zuko, I would love too, but that's just kinda cringe." Sokka stared into Zukos breaking soul. Zuko looked down sadly.

"Aang, little buddy! How's… being bald?! Is it fun? You having fun?" Sokka laughed. Our protagonists couldn't help but notice how down Aang looked. That Gaang didn't remember exactly when it started, but Aang looked… older. With a look of… sad determination. It also looks as if his tattoos were fading. They looked pale, and old. Aang just looked at Sokka with mistrust.

"Ha! You're so funny Aang." Sokka tried to lighten the mood by rubbing Aang's tiny bald head, but just before his hand met Aang's head, Aang grabbed Sokka's hand. Aang looked Sokka right in the eye. There was a moment of silence.

"I wouldn't do that, Sokka. That's actually really disrespectful to me and my culture."

Sokka gulped.

"Oh… ha… sorry, Aang." There were another few seconds of silence. The only sound was the wind blowing through the empty streets of a seemingly deserted Ba Sing Se.

"Sokka, please hurry up with this weird greeting thing you're doing. As Katara said, we have important things to discuss." Aang said coldly.

"Heyy… Kakyoin!" Sokka turned to Kakyoin, clad in green as always.

"Hi." Kakyoin replied.

"Hi, how's the… uhh…" Sokka searched for something to say. "You know what? No, I have no idea what to say to you. Why? Cause you're so… weird! Like, what are you?"

"I am so much more than you will ever be, little man." Kakyoin replied flatly. Sokka looked as if he was going to say something, then stopped.

Ten minutes later, they all went for brunch. They had an extravagant morsel of omelettes, eggs and bacon. Also pancakes. Why did they do this? Because they were hungry.

"That really hit the spot. Do you guys want to see a fun fact about how you are at a restaurant and you tap the table they will give you more tea?" Kakyoin happily questioned.

"No. We have more important things to talk about." Katara glared at him. "Sokka, me and Aang were talking about something this morning. And I think you should hear it. I think we know why weird stuff has been happening lately."

Sokka started at his plate, then slowly looked up. He fixed his gaze across the table, on Katara. There was an uncomfortable silence.

"I see. And you have told Kakyoin, Jotaro and Zuko about this… theory?" Sokka began to fold his napkin into the shape of a gun.

"Yes. I filled them all in after Jay's little episode. They all agree."

There was another silence.

"C'mon Katara, tell him. Or else he's just going to keep sitting there and folding his napkin." Jotaro grumbled from beneath his hat.

"You know what? You guys should tell me when we are on Paap. We can go to a new place, then you can fill me in. Then we'll talk strategy." Sokka began to fold a second gun with another napkin.

"Um okay." Katara said. So, they all finished eating in complete silence and Sokka led them to where Paap was. He was in an abandoned warehouse. The warehouse looked as if it had been inhabited by the Unemployed, who seemed to have entirely disappeared over the last few hours. The Gaang thought this was weird, but they hoped they had all just gotten jobs. One by one, they climbed onto Paap. Sokka kept talking calmly about how great the breakfast had been.

"Okay, now can we tell you?" Katara asked Sokka once they were in the air.

"Yep!" Sokka said as he began to take out his napkin guns.

"What in the freaking hell are those napkin guns, Sokka?" Jotaro asked.

"That is none of your business, Jotaro." Sokka said.

"Okaaayyyy!" Jotaro replied. Then his face went pale. "What the hell? That sounds like… no! It couldn't be! That sounds like… how my mother, Holly Kujo speaks! It's almost as if her presence is here, influencing me! But no… that's impossible!"

"Shut up, Jotaro. Anyways, this is our theory." Katara said "We all think that we have been being influenced over the past couple of weeks. We are all acting strange! Weird stuff is happening to us! We think Robert has been messing with our heads and keeping us busy with ridiculous side villains! JET MURPHY? VERONICA LODGE? JUGHEAD? JAY? It's ridiculous! Don't you agree?" The Gaang all looked anxiously at Sokka, awaiting his response. Sokka looked at them all one by one. His eyes seemed clouded, like he was far away. Then he sighed and smiled.

"You all are smart. I'll give you credit for that. This was bound to happen at some point." Sokka laid the napkin guns out. The Gaang shifted awkwardly.

"Sokka, what are you going on about?" Kakyoin asked. "You're being weird. I'm the weird one, dumbass."

"It's been fun, guys. Really. I knew all along I would have to get rid of you, but part of me didn't want to. Playing the part of Sokka, your beloved friend, brother and lover and father. Not to all of you at once, cause that would be weird. But it has been fun."

"What? Who's lover or father are you?" Katara demanded.

"I realize now that I may have misread some of your group dynamics, but I did my best! But really, I am sorry." Sokka said, a grin on his face. The gaangs small hearts went cold as they realized something was very wrong.

"But before I end all of you, you deserve to know the truth…. The Final Truth."

Katara frowned, picking up one of the napkin guns.

"Sokka, is this some weird prank? Do you think this is funny?"

Sokka laughed, like the high pitched chattering of a Dopplephine. Jotaro sat straight up, inhaling so fast he accidentally inhaled one of the napkin guns and began to choke.

"Stop having such a weird reaction to anything marine-related!" Sokka angrily shouted, thumping Jotaro on the back. He stopped choking out of pure rage, that Sokka had hit his beautiful coat.

"Anyways, the Final Truth. The night this all started, that fateful night at the play…. Sokka died. He was impaled by 13 forks and 2 spoons. Sokka has been dead for weeks."

The back of Paap was silent, in the cold night air as he flew luckily out of the warehouse. The moon was covered by the pale clouds, casting everyone in a dramatic manner (which makes no sense given that the moon was covered).

"Really? None of you are even going to question what I just said?" Sokka asked irritably. "Well, fine. I'll just keep going til I get a reaction."

He re-crossed his abnormally long legs, and continued.

"As I was saying-"

"You, Sokka Nijimura, ran all the way to Australia, and came back with secret Australian powers? And that's why you've been acting so Australian? So, some might even say?" Aang exclaimed excitedly.

"What? No. Not even close, you ludacris fool. Anyways, back to The Final Truth. That fateful night at the play, as I came through the portal on the stage, I sensed the power that your group held. So I separated my true consciousness from my body. My true consciousness then infected your friend Sokka, taking him over and killing his true mind. But in his last, dying moments, he felt as if he was being awakened by the voice of Obama. But no, that was death calling him. He is in a better place now. He died happily, unaware of what was going on. Even in death, he did not know death. His soul is at rest. Once I had successfully infected him, my soulless body began to do battle with Katara, as you remember. So obviously, it lost. It had no real soul, and soilless things are not known for their intelligence. Kakyoin here is the exception." Robert-Sokka looked at Kakyoin, the lad clad in green.

Kakyoin nodded.

"Yeah, I sold mine a while back for some weed. The weed was crap."

"Why didn't you share any with me?"

"Dude, this was like 30 years before I met you, around 2001."

"WHAT? Kakyoin, it's 1988!"

"In your reality. Time is Jeremy Beremy."

"Shut your stupid mouth."

Robert continued speaking.

"Once I infected Sokka, I put my plan into action. I began throwing the most ridiculous situations at you, half of them were for my own amusement. You guys fell for all of them. Of course, I communicated with my body as well, giving it commands. It has been destroying your world all this time. And you didn't know. And it didn't occur to you that you should go find out what was happening, because I began influencing you as well. Just a safety measure, in case you started to suspect something. And I guess I got careless and the magic wore off, allowing you to finally realize what was going on. And you might be wondering: why don't I just reinstate the spell, keep on going as we have been?" He studied the Napkin-gun. "To be honest, I'd like to, but I'm almost done with this world. I've consumed most of the worthwhile beings here, already. It's dried out, like a peanut left under a couch for a few months. Tho tbh id probs still eat it lol. I must be moving on, though." He laughed. "Upwards and onwards, yes?"

The Gaang was silent. They couldn't comprehend what they were hearing. Katara's heart died. The wind whistled in their ears, as Paap soared horribly and disgustingly above the clouds, defiling their otherwise pristine beauty. The ground couldn't be seen through the fluffy moisture masses (clouds, you fool).

"Well, I might as well cut to the chase if none of you are going to say anything. I have to kill you, sooo…" His Sokka-like eyes shifted around the group. They could now clearly see that Sokka's body wasn't quite containing Robert's soul any more: His skin had a spongy quality to it. His eyes were a gleaming red. His teeth were all over 45 feet long, which they honestly should have noticed way earlier.

"Really, I am sorry. Just a bit." With that, without a spoonful of warning, he leapt towards Aang. With a swift motion, Robert drove Sokka's fist and arm straight through Aang's torso. Aang screamed, as liquid began to run from his eyes.

"AANNGGGGG!" Everyone screamed in unison, louder than the wind in their ears. Louder than Aang screamed and would ever scream again. Aang went flying at least 10 meters from Paap. Before the gang had time to react, Paap disitigrated beneath their feet.

They began to fall, the wind drowning out their screams. and Robert's laughter. They fell like small scraps of paper, being tossed by the wind.