Sen looked at the mass of birds and scavengers on the coast. They'd scoured another island and seen very little sign of Miyani. They had, however, noticed an unnatural amount of sea vultures gathered to one side of the island. Closer inspection, though not too close, had revealed that one of the coasts was littered with dead fish.
"What do you think caused all of that?" Hao said. Sen answered by jumping over the railings. Hao experienced a moment of concern before watching Sen waterbend the ocean to soften his landing, and then encase himself in a bubble of air to scour the ocean floor. He'd forgotten Sen could waterbend. The reality that his son was the Avatar had yet to fully sink in.
After a short examination of the depths, Avatar Sen surged back onto the deck in a pillar of water. He'd barely landed before he called out to Alrok.
"Full speed ahead, continuing west," Sen shouted. "We're on her trail."
Captain Alrok complied, and set the Blade Ship heading further west. Sen watched the twin spires of rock pass by the side of his ship. Where the two fanged stones had once framed the setting sun, now they stood to either side of the rising dawn. Sen rubbed his chin and kept an eye on them as they passed.
"What did you find in the ocean?" Hao asked. He was struggling to imagine what trace of Miyani one might find in the depths.
"Striations," Sen said. When he saw Hao's confusion, he elaborated. "Lines in the stones, basically, made from a recent blast. I think Miyani used her combustion bending to create waves that would take her this way."
Sen pointed west again, towards another island further down the chain.
"It seems like a lot of trouble to go to just to get more lost," Hao said.
"Unless she knows where she's going," Sen mumbled. He was prevented from further considering that angle when one of the Shorewatcher crewmen shouted something to Alrok.
"Better make a quick jog portside, captain, there's an old Hundred-Year war wreck in our course."
Alrok nodded and took the Blade Ship slightly to the side. Sen peered out at the water and could see the shadow of the wreck in the water.
"Don't take us too far, Alrok, I'm going to see if I can't metalbend it out of the way. Hopefully keep it from being an obstacle for anyone in the future."
"Can do, Sen," Alrok said with a salute. Sen kept his eye on the wreck as they made their close approach.
"I thought I heard on the radio that you couldn't metalbend?" Hao said.
"I couldn't, when you heard that," Sen said. "I figured it out. There were some...obstacles, out of my way, after the war was over."
As if to demonstrate, Sen held out his hand towards the shadow of the wreckage.
Nothing happened.
Whistler tried to push away the fog with airbending, and it moved right back in the moment she was done.
"You know, I heard Big Bang and Sen talk about this place, but I figured there was no way it could actually be this bad."
"Apparently you get used to it," Suda said. He'd never spent enough time on Hayao's island to find out. Miyani had spent years here, though, so he took her word for it. While Miyani and Sen had needed Hayao's guidance, Suda had done without.
Whistler veered to the side to avoid a monk meditating in the fog. While Hayao's meditative hangers-on had fled the island after Harrier's attack, time and the end of war had brought most of them back. There had never been many on the island, but there now seemed to be even less. While Gai Zhu itself had thrived due to Avatar-related tourism (Hakajima's restaurant now sold iguanadile steaks as an "Avatar favorite"), Sen had kept Hayao's role in his life story private, and so the island remained a remote, peaceful haven.
Suda pushed aside the curtain and found Hayao, unsurprisingly, right where they'd left him. Suda bowed, a gesture Whistler deliberately did not mimic.
"Suda. It is good to see you again," Hayao said. Whistler was taken aback by the depth of his voice. He sounded like thunder shaped into words. "And you, airbender, I assume to be Whistler?"
"That'd be me, yeah," Whistler said. "Nice to meet you."
"And you as well," Hayao said. "Sen speaks very highly of you. Though he apparently believes we would not get along."
"Probably not, but maybe you can help us out anyway," Whistler said. "We sort of lost our combustion bender."
Hayao was silent. Suda gave him a moment.
"Miyani was flying, and her plane crashed," Suda explained. "We're looking, and Sen thinks he's on the trail, but he was wondering if you had any way to help."
"I will help by telling you you don't need my help," Hayao said. "Miyani is not lost."
"And you know that how?" Whistler demanded.
Hayao said nothing. Whistler waited. Out of respect for all Hayao had done for Sen and Miyani, Whistler showed a great deal of patience -by her standards. Approximately fifteen seconds later, Whistler stepped up to mouth off.
"Hey, buddy, how do you know she's okay? I'm worried about her!"
"Sen was right, I don't think we will get along," Hayao said.
"Look, Whistler, let's just get out of here," Suda said. "If Hayao says she's okay, she's probably okay."
"Don't leave yet," Hayao said.
"Well I wasn't going to leave before, but now I am," Whistler said. She turned on her heel, and then turned again. "Are you trying to trick me?"
"No. I think you should stay. There's another old acquaintance of Sen's you should meet," Hayao said. He paused for a moment and then continued. "You aren't going to like him either."
Before getting a chance to respond, Whistler felt a shift in the air as the curtain behind them moved. She spun to check on their new arrival. He was oddly handsome, if a bit scruffy, and Whistler had absolutely no idea who he was. Suda, on the other hand, seemed more familiar, and a lot angrier.
"You!"
In one swift move, Suda grabbed the stranger by both shoulders and slammed him into the wall. His apparent opponent hardly reacted to being pinned against a wall. He seemed sad, if anything.
"Hello, Suda," Harrier said.
"What are you doing here?"
"Until recently, meditating," Harrier said. His voice was a sullen monotone. The lightningbending lieutenant of the energybender didn't seem to have any spark left in him. Any of the violent urges that had led him to attack Hayao's island in the first place had apparently left him.
"Is this one of the bad guys, Suda? Should I know him?"
"This is the Harrier," Suda spat. "He nearly killed Sen and Miyani."
"My name is Aiza," he said. "And I am truly sorry for all I've done."
Suda was still suspicious, but there was a tone in the Harrier -Aiza's- voice that he could not ignore. Something earnest, and all too familiar. The sound of regret. Suda released his grip, and Aiza sank to the floor, all but falling into a seated position. He let out a deep sigh, crossed his legs, and explained how he had come to be here.
"After I left the Boiling Rock I came here seeking answers. How the Avatar had grown so powerful, what he'd learned. As if there were some secret to victory that I could mimic," Aiza said. He sounded disgusted with his old self's ideals. "I found Hayao, I spoke with him...and I learned."
Aiza looked up at his guide for a moment, and then hung his head.
"What I fought for was wrong, and what I did as I fought for it was even worse," Aiza admitted. "I know I can not undo any of it, but I at least hoped to spend the rest of my days here, in peace."
Suda crossed his arms and frowned. He was loathe to forgive any former soldier of Sarin's, especially after one had nearly killed Miyani, but he also knew better than to judge someone for their past mistakes.
"Look, if you've really learned your lesson, I respect that," Suda said. "But you hurt -or at least helped hurt- a lot of people. You can't just hide from that."
"I don't know, Suda, maybe we should just leave him alone," Whistler said. "From the stories you guys told me, it seems like he was sort of okay? Like, he's definitely not the worst guy in the world."
While Whistler and Harrier had never crossed paths before today, Sen had told many stories of their encounter while they'd wandered the spirit world. From what Whistler had heard, Aiza had gone out of his way to ensure as few innocent people as possible were harmed, and he'd tried to negotiate rather than fight if possible. As far as former criminals to ignore went, Aiza was a rather easy case.
"Look, if he'd got his way, Miyani and Sen would be dead right now," Suda said. "I can't just leave him."
"Why not? We used to be criminals and we're doing just fine."
Suda sighed. Aiza had remained motionless, staring forlornly at the cold cavern floor.
"The difference is we chose to do good, and faced our crimes," Suda said. "We didn't hide, and neither should he. Aiza, if you're really sorry for anything you've done, you need to face the consequences."
With a sigh, Aiza gave a single nod. Whistler looked down at him and nodded approvingly.
"I'm morally opposed to calling the cops, so I'll let you handle that," Whistler said. Suda left to return to the boat and the radio, while Whistler stayed behind. She looked at Aiza, then up at Hayao.
"So you really gave lessons to the guy who tried to kill the Avatar?"
"I simply spoke," Hayao said. "It was he who chose to learn."
"Man, Sen was spot on, I do not like you," Whistler said.
Some time later, the authorities finally arrived. Suda and Whistler just hadn't been expecting it to be the highest authority. Fire Lord Mika walked into the cavern with her head held high and a fiery spark in her eyes. She looked around the room and spotted the former Harrier, and that spark ignited.
"Harrier," she said, with all the venom she could muster.
"Fire Lord Mika," Harrier said. He nodded his head reverently. "My condolences, and my apologies, on the loss of your father."
What was meant to be a placating gesture merely enraged Mika further.
"Don't insult me with your pity," Mika said. "If not for your assistance -If you hadn't -you are just as responsible for his death as Sarin!"
Mika found it difficult to take out her anger on someone who hadn't even been present for the battle in which her father had died, but she managed. Harrier had helped build up Sarin's army and his following. He was responsible, in his own way, for battles far beyond his personal attack on Gai Zhu. That was enough for Mika. As the sole living heir to the throne, she'd been held back from any battles in the war -and any chance to avenge her father. There was still an ember of vengeful desire burning away at her heart.
"I know," Aiza admitted. His acceptance of his guilt only angered Mika further. She had wanted to scream and shout, to fight him, to do something to vent the burning anger in her soul, but she was given no opportunity.
"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Mika demanded. "Any reason I shouldn't punish you myself? Escaping a prison is it's own charge, you know, on top of the mile-high list of offenses you had in the first place. It warrants a much harsher punishment."
Whistler and Suda exchanged a nervous glance. Mika's temper was making the whole room hotter. Aiza shook his head.
"I have no excuse," he said. "And you have every right, as Fire Lord, and as a victim of my actions, to judge me as you see fit."
Aiza lowered his head, and Mika stared down at him. She took a deep breath, and exhaled a shower of sparks as she released it, venting the fire within her. Seeming to take control of her temper, Mika regained her composure.
"You seem to want some kind of redemption, and I think I can offer it," Mika said. There was a coy cruelty to her voice. "Make yourself useful, Harrier. Teach me your lightningbending technique."
Aiza gave another subtle nod, and stood, moving out of the cavern at a slow pace. Mika followed, as did Suda and Whistler, until Mika turned to them and gestured for them to stay put.
"Are either of you firebenders? No? I see no reason for you to join this lesson, then."
With a sly smile, Mika left the cavern, and left them behind. Whistler made sure she was a safe distance away before speaking.
"Well, that guy's dead."
Aiza took up position on a stone pillar overlooking the island's shore, and Mika stood opposite him, on the outskirts of the pillar's circular summit. Unbeknownst to either, they stood in the exact spot where Goto had given Sen his first "lesson" in lightningbending years ago. In ignorance of this parallel, Aiza looked out over the sea.
"Are you experienced in lightningbending?"
"I'm not the prodigy my late father was, but I'm quite skilled, yes," Mika said. Spite dripped from her every word. Aiza chose to ignore it.
"You know, then, that lightning is born from the conflict of opposing elements," Aiza said. "We separate the negative and positive energy that exists within us, and as it clashes together and conflicts, we channel the excess energy generated by the reaction between them."
Mika briefly considered a snarky comment, but thought better of it. She knew the importance of reinforcing the basics, and she was eager to hear the Harrier's secrets. Under Goto's orders, the Harrier had been interrogated for hours in an attempt to learn the secrets behind rapid lightning generation, but he had never cracked. Learning the technique would finish her father's unfinished work -and give her a powerful tool to work with.
"It is a slow process, and is difficult to use in rapid succession," Aiza continued. "My technique works by harnessing the conflict that is always present within us."
Aiza took up a combat ready stance, facing out towards the ocean.
"The light and the dark within us is always in conflict," Aiza said. "Every choice we make feeds one side of the two, weakening one and strengthening the other. Fall out of balance, and one will dominate, but neither side will ever destroy the other. The turmoil most lightning benders seek to consciously generate is a perpetual state of being that we simply fail to realize."
Aiza placed his left fingertips on his right shoulder, mimicking the move he had often repeated for darker purpose. He focused on the roiling turmoil within -the ever present guilt over his role in Sarin's uprising, and contrasted it with his newfound understanding of what balance and harmony truly meant. He directed the energy from that conflict outwards, pulling it from his heart into the material world. Lightning sparked on his fingertips and burst outwards, sparking harmlessly into the ocean in front of him.
Mimicking his motions, Mika held her left hand out, dragged her fingertips along her right arm, and focused on drawing the energy out, into the sea. She mustered not so much as a spark. The failed effort was draining, and she nearly buckled, before remembering that the Harrier stood at her side. She was not going to show weakness.
"To embrace the truth that the darkest parts of us are, and always will be, part of us is difficult, but possible," Aiza said. "There are truths we cannot hide from. The mistakes we've made. The pain we feel. They will always be a part of us. Peace can only come from acceptance of the conflict within us."
Gritting her teeth, Mika reset her stance. She tried again, and failed again. Aiza stood and watched her fail in silence. The look of calm on his face insulted her, insulted the pain she felt within. He should have been the one reeling, the one struggling to know peace. Aiza was the villain, she thought, he was the one responsible for all the death and suffering.
Mika stopped that line of thought. She tensed, and reset her stance. Aiza caught the subtle motions of her tension being wound and released. His quiet stare narrowed as Mika tried again, and failed again.
"You cannot reject the pain you feel," Aiza advised. "Especially not if you seek to wield it as a weapon."
"Shut up and let me focus," Mika demanded. She tried again, and failed again. She grit her teeth and tried again, and failed again.
"You must accept it," Aiza said.
"Shut up!"
She tried again, and failed again. The repeated attempts to manipulate her chi had left her drained, and her desire to maintain her composure gave way to the exhaustion she felt. Mika fell to her knees, gasping for air. Aiza watched her, his cold indifference still mocking Mika's struggle. Fighting to rise with her shaking knees, Mika stood again, and took position, her hands trembling.
"Mika, stop," Aiza commanded. "Look at me."
Against her better judgment, Mika turned to face him. He stood still, with that same look of cold calm on his face. Aiza said nothing, at first. Then he folded his hands behind his back and spoke, telling her what she wanted -and needed- to hear.
"You are right to be angry," he said. "Your father is dead."
With a cry of rage and grief a year in the making, Mika put her fingertips to her shoulder and drew them along the length of her arm. Blue sparks tore forth from the depths of her soul, crackling through the air in a blindingly bright burst of lightning. The blazing electricity surged through the air, towards Aiza. He never blinked.
Some of the lightning grazed his shoulder as it passed by, leaving him a bit numb. The thunderburst faded in the distance, casting a beacon of blue light through the fog.
Now drained in a new way, Mika fell to her knees. In spite of her attempts to bite them back, tears started to course down her cheeks.
"I was going to do it, you know," she said. She stifled a chuckle and a sob at the same time. "I thought my father would appreciate the irony. Killing you with your own technique."
Mika wiped the tears from her face as her pride, the pride she'd learned from her father, refused to let her show weakness in front of an enemy. Aiza sat down on the pillar, crossing his legs.
"I never had the privilege to meet him," Aiza said. "But I believe he would've found it funny, yes."
"You're lucky you didn't meet him," Mika said with a smile. "He would've killed you on the spot."
Aiza nodded. Mika stopped the last of her sobs and took a deep breath of the foggy air. It cleared her lungs and her head. She looked up at the distant, indistinct circle of the sun, it's light still managing to cut through the fog.
"His loss is a part of me now," Mika said. "But he is lost. My father is dead."
Fire Lord Goto was dead. Fire Lord Mika, standing where he had once stood, and learning where he had once taught, rose. She looked away from the sun, down at the man who had once been her enemy.
"Stay on this island for the rest of your life," she commanded. "If you ever step foot within my kingdom again, you will find out that I am more like my father than I seem."
Aiza nodded. Mika turned her back on him, and walked away. She had business to attend to. It was about time she scheduled a sitting for her royal portrait.
While Mika had not graced them with any details, she had politely informed them that Aiza was to be allowed to live peacefully on Hayao's island, provided he never left. She had left minutes afterward, leaving a somewhat confused Whistler and Suda behind to gather their things and get back to work. Hayao was apparently no help, so they set out back in the direction of the Blade Ship to rejoin the search.
"Well, I'm kind of glad that guy's not dead," Whistler said, making a rare admission that she'd been wrong. "I know this sounds weird since he tried to kill Sen that one time, but he sort of reminds me of me."
"Don't give him too much credit, Whistler, even at our worst we were both way better than that guy," Suda said. "I'm honestly surprised Mika didn't at least drag him off to the Boiling Rock again."
"Life's too short to hold grudges, pal," Whistler said. She lounged at the front of the speedboat while Suda steered them back to the Avatar. Suda shook his head.
"Didn't you have a list of grudges you held?"
"Oh that was just that month," Whistler said. "I got about a thirty-day time limit on mine."
Suda rolled his eyes and focused on navigating them out of the fog. Whistler managed to maintain the silence for a few minutes before a question bubbled up inside her heart.
"Hey Suda?"
"Yeah?"
"All that talk about good and bad got me thinking," she said. "Do you think the bad stuff you and I did ever really goes away?"
Whistler stood up and paced back and forth along the short deck of the speedboat, continuing to rant before Suda could even get a word in edgewise."
"I mean, I say I'm a good guy now, and I only do good guy stuff, and I've already done a lot of good guy stuff but on the other hand, I've never given any money back to the people I stole from, and I can't give back all the time that got lost or take away all the pain from the people I hurt. How much of my life do I have to spend doing good stuff before I undo the bad stuff?"
Suda waited a moment.
"Are you done?"
"I'm done."
"The bad news is you can never undo the bad stuff you've done," Suda said. "The good news is you don't need to. The only thing you can do to fix the past is learn from it, and use what you've learned to bring some good into the world."
"Wow, just had that advice coming off the dome, huh?"
"I was thinking about this stuff too, you know," Suda said. The same moral dilemma had been raging inside him all this time, he'd just settled it all internally.
"I thought your brain was like, ninety-nine percent about Yoki and your baby, and like, one percent the rest of us."
"It's more like an eighty-twenty split," Suda said. "But man, speaking of-"
Whistler rolled her eyes. Suda would take any excuse to talk about his family.
"I'm never going to have to worry about bringing enough good into this world, because Hana's got me covered," Suda said. "That girl is going to grow up to do some amazing stuff."
Suda launched into a long tirade about how amazing his baby was. Whistler listened in, rolling her eyes occasionally. Surisingly, though, she found some inspiration in his words. After a particularly dull tirade on how Hana had learned to walk faster than most babies, Whistler snapped to her feet.
"Suda, you've inspired me," Whistler said. "I know how to never worry about my past misdeeds again."
Suda was curious and worried in equal measure. Whistler posed triumphantly and gestured to the horizon.
"I'm going to have a baby!"
"What."
"I'll have to stop dating girls for a while, but I've never been picky."
"Whistler."
"Although I guess when it comes to this I should be picky," Whistler said. "I'll have to find someone good looking."
"Whistler I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not."
"Quiet for a minute, I need to think about the ideal dad," Whistler said. She sat cross legged at the prow of the speedboat, appearing to be deep in thought.
"Whistler if this is you trying to get me to stop ranting about my kid, it's working," Suda said. "Whistler? Whistler!"
Hao knocked at the door to Sen's quarters gently.
"Sen? It's me. Uh, Hao, that is," he said, worried that his son didn't instinctively recognize his voice yet.
"Come in," Sen said. Sen had posted up in a chair in the corner of his quarters. He had his legs folded beneath him, cutting him off from the floor, so that he couldn't feel the entire vessel through his seismic sense. He wanted to focus.
Sen held a metal bracelet with a small brick as it's centerpiece in his palm. This was not the same band Suda had made for him long ago, but a new version. After learning metalbending, Sen had used his new skill to make matching metal bands to go with the matching stone bricks he and Miyani possessed. It was odd jewelry, but the two stone models were more precious to the two of them than any diamonds or emeralds. He wore his every day, and he hoped Miyani was still wearing hers.
He stared at the band he had made, and found he could not unmake it. The metal resisted his every attempt to reshape it. Hao could see the frustration on his face.
"So it seems you've somehow unlearned metalbending."
Sen clenched his fist in frustration, briefly hiding the bracelet from sight. He shook his head,
"I don't understand how," he grunted. "I could've pulled that ship apart piece by piece just a few days ago. I know this whole thing with Miyani is getting to my head, but it shouldn't- I know she's out there, this shouldn't be getting in the way of my bending."
Hao nodded, and once again thought back to Zas' words. Sen was focused only on the singular issue of Miyani's disappearance, and possibly missing the bigger picture.
"Maybe it's not do with her," Hao suggested. He pulled up a seat and sat across from Sen. "Let's uh, work it out. Step by step. What was stopping you from metalbending the first time?"
Sen took a deep breath before going back to a very dark time in his life.
"Sarin. No, I was stopping myself, because I hated Sarin," Sen said. "To metalbend, you have to let go of the illusion of separation, and by hating Sarin, I denied the fact that he and I were the same. That we had things in common. I created separation where there wasn't any, and I closed my mind off to potential."
"Then...maybe it's something similar this time," Hao said. "If hatred has re-entered your heart, maybe the old blockages have reformed."
Relaxing his tight grip on the bracelet once again, Sen stared down at it for a moment. He had no anger towards the man who'd sabotaged Miyani's plane. He was just a sad man who couldn't let go of a doomed cause. But at the same time he recognized some familiar venom in his heart, the stinging bite of hatred. He looked up at Hao, and then looked away. Hao's wrinkled face slowly bent downwards into a frown.
"Sen, I'm sorry," Hao said.
"Why? What-"
"I realize you must be angry with me, for not finding you," he said. "For giving up-"
"It's not that," Sen said, with a quick shake of his head.
"It's okay, Sen, you have every right to be upset with me."
"It's not you, it isn't- it's-"
Sen clutched at his temples. He could tell Hao was telling the truth whenever he spoke about how hard he'd searched, how much their separation had pained him. He knew every ounce of guilt and regret Hao felt was real -and he knew he was telling the truth about how they'd come to be separated in the first place.
"It's not you," Sen insisted. He could feel a hidden anger burning away at his heart, but couldn't quite name it.
"Then what is it, Sen?"
The sound of genuine concern -of the worry, and the love that Hao felt, finally made everything click into place for Sen.
"It's mom," Sen shouted. He looked up at Hao again, now with tears in his eyes. He clenched the bracelet tight in his fist as he leaned forward towards Hao.
"How could she take me away from you?" He cried. "If she was so scared, why couldn't she just leave? Why did she have to take me away? Why couldn't she just leave and let you take care of me alone? Why?"
Sen closed his eyes and shook his head, trying to shake off the tears. Hao stood dumbstruck.
"I hate her," Sen admitted with a sob. "I hate her for taking me to Beaker Hall. I hate her for taking me away from you."
Sen succeeded in regaining his composure, and looked up at Hao. His eyes were still red.
"I know this must seem ridiculous to you," Sen said. "I don't even remember what I felt back then. You've spent the past two decades mad at her, and I don't even remember her name."
"Jia Li," Hao said. "Your mother's name is Jia Li. And I don't hate her."
Sen looked up at his father, confused. Hao shook his head, and elaborated.
"I did spend a long time, many years, angry with her," Hao said. "But time passed, and I remembered what she said in the days before she took you away. She spoke about what they might do to me if they found out you were the Avatar, and she said that since we were both earthbenders, they'd be more likely to suspect you were, since you were more likely to be a bender yourself. She would always go back to that as we argued...but she rarely spoke about what might happen to her."
Hao stared blankly forward as he recalled the raging, hours-long arguments with his wife -and of the happier times that had preceded them. Until the Energybender's attack and his threat to the Avatar, Jia Li had been the love of Hao's life -and a seemingly perfect mother to Sen.
"I think, in her own misguided way, she thought she was protecting us both by taking you away," Hao said. "She was wrong, horribly wrong, and I'm not sure I can ever forgive what she did...but I don't hate her. You shouldn't either."
Sen looked away from his father, at nothing in particular. The metal floor of his quarters didn't reflect anything back at him. Sen repeated the name to himself in his head. Jia Li. His mother -for better or worse.
Sen unclenched his fist and focused on the metal bend. With a thought, it began to move.