Book-1
Chapter-3- Escape
"I am the last of the great race of the shadow benders. We've existed since the dawn of time. We are eternal. We are doomed to walk this world until the end of time. We die over and over again but we still live. We regenerate with each life passed. By the time you were born kid I'd have already lived a hundred lifetimes." Yun said darkly.
"Wow…..I thought the shadow benders were just a myth." Aang muttered in awe.
"More like extinct." Yun sighed.
"The Fire Lord whom declared war on your world had a squad of highly trained fire benders sent to destroy my people. They kept me as a trophy. I'm the only immortal left in this world……It would have been better if they had just destroyed me with the others."
"I thought you said your people reincarnate. If they were killed wouldn't they be able to come back in a new body?"
"You don't listen boy. We don't "reincarnate" we regenerate. When we die our bodies kind of…..how do I put this…..renew themselves. When we die of old age or are killed in combat or bodies morph into a new body, but if our bodies are completely destroyed by, say, I dunno…..a really, really big fire? There wouldn't be anything to regenerate. Understand?" he asked.
"Kind of….but what about the gold cage? For display?" Aang asked.
"About right. My people thrive in the darkness. Gold is the symbol of the sun. Touch it and I burn. Anything else?"
"The glasses?"
"I'm blind in the light. These let me see."
"Ah. I see."
"So…..What do you mean "Avatar"? What's that supposed to mean?"
"Like I said. I'm supposed to unite the elements and restore peace by defeating the fire lord."
"Huh…" Yun said thoughtfully.
"Yeah….."
"I could take him, y'know."
"Who?" Aang asked.
"The fire lord. Give me my channeling ring, and five minutes alone with him in a dark room, that fight would take two hits. Me hitting him and him hitting the floor."
"What's a channeling ring?"
"My race's elemental tool. With out it I can't manipulate shadows."
"Where is it?"
"In a chest with my other weapons."
"Oh…"
"So you're supposed to take on the fire lord, beat him, and save the world?"
"Pretty much…"
"And you were just captured by the fire nation right?"
"……yeah."
"Then we are pretty much finished aren't we?" he said smirking.
Aang gave him an annoyed look as Yun opened his scroll and continued reading.
Appa was flying high in the sky. They had been searching for almost a week and no sign of fire benders were to be seen. Katara was devastated. Sokka wanted to comfort her but he didn't know what to say to her. He knew it was more than likely that Aang had been killed. Why would the fire nation keep him alive? Maybe long enough to present him to the fire lord, but they just vanished like they teleported. They could already have presented him then killed him.
No Sokka thought.
He wasn't going to believe Aang was dead until he saw it with his own eyes.
"C'mon boy faster!" He urged Appa.
Appa grunted a response and picked up his pace.
Prince Zuko of the fire nation stood on the porch of the abandoned house he and his uncle were using for shelter. It was late at night and his uncle slept calmly in the house. His hair had grown considerably since he cut it. He touched the disfiguring scar on the right side of his face. He had no home to go to….the only person he could trust was his uncle. They were leaving in the morning to move on to the next town and try to find work. Zuko was used to the royal life. He'd fallen so far down the chain of power he couldn't bare it. He clenched his fist and thrust forward sending a burst of fire from his fist. A drop of rain landed on his wrist. He turned around and stormed into the house as it started to rain, almost as if on cue to wash away his hatred. It didn't work.
Aang woke up suddenly. He had fallen asleep on the bed in his cell without even realizing it. He looked over at Yun who was meditating in the middle of his cell.
"Don't you sleep?" He and Yun asked in unison.
"Huh?" He and Yun said in unison again.
"Through constant meditation. I have acquired the ability to invade the thoughts of others and share mine with them. I've had quite awhile to practice and master it." Aang and Yun said.
"Seriously, that's annoying." Aang and Yun yelled.
Yun opened his eyes and grinned at Aang. He then stood up, stretched and started pacing his solid gold prison.
"Aang? What would you say if I told you that with your help I believe we could escape this Trophy shelf?"
"I'm listening." Aang said standing up
"It's simple actually…..every once and awhile a guard comes in here and delivers our…..well let's call them our "meals". His job is to deliver the food and wait for us to finish eating. Over the years I've befriended the fool. He's a harmless one but a fool nonetheless. We have a mutual agreement. I let him devour my "meals" and provide him with tales of my fallen city, and he delivers me a scroll or two from the fire lords private library. That's the only thing that's kept me from going insane. When he comes we will both give up our portions for him to eat, he'll inevitably fall asleep leaving you to use your air bending to get the keys. Then we grab my equipment that's been locked up in that chest for the past century and run like hell." He said pointing to a chest in the far left corner of the room.
"Ok deal. When's he coming?" Aang asked.
Yun held up three fingers, put one down, put another down, made a fist and pointed to the door…..and it swung open and a giant of a man in red clothes entered, holding two bowls of a thick white substance.
"Hello there Yun!" the big man boomed.
"Hey Baobu!" Yun said in a falsely cheerful voice that sounded nothing like him.
The man placed one bowl in Aang's cage and the other in Yun's.
"Oh come now Baobu! How long have we known each other? Help yourself!" Yun said pushing the bowl back being careful to avoid touching the bars.
"Aw, thanks Yun." The man said stupidly and started eating the white stuff.
Yun looked at Aang and nudged his head towards Baobu. Aang gasped and nodded.
"Hey uhm, mister Baobu, sir? You can have my portions as well. I don't really like….whatever this is." Aang said grinning widely and holding the bowl out.
Baobu chewed and swallowed.
"As a rule I would say no…..but….okay!" he said cheerfully taking the bowl.
He devoured the food quickly and belched heartily.
"Hey, Baobu……" Yun started. "Have I told you about…..no, no never mind."
"What? What is it? Another story?" Baobu asked eagerly sitting down in a crossed leg position in front of the cell.
"Well……" Yun said slowly like he was thinking about it. "Okay."
Yun started telling him a story although it had nothing to do with the shadow benders. It was a children's story Aang remembered from when he was little. Ten minutes in Baobu was asleep, snoring loudly.
"Okay Aang. Now." Yun whispered.
Aang nodded and formed a little air orb around the set of keys attached to Baobu's belt. He moved the keys away from the belt and they fell into Aang's hands. He unlocked his cage and quietly walked out.
"Okay. Now me!" Yun said eagerly.
Aang undid the lock on Yun's door and he stepped out and started going towards the chest. He touched it and withdrew quickly clutching his hand.
"Fuck!" he hissed.
"Gold?" Aang asked.
Yun nodded. Aang opened the chest for Yun who grabbed the contents eagerly. He pulled out a small ornamental ring made from some almost translucent black metal. He cursed under his breath after he put it on.
"Is that your channeling ring?" Aang asked.
"Yeah but I haven't worn it in so long it has gone inert. I'll have to meditate later to bring it back to life."
"Life?" Aang asked.
"I'll explain later. Just know I can't do shadow bending right now." Yun asked as he continued digging in the chest.
"Then how are you gonna fight your way out of here? I can't do it by myself!" Aang said.
Yun pulled out two razor sharp looking retractable arm blades that looked like they were made of the same metal as the ring. He attached them to his forearms and smiled. Then he pulled out a black metal mask that only covered his mouth and put it on.
"A ship full of fire benders against me……I almost fell sorry for them." He said darkly. He looked at Aang. "Don't you have a weapon somewhere?"
"They didn't take my staff. My friends have it."
"Then I'll stay ahead of you." Yun said walking towards the door.
He opened the door quietly and looked outside. Aang heard Yun's voice in his head.
There are two guards at the end of the hall I'll handle them and you follow on my signal.
Aang nodded. Yun slipped quietly into the hallway and snuck up behind the guards. He quickly jammed his left arm blade into the spin of the first guard and twisted, then pulled it out spun on his heel and slashed the other guard's throat. They were dead before they knew what happened. Aang was horrified.
You didn't have to kill them! He thought.
A pool of blood formed under the guards corpses
Now's not the time to be squeamish boy. They would do the same thing to you and your friend's in a heart beat. I will spare no on. Get used to blood shed. If I end up traveling with you, you will see a lot of it.
Aang stared at the corpses. He'd never actually seen death before. He didn't know how Yun could do it. Just take a life like it meant nothing….
Come on kid. We gotta get on deck. If we move fast enough we can escape easily if we go straight to the boats.
Aang snapped out of it and nodded. They stepped over the bodies and walked up the stairs on deck. The minute they set foot on the deck, numerous torches were lit. They were surrounded by fire benders.
"Of course…" Yun muttered.
"I should have known putting you two together was a bad idea." A voice said.
The fire lord walked out form the crowd, sneering at the two.
"Did you really think I would let you escape that easily?" The fire lord asked.
"Well I was kinda hoping your guy's would put up more of a fight. Your soldiers dropped like flies." Yun mocked.
"Amusing but I've had my fun with you shadow bender. I don't need you anymore." He snapped his fingers and the fire benders attacked.
Aang leapt into the air and used water bending to create a huge whip to beat away half of the soldiers and swept them into the water. Yun did a back flip behind a small group of soldiers and with a few expert moves with his arm blades, put them down. They gurgled blood and collapsed. Yun extended his arms and spun rapidly slicing his way through the crowd. One soldier managed to get a hit in, cutting across Yun's chest with a long sword. Yun dropped to his knee's and jammed a blade into the fire bender's leg. The soldier screamed and fell back. Yun leapt back up and with a quick slash of his blade, decapitated the soldier. Aang used air bending to push more soldiers to there stomach's. Then he brought water above them and brought it down. He quickly froze them to the ground and landed with his back to Yun.
"Not bad kid." Yun smirked.
Out of all the soldiers that were on the boat there were only five left, including the fire lord, whose grin had faded and now he was mad.
"Enough!" He said.
He readied into an attacking position and sent a massive fireball towards Aang, who dodged it but ended up in front of another one. He collapsed on the floor, unconscious. The fire lord chuckled. Yun clapped slowly and sarcastically said:
"Wow1 I'm shocked you defeated a child. I'd have never seen that coming!"
"I would hold your tongue and prepare yourself. Your next!"
Yun chuckled.
"I highly doubt that. Normally I wouldn't care about what became of the boy but if it weren't for him I'd still be trapped in that room of useless artifacts. I'll ask you nicely once. Let us leave."
The fire lord blasted a line of fire at Yun in response. He casually stepped to the side avoiding it easily. He then did a quick flip, landing behind the fire lord and with a quick slash……cut his left hand off. The fire lord screamed in pain and side stepped to avoid a killer blow. Yun did a twirl slash, cutting the right cheek of the fire lord. The fire lord fell to his knees clutching his stump. Yun casually walked up to him and placed a blade to his throat.
"You're at my mercy……and mine alone now aren't you?" he asked. Then he retracted the arm blade. "The Avatar is destined to end you….not me. No matter how badly I want to it's not my place to mess with history. I'll have my revenge soon enough."
He walked towards Aang and helped him up. Aang was injured badly and needed help. Just then a huge white flying creature landed on the ship next to them. A guy with a pony tail and strange club jumped out ready to fight, followed by a beautiful girl who didn't appear to be armed.
"Aang!" the girl cried and she ran over to Aang and started to bend some water that was left on deck to heal his wounds.
"Katara? Is that you?" he squeaked.
"Yes, Oh Aang! What happened?" Katara asked frantically healing his wounds.
"What did you do to him?" The guy said menacingly to Yun.
"Sok-Sokka….Its okay….he's a friend." Aang coughed. His voice sounded terrible.
"We had better evacuate….now!" Yun said.
They got onto Appa and then took off quickly, flying off into the distance.