Chapter 19: Friends and Enemies
Normal POV
"Well. This sucks." Ghazan said.
"Let's transform! Enchantix voortrix!" Femke called, at which all the others crossed their arms, making the White Lotus members gasp as the Red Lotus members stood before them in fairy clothes. Three Enchantix fairies and two normal fairies. "That should level the playing field." Femke smirked while she flapped her wings a little as the Red Lotus founder and the second in command got their weapons.
Femke's POV
"That should level the playing field." I smirked while I flapped my wings a little. As I did this I felt the Red Lotus founder and the second-in-command got their weapons as well, ready to fight.
"Threatening us? You claimed you all changed." The White Lotus leader, who was standing in the front said mockingly.
"It's not like you're giving us another choice." I said boldly as I got in front of my friends, willing to do whatever it took to defend them.
"Just stand down and surrender yourself, then no one will get hurt." The front man said.
"While an even bigger threat comes our way?" I said as I gave Zaheer a stern look, then shook my head to let him know we shouldn't be the first to attack. I wanted to see if I could reason with them first.
"A bigger threat?" The man said with a mocking grin "You really think we will believe that after what you pulled?" The man challenged.
"There is a threat bigger than us. Lord Darkar; the Shadow Phoenix." I said, a shiver going down my spine at the very mention of that monster's name.
"Never heard of him." The man said.
"That's because he is from Magix." I said and folded my arms before my chest. "But I can assure you he is as real and if we're not ready to take him on by the time he finds a way to get into this dimension you and your people will be screwed." I said angrily.
"Femke is right." Zaheer said as he came to stand next to me and placed a hand on my shoulder "I know what I did was wrong and in the spirit world I promised Avatar Korra I changed and wouldn't cause chaos again. I intend to keep my word." I smiled at Zaheer proudly as he stated this.
"So why don't you do as you're told? This would help matters for you and your merry band." Alteressa said as she stepped to the front and looked at Zaheer firmly.
"No. Mother, I might have left the path of anarchy behind me but I still have a own point of view and a free will." Zaheer said sternly, before he turned to Allerys, who was also there, obediently following Alteressa. "I'm sure you're an amazing woman but I can't see us being together."
"That's quite alright. I never wanted to be married to someone I didn't know either." Allerys smiled as she walked to Zaheer. "We're not really a match. I'm more comfortable around calm, collected people."
"You should meet my half brother Tarrlok." I half-jokingly said.
"Tarrlok Arrai? Son of Yakone the Bloodbender?" Allerys asked me with shocked look "He is your half brother?"
"How do you know him?" I asked a little shocked.
"We studied at the same university. He was kind of nice actually. We really connected." She blushed a little at the last statement.
"Nothing like a school romance." Ghazan mentioned.
"A bit. I was young. Barely sixteen, never fell in love before. It felt alien yet great." I smiled when she said this, remembering the first time I had fallen in love and all the great times that followed after this until Daniel's untimely death.
"Why didn't you elope? You two could still be together and he might have not tried to take over the city." Zaheer asked.
"I didn't want to disappoint my parents. I am their only child." Allerys admitted while looking down.
"Way to put that burden on an innocent's shoulder." Ghazan said, making both his sister and Ming Hua gave him a firm look. "I'm right, aren't I?"
"Anyway..." Zaheer smiled as he took to mind Ghazan's words. He was sort of right. Saying a girl was responsible for a man's action because she didn't date him sounded sort of bad once he taught it through. "I found true love, Allerys. I think it's about time you did the same."
"Zaheer?" Allerys looked at her supposed fiancee shocked before she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Do you think it might still work?"
"There's always hope." I said with a smile as I walked to her and placed a hand on her arm, which one of the White Lotus guards must have mistaken for a threat because there was a flash of fire.
"Femke! Allerys! NO!" I heard Zaheer call before I felt his strong arms around me after which i heard a 'thud' sound and when I looked up Zaheer was lying on the floor a few feet from where I was, not moving.
"Zaheer?" Allerys whispered as she walked to him and placed a hand on his side and looked at him sadly while I bended the fire around us since more of the soldiers were attacking us now.
"There's too many of them." I called as I ran over to Allerys who looked down at Zaheer sadly, which made my eyes widen in shock, knowing what that meant.
"Zaheer. No..." Shot through me as tears welled up in my eyes and the same happened to Allerys. As our combined tears hit Zaheer's chest, a bright light appeared, which made me look up with a smirk on my face, while Allerys didn't quite understand.
"Enchantix." Ghazan smirked as he saw the light as well.
"Just like with us." P'li said as she looked at Ghazan happily.
"Zaheer!" I looked up when I heard the father of Zaheer call his son and saw that he was standing next to me and looked at his son with widened eyes as the light cleared and Zaheers new enchantix form was revealed. It was a beautiful gray top and skirt and shining silver wings, al with the airbender sign on it. "My little boy. All grown up." He smiled, looking up when Xai Bau placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Its time. Wouldn't you say?" The Red Lotus leader said as he nodded to him, which let me to look at the two men with confusion, not understanding what they were talking about.
"Yes. He's old enough." I heard the other man reply as I was defending them with my earthbending , trying to keep the enemies at bay as Zaheer was blasting as many of them away as he could from the air.
"Femke, wait!" A voice called out of nowhere when I was about to pull out a smoke bomb to escape fast. I stopped in the middle of my motion. I recognized that voice.
"Opal?"
"Why are you doing this?" Opal asked me as she got to the front row and looked at me sternly. "You know that what they did. Why are you helping them escape?"
"Because I want to protect them. They changed. Please believe me, Opal." I said sternly. I hated to use that tone to my darling great granddaughter. I just had to help them stay safe. I deeply cared for them and I wanted nothing more then to stay by their side.
"You were about to attack. How did they change if they still favour violence over talking first?" Opal asked as she pointing to Ghazan and the others.
"We were going to teleport away. We don't want to fight unless you leave us no choice." I said defensively. "Didn't Korra tell you what I told her in the spirit world?"
"She did, but she was very sceptical at you keeping your word." Opal said as she folded her arms. "So when I heard you were here I decided to join the White Lotus and see you."
"We just wanted to go, anyway." I said as I raised my arms in the air.
"No. Femke, please... please come back. Mom is so worried for you. So are Kya, Bumi and the airbender kids." Opal said as she took another step towards me and reached for me with her hand. "Please come back with us."
"I'm sorry, Opal. I can't. I have to see this through to the end. The many dimensions there are depend on the Voortrix." I said as I looked at Opal's hand sadly. "Please understand. This is what I chose to do."
"The fate of many galaxies depend on you? What do you mean with that?" Opal asked as she looked at me, incredulous. "You're not Korra. It's not your duty to protect this world."
"That's true. Korra is responsible for this world but I am responsible for all worlds. The Magix and the Earth dimensions aren't the only three dimensions existing. There are many more and all of them depend of the eleven Voortrix fairies to save the people from Lord Darkar's reign of terror." I explained while I got my Voortrix medallion from under my shirt and showed it to Opal. "That's why i came back here. It's my destiny"
"And them?" Opal asked as she nodded to my friends
"They're Voortrix fairies as well. We need to stick together to be able to save the worlds."I said, taking a step away from Opal with tears in my eyes, hoping she would understand that I had to go through with this at all costs.
"And that makes what they did okay!?" Opal asked me as she looked at me firmly. "That takes away what they did to my country?! To Korra?!" Opal asked me a she looked at me with a hurt look in her eyes, which made me want to run to her and take her in my arms to never let go. But I knew I couldn't do that right now. Not with so much on the line. Not with Darkar on our trail.
"Opal. That's all in the past. Darkar, the force of pure evil I was talking about can come any day now and I want to be prepared for that." I said as I looked at her sternly.
"Does that make everything what they did all right all of a sudden?" Opal asked me firmly.
"Because we have the remainder of the Voortrix inside us! And we're responsible for protecting it!" I said, desperate.
"Wait, why would he want your powers? Are they stolen?" Opal asked me, a bit confused.
"No, it was more the other way around." I responded with a deadpan look.
"How come you know so sure?" Opal asked me with a challenging voice now.
"Because we were the ones that created him, alright?!" I bellowed, clapping my hands over my mouth in shock after.
"What?" opal asked me as she looked at me with a shocked face.
"We created Darkar. Inne, Deoxis, Selvia, Zedinia, Tarno, Norato, Talina and me. In a pointless effort to protect our village Voorfield from harm back in the day." I said, calmer now. "But it failed and the Paladin we wanted to create to protect our village at all costs if we were not there turned into Lord Darkar."
"So that's why you want to stop it at all costs." Opal realized.
"Yes. We were the ones that created him so we are responsible for stopping him." I said, nodding to Zaheer, who nodded back in an encouraging way.
"And how do you know they're not going back to their old ways?" Opal asked me, bringing it back around. "You know what they did. To Korra. To my family. My people."
"I know. I was there and even if I don't agree with the murders they committed I did stay true to myself." I said. "How do you think your aunt Lin came out of Laghima's peak unharmed?"
"What do you mean?" Opal asked me, at which I took a deep breath, before I gently moved down my shirt a little, revealing the spiral formed scar on my shoulder at which Opal looked confused.
"I could have prevented this. I could just bend the metal from P'li's head but then she would have blown your aunt to pieces." i said with a deadly serious glance in my eyes. "But I didn't. It didn't cross my mind once to allow that to happen."
"You saved both at the risk of yourself" My smart great granddaughter realized.
"I did. You know why?" I asked, at which Opal shook her head. "Because Lin is still family. And family sticks together even when things get rough."
"Grandma." Opal teared up when I said this.
"And that's why I trust them." I smiler as I nodded to Zaheer and the others "Because they're family to me and I just know they're not going to betray my trust." I said, looking at my friends with a small smile. "I know what they have been through. They told me. Jinora was right about that but I promised them I wouldn't tell anyone else." I said as I looked in Opal's eyes.. "And I want to keep that promise. Anyway, my point is that because I know each has had their own struggles and that let them to do what they did. I also know that that fight is in the past now. They changed, Opal. They really did." I said.
Opal's POV
"I just know." Femke said, looking at her friends with a small smile. "I know what they have been through. They told me. Jinora was right about that but I promised them I wouldn't tell anyone else." I doubted those criminals would ever change. They were too far gone and did too much. I had to convince Femke of that before It was too late "And I want to keep that promise. Anyway, my point is that because I know each has had their own struggles and that let them to do what they did. I also know that that fight is in the past now. They changed, Opal. They really did." Femke said, looking me deep in my eyes as she spoke. Her eyes were so full of hope that for a moment I started to doubt myself. was I really trying to get her back because I distrusted these people or was it just because I wanted her back?
She looks so happy with them.
I thought as I looked at Femke and Zaheer, the older man beaming brightly as he was mouthing a 'Thank you' to Femke, who beamed back at him.
If she is really trusting them and they were to betray her she would never be able to trust anyone ever again.
"Even when you can't tell what happened, they could." I said, nodding to Zaheer and the others.
"How will you know we're not lying?" Zaheer asked me as he looked at me, challenging. "To you we're nothing but criminals who took your great grandma away from you, right?" Zaheer asked me.
"Maybe I should listen. That said, a sad past doesn't mean that suddenly what you do is okay." I said, looking at Femke critically, who nodded and motioned me to keep talking. "If Femke indeed already knows she would most likely tell me if you hadn't changed." I said, looking at Femke smiling a little, who nodded in returned, then shrugged at her friends.
"What? I would have." Femke said with a smirk on her face, at which Zaheer nodded.
"If that's what's needed to convince her we're telling the full truth." Zaheer said, giving Femke a stern look as she was making a mocking sign behind her friends back.
"Life was never easy before the Red Lotus came to get me. All because of Mogui. He bought me at age five from my supposed parents, who were happy to be rid of me. I barely remember what they were like. All I remember is that they shook me off their arm, accepted the money and walked away." P'li started. "I still bear the scars from his treatment like my terror of thunderstorms."
"Wait, Femke said that was her screaming." I said sternly, which made my great grandmother turn red. "You knew? You knew they were in Zhaofu and you didn't warned us?!"
"They didn't seem like bad people to me and they still don"t." Femke replied.
"Let's put an end to this pity party. We have work to do." One of the White Lotus guards said and tossed some fire at Femke, who catched the blaze with ease and moved it around her and P'li as she brought it to a halt.
She is a lot more powerful then she used to be
I thought as I watched Femke fend off the attacks coming her way. She wasn't trying to retaliate. She was trying to protect the ones she loved.
"You okay?" Femke asked Zaheer when he was launched against a tree during the fight.
"I'm fine." The older airbender said as he gave his friend a good humored smile. This was new for me.
"Why are there so many of them?" Their lavabender named Ghazan said as he made a lava star and whirled it around them to keep the White Lotus guards away.
"Whatever the case, we shouldn't try to hurt them. We mean them no harm." Femke said as she helped Zaheer stand up. "We just need to outsmart them." I heard her whisper as she looked around.
I wonder what she'll come up with.
I thought while watching Femke look at me for a moment then nodded at a loose tree branch above us before she made a small sign with her hands like she was about to bend. After that she looked into my eyes sternly. She was asking me to bend the branch down as a distraction so they could get away.
I can't do that… people might get hurt
I thought as I looked at the branch. It was rather big and heavy, people could get hurt if that thing fell.
But I have to do something...
I thought while watching as the White Lotus guards close in on the group. Just as someone of the guards wanted to handcuff them, a slide of earth made them all topple over, which made both Femke and me look up in surprise.
"What are you waiting for? Get out!" The voice of Toph called as she appeared from behind a tree, which made Femke quickly pulled herself together and helped Zaheer stand before the Red Lotus gang disappeared in a flash.
"Grandma. Why did you help them escape?" I asked my grandmother. One one hand I was glad to see her and glad that she had helped Femke escape but on the other it helped the Red Lotus escape as well. They were wanted fugitives. They nearly killed her daughters. Shouldn't grandma have stopped them from escaping?
"Because they have a role to play in this world." Grandma said as she smiled at me sadly. "Femke is the Voortrix leader and those others are her fellow members. If she trusts them we should trust her."
"After all they have done to the world?" I asked her, shocked. "After all they have done to our family?"
"What they have done was wrong but their intentions were good. They were out of balance and that's why they took their ideology too far." Grandma Toph said as she turned to the place were the red lotus crew had disappeared from. "But I really think they found back that balance when they met Femke. Just like she did all those years ago."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I mean that Her and Zuko were close friends even before she met us and believe it or not but those two were good buddies even though he wanted to capture Aang at first." Grandma said. "She didn't agree with what Zuko was doing but she believed that he had potential to change and kept up with being friendly to him even if Katara was suspicious of him at first when he had just joined us."
"Bet katara wasn't to happy about it." I smiled as I looked at her.
"She wasn't but she left Femke to do as she pleased, feeling she had to do this if she believed he changed and learn from it if she turned out to be wrong."
"But she was right. He changed." I said with a small smile on my face, remembering how Zuko had been Aang's Firebender teacher.
"After he saved us from Combustion Man he joined us and in time even Katara learned to accept him as one of us." Grandma smiled. "But instead of telling Katara 'I told you so' like I thought she would have, she stayed calm and quiet. Let Katara's apology come naturally. Second chances are rare to come by these days." With these last words grandma grabbed my shoulder firmly. "Femke's still willing to give it a shot, though."
"It is going to be tough for everyone to forgive them for all they have done." I remarked sharply "Especially the ones they hurt."
"Maybe. If anything, just remember that forgiveness isn't something that's owed. And that the choice lies with the ones hurt." Toph smiled. "They managed to forgive Zuko and he had almost destroyed Aang a few times. So who knows?"
"P'li just told her story." I said.
"Me too. I'm blind, not deaf." Grandma smirked as she took me by hand into the garden. "I was listening in on the story from behind that tree."
"It's a sad story." I said as i looked down.
"Because I say it you believe her." Toph asked me sternly.
"Yes." I answered.
"Why?" Toph asked.
"Because I trust you." I answered.
"What makes it you don't trust Femke?" Toph remarked.
"Because her trust almost got Korra killed. Bowing out at the last second or not, she still has some responsibility in that." I answered.
"That being said, she's not the enemy here. Even if the effect was disastrous, she did what she thought was right and so should you."
"Would you have attacked your own family and get someone killed if you had been in her place?" I now asked her firmly.
"Woulda. Coulda. Shoulda." Toph said with a shrug. "It's easy to speculate. Harder to live with what actually happened."
"Grandma." I said as I looked at her sadly before I looked up at the sky as a large plume of smoke erupted from the batu estate.
Zaheer's POV
When the light cleared I saw we were standing in the living room of my old family home after which Femke first changed back to a human before she fell down and fainted.
"She's ok. Just exhausted." Xai Bau said as he took her pulse.
"Why are we here?" I wondered.
"You tell me. You were the one aiming. That's why she took your hand. She clearly didn't have the strength to both teleport us and aim for a safe place." Xai Bau said as he dusted himself off.
"That explains why I feel faint." I realized as I looked around with a smile on my face. I hadn't seen this living room since the day I had left. It hadn't changed one bit.
"Mother. I know you mean well and that you chose a fiancee for me because you want what is best for me." I remember saying as I looked at my parents. I was sixteen back then. "But I don't see how arranged marriage is going to make things better."
"You worry too much. All you have to care about is taking care of your wife and keeping the Batu name going. We have our Queen to handle the important things." My mother said with a smile on her face.
"That is the problem, mother. She has only been on the throne for three months and already word spread about corruption and other scandals." I replied with a stern look.
"It is not your duty to concern yourself with such things. You're only a child." My mother said sternly. "Now get to bed. Your lessons start early tomorrow."
"Yes, mother." I said while bowing my head. In my mind I had decided I wasn't going to get into this forced marriage. I was not going to end like my parents.
That night I snuck out and joined the Red Lotus. The best decision of my life.
"She's coming around." i snapped out of my thoughts when I heard P'li talk and looked at Femke.
"Did it work?" She asked groggily as she sat up and accepted some water from Xai Bau.
"Yes. We made it thanks to you." I smiled as she rubbed over her face and got up.
"Where are we?" She asked as she looked around.
"My old home. This is where I grew up." I said.
"Seriously? That was the best you came up with?" Femke asked with a deadpan look as I shoved her slightly.
"I didn't know you were using my mind for our escape." I said, after which I perked up my ears. I heard something.
"They were right THERE. How did you let them get away?" Mother… She was home! I looked at Femke, who looked back with the same panic.
"To the back door, come on!" I whispered to everyone as I led them to the back door but as we passed a big portrait of me and my parents someone pulled me in and suddenly everything around me went black.
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And with that I end the chapter! Sorry it was long with a lot of talking but I needed this chapter to explain some things.
A/N:
Opal is the only character to come after Femke, believing she might be able to talk sense into her, which also made me feel like Femke might want to try and talk some sense in her. On advice of my Beta I tried to make her sceptical of Femke.
Toph just popped out of my head during that fight scene with the guards. Appearing the same way she did in Zhaofu to aid Lin and Su in their battle with Kuvira. It just fell to right for her to do it.
Keep the smoke plume Opal saw above the Batu family home in mind. It still has a role to play.
And that was all for now! I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Thanks for keeping up reading my story and thanks to paranoidgirl for her hard work as beta reader and advisor.
Please leave a review!