Sorry guys and girls, No update from me. I'm currently stuck trying to figure out the fight between Katara and Pakku, so I'm nearly done, and It'll probably be finished sometime next month.
In the mean time, Sokka's Fan/Lawyer has thankfully provided a August update, surprisingly taking up the challange of writing up The Great Divide. This chapter is actually set before the Schematics, because the chapters I'm working on follow directly on after the Shadow (So any future episodes would take place in the space between The Prisons of Shangri-La and The Schematics). Once I've finished this season (Hopefully some time in November), I'll put all the chapters in the right order(NullChronicler was writing an adaption of Jet, which I'm hoping he still does in his spare time). If anyone wants to write up other chapters of Season 1, just send a PM telling me which chapter your writing up, and once your done, we can set up DocX and go one from there. In the unlikely event I have two chapters based onteh same episodes, it'll be the first one I get that gets posted here, while the second will be uploaded to a AU bank of oneshots titled A.V.A.T.A.R.: Infinities.
Alright, I've talked long enough. You can still leave reveiws, but no flaming please.
Hope you enjoy, and I'll try to get the next chapter out ASAP.
The Grand Divide was written by Sokka's Fan/Lawer, not me. the only thing I've done is accidentily britishfy it when I ran a spell check.
007
THE GRAND DIVIDE
Alistair grinned slightly to himself as he sat on a rock in a rather barren looking landscape, near the edge of a thirty plus foot deep canyon. It had only been a few days since the trio had helped liberate a town in Brazil from G.U.N., and they all agreed they deserved some time to relax in reward. So he sat back, felt the suns rays, looked out at the stunning view, and began to enjoy the…
"Fighting hard, fighting on cold steel, through the wastelands evermore, the scattered souls will feel the hell, bodies wasted on the shore…"…the formerly peaceful afternoon. Alistair's eye twitched slightly as he heard his friend, Sokka, bellow out some more lyrics as he began to make the nightly shut down procedures to the Avat. After a few minutes, Sokka walked and sat by the Courier.
"You know, maybe there's a reason that your singing career never took off." Alistair remarked as they watched the sun begin to set over some of the far off mountains.
"Yeah…people's bad taste." Sokka replied grinning slightly.
"Of course…that must be it." The Courier said sarcastically. They sat there for a few minutes…until Katara came out of the Avat, "Hey Sokka!" He raised his head.
"Aren't you forgetting to set up the rain collector?" He thought for a few seconds, then shook his head, "Nope."
Katara glared at her older brother, "But what if it rains? We're already low on water, so every drop we can get is crucial." Sokka got up and turned to face her.
"Ordinarily, you'd be right; but it's the dry season…plus, we're in a freakin' wasteland, so the chances of us getting rain are less then one percent! And we'd need to set it up manually, which takes time, and if it doesn't rain, the effort would have been wasted." Sokka explained while gesturing to their current location.
"But if it rains…" Katara began, narrowing her eyes slightly and putting her hands on her hips.
"But what if it doesn't?! Besides, we wouldn't be low on water if you didn't take half hour long showers!" Sokka countered, his voice rising.
"What? I do not!"
"Yes, you do! Besides, shouldn't you be working on dinner? Worry about your own job before you talk to me about mine!"
She was fuming, "God, you are such a…" It was at this time that Alistair stepped in.
"Look guys, this arguing isn't going to get us anywhere…if you don't like how the other does the job, how about you guys just switch?" He offered peacefully while setting himself between the two siblings. The two considered it for a minute, and then nodded.
"Fine." Katara conceded as she walked past Aang.
"Whatever." Sokka muttered as he walked into the Avat to prepare a meal. Alistair, satisfied that the problem had been solved, walked back to his rock and began to relax again.
An hour or so later, Alistair was regretting his words. Both he and Katara stared down at Sokka's creation with a look of both revulsion and curiosity. "What…the hell is it?" Katara asked as she took a closer look at the…stew (if it could be called that) on the table before them.
Sokka grinned, "Sokka's Special Everything Stew! Basically, I took everything from the fridge and…" The two Ranger mechanics tuned out at that point and just stared at the chunks in the stew, trying to identify them;…was there something moving under the surface? "Ready to try some?" Sokka said while holding a ladle; Al's and Katara's faces drooped.
Fortunately, it was better then it looked…although not by much. As they ate, Katara said, "Were you always a peace maker?" Sokka and Alistair looked at each other, then back to Katara, with confusion on their faces.
"Oh, you know, earlier? When Sokka and I were fighting and you intervened? I'm just asking if you used to that sort of thing."
Alistair shrugged, "I don't know…I guess I did; I mean, most of my friends at that point were in His Majesty's Royal Air Force and were of the…rougher type at the time. Don't get me wrong, they were a good bunch of guys, but there were most things that they just couldn't agree on." With her question answered, everyone returned to their meals.
Later that evening, Alistair and Katara went to bed while, ironically, Sokka spent the night in the bathroom groaning about his stomach.
The Next Day…
"Okay guys, here it is…The Great Divide." Katara said while gesturing to the very vast canyon. Alistair looked awed at its sheer size, with the other side of it just barely visible. They stared at it for a few seconds, then Sokka turned around and, while picking his nose with a bored expression, began to walk back to the Avat, "Yeah, it's huge and all; big deal." Katara looked shocked, "How can you say that? It's the largest canyon in the world!"
"And I'm sure it'll look plenty big from the air as we fly over it with the Avat…" Katara shook her head. "What? What's wrong with that?" She rolled her eyes.
"Don't you remember how the Divide was formed in the first place?" Sokka and Alistair shook their heads; Katara groaned, while Alistair had an excuse, her brother on the other hand…. "You know what? I'm not going to tell; you can just ask the tour guide if you want to." She said and began to walk towards a small cabin that was over on their left, about a hundred feet away. Alistair and Sokka just shrugged and followed her lead.
As it turned out, they weren't the only ones waiting for the tour guide; once they had arrived at the cabin, they saw a man who looked about in his twenties, wearing a pack on his shoulders, who was cleanly shaven and was wearing lightly coloured clothing. Noticing the trio, he immediately got defensive, "Hey, back off! I got here first; I'm holding a place for the rest of my clan, so we'll be the first to cross!"
Sokka slowly backed up with his hands raised in a 'we come in peace' suggesting manner, "Okay, just chill; we know you were here first." As the man continued to glare at Sokka, Katara asked, "So why do you need to cross the Divide?"
He snorted, "As if you didn't know; thanks to G.U.N., our home was completely destroyed. Now we're trying to make our way to the New Soviet Union in hopes of finding refuge."
There was silence for awhile as everyone waited for the appearance of the tour guide who was to help them…when there was the sudden sounds of a group of people coming up the road. "Is that your clan?" Sokka asked as the people came into view. The man looked disgusted, "Like hell they are." He glared in their direction as they approached.
Now that Alistair could see them better, he had to agree that they looked nothing like the tan man; these people were instead slightly shorter, wearing dirtier clothes as well as appearance, and their hair was spiky where the man's was smooth.
"They're the Bushmen; a savage tribe of thieves and mercenaries that has been constantly fighting with mine for the past hundred years." He scowled as he glared at the other tribe contemptuously. "Hey," he called. "The Fulani were here first! I'm just holding this spot for the rest! We will be the first to cross!"
A rough looking woman stepped forward from the Bushmen and walked up to the Fulani man, "Where's the rest of the Fulani? Still cleaning up their campsite?" She asked mockingly. The man just glared at her, "As a matter of fact, they are; they sent me ahead to keep their place in line."
"Kind of like unwanted, annoying nerd of the group sent ahead to keep a space in the movie theatre line?" Sokka asked while picking his nose with a look of mild interest on his face.
"Shut up!" The man said while the Bushman woman laughed.
"He's got you there." The man turned his glare back to the woman, "Well, what's so wrong about taking extra time for preparation?! Where are your bags of equipment? Navigation tools?"
"We have our swords; they're all we need." The woman patted the sheathed blade slung across her back while the rest of the tribe laughed and called out encouragements.
The man just laughed, "Swords? That's your equipment? That's just what I would expect from a stupid Bushman!"
The woman's eyes hardened, "Do you want to see just how effective they are?!" She scowled dangerously as she began to draw her sword, with the rest following her lead. Suddenly, the hut door opened and a fat looking middle aged man walked out, wearing a straw hat and a green camo suit.
"Sorry, sorry. I was taken a nap and didn't notice you until now." He looked the crowd over and then said, "So who wants to cross the canyon?" The Bushmen and the Fulani man just stared at him, and then the man spoke up, "I was here first! The rest of my tribe is on their way!"
The guide just shrugged, "I can't guide people who aren't here." The Fulani man looked shocked while the Bushmen looked smug, "Sorry, guess you'll have to wait until tomorrow." The Bushman woman smirked while the Fulani man flicked her off. It was just then that the sounds of a large party could be heard coming from down the road.
"Here they come!" The scout said while heading towards the party to meet them. It was easy to tell that the man belonged to the Fulani, for they all wore similar clothing and had smooth hair (admitting that there was some varied lengths). The Bushman woman scowled and walked up to the tour guide.
"You aren't still going to let them go first are you? We were here and ready to go first! Besides, we have sick people that need to get across ASAP!"
The tour guide was just about to answer when the Fulani scout (while standing beside a tall man with sharp eyes and a long beard) said, "Well, we have old people that have to get across too! They are weary from travelling!'
"Sick beats age; besides, if you stay here, you can give your old people a break while we get across!"
The leader, clearly not wanting to give into anything demand the Bushmen made, no matter how sensible, quickly began to debate this with the Bushmen leader, which lead to more yelling. Alistair, Katara, and Sokka just stood away from both groups and just watched the sparks fly. "We could give the sick and old people a ride across the Divide with Avat…" Alistair suggested.
Katara thought for a few seconds, "Yeah, as long as the Avat never goes above the canyon and just flies around, we should be fine."
"Why can't we fly over the Divide?" Sokka asked.
"There are powerful magnetic fields that shut down any mech or ship that flies/lands in it; however, there are some ways to get around the problem, but the farthest they've been able to take those are platforms that can be lowered into and out of the canyon, which is how we'll be getting down."
"What do you mean 'we'? We can just fly over with the old and sick people, right?" Sokka asked while both Katara and Alistair shook their heads.
"There isn't enough room in the Avat for everyone while not letting anyone get into something they shouldn't; as it is, we'll have to lock down most of the ship and have Forge do the piloting to ensure no one goes gallivanting off with it." There was a brief silence while Sokka took this in. Finally, he said, "There isn't any chance that we can just leave them to figure it out on their own, is there?" Alistair and Katara shook their heads; Sokka groaned and walked between the two quarrelling leaders.
"Hey, hey! Chill out for just a minute! This guy behind me…" Alistair waved while the leaders glared at them. "…is trained to handle situations like this. So, if you all would shut up for more then five minutes, he can get this sorted out." Once the leaders appeared to be listening, Alistair walked over and suggested his plan to them. It took some coaxing, but eventually, he had their cooperation.
Alistair finished typing in the lockdown commands to the Avat, using several passwords and then also turning on the DNA recognition device along the panel, "…and that's that. All yours Forge, happy travels!" He said while getting out of his seat. Sokka and Katara were waiting by the doorway as Alistair walked out.
"You sure about this Alistair?" Katara asked.
"Yeah, two feuding tribes isn't exactly like dealing with your Air Force buddies." Sokka added. Alistair just walked past them, and then turned back, facing them.
"To be honest, I'm not sure and I have no idea how we're going to do it…" He grinned. "…but since when did we ever?" This response took the siblings by surprise, and then Katara started to grin as well as she walked away with him, leaving Sokka standing there for a few seconds…and he sighed, "He's actually make us walk this whole thing on foot…isn't he?" and then he followed his friends out the Avat…making sure he had his trusty machine gun and extra ammo with him.
Once they had the elderly and sick people on board, the remaining people watched as the ship took off, leaving them to walk the Divide. "Okay," the tour guide began. "Now that's settled, we move onto the rules." Both the tribes looked confused. "Yes, there will be rules for this crossing; number one being no food." As he expected, this wasn't received well, with cries of 'what the hell do you mean no food?' be exclaimed. He waited for a few seconds, and then said, "What, you can't last one day without food? Would you rather that food attract the monsters that live and spawn down there?" He waited for that to sink in. "Which would you rather be, hungry…or dead?" With that, he left them to talk among themselves.
Alistair and Katara looked to Sokka, "Don't worry; I've got plenty of weapons." Sokka said as he pulled out a bag with the tip of a shotgun sticking out; he then handed out a gun to both of them, as well as some extra ammo. Satisfied, they just waited for the tribes to make up their minds.
It took awhile, but the others eventually, while filled with reluctance, agreed. Knowing that that was the best he could hope for, the tour guide then began to lead them to the edge of the canyon, where, after going down a few steps, were at the entrance to a huge platform, which would be able to lower them to the ground. The platform was the floor of the huge metal room, which would be separated from the walls when the thing began to lower, since the walls and such were to insure that the rain wouldn't make the platform slippery and risk anyone falling. There was a little podium off to the side of the entrance where the tour guide would work the platform as they were lowered.
After making sure that everyone had entered, he shut the door and began to push some buttons on the podium. Suddenly, there was a slight jerking motion that swayed the entire platform, and then the floor began to lower itself towards the floor of the canyon down below. "Now then, I'm sure that most of you are wondering how the Great Divide was formed…" The guide began in a semi bored tone as the group was slowly being lowered. "This was originally where the centre of Sudan once stood; you see, going back a hundred or so years ago, Sudan encountered a terrible civil war, centring on whether to join G.U.N or help U.S.A.C defeat them. One side supported G.U.N, one U.S.A.C, and some people just wanted to let the rest of the world deal with itself and move about their daily lives. Well, eventually the matter of whom they should support broke out to a war inside the country itself, leading to it to tear itself to ruins.
"After a few years, with the World War spiralling out of control, the people who felt they should just stay out of it quickly switched over to G.U.N. after seeing the might of their mechs; however, the U.S.A.C, desperate to eliminate any of G.U.N.'s potential forces, brought out missiles…and a nuclear bomb. To this day, no one is quite sure on how they had managed to get their hands on one: whether the USA smuggled it to them or found and/or developed by their means, the result was the same. During the final battle between the two sides, the U.S.A.C supporters had lost a large amount of people and was just about to be defeated, when they dropped their bomb as well as fired their missiles at the enemy, but ended up killing themselves as well. Since that day, the area surrounding the Great Divide has been a barren wasteland and home to a powerful magnetic field prevented any electrically powered mech or otherwise to fly over…and that's not all; it's also home to a huge amount of bio robots that will swarm anyone that brings food in here."
Sokka raised his hand, "Question!" The tour guide nodded, giving him permission to ask. "What the hell is a 'bio robot'? We talking Transformers here or something?" The tour guide shook his head.
"No, by bio robots, I mean Mecha Suits with a much more advanced Neurological Interface; literally connecting the user to their mech, allowing them heightened senses and a much faster reaction time; the problem was, the sensations caused by being linked to their machine proved to be hugely addictive, causing more then one person to simply abandon their solely human lives all together and entrench themselves in their mechs. As a result, the concept was quickly abandoned and they, hoping to purge any traces of the addicts, for they were beyond reasoning with, they dumped them in the Great Divide, hoping that the strong magnetic shields would keep them from activating them.
"The developers were proven wrong; they strongly underestimated the level of addiction the mech pilots had sunk to, and the addict pilots made their way into the divide, repaired the damaged mechs, and adjusted them to fit their new environment. Content with people leaving them alone with their machines, they never left the divide, never leaving their mechs. Nowadays, the people inside of them are long gone; their bodies only being kept alive by the live support systems, their minds have basically fused with technology. The problem is that they have fused enough to the point that they can smell or detect food; since they only distantly remember being human-some of them remember enough to desire to become human again- and that food was necessary to live, they rapidly fall upon it, desperate to regain their beyond reach humanity."
He then moved on to talking about how the platforms that had been installed managed to beat the magnetic field, but Alistair had tuned out at that point; he was pondering about why would the tribes look a little…guilty when the tour guide had brought up the monsters and their attraction to food. They couldn't have…could they? He wondered as he stared at the wall of the canyon around them.
A few minutes later, they touched down on the canyon floor; everyone got off the platform and got onto the hard rock floor. After everyone had gotten off, the tour guide punched a few buttons on the podium, and then jumped off and walked towards the group he was supposed to lead…who had already split themselves into to groups with the three kids standing in between them. The canyon guide sighed and walked over to them while rubbing his hands together, "Well gang, here we are, and outside of a few fights among ourselves, we should be able to get through this without a scratch." Suddenly, the ground behind him kicked up a dust cloud as everyone heard a heavy thud.
The guide swore while pulling his pistol out of his pack and turned to face whatever had landed, only to be grabbed by a long thin metallic limb of their mysterious attacker. While screaming, he was lifted into the air by the back of his shirt, with his pack falling to the ground. By then, Sokka had already drawn his machine gun and waited patiently for the dust to clear and after a few seconds, the group got to see what had attacked them.
Standing at twelve metres tall, the massive eight legged Mecha Suit had the appearance of a giant spider like creature, it's front legs doubling as powerful arms as it seemed to glare at it's prey with it's frightening array of burning red eyes built into it's long crocodile shaped head, it's rusting metallic body looking as though someone had decorated it with mud and scraps of cloth.
Without a second thought, Sokka took aim at the creature's head while it tossed the tour guide between it's front claws; after a few seconds, he saw his shot and took it. The bullets nailed all four of its eyes on the right side of its head; the machine making a sound like a roar of pain and rage, sparks flying from it's wounded eyes as it dropped the guide and began to charge towards Sokka.
"Shit!" He hissed as he began to sprint in the other direction, hoping to outrun the creature…only to trip over his own feet while he turned to look at the thing over his shoulder. The beast was nearly upon him when Alistair and Katara opened fire on its legs and head; fortunately, after a few rounds, it went down, its head landing right on top of Sokka, bleeding a thick crimson and onyx liquid, "Hey! Get the hell off of me you…whatever you are!"
After digging Sokka out, both he and Alistair walked over to where Katara was leaning over the fallen guide, "How is he?" Al asked. Katara got up and sighed, "His left arm is broken, so it will make it hard for him to shoot as well as control the platform on our way out, so it will take more time then when we got down here…and if some more of those things come back, we may be in trouble. Speaking of which, what was that?" She asked, returning her attention to the guide.
"That," he grimaced in pain as he sat up. "was a Canyon Crawler, one of the bio robots that I was warning you about earlier, and there's much more then just that one; hundreds in fact. We have to get out of this canyon as soon as possible!"
"Tell us something we don't know." Sokka muttered as Alistair and Katara helped the man up.
"We have to keep moving; we'll make camp a few hours after nightfall." With that, he waved the two tribes in one direction, and they slowly began to make their way through the canyon.
A Few Hours Later…
"You know, I've been thinkin'…" Sokka began as they continued to make their way through the canyon.
"We all know how dangerous that is." Katara remarked while Alistair chuckled; Sokka just rolled his eyes.
"Oh, ha ha, very funny. Anyway, my point is: didn't we ditch our food before we came down here so we wouldn't have to deal with the monsters?" Not even a second after Sokka had suggested it, the Fulani leader said, "It was the Bushmen! They must have brought food down here and they're to blame!"
"Like hell we did! If anything, you Fulani would be the ones to bring food down here!" The Bushmen leader quickly spoke up in their defence. Alistair walked between them and said, "Shut up! Would it kill you two to back off from each for a few hours?!" He sighed while massaging his forehead, and suggested, "I think it's time we made camp, okay? Fulani go over there, the Bushmen, over there." He pointed to the various locations; the tribes, being satisfied that they were being separated, hurried to get camp set up.
Alistair groaned slightly as he leaned against a rock and rubbed his temples; Sokka and Katara quickly walked towards their friend, who then waved them off, "It's nothing; it's just those two tribes fighting is really starting to tick me off." He looked up at them, "Do you think that you two can try and find out why they hate each other so much? That may help us find out how to get them to shut up for a few seconds. Sokka, you take the Bushmen and Katara, you go to the Fulani and report back in the morning, okay?" The siblings nodded and headed off to their assigned tribes. Alistair just sighed again and glanced up at the sky, staring into its depths until he fell asleep.
Katara sat in her pull out chair around the Fulani's campfire after she had helped them set up their campsite. She sighed as she stared into the flames and tried to tune out the chatter of the people around her…until she noticed the leader pulling something out of his robes…a bowl of rice (complete with chopsticks)! She hurriedly looked at everyone around her and saw that they had pulled out food as well.
"Do you want a piece of bread Katara?" The leader asked as he offered her a piece.
"So it was you guys who brought food!" She accused. The leader just snorted.
"Do you think that we are the only ones who brought food? Those savage Bushmen probably didn't think twice about bring food, so why should my people starve while they feast?" Katara thought about this for a second and shrugged, understanding the logic, and grabbed the offered bread.
"So," She asked between bites. "Why do you guys seem to hate the Bushmen?" The Fulani leader sighed as he sat back, getting his thoughts together.
Finally, he said, "Originally, the Fulani and the Bushmen were close allies and helped one another, sharing crops in times of famine, coming to the other's aid when they were attacked; this symbiotic relationship went well for centuries. Then, when G.U.N. started their quest for world conquest, Abioye Way, our patriarch of the time, took some of our best warriors and Weye Abrafo, of the Bushmen, did the same, and they both went off into the war to try and stop the G.U.N. threat. Over time, they fought in many battles and destroyed many of the G.U.N. camps. On one such raid, Abioye discovered secret plans that could have turned the battle around, and on his way to report it to his superior officers, he got struck down…by Abrafo, who wanted the glory of delivering the plans for himself! Fortunately, there were some witnesses of the crime and got Abrafo arrested."
His eyes narrowed with anger, " We will never forget the crime that they committed against our tribe." Katara just looked at them with sympathy, and internally, was enraged by what the Bushmen had done….
Sokka's stomach growled slightly as he sat around the Bushmen campfire; after helping them set up camp, they had invited him to join them at the fire, and he, not wanting to go back and face Alistair's wraith if he returned without info, took them up on the offer. His mouth watered slightly as he remembered the store of snacks and food he had stored in his room on the Avat.
As if noticing his hunger, the Bushmen leader held out something to him, "Want a drum leg?" She offered while taking a bite out of another drum leg that she had pulled out of her bag.
"Do I?!" Sokka said as he hurriedly snatched it and took a huge bite.
"I know what you must think that we are nuts to risk everyone's lives just so we can eat for a night…" Sokka just grunted as he continued to tear at his drum leg. "But the Fulani probably instantly assumed that we would break the rule and brought food themselves, so that's why we did."
While this logic confused Sokka, he didn't show it when he asked, "Why do you guys hate each other so much?" The Bushmen leader sighed as she slumped a little.
"Our conflict with the Fulani goes back a hundred years ago, when G.U.N first began the war. Back then, our tribes were close comrades and got along with each other, so when the call went out for reinforcements, our leader, Weye Abrafo, took some of our bravest warriors while Abioye Way, the leader of the Fulani did the same, and they both headed out for the battlefield together…and there, they fought the enemy for years.
"However, that all changed when, during a battle, that Abrafo, trying to use the local woods to try and outwit the enemy, came along a wounded Abioye lying on the forest floor. He hurriedly stopped to try and help his friend, who, knowing that he was far to injured for the Bushman to heal, told him to take some of the enemy's plans that he had stolen from their camp to their superiors; however, when he had gotten back to camp, he was immediately arrested for treason. Apparently, some of the Fulani warriors had also been in the forest and saw Wei Jin standing over a bleeding Abioye, and took the information back to camp before the Bushmen leader could reach it." Her eyes hardened at the memory. "We'll never forgive them for forsaking our innocent leader like that."
Sokka had stopped eating (partly because he had gotten caught up in the story and partly because he had already finished his piece) and looked at her with sympathy, "That's horrible…are you going to eat that?" He asked, changing the subject to her uneaten drum stick; in response, she brought it to her mouth and took a huge bite out of it. Sokka just slumped in his seat and grumbled to himself.
The Next Day…
Alistair sighed as he walked between the two tribes, who would constantly shoot each other dirty looks and throw stones in the other's paths (Like a bunch of five year olds; I've known kindergarteners who acted better, Alistair thought to himself), with the canyon tour guide leading the way. Eventually, however, a sight appeared that cheered him up immensely: The other side of the canyon was now insight! Everyone began to pick up their pace and, within two hours, had reached the second platform. Some of the Bushmen hurriedly hopped up on it and helped the tour guide up and made sure he got to the podium (the whole platform was identical to the first).
While he slowly began the procedures to activate the platform, Alistair meet up with Sokka and Katara, "So, what did you find out? Is it possible for them to get along just long enough to get us out of this canyon?"
Katara crossed her arms and said with some venom in her voice, "I doubt it Al, the Bushmen committed a huge crime against the Fulani; not only did they steal some plans from them but they killed their leader as well!" Alistair and Sokka looked confused.
"What are you talking about?" Alistair asked.
"Yeah, what are you talking about Katara?" Sokka walked up to her. "Weye Abrafo didn't kill him; it was a misunderstanding and he was wrongly punished!"
"Not punished enough if you ask me." She stated; the two siblings then went on to glare at one another, as if trying to convince the other that they were right telepathically. Alistair just sighed.
"Okay guys, just listen up…" he was cut off by a slight rumbling noise that suddenly filled the air. "What the hell…?" He asked as he turned in the direction that it was coming from…only to drop his pistol. "Oh no…"
He murmured as he found himself staring at a horde of the canyon crawlers that were heading in their direction.
"Um, old man? How close are you to wrapping this up…? We kinda need to get THE HELL OUT OF HERE NOW!!" Sokka yelled as he drew his machine gun while Katara and Alistair did the same. The horde even drew the Fulani and the Bushmen's attentions, and caused some of the Fulani to hop aboard the platform while the rest of the people drew their blades.
A few seconds before they started firing their guns, Katara said to Sokka, "I don't really care about this damn feud; I just wanna leave here alive!" Sokka nodded his agreement, "Yeah, I just agreed with them because they fed me." Immediately after that, he began to fire his machine gun, aiming for their heads as best as he could (since some were on the walls of the canyon while some were sprinting across the floor of the Divide).
In a blink of an eye, the canyon crawlers were upon them. Alistair moved like a reed, swaying to and fro as the cyborgs charged, shooting at them whenever he could, while Katara tried to do the same; Sokka, meanwhile, had jumped up on the platform for a better vantage point and was shooting at any that came near the tour guide as he rapidly tried to punch in the commands with trembling figures. The Fulani and the Bushmen quickly dispersed and began to slice and hack at any limbs, necks, or heads that they could reach while trying to fend off attackers from behind. After a few minutes of fighting, the Fulani leader was quickly slicing one of his many opponents' heads in half, but failed to notice the one that had leaped from the canyon wall and was falling towards him, claws snapping angrily. By the time he looked up, it was too late for him to react; he could only watch as the monster fell towards him…only to tackled out of mid air by none other then the Bushmen leader, whom, as soon as they landed on the ground, shoved her blade through it's head and turned to the person she saved. "Leave it to a Fulani to have to have his ass wiped for him! You better remember that you owe me for this one…" The words hadn't even left her mouth before the Fulani skilfully hurled his blade through the air and through the head of the canyon crawler that had been sneaking up behind her.
"We're even." He smirked as he quickly pulled his blade back with the wrapping he had around the hilt beforehand, and then went off into the battle again, hacking his way through opponents. A few more minutes of this went on until the tour guide cried out, "IT'S READY TO GO!!" Everyone immediately made their way to the platform, fighting off the mutant machines on their way. After everyone had made it on board, the tour guide immediately pushed a button and the steel platform began to rise. "You," he said to Alistair, Katara, and Sokka. "They can climb the walls, so I want you to keep your guns drawn and shoot anything that follows us!" Not needing to be told the order twice, they quickly moved to the corners of the platform and began to shoot at climbing crawlers. By the time they were out of ammo, they had fortunately reached the top of the canyon; everyone hurriedly exited the room and ran up the stairs to reach the land.
"Um, Al!" Sokka called and gestured to the canyon crawlers that were still climbing up the wall; Alistair quickly tried to think of something, anything that could get the hundreds of monsters off their tail. Finally, it came to him. "Everyone, toss your food into the canyon!" He called out. Everyone immediately followed the order and tossed any food that they had on their person (Alistair decided against bringing up that people were in fact tossing food that they had on their person when it was supposed to have been left on the Avat beforehand; he just stole some guy's pack and dumped what food items were in it).
The canyon crawlers, now having another (and better smelling) food source to eat, retreated back down the canyon wall and chased after the edibles. Everyone just stood there for a few seconds, taking in what had just happened…and began to celebrate. Cries of 'we're alive!' rang through the air as everyone hurried to meet with the elderly/sick people and tell them what had unfolded. The trio just made their way over to the Avat, grinning all the while…until the sounds of steel meeting filled the air. They turned to see the Bushmen and Fulani leaders going at it.
"You bastards killed Abioye Way!"
"You are the ones that wrongly imprisoned Weye Abrafo!" She yelled as they kept on attacking each other. Alistair tried to think of something to make them stop, when he noticed something….
"Wait, did you guys say Weye Abrafo and Abioye Way?" The two leaders stopped fighting long enough to stare at the Courier. "I know them!" Now they looked even more confused; deciding to elaborate, Alistair pressed on, knowing that he had everyone's attention. "I may not look it, but I'm really over hundred years old; I ended up getting preserved in a cryo chamber accident, but before that, I was a member of the British forces…" realization dawned as they finally noticed his accent. "And I met those two; believe it or not, they were actually twins."
Sokka raised an eyebrow, "Twins?" Alistair nodded, "Yeah, didn't you notice their names? 'Abioye Way'? 'Weye Abrafo'? Don't they sound similar?" Sokka smacked himself in the forehead for not catching the obvious. "Anyway, I was also in the same battle as the one you guys were fighting about and I saw what had happened between Abioye and Abrafo; Weye Abioye hadn't been hit at all! He was only faking so the enemy would back, confident that the plans would never be found; then along came Abrafo Way, just like the two had agreed to meet beforehand, and Abioye gave him the plans willingly. After Abrafo was arrested, Abioye (whom everyone thought had died) secretly met with the officers and explained the plan. Impressed, the officers secretly let Abrafo go, but they also had to have someone take his place since they didn't want anyone to know that the plans and the people who had taken them were still alive and well. Afterwards, the twins adopted other identities and continued to fight in the war." After he finished speaking, there was nothing but silence. The Fulani and Bushmen looked shocked as they looked from Alistair, to each other, and back to Alistair.
"So, Weye Abrafo didn't kill Abioye Way?" The Fulani leader finally asked. Alistair shook his head.
"Weye Abrafo was released and worked with Abioye Way?" Alistair nodded. The two leaders just stared at one another. After a few minutes, the Fulani leader spoke, "Well, I guess this means we've feuded over nothing." The Bushmen leader nodded, understanding what he was saying. "We could help your old people make the trip to the New Soviet Union, I guess; we were heading there ourselves." The Bushmen leader suggested mildly; the Fulani leader nodded, and together, they went back to their tribes to discuss what the future would hold. The tour guide just watched in awe.
"I can't believe you managed to stop their feuding." He stated, impressed. Alistair just shrugged humbly. "You know what? Screw this job! I'm going to Russia too!" He said with a grin as he walked over to the tribes to see if they wouldn't mind him tagging along. After that, Alistair just turned and walked with Katara and Sokka into the Avat, leaving the tribes to figure out the rest on their own.
"Home sweet home!" Sokka called as he threw himself onto his bed. Alistair immediately made his way over to the console and began to try and undo the restrictions he had installed when the Bushmen and Fulani had rode in the Avat; Katara walked over to him, "You know, it sure was convenient that you knew Abioye Way and Weye Abrafo." Alistair just shrugged, "You could call it convenient…or you could call it lying." Katara's eyes widened in realization while Sokka sat up from his bed shocked. "You didn't…" Alistair grinned, "Yeah, I made it all up." Sokka looked appalled while Katara just grinned. Sokka tried to say something, stopped, started again, stopped, and then he just turned his back to Alistair and tried to find where he had put his snacks…then he found what the remains of the sack that he kept them in. "Those bastards got into my snack horde!" He yelled.
Alistair smiled, "It's okay Sokka; I managed to steal a pie from one of their packs." He said, pulling it out of some unseen hiding place; Sokka immediately made his way over to them, remarking, "You have an evil streak I'm not sure I like." Alistair just laughed and, while eating pie, the Avat continued on its way through the sky.