I've been sitting on this chapter for a while now, mostly just because I wasn't feeling 100% about it, but you know what, after days of reading it over and over again and changing almost nothing, I figure I might as well just post it and not keep you guys waiting any longer.
Haku dashed swiftly through the forest on the dirt path as Rai held firmly onto his saddle. Within nearly a day's ride, he had brought her to the same village they had evacuated the rescued children to, the same village Haku had left them after Rai's apparent demise. "It doesn't look like they're still here," she said, climbing off his saddle. "An ostrich horse wouldn't stick out so much, but an air bison and puma goat certainly would. I'll ask around, see if anyone knew where they went." Haku tapped her shoulder with his nose before pointing his head towards the inn. "Good idea, I'll start there."
Rai stepped into the inn as the man behind the counter greeted her without looking up from his book. "How many?" he asked.
"I'm not here for a room," she answered. "I'm looking for someone, three someones actually. I think they might have stayed here recently."
The man looked up at her and sighed. "Lady, do you know how many people check in and out of my inn? Do you honestly expect me to remember every single face that comes through my doors?"
Rai crossed her arms. "Two boys, both with dark hair, one long with dual broadswords and one short with a bow and arrows; one girl, an airbender and they had an ostrich horse, puma goat and air bison with them."
"Oh, them," he muttered.
"I take it you remember them then?"
"It's hard to forget having to wheel over a dozen bales of hay for one animal of that size. They were here, left town nearly a week ago."
"Do you know where they were heading?"
"Nope, once they go out those doors, they aren't my concern. All I can tell you is that they were arguing most of the time they were here."
"Arguing, what about?" she asked.
"I try not to eavesdrop on my customers, but the walls are pretty thin. From what I could tell, a friend of theirs got hurt or killed or something and they all disagreed about what to do about it. The one with the attitude wanted to get revenge, but the girl didn't think it was a good idea."
"And the third, the boy?"
"He kept insisting that their friend was still alive." Rai hadn't expected to hear that. She always knew that Takumi was always so hopeful about everything. It was disgustingly annoying, especially to a cynic like her. She didn't care much for his hope in her, but for the first time, she actually felt touched by it. "You need anything else? Cuz I've got work to do," he said, waving her off.
She exited the inn and stood outside its doors, trying to contemplate her next move. She was at least a week behind them and with Haku's speed, she could catch up to them in half that time. The only problem was she didn't know which way they went. She certainly couldn't just pick a random direction and hope she picked right. She could end up traveling in the complete opposite direction! She walked back towards Haku, who was sniffing the ground. "Anything?" she asked. Haku shook his head. "I didn't think so. If it's been a week since they were here, their scents are likely covered up by everything else here by now."
"It's her!" Rai looked up and a small group of children running towards her. As the children gathered in front of her, she recognized them as the children they had rescued earlier.
"You…" she began, but the children cut her off.
"See? I told you it was her!" one of them exclaimed to the other before looking up to Rai, who bent down to their level. "You were the one who rescued us from those men, the ones that took us from our home and… and…" Rai could see that the boy was struggling to finish his sentence as the other children too began to lower their heads and cast their eyes down sadly. She knew how they felt. Their whole world was ripped away from them, their parents murdered. The wounds were still fresh and once they said it out loud, it became real. Rai was prepared to interrupt the boy; she could tell he wasn't ready to admit and accept what happened much like she once wasn't ready, but to her surprise, the boy leapt forward and hugged her tightly. Rai was taken aback slightly by the sudden action, which was followed shortly by the other children. Rai froze, unsure how to respond to this sudden act. But the children pulled away before she could do anything. "Thank you for saving us," they said together, wiping away the tears that had begun to form. Rai sighed and gently pat the boy's head. "But why aren't you with your friends?"
"That's why I'm back here. We got separated and I'm trying to find them. I know they left town about a week ago, but do you know which way they went?" she asked.
The boy nodded and pointed east. "They left in that direction. We didn't want them to go. Sati was so nice and made sure the people here would take care of us. She even said some of the Air Nomads were going to come here and help us."
"Well, then you'll be in good hands. The Air Nomads do good work; you know they used to work with the Avatar?" she asked with a smile, which seemed to do the trick and brighten up the children.
"Yeah, but nobody knows where the new Avatar is! And it wasn't the Avatar that saved us, it was you! Who needs the Avatar when we have a hero like you looking out for us! Y-you're not going to leave too, are you?" the boy asked fearfully.
"I'm afraid I have to. I need to find my friends before they get into even more trouble."
"And, and you're gonna rescue more kids like us, right?"
"Yes," she answered with a firm nod.
The boy looked around nervously before stepping closer to Rai and speaking in a hushed whisper. "Then, I might know where you can find them. One night when they thought we were all asleep, I overheard them talking about where they were going to take us: some place called the Black Cliffs. Do you know where that is?"
Rai gasped lightly at the mention of that place, but kept her cool in front of the children. "I do. Thank you, that really helps. You all take care of each other now. When the Nomads get here, they'll help you. I promise." Rai returned to Haku and climbed onto his saddle. The eel hound craned his neck to look at her as she spoke. "We're going to the Black Cliffs to the east; it's our best chance for finding the others. Those kids said they went in that direction and the Black Cliffs is a prime auction site for the slave market. I should know; it's where I was sold."
"This is a bad idea and you know it!" Takumi whispered harshly. "We can't possible do this with just the three of us. We'll get caught, or worse, killed!"
"Sh!" Hiro shushed him as the pair and Sati lay on the ground overlooking a small bay of ships surrounded by tall cliff stacks. Down below, they spotted a whole line of children chained together being led into a cave by slavers.
Sati gasped in horror. "What is this?"
"It's an auction," Hiro answered.
"An auction?" Takumi asked.
"This is where slavers bring their… their goods," he muttered, disgusted at the word, "to be sold. This is where Rai and I were sold to Goro."
"Wait, if you've known about this place the whole time, why haven't you already stopped them?" Sati asked.
"They never use the same place twice in a row and there are several other locations all over the world they frequent aside from this one. To keep from being discovered, they change the location for every auction. Sometimes they'll even change the location at the last minute! This just happens to be one of the favorites. The natural formation of the cliffs around this bay makes the location perfectly secluded. I've only ever taken down individual slaver cells. This is practically a cell gathering. It would take weeks of planning and setting up to take the whole operation down, and that's assuming I can accurately predict when they'll use this location again!"
"So what exactly do you plan on doing, assuming you get in there?" Takumi asked.
"Simple, I'm gonna find Ryota and I'm gonna kill that bastard."
"It's not going to be that easy, Hiro," Sati cautioned him. "And what about all the children down there! We have to save them first!"
"Then that's what you two can focus on! Ryota's mine," Hiro replied in a sinister tone.
"One more question: how do we get in?" Takumi asked.
"Well, the entire complex is just a huge underground cavern. If they were smart, they would have dug some emergency tunnels in case of cave ins. I remember hearing a rumor about a slave escaping through one back when I was a kid."
The three were suddenly startled by sound of a twig snapping, alerting them to the presence of slavers that had snuck up on them. "Don't move!" the slaver patrol shouted, brandishing their blades and surrounding the three. Hiro instinctively reached for his swords, while Takumi did the same with his bow, but all three suddenly froze and felt their bodies move on their own. One of the slavers moved his arms, raising them all to their feet and causing the boys' hands, forcing them to drop their weapons to the ground. "Get their weapons!" he ordered, prompting one of the patrol to seize Hiro's swords and Takumi's bow. "So, what do we have here? You three don't look like buyers to me."
"Dammit, I should have accounted for patrols and a bloodbender," Hiro muttered under his breath as the bloodbender kept them standing still. .
"What do we do with them?" another asked.
"They've seen too much. Get some chains, we'll bind 'em and take 'em inside. Figure out what to do with them there."
Hiro narrowed his eyes and growled under his breath as he continued to resist the bloodbender's influence. He just managed to lift his arms up and ignite his hands in flames, but one of the slavers quickly doused him with water while another struck him with the pommel of his sword on the back of Hiro's head, knocking the vigilante out cold.
"Hiro!" Sati and Takumi cried in worry as the slavers roughed pulled them off the ground, dragging them to the pathway leading to the cave entrance while two others lifted Hiro by the arms as his feet were dragged along the dirt. Shackles were locked around Sati and Takumi's wrists and ankles, which had enough slack to allow them to walk at a slow pace.
"What do we do now?" Sati cried in a whisper.
"I don't know! I told him this was a bad idea!" Takumi whispered back as the slaver shoved them forward into the cave. Inside, the pair couldn't help but gasp in wonder at the size of the cave and everything inside. There were working lights and sound systems built right into the cavern walls. Most of the attendees were gathered in the center of the cave, just in front of the large lit up stage, while on one end of the cave were metal cage doors, which several young children were locked behind. Sati and Takumi exchanged looks of horror as they were led into a another tunnel that took them to a small office-like cave.
Hunched over the desk with his back turned to them was a young man with black hair in a short, high ponytail with a quiver of arrows strapped across his back. "We'll start the auction with the younger ones and move up to the older slaves. Save the oldest girls we have for last; they'll go for the highest," he said, handing some papers to one of the slavers with him. Upon hearing the approaching footsteps, he turned to look at the party.
Takumi gasped in shock, recognizing the boy. He lunged forward, angrily yelling, "YOU!" but the slavers quickly held him back.
"What's this supposed to be?" Ryota chuckled at the feeble sight.
"We found them snooping around the cliffs, sir. We figured you'd want to decide what to do with them."
"You figured correct. I am after all the brains of this operation."
"There's one other thing, sir. We found this on him," said the slaver, gesturing to the still unconscious Hiro while pulling out the blue ogre mask.
Ryota's eyebrow cocked in intrigue as he took the mask. "Well, well, well, I believe we're looking at the fabled Blue Spirit, gentlemen. For one who's been causing us a lot of trouble, I didn't expect him to be so young. I know exactly what we'll do with him, a little pre-auction entertainment. Take him to the stage, these two as well. I want them to watch," he grinned sinisterly. Noticing Takumi's angry expression, Ryota stepped closer to him. "What's with you? You look like a wolfbat with your face scrunched up like that."
"You killed our friend!" Sati exclaimed.
Ryota was unphased by the accusation. "I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific. I've killed a lot of people," he replied casually.
"You don't even know her name, do you? You don't even care! Her name was Rai! You killed her!"
At the mention of that name, Ryota's posture straightened as his interest was peaked. "Wait, wait, wait, this is about Rai? Oh, I can't wait to hear this," he howled loudly, "So how exactly do you know my sister?"
"Sister?" Takumi cried in shock. "What are you talking about?"
"What? She never mentioned me? I shouldn't be too surprised. Last I saw of her was at an auction in this very cave, well, if you don't count the time I drove two arrows into her chest and kicked her off a cliff!" Ryota boasted with a laugh. This angered Takumi, who shook off the slaver's hand from his shoulder and charged at Ryota. The slaver leader merely chuckled at the attempt and tripped Takumi before stepping on the side of his head, driving his face into the dirt. "You've got some fight in you, don't you? Reminds me a lot of my sister when we were kids, in fact. But soon enough, that fight will be beaten out of you like all the rest."
"She was your sister! How could you?" Takumi muffled from the dirt.
"So what if she was my sister? Just because we shared blood didn't mean I had to like her. I hated her! I always hated her! She always made fun of me because she could earthbend and I couldn't, always rubbing her little talent in my face while our parents practically worshipped her. They said she was only teasing and didn't mean it, but that didn't exactly make it any better. Then whenever someone else was messing with me, she'd just show up and rescue me like I was some weak little damsel in constant need of being saved."
"Because she cared about you!"
"If she really cared, she would have stayed out of my way! Always coming to save me like that just made things even worse! No one took me seriously because of her; nobody thought I could do anything on my own because she was always around! Well, look at me now! I'm in charge of a vastly growing market and I killed her! Me, a nonbender! You should have seen her face when she recognized me," Ryota chuckled. "Just the pure shock in her eyes. Oh, she was so happy to see me! I was happy to see her too… and then I shot her," he grinned maliciously.
"You're a monster!" Sati exclaimed.
"Oh, no disagreeing with you there. I've done countless horrible things! Do I feel sorry for it? No, not really. That's the difference between you and me. You like to play the hero, the good guy, the virtuous savoir, but some of us? Some of us like to play the bad guy, and I love being the bad guy! Take these three to the stage and get the auction ready!" he ordered his henchmen as they dragged the three away.
Haku and Rai came up to the Black Cliffs and watched from above as the last of the slaves were led into the cave entrance down on the beach below. Her eyes traveled to the ground, where she spotted a small white object. Stepping off Haku's saddle, she crouched to the ground and picked up a bison-shaped whistle with a small carving of a flower on the side. "This is Sati's," Rai realized, meaning that they were definitely here. Looking around, Rai blew into the whistle and a few seconds later, she heard the low moan of a sky bison as Daisy flew overhead. She landed in front of Rai and happily licked the Avatar before nuzzling her to the ground with her face. Kiwi and Griffith emerged from the bushes as well, both happily greeting Rai as well.
"It's good to see you all too," she smiled, affectionately petting each of them. "They're all in there, aren't they?" she asked. "Well, if they aren't captured now, they will be soon." She stepped closer to the edge of the cliff overlooking the cave entrance. "There's gotta be another entrance somewhere…" Rai stomped her foot on the ground, reading the seismic waves and noticed a small tunnel leading to the same cavern from the other side of the cliffs. She climbed back onto Haku's saddle, riding towards the other end of the cliff, coming to a second beachfront, though this one was less secluded. Rai and Haku nodded at each other as the eel hound leapt over the cliff edge, falling to the beach below. Rai quickly thrust her hand down, slowing their descent with a powerful gust of wind and cushioning their fall while Daisy carried Griffith and Kiwi down safely.
Climbing off Haku once again, Rai moved closer to the rock walls. She placed her hand on the wall briefly, before stepping back and earthbending the slab of rock aside, revealing the secret tunnel. Before stepping inside, however, she turned back to the four animals. "Ok, I'm going in there. I'll be going for any children they have locked up for sale first. If a fight breaks out while I'm trying to rescue the others, they'll just get caught in the crossfire. When they come out, they're going to need help getting away so I need all four of you to carry as many kids as you can and take them as far away as possible." Haku stepped forward, reluctant to leave Rai again. "I know," she said, tenderly patting his snout, "but I can at least fight my way out. They can't. Get them somewhere safe first, then you can come back for us." Haku nodded and as the animals waited patiently, Rai stepped into the tunnel. She stomped her foot once more, sensing the wall at the end and one guard posted right in front of it. She also sensed several young bodies just nearby. From the looks of it, this secret tunnel came right into the slave pens! "Perfect," she grinned. As she stepped up to the wall, she quickly earthbent the slabs of rock aside, leapt forward to cover her hand over the slaver's mouth while driving her armblade into his side. Her hand muffled his scream as she dragged his limp body into the secret tunnel. It was only the one slaver guarding the pens, meaning that the auction was likely starting soon. She had to be quick before more slavers showed up to bring the next batch to the auction stage. She stepped out further into the pens, slaver cells on either side of her, each filled with at least six to eight children bound in chains. She didn't waste a second metalbending the shackles off them and bending open the metal cage doors. Whispers and murmurs of confusion filled the air as the children hesitantly stepped out of their cells.
"There isn't much time," Rai whispered tenderly. "Take this tunnel out to the beach and my friends outside will get you to safety," she said, pointing down the tunnel.
"Come on, let's get outta here!" one of the girls exclaimed, quickly dashing for the tunnel, followed by the other children who initially hesitated. Rai sighed in relief as the children followed the young girl's example. She couldn't afford to waste time with them being indecisive about trusting her. Once they were all through the tunnel, Rai shut it closed with her earthbending. She pulled up her hood and walked out to the main cavern from the slave pens.
"Hey, what were you doing back there?" one of the slavers asked, noticing her coming out from the slave pens.
"Just checking out the merchandise. When's the auction starting?" she asked.
"In a bit. There's some pre-auction entertainment though," he snickered.
"What do you mean?"
"Didn't you hear? Ryota captured the Blue Spirit! That bastard has been interfering with our line of work so people are paying for their turn to rough him up a bit before Ryota kills him."
"Blue Spirit?" Rai turned her attention to the main stage, where she gasped at the sight before her. Despite the large crowd gathered in front of the stage all the way on the other side of the cavern, she could make out Hiro bound to an X-shaped wooden board. One of the slavers was up on the auction stage with him, delivering punch after punch to Hiro's face and stomach while the vigilante couldn't do anything to stop it. He grunted and groaned with each hit, trying his best to keep from crying out and giving them the satisfaction. Rai's eyes drifted to the left, where Takumi and Sati watched the sight in horror while being restrained by slavers.
"Ok, ok, that's enough. If you want another turn, you're gonna have to pay for it. Who's next?" Rai gasped at the sight of the announcer, the same boy who had shot her and kicked her off that cliff. 'No, that's no boy,' Rai thought, shaking her head to banish the thought. She didn't know what that was, but she had to find out, she had to know what happened to make him this way. Before the next slaver could step up to take his turn, Ryota continued his speech. "For those just tuning in on our auction tonight, we've got a special presentation for you all. Gracing us with his presence is the fabled Blue Spirit in the flesh. You've all heard the stories of the vengeful Blue Spirit returning from decades ago and attacking slave and bandit cells. Well, it's no spirit, it's this man right here!" As the crowd booed at Hiro, the vigilante glared angrily at Ryota before spitting on the stage. "And I think he needs to learn a lesson about what happens when you mess with other people's property!" Ryota's declaration was followed by a unanimous cheer of the slavers. "So who wants a piece of him?" As the crowd roared loudly, each slaver pushing past another for their turn, Rai quickly scanned the cavern. Most of the buyers were gathered in front of the stage, two restrained Sati and Takumi while a pair of slavers guarded the cavern entrance, and finally, the single slaver guarding the entrance to the slave pens she had previously emptied. She had to be fast and very precise.
Before she could act however, the guard posted by the slave pens suddenly cried out, "Hey! The slaves are all gone!" Rai quickly stepped back towards him and drove her armblade between the open space in his armor on his side. His body fell to the ground and when Rai turned, she noticed everyone was focused on her.
"If you value your lives, you will leave… now," she said firmly and darkly. A few of them scoffed at her threat and charged towards her, but Rai bent down to her knees and dug her fingers into the ground, liquifying the ground beneath them. The four that charged onto her were suddenly sucked up into the earth, leaving no trace whatsoever. Those that remained froze and gasped in trepidation. Rai raised her head to them, her green eyes narrowed viciously like a sabertooth moose lion cub ready to strike for the kill. For all their pride, that killer look in her eyes was enough to strike fear in their hearts as the buyers stampeded out of the cave to the safety of their ships, leaving Rai alone with Ryota and her still captive friends.
"What the?" Ryota exclaimed before narrowing his eyes angrily at the loss of his buyers. He turned to his two henchmen still restraining Sati and Takumi and gestured for them to attack her. Leaving their captives behind, the two advanced on Rai and came at her from either side, trying to box her in. Rai wasted no time on these two goons, leaping over the first as he tried to come at her from behind before quickly sinking them into the ground with her other victims. Ryota growled angrily at the incompetence of his own men. He drew his bow, aiming the arrow at her and shouted, "Who the fuck do you think you are?"
Rai stood up and kept her head low, causing her hood to hide her face. With a swift wave of her arms, the shackles binding Sati and Takumi unlocked. She did the same to the shackles that bound Hiro to the board as he fell forward and Sati and Takumi rushed to his aid. Ryota growled under his breath and released his arrow, but Rai easily caught the arrow's shaft and snapped it in her hand, tossing the pieces to the ground as she advanced to the stage.
While tending to Hiro, Takumi looked at their savior. He gasped and a wide smile formed on his face as he instantly recognized the dark green cloak, yellow floral shirt, pink wrap and of course, the two blond strands of hair. "Rai!" he exclaimed happily.
"What?" Ryota cried in shock, turning to Takumi before looking back at Rai. She stopped just as she reached the stage and reached up to remove her hood. While Sati, Hiro and Takumi beamed in joy and relief at the sight of her before them, alive, Ryota stepped back in horror. "I-Impossible! B-but I killed you!" he shouted.
"Turns out I wasn't ready to die yet," she replied. "Arata, what happened to you?"
"Don't call me that! That's not my name anymore!"
"Arata, I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you, that I couldn't save you, but why are you doing this? How could you work for slavers when they killed our parents and destroyed our home?" Rai asked desperately.
"You really want to know? Because they gave me the kind of life I wanted. A life without you holding me back and getting in the way!"
"What? What are you talking about? I know I teased you a lot when we were children, but I did everything I could to look out for you."
"I never asked you to do any of that! I never wanted you to! Just because you feel sorry for how you treated me in the past doesn't just make it all conveniently go away now. You may remember it as you looking out for your weak little brother, but you were just making everything worse! You never let me take care of anything myself! Nobody ever took me seriously! And then when they brought us here and that bandit bought you and I finally had my chance to live my life! Nobody wanted to buy me, so I ended up staying with the slavers that took us. Turns out they liked the fight in me and I got a promotion and my life's been going up ever since. And that was all my own doing." Ryota snickered proudly at the sight of the uneasy frown that formed on his sister's face. "What? Were you expecting some sort of sob story or tragedy befalling me after we got separated? Were you hoping that by some miracle being reunited with each other would somehow redeem me and make me see the error of my ways? Well don't! Everything that happened since you and I were last here happened to me because I wanted it to!"
"Arata, please," she begged stretching out her hand to him, "We can fix all of this."
Ryota however, just chuckled maniacally. "You really don't get it, do you? Once again, you're not listening! I don't want to fix anything! This is what I want to be! And you can't accept that because all you remember is the weak and helpless little Arata. Well, I'm not Arata anymore! I'm Ryota now," he said boldly and confidently, slowly backing away and jumping off the back of the stage towards the tunnel behind it. "And I have no sister." He pulled out a detonator and pressed the big red button, causing the cavern ceiling and walls to suddenly explode. The earth shook beneath them as everyone tried to stay balanced and looked up in shock as the cave began to collapse all around them.
"Arata!" Rai called out to her brother as he disappeared into the tunnel, which quickly became blocked by a large boulder falling from the ceiling. As Sati and Takumi climbed down from the stage, carrying the injured Hiro, Rai spotted a large slab of rock break off from the ceiling directly above them. She raised her arm, stopping the rock from crushing them just before it reached them and earthbent it towards the wall. She raised her arms, keeping the falling rocks from crushing them as they reached her. She groaned and struggled to keep the rocks above them as they continued to pile over them.
"What do we do?" Sati cried as the cave collapsed all around them while Rai barely kept them from being crushed.
Rai didn't respond. Instead, she had closed her eyes, trying to keep them all from being buried alive. Suddenly, her eyes burst open, glowing white. The three beneath her watched in awe as she effortlessly pushed the rocks piling over them away. She drew her hand in a large arc shape, causing the cavern to crackle vertically. She brought her hands back together and thrust them out, pushing the entire half of the cliffside out. She screamed loudly as she exerted all of her energy to move the entire mountain, but slowly, the moonlight suddenly crept in through the vertical crack Rai had made earlier. With one final exertion of force, Rai pushed the half of the cliff, toppling it into the sea. Before they could breath a sigh of relief, another chunk of rock fell loose from the half of the cliff still standing. Rai easily caught the large rock in her hands and effortlessly tossed it across the now exposed beach. Rai closed her eyes and breathed an exhausted sigh before plopping onto the ground and placing her hands behind her to support herself.
Just as she opened her eyes, no longer glowing, Takumi leapt forward and tightly embraced her with such force that she almost fell completely onto her back. Takumi wrapped both of his arms around her shoulders while she instinctively wrapped one of her arms around his back. "I never gave up," he sniffled into her cloak, his tears wetting the fabric, "I never gave up hope."
Rai sighed as a small smile formed on her face. "I know," she said, returning the hug, only for her to be caught by surprise by Sati, who joined in without warning, hugging Rai's head to her chest tightly. While being smothered tightly by the two, Rai locked eyes with Hiro, exchanging only a curt nod and smile.
Next chapter: uhh... haven't decided yet . Suggestions welcome!