The Iron Sole Alchemist in the Benders' World (Chapter 5) The Past and its Legacies
by Howlin
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation. This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)
Later that night, I was startled awake by a strange spiritual pressure. Sloth was sleeping soundly in the bed next to me. Loki was curled up on a bed we set up for him in the corner.
The spiritual pressure was building toward something, but nothing about it felt threatening. I carefully got out of bed without disturbing Sloth and crept out of the room. Once out the door, I willed my usual outfit to appear then I headed down toward the source of the spiritual pressure.
I wasn't the only one up. Jinora had come from the women's part of the temple, wearing loose fitting light pajamas. We'd both been drawn to the same door.
"You sense it too?" I confirmed.
Jinora nodded. "What is it?"
"Let's find out," I said, pushing open the door.
The room was full of statues, each a full sized representation of a different person. They were arranged in a spiraling pattern that filled the room. There were hundreds. Every fourth statue had the air bender tattoos of a master air bender. These were statues of the previous avatars. Faint traces of spiritual pressure were detectable from each statue.
The strongest trace came from an upper level, tucked away in an out of the way corner. The source was an avatar statue like the others, but much older, done in a different style, and carved from wood rather than stone. Wrapped around the former avatar was a carving of a tentacled creature just like I'd seen in my foeglass.
Suddenly, the spiritual pressure we'd sensed building spiked. The eyes of every avatar statue lit up with the same blue white light I'd seen Korra's eyes glow with. The arrow tattoos on the Air Nomad avatars glowed as well, as did patches on the creature depicted in the wooden statue. I could feel Korra's energy through the statues, focused and determined. The light lasted only a few seconds before going dark again, and the spiritual pressure receded.
"The statues are all tied to the avatar," explained Jinora. "Whenever the avatar uses the avatar state, they light up along with her. But how did we know it was going to happen ahead of time?"
Examining the statues' energies, I said, "The statues are still connected to the avatar, even when they're not glowing. What we sensed was Korra drawing deeper and deeper on her spirit energy before she used the avatar state."
"You can tell all that by looking at them?" asked Jinora impressed.
"We'll work on your spiritual senses tomorrow," I said. "Honestly, I'm surprised you sensed as much as you did with no training. Meanwhile, what can you tell me about the avatar state?"
"It's the other thing that makes the avatar special, besides being able to bend all four elements. Using the avatar state lets the current avatar access all the combined knowledge and power of her past lives. It makes her incredibly powerful, but there's a drawback. If the avatar is ever killed in the avatar state, they won't reincarnate and the cycle will be broken forever."
"That fits," I mused. "I've encountered a kind of parasitic spirit weapon called a bakoto that drastically increases a person's spirit energy and causes the glowing eyes thing. The problem is, overclocking the soul like that risks the soul's destruction. The people I've seen die in that state didn't even leave a spiritual body behind.
"What about the statue? Can you tell me what kind of creature this is behind the avatar?"
Jinora shook her head. "Maybe daddy would know more."
I stared at the ancient wooden statue for a long moment before saying," I'll ask him in the morning. We should get to bed."
"Um, do you think Korra's okay?" asked Jinora.
"The statues are still connected to her," I said. "The spirit energy I'm feeling through that connection is healthy and strong. For now, I think Korra's just fine."
The next morning, I explained what had happened during the night to Sloth, then took her and Tenzin to see the peculiar avatar statue.
"It's thinner than I expected from the foeglass," noted Sloth. "With that and the streamers, it looks like we're up against an evil kite."
"Do you recognize this creature?" I asked Tenzin.
"From the placement and emphasis, it's obviously a spirit of some sort, but I've never heard of a spirit like that," said Tenzin. Scratching his chin, he added, "Although... the people who made this statue must have known what they were depicting. Can you use the same ability you used to master air bending to talk to the people who made it?"
"That's not a bad idea," I said, kneeling in front of the statue.
I unhooked my substitute soul reaper combat pass from my belt and took out my pensive and my magic wand and laid all three items on the floor in front of me. With careful, deliberate action, I unfastened the bracers on my wrists and set them on the floor. Picking up my badge and exerting my spiritual pressure, I transformed it into a curved short sword in a swirl of green flames. I pierced the statue near its base, doing no physical damage and inserting myself into its past.
The Southern Air Temple was under construction. A group of monks were laying the first stones of the foundation. They were air benders, many of them sporting blue tattoos similar, but distinct from the blue arrow tattoos modern air benders earn on achieving mastery. One person stood out, a young man with pale skin, amber eyes, a small pointed beard, and brown hair worn up but not quite spiked. Now that the statue was brand new, it was obvious this was the man depicted. He touched the statue and briefly entered the avatar state, forging the connection between himself and the statue, causing it to glow for the first time.
"Hello," I said when he'd finished. "My name is Greed. I'd like to ask you some questions if that's okay."
"My name is Wan," replied the Avatar. "What can I do for you?"
"What sort of creature is that on your statue with you?"
"That's Raava, the light spirit," replied Wan. "If you haven't heard of her, it might be best if I tell you my story."
"I have the time," I said, sitting down near the statue.
"My story begins many years ago. I was a poor thief, stealing bread to survive and help feed my friends. We lived under the rule of a family called the Chus, who hoarded most of the food for themselves. I'd had enough of living like that, so I came up with a plan.
"I joined an expedition into the spirit wilds. The lion turtle w lived on for protection from the spirits granted hunters the gift of fire to defend themselves while in the spirit wilds. I made an excuse and headed back, but I didn't return the fire to the lion turtle like I was supposed to. Instead, I used it to lead a raid against the Chus. It didn't work out.
"I was banished. Thankfully, the lion turtle let me keep the fire to protect myself with. I wandered the spirit wilds, befriending the spirits and learning to use the fire I'd been granted. Eventually, I set out to find the other lion turtles the spirits told me about, each offering shelter to a society of humans. That journey was where I met Raava.
"Spirits and animals alike were fleeing from a titanic battle. I found two enormous spirits fighting. Raava glowed white with blue markings while Vaatu was black with red markings. Otherwise, they seemed identical.
"Vaatu called out for my help while Raava warned me not to interfere. I used my fire to free Vaatu and he fled. Raava stayed and explained what I had done. Raava was the spirit of light and order while Vaatu was the spirit of darkness and chaos. Raava had been holding him in check, but my interference meant he was free to spread his darkness, corrupt other spirits, and grow in strength.
"As Vaatu grew stronger, Raava grew weaker. It was approaching a time called harmonic convergence, when the planes align and the two spirits battle over the fate of the world. Whichever spirit won would decide the fate of the world for the next ten thousand years. The losing spirit would eventually be reborn inside the winner and the cycle would start anew, but that wouldn't be much comfort to the people who would die during Vaatu's ten thousand years of darkness if he won.
"Raava and I journeyed to find the other lion turtles. It wasn't about curiosity or finding other humans to talk to anymore. It was about gaining the power of the other elements to help fight Vaatu. The lion turtles agreed, but warned us that Raava had to hold the other elements since I couldn't handle more than one at a time. Raava swapped them out for me while I trained.
"By the time harmonic convergence came, Raava was small and weak enough to carry in my tea pot while Vaatu was as big as a lion turtle. The only way we stood a chance against him was by fusing together. When we fused, we could use all four elements at once and with much more power than I could alone. The fusion risked killing me before we could defeat Vaatu, so we used the energies unleashed by harmonic convergence to stabilize it, with the side effect of making it permanent. Raava's a part of me forever now."
"What happened to Vaatu?" I asked.
"I knew if I killed him, he'd grow back inside Raava, so instead I imprisoned him inside a massive tree called the Tree of Time. It's in the spirit world between the portals at the north and south poles. You won't be able to go there though.
"The human and spirit worlds were never meant to be connected like that. Vaatu had originally torn open the portals, and fed on the terror and chaos as the spirits forced the humans into hiding on the lion turtles. With Vaatu imprisoned, I sent the spirits back to their own world and closed the portals."
"How long with Vaatu's seal last?" I asked.
"Forever," said Wan. "The Tree of Time keeps the energies circulating as strong as they were when Vaatu was first imprisoned. The only way for him to get out would be to harness the energies of harmonic convergence, but with the spirit portals sealed, those energies won't be able to reach him. He'd only have a chance once every ten thousand years, and it'd take Raava's power to reopen the spirit portals."
"I see," I said with some concern in my voice. "Thank you for telling me all this. It was an honor to meet you, Avatar Wan."
In the present, used my wand to remove my memories of conversing with Avatar Wan, storing the silvery strands of memory in the pensive. I stabbed Wan's statue a second time, removing the false history I'd inserted. Remaining perfectly still, I spoke to Sloth and Tenzin.
"Before I return the memories to my head, you should see them. It'll save time on explanations."
Sloth and Tenzin looked into the rune inscribed bowl, leaning closer and closer until they were drawn inside it. Within the pensive, they would experience the memory as though they were invisible, intangible beings. The memory was an objective record, more a supernatural recording of events than the imprecise, mutable experience of an actual memory, so they could potentially see and notice things I hadn't at the time, and Wan's story would be unchanged by my retelling.
When Sloth and Tenzin exited the pensive, I replaced my memories inside my head and put the spirit energy sealing bracers back on. I gathered up my things and stood up.
"That was the first Avatar. You spoke to the first Avatar," declared Tenzin.
"Someone's plotting to release Vaatu," said Sloth. "If Korra's the only one who can do that, we have to warn her."
As the three of us exited the temple, we saw Pemma, Kaya, and Bumi standing over a guilty looking Jinora and Meelo. Pemma saw us coming and explained what was going on with clear irritation.
"Tenzin, Ikki's run away. Apparently, her sister and brother were teasing her again."
I glanced at Jinora and shook my head. She lowered her head looking more miserable than she already was. Then I put a hand on Tenzin's shoulder, saying, "We'll find her. Obviously, this takes priority."
"Loki can track by scent," offered Sloth, whistling for our dog.
"Commander Bumi reporting for duty," declared Tenzin's older brother. "Search and rescue missions are my specialty."
"What do you say we all go together?" suggested Kaya, putting an arm around her brothers' shoulders.
"Sure. I could use the help," agreed Tenzin readily.
Turning to Meelo, Bumi said, "When I get back, we'll come up with a plan to take down that shark squid once and for all."
Meelo cheered enthusiastically. After we were out of range, I said, "You shouldn't be rewarding him after he's done something wrong."
"I disagree," said Bumi. "Disciplining a young boy is the job of his parents. It's the fun uncle's job to spoil him and be an adult he can talk to even when his parents are mad at him."
Loki picked up Ikki's scent leaving the temple. She'd gotten pretty far. Considering how recent the fight must have been, Ikki had been running all out. Air benders can use their abilities to run at hundreds of miles per hour by eliminating air resistance ahead of them and giving themselves a hurricane force tailwind.
We had to move much slower than that. Kaya and Bumi couldn't match that speed at all, and while Loki could manage using flash step, he'd never be able to follow Ikki's scent going that fast. While we followed Loki, Tenzin called out for his daughter.
"Ikki! Ikki, where are you?"
"Over here, dad," came a voice from a nearby bush. Bumi popped out of it laughing as he declared, "Just kidding. It's me."
We all gave Bumi a dirty look, then Tenzin lamented, "Why would Ikki run off like this? It's probably my fault."
"Probably," said Kaya coldly.
"Excuse me?" asked Tenzin.
"I'm guessing you've been so busy with your 'duty' to Republic City that you forgot about your duty to your kids," elaborated Kaya.
"Doody," giggled Bumi.
"What are you, five years old?" snapped Kaya.
Tenzin sighed. "Kaya, you're right. I haven't been spending enough time with them. I wish I could be as good a father as dad was to us."
"Tenzin, your problem is you're exactly like dad," declared Kaya. "He was so focused on saving the world and doing his duty -don't laugh- that he never had time for us."
"Dad was under a lot of pressure," said Tenzin.
"He always had time for you," said Bumi mockingly, "his precious little air bender."
"Dad loved all of us equally," snapped Tenzin. "Besides, it all happened a long time ago. Why are we even talking about this?"
"Because you seem to have some grandiose delusion that we had a perfect, happy go lucky childhood," declared Kaya. "Guess what. We didn't."
Turning his back, Tenzin said, "We need to keep moving if we want to find Ikki before dark."
"See what he's doing there?" said Kaya. "Classic air bender technique. Cutting and running when things get tough."
"Yeah. Did dad teach you that move?" taunted Bumi.
Two puffs of smoke came out of my nostrils as I turned on the pair of them. "What is wrong with you? We are out here looking for a lost child. If you care more about whining about your daddy issues than finding Ikki, go back to the temple and do it there. We'll see you back there once we make sure Ikki's going to survive long enough to have daddy issues of her own."
"Who do you think you are?" demanded Kaya.
"A total stranger who just met your family a few days ago," I said, turning my back on her.
"Just go back and see if Ikki came back on her own," said Tenzin.
The two older siblings turned back while Sloth, Loki, Tenzin, and I pressed on. I cooled off enough that I was no longer involuntarily fire bending, but I was still annoyed at the two of them. I wasn't alone in that, but we all focused our attention on the search.
We were following Ikki's trail half the night, eventually finding her asleep in a cave. A group of baby sky bison were sleeping in a pile and Ikki was snuggled up on one side. Tenzin let out a relieved sigh on finding his daughter.
"I'll stay here and talk to her when she wakes up," said Tenzin. "Can you go back to the temple and let everyone know she's all right?"
"We'll let them know they can stop worrying," said Sloth.
Transmuting a pair of glider staffs, Sloth and I flew back to the air temple. Loki followed us through the air with flash step.
Meelo and Jinora had gone to bed. Pemma was still up worrying, and we were able to put her mind at ease so she could go to bed. We found Bumi and Kaya in the statue room.
"Ikki's fine," I said. "Tenzin's bringing her back in the morning."
"Thanks for letting us know," said Bumi. "I know we weren't exactly being mature out there."
"We shouldn't have let our issues with dad get in the way of bringing Ikki home safe," acknowledged Kaya.
"What did happen with Aang?" asked Sloth.
"Dad was the last air bender," said Bumi. "Us kids were his only chance to bring the air benders back, but after I was born a non bender Kaya turned out to be a water bender, neither of us could be what he wanted."
"After Tenzin was born, dad spent a lot more time with him than he did with either of us," said Kaya. "Sure, it was about making sure his new air bender knew Air Nomad culture so he could pass it on, but this is our heritage too."
"Dad spent most of his time traveling and keeping the world safe," said Bumi. "I joined up with the United Fores to sort of follow in dad's footsteps. So, I don't think we ever asked. What were your families like?"
"I didn't have one," I said. "I was raised by the church in a small desert town. I left the church after it turned out the priest was a fraud trying to make us into an army to take over the world."
"Yikes," said Bumi. "Makes our issues look petty, huh?"
"My father was a State Alchemist. He fused my sister Nina with the family dog. She was in constant pain until a serial killer came by and mercy killed her. Then my father created me to replace her, implanting me with all her memories. He alternated between using me like a doll to pretend he hadn't done that to Nina and sending me on missions to corrupt people and lead them into committing atrocities for his benefit."
"Seriously?" asked Kaya, stunned.
"What happened to him?" asked Bumi.
"We left him stranded on a world where his powers didn't work," explained Sloth. "He was on the losing side of a war in that world. If he didn't kill himself, the people who won the war would have. We left that choice up to him."
"Wow," was all Kaya could say.
"We've both moved on from being defined by our origins," I said, hugging Sloth. "We've done a lot of good and helped a lot of people. We couldn't do that if we couldn't put our issues aside to focus on the task at hand. I'm going to go to bed now, but tomorrow, we're going to be making plans for something important. Think long and hard about whether you can do better than I saw tonight. If you can't, I don't want you along."
The nest morning, Tenzin returned with Ikki. Jinora and Meelo apologized and the three siblings reconciled. Tenzin and his siblings were going to be harder, but it looked like everyone was ready to give it an effort. As such, we invited Kaya and Bumi to help Tenzin, Sloth, and I decide on a course of action regarding Vaatu. Getting the two of them up to speed didn't take long.
"It sounds like all we have to do is make sure the portals stay closed during harmonic convergence," said Kaya. "If Korra's the only one who can open the portals, telling her about Vaatu should solve the problem."
"There's still whoever this person is trying to free Vaatu," said Tenzin. "Unlikely though it may be, we can't ignore the possibility that whoever it is may have found a way to open the spirit portals without Korra. If they have, it won't be as simple as keeping Korra away from the poles until after harmonic convergence."
"I don't suppose you two have any more toys that could help us figure out who the bad guy is, do you?" asked Bumi.
"Tons," said Sloth. "Give it long enough and the foeglass'll show his face. Won't be perfectly clear until he's about to pull off his plan. A sneakoscope will light up and whistle in the presence of someone untrustworthy. Secrecy sensors vibrate in the presence of lies and deceptions. Veritasyrum can force a person to reveal their darkest secrets with just three drops. That's on top of the general mind reading we can do. We'd need a suspect to start with, but once we have one, we can get answers quick."
"Do we have a suspect?" asked Bumi.
"Ulanaq," said Tenzin. "He was pushing hard to become Korra's teacher, and we know whoever this is most likely needs her to open the portals and free Vaatu."
"I'd say you're just mad at the guy who got your job after the avatar fired you," began Bumi, "if it weren't for the fact that our other clue is that prophecy about Korra being betrayed by a family member. Ulanaq is her uncle."
"We'll need to be in his presence to check him, but it'll be quick to confirm one way or the other," I said. "Does Korra have family beyond Ulanaq, Tanraq, Senna, Desna, and Eska?"
"Well, there's us," said Kaya. "She is dad's reincarnation. I know the incarnation before him was related to Fire Lord Izumi and her family."
Sloth held up a sneakoscope, declaring, "Everyone in the room now's trustworthy."
"If it isn't Ulanaq, we should work with him," said Tenzin. "In addition to being chief of the Northern Water Tribe, he's a powerful bender with immense knowledge of the spirit world. He also has access to a prison holding the next most likely suspect."
"Who?" asked Bumi.
"When Korra was very young, a group of four extremely talented individuals tried to kidnap her," said Tenzin. "After we stopped them, we had to put them in specialized prisons to counter their abilities. None of the prisoners ever told us why they'd tried to kidnap Korra or who else might have been involved. One of the prisons is a secret facility at the north pole."
"What sort of abilities do they have?" I asked.
"Three of them are exceptionally powerful benders with unique applications for their native element," said Tenzin. "Their prisons had to be designed to deny them access to their element. The fourth was an extremely skilled non bender martial artist, who we put someplace his friends wouldn't be able to get to him easily if one of them managed to break out."
"So, are we ready to get moving?" asked Kaya. "Bumi, Tenzin, and I can talk to Korra while you two talk to Ulanaq and figure out who's side he's on. We can be there in under a day if we take a sky bison. Pemma and the kids'll be safe here."
"I need to ask for a stop on the way," I said. "Kyoshi Island has some information that'll hopefully make me a lot more useful."
"What are you going to need the extra power for?" asked Kaya.
"Fighting Vaatu," I said. "If things go horribly wrong and he gets free, I'm going to want the option of dropping my limiters to deal with him without rearranging the landscape with accidental bending."
"We still have some time," said Tenzin. "We'll make the Kyoshi Island stop then head south to get Korra."
Kyoshi Island was named after Avatar Kyoshi, the most recent avatar born to the Earth Kingdom. Local lore held that it had been a peninsula until Avatar Kyoshi separated it from the mainland using earth bending to protect the people from being conquered by a tyrant named Chin. What I could see of the island's shape as we approached by air supported that theory.
A statue of Kyoshi herself stood vigil on top of a pole near the village proper, dressed in a long kimono and wielding a pair of war fans. Sentries spotted us coming and when we made our landing a group of Kyoshi Warriors were on hand to greet us. They were all women, dressed in green kimonos and wearing identical face paint and head dresses. Each had a straight sword at her hip and a pair of war fans in her belt.
"Tenzin?" asked one of the older women. Now sure she recognized him, she said, "I suppose that's Master Tenzin now. You've earned your tattoos. It's been quite a while. Are you here to take your family out to ride the elephant koi?"
Tenzin looked at his siblings and asked, "Did you want to ride the elephant koi while we're here?"
They both rolled their eyes. I stepped forward.
"Hello. My name is Greed. Commander Bumi here has told me about the training you do here, and I was hoping you'd be willing to let me study here."
"Traditionally, the combat style of the Kyoshi Warriors is only taught to women," said the apparent leader of the group.
I smiled and said, "Well, if it's traditional..." A line of blue alchemic light ran from the soles of my shoes up my body. Where it passed, my body was changed. At first, it was subtle, adjusting the shape of my legs and widening my hips a bit. As the wave passed over my chest, my usually open vest buttoned closed over my new breasts. The changes to my face were subtle, leaving my preferred spiked up hair style intact. I was recognizably myself, just a female version of myself.
"What did I just see?" asked the stunned leader of the Kyoshi Warriors.
"Greed and I are shape shifters," explained Sloth.
"They're visitors from another world here to help us confront a threat from the spirit world," explained Tenzin. "What they came to Kyoshi Island to do won't take long, then we can be out of your way."
"Won't take long?" asked the leader. "Our martial forms take years of practice to truly master."
"I'm a quick study," I said. Then I added, "What I actually intend to do is perform a ritual on the island that will let me experience all the lessons that have been taught here over the years. The ritual will only take a few minutes, but I wanted to get your permission first."
"I... suppose that's acceptable," said the woman we'd been conversing with.
"Thank you," I said, getting out the things I needed for the ritual.
The Kyoshi Warriors watched curiously as I performed the necessary steps. When I was done, I got to my feet and shook my head.
"What's wrong?" asked Sloth.
"I earned everything I wanted to know about chi blocking, and got some general combat training in as a bonus. Turns out chi blocking can be used to disrupt bending, but it also shuts down spirit energy and even alchemy. The pressure points involved disrupt the flow of energy of all kinds within the body."
"So you can't use it to shut off your bending while you use your spirit energy," said Sloth. "I know you don't like it, but you might need to sit it out when the fight with Vaatu starts."
I sighed and said, "You're right. It was worth a try, but I guess I'll have to wait until I've mastered the other three elements."
"Are you some other world's avatar?" asked the lead Kyoshi Warrior.
"No. I'm just an explorer," I said. "My soul's been modified in a way that makes it safe for me to hold all four bending elements, but anyone's soul could be modified the same way."
"We should get going," said Tenzin. "Hopefully, we'll be able to explain what's going on to Korra and no one will need to fight Vaatu."
"Thank you for letting me study here," I said, bowing before joining the others climbing back aboard the sky bison.
I clapped my hands and touched the oroboros mark on Sloth's back once we were on board. The tattoo glowed blue for an instant as I imprinted a copy of what I'd learned into her mind.
"At least this'll help us disable and bring in Vaatu's human ally," said Sloth. "Um, are you planning on staying like that?"
I shrugged, shape shifting back to my default male form. "I didn't want to change back until we were on our way."
"Just as long as I don't end up down a husband," said Sloth. "We already have enough girls in this relationship."
Author's comments:
Vaatu is going to break free from his prison because after ten thousand years, people have forgotten the threat. A small child is left to wander the wilderness alone because her rescuers can't forget the wrongs in their past long enough to help her.