.chapter nine, the past, and mutiny.

While Hayate stood, dumbstruck, Kiro awoke and entered the main tearoom. He yawned, and, upon hearing the grim news, didn't seem fazed. "I told you, didn't I?" He said to Hayate without making eye contact. His head pulsing, Hayate felt the urge to drive his fist into Kiro's stomach, and watch the fool buckle over and collapse on the ground, swallowing his words, somewhat literally.

Of course Hayate didn't.

He didn't notice Sukai enter either, but she seemed just as surprised and mournful as he was.

After an impromptu moment of silence, Suyin got up and yawned. "I stayed up… all night." She said, somewhat solemnly. "Old lady, I'm going to bed." She rose, and pushed the three aside, opening the sliding door and making her way down the hall. Kiro seemed nonchalant and stared at the ceiling, hands in the pockets of his white button-up shirt. Hayate, who was staring around the room but mostly at the floor, didn't notice a flower stitched into Kiro's sleeve; it must have been on his jacket.

Sukai was the only one that followed Suyin with her eyes. As the woman slowly walked into her room, the girl gasped as she opened the door to the "weapons room" just as the door leading to the main tearoom shut itself firmly. While Hayate and Kiro went to get something to eat, Sukai apologized and said she would like to change out of her pyjamas, and entered the incense-filled hallway.

Carefully, she walked over to the door leading to the weapons room. Pressing her ear against it, she realized that nothing could be heard. Did Suyin really come into this room, or was it only her imagination?

Either way, she slowly slid it open and, noticing no one inside, entered. She made her way to the center of the room and shuddered at the sharp, sickled and bludgeoning objects hanging on the walls around her. Taking another step, she groaned as a dirty sock lodged itself in between her toes and as she stepped on something wet. Not wanting to know what the latter was, she instead tried to examine the room further.

She noticed that, unlike theirs, it was better furnished. Nevertheless, the two sofas and armoire were almost invisible underneath the mountain of sheer trash. Then, as another door slid open and footsteps approached, she broke out in a cold sweat. Looking for a hiding spot, she almost impulsively dove into a pile of laundry when she heard a voice from the hall call her name.

"Sukai?"

Pivoting around, her hair fluttering about, she sighed in relief when she saw Kiro and Hayate. "Oh, it's only you two." They both walked in, Hayate leading the way, with Kiro examining the room carefully. "I was afraid you might be-"

"What the Hell?" Sukai, Kiro and Hayate's eyes opened wide as a frustrated Suyin emerged from the massive tower of dirty clothing situated in the center of the room. She swore. "Way to make a lot of noise." Closing her eyes, it was quiet for a moment, and then she sighed. "No use. I've lost my sleep." She took a seat on her tower of laundry as opposed to being submerged in it, and continued. "Losers."

An awkward silence filled the room, when Kiro finally spoke up. "Suyin, why," he began, shifting his eye contact to a weapon on the wall, "is your room filled with all of these weapons?"

She shrugged. "I'd love to explain it, but then I'd have to start way back and I don't have the ti-" Almost too quickly, Sukai spoke up. "It's okay, we have nothing to do anyways. We're listening." She had been curious as to who this Suyin woman really was. Suyin, slightly perplexed at the sudden response, shrugged it off and began telling her story.

"Well, for starters, I'm not even supposed to exist." She sneered. "I'd love to say my past was epic, full of action, adventure and tragedy, but it's just sad. Sad like pathetic more than sad like "cry me a river". I guess I'll start at the beginning…

My mom and dad were both Fire Navy ship captains. They knew each other really on a hi-bye basis. My dad was fit but pretty big and my mom, apparently, was beautiful. Anyways, my mom's sister, my aunt, was sub-captain of my dad's ship. My mom visited her one night, but got into my dad's cabin by mistake. The rest is history, I guess, and a month or so later my mom figured out she was pregnant.

Since they weren't married and it'd be scandalous for anyone to know, she did a really stupid thing after four months when she started "showing", and slashed her right leg with a knife. She blamed it on a battle injury and requested five months recovery time. Her request was denied, though, since as bad as the wound was it wasn't bad enough for five months. Frustrated, she sliced her left leg to the point that she pretended walking was impossible, and eventually she got the time she wanted.

Then she gave birth and gave me to my aunt, who claimed to have adopted me. Then my mom died from her legs, which freaking got infected when she slashed open the scars because she didn't want to get back to work right after giving birth." Sukai and Hayate cringed, with even Kiro looking slightly uncomfortable. "The slut deserved it." Uncomfortable, the three shifted as she continued her tale.

"So I didn't even know anything about having a dad and thought that my aunt was my mom, and you only needed a mommy. After all, there were no other kids on the boat, let alone babies. My aunt raised me until I was about seven, at which point she, a forty year old sailor, died from sickness. That life is tough, you know.

At that point my dad came clean, but I could never really think of him as my dad. He didn't really care, I don't think. I knew the boat pretty well so I just scavenged from the kitchens and killed time by practicing acrobatic moves my aunt taught me. I was pretty flexible, so I could do the splits really well and stuff. Other than that, I slept and wandered around the ship.

When I was eleven my dad and the sailors went to raid a small, seceding Fire Nation island, but my dad tripped on the battleground and landed on his stomach. A soldier stabbed him in the back and he died. I was watching from the boat, and he didn't make it farther than the beach. I felt a bit sad, but more grossed out by the whole thing since I had no real emotional attraction to him at all.

Everyone else came back to the ship safe, for the most part, and we set sail. No one really knew how to control it, so we pretty much spent the next few weeks going wherever the tide would take us. A lot of stuff happened, and in the end the ship sunk and I woke up in a small hut in the Earth Nation somewhere." She took a deep breath. "Then, more stuff happened and I ended up here a few years ago."

Frustrated at the brisk end to the story, Sukai growled. "That doesn't explain why you have an arsenal in here." Suyin shrugged. "I'll tell you that one later, but you should know that-" She stopped talking. "Do you guys hear that?" They listened carefully but no sound came to their ears. "It's obvious, isn't it? I mean, listen…"

They still could hear nothing.

Suyin grinned from ear to ear and ran towards the outer wall of her room, then pressed her ear against it. She motioned to the others to come; all they heard was the constant flowing of the stream. "Don't you guys… Can't you tell that there's…"

They looked perplexed.

Suyin shrugged and spoke while picking up a long bo staff from the wall. Strange symbols were embossed into the sides, and no one could decipher them on the spot. She ran for the door leading into the hall and pulled it open, filling the room with the unique scent of incense. "C'mon."

They looked at each other, unsure, but decided to comply with Suyin who was already on her way.

"Sir, I believe we're lost."

A tall, thin man with a long, oily moustache falling well beneath his chin posed his inquiry. His clothing was composed of various black undergarments with the main piece being an emerald vest. He addressed a short, stouter man who was struggling with a navigation wheel and cursing all the while.

"Are you doubting me?!" He spat, followed by countless other swears.

The taller man frowned. "We were supposed to bring this cargo to Lanzho City three days ago; if this map is correct, and maps tend to be most of the time, we are currently off the city of Sakuramura in the Southern Water tribe. Therefore, I can conclude that we are completely and hopelessly lost."

The short man cursed.

"Will you shut up and stop doubting your captain?"

At this, the taller man smirked. He reached into a loose pocket and pulled out a long, thin dagger which glistened in the sunlight. In a swift motion, he brought the frigid metal to the front of the man's neck, and it drew a thin line of blood from the mass of fat accumulated beneath his chin. He choked. "What is the meaning of-"

"Mutiny."

The larger man fell backwards all of a sudden. "You're going to commit mutiny alone? Haw, haw!" His immature chuckle made the taller assailant twitch. "Everyone, get him!" Spontaneously a dozen members of the crew leapt out from beneath the deck, and charged towards the taller man. They all sported rusted knives, which the man parried all too easily. The fat captain roared angrily as two of his crewmates fell to the other's superior swordplay, and the rest of the crew was more than hesitant to continue the assault. "Damn you, Guai!" He swore, spitting on the ground and drawing a cutlass from his waist.

"En garde." The man named Guai mouthed suavely. He kicked the deck with his right foot and from the boards of wood appeared an earthen blade. The captain cursed, yelled and charged.

He and Guai exchanged blows a few times although it was still clear that the latter was much quicker and able with his weapon. "Curses!" Shouted the captain. Guai smirked and turned his wrist, forcing the captain's cutlass out of his sweaty grip. "And that, Captain Biao," Guai began as the cutlass fell with a metallic clang to the ground, "is how it's done."

In a truly Spartan fasion, he raised his foot and thrust forward, slamming into the captain's solar plexus and driving him several feet backwards. The man coughed dryly once or twice, after which Guai clutched his blade and gripped it by the slicing edge, then rammed the hilt into his stomach, forcing him off the edge and into the waves. Guai sneered, and turned around to face his new crew.

"Well, we're turning around. We were supposed to be at Lanzho weeks ago. They probably think we're dead, so we can surprise them when we arrive with our merchandise. Better late then never." The crew members remained unmoving. "Well, what are you standing around doing nothing for?!" Guai fumed, snapping his fingers. "Get to your positions, now!" They complied, although reluctant. Rotating the navigation wheel several times, Guai smiled broadly.

"It's good to be king." He said to no one in particular.

All of a sudden time seemed to move in slow motion as a rotating shuriken approached, a weapon commonly used by ninja that was flat, circular, bearing four spikes and about ten centimeters from one tip of a spike to its symmetrical other. It planted itself in the wood inches from Guai's own face, and he remained frozen with terror. Was his crew already turning against him?

Two more of the weapons came forth, one missing and another skimming his right arm, cutting the black cloth and drawing a thin line of blood. He scoffed and searched for the source of the assault, but couldn't see anyone. "Come out, and show yourself, coward!" He once more conjured his blade of wood and stared into the void, expecting another onslaught, for a few seconds. He then heard screams from beneath his feet and a loud rumbling; suddenly the entire crew poured out, followed by a spontaneous stream of water. That wasn't any ordinary leak- the water was flowing in far too quickly, so violently. He cursed and leaned over a rail only to see that the flow had stopped, but every member of the crew was exposed- the offender, obviously an outsider, could now take them out in one quick sweep. But what was he to do? Returning underneath was suicidal with the tons of water that were waiting- No, they would fight.

"To arms!"

Each man took out a dagger, and Guai cringed at the realization that their weapons were such pathetic trinkets. Swearing, he ran over to the edge of the ship and crouched, his weight on his back leg and his front leg very close to the body. His front heel was raised, and he brought it down with force. A mass of earth from the shore dislocated itself and landed with a violent crash onto the ship. Punching it with determination, countless daggers of earth appeared and collapsed to the ground. Their blades were sharp; lined with stones. Guai panted heavily; just doing that was quite draining. Immediately every member of the crew had a new weapon with dozens to spare, and Guai waited for them to make the next move.

They waited a minute or two in silence, and then it came.

Like a bullet, a sphere of water about three inches across slammed into the wood at the foot of one crewmember. Guai swore and pointed towards a thicket of bushes. "They're in there!" A younger, more well-dressed man with pitch black hair and blazing red tips snapped his right finger, conjuring a minute spark which lit one of the boards of the ship on fire. Removing that board, he tossed it to another man who divided it into five equal pieces. Another man attached a strange piece of metal to the blazing end, miraculously without catching fire himself. All of a sudden five bows were out and strung, and the makeshift arrows were shot without a moment's hesitation towards the foliage.

A wall of water erected itself in between the projectiles and the leaves, stopping the blazing arms in a spontaneous steam. The water suddenly vanished in a smokescreen, having been pushed to the point of evaporation.

From the steam all of a sudden countless shuriken appeared, hitting many of their targets causing at least a fifth of the crew to collapse to the ground. Guai swore as one of the weapons nearly implanted itself in his shoulder blade. Grabbing two of the daggers himself, he forgot his fatigue and tossed them with exceptional force towards the bushes.

"What did you do to them, Suyin?"

From behind the shield of green Hayate inquired as to how exactly Suyin had managed to hit all of her targets from behind a veil of smoke, but she shrugged him off saying that this was not the time. After he posed his second query she sneered. "They're not dead, or at least, I didn't try to kill them. I just aimed straight at the pressure points and knocked them out cold."

Kiro and Sukai were breathing deeply; Kiro being responsible for a failed barrage of water bullets, only one of which even hit the boat. Sukai created a tower of water and turned it to steam quickly- she was tiring fast. Suyin, however, had yet to break a sweat. As per usual, Hayate felt utterly useless.

"Can I do something now?" He asked innocently, clutching his Kusarigama.

"No." Suyin answered bluntly.

"Ssh." Sukai added, hushing him.

"You couldn't do anything if you wanted to, Hayate, so I suggest you-"

"KNIVES!"

Hayate saw them coming first and covered his face instinctively, but the worry was needless as Kiro and Sukai neutralized them inches from the thicket.

"They know we're here. Isn't the entire concept of a surprise attack and hiding in the bushes now completely useless?" Hayate asked the three of them. They all groaned, but agreed that this was a now needless precaution. "Alright, Hayate, you'll get to do something now. We need a plan, so, everyone listen up…" Suyin began before forcing the three into a huddle.

Guai cursed. "And what did I do to deserve this?" He wondered aloud. There seemed to be no action coming from the bush, so he turned to his crew. "Prepare another barrage of blazing boards-this time, fire only two at a time and blast them once the barrier of water falls so they won't have time to react. That'll take care of them once and for-"

"Tidal Wave!"

A wall of water grew ominously and casted a shadow over the ship. Everyone stared dumbfounded at their imminent doom as it began to fall down towards them. When it was only a few feet from reaching them, it froze solid. They stared up at it, amazed.

"Now, Sukai!"

Suddenly part of the frozen wave evaporated, revealing a small hole through which a double helix of water appeared and divided to form two separate helixes, pinning down two crew members. Spontaneously, the entire wave unfroze itself and drenched the men below. A second later two waves shot Suyin and Hayate onto the ship, having the upper hand on the soaking crew. Hayate was nervous, but he knew that with Suyin by his side and the two Waterbenders backing them up, there was nothing to fear.

Randomly, Suyin turned around and ran inside the ship, below the deck. Hayate yelled after her. "Where are you going, Suyin?!" She brushed him off. "Hold 'em off for now, I'll be back in a second!"

He turned around, clutching a scythe in each hand. The men laughed heartily. "It's just a kid!" Came one. "We can take him out without even trying!" They laughed again. Hayate growled with a strange sensation of rage. He remembered that Suyin told him they were Earthbenders; they were the ones that destroyed Sakuramura. And they were taunting him now.

Seemingly to humor him, one man picked up his old rusty blade and walked over to him. "Are you ready, kid? I'll really take it easy, so try to not die on the first hit." He slowly and melodramatically swiped the blade from left to right. Hayate sneered and grabbed the scythe on the right and threw it in the air around the man's thick neck. The chain was around it, and Hayate smirked at the realization that the practice Suyin made him go through was apparently worth it. Grabbing both scythes, he pulled hard and, using all of his body weight, easily dragged the man to the ground, who fell unconscious with a groan.

Two other men watching scowled angrily. "Brat… He even took it easy on you!" They wielded their new, far more dangerous slicing weapons. At once, they both charged and Hayate felt his heart beat three times as quickly as usual. He tried to keep his calm and watched as the men approached, doing exactly as Suyin said, making his first priority the avoidance of their slicing arms. As the weapons fell down towards him, he sidestepped and watched the men growl as they missed. Smirking, he tossed the chain in the air, trying to weave it around one of their necks as he did to the first. However, he missed and the second scythe fell with a metallic clang to the ground. He swore and picked it up, but just as he regained his footing he noticed that one of the men was charging forward with his blade poised and ready to inflict death.

Instinctively, Hayate swung the kusarigama, watching as it shot through the air, cutting it like a knife through paper. With a sickening noise, the tip of the scythe dug into the assailant's left shoulder. He yelled a terrible scream and his weapon fell to the ground. Hayate grinned, although quite disturbed at the sight of the crimson flowing out of his arm. He pulled hard and removed his weapon, and the attacker fell with a thud.

below

The other man was stunned, so Hayate took it easy and tried to swing his weapon once more around his neck, but stopped his movement less than halfway through due to a sudden and terrible, unbearable pain.

If he turned around he would have seen that the man he just took down was still very conscious, and managed to dig his blade into Hayate's right lower leg. No longer able to sustain his balance, Hayate collapsed. It felt as though his leg was being torn apart; as though it blew up. He winced in pain, but, gathering the last of his strength, tripped the standing man in front of him with his kusarigama's chain.

After that success, he reached back with his right arm and pried the knife loose, cringing as it finally freed him of his suffering. Slowly, he rose and managed to stand once more on two feet, regardless of how faulty his balance was. However, there were still a good twenty men on board not including Guai, and he was dreaming in technicolor if ever he was expected to defeat them all and retain his life. Almost as though he read his mind, one of the crew members yelled a command.

"He got lucky with one, and really lucky with two! You could see how tough it was for him… Let's go five against one! He'll be screwed then, huh?"

Immediately five of the bandits at random charged towards Hayate, who fumbled with the two scythes. Am I… Supposed to beat them all? I can't even stand… I'm so screwed…

Losing his grip on the weapons, he knew it would end this way, and closed his eyes tightly.

I don't want to die, I don't want to die!