Avatar Rylon
Book 1 Trust
Chapter 6: The Scapegoat
"Avatar?" Rylon heard a voice say as he opened his eyes and looked directly up at The Presidents secretary looking down at him. "I don't mean to interrupt your sleep time but they're ready for you."
Rylon felt himself go bright red as he sat up straight in his chair and looked around the secretary's office where he had been waiting for the meeting with The President and 4 Nation Representatives to begin.
Quickly standing up he straightened his clothes before taking a deep breath and walking into the President's office where he saw The President and the Four Nation Representatives sitting down at a long table waiting for him.
"Apologies for keeping you waiting Avatar but the city has been in a state of confusion this morning and we had to discuss some rather boring road closures first." The President said standing up from his chair motioning Rylon over.
"Confusion?" Rylon asked sitting down.
"That idiot from the rocket launch yesterday that was arrested, what was his name…Sy Ember that's it, escaped from prison last night!" The Earth Representative said angrily as Rylon did his best to feign shock.
"Considering he was not a bender it would more likely that someone broke him out." The Fire Representative added coolly.
"That's not all because reports have come in this morning saying that people saw the spirit portal change colour last night, something it has never done since Korra first opened it 80 years ago." The Water Representative said with a hint of concern in his voice. "We need to discuss this with Shanto immediately."
"Why talk to Shanto when we can talk to the Avatar?" The President said sitting down at the head of the table and looking at Rylon. "Have the spirits told you anything about this?"
"No I was in my hotel all night. I have not seen any spirits." Rylon lied.
"Bah! Of course the spirits aren't saying anything they're hiding something from us about this barrier and now also the spirit portal!" The Earth Representative accused. "They could have cost us hundreds of lives yesterday by not directly telling us about this barrier if the Avatar had not been there but I suppose that's not unlike them because since when have they ever cared about us humans?"
"We should not be making any accusations about the spirits without Shanto here and without him having consulted with the Avatar." The Air Representative said looking to Rylon.
"Here, here!" The Water Representative nodded as the Earth Representative grumbled.
"They have made no effort to talk to the Avatar since yesterday have they Avatar?" The Earth representative said looking towards Rylon who went to say something but was interrupted by the Fire Representative.
"The question here really is why the Avatar has not yet sought out the spirits himself to talk to?" She said looking back towards Rylon who tried to think of something to say.
"Yes it seems very strange they would not have spoken to you about this Avatar or that you wouldn't have asked them about it." The Earth Representative said accusingly.
"We were to discuss what I was to say to the spirits at this very meeting." Rylon tuned to the President. "That is why Shanto is not here correct?"
"You're absolutely right Avatar." The President nodded. "Now my friends we must discuss what we want the spirits to explain to us and the Avatar before he meets with them."
"The Spirits need to spill everything about why they have that barrier in the sky for starters!" The Earth Representative demanded. "Secondly why as the Avatar claims have they not contacted him? Thirdly…" before he could finish Shanto suddenly teleported into the room much to the shock of everyone.
Shanto glared at everyone before stopping on Rylon.
"Everyone leave us." Shanto said turning to look at the President whom at first Rylon thought was going disagree but was surprised when he didn't.
"Come representatives let us break for tea." The President said calmly standing up as he and the Four Representatives walked out of the room closing the door behind them.
Rylon turned to look up at Shanto who looked furious.
"Oh Avatar, why have you done this?" Shanto said shaking his head and looking away from him. "We trusted you as we did with Korra. We thought you were looking out for our best interests."
"Shanto please listen to me I swear I had no idea about the warnings behind this test." Rylon said quickly standing up.
"How can I believe you when here you sit in a meeting to discuss this without me?" Shanto sighed.
"We we're discussing what to say to you about this…"
"What is there to discuss Avatar? You did not listen to us after that warning we gave you and then you personally agreed to the rockets launch behind our backs."
"The President never told me about this warning you gave, I would never have let it happen if I had known."
"You're putting the blame on the President for this mess you have created? The President told me he had told you, you expect me to believe that he lied?" Shanto said with a sigh. "The President still should never have helped in the construction of this experiment but I believe he only continued to do so because you agreed to it…"
"Please listen to me..."
"Enough!" Shanto said angrily. "We are going around in blame circles Avatar let us speak no more of this deception for now as we have an even more pressing issue. The spirits have informed me about your conversation with them at Air Temple Island last night and your friends informed us this morning that you were unable to physically enter the spirit world last night."
"I believe it has something to with Juan Dai, do you know anything about him?" Rylon asked as Shanto shook his head.
"I am not an ancient spirit but I do agree with the other spirits in that Koh is your best source of information Avatar."
"How am I going to see him if I can't meditate or physically enter the spirit world?" Rylon said with a sigh thinking to himself. "Wait, what about Spirit Oasis in the Northen Water Tribe that Aang used?"
"That location requires meditation something we know you cannot do Avatar." Shanto said shaking his head. "I must meditate myself on this Avatar."
"Can't you stay for a moment first I would like to discuss what has been going on." Rylon said quickly stepping in front of Shanto.
"There is nothing more to discuss Avatar, you and humanity have lost my trust and so also the trust of the spirit world, we have nothing left at the moment to discuss with each other."
"No wait just for a moment…" Rylon said as Shanto without another word teleported out of the room. "...please." He trailed off with a sigh.
All the Presidents lies that he had spun now meant that he, the Avatar who was supposed to keep the peace between both worlds was now nothing more than a liar to the spirits who didn't trust him or humanity.
Walking over to the door Rylon opened it and looked out at The President and Four Representatives in his secretary's office all drinking tea.
"Excellent back inside everyone and please feel free to bring your tea with you." The President said with a smile as he walked inside followed the Four other Representatives.
"Tea?" The Presidents secretary said holding a cup out to Rylon.
"No thank you." He said with a smile before walking back inside the room before the secretary closed the door behind him.
"Shanto left?" The Water Representative said looking slightly disappointed.
"More to the point what did he say to you Avatar that had to be in secret so we couldn't hear?" The Earth Representative said with a stern glance.
"Please this is no time for accusations." The Air Representative said calmly looking towards the Earth Representative who just rolled his eyes.
"I would to like hear what Shanto said to you Avatar." The Fire Representative said as she calmly sat down at the table with her tea.
Rylon knew this wasn't the time to call out The President on his lies because it would get him nowhere with all the Representatives backing him up so he decided to keep that to himself for the moment and just explain what he knew so far about the barrier.
"Shanto said the barrier was put there to stop an ancient spirit called Juan Dai." Rylon started. "An ancient spirit who was banished from the spirit realm and banished into our sky." He heard the Earth Representative scoff.
"Is this real or are you just relaying to us a bed time story used to scare baby spirits?" The Earth Representative said shaking his head in disbelief.
"If this spirit is enough to concern the spirits than it should also concern us." The Air Representative quickly added.
"I say whatever this big bad spirit is we can take him on easily, remember we do have an Avatar here that since Avatar Korra can now spirit bend, he could easily defeat this thing and then we can launch as many Earth Empire rockets into the sky as we please." The Earth representative said clapping his hands together.
"I can't…" Rylon started but was interrupted.
"It is never that simple with spirits!" The Water Representative said aghast. "It's more complicated than just blowing a spirit out of the sky with spirit bending."
"Well I know our Earth Empire and the Avatar could take this spirit on, I don't know about you."
"How dare you!" The Water Representative said angrily walking over to the Earth Representative.
"Can we all just calm down for a moment please?" Rylon said quickly but everyone seemed to ignore him.
"Enough!" The President yelled standing up. "We are not here to argue we are here to find a solution to this barrier problem and it's obvious the spirits are going to be of no assistance beyond their retelling of this silly story of theirs. I'm going to let the Fire Lord know that your fire bending training is momentarily paused because for now we need our Avatar investigating this spirit barrier. You will have everything you need from all four nations to get rid of this barrier as soon as possible."
"The spirits warning, we can't possibly ignore it." Rylon said quickly looking around the room.
"We're not ignoring it we're just not going to work with them, once we find a solution we will of course discuss it with them Avatar before we do anything." The President said walking up beside Rylon. "You get the information we need to deal with this and then all together with the spirits we'll figure out a plan that suits everyone."
"Yes everyone including Shanto will be here for the meeting." The Water Representative said quickly folding his arms.
"You will have one of most prestigious and fastest Earth Empire air ships for your personal use of course." The Earth Representative said quickly walking over to Rylon. "She will be in Zaofu for your collection and to use to as you see fit to find us a solution as soon as possible."
"You will also have any support you need from the Fire Nation Avatar." The Fire Representative said with a nod.
"Our acolytes will always be of assistance." The Air Representative said with a smile.
"And don't forget the Water Nation!" The Water Representative quickly added.
"Excellent." The President said clapping his hands together.
"The Avatar will leave for Zaofu on the MAGLEV this evening and will begin his investigation into this spirit barrier and how to bring it down."
"What about the spirits? What if they start sticking their nose where is doesn't belong to try and stop him?" The Earth Representative asked.
"I believe I speak for everyone when I say that Avatar I believe we should keep this between us humans for now so we don't upset the spirits." The President said calmly looking to Rylon. "We don't want to cause a panic now do we?"
Rylon looked up at The President and knew that he was trying to manipulate him once more but there nothing he could do about it unless he wanted the President to find out that he was also working with the spirits. Rylon knew that now neither the spirits nor humans trusted each other and that neither of them seemed to trust in him either. What this meant was he had to keep it from both sides that he was working with them both to solve this problem. He didn't like to lie but he had no choice if he wanted to sort out this spirit barrier and Juan Dai problem as safely as possible for both spirits and humans.
"I understand President I will leave this afternoon and make my way to Zaofu to begin my investigation." Rylon replied.
"Excellent now you better go and get yourself ready Avatar, we will speak again soon when you have learnt more." The President said as Rylon nodded before walking out of the office leaving the President and the 4 Representatives.
"There is something the Avatar is not telling us. Shanto didn't just want a quick chit chat to tell him about that silly made-up story." The Earth Representative immediately accused.
"We have no proof of what you say." The Air Representative said quickly.
"Proof? Just look at what happen to the spirit portal last night, that has spirits as the perpetrators written all over it and did you not see the destruction around the portal they caused?" The Earth Representative continued.
"We believe that the Avatar not knowing anything about this event to be very strange indeed." The Fire Representative said calmly as she sipped her tea.
"My friends all we have to worry about is keeping this to ourselves and making sure the Avatar does not allow the spirits to know about or try to get involved in his affairs whilst he works for us." The President started. "Even if the Avatar is consorting with the spirits which I believe he is when we get the information we need from him we won't need him anymore and we can handle the problem ourselves."
"Ridiculous the world needs the Avatar for balance. We can't just use him and then push him aside." The Water Representative said shaking his head in disbelief.
"Do we really need an Avatar who puts humanities needs behind the spirits? Humanity, our world comes and what we want comes first as it should and nothing else matters." The President said coldly.
-x-
Rylon opened the door to his hotel President Suite and walked inside.
"Come on Platinum we need to go, we have to catch the…" He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the piece of paper The Presidents secretary had given him. "…the 4pm MAGLEV to Zaofu but we have to go visit Air Temple Island first." Rylon walked past the lounge and towards the bedroom but he quickly stopped when he heard a loud groan. Stopping Rylon looked down on the lounge to see Platinum lying there with a huge bulge in his stomach. "Did-did you eat all those chicken-duck eggs I ordered this morning?!" Rylon said in shock as Platinum guiltily looked away from him. "You greedy dragonfly snake! Well come on you have no time to lie there all day feeling sorry for yourself we need to get going." Watching Platinum having a hard time trying to fly off the lounge due to his full stomach Rylon sighed and picked him up in his hand so he could slither up on his shoulders. "Don't expect me to order that many eggs again."
Walking into the bedroom Rylon picked up the glider Akar had given him before walking back out towards the door hoping that Skar, Sy and Zuri had found some information in the old library at Air Temple Island for him before he had to leave for Zaofu.
-x-
"Alright then is everyone ready for the Air Temple Tour today?" An air acolyte dressed in traditional air nation robes said standing beside the harbour where a group of tourists stood next to an air bison who all nodded eagerly.
"I hope you don't mind if I come along with you." Rylon said walking up to the tourist group as they all started to whisper among themselves.
"I didn't know the Avatar came on these tours!" One of the tourist said pointing at him as instantly everyone in tour group began taking his picture much to Rylon's embarrassment.
"Hey Avatar can you bend all the elements for us?" A woman said excitedly as she held up her camera.
"Ok everyone calm down." The air acolyte said quickly jumping in front of them. "We have to get this tour started or we won't have enough time to see the entire Air Temple!" The tourists moaned a little before turning back to the Air bison where a small ladder stood beside it for them to easily climb up. "This is a surprise to have you here with us Avatar. I would have thought the President would have ordered an airship for your personal use to get to Air Temple Island so you wouldn't have to tag along with the tourists."
"It was a last minute idea of mine to visit but really I don't mind coming with you and the tourists at all." Rylon said quickly looking up at the tourist's on the bison who were looking down at him.
"Then let's get going shall we?" The Air acolyte nodded as he as Rylon quickly jumped up onto the Air Bison which then headed towards Air Temple Island. "Now everyone…" The air acolyte turned to everyone but they were all paying attention to Rylon instead.
"Show us some metal bending." A small child said squeezing past some people and sitting beside Rylon with a big grin on her face. Rylon looked up at all the excited tourists watching him before nodding and liquefying his forearm armour so it resembled a blob of metal floating in front of him.
"What shape do you want to see?" He asked.
"Oh do an air bison!" The little girl said clapping her hands together as Rylon instantly changed the metal into the solid shape of an air bison much to the pleasure of the tourists who all took a picture.
"Do a dragon next!" Another tourist said excitedly.
-x-
After what seemed like a very long flight the Air Bison finally landed on Air Temple Island.
"Let us all thank the Avatar for joining us on our flight today but I'm sure he will not be able to join us for the rest of the tour." The air acolyte said jumping off the air bison before moving a nearby ladder beside the bison so the tourists could get down.
"Can't wait to tell my friends I saw the Avatar today." One of the tourists said as they began to descend down the ladder as Rylon jumped off beside the acolyte.
"Your patience is remarkable." The acolyte said with a laugh turning to him. "These tourist groups can get pretty crazy sometimes."
"Where are all the spirits that usually live here?: Rylon asked looking around him.
"They avoid this place during the day because the tourists can be a little annoying to say the least to them." The acolyte turned back to the tourists. "Come on everyone this was to the baby air bison pens!" The tourists all excitedly followed after the acolyte as he began to walk away.
Looking after them for a moment Rylon turned and began to walk up the stairs to the Temple at the very top. Once at the top of the stairs he walked into the temple that despite looking very traditional on the outside was very modern inside. Rylon had spent a few years learning how to master air bending from Master Akar at this temple and so everything was very familiar to him.
Walking down the halls till he reached the library he walked inside to see Sy sitting down quietly on a large table in the middle of the room surrounded by books.
"Found anything?" Rylon said walking over and looking down at Sy who looked up at him with a grin.
"Yes!"
"Master Akar helped." Zuri said walking forward and gently putting some more books down in front of Sy.
"He just pointed me in the right part of the library to look whilst I did everything else." Sy said quickly.
"Where is Master Akar?' Rylon said looking around the room.
"He is teaching some new air benders this morning but promises to be back later on." Zuri said with a nod as Sy frantically flipped through the pages of the large book he was reading.
"At first I started trying to find any information on this spirit Juan Dai which turned up absolutely nothing. So then I thought I would try looking up any accounts of people seeing strange spirit things in the sky."
"Anything?" Rylon asked as Sy shook his head.
"Nothing in any of these ancient text books but what I did find was an ancient children's story from the fire nation."
"A children's story?" Rylon asked confused.
"This is where it gets interesting." Sy grinned. "When I wasn't able to find anything I thought back to that comment Zuri made earlier about the children's stories about Koh and how even though they are just stories to frighten naughty kids Koh really does exist and this reminded me of something I had read a long time ago." Sy picked out one of the books on the desk and handed it to Rylon.
"Ancient Children Stories from the Fire Nation." Rylon said reading the title out aloud.
"Before I became head of the Spirit Exhibition I did a lot of work in the Avatar section of the museum and I remember this book passing my desk because it contains a lot of ancient stories about fire nation avatars and their adventures so to speak within the Fire Nation." Sy quickly grabbed the book back from Rylon and flicked through it till he reached a certain page and turned it so that it was facing Rylon.
"Avatar Xi and the Tower to the Moon." Rylon said reading the title of the story and seeing a hand drawn picture beneath it of an ancient Fire Nation temple reaching up to the moon. "I haven't heard of this Avatar Xi before." Rylon said slightly embarrassed.
"I wouldn't have expected you to know because she was a Fire Nation Avatar over 8000 years ago." Sy started. "The story goes that the Fire Lord forced his people to create a temple in his honour that would reach up to the moon."
"That's impossible. He never would have been able to create anything high enough to reach that barrier even if this story was based on truth." Zuri said shaking her head. "How could this possibly contain any information we need?"
"You might think so but in the story the writer proclaims the Fire Lord built so high that he angered the sky spirit and had to ask the Avatar for help to defeat the "darkness" and save his nation."
"How did she defeat the darkness the story describes?" Rylon said fascinated.
"Being only a children's book and not an in depth analytic piece all it says is that the Avatar went into the Avatar State and destroyed the tower which appeased the angry spirit before she banished the Fire Lord and a new fire lord bloodline began to rule the Nation." Sy said flicking through the pages.
"How do we know that this isn't just a made up story created about the old Avatar?" Zuri asked as Sy sighed.
"That's where I'm afraid we've hit a problem." Putting down the children's book Sy grabbed another book which listed all of the known Avatars since Wan. "Avatar Xi is listed here in this ancient text but I could not find any other information about her apart from this children's story but what this Avatar list does give us is the dates in which they believe she lived." Turning the book around he pushed it in front of Rylon who looked down at the dates.
"This can't be right it says Avatar Xi only lived for 22 years? What happened to her?" Rylon asked as Sy shrugged.
"Like I said there is no more information about her in this library." When Sy finished Rylon tried to think of where there could possibly be more information about this Avatar so they could see whether or not this children's story was based on truth and was in fact about Juan Dai.
"Wait a minute.' Rylon said thinking. "The Palace in the Fire Nation has a huge ancient library that only historians there can use. They must have more information about all the past Fire Nation Avatars including Xi."
"Remember that she lived over 8000 years ago, the possibility them having any more useful information about her is very unlikely." Zuri added.
"I believe it's worth a try and it's the only lead we have." Rylon said as Sy quickly nodded in agreement.
"There is nothing more in this library that can help us unless you want to learn about more ancient air bending Avatars which are also very interesting I mean just listen to this."
Before any of them could say anything Master Akar entered the library and walked over to them.
"My apologies for keeping you waiting Avatar the new air benders are always a handful."
"No need to apologize, Sy was just telling me about what he found." Rylon said turning to Akar.
"Yes I must commend your friend he is an excellent researcher." Akar nodded. "Though a researcher is nothing without a library like this to back him up." Akar said with a grin as Sy huffed. "Now tell us what happened at the meeting this morning…." He said looking back to Rylon.
-x-
"Very interesting." Akar said stroking his beard. "Shanto is a very respected spirit within the spirit world and if he believes that you and us humans are deceiving him then most of the spirits will also believe this."
"We obviously don't need his help though." Sy said pointing to all the books on the table.
"The Avatar is the bridge between the spirits and humans young Sy, it is his duty to keep the peace and harmony between both and having the spirits believe him to be a liar is a very serious problem especially in regards to serious threat the spirits believe Juan Dai proposes and the ignorance they believe Rylon shows towards it."
"I tried to tell him about the lies The President was telling but he refused to believe them and instead blamed me and believes that I'm ignoring the spirits and only listening to other humans." Rylon sighed. "I also think that The President in the Representatives believe that I'm siding with the spirits." He shook his head is disbelief.
"Keeping balance between humanity and the spirits is not easy young Avatar, Korra worked immensely hard to keep the peace." Akar said. "Though all is not lost for if we get information about this threat and explain it to both the spirits and humanity I believe that with your help everyone will learn to trust each other again and work together to deal with it."
"Then what are we waiting for? We need to start gathering as much information to present to both sides as soon as possible or else the Avatar will continue to be the scapegoat for both sides." Zuri said crossing her arms.
"I need to catch the 4pm MAGLEV to Zaofu to pick up the Earth Empire air ship the Earth Representative has given to me to use in this investigation."
"Well then what are we waiting for?" Zuri said quickly as Rylon turned to her.
"What about your work?" He asked as she shrugged.
"I believe this is more important and if I'm to protect the citizens of Republic City this threat needs to be dealt with as soon as possible and besides you'll need help."
"I'm coming to." Sy said standing up. "Don't look so surprised." He said crossing his arms. "Firstly I'm still a fugitive and I'd prefer to get out of the city before someone finds me and secondly you'll need my expertise about the spirits and my research skills to dig up the information we need."
"Because the Avatar and I can't flick through old books?" Zuri said turning to Sy who frowned. "I'm just joking Sy I don't have the patience for doing what you do anyway." She laughed.
"I'm afraid I must stay however Avatar, being my Nations leader as well as my duties to train our air benders means I cannot leave the Temple but I wish you the best of luck and anything you need from our Air Nation will be yours my friend."
"Thank you Master Akar." Rylon said turning to his old master.
"I fear if this problem is not sorted out soon we will be looking at another human spirit war over this spirit barrier…" Akar paused looking at the worried look on Rylon's face. "No pressure though! But you better leave soon if you want to make that MAGLEV on time." Akar finished and looked up at the clock on the wall.
"Wait a minute how will I get through the city? Everyone will recognise me." Sy said quickly.
"Akar do you have any spare air acolyte robes?" Rylon said thinking back to the tour guide he had met earlier as Akar grinned.
-x-
"These are so itchy." Sy complained scratching his arms under the long robes as he Rylon and Zuri stood on the train platform beside the harbour, "And these horrible orange and yellow colours look horrible on me."
"I think they suit you." Zuri chuckled as the train pulled up and came to a stop.
Stepping inside the train Rylon took one last look at Republic City knowing that if he wasn't able to find the information he needed than the spirits and humanity were going to collide about the spirit barrier issue which could ultimately lead to war as neither side would ever give in to the others demands.