Spirits' Creed (formerly Spirit of Fire)
Chapter 7: We are the Champions
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender
Sweat dripped down Zuko's well toned muscled body as he trained vigorously in his mindscape. He was in the midst of trying to master a difficult and deadly Firebending technique called, Mental Explosion. It was one of the more recently developed techniques, having been created in the last three hundred years. Mental Explosion, gave the bender the ability to create explosions with their mind. The problem was that it kept blowing up in Zuko's face.
Zuko frustratingly growled, as he stood up after being thrown back a few yards. "That's it! This technique isn't worth all this. The Flame Eye is a much better technique to use, than this."
The Flame Eye was a technique that enabled a Firebender to use their firebending with only their eyes. Of course, it lacked the refined fanes of firebending with the movements or even the fingers. But it still got the job done. Mastery of the Flame Eye allowed a Firebender to be able to call a three feet worth of fire. Zuko, however, had so far only been able to make a two inch flame appear; still, a small spark is all it takes to start a raging inferno. Although the flame was only two inches, he was able to set it at any temperature he wished; causing it to cut through metal and even melt earth.
Zuko took a couple of deep breaths before asking, "What are my current stats?"
The air shimmered for a second as gold lettering appeared before him, revealing his stats.
Name: Zuko
Title: Banished Prince of the Fire Nation, Champion of Fire
Alias: Kuzon, Lee, The Blue Spirit
Age: 16
Weapon of Choice: Dual Dao Swords
Flames Mastered: Basic, Training, Healing, Blue, Pleasure, and is able to bend red Lightning.
Techniques Mastered: Heat Vision, Flame Eye, Dragon's Breath, Lavabending, Heat Manipulation, Heat Shield, Burning Hand, Big Bang Boom, Flight by Fire, Flare, Multi-blast, Fire Daggers, Rapid Fire Bursts, and Condense Heat Wave.
Additional Notes: Current strength rivals that of The Dragon of the West. It is advised that you do not reveal your full strength while in the city.
"Impressive," Zuko said as he read over his stats. His mindscape then shimmered for a moment as the Elder Spirit of Fire, Aoihi, appeared.
"Greetings, Crown Prince Zuko." She said formally.
"Elder," Zuko replied with a bow.
"You have grown very strong, since I first met you, Prince of the Fire Nation. Now, it is time for you to meet your partners. Change into your clothes and go here," Aoihi instructed as she showed Zuko a hidden ally.
"Yes, Elder," replied Zuko as Aoihi vanished.
Zuko exited his mindscape and began to dress in the outfit he had worn nearly a week ago, when he contacted the Avatar's group. After tying the dark red sash around his waist, Zuko put the mouth veil and lifted up the hood. He quickly wrote a note to his uncle and leapt out the apartment window.
If he had left a minute later, Zuko would have been joined by a black and blue clothed hooded figure, who jumped out of the apartment above his.
Jin ran along the rooftops of the Lower Ring, making her way towards the distention that Kiirojimen had showed her. The sun had dipped behind the wall; even though it hadn't completely set. This bathed the Lower Ring streets in darkness, but kept it bright on the roofs. Not that it really mattered as no one ever bothered to look up.
'So, the time has finally come,' Jin thought to herself, as she landed on the roof after having jumped over an alley. Her Guan Dao was securely strapped to her back and thanks to her Earthbending, the nine steel rings never moved.
Jin soon reached her distention and jumped into the darkened alley.
Yue glanced around the darkened alley as she rose from her crouched landing. 'Akaimizu said that the alley is hidden to everyone, except the three champions, by the elder's powers. The entry way is also hidden, but as a champion I would be able to feel it,' Yue thought as she looked around.
Feeling herself being pulled to the other side of the alley, Yue carefully searched over the darkened walls when she felt an unexplainable reason to look down. Looking down, Yue saw that the Water Tribe symbol had been carved into the stone tile. Placing her hand on the symbol, Yue recited the words that she had been told. "I am Akaimizu's chosen champion of water. I am the unstoppable tsunami, Yue." With those words spoken, the stone tiles started to shift. The low grinding noise of stone scraping against stone as the tiles shifted and moved. Within moments a long narrow staircase was revealed, leading down into the darkness. Taking one last look around, Yue descended down the stairs.
As he reached the bottom of the bottom of the staircase, Zuko saw a large wooden door a few yards in front of him; lit only by a few burning torches. He opened the door, making the hinges groan loudly, and stepped through into a large brightly lit chamber. The chamber was large, at least as large as a city block and as tall as a three-story house. The ceiling of the chamber was shaped like a dome. Including the door he went through, there were eleven doors lining the walls. In the center of the chamber was a large miniature-scale model of Ba Sing Se and a little off to the side was a table with four chairs.
At that moment, two loud groans were heard as the doors with the water symbol and the earth symbol opened. From the door with the water symbol stepped out a hooded figure in black and blue. On the figure's forearms were two silver gauntlets. From the door with the earth symbol stepped out a hooded figure in black and green. Strapped to the figure's back was a Guan Dao. It was easy to tell that both of the hooded figures were female. 'Great,' Zuko thought sarcastically to himself. 'I'm going to be out voted in everything.'
"Welcome," called a voice from the table. The three champions looked at the table to see three Elder Spirits hovering before it.
"I am Aoihi, Elder Spirit of Fire." The blue skinned female spirit spoke, introducing herself to the champions of earth and water.
"I am Akaimizu, Elder Spirit of Water." The red skinned female spirit spoke, introducing herself to the champions of fire and earth.
"I am Kiirojimen, Elder Spirit of Earth." The yellow skinned male spirit spoke, introducing himself to the champions of water and fire.
"Please sit, so that we may speak." Kiirojimen said, gesturing to the chairs at the table.
Zuko and the two unknown females walked to the table and sat down. The black and green female choose the seat on the right; while, the black and blue female choose the seat on the left. Leaving Zuko to sit right between the two.
"We have chosen you three out off all the benders in the world to be our champions." Akaimizu started.
"Why did the three of you, pick the three of us?" The black and green champion asked in a familiar sounding voice.
"We picked you because, because the three of you have what it takes to be our champions. We have given you a nearly impossible task, so to complete this task; you need to be of nearly unlimited power," Aoihi answered.
"Why is there only three of us? Why is there no Champion of Air?" Zuko asked. It had been bothering him slightly in the back of his mind.
"There is no Champion of Air simply because there is no Airbender to be champion," replied Kiirojimen answered. "The only Airbender is the Avatar and the Avatar cannot become a champion."
"But, what about the Elder Spirit of Air?" The black and blue champion asked.
"Midorikaze, is the Elder Spirit of Air. Ever since Sozin began this war, he has been barely clinging to life," Aoihi answered. The table between them shimmered and an image began to appear. The image showed a sickly looking green skinned spirit, that was Midorikaze. "This is how he has been since the destruction of the Air Nomads. Our living depends on the benders of our element living, so Midorikaze only has the Avatar to support his life. If the Avatar dies, then so does Midorikaze."
"Hold on, you said that if I didn't complete my mission that you'd kill all the Firebenders!" Zuko yelled as he looked at Aoihi. "Also, you said that if the Avatar got in the way of our mission that we were allowed to kill him."
"I said I would kill all of the Fire Nation Firebenders." Aoihi replied coolly. "There are plenty of Firebenders born in the Earth Kingdom for me to not have to worry about dying. As for the Avatar, I knew you wouldn't kill him."
"You bitch!" Zuko growled.
"Thank you," replied Aoihi with an overly sarcastic smile.
"What is this place?" Jin asked the three Elder Spirits after a moment of intense silence between the black and red champion and the Elder Spirit of Fire. She was unsure how to feel about the black and red champion, she knew he was from the Fire Nation; his outburst proved that if nothing else. As a child, Jin grew up being told to fear the Fire Nation; especially, from her mother several years ago when the Dragon of the West laid siege to Ba Sing Se's Walls for six hundred days.
"This is the Elemental Chamber," replied Akaimizu. "Country to what many humans think, we don't see everything that happens in the Physical World. We are, however, able to feel the energies of the Physical World and recently the energies have been fluxing showing that a dark presence is in the city. The presence is covering the city, so we are unable to pinpoint it. The presence is heaviest in the Lower and Middle Rings. While you are here in Ba Sing Se, we want you to find the cause of this. You may start by looking in on anything illegal."
Kiirojimen continued saying, "There are four entrances for each champion; as well as four sleeping quarters for each champion. The remaining three doors are as follows; a training room, a weapons room stock full of weapons and has a forge and tools for designing new weapons, the last room is a library. The library is small, but it is more complete on having useful information than even Wan Shi Tong, who while knowing ten thousand things; doesn't know ten thousand useful things. Use these rooms to the best of your abilities as you search for the cause of this darkness."
Aoihi finished, by saying, "We believe that the origin of the darkness may be from the Varsealm. The Varsealm is a place of pure sadness, despair, darkness, and evil. The last time the Varsealm actively made a move in the Physical World was over four thousand years ago, when they corrupted the Avatar. The Avatar was driven insane and we were forced to pick a champion on fight and kill the Avatar."
"If being one of your champions makes us strong enough to kill the Avatar, then why do you need three of us?" Jin asked. Having three of them seemed like overkill.
"Last time it was only the Avatar that the champion faced. This time, you face the Fire Lord, the entire Fire Nation Army, Navy, and what ever else they might have. There is also the Varsealm to consider as well. One champion wouldn't be enough to face that kind of power." Kiirojimen replied.
"Due to the difficulties that you will be facing, try not to let anyone know who you are just yet." Akaimizu said. "However, you will need to know the identity of each other."
Along with the other champions, Yue slowly removed her hood. The woman that was in black and green was unfamiliar to Yue. It was obvious that she was a native of Earth Kingdom though. The true shocker was the man who was the champion of fire.
'Prince Zuko, what is he doing here?' Yue thought to herself. A part of her was angered at seeing the Fire Prince; while another part of her was shocked that he was the one chosen to be the Champion of Fire by the Elder Spirits.
"The three of you need to get to know each other and trust each other." Aoihi said as the three elders began to fade. "We leave you now to do so."
For a moment that seemed to last forever and at the same time have never even occurred, all was silent in the chamber. Then, it exploded. The prince of the Fire Nation shoved himself backwards as a stalagmite of earth erupted from where he had jut been.
"YOU LIED TO ME!" the Champion of Earth yelled at the fire prince. She slammed her left foot hard on the ground and swung her arms to the left. Suddenly, the prince went flying through the air and crashed into one of the several columns spread through out the room. "Were you ever planning to tell me? Is your name even, Lee?" She asked him.
'So, that's how he got in. Just by using a different name,' Yue thought to herself. It was clear that the two of them already knew each other and hadn't known about the other being a champion to the elders. Wisely, Yue kept her mouth shut, but still had her blades at the ready.
"No, my name isn't Lee," replied the prince. "I am Zuko. Prince of the Fire Nation, son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai. I didn't tell you who I was because I'm hiding, I didn't know you that well, and I also figured that you'd react this way. There's also one thing you're forgetting, Jin."
"And what would that be?" The woman now known as Jin asked.
"WHAT ABOUT YOU?" Zuko yelled back at her. "What was all that shit you were talking about a few days ago about wanting to have a relationship? It's going to pretty fucking hard to have a relationship when you're a champion. Let's not forget the fact that you didn't even bother to mention that you were an Earthbender. You were doing the exact same thing that I was doing."
The Earth Kingdom woman gave a yell of frustration and stormed out of the chamber. The prince fell to the floor and with a grunt began to pull himself to his feet, with his back turned to her. Preparing herself for her talk with the Fire Princess, Yue switched the safety of her gauntlets off and moved her hands back.
Hearing the scrapping of metal, like a blade being drawn, Zuko sprung to his feet and unsheathed his swords. "Don't think I forgot about you, Princess." He said to the Northern Water Tribe Princess. "How are you even alive? Uncle said he saw you die."
"I was dead. Akaimizu, brought me back to life so that I could be her champion," replied Yue. "Why are you here?"
"Were you not paying attention to the conversation?" Zuko asked sarcastically. "I was chosen to be the Champion of Fire by Aoihi."
"What mission were you given?" Yue asked curiously.
"I was tasked with killing Fire Lord Oazi and Princess Azula. Failure to complete this task will result in the destruction of all Fire Nation Firebenders. I cannot allow that to happen; half of the Fire Nation's Population are Firebenders. You should understand about having to serve the people's best interest; with how you gave up your life to resurrect the Moon Spirit."
"I didn't do that for my people. I did it so that I could be free. I didn't want to be a princess, I wanted an escape and giving up my life was the best chance I had at escaping. I was resurrected by Akaimizu to be her champion. If I did my part to end the war, I would be allowed to experience life as I wanted too."
"Well, I, a least, thank you for what you did."
"Why would you even care? You're partially responsible for the Moon Spirit's death. Zhao was your admiral."
"Zhao isn't my admiral. That bastard thought I was dead, because he sent assassins after me. No one I the fleet knew that Zhao was planning to kill the Moon Spirit. If they had known, they would have stopped him."
"Why should I believe that?"
"Have you ever even bothered to look at a map?" Zuko shouted. "The Fire Nation is an island nation. What do you think the Ocean Spirit would have done to the Fire Nation, if you hadn't given up your life for the Moon Spirit? He would have kept using Aang and wiped out the Fire Nation. There is no way any Fire Nation soldier would have let that happen. Zhao, however, had a perverse sense of greatness and self grander."
"Okay fine then, but what about Aang?" Yue asked.
"What about him?"
"Last time I checked, you where hunting him for your father."
"Part of becoming Aoihi's champion was the breaking of my loyalty to the Fire Lord. I was forced to see the wronging of my nation. Besides, it wouldn't matter what I do; I could capture Aang and conquer all of the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes and it still wouldn't be enough to appease my father. He has sent my sister, Princess Azula, out to capture the Avatar and Uncle and kill me."
"Why would he do that?"
"My father hates me. He views me as a weak pathetic excuse for a son. He believes that as the first born, I should have been the best. A young copy of him if you will. However, at six years old, I'm struggling to learn basic Firebending moves while my four year old was able to toss her fire around like a toy. This soon prompted him to favor her over me; so much so that he wants her to succeed him as the next Fire Lord. Unfortunately, there are very strict rules on how a Fire Lord may be succeeded. One such rule is that he may not be succeeded by a daughter, if he has a son. So to get around this, he has aloud Azula the opportunity to kill me to become Fire Lord."
The Water Tribe princess looked at him for a moment, before calling the hidden blades of her gauntlets back. Seeing this, Zuko sheathed his swords. "I don't like you," You said to him. "However, I will put a level of trust in you. If you break my trust in you, I will freeze your blood in your veins."
"Alright."
After a moment of standing and looking at each other, Yue sighed and asked, "So, what's your relationship with that Jin woman?"
"She's my girlfriend. Possibly ex-girlfriend now," replied Zuko.
That was your girlfriend?" Yue asked. At seeing the prince nod, she continued, "She was way to hot for you."
"Yeah, I know."
"Will she be able to work with us?" Yue asked curiously. After all, the woman had left with out even knowing who Yue was.
"I'll talk to her. Hopefully, we'll be able to smooth everything out," Zuko replied. "How about we meet back here tomorrow night?"
"Okay. If you need to find me, I live in the Lower Ring at the Deim Apartment Complex room 308 in the Firma District." Yue informed him.
"You're kidding me, right?" Zuko asked deadpanned.
"No, I think I know where I've been living," replied Yue.
"You might find this odd, but I'm also living in that apartment complex. In fact, I'm living right under you."
"You're kidding! You've been living under me for at least a week and I never even knew." Yue said, surprised that Zuko was living under her. "Are you the one responsible for the sent of brewed tea?"
"Actually, that's my uncle. He's an avid tea lover."
"Oh, so that's why my apartment always smells so good. You would happen to know which one of our neighbors has the crying baby would you?"
"It's babies," Zuko relied with a slight wince. He was capable of handling many things, but crying babies weren't one of them. "The Langs, my neighbors directly across from me, have girl triblets and they've just started teething."
"Then I'll defiantly be getting some use out of my room here." Yue said with a light laugh.
The two champions then bid each other a good night and went their separate ways to rest for the following day.
Jin ran furiously over the roofs of the buildings in the Lower Ring. 'I can't believe he lied to me like that,' Jin thought to herself.
Well, what about you? Her conscience asked her.
'What are you talking about?'
He was right; you never told him that you were an Earthbender. Also, you were the one wanting the relationship.
'Oh, shut up.' Jin snapped back.
Moments later Jin arrived back at her house. Not wanting to wake any of her family up, she earthbent a small platform of earth up to her bedroom window and climbed into her room. She was still angry as she took off her clothes and didn't even bother with sleepwear as she climbed naked into bed. She pulled her bed sheets up to her stomach and stared out her bedroom window at the moon. As her anger began to subside she began to slowly drift to sleep. Just as sleep was about to claim her, Jin's eyes snapped open. 'Lee… Zuko's a prince?' She mentally asked herself. 'I made out with a prince? Sweet.' She then closed her eyes and eased back into a dreamy lull. 'I'm still mad at him.' Was the last thought to drift through her mind as sleep claimed her.
The night was dark and the air quiet as Lu-Min, walked down the streets Ba Sing Se's Tera District, the city's poorest seediest district, towards his shabby apartment.
'How dare that white haired bitch humiliate me?' He thought to himself drunkenly.
A little over a week ago, Lu-Min had been in the midst of persuading his ex-girlfriend, the exotic Lieu, to take him back. Wither she wanted to or not. Needless to say a fight broke out, her fault of course. In the end, he had received a hard kick between his legs from a mysterious white haired female and then was knocked out.
When he woke up, Lu-Min discovered that he was no longer at Virgo or even outside of it. Instead, he was several blocks away and was naked. Not long after waking up the city guard caught him and threw him in jail for the next thirteen days for public indecency. He had been released early that afternoon and the first place he went was to nearest bar and drank until he was cut off by the bartender. Now, he was slowly stumbling home intent on getting revenge on the white haired bitch and make sure Lieu knew her place.
'I… I'm go..ing to beat the ass of that bitch,' he thought with a drunken grin.
Poor poor, Lu-Min. If he had been more observant, he would have noticed how everything around him had gone silent, which was next to impossible in Ba Sing Se as there was always noise of some sort. More importantly, he would have taken notice of the six pale yellow glowing eyes watching him.
Oh well, may he have better luck in the next life.
It looked around at its surroundings. Humans were always so odd, to build such things that the Masters will do away with. Unfortunately, it didn't have time to contemplate the stupidity of humans, it had a mission for the Masters; find the Elder's Champions and kill them if able. Why couldn't the Masters just send there beloved project after them?
Just as it was about to move on, it felt something. Peering down at the street he saw a shabby looking man stumbling about like a Hog-Monkey after sex. However, that wasn't what caught its attention. What caught its attention was that he sensed the Elder's power from this pathetic food sack. It was slight, not enough to be a Champion or even lead him to the champions, but it was still there and the human would make a good meal.
It silenced the area around him and jumped off the roof, landing on the ground below with a nearly inaudible pat. Slowly, it followed the human waiting for the opportune moment to strike. A moment later the human stumbled and fell, as he was picking himself up it charged and struck with its razor sharp claws.
That night the city of Ba Sing Se continued down the path of life; never hearing the anguish cries of a wife-beater as he was ripped apart and eaten by a creature that no mortal could fathom.
'The day just seemed like it would never end,' Zuko thought to himself, as ran over the rooftops of the Lower Ring. He had spent the entire day at Pao's Family Tea House witing for Jin to show; so that they could talk. 'She must be really pissed at me. She showed up after our first date and that date didn't end well.
'
Zuko was lucky to know where she lived and worked. So using his stealth abilities, Zuko snuck into her boss's office and discovered that Jin was working late and would be getting off at sunset. All he had to do now was wait for her to walk down the street and conveniently bump into her. There was just one tiny flaw in his plan; Zuko had no idea which route she took home. Taking into account of where Jin's house was and where her job was located, Zuko kept to the most obvious streets and prayed that he'd get lucky.
Jin walked quietly down the empty street to her house, as she thought about her relationship with Zuko. She knew she would have to talk to him sooner or later, but she would be more than happy to put it off for as long as she could get away with it.
As she walked down the street, Jin was unaware of six pale yellow glowing eyes watching her.
Its eyes curled up in glee and ecstasy at its fortune. The previous night it was able to feast on a human barely touched by the Elder's champion. And now, one of those champions was walking just below. Slowly, it climbed down the building in the shadow of the dark alley. As it watched the earth empowered champion walk down the street, its claws lengthened, muscles tensed in anticipation, saliva dripped from its maw as the insatiable hunger grew, and it shook in excitement.
Kill, kill, kill the human. FEAST ON ITS HEART; TEAR IT APART!
Just as the green female was nearly out of sight, it charged.
'What should I do?' Jin thought as she headed towards her house.
Thump
'I like him and all, but how can I now trust him?'
Thump
'Also, how can he trust me? Maybe, we can talk and work thing out. Hopefully, we'll be able to start a new relationship together.' Jin mentally encouraged herself.
THUMP THUMP THUMP
Jin's eyes widened as she felt the ground shake from heavy footsteps coming up behind her. She quickly spun around and stared in shock at the creature barreling down at her. Its flesh, not so much skin, was ink black. It stood on four powerful legs, like a Pygmy Puma, and it even had paws. Its claws appeared to be two and a half inches long; except the inner claws on the front legs, those looked about six inches long. Its head was large with six glowing pale yellow eyes staring at her. Its mouth looked as though it had never been meant to have lips or flesh around it. From the back of its head there were several, what appeared to be moving, tendrils that were long and thick. The final part was its two very long tails.
Jin quickly snapped to and slammed her foot on the ground while thrusting out her arms. Taking control of the thing's bones, which surprised her, Jin threw the creature back. The creature crashed hard onto the ground.
Zuko's head snapped in the direction of a loud crash from several streets over. Since he was having no luck finding Jin, he decided to investigate and ran over towards the noise.
As though it hadn't been hurt, the creature immediately stood and charged at Jin once more. This time instead of just sending the beast back, Jin bonebent it into the air, much like the city kids kicking a ball.
As she watched it fall from the sky, her eyes widened as the beast grabbed onto the side of a building and stayed. It stood as easily as she stood on the ground. The creature opened its mouth to at least a foot and shot its tongue out at her, from fifty yards away. The odd thing about this tongue was that it had a small mouth on the tip of the tongue. A small mouth filled with very sharp teeth.
Thinking that her bonebending would work on the mouth, Jin quickly set out slap the mouth from hitting her. It was with great dread that Jin learned that the mouth was unaffected by her attempt to control it. It was now to late for her to try and doge the attack, it was going to hit no matter where she moved.
'So, this is how it ends for me?' She thought to herself.
As Zuko arrived at the edge of the building he was shocked to see Jin earthbend some monstrous creature away from her and shoot it high into the air. 'Well, I think we can confirm that the Varsealm is involved,' he thought to himself.
As the creature opened its mouth, Zuko gripped the side of the building and jumped over. Acting quickly, he propelled himself off of the building. Time seemed to slow as he watched the tongue get closer and closer to Jin. As he didn't have his blades, Zuko went with the next best thing; the Burning Hand fire technique. The Burning Hand didn't actually burn his hand; it felt tingly like a leg that had fallen asleep. A firebender would condense the fire in their hands and increase the temperature exponentially. This would cause the hands to glow red, much like a sword being forged. If it was hot enough, it could cut through metal and earth.
He sailed through the air closer and closer to Jin, but the closer Zuko got, the closer the beast's tongue got to her. Just before touching the ground, he pressed his hands together and thrust his hand out; striking the tongue's mouth. As the mouth was severed from the rest of the tongue Zuko heard the monster's anguished cry. However, that was the least of his concerns at the moment.
"Are you alright, Jin?" Zuko asked as he looked back at her.
Jin's eyes widened and she blinked in confusion at what happened. She had thought it was the end for her, but out of nowhere Zuko fell from the sky and burnt the beast's mouth-tongue off.
Jin looked at him and could see the concern he had for her in his eyes. 'He cares…,' She thought as her brain caught up with everything going on around them. "Yes, I'm fine," she replied.
"I'm glad," Zuko replied, before turning his attention back to the monster, who had just finished pulling it's tongue back into it's mouth. "Are you able to use your earthbending on it's bones?" He asked.
"Yeah. How did you know?"
"I saw you throw it into the air. I think this thing is from the Varsealm."
Jin looked at the monster as it leapt off the wall and landed on the ground.
'This thing is from part of the Spirit World?' She thought as she gazed at the horror before her. 'I wonder what else they keep in the Varsealm.'
"Are you able to bend it from this far away?" Zuko asked interrupting her thoughts.
"I think so," replied Jin. Wondering what Zuko had in mind she asked, "Why?"
"I want you to send it towards us."
"What? Are you crazy?" shouted Jin.
"A little," replied Zuko. At that moment the beast began charging towards them. "Do it now."
Taking hold of the monster's bones with her Earthbending, Jin pulled the beast towards them with great speed.
Just as the beast was upon them Zuko jumped into the air and rolled, bringing his still burning hand down right between the creature's eyes. Through the front of the skull, the brains, the back of the skull, through the tendrils, and along the spine, Zuko cut his way through all of it without any difficulty.
With the upper half of its body cut in two and it's brains boiling, it was fair to say that the creature was dead when it crumpled to a heap at Jin's feet.
Releasing his fire technique, Zuko walked over to Jin and said, "We need to get out of here." He then gently grabbed her hand and headed for the nearest alleyway. The walls of the alley were close together, so once they were in the middle o the alley, Zuko picked up Jin and began to up while repealing himself off the walls. A few jumps later, the two teens were sitting on the roof breathing hard as the adrenaline left there systems.
"Thanks for saving me back there." Jin gasped as she breathed heavily.
"Don't mention it," replied Zuko.
After a couple more moments of catching their breath, Zuko finally broke the silence. "So, are we going to talk about last night?"
"I suppose we should." Jin replied solemnly.
"Sorry about yelling at you." Zuko said after a moment of silence.
"Was any of it real?" Jin asked, ignoring Zuko apology.
"What?"
"Our dating was any of it real or was I just something to take up your time?"
"It was real; it was very real," replied Zuko. "My time with you has probably been the most real experience I've had in a long time."
"So, I wasn't some toy or conquest for you?" Jin asked as she turned to look at him.
"No. You are so much more to me then that."
"Then I forgive you." Jin then leaned her head against Zuko's shoulder and sighed contently.
With a small blush on his cheeks, Zuko wrapped his arm around her.
The young couple sat there for several minutes just looking up at the night sky, until Zuko broke the silence. "Well, we need to get going."
"Where are we going?" Jin asked as they stood up.
"To change into our other set of clothes and meet up with Yue at the Elemental Chamber."
"Yue? Who is Yue?"
"Yue is the Champion of Water. You left before getting to meet her, last night."
"Oh yeah," Jin said as she vaguely recalled the other girl from the night before. "Well, would you like to walk me home?"
"Sure." Replied Zuko.
The two teens climbed down from the building and quickly walked along the street towards Jin's house. "So, what am I suppose to call you?"
"Call me Zuko, when it's just us and Lee when we're in public."
"Okay then, Lee."
All to soon, Zuko was saying good by to Jin at her front door, with plans to meet up later. As he turned away from her house and headed towards his apartment, Zuko felt something. It wasn't an ominous feeling or a feeling of giddiness. It was a feeling of another firebender, three firebenders actually. Quickly using his Heat Vision technique, Zuko saw that there were three young firebenders in the building behind him, the building that was Jin's house.
'Does she even know that there are firebenders in her house?' Zuko thought to himself. 'In fact, why would there even be a firebender at her house, let alone three? I'll ask her about it later.'
Zuko gave the house one last look before running back to his apartment, there was a lot to do and not nearly enough time to do it.
Nearly an hour later, Jin was opening the door into the Elemental Chamber. She looked around the room and saw that a white haired girl was sitting at the table next to the model of Ba Sing Se. "Hello," Jin said as she walked over. "You must be Yue."
The girl turned to her and replied. "I am. I take it that you're Jin."
"I am. How did you know?"
"Zuko told me last night, after you left."
"How do you know Zuko?"
"A little over two months ago, the Fire Nation Navy launched an attack on the Northern Water Tribe, my people; Zuko was there to capture Aang. In the end Admiral Zhao killed the Moon Spirit. This caused the moon to go red and for the Waterbenders to lose their waterbending. I gave up my life to revive the Moon Spirit. I was later brought back to life by Akaimizu to be her champion."
"So, you're a princess?"
"Yes, I'm referred to as Princess Yue of the Northern Water Tribe."
"If only I was a princess, then this would be quite the royal gathering."
Yue laughed at Jin's joke and Jin's eyes widened in realization of who Yue was.
"Hey, I've seen you before. You're Kimiko from Virgo."
"Oh, you know of my alias?"
"Yeah, was there a little over a week ago and the owner pointed you out to me."
"Oh, okay."
The two women sat in silence for a moment, before Yue finally broke and asked a question that she had been wanting to ask since the previous night. "So…, what's it like dating Zuko?"
"What do you mean?" Jin asked confused.
"Well, he has a reputation for being hot headed and a short temper. Plus, there's the reputation of the Fire Nation in general," clarified Yue.
"It's nice dating him. He's quiet, considerate, and thoughtful of my feeling on things we should do on our dates. I've only gone on two dates with him, but I was thinking of having him over soon to meet my parents."
"That's completely different from the rumors I've heard."
"So, what do you think we should do tonight?" Jin asked with a shrug.
"When Zuko shows up, I was thinking we could look into some of these illegal activities the Elders were talking about."
"Good you're both here." A voice said interrupting their talk.
Jin and Yue looked to see Zuko enter, not from the fire entrance, but from the chamber's library and holding a large book in his hands.
"You've been in the library this whole time?" Yue asked him.
"Yes, earlier tonight Jin was attacked and I wanted to know what it was." Zuko replied. He then placed the opened book between them, showing them a drawing of what had attacked Jin. "I was right, the Varsealm is involved. This thing is called a Rataour, it's a common enemy. According to this, it's fairly strong. However, its hunger rules its mind. As long as they're fed they're fairly competent, unless they smell someone with high spiritual energies; like us or the Avatar."
"So, what does this mean for us?" Jin asked.
"It means we stand a good chance of getting ourselves killed if we aren't careful. I've been looking through this book and the Rataour is puny compared to some of the other spirit monsters we could be facing." Zuko told his girlfriend. "So, what have the two of you been talking about?"
"We were just talking about going out tonight to gather some information on illegal activities." Yue replied.
"And, I know were we can get some," added Jin.
Zuko and Yue turned to her waiting for her to continue. "My friend, Maki's older sister, Menthe, runs a brothel with her husband. They don't do anything illegal themselves, but I over heard them talking about a guy, who also runs a brothel and smuggles drugs. I'm sure we can get some information from this guy."
"Where's he at?" Yue asked her.
"He runs The Badger-Mole Lounge in Ba Sing Se's Lower Ring Red District Three." Jin answered as she pointed to the small replica of it in the miniature scale model.
"Alright, let's go then." Yue said and began to walk towards the door while pulling up her hood.
"Hold it." Zuko called out to the princess. "Shouldn't we establish some ground rules, if we're going to work together?"
"What kind of rules?" Jin asked.
"How about not using our real names? We don't want anyone to find us. I'm already using the name, Lee."
"My own fake name is, Kimiko." Yue informed him.
"I guess that leaves me without a fake name then." Jin said before thinking of a name to use. "I'll be called, Taja."
"Taja?" Zuko and Yue asked at the same time.
"I've always thought Taja was a great name." Jin reasoned. "Now, what's the next rule?"
"The Elder Spirits themselves, we'd have to do unsavory things to get the missions done and end the war." Zuko started as he looked between Jin and Yue. "I think we should do whatever it takes to get information, get the job done, and keep ourselves alive. Whatever we do, we don't hold it against each other and we don't talk about it."
Both girls thought for a moment before agreeing.
"Well then, let's go," Zuko said as he pulled his hood over his head. "Kimiko, Taja."
Nearly an hour, the three champions were lying flat on the roof of a building facing the back of the brothel known as The Badger-Mole Lounge. It was a plain and dull looking large three-story building from the outside. The walls were earth, like all the other buildings in the Lower Ring, and the roof was dark green tiles. On the door of the building there was a simple sign that read, 'The Badger-Mole Lounge'. The final noticeable attribute of the building were the red lanterns on the corners of the front of the building at the top of each landing.
"Who's the guy we're looking for Taja?" Lee asked in a hushed whisper.
"The guy we're looking for is, Gau-Loa," replied Taja. "He's a heavy set man of average height with a shaved head."
"I know this may be a bad time to ask, but what's a brothel?" Kimiko asked from between Lee and Taja.
The two champions snapped their heads so fast at their partner that their necks were heard popping.
"What?" Kimiko asked a little uncomfortably.
"You've got to be kidding me," Taja said with a sigh.
"Give her a brake Taja," Lee told his girlfriend. He then turned back to Kimiko and said, "A brothel is a place, were people will go to pay and have sex."
"What?" Kimiko whispered loudly. "Why would anyone want to do something so… so vulgar?"
"It's not vulgar. It's actually quite the respectable business." Lee replied. "Aren't their any Red Districts in the Northern Water Tribe? I know that it's big enough for at least three."
"No, there's nothing of the sort there," she answered. "What group of people would go to such a place?"
"Well, I can't speak for the Earth Kingdom, but in the Fire Nation several different types go; singles, soldiers on leave, and the most common would be couples."
"Couples?" This time it was both Yue and Jin who asked.
"You know; man and woman, man and man, woman and woman, man and woman and man, woman and man and woman, woman and woman and man and man. Really it just depends on what the person buying the sex wants. I know that in the Imperial City there are five brothels; two with woman only, two with men only, and one that specializes in couples."
'And this is the nation that decided to start a war with the other nations?' Kimiko thought to herself in a dumbfounded tone.
"Hey, if you two idiots are done talking, you'd see that Gau-Loa has just made our job easier tonight," Taja snapped.
Lee and Kimiko looked down at the back door of the brothel to see a large bald man step out.
"That's him?" Lee asked for confirmation.
"Yep," replied Taja before asking, "What is he doing?"
The three watched as he took out a small bag and poured a dark blue powdery substance from it, into his hand.
"Shit," Lee whispered harshly as he thrust out his arm and used his heatbending to rise Gau-Loa's body temperature and caused him to pass out.
"What did you do?" Kimiko asked.
"It looked like he was about to take some drugs, so I used my heatbending to knock him out." Lee replied. "Now come on." He then jumped off the roof and went up to the fallen form of Gau-Loa.
As Kimiko and Taja caught up to their partner they head Lee say, "I was right."
"What is it, Lee?" Taja asked.
"This is dried grind-up petals from a Blue Bell flower."
"How do you know that?" Kimiko inquired.
"Because in the Fire Nation, this is highly illegal. The petals of the Blue Bell make a powerful calming tea when the petals are freshly picked. However, if you let the petals dry out, the effects become much stronger. In non-benders it causes powerful hallucinations, but it will cause benders to go insane. Because of that, it became one of thirteen irrefutable laws in the Fire Nation that if anyone was caught with this they would be sentenced to fifteen years at the Boiling Rock." Lee explained. "Now come on, let's get to questioning him."
Looking up, Lee saw that there was a darkened room on the third story. "Can one of you bring him up with your bending?" he asked.
"I can," Taja repled.
"Then follow me." Lee said as he climbed up the side of the building.
Gau-Loa was a man of many things, but if had to be summed into a single word it would be, greedy. He loved money and would do anything to get it. Even play on the feeling of a woman, who owned a brothel, before taking it out from under her and leaving her with nothing but a quick death; that occurred mysteriously. This was several years ago, so there was no need to feel guilty. Not that there ever was much guilt.
Over the years, he had expanded the business from four girls in a small single story building in Ba Sing Se's Red District Five to twelve girls in a large three-story twenty-one bedroom/seven bathroom building with a large kitchen, lobby, and basement. He had spared no expense on the building or the girls; literally. In the three years of being in the building, Gau-Loa spent as little as possible. There were no new bedding and sheets for the girls or even medical visits for them. The building was in need of a few minor repairs, but as long as it wasn't falling down on him; why bother spending money on it? Thanks to those practices, the girls had been able to amass him a good sized fortune. However it wasn't enough. There was never enough money.
Then, a year ago, he had been approached about entering into the drug trade. It started simple enough, a guy would come once a week and drop off a box. Two days later, a woman would come to pick up the box. For his help, he was paid a hundred and twenty-five gold pieces a week and one pint of the product. This worked well for a while, but soon the boxes grew in number. But so did the payments. One of the girls caught on and said he'd regret it, if he didn't stop. He beat her for that, he would never regret anything.
So, it came as a great surprise when he was awoken with a blast of cold water to his face and found himself tied up with three hooded figures standing in front of him. There were two obvious females, given the size of there chests, in black and green and black and blue. The final figure, standing directly in front of him was wearing black and red and must have been male.
"Gau-Loa, we need to have a talk," the figure in red said in a hard voice. "And you will tell us what we want to know."
"Or what?" he replied with a sneer.
"Oh you'll find out." Was the only answer he was given.
Lee sat in a chair in the corner. For the past several minutes, Taja and Kimiko had been trying to get Gau-Loa to spill the information on who his provider was. The only problem was that the man wasn't budging and Lee was getting sick of it. With an over exaggerated groan he stood up and walked over to Gau-Loa. Without flinching, Lee struck; delivering a crushing left hook to Gau-Loa's right cheek with enough force to toss him out of the chair they had him sitting in.
"This has been fun and all, but now it's time to end the games." Lee said as he walked over to the fallen man. He turned him over with the toe of his boot and then asked, "Will you tell me who your supplier is?"
"Fuck you, you piece of shit," replied Gau-Loa.
"Fine then." Lee then turned to his partners and said, "Get the girls into the main lobby. If they are entertaining anyone, remove them."
With one final glance at Lee, Kimiko and Taja exited the room. Lee then went over the dresser and begin to search through it vigorously.
"What are you doing?" Gau-Loa asked in a tone that showed he thought Lee was being stupid.
"You aren't a very smart man are you, Gau-Loa?" Lee asked, simply ignoring the man's question. "If you were you'd notice that we're in a woman's room."
Glancing around it was obvious to see that it was a room for one of the girls.
"Women are strange sometimes in there pursuit of a man's attention." Lee continued as he found what he was looking for. "They'll use such dangerous things just to smell more appealing to him; like oils for instance," Lee said as he turned around with three small bottles of oil in his hand. Walking back over to Gau-Loa, Lee uncapped the bottles and poured them down on him.
"So, what? Are you wanting me to smell good for you?" Gau-Loa asked sarcastically.
"Oh no, Gau-Loa," replied Lee before igniting a fire in the palm of his hand.
Upon seeing the fire, Gau-Loa began to feel a twinge of fear.
"I don't want you to smell good for me. I want you to burn, for me," Lee clarified.
Gau-Loa's eyes widened in fear. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM YOU PIECE OF SHIT? I'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS! WHEN I'M THROUGH WITH YOU, YOU'LL WISH YOU HAD NEVER BEEN BORN!" He roared.
"To late," Lee replied before dropping the flame.
As soon as the flame struck it ignited all over Gau-Loa's body, that had the oil dripped on to it. He screamed in agony, but soon the screaming stopped; for the dead do not scream.
Ling was a dark-skinned female of an impressive height and an equally impressive bust. When she was younger she had been sold, due to her father's depts. At times it was nice, but more often then not it was unpleasant being a prostitute. At least the woman who had bought her had been nice. That was until; Gau-Loa had come and taking everything from her mistress. Since then, it had been a nightmare. Every night, Ling would pray to the spirits to end Gau-Loa. And it seemed that tonight, her prayers might finally be answered.
For tonight as she prayed, her prayers were interrupted by a black and green hooded figure telling her to get her ass down to the bottom floor. When she didn't move, Ling suddenly found herself moving and not under her own power. Soon she found herself in the lobby of the brothel with the other girls and the two men that two of the other girls had been with were removed after a second hooded figure, in black and blue, had erased their memories.
Suddenly, screaming could be heard coming from up above. It was the sound of a man's voice in complete agony. As the oldest at twenty-one, some of the younger girls huddled around her. Soon the screaming stopped and quickly after that movement could be heard upstairs. The movement grew louder and louder as it came closer to them. Once the person had arrived at the top of the staircase landing for the first floor, he threw down what he had been hauling down.
It was a body. A dead burned body. It was Gau-Loa's dead burned body. Ling along with nearly all the other girls screamed. Ling screamed for the fact that it was a dead body and not because Gau-Loa was dead.
"Silence," the figure said as he walked down the stairs. He was much shorter than Ling and dressed similarly to the other two hooded figures, but in black and red. He looked at each of the girls before speaking once again. "Gau-Loa was in the business of smuggling drugs. We want to know who his supplier is and he didn't feel like telling us. This is what happed to him," pointing to the body. "So, I'll ask you nice girls and I hope one of you will answer. Who is his supplier?"
Ling slowly raised her hand. She felt fear fill her as the three hooded figures looked at her. "I know." She said.
"Who is it?" The black and red figure asked.
"I only know of one person involved in it, a low ranking Dai Li agent by the name of, Guam."
"That's everything?" the figure asked.
"Well, there is one more thing, but it has nothing to do with the drugs." Seeing the figure motioning for her to continue, Ling spoke once again, "There's a rumor going around that the Dai Li have been having a problem with a killer. For the past twenty-five years there have brutal murders all through out the city and they've yet to catch the one responsible for them. Mostly because no one can catch him. Only one witness has seen the killer and that's Roga; who said that the killer had strange glowing yellow eyes."
The three figures tensed for a moment before relaxing once again. "Where can we find, Roga?" the black and blue figure asked.
"You can't. He committed suicide three years ago," replied Ling.
"Thank you for your help. You girls have a pleasant evening." The red and black figure said. He then picked up Gau-Loa's dead body and began to head for the door along with the others.
"Wait! What about us?" Ling asked.
The black and red hooded turned back and asked, "What about you all?"
"The rules of Ba Sing Se are very clear. You killed our previous owner, so now we belong to you." Ling answered. "What are you going to do with us?"
"I'm going to do nothing. I don't own you." The male figure replied. He then pointed to the busty black and green hood figure and said, "She's the one who owns you now."
"What?" several of the girls, and the black and green figure, cried out.
Suddenly fire appeared in the figure's free hand. This silenced everyone. In a hard voice he said, "She owns you. End of discussion. Or, would you like to argue with me; like Gau-Loa did?"
A split second later and all twelve girls were kneeling in front of the black and green clothed female.
"What are you going to do with us?" Ling asked again.
The figure looked at them, looked at her partner, and then looked back at them, before replying. "I guess I have no choice, but to continue this business; however some changes need to be made. I want you to remove the lanterns, as the shop is now closed. I'll come by early tomorrow morning to familiarize myself with everyone and work on remodeling the building."
"How will we know who you are?" Ling asked.
The figure lifted up her hand and pulled her hood down, revealing her sun kissed tanned face and dazzling green eyes to them. "Call me, Taja."
"We await your arrival tomorrow Mistress Taja," Ling said as Taja placed her hood back on and left with her partners.
An hour and a half later, after having disposed of Gau-Loa's body, Zuko, Jin, and Yue sat atop a large clock tower, gazing up at the stars as they each slowly sipped a drink from a near by brewery that they called, Caffè.
"Well, are you going to say anything?" Zuko asked breaking the silence.
"What the hell were you thinking when you put me as a Mistress of a brothel?" Jin asked a little angrily.
"I was thinking of what was best for them and us." Zuko replied.
"How was that, best for anyone?" Jin asked.
"They need someone to be their owner. If word got out that their was a brothel with no owner, the place would be ripped apart. Also, the fact that it would be better to have a woman as the owner; given the previous owner's actions. Plus, this is your city and they're apart of this city," explained Zuko.
"So, what part of that is good for us?" Yue asked.
"This will help us build up a reputation. Plus, I don't know if either of you caught it, but we're supposed to end this war. To do that we can't stay in Ba Sing Se. Sooner or later we will have to leave and we will be needing plenty of money when we leave. This will help us in that." Lee replied.
"So, you want to use them and then leave them; is that it?" Jin asked.
"I never said that," snapped Zuko. "We can take them with us."
"How?" Yue asked.
"I don't know, but something will come up," he replied with a shrug. "Besides, they'll also be a great way to gather information."
"What makes you say that?" Jin asked.
"Because no man anywhere can keep his mouth shut around a woman of pleasure," Zuko replied with a snort.
Yue then asked, "Were you really going to harm those girls?"
"No, just had to make it seem that way," replied Zuko.
They then fell silent for several minutes, until Jin asked a question. "That old guy at Pao's Family Tea House, 'Mushi'. Is he really your uncle, Zuko?"
"Yes, that's my uncle Iroh. He is more commonly known as retired general Dragon of the West Prince Iroh." Zuko answered.
"Wait a minute, general Iroh is here?" Yue asked, wide-eyed.
"Retired general and yes, he's here. I'm here so of course he'll be here."
"So, he's your mother's uncle?" Jin asked.
"No, he's my father's older brother." Zuko corrected.
Yue and Jin fell silent as they pondered the effects of such a powerful firebender being in the city.
"So, what's up with your family, Jin?" Zuko asked.
"Whoa, whoa, hot stuff. We just got back together and you're taking shots at my family?" Jin asked.
"I'm not meaning to be rude Jin, but you said you were the only bender in your family and you're not." Zuko replied. "Three members of your family are firebenders."
Jin launched forward and grabbed her boyfriend's head into a head lock. "I can prove it." Zuko gasped out.
Releasing him Jin asked, "How?"
"I have a firebending technique that let's me see everything around me based on it's heat. Firebenders have a naturally higher body temperature then others. Also, if you place a candle next to a sleeping firebender, the candle will get brighter."
"Are you sure three members of my family are firebenders?" Jin asked.
"Positive." Zuko replied. "Three members on the second floor of your house are firebenders. And, they're short too."
Jin sighed softly to herself. There were only three members in her family, who were short at the moment; the family triplets. 'Maro, Kane, Zena,' she thought fondly of her youngest siblings.
"What are we going to do about this suppose 'master killer' and the Dai Li agent, Guam?" Yue asked.
"We'll need to find Guam first. From him, will find out more and be a step closer to this killer," replied Zuko after finishing his drink. "The only problem is how do we find a single Dai Li agent."
"There's a list." Jin replied. "A list of all the Dai Li agent's homes in the city. We get that list and we'll know where he lives."
"And just where is this list?" Yue asked.
"The Earth King's Palace," replied Jin in a deadpanned voice.
"Oh thank goodness! I was afraid it was going to be easy." Zuko commented overdramatically.
Unable to help herself, Jin started laughing and soon all three of them were laughing at the complete foolishness of life.
It was dark, so dark that it was nigh but impossible to see. And sad, despair filled the air so heavily that it was frozen. This, was the Varsealm; an infantine void of darkness.
"Failed us, it did. Failed the scout has," spoke a shrill voice through the darkness.
"It was inevitable of that one's failure. It was never able to control its hunger," replied a deep ragged voice. "Besides, we have what we want."
"Champions there are. Champions of the Elders."
"Yes, and they must be dealt with. Everyday they live they grow stronger."
"Frees the Aku. Send the shape-shifter."
"NO! If we let lose Aku, we'll never hear the end of it. …Besides, if he does manage to kill the champions, we may not be able to reseal him."
"Free Aku. Have champions kills him. Problem end."
"Then the champions would become stronger. What then?"
"Stronger they may become. After battle champions weak. Have pet kill them."
"And should they prove more resilient?"
"Pet over use stay its usefulness anyway. Better pet have we found."
"What 'pet' would this be?"
"Pet of four thousand years. Fire pet. Pet named Azula."
Instead of replying, the second voice laughed. Laughed in glee at the destruction, that was to come. After four thousand years of waiting, they had finally found one of fire able to be their destroyer. A dark day would be coming once again.
Jin sighed as she walked to what was now, her brothel. It was early in the morning and all she wanted to do was crawl back into bed and pretend that nothing was different with her life. The sad fact was, her life had changed. After grabbing a book from the chamber's library the previous night, on running a brothel and the ownership changes that came with it, she headed home and tried Zuko's advice. Regrettably, Zuko had been right. Her three youngest siblings were firebenders. But how?
She knew that they were her siblings and her father was indeed their father. After all, a woman doesn't get that big during pregnancy and scream that much during labor, without knowing who her children are. Add to the fact, that her mother would sooner kill herself than cheat on her father and it was a sure bet that Koto was the father.
Could the situation with Kane, Maro, Zena be similar to her own situation? She was an Earthbender, and the greatest one at that, but there were no known Earthbeders in her family. So, could there have been some long lost relative, who was a Firebender? Sadly, there was no time to look into it. She, Zuko, and Yue had a drug peddling Dai Li agent and a mass murder to worry about; personally, she had this brothel to run, keeping it hidden from her mother, and helping the girls to worry about. It wasn't even light out yet and already she had gone to the title office to claim ownership of the 'Badger-Mole Lounge'. Since she had heard that Gau-Loa was a greedy man, she had gotten an upgrade form as well. If she was lucky, a change in status would brighten up the girls.
'But that name has got to change,' She thought to herself.
She soon walked into the brothel and using her Earthbending found were the girls where. As she entered the kitchen, were the twelve girls had been eating breakfast, they quickly scrambled to stand up.
"Sit down," Taja said loudly stopping them all in their movements.
"Are you sure?" asked a timid voice from one of the younger girls.
"I am, sure." Taja replied. "Ladies, I am not Gau-Loa. You have no need to fear me. I know given your previous owner, that that is going to be hard to do. But I do hope that you will be able to put your trust in me."
The twelve girls looked at each other and slowly sat back down.
Pulling out the papers, Taja spoke once again, "As this place is changing ownership, I am giving you this one chance to leave; should you so desire."
"You'd let us leave?" asked a more 'full-figured' girl.
"Right now, yes? I need to fill out the change in ownership, so I will need each of you to fill out one of these papers." Taja replied as she passed out the papers. "Any girl, who doesn't want to stay, may leave. However, to keep these place from being declared an owner-free brothel, the paper will need to be filed by six this afternoon. So, I'll need these papers back as soon as possible. Now who's staying?"
Every girl raised their hand.
"None of you want to leave?" Taja asked disbelievingly.
"We don't have anywhere else to go," replied Ling. "If we go out there will be tore apart. We know it's not much better in here, but at least we have each other."
"Well, now you have me." Taja told them.
"What can you do?" one of the girls asked in sarcastic tone.
Seeing a big metal pot by the sink, Taja turned to the girls and asked, "Are you finished with that pot for now?" Seeing them nod, she continued, "I can do this," With a hard stomp of her foot and a quick thrust of her hand; she crushed the pot down to the size of a tea cup. She then turned back to the gob smacked girls and said, in a voice that promised to bring pain, "I am the greatest Earthbender in existence. If anyone tries to fuck with my girls they will be in a new world of pain when I pull their bones out. Do I make myself, very clear?"
The girls nodded their heads vigorously at this.
Taja then smiled broadly and said, "Then I hope you'll be able to depend on me. Now, get those papers filled out, while Mistress Taja takes a look around." She then turned and walked quietly out of the room. As soon as she was gone, there was a mad scramble to start filling in the profile papers.
Taja spent twenty minutes quickly looking around at what needed to be fixed around the place. It was obvious that the girls needed new bedding and sheets. Several of the bathrooms needed to be fixed and the walls could stand to be bent back together where cracks were forming. It was obvious that Gau-Loa didn't want to spend any money on an Earthbender to come in and fix it.
As she walked back down stairs she noticed the tall black skinned girl, who had spoken last night, walk up to her with a stack of papers in her hands. "All of the paper work is finished Mistress," she said as she handed the papers to Taja.
"Thank you…" she began to say, but couldn't recall the girl's name.
"Ling, Mistress."
"Thank you very much, Ling. If any of the girls need me, I will be going over the profiles in the office. Also, we are closed for the day, so don't let anyone in," Taja instructed.
"Yes, Mistress."
Taja stepped into what used to be Gau-Loa's office and was now her office. The office was rather drab. The walls were bare and the only thing in the office was a mid-sized desk and large safe pushed into a corner. The safe stood a little taller than six feet, it had a width a little over two feet, and was slightly longer than three feet. So, it was a large safe.
Taja sat down at the desk and began to read over the profile papers. 'Now, let's see who my bitches are,' She thought to herself.
Name: Ling
Age: 21
Height: 6'8"
Skin Tone: Black
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Breast Size: FF
Specialty: Lactation
Name: Piccola
Age: 14
Height: 5'3"
Skin Tone: White
Hair Color: Red
Eye Color: Green
Breast Size: B
Specialty: N/A
Name: Ju-Li
Age: 16
Height: 5'8"
Skin Tone: Bronzed
Hair Color: Dark Brown
Eye Color: Blue
Breast Size: D
Specialty: Waterbender
Name: Xi
Age: 14
Height: 5'5"
Skin Tone: Black
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Gold
Breast Size: DD
Specialty: N/A
Name: Kin
Age: 18
Height: 6'
Skin Tone: White
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Green
Breast Size: C
Specialty: Screamer
Name: Yori
Age: 15
Height: 5'6"
Skin Tone: Bronzed
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Green (right eye) Blue (left eye)
Breast Size: E
Specialty: A member of the E sisters
Name: Pu
Age: 14
Height: 4'10"
Skin Tone: Bronzed
Hair Color: Dark Red
Eye Color: Grey
Breast Size: E
Specialty: Dancing
Name: Ayame
Age: 20
Height: 5'10"
Skin Tone: White
Hair Color: Dark Brown with Natural Blonde highlights
Eye Color: Frosted Green (blind)
Breast Size: F
Specialty: Earthbender, Sees with Earthbending
Name: Mar
Age: 17
Height: 5'9"
Skin Tone: Black
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Green
Breast Size: DD
Specialty: Lactation
Name: Matoko
Age: 16
Height: 6'1"
Skin Tone: Ivory White
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Golden
Breast Size: C
Specialty: N/A
Name: Tigger
Age: 15
Height: 5'3"
Skin Tone: Bronzed
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Bright Green
Breast Size: E
Specialty: Earthbender, A member of the E sisters
Name: Chan
Age: 15
Height: 5'6"
Skin Tone: Heavily Bronzed
Hair Color: Dark Brown
Eye Color: Dark Blue
Breast Size: E
Specialty: Waterbender, A member of the E sisters
"Looks like I've got an interesting bunch of girls." Taja said aloud to herself.
She quickly located a quill and a bottle of ink and began to fill out the ownership papers. As Taja finished filling out the papers a couple of minutes later, she noticed a large key in the front drawer of the desk. She picked up the key and gave it a look over and then looked at the vault. Taja walked over to the vault and used the key to open it. Once the door was opened she was greeted by three columns of boxes, and each column had twenty-four boxes. She pulled out one of the boxes and was surprised by its weight. She was also surprised to see more boxes behind it; resulting in nine columns of boxes and each column holding twenty-four boxes. Each box was a foot long, three inches tall, and eight inches wide.
'Why would Gau-Loa have two hundred and sixteen boxes in a vault like this?' Taja thought to herself. It was then that she noticed that on the front of each box the number for one thousand was written out. 'A thousand? A thousand what?'
She carefully took off the lid and her eyes widened at what she saw. The box was filled with a thousand gold pieces!
'There's enough gold here to take care of my family for a year! And that fat son of a bitch was just hording it all to himself.' She thought angrily to herself. 'With each box holding a thousand gold pieces and there being two hundred and sixteen boxes… That bastard was hording two hundred and sixteen thousand gold pieces!'
As she looked around the room in anger over Gau-Loa's greediness, Taja did a double take at the desk. There, slightly off to the side, were the upgrade papers she had grabbed on a whim. She looked at the gold, looked at the papers, looked at the gold, and as she looked back at the papers a smile formed on her lips. "Gau-Loa, get ready to roll in your grave you roasted, bastard," she said as she walked over to the desk and began filling out the papers to get her girls out of Lower Ring.
While their Mistress was looking over their profiles in her office, several of the girls were just sitting around the lobby. Since they were closed there wasn't much to do. Matoko had her long black her long black her tied back into a pony tail and was reading a story to Pu, who was sitting on her lap, about dancing. Chan, Tigger, and Yori, or the 'E sisters' as they called themselves, were sitting on the floor painting their nails with what limited colors were available to them. Which were green, light green, and dark green; such an array of choices.
"Hey Matoko, what do you think about our new Mistress?" Pu asked in her soft child-like voice that had yet to fade.
"I'm unsure at the moment," replied Matoko with her business like attitude. It was odd how Pu, was rambunctious and playfull, would adopt Matoko, who was strict and to the point, as her surrogate older sister. "Besides, I'm more concerned bout that Firebender showing back up."
"I thought he was handsome!" Pu piped up. This caused the four other girls to look at her in confusion.
"Pu, you couldn't even see his face. None of us could," Tigger reasoned, the others nodding in agreement.
"So! He's still handsome," the young girl shot back.
"He's a Firebender and Firebenders are monsters." Matoko said with distaste in her voice.
"But you're a Firebender too, Matoko." Pu said as she looked up from between her sister's breasts.
Matoko's eyes widened in horror; sure everyone at the brothel knew, but that didn't mean she liked having it talked about. "Hush up about that, Pu." She said in a snapped.
Before anymore could be said, they heard their Mistress's voice shouting, "Everyone to the lobby, now."
Taja looked around the room as the girls gathered into the lobby. Deciding to get right to the point, she spoke saying, "Ling and Ayame, please step forward."
Doing as was asked of them, the two step away from the other and towards their Mistress.
"As you all know, I was busy filling out the paper work to take over this place," Taja started. "What you may not know is that I was also filling out the paper work to upgrade our status. Ling, you will e coming with me to turn the paper work in. Ayame, you are in charge of the girls while I'm out. I want everyone to start packing. Any questions?"
A girl slightly older than she with a black skin tone and green eyes raised her hand.
"Yes…?"
"My name is Mar, Mistress. My question is, where are we upgrading to, Red District One or Red District Two?" The girl asked.
"We're upgrading to Ba Sing Se's Middle Ring Crimson District," replied Taja in complete seriousness.
The girls looked at their Mistress in shock, some with only widened eyes and others with their mouths handing open. Everyone knew about the Crimson District, as it was the only district in Ba Sing Se's Middle Ring that allowed brothels. In the Lower Ring the girls were knows as prostitutes, but in the Middle Ring they were referred to as courtesans. Sure, it was essentially the same thing, but a prostitute couldn't refuse a paying customer; where as a courtesan could. Prostitutes were not allowed to scilicet men on the street, but a courtesan could; provided it was only done in the Crimson District.
The thing that was shocking them was that no brothel had ever made such a large jump in power before. It took most brothels in Red District One three years to upgrade.
Taja smirked inwardly to herself. "Ling, lets go," she said as she turned to leave. "I expect everyone to be ready to go when we get back," Taja called over her shoulder as she and Ling walked through the door.
After a few minutes of walking, Ling asked, "Mstress, where are we going? This isn't the way to the business office."
"I know, but if we're to belong in the Middle Ring; we need to look like we belong in the Middle Ring. So, we're going shopping," Taja explained. "Now here, I want you to hold on to these." She said as she handed the papers to her.
"The papers, Mistress?"
"I want you to protect them and not lose them. I'll be protecting you. If anything happens to those papers, everything will have been for nothing, do you understand?"
Ling nodded her head in understanding. This was finally their chance to be something, and she wouldn't let anything happen to it.
"Plus, it's easier to Earthbend," Taja said, right before wrapping their feet in earth and having the earth swallow them.
"What was that?" Ling asked in a scared voice, once they had resurfaced.
"That was me earthending us to the other side of the Middle Ring," Replied Taja.
Ling id a double take when she heard, 'other side of the Middle Ring', as it took fifteen minutes by stone train and an hour and a half of good steady walking, if on foot. But they had only been underground for a few seconds. Looking around, she could tell it wasn't the Lower Ring. The streets were cleaner, the shops were more spread out, and there was actual grass here and there, unlike the Lower Ring were it's all just dirt and stone.
"Come on," Taja said as she dragged Ling to a nearby store.
Azula, Crown Princess of the Fire Nation looked over the scrolls that the guard had brought to her. "Is this everything?" She asked in a tone that promised pain if any information had been left out.
"Yes, Princess. That was all the information we could gain from them. It took some time, but everyone but their leader talked," replied the guard.
"I suppose this Suki, should be commended then," she said as she started to read over the information. "Send her to the Boiling Rock."
"I cannot do that Princess."
Azula stopped her reading and snapped her head directly at the guard. "And why not?"
"Orders from Fire Lord Ozai, Princess. All prisoners of war are to be sent to the Mount, no exceptions," replied the guard quickly.
"Fine. Now get out of my sight."
The guard quickly left and Azula continued her reading once more. As she read a plan began to form in her mind. Once she was done, she went to the aviary and sent word to her father by messenger hawk. She then left the aviary to find her friends, the bouncy acrobat Ty Lee and the knife throwing Mai; her two most loyal companions.
They would need to move quickly, as it was a long, long way to Ba Sing Se.
Ling eyes shifted nervously back and forth as she walked down the street, behind her young Mistress. It had only taken them a little over an hour and a half to get all of the shopping done. Now, they were walking down the street in new clothes, new shoes, and their hair styled. It wasn't anything overly fancy, but everyone on the street was given them second glances.
Ling herself had dark green slippers with silver stitching. She was wearing semi-transparent dark green pants that were baggy around her feet. Her top was a dark green bikini top with light green sequins sewn in. Tassels hung from the bikini top and at the end of each one was a small emerald. On each arm she wore silver armbands and silver wrist bands. Connecting the two bands together on each arm were two dark green cloths that would bellow out in the wind. The final piece of her outfit was a soft dark green transparent veil that covered her mouth.
Taja's outfit was just as elaborate and stunning. She was wearing a short open kimono with golden stitching. On the kimono there was a golden dragon sewn into it. She had on three inch wooden platform open-toed boots; that went up to her knees. The low cut of the kimono gave a perfect show of her legs and a full face of cleavage.
If it wasn't the clothes they were looking at, it may have been that her Mistress was walking down the street as though she owned the place. Or it could have been, the fact that Taja had decided to keep her money pouch between her breasts. Whatever the reason, people stared all the way until they got to the business office.
Instead of waiting for several hours, like most people would have to, Taja just flashed some gold pieces and before she knew it, she and Ling were sitting in the office of a prime locater waiting for him to show.
As they waited Ling glanced down at the papers and noticed an odd name. "Mistress, who is Jin?"
"That's me," replied Taja. "My real name is Jin."
"Why did you give us a fake name?"
"With what you saw me doing last night, I can't have anyone connect that back to my family."
"Oh," Ling replied softly. "What are you planning to do with us?"
"I plan to upgrade our status, right now. After that, everyone is going to the doctor; while I remodel our new place. I'll then have everyone go to a nearby tattoo parlor to mark each of you as mine."
"Are we still going to be called the Badger-Mole Lounge?" Ling asked in a slight wince. She had always hated that name.
"No. From now on, it's 'Taja's Playground'." Replied Taja.
Before anymore could be said, the door opened revealing an older man who walked around to the desk and sat down. He had graying hair and a full beard. "Good morning, Mrs. Taja. I am Gwa-Po," he said in greeting. "Do you have your papers?"
Taja took the papers from Ling and handed them to Gwa-Po. Who spent several minutes looking over the papers before looking up and saying, "Well, everything looks in order, but I'm afraid I can't help you."
Taking what the man had said in stride, Taja simply leaned forward; resting her breasts on top of his desk and asked in an innocent voice, "Really? You can't help little old me?"
Beads of sweat began to form on the back of Gwa-Po's neck. "Nope, I'm sorry." He replied in a stutter.
"Even if it was made worth your while?" Taja asked as she traced patterns on her breasts. Seeing the blush on the man's cheeks, Taja began to pull her money pouch out from between her breast, moaning as she did so. Once the pouch was out, she sighed as though in ecstasy. Gently she tossed the bag of coins to him.
Gwa-Po, carefully opened the bag and peeked inside. His eyes widened at what he saw, there had to be nearly five hundred gold pieces in the bag. He quickly closed the bag and tucked it away in a drawer before looking back at the two women. "Something just opened up."
Twenty minutes later Taja and Ling were walking down the street and Taja was the proud new owner of a four story building in Ba Sing Se's Crimson District.
"I can't believe you were able to bribe him with gold, Mistress," Ling said as they walked down the street to get the girls. "I thought for a moment you were going to have sex with him."
"Oh please, if any man tries to have sex with me I'll snap his neck," replied Taja. "Besides, men are stupid. Just show them a little eye candy and they fall all over themselves."
"Have you had sex with a man before," Ling asked wondering if her Mistress had had a bad experience.
"Actually, I'm a virgin Ling," Taja replied in complete honesty.
"You're a virgin and yet you now own a brothel?"
"Yes. Is there something wrong with that?"
"No, it's just so rare."
After a few more minutes of walking, Ling asked, "Is it because you like girls?"
"WHAT?" Taja shrieked.
"The reason you havn't had sex with a guy, is it because you like girls?"
"I prefer both," Taja said with a blush. "However, I lean more towards guys. Also, I'm hoping to have found my one." She said with a sigh.
"Who?"
"The Firebender from last night, is the guy I'm dating."
"Him? Wasn't he going to attack us?" Ling asked shocked.
"No, he wasn't going to," replied Taja. That was mostly just for show."
Believing her Mistress, Ling shrugged and followed.
The room was dark and barren, all except for a lone shadowy figure. A dark mist slowly began to fill the room.
"My pet, we have a mission for you." Spoke a deep rumpling voice.
"Yes… Master?" the figure asked.
"The Elder's Champions are here in the city. Find them and end them." Spoke the voice.
"As you wish… my master." The figure replied as its eyes started to glow yellow.
Next Chapter: Level 26
I would like to thank FireChildSlytherrin5 for her help on the story. Especially, the idea for the brothel. I would like to clear something up, about the chapter. Yes, Jin now owns a brothel. Given from what we've seen of the Avatarverse society, it wouldn't be uncommon for a woman to work at or own a brothel. In fact, it used to be seen as a good thing for a woman to be a prostitute.
As always, if there are any questions please feel free to ask them.
I hope you will all leave me some reviews.