Long weekend! Woo!
"What is that?" Rai asked, gesturing to the large basket of vegetables in Sati's arms as she caught up to her and Takumi strolling through another town they had arrived in.
"This is our dinner tonight!" Sati replied with a smile before confidently adding, "I make a mean vegetable stew."
Unbeknownst to the three as they continued through the market, a shadowy, hooded figure watched them from a distance in a dark alleyway. Rai couldn't shake the feeling of lingering eyes on her and sharply turned around. However, she saw nothing suspicious aside from people minding their own business on the street.
Takumi noticed Rai stop and look around. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asked in concern.
Rai stood silently for a moment still looking around for something out of place, but she couldn't spot anything. "It's nothing," she said, continuing after Sati as Takumi followed behind her. They returned to their campsite where Sati made the vegetable stew she had been boasting about all day.
"So, what did you guys think of my stew?" Sati asked, eagerly looking for their feedback.
"It was great! Really warm too!" Takumi complimented.
"Rai? What did you think of it?" the airbender asked the silent Avatar.
"It was fine," she replied simply.
"Oh, the fire's going down. I'll get some more firewood! Wouldn't want that soup to get cold!" Sati exclaimed, sitting up and heading into the woods with her lantern.
"You want another bowl, Rai?" Takumi asked, holding his hand out to for her bowl. She said nothing as she placed her empty bowl in his extended hand. While Takumi scooped up more stew into their bowls, Rai's gaze drifted to their surrounding as if she was looking for something. "You've been out of it all day, Rai. What's wrong?" he asked, handing her back her bowl, now filled with steaming hot stew, as he sat down next to her.
"Something just feels… off, like someone's been watching us all day. Maybe I'm just imagining things," she said, shaking her head and brushing the issue off.
"I think you're too paranoid sometimes, Rai. You're not always being stalked and not everyone's out to get you." All of a sudden, the pair heard a loud scream echoing through the night. The animals perked their heads up in response as Takumi dropped his bowl in shock. "Hey, that's Sati!" Takumi sprang up and took off in the direction of the scream.
Rai held her hand out, signaling for Haku and the other animals to remain at camp while they investigated before following after Takumi. "Ugh, I really need to stop picking up strays…"
Rai trailed behind Takumi, who had since gotten a huge lead ahead of her. When she finally caught eye of him, she saw Takumi cradling Sati in his arms. Her entire body shook while her eyes were wide and unfocused like they struggled to focus in on what was in front of her. Her breathing was fast and uneven as if the air was sucked straight from her lungs. Takumi tried his best to help calm her down, but was having little success. "Sati?! Sati! It's okay, we're here. What's wrong?" He turns to Rai with desperate eyes. "Rai? Do something!"
"What happened?" she asked, kneeling down next to them.
Sati barely seemed to notice her presence, but managed to speak a bit in a weak whisper. "I… I thought h-he was hurt, b-but he did something to me…"
"What did they look like?" Rai asked.
"N-n-not they...just one. Tall...eyes...those eyes...like spears," she whispered frightfully.
Takumi hugged her in an effort to comfort the traumatized girl and gently shushed her, whispering that she would be all right. The sight of this girl, who was so usually chipper and upbeat, in such a state was unsettling to them both.
"This doesn't make any sense. If they were bandits or highwaymen, they would have attacked us at camp…" Rai thought out loud.
"H-He said you...would come f-find me," Sati whispered.
"What? Who?"
"He didn't say his name… Went that way," she exhaled roughly, barely managing to lift her hand and point towards a set of footprints leading further into the woods.
"Takumi, take care of her," Rai said, dashing off into the distance, following the footprints before Takumi could protest.
As she ran, Rai eventually spotted a glow in the distance directly ahead of her. She burst into a clearing, only to find one broad shouldered individual standing in front of a small camp fire with his back facing the flames. Though he was facing her directly, his features were obstructed by a dark hood. "Couldn't resist, could you?" the man taunted.
Upon hearing his voice, Rai's mind suddenly reeled from the memories that flooded her mind. Memories of that voice and what that voice's owner did to her. She took a deep breath and recomposed herself. "Enough games. You work for him, don't you?" she asked firmly.
The man laughed, which only made the unsettling pit in her stomach grow more uncomfortable. "You were always very perceptive, even back then," he said, removing his hood and discarding the cloak, revealing a large, well-built man with long brown hair. The man's face instantly brought back unpleasant memories as she felt the scar over her eyebrow suddenly burn faintly, but she closed her eyes and exhaled deeply, reminding herself that she wasn't there anymore.
"Manta…" she muttered, recognizing the man.
Noticing her displeased expression, he asked, "What's the matter? Disappointed?"
"I'll have Goro in my sights soon enough, but for now you'll have to do!" Rai's fists began flaming as she charged forward. Manta danced around Rai's brutish, rage-fueled attack and struck back with a quick water whip, hitting her right on her back, causing a sharp sting of pain. It instantly brought back so many memories or a whip striking her back, ever so slowly wearing away her skin, each strike as agonizing as the last.
"Temper, temper. I'd stay my hand if I were you," he teased.
"Shut up!" Rai shouted, slamming her fist into the ground, cracking the earth beneath him. But Manta easily jumped and created a slab of ice from the water in his waterskin for him to slide out of the fissure's way to solid ground. Once he was off the ice, he pulled it back into its water state and sent a wave of water at Rai, instantly freezing it solid as it struck her, completely encasing her within but leaving her head and hands exposed. Rai struggled to free herself as the cold began to numb her body.
Seeing her immobilized, the man marched over to her. "Tsk tsk tsk. How long since you've been in this position, hm? He's missed you a great deal, you know," Manta whispered sensually, though that only served to send an uncomfortable shiver down Rai's spine and make her sick to her stomach. "No matter how many he gets, none of the new girls can ever hold a candle to you, he says. They just break too easily."
"Frankly, I'm surprised he kept you around. He got so angry with you when you gave me this," she taunted back at him, gesturing to the scar on her face. "He almost killed you for ruining my pretty face."
Manta reacted in an instant, swiftly striking her across the face. Rai didn't even cry out in pain and simply took the hit unphased. "You still don't know when to hold your tongue."
"And I told you all that I will never be a slave."
"Heh, you can say it all you want, but that won't make it true. You've grown up a lot since I last saw you. A whole lot," he said, cocking his eyebrows as his gaze drifted down her body. "The blonde hair isn't bad. I like it, but I think Goro will prefer you with dark hair," he said, taking one of the long strands of hair that framed her face between his fingers and lightly sniffing it.
"How did you find me?"
"Oh, it wasn't easy, I'll tell you that much. You should be grateful. Goro made us all swear not to reveal that… important detail regarding you. You know, Avatar? The last thing he wanted was competition in tracking you down. Oh, but imagine the scandal if the world found out about you! The Avatar, a slave!" Manta howled in laughter. "Goro doesn't like to share and he certainly wouldn't want to share his property with the rest of the world. You were always his favorite and being the Avatar only makes him want you back more. But to answer your question: we heard a rumor. Turns out some big time politician in Republic City had been hiring mercenaries to take out some kid traveling with a girl. The first reports said the girl was an airbender, but imagine how strange it was to hear that the second report labeled her as an earthbender. At first we thought maybe it was just two different girls, but the descriptions we got back was the same: Earth Kingdom clothes, blonde hair, fought like a beast and had a scar over her left eye. Odd, right?" he asked, rhetorically.
"Where is Goro?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.
"Aw, what's the matter? Eager to reunite with your master?" he asked, taking a hold of her chin in his rough, calloused hand.
"He is not my master!"
"Heh, you'll be singing a different tune eventually. Goro will have you, but you see, he's not going to try and take you by force. That would be no fun. You're going to come crawling on your hands and knees begging for him to take you back."
"Like hell I will!"
"Oh, you will," he said, removing his hand from her chin. "It might not be now, it might not even be for a while, but it will happen. It is inevitable. He has made it his mission to destroy everything you hold dear - like those new friends of yours - and completely break your body and spirit so that you will have nothing left in this world except him. You know what they say: it's the slow knife, the knife that takes its time that cuts the deepest."
"I will not bend; I will not break!" she shouted, determined.
"You will. We don't have to hurt you to break you; we just have to hurt the ones you care about, like that little airbender. Now, who does she remind me of? Something about that bright and hopeful look in her eyes just feels so familiar. It's on the tip of my tongue… Oh, right! That one slave! What was her name? Kira? Kara?"
"Kala. Her name was Kala!" Rai muttered between her gritted teeth.
"Oh yes, Kala! If memory serves, you two were exceptionally close," he said with a grin.
"Then you must also remember what I did to the one who killed her," Rai replied.
"Avatar or not, the threats of a lowly slave don't scare me, little girl. You see, I'm not the same as the last time we saw each other. I'm a bloodbender now," he gloated. "I could make you do whatever I wanted. I could even take away all that precious power that makes you the Avatar, just like I did with the airbender and leave you utterly powerless. All it would take is one, precise touch," he said, hovering his index finger right over her forehead. Rai instinctively pulled her head back as much as she could, but the ice still encased her. Manta laughed at the sight of this before pulling his hand back. "Haha, but rest assured we won't kill the airbender girl or the boy. Death would only be a release from the hell they will endure because of you," he leaned in close whispered in her ear. Rai suddenly lunged forward and sunk her teeth into Manta's earlobe. The bandit cried out in pain as he stepped back and Rai tore off his earlobe with her teeth and spit the bit of flesh and blood onto the ground. He fell to the ground clutching his bleeding ear as Rai lit her hands aflame, melting the ice and finally breaking free before she marched over to him. She effortlessly lifted him onto his feet by the back collar of his shirt and held his neck between her arms, ready to snap it at any moment.
"You're right," she exhaled shakily with a slight chuckle. "Death would only be a release from the hell I will inflict upon you!" she whispered into his bloody ear as he groaned in pain and struggled against her firm grip. Blood trickled down his neck while he tried to pulled her arms off from him, but to no avail. "But I'm not the same as the last time either and you have only managed to provoke this beast further. A good predator knows to let the small fry go and wait for the bigger prey to show itself. I could snap your neck right now and cross another name off my list, but I won't. I want you to remember this moment and remember that you were at my mercy, that your life was in my hands and that you only live because it is my will, my choosing, but only so you can pass on a message." Manta tried to speak, but Rai pulled her forearm against his throat, silencing him as he struggled to breath. "Ah ah ah, I'm not done talking. You will tell Goro that I will find him and that I will enjoy returning all the pain and suffering he's caused me ten fold until he begs me to kill him. Then, I'll pass along the same courtesy to the rest of his men, including you. You know what they say, it's the slow, patient knife that waits for years without ever forgetting, that slips right through the folds, right past every defense and cuts the deepest. I promise you that," she said firmly, repeating Manta's own words back at him before roughly releasing her hold on him as he scrambled to his feet and continued clutching his bleeding ear.
"You're gonna regret this, slave!" Manta spat before taking off into the woods. Rai watched him disappear as she fought the urge to pursue and kill him. Upon returning to camp, she saw Takumi sitting by the fire with Sati, who held a bowl of her stew in her hands and had a blanket draped over her shoulders. The pair looked uncharacteristically gloomy and somber as she approached.
"What happened?" Takumi asked, standing up as Rai approached.
"He got away," Rai quickly responded. "How is she?"
Sati looked up from her bowl with sad eyes and frowned, "Rai. I… I can't teach you anymore! I've lost my airbending. Whatever that creep did to me, it took my bending away."
"Your bending isn't gone, it's only suppressed," Rai explained.
"What do you mean?" Takumi asked.
"Do you remember Amon and the Equalists?" Rai asked.
"From the nonbender revolution decades ago? Yeah," he nodded. "But what does that have to do with this?"
"Amon claimed to have the power to remove a bender's bending ability, but all it was was just dressed up bloodbending, which he was able to use to block certain chi paths to suppress someone's bending ability."
"So I guess this is the part where you tell me to go? After all, I know you only tolerated me because I could train you in airbending," Sati muttered sadly.
"No," Rai replied.
"No?"
"The one who did this to you; he works for someone I know and he did it in an effort to hurt me. As of now, that makes restoring your bending my responsibility."
"So, this isn't permanent?"
"There's only two ways to reverse this kind of damage: bloodbending and energybending and I have no intention of of ever learning the former."
Sati looked up to the Avatar with her big blue eyes, reinvigorated with hope. "...Thank you, Rai. Thank you!"
"You can thank me when we fix the damage. Our trip to your family will have to wait, Takumi."
"No problem! I'm in!" Takumi beamed. "Just tell me what we have to do." To her surprise, Rai saw something in his eyes that she hadn't seen in a long time: grim determination in such a young soul that was so sure of confident and hopeful that he could achieve anything. It had been years since she last saw that look in someone's eyes.
"Well, think of it this way. Now I can divert all of my time to making you smile, Rai," smiled Sati, standing up.
"Well, you certainly bounce back," Rai remarked.
"And I'll bounce higher once I get my bending back. After all, knowing that you're on the case, I am SURE that I'll be able to bend again!"
"So, what's our first move?" Takumi asked.
"Well, our only lead aside from finding a bloodbender willing to undo the work - which will be hard enough as it is since bloodbending is illegal - is energy bending. And the last I heard, only lion turtles could teach it and the last one wasn't seen since the end of the 100 year war."
"Why not just ask the guy who did this to undo it? Seems like the most direct method," Sati suggested.
"Because the person who did this to you is a psychopathic monster! He did this to you to spite me!"
"But who is this person? Why are they doing this?" Takumi asked.
"They're someone from my past, that's all you need to know. I've been hunting him for a long time and now that I'm getting close, he's trying to derail me. So, which is more fruitless to search for? A lion turtle or a bloodbender willing to help us?"
Sati and Takumi stood in silence, unable to come up with an answer until the young nonbender spoke up. "I have an idea," he said quietly, raising his hand. "You remember when you rescued me from those slavers?" Rai nodded. "And you remember the one that I convinced you not to kill? He was a waterbender, wasn't he? Even if he doesn't know bloodbending, he might know someone who does."
"I doubt he'll still be there by the time we manage to backtrack to that village," Rai said, dismissing the idea. "But, it's the only lead we have right now. We should leave now before the trail goes cold."
Next chapter - Backtracking: With Sati's bending gone, the group's only lead is the waterbending slaver that Takumi convinced Rai to spare.
At this point, I strongly urge readers to please offer any suggestions of scenarios for the group to encounter. There's only so much I can come up with and even my friend who's been helping with the story, Powershade117, has run out of ideas too. So if you've got an idea, please share it.