Chapter 6: Leaders and Followers
Keeping Gun in check had occupied most of Suda's time for the past week. The badgermole heard his commands but simply didn't care; Gun was still waiting for Sen to come back to him. The sight of Suda trying to tame an emotional badgermole was amusing for Ada, but Sorikami seemed to be keeping Suda at arm's length for reasons Ada didn't quite understand. Sorikami had never been comfortable around Suda, not since the first day they'd met.
Sorikami had been treating Ada about the same as usual. The sword master was helping Ada distract herself from her emotions by doing sword drills and other training exercises. Ada was glad to have something to take her mind off of things, especially when the distraction was as enriching as learning from a master like Sorikami. She'd always dreamed of learning from a real master; the instructors in Zaofu were talented, but nothing special, and her independent study could only take her so far.
She was surprised at how she'd fallen out of practice in recent weeks. Her body seemed sluggish and unresponsive compared to what it had once been. The crude haircut she had given herself at Tunuk Bay was hardly helping either; it was no longer long enough to pull back in a braid, and the short strands kept sweeping into her face. Sorikami noticed every time she had to flick the errant strands aside. Ada didn't know how she was being graded, but that would probably count against her.
Ada went through the final steps of the Jie Lan form, carefully measuring her steps and the sweep of her arm. Her muscle memory wasn't quite up to par, but her mind was still a steel trap. It didn't come as naturally as before, but she could still retrace every step and every movement of the form. It wasn't easy, but it was still perfect.
"You're slipping," Sorikami said, instantly demolishing Ada's self-esteem. "Your form is exceptional, but it's too relaxed."
Sorikami stood up and guided Ada's hand and feet into place, tapping them lightly until she felt satisfied with Ada's pose.
"You're relying too much on what feels natural. The proper way to do this is to follow the stances exactly. Every step, every movement, must be perfect. You cannot make exceptions simply because it is comfortable or convenient."
Sorikami knew exactly what had happened to Ada, but if she spelled it out for the girl it would only hurt her progress. Ada had lost her passion. Where once she had loved combat, taken pleasure out of violence, there was now emptiness. She had been shown the real face of conflict; it was a horrible, ugly beast that devoured the people you loved. She could no longer enjoy fighting having lost someone so close to her to violence. Sorikami understood the feeling. This was the proper way to use a sword, though. One had to completely divorce oneself from the emotion of combat. Those who enjoyed combat, found any kind of art in it, would eventually walk down a dark path.
Sorikami needed to teach her discipline, not emotion, to make Ada into a new warrior. She would need to relearn much, maybe even everything, but Sorikami knew that she was more than capable of destroying any trace of the old Ada.
"I know that," Ada admitted. "I just need time to remind myself how to do all of this. I need to practice."
"You need to reconnect with yourself," Suda advised. Sorikami's eyes briefly lit up with surprise. She wasn't used to people being able to sneak up on her. Suda had a way of doing it regularly.
"I've got an idea about that," Suda said. Sorikami excused herself, muttering something under her breath. Ada watched her go, wondering why she was avoiding Suda so deliberately.
"How long has it been since you called home? Talked to your mom and dad, your boyfriend, all of them?"
Ada had been toying with idea for a long time, but had never gotten around to it. She couldn't think of anything to say. She knew in the back of her head that all her friends and family back in Zaofu would be happy just to hear her voice, but the thought of having to explain the things she'd done recently turned her off the idea. She had abandoned an entire city to be destroyed, and then one of her friends. She didn't know how she could tell the people who'd trusted her that she had failed so spectacularly.
"I'm not sure what I would say," She mumbled.
"Anything would work," Suda said. "There are a lot of people out there saying the Avatar's dead, Ada. They knew you were travelling with him, what are they going to think?"
Suda had a point. Ada had been much too concerned with her own feelings about reconnecting with her loved ones. She hadn't thought about what they were going through. She mumbled something about finding a phone and wandered into the city.
Gai Zhu was as typical a Fire Nation town as you might find; modern architecture and technology rapidly coming to dominate more archaic structures and methods. The Fire Nation had come to embrace technology much more strongly than other nations over the past century. The mysterious technology roadblock that affected all others affected them as well, but they were quicker to adapt to the innovations that already existed. Satomobiles, Televarricks and telephones were all much more commonly found in small towns like Gai Zhu. It was fairly easy for Ada to find a telephone that could get her to Ko Rin. Canto and her parents would not have a transcontinental phone line, so he would have to give messages through her master.
The phone rang a few times, and she began to wonder if Ko Rin would even answer. The thought set her heart pounding even harder until the moment Ko Rin picked up the line and offered a greeting.
"Hello, would you like to cut your electric bill?"
It felt stupid to say the line, but it was one of the safety measures Ko Rin had established for her. If he said "Not interested" it would mean their conversation was not private.
"Ada," Ko Rin said, sounding genuinely surprised. "Are you alright?"
The elderly Spymaster had not heard a word of Ada's progress since she had gone rogue at Zaofu. Ko Rin was surprised to hear from her at all.
"I'm fine, Master Ko Rin," Ada said. It was surprisingly comforting to hear his voice again.
"We've all been worried about you," Ko Rin said. He had once been planning to chastise her about abandoning her post, but he decided to skip that in light of recent events. "We heard rumors that the Avatar had been attacked, and then our operations began to be compromised."
"What do you mean," Ada said. Her fingers tensed around the phone receiver. "Is everyone alright?"
"We are all fine," Ko Rin assured her. "We've had to move our base of operations several times since the attack at Tunuk Bay. We were worried that they might have captured you and interrogated you."
Her heart skipped a beat. The Energybender knew about her allies, knew about Canto. In one way it was concerning because her friends and loved ones were at risk, but there was a bittersweet edge to it. Someone had to give the Energybender that information. Hanjo. She had always suspected that the Energybender would keep him alive long enough to be interrogated. Part of her hoped that he was still locked up somewhere, waiting to be rescued, but part of her also wondered if the Energybender was capable of such mercy. There was no way to know Hanjo's fate just yet.
"No, it wasn't me," Ada explained. "Hanjo- you remember the Avatar's companion- he stayed behind at Tunuk Bay to let us escape."
"I see," Ko Rin said. "Pass along my condolences to the Avatar."
"I will," Ada said. They were still prevented from seeing Sen by their promise to Hayao, but they would have to see him eventually. She did have one other concern at the moment.
"Could I talk to Canto," She asked. "Or my parents?"
She had said a short goodbye to Canto, and that made it a little easier to be apart from him, but she had never had a chance to say goodbye to her own parents. She still regretted that. Canto would have said goodbye for her, but it was something she should have said herself.
"I'm afraid that's impossible, at the moment. I will be sure to pass along word of your safety, though. They have all been very worried."
She was not surprised to hear that, but it still hurt. If Ko Rin's operation had been compromised, the security of Zaofu was at risk. That was more important than Ada's emotions. She sighed and asked one more question.
"When will I be able to talk to them again?"
"I'm sorry, Ada, but for now I have to ask you to keep your distance," Ko Rin said. "The security breach mostly concerns your role in our operation. Our enemies will be looking for any sign of you. It is better if you not contact Zaofu except in an emergency."
"Are you sure?"
"Your Spymaster commands it," Ko Rin said. Ada blinked involuntarily. Something in her eye, maybe. She sighed heavily. Ada had known as soon as she'd heard of the breach that this would be coming, but she had been hoping against hope that it wouldn't be the case.
"I understand. Goodbye."
"Goodbye, Ada. Stay safe, stay strong."
The phone line went dead, and Ada was left alone. This was not what she had wanted. When she had left Zaofu, when she had left Canto and her parents, she had not imagined responsibility would be this hard. She known that protecting the Avatar would be no easy task, but she had never imagined being cut off from her home and her loved ones completely.
She meandered back to the outskirts of Gai Zhu with her head hung low and her shoulders drooped. Suda had been trying to make idle conversation with an obstinate Sorikami, but he put his attempts on hold when he saw Ada return. His excitement quickly turned to awkward regret when he saw the forlorn look on Ada's face.
"What happened?"
"I can't call home again," Ada moped. Sorikami stared accusingly at Suda. Ada noticed that.
"Jeesh." Suda rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."
"It's complex," Ada said. "It's not your fault."
Sorikami thought to herself that it was entirely Suda's fault. Still, this was a positive advancement, to Sorikami's mind, for Ada's training. Losing contact with her friends and family would only aid Ada in letting go of her old self.
"I mean, it was my idea to have you call home. If I'd known it was going to end up like that-"
"It was a good idea, Suda," Ada interrupted. Calling home hadn't helped much at all, but mustering the motivation to do so had been a step forward. "Thank you for trying to help."
Sorikami watched warily as Ada reassured her friend. Suda eventually felt better and returned to his caretaking of Gun. As soon as he was gone, Ada shot a glare at Sorikami. The swordswoman melted under the gaze of her pupil.
"I suppose you've noticed, then. Your awareness certainly has not suffered."
"You might as well be wearing it around your neck," Ada accused. "What's your issue with Suda?"
"You can have your answer when you earn it," Sorikami said. Ada contained a groan. Sorikami had used this trick a lot. She would withhold information, or the next step in training, until Ada performed to Sorikami's standards.
"So let me try," Ada said.
Sorikami scoffed at the idea that Ada could even hope to meet her standards. Nonetheless, the attempt would provide some opportunities for education. Sorikami decided to indulge her apprentice. The two took up a combat stance.
Ada hesitated slightly before making the first move. As she had expected, Sorikami quickly deflected the blow and retaliated. Ada couldn't block in time, and the flat of Sorikami's blade slammed against her arm. She had yet to be cut by Sorikami, but somehow the dull blows of the metal hurt more.
Ada took a step backwards, putting a little more room between herself and Sorikami. She started maneuvering her feet carefully, altering her position depending on the angle of her attack. Sorikami halted the duel.
"Stand still," She hissed. "Keep your feet on the ground where they belong."
Sorikami advised Ada on the appropriate stance, and the duel resumed. Ada tried to stay in a steady stance, but it made things more difficult. She had learned how to fight on her feet, staying in motion to gain the advantage. Sorikami was forcing her to fight against her nature.
"You must focus on developing a strict, regimented routine," Sorikami advised. It was easy for her to talk, since Ada was fighting at such a disadvantage. "Everything else is tertiary. Your advantage of age, the terrain, the high ground; these things can change from battle to battle. But if you remain constant, unchanging, you will enter every battle with the same advantage."
Ada took another step back and stopped attacking for a moment.
"But when I was learning with-"
Sorikami ignored Ada's attempt at a pause in the fighting and smacked her protégés forearm with the dull side of her sword, hard. Ada recoiled in pain.
"You are learning with me now," Sorikami said. "And you will listen to what I say. Understand?"
"Yes, master," Ada sighed.
"You've failed today. Keep listening to me and maybe one day you'll earn your explanations."
Ada glared silently at the ground.
"Ada," Sorikami said harshly.
"Yes, master," Ada mumbled. Sorikami left without another word, leaving Ada alone on the beach, buried in her failure.
"This looks like a dead end to me, boss," Duga grunted. Everything he said was a grunt, like he didn't know how to actually talk. The airbender had been annoying before, and he'd only gotten worse when reunited with the rest of the Imperfects.
The other three of them, Paz, Huel, and the worst of the bunch, an overly dramatic waterbender who insisted on being called "The Eel", were searching the remainder of Sorikami's castle. The Harrier was desperately hoping that Sorikami actually was here, and that she would kill one or more of the Imperfects. At the moment, it seemed like a pipe dream. The structure was clearly abandoned, much like the last time the Harrier had been here.
He had participated in the murder of Pendrak Ong more than a decade ago. Back then he had just been a footsoldier, a nameless servant of the current Energybender's older brother. He'd developed his technique for rapidly creating lightning, and his reputation, in the years since. Now he was the one ordering grunts to their deaths.
"We ain't got jack, boss," Paz shouted from a nearby doorway. She was the only girl (The Harrier was loathe to call her a woman) among the Imperfects, and she relished in their misplaced affection for her, bouncing around the oafish men at her whims. Harrier was willing to admit she was attractive, but her attitude made her about as appealing as spoiled milk.
"Hey, can we keep this place? There's a lot of silk around here, and you know how I like it."
"We leave no sign we were here," The Harrier commanded. "Put everything back where you found it."
He had heard the sound of cracking stone earlier, likely Huel tearing the place apart, that made him doubt they would really be able to cover their tracks. The Energybender, the most powerful person alive, had given them a standing order to be discrete, and yet Huel was literally tearing apart walls in his search. "The Eel" would probably spray paint his nickname on something as well. Apparently it was his trademark. The Harrier had destroyed no less than three cans of paint, and yet The Eel always found another one just in time to ruin Harrier's day.
The Eel returned from his search of the large courtyard at the back of Piandao's castle. He walked with a slow, awkward gait he liked to call his "slither", but it looked less like a slithering eel and more like a drunken idiot with a large log up his backside.
"Nothing out there either, Harrier."
That had been expected. The Harrier had assigned the Imperfects to the locations where he didn't expect to find anything, just so they wouldn't screw up the actual important search. The Harrier had put himself in charge of searching the library.
Harrier had thought he'd struck a goldmine for a moment, finding hundreds of books, maps, and manuscripts, but his opinion had quickly changed when he'd examined the contents. Every single one of these thousands of documents was about metalbenders. Biographies of famous metalbenders like Kuvira, analytical essays on what metalbenders were capable of, and, most commonly, combat manuscripts on how to counter metalbending.
This told them absolutely nothing about the Avatar, but it was an interesting fact about Sorikami. For some reason, she was absolutely terrified of metalbenders. That would be something to keep in mind if they ever crossed paths.
Huel slammed his way through a door, knocking the hinges loose, with Paz clinging to his shoulders. Huel was the current target of her "affections", so they were effectively inseparable. She would eventually move on to The Eel, as she had just recently partnered up with Duga, and after him the cycle would start over again. The Harrier had seen it happen far too many times during the search.
"There is nothing in the castle," Huel declared. He talked much too loudly and emphatically, taking a brief pause before shouting each word. It suited his bull-headed personality, and it made Harrier want to punch him in the teeth.
"See, dead end, just like I told you," Duga grunted. The Harrier slapped him in the face. Had it been anyone else, the other Imperfects would have jumped to his defense, but they were all terrified of Harrier's lightning. Also his throwing arm. The Harrier had an uncanny talent for throwing objects, usually at whoever annoyed him.
"Idiot. Sorikami left her castle for the first time in years. Where would she go and why?"
"S'not like there's anyone we can ask," Paz whistled. "All the people got scared off a long time ago."
"Just stay here," The Harrier commanded. "Don't touch anything else."
The Harrier turned his back on the Imperfects and headed into town. He had seen something suspicious earlier that bore investigating. The abandoned city of Shu Jing was quiet and hollow. For the first time in days, The Harrier felt something like peace. Despite the serenity, he had a mission to attend to.
The building he stopped in front of had clearly not collapsed of natural causes. Something had torn it down, deliberately, scattering the debris in unnatural patterns. Massive claw marks scored the ground. A badgermole had been here. Other than that, there were no signs of any naturally living thing. Harrier focused his attention on the more unnatural lives of the world.
Meanwhile, with nothing better to do, the Imperfects sat together to play one of their games. They had been split up for several weeks now; their reunion called for a celebration. The Eel produced a bottle from some hidden pocket of his robes and Duga produced his playing cards. He loved to show off his airbending by dealing the cards with bursts of air.
"This guy's getting on my nerves, I tell you what," Paz whined. Huel consoled her, and the affection immediately changed her mood. She was very easy to please.
"Thinks he can tell us what to do all day and all night," The Eel said. "Who does he think he is, our boss?"
"Our boss is exactly what he is," Huel shouted. He had a brick for a head, but he was loyal. Even if he often wasn't sure what he was loyal to.
"Our boss is the Energybender," The Eel grumbled. "That jerk's just a go-between. He's a wimp anyway. Telling us not to hurt the little guys, as if they matter."
"Hey, back it up," Duga said. "The Harrier is our boss, The Eel. Yeah, he's kind of a jerk, but he's in charge."
They played a round of cards in silence. None of them were exactly sure what game they were playing, but they played anyway.
"Anyway, I think we just got used to being lazy," Duga said. He picked up two cards. Huel shouted "King me". "More than a decade that Avatar was doing nothing, and we just sat around the Fire Nation getting fat."
"Speak for yourself," Paz said, lifting up her shirt to display her narrow waist. The Eel whistled, and Huel punched him in the jaw.
"The point is, we all got a little used to doing nothing," Duga continued. "Except for that Seventh Kingdom business, we ain't done much."
Other than the Energybender, the Seventh Kingdom uprising was the major event of this generation. After Howler had destroyed the White Lotus, a group of rebels had used the confusion to begin a military campaign to conquer Whale Tail island and territory in the United Earth Kingdom and establish a new, independent nation. It had not been successful.
Had they kept their military focus to just the Earth Nation, the Seventh Kingdom might have succeeded, but they had made the mistake of venturing into Southern Water Tribe territory. Once it became an international affair, they attracted the attention of the United Republic, and then the attention of General Rahm. Rahm had personally slaughtered most of their leadership, then vanished after the Seventh Kingdom surrendered. Some said that he was still hunting the last remnants of the Seventh kingdom.
"My point is," Duga continued. "We all got a little lazy, so now that we can't be lazy anymore, it's hard on us. We should just deal with it and follow the Boss's lead."
Reluctantly, the other three members of the Imperfects agreed. They would follow the Harrier, for now.
The Harrier himself sat in the streets of Shu Jing and centered his soul. He could feel spiritual energy here that had deliberately faded. Spirits had been here, but had left for some reason. He banished the hateful thoughts of the Imperfects from his mind and brought himself to a state of inner serenity. Sensing his calm, a single timid spirit crawled forth from the tangled vines.
"Why are you here," the spirit said. It was a repugnant creature, more like a puddle of mud than a living thing, but Harrier had need of it.
"I'm looking for someone I lost," The Harrier began. "I'd be very happy to see them again. Can you help me?"
"I see only a few people," The spirit squeaked. "But if one of them is lost, I can help!"
"Thank you very much, little spirit," The Harrier said patronizingly. The spirit didn't notice his condescending tone. "Tell me, were any of the people you saw the Avatar?"
"Yes," the mud spirit said cheerily. "He was very broken, though, and he made all my friends broken too. I didn't like that."
Now that was interesting. The Harrier knew that losing his friend would be hard on the Avatar, but if his grief was powerful enough to affect the local spirits, then he was having a worse time than anyone had suspected.
"What was so broken about him?"
"He was very hot. Like a furnace, but a person. So very, very hot inside him."
The Harrier had heard enough. That confirmed the information he'd gotten from the late Ronan and the waterbender bandit. Now that the lead was confirmed, he could pass on the information to the rest of the Energybender's forces. The entire army would know to look for Master Sorikami, and anyone who might be treating the Avatar. Harrier considered that a job well done, and returned, quite reluctantly, to the Imperfects.