Ok, kinda ended up neglecting the story for a bit. Blame Miraculous, I'm high on that show again XD If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.
I'm hoping to wrap up Unbroken soon so I can finally spend some much needed time focusing on some original series that I've been neglecting for the last few years . Bad Zephyros, bad!
After an eventful night, the group sat gathered around campfire. Rai had finally managed to convince Takumi and Sati to release their death grip on her, their way of expressing how happy they were that she was back and more importantly, alive.
They all had so many questions. What happened? How did she survive? Hiro was the first to speak. "I...I thought you were dead. We saw him shoot you right in the chest. And then we couldn't find your body. I don't mean to sound like I'm not happy that you're here, but how are you here?"
"The current carried me downstream. An old hermit found me and nursed me back to health. He had water from the Spirit Oasi," she explained.
"Spirit Oasis water? Of course! That stuff brought Avatar Aang back after he took a lightning bolt to the back!" Sati exclaimed.
"If I ever meet this man, he will forever have my gratitude. It's just so great to see you back. It makes me feel ashamed for giving up on you so easily," he hung his head.
"It's fine. I was just lucky that someone pulled me out of the gutter. I guess I just wasn't ready to die yet." Her gaze moved over to Takumi, who hadn't spoken at all. From his furrowed eyebrows and the worried look in his eyes, she could tell that something was on his mind and that he was struggling to come out and say it. "You're quieter than usual," she noted, giving him the push to speak up.
At her urging, Takumi spoke up. "Ryota, he… he said he was your brother. Is that true?" he asked, looking at her with such a hurt expression. Sati and Takumi watched Rai intently, waiting for her explanation.
Rai didn't answer right away and sighed, "Yes. His name is Arata, or at least, when I knew him, that's what his name was.
"I remember Arata," Hiro said. "Never in a million years would I have thought Ryota was him. He's so… different, like a completely different person."
"I thought… I hoped that when we saw each other again, things would be different and that I would be able to make up for all those years we were apart and protect him. I guess it doesn't matter anymore," Rai whispered sadly.
"What happened between you and your brother? The way he spoke about you, with so much hate," Sati asked.
"I honestly don't know. I thought he and I were close. I was always there for him. He was small, so the older kids would pick on him a lot. I teased him too sometimes, but what older sibling doesn't? But even then I still loved him and cared about him a great deal. When slavers took us, I did everything in my power to keep him safe and protect him. Maybe… Maybe I'm just remembering it that way because I don't want to remember how bad of a sister I might have really been to him. I can't help but think… Did he become Ryota because of me? Did I make him this way? He hated me enough to try to kill me twice! I must have been an awful sister," she lamented sadly.
"Don't say that!" Takumi cried, standing up, earning a shocked gasp from the three. "You're a great sister, uh, person! I mean, you're strong, brave and you've saved my life countless times now! You may be tough, but you care! I-I think of you like a sister," he smiled innocently, nervously scratching the back of his head as he sat back down on his log.
"I appreciate that, Takumi. But that doesn't change what happened in the past. Maybe my teasing cut him deeper than I thought. Maybe I really was a bad sister to Arata, despite what I remember, or want to remember. I guess it's impossible to be objective when you're remembering the past. Everyone remembers the past in their way. But the past is in the past and I can't change the past. I can't spend my time wallowing in my own darkness thinking about what might have been. That exact line of thinking almost got Korra killed when she fought Kuvira."
"Forgive me, Rai, but you're starting to sound like an Avatar," Sati said with a smile. Rai had always hated it when Sati made such comparisons or statements. But for once, Rai didn't bark at her. Instead, the blonde just chuckled under her breath and cracked a small smile at the airbender.
"Avatar Rai," she out loud to no one in particular. "Even now it sounds completely ridiculous to me. I never considered myself to be a good Avatar. I'm the farthest thing from a pacifistic, diplomatic world leader preaching peace and harmony between nations. All I am is bitter, angry and broken on the inside. I don't believe in peace. I'm no Avatar; I'm just a wild animal, acting on rage and instinct and taking out anything in my way. I'm not someone people should follow."
"No, Rai, you're not-" Sati began, trying to console Rai while reaching her hand out towards her.
"You don't have to say anything, Sati. I know who I am, what I am, and I accepted what this world made me into a long time ago. There's no point on dwelling on thoughts of what kind of person I'd be if things went differently, what kind of Avatar I might have become. But there was a time where I really did consider ending it all. I was in so much pain; I just didn't want to hurt anymore."
"Rai, you mean you were going to," Sati began, a horrifying gasp escaping her lips as she realized what Rai was referring to.
"Well, I didn't and you can thank your Avatar Korra for that. All my life I've had people try and tell me who I am, try to make me into something against my will: a slave, an Avatar. But now that I have the freedom to choose who I am... I don't know what to choose. I don't know what I want to be." Before Sati could speak, Rai continued, knowing what the airbender was about to suggest. "I wouldn't make a very good Avatar anyway. The world needs an Avatar like Aang or Korra, one who spread their ideals through words, not violence and killing. The world will be better off not knowing me."
"But we won't," Hiro said, placing a hand over his heart. "I will follow you, whatever you choose, not because you're the Avatar, but because you're Rai."
Rai turned to Hiro. "I admire your certainty, Hiro. You know what you want. Even now that I have the freedom to choose my own destiny, I feel like something is still weighing me down, pulling me under."
Takumi sat up straight, recalling the words from the fortune teller so long ago. "The chains are broken. But are you truly free?"
Rai looked at Takumi, remembering the fortune teller's words. "Exactly. Freedom is all I've ever wanted, but even though I'm not a slave anymore, I still feel the chains wrapped around me. I'll never truly be free until I eradicate the ghosts of my past and move forward. And all I've done to all of you is push you away, yet you all persisted. I tried to stay away because I thought it would be better for all of us in the end. Each of you was looking for something in me. You were looking for a hero," she said to Takumi. "You were looking for an Avatar," she said next to Sati. "And you were looking for a master to follow," she said lastly to Hiro. "I didn't believe I could be any of those things to all of you. I didn't want to be any of those things. I was convinced that once you all saw that I would never be what you saw in me that you would all leave on your own accord."
"What are you saying?" Hiro asked.
Rai stood up and turned away, keeping her back to them and the roaring fire. "I had the chance to come back sooner, but I didn't. My body was healed, but my mind was still broken. I was alone again, and that was all I thought I wanted. But I found myself... missing all of you," she admitted. "Despite my best efforts to keep you away, I came to care about you. When we first met Takumi, when I offered to help you, it was my intention to get you to your family as soon as possible so everything could go back to normal and I could go back to being by myself. I could have just left the city and not saved your life that night. But... you reminded me of someone. Someone I loved a great deal a long time ago."
"I did that?" Takumi asked, surprised.
"You're a lot like him, or I suppose how I remember him to be. He was kind and brave, but also stubborn and strong willed. He didn't think anything was impossible and he wouldn't let anything keep him down. Every time I looked at you, I was reminded of him, the first person I failed." Rai brought her hand up to her face briefly, as if to wipe something off her cheek.
"Arata," Takumi realized.
Rai nodded. "For so long, I was drowning, drowning in my own doubt and self-loathing. I couldn't stop thinking how differently things might have been if I knew I was the Avatar. And I hated myself for not knowing sooner. I could have saved my family, saved Kala and I could have prevented Arata from becoming what he is now." She took in a deep breath before continuing. "I swore that I would put a stop to as many damn slavers as I could but knowing now that he's become one of them… I don't know if I can go through with it. I wonder if this is how Fire Lord Zuko felt when he was fighting his own family, his own blood. Do I follow through with my promise and strike him down or do I try and save him? He made it clear he didn't want to be saved and maybe I'll never learn what made him this way. He's hurting people and he must be stopped."
"A hero," Takumi said, "You're describing a hero."
Rai chuckled. "Hero. Funny, I never considered myself to be one. I know you think of me as a hero, Takumi," she said, walking around the fire towards him as she spoke until she stood in front of him and bent down to meet his eyes, "that I saved your life more times than you can count. But the truth is, you saved me."
"Huh?" the young boy cocked his eyebrow in confusion.
"You pulled me out from my own darkness and even when I fought you every step of the way, you pressed on. I kept pushing you away, pushing you all away," she spoke to everyone. "I had built up these walls around me to protect myself so that I could be strong. I had forgotten how to let people in, because I was afraid they would be taken from me and I powerless to save them. I thought for sure that in time, you would all leave of your own accord and I would be alone, because I thought it was safer. But I'm glad you didn't. I'm glad that you saw something in me that was worth a damn. I'm glad I met you." Teary amber orbs locked with her own bright green as Takumi leapt forward, tightly embracing Rai, who didn't hesitate to return the hug.
When they pulled away, Hiro asked, "So, what's the plan now?"
"We don't have much time before Ryota's trail goes cold and when that happens, he'll be even harder, if not impossible, to find. We made a big dent in his operation by disrupting that auction and destroying the location. He'll need time to regroup, which is why this is the best time to strike," Rai explained.
"How will we know where he's going?" asked Sati.
"We won't, but we might be able to find some people who will. Ryota's rather secretive, but he likes to keep the select few he trusts well-informed of where he's going and what he's doing. We find one of those men, we find Ryota," Hiro said.
Rai returned to her spot in front of the fire but kept her back turned to everyone. "I won't ask any of you to risk yourselves in this endeavor, so if you want to back out, I'd do it now." She turned around to face them as she finished speaking.
Takumi stood up straight and looked at her with determined eyes. "We're not going anywhere."
Ryota stepped into the basement of a noodle house and scowled at the sight of the cells, which should have been occupied by his merchandise but now lay bare. The table was split down the middle and debris of what once were chairs was scattered across the room. Pools of blood stained the concrete floor, some blood splatters veering in a straight line indicating that the bodies had already been removed.
"They came out of nowhere," the survivor Ryota had interrogated said. "The blonde took us all out like we were nothing! Sh-She was like a demon!"
There was only one blonde that caused Ryota this much trouble and he growled under his breath at the thought that she had once again evaded death. He already shot her twice, kicked her off a cliff and dropped a mountain on her! What else did he have to do to put her down? "Why'd she leave you alive?" he asked the survivor.
"Sh-She wanted to know where she could find you, sir. I didn't tell her anything, I swear, but she took all our documents and correspondence along with the slaves!" he explained, gesturing to the empty cells and split table, which was originally covered in paperwork.
"What else?" Ryota pressed.
He gulped. "She wanted me to pass on a message to you, sir."
"What is it?" Ryota asked, growing more impatient by the second.
"She said that she was coming for you, that there wasn't anywhere you could hide where she can't find you," he whispered fearfully.
Ryota's face twitched angrily as he quickly reached for the dagger strapped on his belt and drew the blade across the survivor's neck. Blood poured from the cut as the man desperately reached for his neck, struggling to breath and stop the blood from flowing out. After a few seconds, his breathing grew weaker and weaker and his hands fell from his neck as his entire body went limp. Ryota wiped the blood off his dagger with a cloth and tossed the blood-stained fabric aside before sheathing the blade. He turned to his subordinates, who watched the scene quietly. Ryota cleared his throat and straightened up. "My apologies boys, I let my temper get a little out of control."
"What do we do now Ryota? This is the fifth den we've found like this, each with one survivor claiming it was a blonde girl that attacked them," one of his subordinates asked.
"My dear big sister," he began speaking, his sarcastic tone just barely holding back the venomous malice, "continues to be a thorn in my side."
"She's not going to stop," another said, "And at this rate, we're not going to have enough merchandise for the next auction. We already took a huge dent when we lost all the slaves at the Black Cliffs."
"Yes, yes, I know!" Ryota sighed in annoyance. What would it take to get rid of this thorn in his side? His lips curled up into an evil grin as an idea formed in his head. "My sister is indeed powerful and stubborn. Even after shooting her and dropped the Black Cliffs on her, it's done little to slow her down. She won't stop until she finds me."
"So what do we do?"
"Let her come. We'll be ready for her."
"But sir, you've seen what she's capable of! How are we going to stop her? She's like a freight train!"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Ryota clicked his tongue in disappointment. "Boys, don't you remember anything I've taught you? How do you deal with unruly and stubborn slaves?" As he spoke, Ryota pulled out black and white photographs of his sister's companions. He had caught a glimpse of two of them after he shot her and was curious about the company with which she surrounded herself. The photos were all taken from a distance and without the subjects realizing. Ryota pulled out one photo of Takumi, and pocketed the rest. Pulling out another small dagger, he held the picture up to the wall and stabbed the dagger into it, pinning the picture to the wall. "You go after the thing they love most."
If I had to guess, I'd estimate that I'll be able to wrap this story up in about three chapters? Pure guess, btw. Scenes always end up being longer than I think once I start writing them out.
Next chapter: Ryota kidnaps Takumi and forces Rai to choose which brother she wants to save.