SMST P7A: The Ethereal Path of the Avatar! – By DS Wynne
Disclaimer: SM, R1/2, ST and other genres belong to their respective owners.
Note: This is a multi-genre story.
Special note: For this week, I will restrict most of my work to 1000+ words per story, in an effort to "catch up". C&C are welcomed.
Part 16
Meanwhile, Ranma and his female guise are in some weird, ethereal forest.
"Where the heck are we?" Ranko Tendo yelled, as she flayed her arms. For some reason, she appeared when Ranma ended up in this…place. It wasn't the first time this sort of thing had happened, but Ranma theorized that the magic of his Jusenkyo curse was strong enough to appear in the so-called Immaterial Planes (i.e. magical, astral or spiritual).
"Hmmm," Ranma said, as he felt the ground. The ground felt warm to the touch…
Ranko immediately turns towards Ranma.
"Aren't you going to do something?" Ranko asked.
"I am," Ranma said, as he stood up. "I'm trying to figure out where that panda bear took us."
"And…?"
"We're in the 'Spirit world', obviously," Ranma said.
"Obviously," Ranko said sarcastically. "So, how can we get out of here?"
"Don't know yet, but we WILL find out how."
Silence.
"Okay, so…what do we do in the mean time?" Ranko asked.
"We can train," Ranma said. "In fact, being here brings up a good opportunity to training the spiritual side of your training."
"Great, more 'homework'…"
"Well, that, or we…enjoy each other's company," Ranma said jokingly.
"We've been around Usagi WAY too much," Ranko said flatly.
"Damn, you right," Ranma said, as he shook violently. "She's the type of person to have 'group relations' with an army of duplicates if given the 'license' to do so. Brrrrrrr!"
"Well, actually, she did, remember?" Ranko said. "Remember those clones of Usagi that Palpatine had Camino manufacture? You know, for his cadre of 'Sith Inquisitors'?"
"Oh, yeah…"
Meanwhile, back in the "real" world…
"So, you're Mom?" Goku asked.
"Yes," said the possessed Katara, as she stretched her limbs.
"Where's Aang?" Sokka said.
"He's standing near me," Usagi-through-Katara said.
"Is Katara okay?" Sokka asked with worry.
"Why not ask her…?"
FWOOMP!
"Please, don't do that!" Katara yelled.
"Katara, you're okay?" Sokka asked.
"I guess so," Katara replied, as she checked out her body. "Oh, and Aang said 'hello', Goku."
"Cool!" Goku said.
"So, what's next?" Sokka asked.
FWOOMP!
"We wait until the monster appears," said Aang-through-Katara.
"You sound different," Sokka said.
"I feel different," Aang-through-Katara said with a blush.
FWOOMP!
"Stop that!" Katara said. "Humph!"
"Well, there is nothing we can do for now," Sokka said. He then turns towards Goku.
"You want to train?" Sokka asked.
"Do I?" Goku replied excitedly.
"Boys," Katara said, as she shook her head.
Sure enough, in the pale of the moonlight, forest spirit appears to terrorize the village. However, so did the spirit of a blue dragon.
"Ah!" Usagi replied, as the dragon stops right in front of Usagi.
"I don't think he'll hurt us," Aang said.
The blue dragon nods its head, as it licks Usagi's face.
SLURP!
"Ew!"
Aang laughs, as he climbs unto the dragon's back.
"We better see what he wants," Aang said, as he extends his hand towards Usagi.
"Okay," Usagi said, as she climbs unto the dragon's back. "Okay, now what- ULP!"
The dragon takes off like a shot. It flies westward to what appeared to be an island that still had an active volcano.
"Weeeee!" Usagi said, as she stuck up her arms in glee. "This is fun, Falkor!"
"Errrrr?" the dragon said.
"Who's 'Falkor'?" Aang asked.
When the dragon got closer, it phased into a grand temple dedicated to the memory of one of the Fire Nation's greatest "Fire Benders", who happened to be Aang's predecessor as this world's "Avatar": Avatar Roku.
THUMP!
"Huh," Aang said, as he and Usagi hops off the dragon. They appeared to be in some sort of closed temple that was sealed away by heavy metal doors. On the directly on the other side of the room was the golden statue of a serene, older man, and a beautiful woman standing next to him, in a loving embrace, and who looked vaguely familiar…
"Why does she look like Rei?" Usagi asked, as she goes over to statue. When she touched it, images flashed through her mind…
FLASH!
Usagi…
Sailor Moon…
Moon Princess...
Friend…
FLASH!
"Usagi!" Aang said, as he shook his friend from her reverie.
"Aang?" Usagi asked. She looked around to see that she and Aang were on some astral plane. Among the clouds was…
"Roku?" Aang asked. "You're Avatar Roku!"
"Hello, Aang," Roku said in a sage-like manner. He didn't have a mustache, but wore his hair and beard long.
"We have much to talk."
"Well, I have to talk to you, sir," Usagi said.
Roku turns towards Usagi.
"Ah, you're Rei's friend," Roku said with a bow. "It's an honor to finally meet you."
"Ah, well, thank you, I guess," Usagi replied.
"Why did you summon us, Roku?" Aang asked.
"I do not have long to speak, but you must come to Roku Island. My presence is strong there, and I will have an opportunity to explain more. But will say this: the fate of this world of Jeegoo and of my beloved Rei hangs in the balance."
Roku begins to fade.
"Roku!" Aang said.
"What's going to happen to Rei?" Usagi asked.
"Come, and find out…"
FLASH!
The next thing the two realized, they were back on the blue dragon's back.
"That was weird," Usagi said.
"But we know where to go," Aang said. "But first, we have to deal with the spirit that is terrorizing the village back there…"
After returning home, the two retrieved Ranma, who was restored to normal. Aang confronted the forest spirit by providing an offering: an acorn, and apology and a pledge to rebuild the forest. Satisfied, the spirit went away and became a panda before fading off into the distance.
"Figures that I would have problems with pandas," Ranma said as he made a face.
"I found out that during the Winter Solstice, the spirit world and the material world co-exist," Katara said.
"That's probably why we were able to interact with all these spirits, including Avatar Roku's," Aang said.
"Who?" Goku asked.
"My predecessor as the Avatar," Aang said.
"Where to next?" Sokka said, as he gets out his map. "We might be able to make some tracks quickly."
"We have to take a detour," Usagi said.
"Where?" Ranma asked.
"Roku Island…in Fire Nation territory," Aang said.
"What?" everyone exclaimed in disbelief.
"Roku urged us to go there, so we must," Aang said, as he fed Momo.
"Then, that's where we have to go next, then," Ranma said.
"But-" Sokka said.
"Hey, look at it this way: you get to practice some of those martial arts I taught ya!" Ranma said, as he pats Sokka's back.
"Gee, thanks for the compliment," Sokka said drolly.
The next day, Appa flies straight into the Fire Nation blockade, led by a rival of Prince Zuko and Lord Iroh: Admiral Zhao. Zhao wanted to capture the Avatar in order to gain some political points with Zuko's father, the Fire Lord.
"I see we have our first catch of the day," Zhao said with a smirk, as he stared at the approaching flying bison through a pair of binoculars. He then turns towards his chief.
"Signal the men to fire on my mark! The Avatar's path ends TODAY.
Tbc.