First things first, I'd like to have a good excuse as to why I haven't updated in a while, like I died or something, but here I am. Finally. Truthfully I really only tried to sit down two or three times to start writing this chapter, but then something would come up. Literally the moment I sat down. Then one day while I was checking whether to see my favorite stories had been updated between the four things I usually check here on fanfiction I decided to sign into my profile and check out my reviews. Needless to say, you guys inspired me. Thanks for bringing me back. Truthfully, we decided to go visit some of our cousins who we've been practically best friends with forever, and had a great time over the weekend. Hope you had as much fun as I had while you were waiting.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender, or Teen Titans.
WARNING: Octopuses will be shooting water out of tentacles. If you like to remain within the rules of reality, stop reading immediately. Yes, that means you.
"Wow." The awe in the boy's voice was unmistakable as he took in the breathtaking sight from his position on the slope of a hill.
"It has been a while since we have seen something so beautiful." Starfire said. She blushed as Robin's hand found hers under the starlit sky. Above them in the distance rocks shrouded in blue flame rained down on the earth below. It was the perfect night.
"I can't remember the last time I saw a meteor shower… we don't get these in Jump City." Beast Boy sighed as he laid on his back staring into the night sky.
"It kind of makes you wonder about your place in the world…" Sokka mused, "And how insignificant we are…"
"Eh, you seen nothing once, you've seen it a thousand times." Toph found herself surprised, though she didn't show it, that she was unfazed by her inability to see the "breathtaking" sight, as Aang had described it.
"This is amazing…" Katara said.
"Wait a minute…" Robin began suddenly. One of the meteors brought itself closer to their position than the rest. They could practically hear it burning through the oxygen in the air, the screaming of the meteor as it hurdled... straight for their position.
"Dude, watch out!" Beast Boy exclaimed at the same time Sokka shouted, "Get down!"
But their warning wasn't required, as the fiery blue rock soared over their campsite on top of the hill and off at least a mile into the distance where it hit the ground and exploded. The explosion was tinted with a hint of cyan, and it was a big explosion to say the least. They all scrambled up onto a large mound of gravel on the hilltop, and stared into the distance at the impact sight. A rather large trail of smoke replaced the cyan tinted explosion, the smoke only visible because of the light emanating from what was obviously a fire. The blaze itself was obscured because of one of several hills that dotted the countryside.
The group exchanged glances, and all leaped onto Appa's back. Aang wasted no time at all.
"Yip-Yip!" Aang shouted as he seized Appa's reins. Appa was definitely a smart sky bison. Before Aang could even begin to point Appa in the right direction the bison was already off in the direction of the explosion. It took the Gaang about two seconds to spot a town near the now burning meteor as they glided towards it.
"The fire's gonna destroy that town!" Katara shouted. Instantly Toph was alert as Appa approached the ground, Katara's shout informing her about the impending danger.
"Not if we stop it first!" Robin replied. As soon as Appa's feet touched the ground everybody except Katara and Beast Boy were on the ground.
"There's a creek nearby. I'll bend the water and Appa can fly me back!" Beast Boy nodded and leaped off. As soon as his feet reached land instead of following suit with the others to try and stop the fire, he morphed into a snake the second Katara had turned her back and towards her target for the stream.
"Toph, let's make a trench to keep the fire from coming any closer." Aang spoke rapidly. Toph simply nodded and they both charged forward.
"Wait, what should we do?" Sokka demanded as he held his water bender styled machete.
"Uh… look after Momo. Robin, you should probably come with us with those… explosive devices or whatever." Aang hastily replied without breaking his pace. Momo flew over and landed on his shoulder.
"What, so I'm just a lemur sitter?!" Sokka exclaimed in disgust. He glanced over at Starfire.
"Where is Beast Boy?" Starfire asked. Sokka was surprised for a moment, but didn't let it show. Starfire had assumed a battle stance, better than the ones Zuko usually showed up with.
"If there's one thing Zuko always has down aside from firepower…it's a battle stance. Hah! Hahah! Firepower…and Zuko's a fire bender. I'm definitely saving that one later." Sokka pushed his thoughts to the back of his mind as Starfire resumed a normal pose to watch their friends battle the raging inferno.
A couple of sparks from the fire ignited the grass next to him, and he hastily moved to beat them out with his boomerang, while Starfire attacked the ignited strands of grass with a rock. Sokka turned his gave back to the fire, and almost as if on cue the ground shook, there was a single explosion, and the meteor found itself on its own little island in the middle of a large trench.
Meanwhile, Katara and Appa had reached the stream. In one run Appa swooped down low over the stream and leaned to the side. Katara leaned over, almost hanging off the side of Appa's neck and moved her hands, commanding the water to rise. In under a second she had a gigantic floating bubble of water following them back to the inferno. The moment Appa disappeared from view Beast Boy slithered out from the tree line. He chuckled as he changed himself into an octopus and began to suck up water from the stream.
Back at the fire, Katara returned, and Sokka watched in a dejected stance as she used her water bending to make the bubble rain down onto the fire. A full quarter was instantly extinguished. Toph, who had examined Starfire's attempt to battle the blaze, decided to use the same technique but on a bigger scale. She punched both of her hands forward and a large rectangular rock rose up into the trench. In an instant it was moving, almost rolling, over the flames to extinguish them. Even so, some of the fire still licked out at the side of the rock.
"Out of water!" Katara prepared to go back for more, but a stream of water launched itself over the trees from a hidden source. Katara was stupefied, but regained her senses and bended the water over to Aang.
"Sokka, Starfire, stand clear!" Aang ordered.
"Right," Sokka's still dejected tone answered. "Stand clear."
Aang held the floating bubble behind him, sucked in his breath, and used his air bending to blow it out, forming the water into an expanding bubble that popped, putting the fire out completely, and actually making it snow from the remains of the bubble and ashes.
"Good work everybody." Aang dusted off his hands as Appa landed nearby, and Katara leaped off his back. A huge smile overtook his face. Meanwhile, Sokka popped up out of the ashes with a rather obvious upside down smile plastered onto his.
The next day, the group sat at a café in the town they'd just saved the night before.
"These people have no idea how close they were to getting toasted." Aang remarked as he looked around.
"Yeah, if there's one thing I miss about not being undercover, its that we don't get any hero worship anymore." Toph grumbled. "I miss the love."
"Hero worship?" Robin piped up.
"Yeah. People used to praise us all the time for saving them. But this is the Fire Nation. Home of the world's most welcoming citizens." Katara muttered the last part sarcastically.
"But don't get us wrong, we do good things because we're good people. Not just for the hero worship." Aang said hastily.
"There is no doubt in my mind that you are good people. A person who is not as caring or as kind as you four would have left us to fend for ourselves instead of taking us in." Starfire reassured him.
"Besides, we know where you're coming from with that." Beast Boy began, but a warning glance that flickered onto Robin's face told him to steer clear of the 'hero' topic.
"Hmm?" Katara asked absentmindedly.
"Uh… never mind?" Beast Boy said in an unsure tone.
"Boohoo, poor heroes." Sokka muttered. He alone wasn't at the table with the others, instead he sat on the edge of the balcony from the café, is legs swinging freely in the breeze. But that fooled no one; he was obviously disappointed by something.
"What's your problem? You haven't even touched your smoked sea slug." Katara asked innocently.
"Yeah, lighten up dude!" Beast boy supported.
"It's just, all you guys can do this awesome bending stuff. Like flying around, and putting out forest fires, or making other stuff fly around." Sokka twirled his finger in a circular motion as he said this. "I can't fly around, okay. I can't do anything." He sighed.
"That is not true. While you may not be able to do the bending of the elements, you are always able to do something. Last night you assisted me in stopping the fire from escaping the trench. If we had not been there to help put out those small sparks, the fire would have spread possibly beyond control." Starfire attempted to comfort him.
"Yeah, Sokka. You know that's not true. You can always do something. Besides, no one can read a map like you." Katara assured her brother.
"I can't read at all." Toph pointed at her eyes.
"Yeah, and who keeps us laughing with sarcastic comments all the time?" Aang asked.
"Look, guys, I appreciate the effort. But, the fact is, each of you is so amazing and so special, and I'm… not. I'm just the guy in the group who's regular." Sokka's shoulders heaved and he sighed, obviously depressed.
Katara exchanged a look with Aang, and stood up. She walked and sat down by Sokka and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry you're feeling so down, but I hope you know none of us see you that way."
"Besides, Beast Boy and Starfire don't have special powers either." Toph said in a lighthearted tone. Beast Boy rolled his eyes as Starfire and Robin locked eyes for a second. Robin's expression was something like 'if only they knew'.
"I have an idea that'll make you feel better." Katara put an arm around her brother's shoulder, and he stared at her for a second.
"Aww man! This has got to be the third time I've seen that rock!" Cyborg threw his hands into the air. He'd been seemingly walking in circles for hours in a 'cursed' forest, as the locals so kindly put it. Cyborg didn't believe the local superstition, and now that he was lost and very much alone –if you didn't count the several bloodthirsty animals he'd had to fight and eventually ended up filling his belly with, that is- he wished that he had taken the main road instead of the shortcut through the forest.
"Hello?" Cyborg called out, already knowing he wouldn't receive an answer. "Hello! Anybody out there?!" He sighed again. After walking a bit more he decided to stop to rest by a stream flowing nearby. He kneeled down by the stream and was about to try and wash his face, when a large tree shaking thud alerted him to a possible enemy presence.
"Hello? Who's out there?!" Something that vaguely resembled a cross between a hawk and an otter flew overhead, away from the sound of the thud. Another bang and the ground shook this time. More misshapen animal forms threw themselves away from the threatening sound, crashing into objects and even each other in their mad dash to flee.
"Show yourself!" Cyborg readied his sonic cannon and aimed it into the underbrush. He mind raced wildly. "If whatever it is doesn't come out in ten seconds I'm firing warning shots. Without a team to back me up if I get ambushed I'm as good as dead."
"You've got five seconds before I shoot. Five… four…" He didn't get to finish his sentence as what looked like a giant boar flung itself out of the underbrush and smashed dead on into Cyborg. Cyborg flew back through the trees, breaking them in half on contact, until he finally hit the ground and rolled. "Ungh…" He groaned and raised himself to his feet.
Cyborg barely had time to launch himself to his right as the boar thing charged again. He glanced around at his surroundings, and was surprised to see that almost all of the trees the two had come into contact with had fallen over, and lay twisted and broken.
"You're powerful, I'll give you that." Cyborg grinned and shot a blast from his arm cannon at the oversized pig. In one swipe of its horns the blast was deflected. "That's definitely not a normal boar… something's weird about those horns…" He charged the boar and attempted to leap over his head, but one of it's' horns sent him sprawling.
He rolled back up to his feet, spun to face his opponent, and dug his heels into the soft dirt below. The boar seemed to sense that he wasn't going to avoid the next blow and stalked slowly around him. Once it reached his front again it decided to charge.
"Heeeerrrrrrah!" Cyborg grabbed the boar by the horns and locked eyes with it. He grinned again and heaved his arms upwards… sending the pig flying about forty or so yards, where it landed with a resounding thud.
"Booyah!" Cyborg shouted. He stepped over to the body, where the sight that greeted him gave him a sense of déjà vu. The pig's side was torn open, to reveal mechanical wiring, something that should've been nonexistent in this world.
"Nonexistent until Slade showed up." Cyborg muttered. In one of the pig's eyes Slade's insignia flickered briefly. Then the number five. It changed to the number four. It was at the number three that Cyborg realized what was happening. He spun on his heel and flung himself in the direction of the stream, praying that it wasn't too shallow. He hit the water the moment the body exploded, and could feel the heat licking at his heels before he submerged himself fully.
"Man, that was too close…" Cyborg thought to himself. He looked around to see where he was. After a moment he grinned for the fifth time that day. "Looks like I found my way again."
Fifteen minutes after leaving the café, the group found themselves standing in the entrance of a shop with a name way to fancy to pronounce. Beast Boy was the first to poke his head inside the shop, and his jaw dropped at what was inside. The walls were red, no surprise there. The shelves were brown. Surprisingly. What was on the shelves… was a rather large variety of dangerous weapons. There was everything from spears to maces to a combination of the two.
Sokka grinned and leaped forward. The first shelf he visited was the spear section. The spears were tipped with hooks, daggers, knives, blades, and one even looked like it had a blade big enough to be a broadsword on the end. He reached down under the spear and produced a pair of nun-chucks.
"How bout' these?" Sokka asked Toph as she stepped around from the other side of the shelf. He twirled them around his body and was beginning to enjoy the feel… until he bonked himself on the head and fell to the ground. "Ow…" Toph laughed.
Katara meanwhile was trying on a pair of leather gloves with Robin, and they both turned at the sound of Aang's voice. "What do you think?" Robin's jaw dropped, and Katara dropped her gloves. Aang was outfitted in some sort of chief's warrior outfit. A skull adorned one of his shoulders, while a spike pad was on the other. The chest plate was a model of somebody's abs, and a chain hung down from his neck. The helmet was a wolf's mouth, with most of the teeth still attached, and two giant horns sticking up where the ears would have been. He was wearing what seemed to be a giant hand over his hand, with a ruby engraved in the side as well as claws on the end. In his other hand he held a sword handle.
"Now all I need is a wind sword." Aang said.
Katara blinked twice before answering. "What's a wind sword?"
"It's where I get a sword handle and bend wind out like a blade." Aang swished the sword handle around.
"Um… does that work with fire benders as well?" Robin asked.
"Yeah. It works really wel- whoa!" The weight of the armor tipped Aang over and he fell flat on his back. "Eh… I'll just stick with what I got."
Sokka clapped his hands together and lunged forward, seizing his target from its basket. In his hands he held a spear shaft, the blade looking particularly sharp, even by spear standards. A second later he walked away frowning with the spear embedded in the ceiling.
Dual swords just didn't feel like they flowed, although he preformed pretty well with them. It was hard to ignore Beast Boy's snickers as he tried charging with an extra long spear, but they both ended up having a good chuckle as they both tried to lift a heavy looking mace. A throwing chain backfired, and throwing knives were already out before he even picked one up. Then as he twirled the knife around in his hand and prowled the store for something else to try, he saw it.
What seemed to be a simple katana at first glance… but it was more than just a katana. It was a jian, and a beautiful one at that. "That's what Sokka's talking about." He picked up the sheathed sword as the store clerk walking out from the back room.
"You have a good eye. That's an original from Piandao, the greatest swords maker and swords master in Fire Nation history. He lives up in the big castle up the road from here." The clerk seized a broom and began to sweep the shop, leaving Sokka and the others to wallow in their thoughts.
"That's it!" Aang exclaimed suddenly. "That's what you needed all along Sokka!"
"A sword?" Sokka asked, clearly puzzled.
"No, a master! We've all had masters to help us get better. You should see if you can study with Piandao." Aang replied.
"That's a great idea," Katara supported. "I never could've gotten where I am today with Master Pakkun. Everyone needs a teacher."
"I learned from badger moles. They don't talk, but they're still good teachers." Toph remarked.
"I learned from the Doo- Oof!" Beast Boy glared at Robin who'd elbowed him swiftly.
"Hmm?" Katara looked over at Robin along with everybody else, obviously puzzled at what just happened.
"Never mind." Robin said firmly.
"Okay… let's go!" Sokka chose to ignore what had just happened.
"Calling Robin. Robin, are you there?" Cyborg made sure he was speaking clearly and tried again. "Calling Robin." His communicator flickered for a moment, and then sprang to life with Robin's face on the screen.
"Cyborg? What's up? You usually don't call until the moon is up." Robin asked.
"I found something to do with Slade. Something more than just energy signatures." Robin was instantly alert at the name 'Slade'. Saying they had history would've been an understatement. Seeing that Robin was waiting for him to go on Cyborg continued.
"I was attacked by some type of pig thing, and it was pretty powerful. Since all the animals are weird around here, I was thinking that it was normal. In weird normal way."
Cyborg frowned, and then started again. "It's what happened after the battle that made me think Slade had something to do with it; The boar had Slade's insignia in its eye, it turned out to be a mechanical pig, and it was a bomb."
"He's going to be starting something soon… try and keep a low profile until it happens." Robin ordered.
"Wait, Robin." Robin stared into his communicator. "Listen, what if Slade is gonna try and mess with this invasion plan or whatever? The plan your new friend the avatar is cooking up?"
Robin thought for a moment. "That would make sense, if he's making a deal with the Fire Nation... on second thought, you might want to see what you can figure out about what might be going on."
"Alright. Listen, I gotta go. Wouldn't want someone figuring out what I was I doing here. See ya." Robin nodded at Cyborg and flipped his communicator closed.
"Sokka's coming!" Toph shouted suddenly. Aang, Katara, and Toph all were laying around lazily on the ground near Appa waiting for Sokka to return. The blazing sun and the absence of their new friends didn't make their wait any easier.
Everybody sat up with huge smiles plastered across their faces.
"Hey guys, what're you doing?" Sokka walked up the path to their campsite.
"Sokka!" They all shouted in unison, and all leaped forward to hug him.
"Sokka, say something funny!" Aang shouted.
"Something funny." Sokka asked in a very confused tone. He was confused even more when both Katara and Aang burst out laughing. He turned to Toph. "What's their deal?"
"I don't know," Toph said as she turned away to hide her blush, "They missed you or something. I didn't care."
"Thanks. That warms my heart…. Anyway, I need some help."
Boom! Another rock exploded in a shower of green energy. Starfire stood below the carnage above, panting from the training. Robin threw another target up in the air, and Starfire used her eyes to destroy it this time.
"Perfect." Robin smiled. "That's enough for today."
"Robin, the day is still young and I can still go on." Starfire proclaimed.
"Yeah, I have no doubt about that Star, but we only collected about a thousand or so rocks. In other words, you blew them all up." Starfire jumped for joy. Literally. After they grabbed Beast Boy from the place he'd chosen to train (as a monkey jumping through the trees) they returned to the campsite.
"There you guys are!" Sokka exclaimed. "Come on!"
"So… we're trying to drag this rock thing all the way to that Piano dude or whatever his name is?" Beast Boy asked, clearly doubting their ability to do so. They stood staring down on the meteor inside the crater it had created.
"Yep." Sokka replied.
"Don't worry; with our earth bending it'll be easy." Toph reassured him.
"Besides, we've got like what? Seven people here to push this thing." Katara said, eyeing the meteor with confidence.
Toph and Aang both used earthbending to help pave the way, while everybody else pushed on the rock over the rough terrain. After about an hour of work, and two or three rest stops, they stood panting at the bottom of the slope leading up to the castle.
"Come on guys, we're almost there!" Sokka shouted halfheartedly.
"Dude! Its gonna take forever to get up this hill…" Beast Boy fell flat on his back thinking of work ahead of them.
"We're not gonna get anywhere by standing down here." Aang replied firmly.
"I think Starfire and I can take it from here." Robin grinned inwardly. After he whispered something in the Tamaranean's ear he took a position on the left side of the meteor.
"Are you sure we should do this?" Starfire asked him.
"Positive. Just don't try and strain anything." Robin replied. "Push!!"
Sokka's jaw nearly dropped to the ground when he saw their speed up the slope. A second later his legs gave in and he fell to his knees. If Toph was surprised she didn't show it. Aang's eyes opened as far as they could go.
"Man, those two are strong." Toph remarked.
In less than twenty seconds they had cleared about three hundred meters uphill without visibly breaking a sweat.
"Wish they could've had that energy an hour ago." Beast Boy smirked.
"You said it." Sokka agreed.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's head on up." Katara said.
Sokka ran up to the double doors that were the entrance to the castle, and slammed the dual knockers down onto the doors repeatedly. Almost immediately Piandao answered his knocking. He poked his head around the door and opened his mouth to speak.
"Who's this?" He asked simply.
"Oh, these are my friends. Just other good Fire Nation folk." Sokka replied as they all gave a polite bow.
"If you don't mind me asking, why is he green?" Piandao cocked an eyebrow upon seeing Beast Boy.
"Um…" Sokka struggled to recall their cover story.
"Oh well I guess it doesn't matter much." The master swordsman gave a polite bow in return.
"Master, do you think we could make a sword out of a meteorite?" Sokka asked. Piandao eyed the meteor over and gave his decision. "We shall make a sword unlike any other in the world." He declared.
A couple of days later, they returned to the castle to give their goodbyes to Sokka's master, as he presented Sokka with his sword. They were ushered into main hall and ended up kneeling down a couple of feet away from Sokka and his master as they began the ceremony.
"Sokka, when you first arrived you were so unsure. You even seemed down on yourself. But I saw something in you right away: I saw a heart as strong as a lion turtle and twice as big. As we trained, it wasn't your skills that impressed me. Oh no, it certainly wasn't your skills. You showed something beyond that; creativity," Piandao produced a sword sheath adorned with the golden design of a dragon. He slid the sword out of the sheath to produce a breathing-taking black jian style blade. "… versatility, intelligence. These are the traits that define a great swordsmen. These are the traits that define you."
Master Piandao stepped up to Sokka's kneeling form, and bowed his head, presenting him with the sheathed onyx colored jian. "You told me you were not worthy. But I believe you are the most worthy man I have ever trained."
He stepped back after placing the sheath into Sokka's hands. Sokka stared at the blade and frowned, sighing inwardly. "I'm sorry master. I'm not worthy. I'm not who you think I am. I'm not from the Fire Nation. I'm from the Southern Water Tribe."
"I lied so that I could learn swordsmanship from you. I'm sorry." Sokka attempted to present his master with the blade to return it. Piandao was already turning away when spoke. "I'm sorry too."
Robin was already on his feet the moment Piandao whipped around with his sword speeding for Sokka's face. Sokka leaped backwards narrowly avoiding the blow, and followed up with a parry of his own. Not taking his gaze off of his master he held out a hand behind him, signaling for his friends to stop.
"No, this is my fight, alone." Reluctantly they agreed with his wishes and assumed regular stances.
"We will do this formally. Follow me." Piandao motioned with his hand for the Gaang and his butler to follow him outside into the courtyard below. There were a set of stairs leading down into the actual courtyard, and a thick dense set of bamboo stalks in the yard as well. Farther off there was a tiny bridge overlooking a stream small enough to hop over. "Sokka, you don't have to do this." Aang said.
"We can take this guy. There are seven of us and two of them." Robin supported.
"I need to do this alone." Sokka replied.
"You six will remain here with me." The butler said as Sokka and his former master both stepped down the stairs into the courtyard. They lined up opposite one another and took a few steps back. Sokka locked eyes with Piandao and gripped his sword tighter.
"Good luck Sokka!" Katara called. He couldn't help but grin that his sister would be shouting such a thing; usually she would've observed him silently, or even more commonly she would've been grappling with her own opponent.
"Begin!" The butler shouted.
Piandao made the first move, taking a short stab at his student. Sokka stepped backwards to avoid the first stab and the follow up swipe. Piandao raised his weapon over his head and brought it crashing downwards on top of Sokka's hastily raised sword.
Sokka lunged forward as Piandao moved his body swiftly to the side after anticipating the blow. He retaliated with a low stab that Sokka jumped over. Piandao avoided another one of Sokka's lunges and shoved him backwards into the small wooden bridge. Sokka stepped up onto the railing and avoided multiple swipes from his opponent by leaping from one side of the bridge to another. After a few more blows their battle led them up another small flight of stairs and into the bamboo stalks and they disappeared from view.
"What's happening!?" Katara shouted. Toph knelt down to the ground placed a hand on the stones. Using her earth bending she felt the battle's vibrations.
"Sokka's using the bamboo stalks against him. He's cutting them down. Oh yeah, and they're both still alive." A couple of seconds later Sokka emerged screaming from the bamboo stalks, and what looked like a very angry master was in pursuit.
Sokka tripped, and rolled using his sword to fling dust into Piandao's eyes.
"Very resourceful." Piandao commented as his eyes snapped shut. He made no attempt to clear the dust that was obscuring his vision. Sokka froze for a moment, and then began to silently step away from the battle. He cringed as he heard the death bearing snapping sound of a branch.
With blind speed Sokka's master whipped around and had disarmed him in a flash. Sokka had just enough time to throw himself to the ground to avoid a deadly slash to his chest as his own sword flung through the air and landed ten feet away.
Robin exchanged a look with Aang, and Aang nodded. Piandao held the sword an inch away from Sokka's chest as the Gaang leapt over the railing to assist him.
Aang stopped as the master swordsman whipped his sword away from Sokka's cringing form, and opened his mouth to speak. "Excellent work Sokka."
Piandao flicked his fingers, and the butler threw his sheath over to him.
"I think I'm a little old to be fighting the avatar." He said.
"How did you know?" Aang asked in a confused tone.
"I've been around a while. Pick things up. Of course, I knew from the beginning Sokka was water tribe. You might want to think of a better cover name. Try Lee, there's a million Lees."
"If you knew from the start I was Water Tribe, then why did you agree to train me?" Sokka asked.
Piandao locked eyes with his student. "The way of the sword doesn't belong to any one nation. The knowledge of the arts belongs to us all." He walked over to Sokka's sword which was sticking out of the concrete at an odd angle and removed it from the ground. Sokka's eyes widened as his master held it out in front of him.
"Sokka," He began, "You must continue your training on your own. If you stay on this path, I know that one day you will become an ever greater master than I am." He bowed his head.
"Thank you, master." Sokka bowed respectfully in return. After saying their goodbyes, they were escorted to the entrance of the castle by his butler. He gave them a Pai Sho piece saying it was from 'the master', and returned inside.
"You know, we never actually learned that guy's name." Beast Boy remarked as they walked down the path away from the castle. The sun was setting slowly which perfectly fit with the mood of the day winding down to an end.
"Beast Boy, if I am remembering correctly, your name is Garfield?" Starfire asked suddenly. Beast Boy groaned at the sound of echoing laughter emanating from the small crowd around him.
Well I can't say I'm satisfied with how I did the imagery with this chapter, but I was dying to update this thing for real. Hopefully in the next chapter the imagery will get better as time goes on. Nothing else to say really, except for I'd appreciate reviews. Thanks for reading!