I have been waiting a long time to get to this chapter. Once I had the idea for it... I just had to do it. Just... just see for yourself guys. Hope you enjoy it.

"You're staying," Rai said firmly.

"We most certainly are not!" Takumi argued. "The last time you charged into an enemy stronghold on your own, it blew up!"

"All the more reason for you two to remain behind. And that explosion was planned, by the way."

"Well, how come he gets to go?" the boy cried, gesturing to Hiro, who was donning his Blue Spirit outfit.

"Because he knows how to fight AND he knows how to deal with slavers. I don't have to spend half my time worrying about him or get an earful of how I should spare their lives."

"But we can help!" Takumi continued protesting as Sati came up to his side.

"And you know that even if you tell us to stay here, we'll probably just disobey you anyway," she said with her usual grin.

Rai growled under her breath as she sharpened blades, readying them for battle. These two were bordering on becoming a more insufferable headache to her than they already were. "Ugh, fine!" she reluctantly agreed. "I guess having you in range is better than having you sneak in by yourself. But if trouble starts, you run. Got it?"

"Got it," Takumi answered, readying his bow and quiver of arrows.

As night fell, the four of them crept along a hill overlooking a small campsite located just outside a mountainside cave. "Doesn't look like much," Sati commented, noticing only a few armed men stationed around the camp.

"It never does. It'll draw too much suspicion otherwise," Hiro noted. "But this should be one of the slaver cells I've been tracking."

"And what about Ryota?" Rai asked.

"He's crafty and hard to track. I don't even know what he looks like. All I know is that he's relatively new to the slave trade, but he's good. And when I say good, I mean bad," Hiro explained.

"How'd someone so new get so good at enslaving people?" Takumi asked.

"My guess is he learned from the ground up," Hiro replied.

"You mean this Ryota used to be a slave?" Sati asked.

"It's just something I've heard other slavers say. No way to confirm it without actually finding Ryota, which is hard enough already. But the story goes that Ryota was originally enslaved as a kid, but nobody bought him, so the slavers decided to put him to their work. Turns out, having started out as one made him pretty good at enslaving others."

"And he's ok with enslaving more children even after what he went through?" Sati exclaimed in shock.

"I've seen slaves willing to sell out their own friends if it meant freedom. Not everyone has a heart of gold," Hiro said.

"As you keep reminding us," Sati muttered.

"Former slave or not, he's a slaver now. And there's only one thing slavers deserve," Rai said, narrowing her eyes viciously.

"So what's the plan then?" Takumi asked.

"They'll be hiding their slaves in there," Hiro said, pointing to the cave.

"Behind a solid wall of rock, just in case anyone too curious wanders by, then they go from a party of slavers and their merchandise to a band of weary travellers that nobody looks at twice," Rai added.

"How many do you think are in there?" Takumi asked.

"No way to know right now. Could be as few as three, as many as twenty," she answered. "The priority will be to get them away safely."

"I can draw away most of the slavers so you can slip into the cave," said Hiro.

"What about the guy guarding the entrance to the cave?" Takumi asked.

"Don't worry about him," Rai said. While Rai, Takumi and Sati hid in the bushes, Hiro made his way around to the other side of the camp. A twig snapped, instantly drawing the attention of the slavers. The one guarding the entrance of the cave nudged his head towards the sound, signalling his four companions settled in the camp to investigate it. Once the others were gone, the lone slaver heard a small rock tumble down the side of the mountain. He furrowed his brow in curiosity and moved in closer to investigate. Just then, Rai came up from behind him and sliced his thigh with her blade. He fell to his knee and opened his mouth to cry out in pain, but Rai quickly moved in front of him, covered his mouth with her hand and sliced her blade across his throat. The slaver's eyes rolled up as he went limp and fell to the ground. When she was done, Takumi and Sati stood there, staring at her in shock with their jaws open wide. "Don't give me that look," she spat, "You both know this isn't exactly new behaviour." Sati and Takumi exchanged looks as Rai moved past them and into the cave. She reached the solid rock wall inside and placed her palms on it. With a swift thrust of her arm downward, the rock wall lowered, revealing the rest of the cave. It was too dark to see clearly, but they could hear the quiet whimpers of children and metal clanking of chains moving.

Just then, a light came up behind them, illuminating the cave. All three of them quickly turned around, ready to fight, but relaxed when they saw that it was Hiro with a small flame in his hand and a bloody sword in the other. "Relax, it's just me. How many are there?" he asked, sheathing his sword and walking further into cave and illuminating it and several children, who flinched and cowered in fear.

"Looks like about a dozen," Rai said, doing a quick count.

"Oh, the poor children," Sati said with a sad frown. She bent down onto one knee and held out her hand to a pair of children chained to the wall by their ankles. The pair leaned further into a cave walls away from her and held onto each other tightly, the old boy wrapping his arms around the younger girl as if he were trying to protect her. "I'm not going to hurt you. We're here to help," she said with a smile. The boy looked up at Sati's bright blue eyes and sincere smile. Just as he hesitantly reached his head out to her welcoming one, the shackle around his ankle suddenly snapped open, along with the shackles on every other child's ankle.

"We don't have much time. We need to get moving," Rai said after metal bending the shackles open. The children quickly stood up, all the while whispering to each other quietly.

"What the hell's going on here? Where is everyone?" they heard a man shout from outside the cave.

"Shit," Rai cursed, quickly raising the rock wall to seal the entrance to the cave once more.

"Why did you do that?" Takumi cried.

"Those slavers weren't alone. I should have accounted for that," she muttered to herself, "but the point is now we can't go out the way we came. It doesn't matter how many of them are there, with this many kids, someone'll get caught in the crossfire."

"So, what do we do then?" Sati asked, gently holding two of the frightened children close to her as they desperately clung to her leg in fear. Rai didn't answer and instead moved to the other end of the cave. She took a wide stance and thrust her fist forward, pushing out the rocks and forming an exit down the other side.

"You three take the kids out that exit and get them to the nearest city," Rai said.

"What about you?" Takumi asked in concern.

"I'll stay behind and keep the slavers from following you. I'll keep them busy long enough for you to get away."

"But Rai-" the young boy began to protest.

"But nothing, Takumi. The rest of you need to go with them. They can't protect themselves if some slavers slip past me and catch up to you. Hiro can hold off any ones that do, but they'll still need someone to take care of them until they get somewhere safe."

"But-"

"I don't matter, Takumi, they do," she said firmly. Takumi still looked at her with his worried expression, so she lay a firm, but gentle hand on his shoulder and said reassuringly, "I'll be fine. Don't worry."

Takumi sighed in defeat, knowing that she wouldn't be swayed, "Ok…"

Rai made her way back to the entrance of the cave, blocked by the wall she had raised. "You should get moving. You'll need every second you can get to get ahead," she said. Takumi and Hiro simultaneously nodded in agreement as Sati tenderly urged the children ahead and pulled out her sky bison whistle.

Rai raised another wall between her and the rest of the cave, leaving herself between the two rock walls. She placed her hand against the first wall, feeling the vibrations of the earth through them. Rai counted at least eight men in total and judging by the low rumbling she heard, they had transportation. She waited until one of them got close before thrusting her hand straight through the wall and grabbing the slaver by his collar. Completely taken by surprise, he had no time to react as Rai pulled him by the collar and slammed his face into the rock, knocking him out as the wall crumbled to bits. Rai tore through the remainder of the wall, coming face to face with the group of slavers on the other side.

"What happened to our slaves?" one of them cried.

"They're not yours to begin with!" Rai shouted, thrusting her hand into the ground and liquifying the earth beneath the slaver and submerging him up to his neck. She spotted the parked car and slammed her foot into the ground, causing a pillar of earth to raise up from beneath the car, tipping it over.

"Get her!" one of them shouted.

Rai grinned in response and raised the earth beneath her, surfing along the moving earth beneath her feet. "That's right, follow the leader," she muttered. She cast a quick look over her shoulder and smirked to see the slavers pursuing her with their remaining vehicles. Over the other side of the mountain, she could just make out the large, black shape of an sky bison taking off. Rai came to a halt as the earth she had been riding on top of subsided. She saw the lights of the slavers' remaining vehicles, mostly motorcycles, getting closer. Rai lingered for a moment, long enough for them to spot her before darting into the woods. She stopped when she reached an open cliffside overlooking a river below. Rai peered down to the raging rapids, "I can make that," she said confidently. Even if her waterbending was sub par, she could cushion her fall with airbending and land safely in the water below. Hearing the slavers catch up to her, Rai turned around, ready to face them and take down as many as she could before she could make her timely escape. She had to occupy their time as long as she possibly could.

"She'll fetch a fine price," one of the slavers snickered, holding up a length of chain in his hands.

Rai narrowed her eyes at the metal chain angrily and uttered, "I wore chains once. Your metal will never touch my skin again." She raised her hand, causing the chain to come to life and wrap tightly around the slaver's neck. She lifted him into the air as the slaver clawed at the chain, trying to loosen it as he desperately gasped for breath. One of the slavers quickly lunged towards her, but she easily stepped to the side and kicked her heel into the ground, sprouting a pillar that kicked the charging slaver over the cliffside and screaming into the river below. Rai dropped the chain-wrapped slaver to the ground, dead. Another thrust his fist forward, shooting fire at her, but Rai quickly raised an earth shield to protect herself before kicking the wall with her foot, breaking it into pieces and hurtling them towards the slavers, knocking each one in the stomach and knocking them back. One by one, they got up and charged at Rai again, only to knocked back. She stabbed two in the stomach in quick succession before snapping the neck of a third. She had taken out four, but there were still five standing before her. Now would have been as good a time as any. The others would have gotten far away enough with the children, so she had no more reason to occupy these scum any longer. Rai took a step back towards the edge of the cliff. The remaining slavers grinned and snickered, thinking that they had her on the run.

"Enough!" a voice called out, as the attacking slavers instantly stopped in their tracks. Rai stopped too, momentarily startled by the sudden arrival of reinforcements. It didn't matter though. She was ready to jump into the river down below and make her escape, until one of the slavers said something that made her stop.

"But Ryota," one of the slavers began protesting.

Ryota… the young, prodigious slaver she had heard so much about from Hiro and those letters from the bandit fortress they had blown up. It didn't matter to her who this Ryota was. He may have supposedly started out as a slave like she and so many others had, but he made his own bed when he signed on with them and chose to continue their work. All that did matter was that he was a big and important figure in the slave trade and if she could take him out, that'd be a big dent in the industry. That, and killing slavers was one of her favorite things.

"I said enough." The slavers parted, allowing their leader to emerge as Rai heard the sound of a bowstring tightening, indicating an arrow had been drawn.

Rai took a combat stance, ready to face this Ryota she had heard so much about and eliminate him, but when he emerged, her eyes flew wide in shock as she gasped under her breath. Her body froze and her breathing became laboured and uneven as she watched the young boy - not a man like she had expected - stand before her. It may have been dark, but it was no mistake who the young man in front of her was. The messy dark hair, bright green eyes that once looked up at her in joy, and the last time she saw them, fear. Her throat went dry and coarse and when she finally found the will to speak, all she could manage to let out was a quiet whisper of shock and confusion, "Ara… Arata?"

The boy with the bow standing opposite to her simply smirked and aimed the arrow right at her. "Hey sis," he said with a malicious smile.

"Arat-" She stepped towards the boy, a smile forming across her face. For the first time in years, hope and joy filled her heart at seeing him alive and well. Memories flooded her mind, old and happy ones, followed quickly by the sad ones as she was forcibly dragged away from him all those years ago. She reached out towards him when suddenly, her breath hitched as she felt something strike her chest. The force of the impact made her step back and her chest began to sting. She slowly cast her eyes down to see an arrow in her chest as her hair tie jostled loose, freeing her thick blond locks around her face and over her eyes. She had been looking right at him the entire time, but didn't even seem him release his arrow. She looked up in time to see Arata nock a second arrow and aim it at her again. Her limbs felt sluggish and heavy like invisible weights and chains were weighing her down. She couldn't move as the second arrow struck her in the shoulder. This time, the impact knocked her back further towards the edge of the cliff. Eyes still wide in shock and unable to speak, legs gave out from beneath her and she fell to her knees in front of the slavers as blood began seeping through her clothes, dyeing her bright yellow floral shirt a dark crimson. Rai struggled to focus; it felt like a million things were happening all at once: the pain in her chest, her trouble breathing and the sheer shock of seeing him again. Her vision began to blur as all the noises around her suddenly went quiet and all she could hear was a sharp ringing tone. Ryota walked up to Rai as she kneeled on the very edge of the cliff. Green eyes locked with an identical pair as Rai weakly and shakily lifted her head. "Ara…ta," she whispered weakly.

Ryota bent down, squatting in front of her while supporting himself on his bow. His expression softened briefly as he locked eyes with the dying girl, brushing aside the long blond bangs that clung to her sweat drenched forehead before a smirked appeared on his face. He leaned in and whispered to her, "Arata died a long time ago. The name's Ryota now." When he stood up, Rai tried to speak and reach for him, but she couldn't feel her arms and her throat was so coarse and dry that she barely managed choke out a sound. Ryota looked down at her one last time as tears slowly formed around Rai's eyes. Still with that smirk on his face, he delivered a swift and firm kick with his foot against Rai's other shoulder, sending her over the cliffside and into the river below.

Silently from the bushes several feet away, Takumi and Hiro had just caught up in time to see Rai fall over the cliffside with two arrows in her chest. Takumi stared at the scene before him in utter shock as he cried out her name, alerting Ryota and the slavers to their presence as Takumi burst from the bushes and ran towards the edge of the cliff. Hiro quickly reached out and grabbed onto Takumi, wrapping either arm around Takumi's waist and shoulders, pulling him back as the boy desperately struggled against his grip, shouting at Hiro to let him go. Hiro's eyes locked with the cliffside as well and he knew how much he wanted to rush over and it was tearing him apart to pull Takumi away.

The slavers quickly drew their weapons and prepared to charge, but Ryota held his arm up, signalling for them to halt. "Shouldn't we go after 'em, boss?" one of the slavers asked.

Ryota raised his chin and smirked at the sight of Hiro forcibly dragging the distraught Takumi away as they fled on Griffith. "No, there's nothing left for them now. We're done here," he said, casting one last glance down the cliff to the rapidly flowing river below.

"But the slaves..."

Ryota ignored his lacky for a second as he took in the situation. When he looked up, he noticed the unmistakable shape of a flying bison. His first impulse was to growl with fury, but he stepped back and turned to his men with a sigh. "Those slaves are long gone. There's no point in going after them now," he said, sheathing his bow. "Come on lads. I hear there's another nearby village that's ripe for the plunder." There was some excited murmuring before Ryota continued, "I was going to leave them be, at least until after we dealt with that last shipment. But it seems like our timetable just skipped ahead. Move out, men. We've hit a setback, but we're still in business." His men all cheered and turned to leave. Ryota followed closely behind them, but not before shooting the cliff a sideways glance.

Did I just do that? Did I just kill my main character?

Yeah, yeah I did. And I love it XP

ANYWAY...

Next chapter: Takumi, Sati and Hiro try to figure out what to do and where to go in the wake of Rai's death.