Chapter 35: The soul ride the millennium falcon
Everyone slept in huge, comfortable beds provided by the Council of Lions. Everyone but L. He stayed awake all night as he always did, thinking and doing God knows what. But what he did isn't important, because he is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, just like an ant is irrelevant to Coachella, even though ants are present there, every damn year.
The Gaang rose bright and early, and ate breakfast. Even Zuko ate with them. He acted as if he hadn't tried to kill Kakyoin the night before, and after they were all done eating, Katara, who had elected herself group leader, rose.
"Good now team. We has't all eaten. We has't new pow'rs. I beleive we art ready to visage robeth'rt. Not yond we has't much of a choice."
"Good freakin' grief. I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready to punch the shit out of Robert's mind," Jotaro said. Kakyoin clapped for Jotaro, because he had said what Kakyoin was thinking.
"Yeah, I think this ring will be able to do some damage to Robert somehow. The ring was basically made by a god, sooo…" Kakyoin trailed off, realizing Zuko's eyes were on him, like a hungry predator, or a large lion.
"How the frick are we gonna get back to freakin' land?" Jotaro grumbled, looking out one of the stain-glass windows into the empty void of blue sky, clouds far below.
Suddenly, a door opened! And L slithered in.
"Hello, guys," L said quietly. He was limping and his eye bags looked worse than usual.
"Thee looketh horrible," Katara said.
"Yes… unfortunately Kakyoin wounded me substantially in our scrap last night," L said.
Kakyoin didn't look guilty.
"Anyways… I hope you are all very well rested… because… it is time for us to go," L said.
"Oh, man! Don't tell me you're coming with us!" Kakyoin fumed. HE spat out his orange juice in L's face.
"Yes… I will be accompanying you… I cannot fight Robert… but I will be your guide back to the world," L said. Now, they were all already familiar with the world, the old Gaang having lived there for their entire lives, and the new Gaang having travelled extensively in the past few weeks. Actually, they probably knew the world better than L did, seeing as he spent all his time holed up in his room watching various suspects on computer screens. But nobody said this out loud (though they were all thinking it).
They all finished their breakfast as L stared intently at their faces. Then L led them to the airplane hanger in the basement. There was a spaceship there and it was really epic and retro looking.
"This is the Millennium Falcon… the fastest ship in the galaxy… I will use it to fly you to earth," L said. He ran a hand over the smooth metal of the ship, accidentally slicing his hand open because it wasn't actually smooth at all. The Millenium Falcon was actually covered in tiny razor blades; it was a very dangerous ship to run your hand along. "The previous owner was killed by Kira, so I just took it for my own," L smiled, bandaging his hand with a piece of Kakyoin's hair. Kakyoin didn't mind; it was a wig anyways.
"Well, I don't trust machines very much. They are freakin 'unreliable," Jotaro fumed, glaring at L. L raised his non-existent eyebrows.
"Isn't your stand, Star Platinum a… machine?" L said. Everyone looked at L. They couldn't believe how stupid he was.
"Are you stupid or something?" Jotaro spat at L. Kakyoin joined in, screaming, "You seriously think that stands are MACHINES?! NO! Jesus, they always say your the best detective in the world, but you are stupid as hell!"
"Shutteth up, all of you!" Katara said firmly. Then she walked onto the ship. The doors opened for her, because she was a god. The ship was a complete dump. It was covered in crumbs and food, because L had been using it as his home for years.
"Couldn't you have cleaned up a bit before we got here?!" Kakyoin snapped at L.
"I forgot," L said.
A vision of the council of Lions appeared in the air and addressed the Gaang.
"Good luck, young ones. Save this world, if you can." Aslan said. Then, the vision disappeared, and the Gang began to make themselves comfortable. Jotaro sat at a table perfectly still and put his hat over his eyes. Kakyoin sat in a corner, petting The Ring and staring at it like a man staring at a small animal. Zuko hid behind a corner and stared at Kakyoin, squinting, trying to see the ring.
After a few seconds, Zuko realized he had been holding his breath. Every moment his skin wasn't touching the cool metal of The Ring, he was in pain. His thoughts swam. They always came straight back to The Ring.
Katara sat by a window as the spaceship began to fly into the sky. Katara's breath was taken away by the beauty of the cosmos. Stars burned in every direction. The vastness of the blue black felt suffocating. Katara pictured her body floating somewhere alone in the black. Her eyes were open. That might be a nicer end than being murdered by Robert of sponge. What is the point of the glorious death of a warrior, if there is no one to bury you? No one to remember you?
Katara got up, and walked to the room where L was piloting the ship. He was sitting in his peculiar way and handling the controls of the ship with precision and accuracy. Katara wasn't sure if he had noticed her. She looked out the window at the stars, stretching on for years and eons. Before she was a god, she could never see anything like this. But now, her aggressive eyes pierced through the space fog, seeing every single star. It made her feel small. But it was comforting in a way. "I didn't'st thinketh stars were'th so many different colors," she said quietly.
"Doest one ev'r receiveth not restful of this view?"
L didn't look at her. "Please speak normally, medieval era speech is not one of the 6 languages that I know."
Katara sighed and tried to form the words in her mouth. They felt strange, as though she has spoken in the way of the Thunder god for her whole life.
"Just, um, the stars. They're beautiful, don't you think?" she said.
L shrugged. "I'm sorry, I can't answer that. I am an analytical person, with little time for things like stars. For me, the most beautiful and amazing thing is FINALLY CATCHING KIRA/KAKYOIN AND SENDING HIM TO JAIL. Unless he is in the sky, I can't say I'm interested. And the stars in the sky are things of power and magic, not pixels. They are not for me," L said.
Katara looked at L with pity.
"That's terrible. Don't you ever get overwhelmed by everything so close by, everyone so close by, and just have to look farther away? The stars are just so far away, they don't have to deal with everyone fighting, or Robert. I believe I could stay in awe of them forever," Katara said.
Small buttons and machines beeped quietly on the ship. Nothing seemed to move.
"I guess I'm trying to say, how do you contemplate your existence in a beautiful universe that you cannot see? How do you live the way you do?" Katara asked.
L swiveled the chair around, and looked at Katara. Standing and going over to the fridge in the corner, he grabbed a corpse from the freezer, looked at it, then put it back. He spoke: "I think there are many people like me… we humans have limited capacity for everything. But you are a god. You will see more of the cosmos, more of the world, than most people ever will. Even your group members… you have much more power than them, and they know it," L said.
Katara looked at the fridge, wondering who's corpse that was.
"I will see no more of the cosmos if I die. Do you mean to say I should be fighting this battle alone?"
"No. The council believes in you and your friends. They are putting their hope in you. I do not think you will die," L said.
"Do you believe they are correct in putting their hope in us?" Katara asked.
"If you really want to know what I think… Jotaro, Kakyoin and Zuko are useless. But do believe you can defeat him, and I'll help you however I can. Within reason, obviously."
Katara smiled. "Thank you."
"Yes, you're welcome. I'm fairly competant at inspiring people to go to what will likely be their death- I MEAN, at inspiring people…. To, uh… fight the battles we never could!"
"Uh, yeah. Yond's not sup'r inspiring," Katara said. But even so, she felt slightly more hopeful. Gotta see gotta know kakashi sensei's real face!