Chapter 6: The Stillness Before...
The sun shun sadly over Katara and Sokka as they walked through the silent, pastoral village, both appearing deeply troubled. It was a shame that they could not spare the thought to appreciate the sky at that moment, for they were busy talking quietly between themselves.
"You have to admit Katara, there's something fishy about Li." Sokka reasoned, though unsure himself of the matter.
"I don't know Sokka, sure, he seems kind of out of place in this village, but he wasn't lying today, I can tell you that." The Waterbender assured, "When I first met him, when we went looking for Toph, he said he hoped I would introduce them. He seemed just as sincere then as he did today." She then looked miserably at Sokka, "And I don't know, I just can't believe there's someone who can actually steal bending powers Sokka, it sounds unnatural."
Sokka crossed his arms and seemed thoughtful for a moment. "It would really help Toph's theory if it was possible. I'm not sure if it is, but I know Toph believes that he can do it." The warrior kicked a loose pebble on the ground as he walked.
"But how could he be an assassin? He's only twelve; would the Fire Nation really sink so low as to train children to kill?" She argued.
"Look at Azula! She can't be that much older than him and she's already tried to kill Aang, do you think the other Firebenders are that different?" Sokka answered heatedly, "You keep underestimating them, they would have killed everyone in the North Pole if Aang hadn't smashed their navy, just like they killed mom."
Katara's expression darkened, "You're right." Then she sighed, "But it doesn't prove anything."
After several moments in which they continued their stroll in contemplative silence, Katara finally spoke.
"I'm scared Sokka."
The elder sibling stopped and turned to her slowly, "Me too Katara."
The siblings hugged lovingly for several brief moments, when suddenly a low voice came to them.
"There's nothing more comforting than sibling love." A person, dressed in a black colored Earth Kingdom army uniform said, Sokka and Katara turned at once, both drawing their respected weapons. "Or so I've heard, I wouldn't really know…"
The person was wearing a hood over his face, sewn on by himself, most probably. The job was clean though, and the seams were almost invisible, certainly unnoticeable from most angles. The uniform itself was dyed expertly, and the armor was colored in a single, homogenous layer.
"Nice outfit." Sokka commented, eyeing them carefully, though actually trying to get a glimpse under the person's hood. "No really, where do I get one of those?"
"Don't waste your time." With a carefully controlled voice, the assassin spoke. With considered, yet natural words creating a casual impression of a pleasant discussion.
"What do you want?" Katara asked, water at the ready, though she wondered how much use they will do her in broad daylight against someone who would have beaten her in her advantageous time of the night.
"No fighting, not this time." The assassin said, "Only words."
Sokka tapped his foot nervously, and looked back from Katara to the assassin, but the latter seemed to have picked up something else in his behavior.
"If you call your friends, your sister and your friend will die. But I will let you live." The threat was cold, but there was a tiny shift underneath the armor, like a twitch, but barely noticeable.
Katara caught on, he was tapping his foot not with nervousness or lack of patience; he was trying to signal Toph, using his feet to call out for her unique "sight".
Sokka stopped instantly; glaring straight at the shadows underneath the hood, his expression radiated cold loathing, like a searing bolt of lightning. The assassin was unaffected by this.
"You're not a target, warrior. You may leave." Though he said that Sokka may leave, the assassin's tone rather indicated that he should leave.
"Do what he says Sokka." Katara said suddenly, her face determined, "And don't call Aang and Toph here." He stared at her, mouth agape, he was about to argue, but she glared at him fiercely. And when that didn't seem to stop the imminent torrent of words, she cried, "Just GO!"
He left reluctantly, looking back at the two all along. He wouldn't be too far, and will most likely want to stay in sight of the two, but the assassin paid him no attention.
"This is your last chance, Katara. Leave the avatar so we can avoid this pointless bloodshed."
"I'm not about to abandon my friend, not when I know what you're planning to do with him." She declared accusingly.
"I'm not planning to do anything with him, but I'm afraid Azula is. I must say, Katara, I admire you and Toph for your loyalty to your friends and your determination. I only hope, that being so, and by so I mean loyal, you would understand my position." The assassin spoke almost apologetically, and Katara felt like she had to say it, regardless of what logic dictated.
"But you're not loyal to the Fire Nation. You don't want the path they set you on. Toph told me you always kill fairly, even though you were trained and instructed otherwise. You're not like them; you don't have to be like this."
"I've killed Waterbenders too, not just Earthbenders." The assassin said suddenly, "Before the siege of the North, Admiral Zhao contracted me to slay a Waterbending master within the city in the North Pole, an associate of Master Pakku." He told, "I infiltrated the city easily enough, undetected, and when I faced him, he threw everything he had at me. And might I say, that was a lot. It being during the night, I was at a great disadvantage." He spoke slowly, and deliberately, making sure Katara understood every single word.
"Why are you telling me this?" Katara interrupted, but he shook his head.
"I was outgunned, but I observed his defensive bending was all the same, he kept bringing up a wall of water to block my fire attacks, leaving him completely blind to my actions. That was what brought him down. I sent several weak fireballs at him, blinding him momentarily as he raised his barrier, but then, I unleashed upon him a massive ball of fire from the air, a technique that you've already had the chance to see…" He inclined his head towards her respectfully. "And then I finished him off, you see though he was a Waterbending master, his hatred towards my people drove him to use his weak side, his offensive more than his defensive side. He had the capability to defend marvelously against that attack, yet in his blind rage he did not do it."
"What's the point in telling me this? Are you trying to incite me against you?" Katara questioned; her voice even, yet there was a hint of withheld anger within it, more at the assassin's stubbornness than at his story.
"I'll let you think about it." The assassin replied, then giving her a small bow, "Hopefully, one of us will come to our senses before this is over, and the bloodshed will be avoided."
"You're not sure if you want to kill us, are you?" Katara asked hopefully, and the assassin nodded.
"It is not the time to make the final decision yet, but when the time will come, I hope for all our sakes we choose right." He spoke solemnly, then turning to leave. Katara made a move to try and stop him, but a wall of fire rose in her way, prohibiting her from continuing.
000
"And that's what happened," Katara finished telling the group, Aang and Sokka considered his story, while Toph nodded slowly and spoke.
"He's trying to teach us something, but he wants us to figure it out, he told me about this Earth Kingdom General Shan that he killed. He said that the general fought using a stone-made creature, called a Golem, but when he controlled the Golem he was vulnerable, eventually he said he just gave him his most powerful technique, and burned through the golem straight at the General, who didn't have the time to raise a proper defense by then." Toph told shortly, she had given that story much thought, but wondered what the meaning behind it was. Since there was obviously a reason the assassin told it to her.
"Well, they're all about using your opponent's weaknesses against them, right? Maybe that's what he's trying to teach us? To use his indecision against him?" Aang offered Toph considered this, it made sense, since the assassin seemed as though he wanted to be stopped from killing them, but then there's no real lesson there. No, she had a feeling it was deeper than that.
"Maybe it's not about using them against your enemy," The Earthbender said, "Maybe it's about trying to see what they are in the first place, observing them. Know your enemy, find their weakness, General Shan's weakness was his vulnerability while controlling his Golem, the Waterbender's weakness was his lack of control…."
"I think Toph's got a point, though I still don't get why we're dealing with this mumbo jumbo, we should just go and find out where that Firebender is before Azula and her friends return." Sokka stated, tapping his foot on the ground fondly for Toph to hear.
"I don't think we ever stood a chance against him." Toph mentioned glumly, "He beat Aang and Katara effortlessly, and me too…"
"Hey, he had the element of surprise then, I didn't have any bending water, you were knocked out with a surprise attack, and Aang wasn't prepared for a fight." Katara argued, "If we had the element of surprise, and the upper hand, I know we can beat him."
"Look, Aang and I should go searching for him, after all, you're his targets, right? So he won't be paying us much attention. So when we find him, Aang will come and call you, and we'll kick his Firebending butt back to the Fire Nation, simple, isn't it?" Sokka proposed simply.
"I guess we don't have much else to do." Aang agreed reluctantly, "But I'm sure if we could set him straight… he could be such an asset…"
"Right… And next thing we know, the Fire Lord will invite us to a banquet in your honor." The warrior responded sardonically.
"Well, I guess we'll get moving." Aang said, standing up. Sokka mimicked him, after a hasty goodbye, the two boys left, leaving the girls to sit in uncomfortable silence.
"We have to reach him." The Earthbending girl said, "He wants us to, we just haven't given him a good enough reason, a strong enough argument."
"I want to believe that Toph, I think so too… but what can we say that can convince him?" The Waterbending girl asked, leaning back against the wall, rubbing her eyes wearily.
"If it comes down to it, we're going to have to fight him alone." The Earthbender stated, "I don't want Aang and Sokka to get hurt."
"Me neither Toph," The tribeswoman agreed, "But to tell you the truth, I'm scared. I've always feared we'll get hurt helping Aang… but now we're in real danger of dying and I… it scares me."
Toph looked up slightly, though she didn't turn her blank gaze at Katara, her eyes stared at some point on the door.
"I know Katara… I love fighting, but this is… I don't want to die, and I came so close to it… We have to talk him out of it Katara, we have to, or he'll kill us. I know he can, he knows our weaknesses, he already has a plan in mind." Toph's voice was laden with panic, and Katara understood full well why. Both she and Toph saw what the bender was capable of, and all excuses aside, he knew what he was doing.
She looked at her companion's expression, her mouth was slightly crooked, her lower lip was quivering, and noticeably being chewed upon. Her pale forehead was sweaty, and her eyes, while still milky and unseeing, were wide in fear, and shining through held back tears. It was then that the magnitude of what was going on really struck Katara. She has never seen Toph scared before.
Toph, in turn, could feel Katara's accelerated heartbeat, and her quick breathing. She could imagine her, her compassionate eyes, matching her voice, were large with concern and worry, her chest rising and falling quickly and haphazardly with her breath. Toph would sooner face an army of Azula rather than face that assassin, and she knew that her Waterbending friend felt exactly the same.
The door to the room suddenly burst, and for one hopeless moment, Toph anticipated the burning sensation of a fireball, but it didn't come. Instead, came Li's cheerful voice.
"I found him! I know where he is! Now you have to believe me!" He yelled in excitement, jumping up and down on the floor.
And so, despite their fears, both benders stood up, turned to look at each other, and then at Li.
"Take us to him."
Author Notes:
Sorry for taking so long with this one, my other story Rise of The Elementals was hogging my inspiration. And sorry for the shortness of this one, but it's only to foreshadow the next one, which will hopefully be up soon. That's all from me for now, see you soon!
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