Nothing major. Oh yes there is Cussing. Lots and Lots of curse words. Lioness, that warning is for you :) Cussing, Drugs, Sex, and Anger. Doesn't that all just make the perfect pie?
Yuck Factor: 7 of 10 for implied naughtiness.
Fluff Factor: -10. No love. No love at all in this chapter.
Katara and Toph decided to leave the male hormonal creatures to themselves. Katara had decided that the men were bothering her at the moment and she wanted to be away from them. If they killed each other that would only solve her problems. She laughed at her self inwardly. How horrible of her to think something like that, regardless of the truth there was in it. They wanted to fight, but she wasn't allowed to join in. She didn't play fair. She had pregnancy hormones on her side and that gave her an advantage. Toph couldn't join either. Apparently the piss party was for males only. What fun was that? So she decided to just go with Katara. Maybe she would just pick on Katara, only a little though. Okay, maybe a bit more than a little. She didn't get to pick on Katara very much any more since the two tongue draggers decided they wanted to fight over her.
They guys sat at a table slurping down their noodles. There was a thick air of silence between them as they glared at each other. Sokka had to get them to be quiet, and stop the bickering. So they ate. But now the silence was almost suffocating. He didn't know how else he could do it. At the moment there was more than one thing Sokka didn't know. He could feel eyes watching them, but they were the only patrons in the tea house.
At least that he knew of. He looked over at Zuko and frowned.
Zuko had grown very still. He had stopped mid-noodle when a smell caught his attention. It was like nothing he had ever known. A powerful sweet scent that hung heavy on the tongue but made the senses crave more. His eyes moved to find the source, only to find a stream of smoke billowing softly out of the back room. Sokka stood up as the smoke soaked into his skin. He moved over to the door where the stream was wafting out. He pushed the door open and took a deep breath.
A pair of void eyes narrowed as the boy took the hook. Saidon and Sliyar turned to their companion. Shurinere smiled as he willed the intoxicating smoke around the boy. Deep into the boy's lungs, and through the veins, the toxins hit his mind hard. Shurinere felt the boy start to loose himself in the succulent incense. He turned to his brothers and nodded his hooded head. He sunk down into the floor and crawled along the shadows until he found his prey. Zuko's body became rigid as the demon entered him. With a slump of the shoulders, the possession was sealed. Zuko stood up and turned to look over his shoulder. His sand colored eyes look directly at the two invisible demons perched on the shelf. Invisible they may have been to mortals, but Shurinere could see his comrades perfectly, down to the tatters hanging from their cloaks. Zuko smiled and shut the door behind him.
Sliyar turned to look at Saidon. He moved his eyes back to the door as a girl walked in. He narrowed his eyes as she looked over at him. Fear ran through her as she looked upon the demons. But she soon relaxed as she fell into his spell. She turned and looked at the two boys still at the table. Sliyar looked over the girl. She was tall and slender. She had black hair down her back and golden eyes. He shook his head casting the spell off of her. She walked on about her business none the wiser of the demon. Sliyar disappeared into the wall, and rematerialized. Saidon watched as Sliyar coaxed a more suitable woman into the tea house. She was thin, but well endowed. This one had brown hair, and green eyes. Saidon turned and looked at his brother blankly.
"Must you play favorites." Sliyar nodded.
"Fire Nation is not his type." He watched as the woman walked over and took a seat just in eye shot of Sokka. She leaned forward on the table, arching her back, as she did her shirt skirted up showing a sliver of skin. Sliyar looked over to Sokka. He looked back to the girl and tilted his head causing the girls skirt to move to show more leg.
Sliyar narrowed his eyes as Sokka's wandered over to the expanse of bare skin. Sokka stared at the girl for a moment, and Sliyar saw his opportunity. He disappeared into the wall. Saidon watched as the other demon took over the boy. Sokka's eyes turned to a powder color as he stood up. Saidon watched contently as Sokka walked over to the girl. After a few moments the girl stood up and the two left. There was only one left. Saidon wasn't as patient or as elaborate as his brothers. He just waited until the boy stood up to go find his friends. He took that chance to take over the boy.
Toph grabbed Katara's arm as she froze where she stood. Katara turned to look at the blind girl with question. She looked over Toph's face at the serious glare.
"Toph?"
"Something's wrong. Something dark and mean and very wrong." Toph said shaking her head. She wasn't even making sense to herself. Katara frowned.
"Do we need to find the guys?"
"Yeah, I think so." Toph said. Katara grabbed Toph's hand and they started running through the village. Katara remembered where they had left them, but she didn't know if they were still there.
They bust through the door to the tea house only to find nothing but the small table boy clearing the plates. Katara walked over to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
"The three guys that were sitting here, do you know where they went?" The small boy was around seven or eight. He stared with wide eyes at Katara's very pregnant stomach.
"Was one of them the daddy?" Katara' felt her eyebrow twitch as she tried to force a smile. She nodded through clenched teeth.
"Yesss." The boy's eyes grew wide. Katara's forced smile vanished. She frowned and stared at the little boy.
"Why? What happened?" The little bus boy shook his head and started wiping down the table very intently. She frowned and cleared her throat. The little boy turned and looked at her with his large innocent eyes.
"I don't know which one it was, but boy will they be in trouble." Toph's ears perked.
"Why?" The little boy looked to the floor as if he thought he would get in trouble. Katara thought for a moment then dug into her hip pouch. She pulled out three copper pieces.
"A copper a piece if you tell me where they are." The boy looked at her then looked at the coins in her hand. He stuck his hand out and she dropped the coins in his palm.
"The mean looking one, went in there." He said pointing to a room with a sign that read 'Restricted.' "The goofy one left a while ago with one of the Hosi girls." He said pointing out the door. "And the last bald one, left just a few minutes ago out the back." Katara nodded her thanks and gave the boy a pat on the head.
"Thank you sir." The little boy gathered his dirty dishes and made his way quickly back to the kitchen. Katara turned to look at Toph.
"Who first?" Toph shook her head.
"We know where one of them is. Why not him first?" Katara nodded. She was mad, so mad that she wasn't thinking logically. By god she better be right on who was the goofy looking one and who was the mean one, because if she wasn't: someone was going to die. She walked with Toph over to the door, but Toph grabbed her arm.
"Wait a minute there Sugar Queen." Katara looked down to Toph and frowned, knowing that it didn't do any good.
"What?"
"Can't you smell that? That smoke? You stay out here. I'll go get him. You really don't need to be breathing in that stuff." Katara started to argue but just about the time she opened her mouth she felt like the twins started playing kick the snow ball with her bladder.
"Fine. But hurry." Toph waved her hand behind her.
"Yeah yeah." She said as she opened the door. The room was so thick with smoke that it hit Katara hard as Toph disappeared into the thick of it. Katara gagged and threw the door shut covering her mouth. She was going to be sick. She ran out the front door.
Toph tried not to breath in much of the smoke as she moved toward who she thought was Sparky. She grabbed his wrist, and it was hot to the touch. Yep. That was him. She pulled him up with a jerk and drug him out of the door into fresh air, her lungs hurting from trying to hold her breath. Katara walked back in the tea house wiping her mouth when she froze. She stared over at the man with Toph for a moment. Her eyes widened as she realized it was Zuko. His eyes were glazed and the bright red that rimmed them both didn't match the paleness of his skin. He squinted his eyes as he looked at her, his eyes dropping down to look at her stomach, then back up to her. He didn't say anything, he just stared.
Katara could feel the anger in her start to boil. If she didn't say something to him soon she would explode and the poor village would be a few miles below sea-level. She walked over to him and stopped a few inches from touching belly to belly. She covered her mouth and nose and took a few steps back.
"My god, Zuko!? What...I...uh..." She growled the anger clouding her judgement as she stared at his distant eyes. She felt her hand hit his face before she even realized that she was thinking about slapping him. Her eyes grew wide as his eyes turned back to look at her slowly. There was something wrong with those eyes. Danger hid just below the surface. For the first time, she was actually truly scared of Zuko. Not the things he stood for, or the pain that he might cause, but just pure fear. And still he said nothing. Toph's were narrowed. She grabbed Katara's shoulder and pulled her over to the side. She looked at Zuko and shook her head.
"That's not Zuko." Katara frowned.
"It has to be." Toph shook her head.
"I suggest we find the others. He needs to come down." Katara nodded. She turned back to look at Zuko. He wander over to the table and sat down. He wasn't there a second before he moved to lay on the bench on his back. He closed his eyes and folded his fingers behind his head. The girl's walked out, still baffled. Katara stopped and ran her hands over her arms.
"What was that smell?" Toph frowned.
"Opium, I think." Katara frowned.
"What?! I thought that was..."
"It's reserved for the higher-ups, but this village seems to have a surplus. Regardless, Zuko is out of his mind. He's ten thousand miles away and will regret waking up tomorrow." She said as they walked through the street, both trying to think of where they could find the others. Katara just happened to glance down an alley as they past. She stopped and took a few steps back.
"Toph..." She called staring at her brother. Without thinking she started down the alley. Sokka turned around and she stopped. His hair was out and framed his face. His eye were dark, as seemed if he had coal smeared under them. She took a step closer, and could make out the spots of blood that splattered across him. Toph walked up behind Katara and stopped, sensing the increase of pulse.
"Sokka?" Katara ask softly. The man snarled his nose, and wiped his hands on his shirt, freeing them of blood. Katara's eyes dropped behind her brother onto the form laying in the dirt. It was a young woman. Her skirt was pushed up to her navel, and her legs were open giving even the most ignorant of people an explanation of her condition. But Katara's breath caught in her throat as she looked up to the girl's head. Her eyes and mouth were wide as if she had tried to scream, but her throat had been ripped out. She hadn't been strangled, or suffocated. Her neck looked like she had been attacked by a rabbi-wolf. Katara took a step back as Sokka stared at her.
"Leave." He uttered in a voice a few octaves deeper than normal. Katara grabbed Toph by the hand and ran out of the alley. Her heart was beating out of control. What did she just see? Did she really see a woman spread eagle in an alley with her throat shredded? And did she really just see her brother standing over that woman with blood covering him? Katara's mind couldn't wrap around it. Something was wrong. That wasn't her brother. He wouldn't, he couldn't do what she thought he did. He was not a murderer, and he was not a rapist. She felt her nausea return. Toph grabbed Katara and slapped her.
"Calm down. Damn! You're gonna kill you and the kids!" Toph scolded. She frowned. "Something has possessed the guys. I wouldn't be surpised if your babies' mother was behind this." Katara nodded and then a thought hit her.
"Toph?"
"Yes?"
"That means we have a possessed and pissy avatar running around right now, right?"
"Oh shit." Toph growled.
"Oh no. She doesn't want me! She would rather have some damn fire bender that tried most of the time we knew him to kill us! Yes that's what she wants. She wants someone to dominate her! Stupid bitch. Then he has to show up and act like he is our friend. Hah. He'll kill us in our sleep if he gets the chance. I bet that bastard did sleep with Katara. I bet he did take advantage of her. Fucker.
Then they have to drag me into some fucking tea house, then they leave. What kind of fucking friends are they? I should slit all of there damn throats. All it takes is for some pretty piece of ass to walk by and Sokka looses his fucking mind! Perverted bastard. But I guess that's what women want. Somebody after one thing. I should have fucked her when I got the opportunity.
Maybe then she would be hanging on my nuts instead of his. This fucking world thinks I owe them something? I don't owe any one a damn thing. If the other Avatar started this shit, he should have finished it. How the fuck do they expect some damn twelve year old and a handful of teenagers to save the damn world? Some fucking sense they have. Sorry bastards should watch their owe asses. That's what they deserve. If the whole damn world would leave everyone else alone and mind their own fucking business, it might be a pretty damn decent place to live. Fucking planet should just blow up, and start all over. " Aang growled as he downed another glass of papaya ale. Barkeep couldn't argue with him. After all he was the avatar, and he was one hundred and twelve years old. If he wanted to drink, by spirits, he was going to drink. The fact that Saidon was pulling his puppet strings had nothing to do with it.
Whew. Long chapter. Couldn't stop. Had to rant. Read and Review! Oh and I learned of this wonderous thing called a Brookie! It's half brownie half chocolate chip cookie! It's Mhmm.