Well, faithful readers, here we are--the newest chapter in Walking a Wire. I have over 1500 hits! And...7 reviews...Well, does it matter if you're having fun?
At any rate, enjoy!
Chapter XIX: Dance to the Rising Moon
"Aang, stop!" Skidding to a halt, he looked back to see Katara turned back the way they had come, her body suddenly rigid.
"What is it, Katara? Is something wrong?"
"Sokka, he's--I don't know, I just feel something awful's going to happen. I--Aang, we have to go back!" She finally turned, worry showing across her face, "We know what this guy's capable of and--and I know my brother's good, but Sokka's not a bender and this guy nearly beat us."
"Sugar Queen's right, Snoozles is gonna get his rear barbecued and handed to him by that guy. We shouldn't have left." Finally, with a wordless nod from Aang, they set off to help their friend.
"Very impressive! Keep up the good work and you might actually force a stalemate!" Akira flexed his hand, watching the blood run from the gash down his forearm. With the armor off, I can finally see just how good this kid is. Where in the world could he have learned to move so fast? He grinned again as he looked over at his opponent. Sokka, for all his speed, just didn't have the same experience with a blade, and his robes were quickly being reduced to bloody rags.
"You're not so bad yourself, Tin Man. Aang told me you're a bender, though. Why aren't you trying to fry me?"
"It's called professional respect. You're the first somewhat accomplished swordsman I've faced in, well, years actually. Unfortunately," He flexed his hand again, feeling the dripping blood flowing across the skin, "unfortunately, 'professional respect' can only go so far, and it's time to end this." Looking at Sokka, Akira had to admit that it was more than exhaustion that necessitated an end. I can barely see anymore, and the streetlamps don't reach this far into the alleys. Also, he's got a waterbender for a sister and I really don't want to be around with the moon this close to full.
"So, does that mean you surrender?" The weak smirk that the boy gave him momentarily stunned Akira. He's lost how much blood, and he still has a sense of humor? Man, this kid is really something. Oh well, he's also water tribe. Bringing his blade back to guard, he watched as Sokka struggled to get his sword back into position.
"What's the matter, are you tired?"
"Tired? Nope, I can keep up with you all night."
"Keep up with this." He stepped directly into Sokka's stance, bringing up the blade to stop the slowly moving onyx sword and pushing it into the wall. He felt his entire upper body tense as he prepared to bring the sword back across his body with enough force to punch through metal. Just like Nei taught us. Power from the hips, flows to the chest, lead with one arm, support with the other.
"Goodbye, my worthy opponent. If only you had been one of us."
She rounds the corner, just in time to see the meteor sword, the blade he had lavished care on to the near exclusion of all else, fall from limp hands as the blow jerks him around. She opens her mouth as the once-silver blade exits the impossible gash across the chest. It's impossible, this can't be happening.
It is.
The Universe had to prove him wrong one last time, and as she begins to scream she isn't even aware of Toph's earthen blast, or Aang's combined assault of earth and air. All she knows is that she has to heal him, has to stop the blood that's soaking the torn and battered rags he wears. Water, where's water? I need water!
She bends her waterskin dry, desperately hoping it will be enough. The skin glows under her hands and the blood stops. Then, it begins flowing again. The cut is too deep, she can't stop it.
Useless tears are falling as she looks for something, anything that she can use. She reaches out, trying to sense water around her, and finally finds a line of water under the earth. She remembers how she and Aang had bent water from underground vents long ago, but she knows there's no time for the gentle push-and-pull motion now. The crash of the geyser is the sweetest sound she could ever hear as water rushes across her hands and the healing glow fills her vision. She can save him.
She can't think about what will happen if she doesn't.
The stone dagger embedded itself in the wall inches from his head as a blade of ice pinned a sleeve of his tunic. Both the Avatar and the Earthbender were coming at him at once, and it was all he could do to stay one step ahead of the incoming projectiles. Even then, his arm throbbed from where a blast of stone had struck, and he was finding it difficult to breath without tearing up. Cracked ribs, maybe completely broken he thought, as more attacks came in as fast as he could dodge them.
Going heads-up with the Avatar is impossible, I'll have to separate him from the Earthbender, find some way to down her, and get my tail out of here while both the water girl and the Avatar are helping with damage control. A good plan, yes, but it didn't look likely to happen as a slick of mud appeared beneath his feet and he scrambled to stay balanced while pieces of the street began hurling themselves at him. In one way, the repeated attacks kept him moving too fast to hit with something really nasty, so as he found his footing and lashed out with a flame whip, he gave thanks for small favors.
Glancing at the Earthbender, he noticed she wasn't even looking at him, simply keeping herself out of the way and bending in seemingly random directions that always seemed to connect with his feet. If I get rid of her, maybe I can get a solid footing. Suddenly, the Avatar appeared behind him, slamming down an air blast at his back. Sidestepping the blast, he watched as the girl--Toph, he reminded himself--was nearly hit by the incoming column of air before a yelled warning from the Avatar caused her to put up a hurried rock wall.
Why didn't she see that coming? Wait... Again turning to the Avatar, he let loose with a current of flame that was stopped with a stone barrier. However, the Avatar wasn't his target. Pulling the flame back toward him, he switched stances and, still facing the Avatar, smoothly sent the flame the other direction. It was a water-tribe technique he had learned from listening to soldiers who had faced waterbenders, and the fact that they didn't have to face you to hit you had been a skill he'd worked hard on. Thank you, Dad. If you hadn't made me see the connections, I would have been nothing. With what I know, I can win--I know I can. He registered the sharp scream as the Avatar's rock wall came down to face a cursory sheet of flame, but Akira had found his opening.
This would be over soon.
The girl was curled up on the ground as Akira advanced, grabbing his sword from where it had been thrown at the beginning of the fight. Bringing the blade back for a hard thrust, he was surprised as a rock wall materialized in front of his face. Turning, he only saw the heel of the Avatar's shoe approaching before stars exploded in front of his eyes. Reeling from the blow, he could only back away guarding as the rain of blows came against every part of his body they could reach. Finding his back to a wall, he sent out a desperate arc of flame that quickly dissipated against an air shield. Amazingly, he noticed that the Earthbender was back on her feet, although her hands remained wrapped around her midsection as both she and the Avatar began working through a forceful set of movements. Two massive slab of stone burst from the ground, accompanied by a sickening crunch that sounded all too much like bones breaking. Suddenly, both slabs were rushing towards him, and he had a brief image of what the city cleaners might find after all this.
No, use your fear, use your anger, think! As the slabs came in for his crushing end, he kicked off from the ground as hard as he could, planting a foot against the stone and using it to catapult himself from slab to slab as, with a final, painful crunch, the two slammed together just below his foot. Suddenly, the full weight of what had almost happened sunk in, and Akira felt his stomach tying in knots as he realized that he had only one course of action left.
Clear your mind, get rid of everything but the pathway. Find the energy, separate, and--
A cold sensation swept across his body as he leapt from the top of the slab, gathering the energy around himself and letting it sweep across his entire body. Don't think, don't feel, just guide.
The early night calm was shattered by the thunder's CRACK, and lightning lit up the darkness.
He landed hard, feeliing the aftereffects of his attack. He wasn't cold, he was freezing, and his muscles were spasming as he rose unsteadily to his feet. His first step felt like lifting a lead weight, and he struggled to see through the dust that stung his eyes.
Blurrily, he could make out the Earthbending girl sitting up dazed on the ground. Wincing with each movement, but knowing what had to be done, he made his way over to where she lay. As he looked down, he was surprised by how light she looked, as though a slight wind would blow her pale skin away like parchment. Her hair had been knocked out of its bun and lay around her shoulders, hiding her face from view. Sighing, he kneeled in front of her, grabbing a handful of her ebony hair as she struggled to make sense of what was going on.
"Huh, what are you--hey--" The rest of her words were cut off, as Akira brought his arm down brutally against the knee plate on his greaves. Tossing the girl down to the ground, he drew a knife from his boot as she still stared, perhaps unbelieving that the metallic taste in her mouth was her own. Bringing the knife down, his entire body was suddenly wracked by pain. Looking at his shaking hand, he willed it to continue down, but it remained where it was, hovering over the girl's shoulder.
"Go--go ahead and finish the job, T--Tin Man." She choked out.
"I--I'm trying." But, try as he might, he remained frozen where he was, and the pain seemed to redouble with each effort.
"You won't be hurting my friends anymore. You won't be hurting anyone anymore, do you understand?" He tried opening his mouth to yell, but all he felt was knives digging into his face as his mouth remained stubbornly shut. What's going on, what's she doing to me? Agni, what spirit's wrath have I roused? Giving up on fighting the paralysis, he began working to relax his muscles as much as possible. Unfortunately, nothing he did worked, and he could feel several cramps begin as he hung motionless over the Earthbender girl.
"Toph, are you okay? Aang, go get Toph and bring her over here!" He watched as Toph was dragged out from underneath him, helpless to do any more than shift his eyes, and even then it sent knives of pain into the back of his skull.
"You hurt my friends, you nearly killed my brother, give me one good reason why I shouldn't finish this, right here, right now!"
"Katara, just--just make him leave. I don't think he's going to be any trouble any more."
He heard the waterbender's voice tinged with doubt, "It--it doesn't work like that, Aang. I need the full moon for the control to actually move someone. When it's like this, anything I do could kill him if I'm not careful. And I'm still waiting on that reason."
"Wait, how do you--?"
"Look, I might have...practiced, you know, like maybe when you guys were sleeping?" He heard a sigh, "Look, I don't like it, but if I can do it, I want to know my limitations, and if this is what it took to end the fight, I'm glad I learned."
"It's all right, Katara, I don't think he's going to fight anymore."
"I don't know..."
"Katara, please." Suddenly, Akira felt his body go limp, and he pitched forward while releasing a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. Gulping for air, he turned to the Avatar as his hand closed around the knife.
Life is temporary, service is eternal. What the heck, I have nothing to lose.
"Thank you, Avatar. For an enemy of the Fire Nation, you're awfully kind to your opponents. Farewell." His hand blurred as the knife flashed towards the boy's neck, until blinding pain seized his arm and a strained growl forced its way past his lips.
"You--how could you? You were just using us, weren't you? Playing off our kindness, just to betray us--you Fire Nation soldiers really are perfect little monsters, aren't you? That's it, I've had it with--"
He never learned what she'd had it with, as the pain in his arm travelled inward, stabbing into his chest with each of his echoing heart-beats, with a force that pried his mouth open in a silent scream as the world exploded around him, then faded to black.
"What happened to him? Katara, what did you do?"
"I--I didn't--he, oh spirits--" Katara paled and grabbed at the wall for support as Aang cautiously inched towards the...body?
"Uh, hello? Fire Nation guy, are you alright?" He nudged the young man with his foot.
"What in Agni's name is going on here, and what are you doing to that--GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Katara and Aang scrambled back against the wall, each dragging a comrade away from the older man who slowly entered the square, his face a mask as he fell to a crouch beside the prone figure, "No, it's not--can't be--no no no no no NO! WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM!"
Katara answered, her tan skin a sickly pale in the moonlight, "I'm sorry, he was going to hurt my friends, he had already hurt them, I--I didn't know what else to do, I don't know what happened, I was b--bloodbending and--"
"You're a bloodbender? What about a healer?" He recieved a mute nod. "Well then, fix him! Heal Akira, you blasted water-tribe witch!"
"Whoa, whoa, what's going on?" Aang stepped between the cowering waterbender and this strange man. "Sir, we didn't know who he was, he was attacking us, he was trying to kill me, we had to do something and it was an accident!"
The man stood staring at him for a long moment, his eyes traveling across Aang's face. Suddenly Aang realized his headband had gotten lost in the fighting and hurriedly tried smoothing down his bangs, but the man continued to stare. "You're the Avatar..." His eyes flickered between Aang and Katara for a long moment, until they all heard a faint, choking cough. Spinning around, the man caught the movement at the same time as Aang and Katara and immediately fell to his knees in front of the stirring form.
"It's okay, son. I'm here now, it's going to be okay, we'll get you to a hospital, everything's going to be fine." The form muttered something into the man's coat that Aang couldn't catch, but the man just quieted him with a wave of his hand.
"You'll be fine, son. I'll let Kojima and the others know as soon as we get you somewhere safe. The middle of the alley is no place for you to be laying. You!" He pointed a demanding finger at Aang, "Avatar! Get his armor, bring the concubine and your injured and follow me."
The waterbender immediately made to protest. "Easy, Katara. No more fighting." Heaving a wobbly Sokka to his feet, he stacked the armor plates on one arm and leaned the water tribe warrior on the other as the weird group traveled out of the alleys following this strange man and the young soldier who had been trying his hardest to kill them not five minutes ago.
Aang shifted the load in his arms, grunting at how heavy this armor was. He leaned towards Katara, half-dragging Toph while trying to repair her nose at the same time, "I don't know about you, but this is really freaking me out."
"We don't have a choice." She whispered back, "Sokka lost too much blood, Toph's going to be sick from all she's swallowed, and we all need rest. I hate to admit it, but right now we're a threat to absolutely no one unless you miraculously regain the use of the Avatar State. And if he had wanted to get rid of us, I have a feeling he would have by now. This guy feels dangerous, but I don't think he's after you. For now, we go along."
"You coming or not? I don't care if you're the Fire Lord himself, I'm not waiting up for you!" Stomping on ahead, the strange young man cradled in his arms, the old man led on through the dimly lit streets, Aang and his friends warily following.
So, what did ya think? Evil ending I know, but I don't think I'll be killing a main character this early in my little work.
On a happier note, LING'S BACK! What, I like him! So, how is Akira's untimely injury going to affect the Wolves/Pirates mission? And what's happening back in the capital while all this is going on? Stay tuned, faithful readers!
Trust in God, and it'll all work out in the end. I mean, the guy DID write the Universe Rulebook--Anonymous
--NullChronicler--