Taiga jogged down the passage through the courtyards to the receiving hall, hoping he didn't smell too much of unwashed dragon slobber to be barred entry. He'd seen Raku come into sight of the palace grounds and land, but by the time Taiga had left his ostrich-horse at the stables and climbed up to the landing platforms Seijuurou had been gone, leaving Raku to be taken care of by the guards who maintained the airstrip. It had to be something urgent- Raku had returned to the mountains once Seijuurou had enrolled in military school, instead of continuing to travel with him and Father. It would have been a lot more comfortable for Taiga's brother to come home by one of the court or fleet airships. Raku had sniffed Taiga all over to make sure he was still in one piece, licked his face, and then gone back to his meal of mouse-deer.

He hadn't seen Seijuurou in almost two years. Rumors had filtered back about his exploits, through Alex, who heard all the good gossip, and Shin, who wrote regularly, though mostly about boring things like his healing studies, astrology, and how annoying the Avatar was. Not content with being top of his year in studies, Seijuurou had even gotten involved in spirit attacks and hunting down air-pirates. Taiga couldn't wait to hear all about it.

His steps slowed. If Seijuurou had come back to the palace in such a hurry, then Father was here too. It wouldn't have been the first time that the Firelord returned home without summoning his second son to attend to him, but Father was supposed to be on the Eastern Rim, doing whatever it was he did on his long and endless trips away. The Firelord spent more time out of his country than in his home, and much less time than either on Taiga.

The chances that he would be ordered out of the receiving hall before he could see Seijuurou privately today had just risen to almost certain. Taiga didn't have time to go back to his room, bathe and change. He just had to hope that Father would be-

As though summoned, a figure appeared on the far side of the corridor. He crossed the space towards Taiga in long angry strides.

"Sei-" started Taiga, then froze. Father would be formally welcoming his heir and favourite son, and making preparations for the court to gather and meet him too; Seijuurou would have just arrived and needed to rest after his journey. He was walking towards the landing platforms. He had a small travelling pack clenched in one angry hand.

Seijuurou noticed Taiga and changed course to meet him. They stared at each other. Seijuurou was both shorter and taller than Taiga had expected him to be. Taiga had grown even taller in the two years since they'd last seen each other, and still topped his older brother by a head. The older boy's hair was cropped short in the Fleet style, shorn of the familiar topknot. Taiga rarely, if ever, bothered to put his hair up, since no cared if he did anyway. Seijuurou's clothes were all in a utilitarian Republic City style, and for ornament he wore only the flame pendant of the Fire Nation and etched metal earcuffs. Seijuurou's eyes were sharper, the line of his clenched jaw more defined, and he looked… he looked…

He looked, Taiga thought, more like Father than ever.

Taiga dropped his gaze. "You're back," he said.

"And you," said Seijuurou. He twitched as though he was going to go in for a hug, then thought the better of it and straightened himself to his full height. "You're still here."

"I said I'd stay," said Taiga, unable to avoid the topic. "It's not… I have Alex, and Shin said he's coming to the capital for his studies soon."

"I know," said Seijuurou. He kept looking at Taiga. The younger boy was very aware that the collar of his shirt hung open, exposing his bare neck. They never spoke directly of the incident, but Seijuurou had come home and stayed home for almost two months, leaving Father by himself: he had been deeply concerned and very angry. Taiga had not left the capital since then.

His older brother was very angry now, his eyes flashing. "What's wrong?" said Taiga. "You only just came back, you're-"

"I'm leaving."

"What?" said Taiga. He fumbled for the words. "Was it an emergency? Are you going there now?" When will you come back?

"I'm leaving and I'm not coming back," said Seijuurou, reading the words caught in Taiga's throat. "I've spoken with Father. We disagreed. I am renouncing my position as crown prince, and I will not change my mind."

Taiga's mouth fell open. "You can't-" he said. "Who'll be Firelord after him? What happened?"

Seijuurou made a short, angry gesture, his mouth a furious twist. "I had an agreement with Father that while I was at school I expected to be allowed to live my own life. He has violated it, as far as I am concerned, for the last time."

Taiga scrambled for an answer. "Then-" he said. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. Taiga had thought about how to frame this moment a dozen dozen times, marshalling arguments which had all dropped away. "Maybe I can come with you, enroll like you did-" Every time he'd tried to write to Father about it, he'd received flat refusals from his secretaries, and the last few times, no response had even come, a sure sign that Father was tired of hearing about it.

"No," said Seijuurou, his face flat and forbidding. "I don't want you to come. You have no idea what it's like outside the Fire Nation and the royal family's protection: you wouldn't be suited to the Academy at all. If there was a different- but there isn't."

This was not how it was supposed to happen. "You don't want me to-" said Taiga. You don't want me. You don't want me. I told Tatsuya to leave without me, and you don't want me.

"That's not what I mean," said Seijuurou. He hesitated. He never hesitated. "When things are more settled, I can send for you- but I'm enlisting in the Fleet full-time after this. I won't be able to take care of you."

"You want me to stay here," said Taiga. Stay in the Fire Nation, with the skeleton staff left in the palace who pitied him and nobles who whispered about him, without Tatsuya and without Seijuurou. You don't want me.

"Yes," said Seijuurou. "When you're older, when you're- when things are a bit different," he said. "You can decide and I can be there." But now, right now, you don't want me. Will you want me when I'm different? Will you want me if I can change? He raised his hands to his own neck. Taiga watched with horror as Seijuurou unfastened his own flame pendant. The necklace hadn't meant what it had meant to Taiga in a long time, but- but still- but-

Seijuurou held it out to Taiga, who took it automatically. "This is yours now," he said. With the crown prince gone- with Seijuurou gone for good, that meant that Taiga was- was going to be-

"Father-" said Taiga. He felt sick to his stomach, he couldn't believe that the palace wasn't already alive with servants and courtiers coming to beg their golden prince to stay, that Father wasn't coming to stop Seijuurou. But then, Father had never come to stop Taiga. "He won't- he'll never-"

Seijuurou's eyes flashed. "He has no other choice." He shouldered his pack. "We need to leave now if we're going to reach the closest outpost before dark."

Taiga stared dumbly at him.

"Raku," clarified Seijuurou. He looked at Taiga again, and for a terrible moment Taiga thought that he was going to rescind everything he'd said, that he'd reach out his hand and bring his little brother with him, away from here, away from this. "Taiga- goodbye."

Taiga didn't respond. Seijuurou was already stepping past him, walking away, and Taiga did not turn to watch him go.

.0.

Aomine walked slowly up the beach path towards the village. All the preparations for the Avatar's visit to Kiyoshi Island were well underway, but they meant that no one had gone out on the boats today, too absorbed in helping out at the village hall. Aomine had volunteered to go out and check over the boats just to get out of being assigned something even more boring to do, like helping the girls with their setpieces for their weapon demonstrations or making ice for the drinks. He could see Satsuki waiting for him at further down, probably kicked out before she could kill the Avatar by helping with the cooking of tonight's feast. She'd had one of the early demonstrations, with her fans and shield. It must have gone well.

She wasn't alone: one of the airbenders appeared on the path from the village, stopping to talk to her. Aomine snorted. Even with her face covered in the Kiyoshi Warrior warpaint, Satsuki attracted horndogs.

His bleached hair, more than the arrows on his arms and head, marked him as an outsider. Kiyoshi Village got a fair amount of Airbenders, mostly landing their bison for a rest coming in from or to the Southern Air Temple. The conveys, with more bison to take the wind head-on took a direct route farther east, where there were larger towns to rest and resupply.

The loners were usually dreamy wanderer types with all their worldly belongings on the back of one bison. One memorable weirdo had insisted on carrying all his bison's belongings on his back because he considered his bison his equal in everything in life. His bison spent a lot of time trailing anxiously after him worried he was going to pass out, but he had been an interesting guy.

This one didn't look so nice. Satsuki's back was stiff as he leaned over her, and Aomine quickened his strides before this could get ugly for the airbender.

"Look, come on, I bet you're not bad without all that makeup-" he said. "Don't be such a bitch, you're not doing anything-" and he reached out and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look him in the face.

The smile froze on Satsuki's painted lips. She grabbed his hand and then bent back his fingers,

"-, no!" she said. Aomine was only able to hear the last shouted word. She waited a moment to be sure he got the message then let him go. Satsuki glanced down the path and saw Aomine. She stood up to step away from the airbender-

He punched her in the stomach. Satsuki made a sound. Just a little one, crumpled and lost. Then she folded up. The airbender's face was contorted with rage, he made to pick her up and keep going-

Aomine didn't even remember moving. The landscape behind him withered in an instant, trees and grass giving up their internal water, and the torrent hit the airbender in the chest like it has been shot out of a cannon, thrusting him away from Satsuki. She was on her hands and knees, coughing and trying to get up; Aomine had almost reached her when a whirlwind struck the ground in front of him and he looked up to see that the airbender had recovered and was pointing his glider at them.

"Oi, oi," he said. "That's not friendly."

"Friendly this," snarled Aomine. He kicked the water on the ground up into the airbender's face, and hardened the threads into shards of ice. They shattered on the glider's guard, stray shards deflected by the trail of air.

"What, did I hit on your girlfriend?" the airbender said, spinning his glider to make sure he got everything. "Sorry, hit your girlfriend. But that wasn't nice of her."

He struck outwards with the heel of his hand and two twin funnels of air roared out towards Aomine, knocking him back and forward, bouncing him between them.

The airbender had forgotten about Satsuki, too focused on keeping Aomine hemmed in to notice her sneaking up on him. She kicked up, foot striking his chin and then his chest, and while he staggered, she hit his arm, hands blurring. The airbender fell backwards and kicked out, sending her back across the clearing and into the dust, clipping Aomine.

He stretched out the arm Satsuki had chi-blocked, trying to bend, failing to bend. "What the fuck did she do to me?" he said. "Is this that Kiyoshi Warrior chi-blocking bullshit?" He flung out his arm again, and again. "Fuck!"

As much as Aomine didn't want to admit it, this could be the opening he needed. This guy wouldn't pull his punches or even stop while they were still breathing; for all his light chatter, there was something ugly in his eyes. He tried to reach out and nudge Satsuki, who was visibly trembling. Any other day, she might have been carrying her fans, a knife, something, but today all her gear was with her uniform back at the village, or she'd have produced something sharp by now and given this guy more to think about than a sore hand.

The airbender kept flexing his hand like he expected his bending to magically come back. Satsuki grabbed hold of Aomine's arm and pulled him up, tugging at Aomine as though she was going to drag him away, as though she'd forgotten that he'd ever outgrown her.

The airbender passed his other hand over the affected area, gathering some kind of energy in his palm. Aomine couldn't see it, but he could feel it, like an ache in his teeth. The airbender flexed his fist, and Aomine dodged sideways, but the whip of wind missed him by a mile.

"Ha!" he said, face grinning, eyes glowing, as though what he'd just done wasn't impossible. What the hell was that? What the hell was that? "Works both ways, morons. You're going to regret running into me."

"You're the one who bothered us!" cried Satsuki. She was breathing deeply to control her pain, circling them trying to find a good advantage. If she could get around him, the village was only a short run away, with the Avatar and some other master airbenders visiting, the Kiyoshi Warriors armed to their lipsticked teeth.

"Don't you think you're the ones overreacting?" he said. "Keep moving, by the way. You won't like it, but go on."

Satsuki paused and kept her eyes on him. "Leave her," Aomine said. "I'm the one you want. I'm going to wipe the floor with you, asshole. If the Avatar comes down, he'll be saving your ass, not mine."

The airbender lifted his lip in a snarl. "Ryouta? He couldn't save a leaf in a puddle with the Avatar State on. I can take him, and I can take you." He sprang forward. The glider smacked into Aomine's liquid guard and Aomine ripped that stupid stick of his hands, sending it spiraling away out of reach.

The airbender punched him in the face. Aomine reeled and struck out with pellets of ice, and felt some of them rebound off the airbender's shield of air. The airbender followed by kicking Aomine in the side, in the gut, and there wasn't enough water, Aomine had nothing to defend with or attack.

Aomine's wrong feeling intensified. He grappled with the airbender, trying to force him down, get loose to hit him, but couldn't get free. Aomine was kicked again, and again, and went down.

Fuck, that hurt so much.

Then Aomine felt hands at his neck, holding him down, on his forehead.

The world went white, and then black, and then-

darkness, a single spot of light filtering down

down

down

down

down

down

up.

Aomine had fallen forward into his face, and his eyes hadn't even closed, he'd just… stopped being able to see through them. There were still white spots, blinding, flashing over his vision, but he could see that the airbender had his hand to his mouth and was blowing into a whistle shaped like an air bison. He had a new bruise on his face, the size of Satsuki's fist, and must have decided to cut his losses and get out of there. Satsuki had her hands on Aomine's arm, he could hear her now, crying. She must have been jabbing at his pressure points as hard as she could: bruises dotted his arms and his neck and head ached like hell. But he was moving again. He could feel the water, roaring so close and so far, he could feel it in his body and around him in the air, beating relentlessly through all three of their bodies, through every living thing. What he'd done earlier, pulling moisture from the plants was nothing to this. The airbender saw him moving, and dropped the whistle, lifting his glider into position to attack, to retaliate-

Aomine's hands moved. There, those trails twined up and down his arms, running through his whole body, it was so easy, so simple, to reach out and twist and pull.

The airbender screamed as his flesh tried to rip itself apart.

Mingled into it, a deep and guttural roaring, was the battle cry of an air bison, flying towards them. The sound of her master's screams seemed to enrage the bison even more, and she landed with a gust that pushed them all back, away from him.

The angry air bison bellowed again, and laid about with her tail, raising a roaring typhoon. Satsuki went over again, and Aomine flipped over until he hit the trees, and when he looked up the air bison had the airbender in her mouth by the back of his tunic and was rising up into the air, moving fast. Aomine expected him to be struggling, but he wasn't, hanging there with a resigned expression on his face and still panting in pain. He saw Aomine looking at him, and limply, managed to flip him off. His hands and arms were a dark, mottled red.

That was the last thing Aomine managed to see: he passed out.

He woke to Tetsu wiping him down with a wet cloth, and Shige peering into his face.

"What happened?" the older boy demanded. "Tetsuya and I went looking for you when you were missed, and we found-" he waved his hands over their battered, dusty bodies. "What happened?"

"Nothing," said Aomine, which sounded unconvincing even to him. "Is- do they know about-"

"No," said Shige, correctly interpreting the question. "They're all still busy in the square, the Avatar's just arrived."

"What happened?" repeated Tetsu, in his soft voice. Aomine eyed him. Shige's friend from the North Pole was hard to get around, even though they'd only met him a few months ago, when he'd arrived out of nowhere. Auntie Li, Shige's mom, had been good friends with his grandmother. He was okay, though. Not too weird. Satsuki liked him.

"Nothing," he repeated. Shige snorted and said, "I'll get some more water."

"Please do," said Tetsu.

Tetsu left the cloth on Aomine's face as a signal of his disapproval- Aomine was going to have to find out what Satsuki said to him, if she'd said anything at all- and moved away.

Aomine just lay there. He hurt too much, but it was a relief to feel the water running down his face, thinly coating his skin, in the bucket that Tetsu was squeezing another rag into. Even when Satsuki had chi-blocked him, he'd always been able to still feel the water, just not able to bend it. He was so happy to be able to feel it again that he concentrated on that until water sunk into his skin, cooling his flesh and taking his pain away.

That was. That was new.

The towel was taken off his face. It was Satsuki, looking with wonder at the soft glow on Aomine's chest. Aomine took the water from the towel and tried it again on Satsuki's hand, all scratched up and heavily bruised. As the light sunk into her skin she sighed in relief. The redness lessened and her swelling went down. Her hand clenched on his.

"Dai-chan," Satsuki said. "Dai-chan, just now, you- you blood-" She cut herself off.

He hadn't. He couldn't have. He didn't even know how to. He barely knew how to do this, whatever it was.

"We won't talk about it," she said, as though they were six again and vowing to not reveal who'd eaten the buns off the windowsill. "We won't- we won't ever see that boy again." She hugged him, suddenly, fierce, which hurt so much. So much. "I'm so glad you're okay."

Shige walked back into the room. "Alright," he said. "You two…" his voice trailed off. His eyebrows shot up his forehead.

"Nothing," said Aomine baldly.

"Uh… huh," said Shige. "So I'm not going to be telling anyone else in the village about this."

"About what?" said Satsuki, releasing Aomine. Her makeup was all smeared with tears and dirt.

"Right," said Shige. "Tetsuya, can we-" He gestured, and the older boy joined him by the door.

"Do you think it is something dangerous?" said Tetsu, as though they couldn't hear him, right there. "Do you want to tell the village elders?" Shige shrugged and bit his lip. He, more than anyone, knew that Aomine's presence in the village wasn't guaranteed. They'd been trying to ship him off to the Southern Water Tribe for 'training' for years now. Aomine wasn't going. Ever.

"I know you might not be here for long, but I'm enlisting in the next month," said Shige. "While you are here, look out for these two? They're good kids, they just-" words failed him, and he lifted his hands. "I don't even understand the stuff they get into."

"Yes," said Tetsu. He looked thoughtfully at them, and Aomine and Satsuki met his gaze with ones of studied innocence. "I'll try."

.0.

Titan, massive and awful, breached the horizon mere hours before dawn. It skimmed closer and closer, gilded finishes glinting in the lone searchlight illuminating the construction site. It hissed to a stop at the temporary docking station, and metal wires were called up from the dock to moor the airship. After checking that the wires were secure, the lone crew member went back into the airship, yawning copiously.

There was no further movement from the airship or the camp it currently overlooked. The power plant sunk deep into the side of the mountain was silent. Kiyoshi stomped the ground and felt the ripples travel through the earth: the patrols were on other side of camp and no one else was awake. He gestured the group forward.

The gate leading to the central power plant was open, a folded piece of paper enough to have kept the electronic latch from closing. Barbed wire and large signs reading UNSAFE, KEEP OUT decorated the metal fence at regular intervals. When unfolded, it proved to be a rough map of the dam, with a path marked out in red.

"They came through," said Ogiwara, giddy with relief. The Fleet soldiers who had been on loan had departed with the greater part of the construction crew, but someone on the other end had still come through for their former comrade.

"Do you still remember the way to the hydros?" said Hayama, poking his head in over Ogiwara's shoulder.

"Yes," Ogiwara said. "We can go." His eyes were hard. "This place will be smoking by morning."

Hayama nodded and waved off his section of saboteurs. They all knew their places in the plan, and firebenders lit their hands a few times to make sure they were primed and ready.

The ground below them rippled: instinct turned Kiyoshi's head up to watch a figure falling from the Titan's balcony. As he fell, he bent the earth up to meet him, pulling walls of earth which corralled their group. They were being trapped. Kiyoshi and Ogiwara bent a hole open and they ran out of the way.

The new earthbender landed with a thud that shook the whole impromptu barrier, his bare toes digging into the rock. He was younger than he had initially appeared; he drew himself up to his full, impressive, height and his indignant eyes glared at them from a round, soft face, a wrinkle pressed into his cheek. "Who are you?" he demanded. "You're not soldiers. You're not guards." His face twisted. "And you're not allowed in here."

Kiyoshi recognised him from last year's Fist Fury 500: Murasakibara Atsushi, at thirteen years old the youngest of the Murasakibaras of Ba Sing Se. His older brother was on the Project board, the Titan his personal airship. It just figured that while the adults on the ship would be asleep preparing for a long and arduous day inspecting their failing plant, they would get discovered by a boy looking for a small-hour snack.

Ogiwara collapsed the barrier, trying to safely bury Murasakibara, but the boy twisted out of the way quickly and landed further away. "Murasakibara-kun!" said Kiyoshi, raising his voice for the benefit of the whole group. "Please stay out of this. We don't want to hurt you."

The boy scoffed. "Try," he said, and planted his feet. He sent two strips of earth rumbling towards them, bending up blocks in quick succession and sending them spinning towards the group with swift sharp kicks.

They crashed into the wall noisily. Murasakibara, moving his arms, lifted the blocks again and sent them into the wall, uncaring if the blocks hit any of the intruders. He was trying to wake the camp. Lights began to blast on, flooding the outer edges of the camp with light.

"Go," said Kiyoshi to the rest of them. They took one look at the roving searchlights and went, running as fast as they could. He halted Murasakibara's blocks with an elbow-strike, then bent the earth under the younger boy when Murasakibara would have tried to block them from leaving.

Murasakibara was fast, and very good. Kiyoshi's bending threw him upwards, but he twisted in midair and sent the force back through the earth at Kiyoshi, forcing the older earthbender into a defensive stance. Kiyoshi didn't hesitate. His arms moved in a series of precision strikes, and Murasakibara hit the ground and rolled behind the corner of the leftover barrier, dodging upthrust earth.

Kiyoshi held his stance. He could feel the thrum of vehicles and the thud of feet but they were coming here, not towards his friends. He could stall them. It didn't matter if he didn't get out of her. As long as Murasakibara-

"You're Iron Heart," called the boy.

Shit. "No?" said Kiyoshi.

"You competed against my brother last year," said Murasakibara, in a voice that clearly stated his opinion of Kiyoshi's intelligence. "Of course I'd recognise your style."

Kiyoshi weighed his options. "Then you should give up now," he tried.

Murasakibara growled and attacked. Kiyoshi dodged it, then felt the metal set into the ground- all of it, the deep-driven foundations of the power plant, groan and creak. The gate ripped apart: now the approaching men from the camp had an entry.

Master Earthbender and metalbending at such a young age. Kiyoshi recalled that his family was very proud. Kiyoshi flung another chunk of earth at Murasakibara, trying to stall for time.

A ripple moved through the earth under Murasakibara's feet. He leaped back as a huge chunk of rock burst out of the ground- heading straight for the Titan, floating just above.

Murasakibara moved quickly. Two pillars of earth rocketed up, pushing the rock away from the airship. It smashed on the mountainside, raining huge pieces down on the camp. He turned to Kiyoshi, fists clenched. "How dare you!" he shouted. "If you want to fight me, I'm right here, how dare you-"

Kiyoshi dived at Murasakibara, knocking him out of the way as a huge dark shape reared out of the ground, screaming, and shaking the earth.

It was a badgermole, but wrong. Massive jagged crystals studded its neck and snout, covered the blind eyes and glowed an ugly mud-brown. It arched its neck and screamed again, a sound of agony and fury. Kiyoshi's heart sank.

Now the metal under the ground wasn't just creaking, it was screaming, as the plant tried to rip itself out of the ground. As the mountain tried to rid itself of the spike driven deep into its heart.

"What the hell is that?" said Murasakibara. Kiyoshi's grandmother would have soaped out his mouth for a week.

"That's my master," said Kiyoshi. Chasms opened in the earth and Kiyoshi closed them, trying to keep a path to the power plant clear. He left the one which separated the camp from the plant, too far for the workers to jump. They were gathering there and earthbenders tried to form bridges, only to have them broken up by the badgermole.

"Your what?" said Murasakibara, making it clear he was now convinced that Iron Heart was not just stupid, he was insane.

"My master," said Kiyoshi. "I lived here with my grandparents before the project evicted the mountain's village and took over the land." He looked up at the raging badgermole. "I learned my earthbending from the badgermoles that lived under the mountain."

"They didn't take over anything," said Murasakibara, turning on him. "They got paid and they got new houses, why do you protestor freaks keep acting like they got ripped off? And who cares about some stupid badgemoles?"

Above them, wires dropped from the airship and people began to drop down. A tall man hung over the balcony and yelled, "Atsushi? Atsushi! Get back up here! Now!" Murasakibara ignored his brother.

"Because it wasn't their choice," said Kiyoshi. Grandma and Grandpa had a middle ring house now, but they had a long way to go to feel the earth squish between their toes. And Kiyoshi had tried to come back home, and found there was nothing there for him, that his master had retreated under the earth. "People have been trying to tell your family, to tell the Bonsai Project, for years and-"

"They didn't have these kind of problems until you people started sabotaging the work sites!" shouted Murasakibara.

Explosions sounded all over the plant. The rest of them would be out of there already, hopefully smart enough not to come back this way. The badgermole snarled, confused by the loud noises.

Lightning, blazing hot, blasted across the gap. The badgermole screamed again, shielding the remnants of its eyes. Not all the soldiers had gone. Their Republic City masters had left at least one to safeguard their interests. A firebender officer, half-dressed, watched Kiyoshi with cold eyes as lightning crackled all over his fingers and shoulders. "Get away from the badgermole," he commanded, charging up again.

"Akachin!" said Murasakibara. He sounded, amazingly enough, relieved.

"No!" Kiyoshi shouted. He tried to position himself between the infamous captain and the mountain spirit. "You can't- don't do it!"

"Get out of my way or cook," responded Captain Akashi. "Matters with the mountain spirit have escalated out of control and it must be stopped."

Kiyoshi stared at him. "But he didn't do anything!" he said. "It was the construction, it-"

"I'm not interested in bandying words with a criminal saboteur," said Captain Akashi. "Atsushi, make a bridge."

Murasakibara obeyed and Captain Akashi strode across, watching the mountain spirit throw its great head in circles, muttering to itself in high-pitched squeaks. The destruction of the mountain seemed to confuse it more than anything. Behind him came more benders, the sun, rising from over the horizon.

Kiyoshi tried lunge forward to engage the Fleet officer and give the mountain spirit a chance to get away but Murasakibara dragged him back, pulling him out of the way.

"No," said Kiyoshi, one last time. "No, please-"

"Yes," said Captain Akashi, and blasted the spirit of Kiyoshi's home from the earth.

And this was your month of weekly updates! Understand that when Nigou dies, you have been warned.