Disclaimer: I own nothing but pocket lint and a pretty good imagination... BooHoo
Okay people big announcement. If you got this tale on Story Alert you jumped right here, well I GOT A BETA! I know, awsome huh? that means less grammar and spelling misteaks as well as a few more jokes. bounce back to the AN's at the top of chapter one for a little intro of Richard Caine!
Second little thing; I am currently trying to get Forum up. I hope it will be fun, you readers can toss throries around and well have a higher level of interactivity then we do now. I don't know when I'll get all the kinks out but it will bare the same name as this story. So if you got a spare few minuites or you want to talk about what you just read hope on over!
K, I'm done
Curtain Up!
Sokka; Master of the Black Sword
By: The Jade Knight
Beta and Creative Consultant: Richard Caine
-Tournament Saga-
Chapter 5
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The Story of Sokka
Chapter 5: The Forgotten Past
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"Greetings, young man."
I sat up as fast as I could and quickly looked around for danger. There seemed to be no immediate threats, but where the hell was I? I knew that I had fallen asleep in the cave with the others last night after we had supper, but now I was ... where the bloody hell was I? I could see lush grass beneath my feet and as I was barefoot I could feel the cool morning dew upon the individual blades. But that was all I could see, anything beyond about ten feet was completely concealed due to the curtain of blindingly white fog that sat there like a chained guard dog.
"Who's there?" I called; my body tensing. I got no verbal response, but from the depths of the mist the outline of a man appeared and became clearer as he walked towards me. I nervously held my ground, not wanting to appear afraid. Sometimes a victim's fear was the trigger the psychos were waiting for. Good thing I wasn't freaked out in the slightest by all this fog and that disembodied voice. Good Luna, I can't even lie to myself convincingly.
"I come with peaceful intentions, I only wish to talk," came the voice again. This time I listened harder, trying to pick up any defining details in his voice. It was a little gravely, but spoken with a kind tone. I stared into the mist hard as he continued forward, the mist parting slowly letting me see more details.
He was tall, nearly seven feet, but he was built like a miner; broad shoulders packed with well used muscles. He wore a baggy robe that had a very old style cut. The hood that might be pulled up, plunging his face into shadows, lay flat on his back. He slowly approached with his large hands held empty at chest level to prove that he was unarmed and had no intentions of attacking with any bending. He had flaming red hair pulled back out of his bronzed face in a long tail that ran down his back. I would never forget his eyes. They were gold, the color of polished amber, and they seemed to glitter in the twilight fog, and… empty somehow. I couldn't put my finger on it exactly. He smiled as he stopped a short ways away from me and slowly lowered his hands.
"We have been waiting many ages to meet you; the first of the new generation of Shapers," he said, his smile widening. What did he mean by 'Shapers'? I wanted to ask him, but another question won out.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Mouretsu," he said calmly. I frowned and considered; that was an old name with older roots, maybe even pre-Diaspora, when all the nations spoke exactly the same tongue. I had seen it once in the library of that insane curmudgeon of an owl spirit that lived in the desert. I remember the section it was under said something about 'Shapers' too. But the details were escaping me.
"My name is Sokka," I said, but I didn't hold out my hand. There was a certain unnaturalness to this man, like he was more then what I or any other person could ever hope to become. "Do I know you?"
Mouretsu nodded solemnly, "In a way. Many centuries ago I was a great leader of our people."
"Our people? What is that supposed to mean?" I asked, now really confused. I got dropped into this weird place and this guy starts talking about being some kind of leader. "What? Like the chief of the Water Tribe?"
"No." He said kindly, and then he quickly looked behind him like he could hear someone coming toward us. "I am sorry to say that our time is very limited. There are many people who do not want us to talk."
"Who?"
"I do not have much more time Sokka, please let me finish. As I said, long ago I was the leader of a great race, and like any man burdened with power I did my best to use it for the greater good. But our people were wrongfully accused by a very powerful and mislead woman, and because she was the Avatar of that time, few questioned her beliefs."
Mouretsu face looked distant and tired, his eyes focusing on something far away. "We were accused of things… horrible atrocities. We attempted many times to prove our innocence. It was fruitless. A war began, unlike any that has been seen since, and the forces unleashed nearly shattered our world."
I blinked. If this… whoever this was, was right, I should have heard of this; at least tangentially. There would be some record, or a story. I wanted to interrupt, to ask him for more, but he continued his speech in a hurried rush, squinting into the surrounding fog.
"And then the war was over, and our entire race was broken; gone. All our great works left undone, and records of our people dust on the winds," he said, voice trailing into a whisper. Then he turned his eyes on me, and even though he still had a kind smile his eyes seemed utterly empty of any emotion. "But you have the gift; you could resurrect the old ways and once again bring our race back to its old brilliance."
"I don't understand." I said. My head was starting to hurt, this was all coming a little fast; I still didn't even know where I was. Now, a red haired titan of a man was claiming I had to repopulate the world. I suppose I've had worse dreams, when you get down to it. The only damn problem was that this felt far too real to be a dream. Mouretsu turned his blank eyed stare away from me to gaze into the fog again.
"Do not worry Sokka; all will be made clear. Our time is very short, but it is critical that you know that there are those who wish to mislead you," he stated. The grove began to feel colder and emptier as Moretsu made the first genuine expression I'd seen; a look of grim defiance. "One of these deceivers is on her way right now. Whatever you do, do not listen to her. She will lie to distract you, and then lead you to your doom. Our race must survive," Looking back his eyes went wide, blank pupils dilating even further until I could hardly see the color of his eyes. "You must not fail, my son."
Before I could get another word out he turned and ran back into the mist. I followed his trailing footprints, and where his hide boots met the grass a rim of hoarfrost spider-webbed outwards, freezing the stalks in place.
At that point, I admitted to myself that not only did I have no idea what the hell was going on, I was being stalked by something whose bad mood could freeze water. It's nice to know that at least the little things never changed.
"It is good to see you again Destined One."
Brilliant, it's another one. A small shadow moved in the fog, appear and vanishing just as quickly. I took a step back, not sensing danger, but being cautious until I figured out what in the bleeding hell was going on. The sound of the voice was non-localized. It could be anywhere. I closed my eyes and opened my ears. Placing a hand on the hilt of my blade, I called into the white nothingness. "Who are you? I warn you, I'm armed."
The voice moved no closer but a soft address floated to me from the hidden reaches of the fog. "Yes I know Destined One, but you have as little to fear from me now as when we first met." Frowning I thought hard, I knew that voice. I was sure I had heard it before, but where?
The Old Woman! My eyes snapped open as I found the location of the voice.
The shadow moved again and from the blank whiteness directly in front of me the gray cat I had seen after my confusing escapade with the old woman appeared. It was small, clearly fully grown but still easily held in a single hand. It crept slowly toward me, not in fear, but in a sublimely feline arrogance. When it was just a few feet from me it sat back on its haunches and considered me carefully. "I must say that we are very please that you have managed to make your way here so soon."
I stared for what seemed like forever, there was no way I just saw that. I shook my head hard, trying to get it to work properly.
The cat's mouth had moved.
And words had come out.
Words I understood.
And to make things worse as I was trying to desperately make the world make sense the cat shook with barely contained laughter, clearly at my confusion. Okay, that's it, all of the stress of running from the Fire-Nation and trying to deal with Toph had finally caught up with me.
I'd gone insane. Weeeee!
Something of what I was thinking must have shown on my face. "No Destined One, you are not going mad. I am speaking to you in Man's tongue."
"Cats don't talk." I said as firmly as I could; seeing as I was also trying to convince myself.
"That is true Destined One; but I am not a cat."
I looked down at the fluffy little gray creature before me, staring right into its little yellow eyes. "You look like a cat to me."
"Yes, I have taken the form of a feline but I am much more." The cat said slowly as if considering something. "You do not know where you are, do you?"
"No." I admitted.
Without warning the cat got up, I tensed for a moment before the feline slowly started to circle me, not coming any closer. I forced myself to relax a bit. Sure, it was only a talking cat in a place that for all you know doesn't exist past ten feet. Wait, something had been bugging at me since I had got in here.
"What do you see?" asked the cat with a surprisingly patient tone. I knew it said it wasn't a cat but what the hell was I supposed to call it?
I toyed with the idea of lying, that fire in the tent had been scary. What if it was waiting for me to let down my guard so it could attempt to roast me again? But the cat, woman? It had not done me any actual harm yet -mental trauma aside- and it had not made any hostile moves. Looking to my instincts I thought I could trust it not to have ill intent; at least, any obvious ill intent.
"I see a little gray cat," I said with just enough venom that I hoped the fleabag knew I wanted a better explanation regarding what it was. "About ten feet of green grass around me and a wall of fog-" I stopped short as everything in front of me darkened.
I squinted hard and tried to bring the new shadow into focus. My hand had once again made its way onto the hilt of my sword, my feet spaced in a ready position. This place felt weird as hell and I was more than a little edgy. Slowly I picked out details and started to piece it together. "I also see a large animal in the fog. Sort of like a dog."
"Or a wolf?" asked the cat.
"Yes." I answered, watching as the shadow faded back into the fog. I remembered what she had said about a white wolf the last time we had met, but I didn't see how it was connected. I felt like the wolf had been there watching me and had not expected me to see it. Ha; good. About time someone other than me got weirded out. Keeping an eye on the place the wolf had faded away I released my grip on my sword again. "So, are you going to tell me where I am?"
"How does this place make you feel?" The cat asked, ignoring or dismissing my comment about my location as it completed circled me and sat back down in front of me.
That was a weird question to ask. 'How does this place make me feel?' What was this thing, my psychiatrist? Are we going to talk about my child hood and look at ink blots next? With a sigh I kept my -very witty- comments to myself. "It feels off, like I'm somewhere I'm not supposed to be ... yet." Looking down I saw glee in the eyes of the cat. "And it's kind of familiar, like I've been here before."
"You have," said the cat bluntly.
I frowned. "I think I would remember being trapped in a foggy place with a talking cat who thinks its a shrink."
Again the cat laughed, "No, you were never meant to even have the vaguest feeling that you were ever here. Your memory of this place should never have existed. Yet here we are."
"Why?" I asked, more then a little confused at that last statement.
"Because Destined One, the last time you were here, you were a prisoner being held by an angry forest spirit."
"What?" I screamed jumping back from the cat. What the hell did all of that mean? Alive, was she going to try to kill me. And then there's – Wait. Angry forest spirit, it couldn't be that panda bear thing could it?
No way. There was no way in any of the seven hells I was familiar with that this was possible. "Am I in the spirit world?" I asked in a voice barely over a whisper, my voice shaking slightly.
"Yes, Destined One," said the cat in a calming voice. I fell back onto the ground hard as the full effect of what was happening overwhelmed me. For a long time I was silent, trying to absorb what was happening. How was I in the Spirit World? Only Aang was supposed to be able to come here physically. Unless... I tried to fight a question past my paralyzed lips but I couldn't seem to voice my fear. Finally after what seemed like an eternity I worked up the courage.
"Am I dead?" I asked fearfully.
"No, Destined One," I felt my stress collapse inward with a sigh relief. "That is why it is so fantastic that you are here. The only living being to ever pass into the spirit world consciously in the last forty thousand years has been the Avatar."
"But Aang is the bridge between the worlds; I'm just a guy with a sword!" I cried pointing at the sword on my back for completely unnecessary emphasis.
"Yes, you are not a bridge and you never will be. That ability will forever rest with the Avatar. But you are one of the only people in nearly forty millennia to attain the power of the Old Ones, the ones that came before the elemental benders. And one of The Lost's abilities was to be able to project their minds into the Spirit World for short periods."
"So I'm not dead?" I asked, still a little unsure of what was happening.
"No Destined One," said the cat, with that tone in her voice that made me think she was enjoying this more than was healthy for even a prophetic talking hairball. "You are still alive, and you will be returning to your body shortly. But you came here for a reason."
"Why do you keep calling me the Destined One?" I asked still trying to regain my mental footing; the bloody Spirit World!
"Because you have shown that you may be the one destined to resurrect the old ways and to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Avatar as he faces the coming darkness."
I would have laughed if I wasn't in shock. "Aang is the Avatar, and there's no way in hell I'll attain powers sufficient to say I'm shoulder to shoulder with him."
"You will have different powers than the Avatar. But they will be of a kind not seen in Man's written history. These abilities will be so different from anything seen today that you will have a great advantage; one that cannot be anticipated by your enemies. But such a power must be wielded by one who is possessed of a pure heart. You must become one who puts all others ahead of their own self, much like the Avatar. If you manage this feat you will tap into a primal power all your own."
"Primal power?" I asked, unable to keep my irritation controlled anymore. "What does that mean, and what do you mean 'like the Avatar'"
I couldn't help myself. Aang was a walking natural disaster already, even if he had only mastered a single element and had a shaky grasp on the next two in his cycle. But once he mastered all four he could be able to defeat entire armies with little difficulty; there was no way I could ever contend with that.
"The Avatar is a fist, with enough muscle behind it a fist can shatter stone. However, despite this power, there is a limit to how much force you can place behind a fist before it breaks itself. As the Avatar is a shattering fist, you shall be a piercing dart. A device that, using clever thought and careful movements can shatter the rock with very little actual power. Each is valuable, powerful, and necessary in its own way, and both are needed if the world is to be balanced. " The cat stopped for a moment, as if considering what to tell me. "Do you know that the nature of the world is balance? The Yin and Yang?"
"Yes, I've heard that mentioned a few times."
"Do you believe in it?"
"No, not entirely."
"Why?"
"The Avatar." I said simply. "He is the single most powerful being in the world. He has no equal and so there is imbalance."
The cat grinned. Well I didn't really see it grin, it was like I got the feeling it would grin if it could. Wow that sounded mental, even to me.
"Exactly, the Avatar is the only imbalance in the world, correct? The one person, that if influenced by the force of the darkness would be unstoppable, would rule the world indisputably. Do you agree?"
"I guess. But he's the Avatar; he's the force of good in the world. He can't become a dark lord like you're saying."
The cat seemed to grin wider at my choice of 'dark lord'. "The Avatar is human, and that means that he is as corruptible as any of you. He is the greatest power in the world, Destined One. All that power might go to his head."
"Are you saying Aang might go evil?" I asked getting a little pissed off. Aang was a close friend of mine and I would not allow a mangy, fleabitten, cat-god-woman-thing to talk crap about him; even if she could roast me in an instant. I'm nice and smart that way.
"Calm yourself Destined One, I mean no offense. I am simply presenting you with the information that will lead you to one of the greatest secrets of the Old World."
I felt my skepticism return with gale force strength. Greatest secrets of the Old World? I didn't even know there was one; and as Katara would tell anyone who listened, I know an awful lot. Usually more than is good for me? Maybe Fluffy McHairball was just here to mess with my mind. It would be a good way to turn me against Aang. But something was bugging me. If the world was supposed to be balanced, Yin and Yang and all that Jazz, then what is ... Aang's ... Yang.
I froze, a cold chill of fear and realization trickling down my newly re-paralyzed spine. My mouth worked, trying to form words but nothing came out. If what she said was true then that meant – that there was – my god...
"I see you now understand Destined One," said the cat sadly.
"Who was it, how, where?" I asked. My breathing felt coarse, and my entire body was numb. I looked at the cat as I felt my own anger rising. Something must have happened, because when I met her eyes, I wasn't the one to look away; she was. And as the cat turned from me to begin pacing once more, I caught the hint of an expression I'd never seen on a spirit's face before; fear.
"Before the elements bent to the hands of the humans, there was another type of power, a much finer art than the codes of bending. Very few, save for the Old Ones, had the ability to master this power. It was rare and very wild, almost uncontrollable. Unlike the elements it was not a component life, it was alive, having a consciousness of its own. It held the knowledge of eons and granted strengths unlike anything seen today. Then of course, the world found balance like it always did, and the humans discovered the secrets of the elements. For many centuries the two powers lived side by side as yin and yang to one another. Of course there were many disputes over the ages but there was mostly peace between them."
"No one in the living world recalls who appeared first, the Avatar of Man or the Incarna of the Old Ones. That has slipped through the sands of time. But then, as before, the world found balance and there stood two beings. One was to have the unfathomable power of the Avatar state, and the other to master the power of The Void. One was to be forever reincarnated and the other to live the life of a mortal and before entering the afterlife, pass the power to another. But sadly over the ages the Old Ones began to die out. They were too few, too rare, and although nearly immortal, the mass of humanity had long surpassed them in number and influence. The art of bending the elements was so much more predominate, that it seemed the Old Ones would soon be just a memory. But that did not sit well with the last Incarna of the Old Ones. He wished to be remembered; he railed against the injustice that was the extinction of his race."
"So he gathered as many students as he could find and taught them all that he knew, and when they were skilled enough he encouraged them to do the same; to seek out any with the ability and to teach them. He ignored the oldest and most vital tradition of looking into the hearts of those showing promise and seeing if they had the strength of heart and mind to not be swayed by the power they controlled. But many that showed the ability to touch the Void did not have the strength to not be consumed by it. It had always been like that, so few having the power to use the Void for noble purposes. But the Shapers needed the safety of numbers if they wanted to survive the ravages of time, and the Incarna did not have the luxury of eternity on his hands. He was working in an effort to prevent an extinction event. So he toiled, as did his students, and it was through this neglect that the Dark Lord Mouretsu rose to prominence.
"When the weight of ages finally caused the last Incarna to pass into the spirit world and for the power to pass to another it was ensnared and enslaved by Mouretsu. Now with a black heart and possessing the mantle of a demi-god, he decided it was time for the Old Ones to regain their place as the sole powers of the world."
"For nearly fifty years Dark Lord Mouretsu and Avatar Yasuragi fought, one trying to return balance to the world and the other trying to bring chaos. The war raged on for many long years and both sides created weapons and techniques that should never have seen the light of day. The war was long and taxing but in the end, there was a final confrontation between Mouretsu and Yasuragi. As the Imalimen know, only a god can truly face a god. The battle that ensued flattened mountains and boiled lakes, but the two powers were so opposite that the fight was more an explosive wave of destruction than a true battle. It was over in a matter of moments, resulting in the death of Dark Lord Mouretsu, eventual death for Avatar Yasuragi, and the annihilation of the Old One's city-continent. The power of the Incarna passed elsewhere; to one with better intentions but still weak.. After the last few embers of resistance within the ranks of the Old Ones were quashed, peace once again reestablished itself. But the line of the Old Ones was broken beyond repair; they were so few that they were soon extinct."
"But, like it always does the world is trying to bring balance. It has tried many times before now to raise an equal to the Avatar, but it has always failed. But let us hope that you are the one to take that position, shall we?"
I just sat there, absorbing what she had said. There was a power equal to the Avatar, and the two had gone to war long ago. "Why is there no record of this war in the history? If I remember correctly our written history gone back about forty thousand years, and I don't think there's any mention of a war."
"That is because the history of the ten thousand years leading up to that point were destroyed. It was against the Avatar's wishes, but he let every nation make their own decisions and they decided to erase even the name of the Old Ones from history, lest the past repeat itself. You must understand Destined One; even now, the only event in the spirit court's memory that could possibly rival the destruction of that final strike would be Sozen's comet itself."
For a very long time I just sat there, until I realized that I was still sitting on the ground and stood back up. So many questions tore their paths through my head that it felt like I was going to explode. She had mentioned Mouretsu, and she had said that he was an evil war-mongering bastard. But the Mouretsu I had met had been a fearful defeated man who had hopes for the future of his race. Again, my face seemed to have given away my thoughts.
"I assume that Mouretsu has once again gotten his say in before we found you," said the cat bitterly. "Destined One, I know through past experiences that there is nothing that I can say that will convince you that everything he said is a deception. But just bear in mind that it has been due to his influences that even learned men have never heard of the Old Ones. Every new scion with the potential to become the Incarna who has manifested in the last forty thousands years has been consumed by hate and twisted into a weapon aimed at the elemental benders by an age old vendetta."
"I have never heard of any other conflicts like the one's you described." I said not sure if I trusted it anymore; or anyone else in the spirit world for that matter.
"That is because the power has never spread beyond the scions themselves before the Avatar realized what was happening and took action." The cat seemed to think about something for a second. "That must be what he's hoping for. You are so close to the current Avatar that the Dark Lord must be hoping that he will hesitate; just long enough for you to defeat him and reestablish the dominance of the Old Ones."
"I don't know if I believe you." I stated honestly.
"I understand what you are thinking Destined One, but just promise me that you will not be blinded by cold logic; think with your heart."
I considered what Fluffy had said. I was not so great a fool as to promise something when I understood nothing, especially when such promises involved the spirit world.
"Who are you?" I asked, choosing not to voice my thoughts.
The cat gave me a strangely disappointed look and shook its head in a very human fashion. For a few moments the cat seemed to recompose itself before it answered. "My name is Genzou, and I am the keeper of the futures that might be."
"The futures that might be?"
"Yes Destined One." It said, getting its stride back. "When we first met, in the alleyway that existed only in your mind I showed you a great many things. Do you remember?"
"How could I forget? I had a few nightmares about the things you said."
The cat – Genzou nodded and seemed sorry. "Once more will I open the possibilities of the future to you-"
"Uhhh, yeah. Could you maybe leave out the wall of fire that tried to burn me while also scaring the crap out of me?" I asked seriously. Genzou only seemed to smile wider. I'd already come to hate that smile. Some part of me, that was becoming harder and harder to suppress, was telling me to kick the next smiling cat I saw.
"I have no control on what you see or how you see it. I simply open the door to the innumerable possible futures, your mind reaches for the one's it needs. You know this whether or not you are conscious of it."
"Alright." I said, uncertain. If I wanted to scare the pants off myself I would say something sexist to Katara, she could be scary as hell when she was angry. However, Prophecy Cat was running a close second at the moment. I couldn't see even a stab of pity in its oh-so-pokeable eyes. So shut up subconscious, I told myself, and play nice. Maybe I won't be barbecued this time. A moment later I could almost swear I heard an evil little laugh that sounded suspiciously like Toph's. I groaned, this was going to be bad, I just knew it. "Alright, so when does it happen?"
"We will meet again Destined One." Said Genzou a fraction of a second before the wall of fog that had been holding its ground ten feet away suddenly rush forward so fast I cried out and raised my arms. I tried to look around, opening my eyes as wide as they could go, but all I saw was the uniform white that had settled all around me. I called out to Genzou a few times but got no answer. Okay, so mysterious cat-god spirit magic was the game. I'd have played along, if I knew what the hell was supposed to happen.
Without warning Piando-sensei's voice echoed from deep inside the white mist. "Sokka, if you stay on this path I know that one day you will become an even greater master then I am."
Those were some of the last things sensei had said to me before I had left. A tingling sensation started to nag at me, pulling my focus to my sword. Drawing it I looked down at it, trying to figure out what was so important. It seemed the same as always, at least until I turned it over in my hands. As I examined the base of the hilt, I was struck mute. How could I have missed this? I had spent many careful hours sharpening and caring for my blade, but I never noticed that it had the White Lotus symbol on the base. I closed my eyes again and listened through the mists. There was something here… something I needed to see.
"Sokka huh? Nice to meet yah. My name is Arckon, but most people just call me Arc."
The quiet voice was like a roar in the empty mists. Arckon? That was that guy who told Toph all of that performer's wisdom stuff when she was in the Earth Rumble. But I had never met the guy, at least not yet. It was getting colder in here, wherever here was, and the mist was getting darker behind my eyelids. I closed my eyes tighter.
"Sokka, we're all very worried about you ... This isn't you, you're acting crazy!"
Suki? I recognized her voice, and she sounded scared. Who was she scared of, me? The next voice took me a second to recognize; after all it isn't every day that you hear your own voice from outside your body.
"I'm afraid. I know what I have to do, but I'm afraid. I feel like I'm losing myself in the rage."
I felt a shiver creep its way down my spine. Something in the way I -the voice me- said those words really made me feel... frightened.
"I won't be stopped. If you aren't going to help me, then stay out of my way."
My mind was racing a mile a minute. Why would I say something like that? My frustration got the better of me and I opened my eyes in the blank mists and raised my sword up to the invisible sky.
"What is this?" I screamed. "Why am I hearing this? Answer me damn it!"
I waited a second before yelled again. But I knew that I could scream until my throat bled and I still wouldn't get an answer. I was alone here; some distant part of me knew that. Probably the same part of my mind that brought me here, and the same horrible intuition that said that what I was hearing was just the beginning. Something else was coming. The mist darkened to a burnt gray and I knew it would only be a matter of seconds now. I was terrified.
The mist turned to a cloudy midnight and I was left alone in the black with only my own ragged breathing to keep me company. I was waiting for something, what I'm not to sure but it was definitely coming.
A pressure asserted itself from above me and I grunted as I was pushed down. Bracing my legs I managed to keep my footing but being pushed down by an unseen force in total darkness wasn't helping the situation any. Then with a loud crack the pressure lifted and light flooded the world. I almost hissed as the light of street lamps and the moon washed over me. It took a few seconds before my eyes adjusted to the sudden shift in lighting, but very soon I was able to look at my surroundings. It was nighttime. I could see the breeze move through the grasses, but it did not touch me. The dirt beneath my boots did not compress, nor did my hand truly feel the ground when I knelt to touch it. I was a spirit here; a ghost of some kind. I looked up and around, taking everything in that I could.
I had been here before. Only I don't remember the tanks, or the soldiers.
I was standing outside the royal palace of Ba Sing Se. My eyes swept up the huge stone building. It had looked pretty nice the last time I had seen it, even though we had been fighting with the Dai-Li to talk to the Earth King who happened to have no knowledge of a hundred year long war. It had a flight of once perfectly carved stairs leading up to the front doors a hundred feet above me, except the last time I was here the two wooden doors weren't reinforced with iron bracers. The full squad of very twitchy looking Dai-Li agents in front of said reinforced doors was different also. I'd never seen the Dai-Li look scared.
The building had looked beautiful, immaculately clean steps and smiling faces everywhere. But now it bore the Fire-Nation flag on all of the flag posts and banners on all of the unadorned walls. Smoke billowed from the tallest towers and the dancing light of flames flickered from most of the windows. The once clean and sparkling building was covered in soot, its walls badly damaged and its windows barred. It was no longer the palace of a free city. It was an enemy stronghold.
At the foot of the stairs in the burnt remains of what had once been a sprawling and beautiful garden sat four Fire-Nation tanks ready, gunners watching the entryway with unusual alertness. Around the tanks sitting near small fires and dotted by quickly pitched tents were the drowsy forms of fifty or more Fire-Nation soldiers. I felt my guilt close in on me as I looked at the ruins. We had managed to get out of Ba Sing Se just as it fell. We didn't have a choice back then. Aang had nearly been killed, and even if we would have found someone in the city willing to hide us, Aang would have been too weak to fight for weeks. We would have been discovered and executed ages ago. But looking at this, the center of the Fire-Nation occupation, it was all I could do not to draw my sword and attack. I knew this was all just a vision, an illusion, but I still felt the injustice. At the same time, I felt a strange sense of pity as I looked at the sprawling soldiers in the cold evening air. They looked miserable in a way that I could understand. I looked away before the feeling could overtake me completely.
As I did so, thunder boomed and all of the soldiers camping around the tanks scurried to cover any equipment that may be harmed by the rain that was on the way. I watched them with a frown. Something felt wrong about this. I heard a metallic clanking to my left and turned to see two more tanks roll by, closely followed by a further thirty soldiers in Fire-Nation uniforms. Straining my ears I heard the distinct sound of at least one more moving tank unit circling the enormous palace. There were probably more, after all the palace was a big place, there was no way I could hear everything happening around the entire building.
The sky broke open and the rain wept down in large fat drops that you could feel like hammers on your skin. The thirty soldiers that had been following the two new tanks took up positions around the small encampment at the foot of the four stationary tanks, and thirty odd fresh solders stood up and grumbled through the rain after the two moving tanks continuing on their circuit. It seemed like a lot of power placed around the palace. Maybe the bitch queen was more security conscious than I had thought.
It was a lot of men and power placed around here for just a routine guard. They were scared too; both the ones who had been here and the ones who'd arrived. The soldiers tried to look bored as they vainly attempting to keep the small fires going in the rain but their eyes kept scanning the deep shadows at the edges of the light. What were they so afraid of?
A bolt of lightning cut the sky closely followed by the rumbling roar of thunder, and almost everyone in sight jumped. Dismissing the cowards, I walked up the great staircase and looked out over the city. Aside from the occasional pillar of smoke indicating a burning fire it seemed fairly peaceful. At least as peaceful as the last fallen free-city could look. I panned my gaze across the city, to see if there was anything else I was supposed to see in this vision.
I was temporarily blinded by a fork of lightning the moment I turned and had to wait a few seconds for my vision to return. After a few moments the flash started the fade from my eyes. First the buildings came back into focus. Some showed the marks of recent fighting between Earth Kingdom freedom fighters and Fire-Nation soldiers. I felt a flash of pride; as long as the citizens fought Ba Sing Se still lived. There was still hope of saving the city.
As my vision cleared more I realized I was looking down a long lonely street through the tall and once elegant front gates of the palace. The entire left side of the street seemed to have been reduced to burnt-out husks of the great mansions they once were. How many died while those buildings burned? How many stood by and watched?
As I looked through the gap, I realized that I was mistaken before; the street wasn't empty. The red moon was just rising over the dark horizon and it was outlining a single person standing all alone in the middle of the street, slowly walking with hard conviction and iron purpose. As he drew closer I concluded it was a man. He was not too tall, five ten, five eleven. A light build but with the look of a man who had gained some muscle recently. He seemed to be walking a little heavy, yet unnaturally graceful at the same time, like he was carrying a lot of weight but could easily handle it.
He drew closer and another flash of lighting illuminated him, casting ragged shadows. He was wearing a lot of reflective material. The thunder peal boomed as I noticed what he was wearing. He seemed to have a heavy chain mail shirt on beneath a drenched dark leather vest with another few dozen armor plates sewn onto it. His vest had shining steel shoulders jutting out above his arms, both with small lips on the inside to deflect blows away from his neck. The chain mail vest he wore had long sleeves that fell all the way down to his wrists without covering his hands, which were clad in matching armored leather gauntlets, and his lower body was protected by the same dark leather armor and chain mail plus iron capped boots.
I was frozen looking at him. He was well protected, but he was also covered in weapons. Across his chest two black belts crossed, the first housed a dozen or so daggers in black sheaths and the other seemed to be strapping some kind of mechanism to his back. It wasn't a sword sheath like what I had, it was the wrong kind of rigging, and he already had a mismatched pair of blades hanging at his hips. The belt at his waist that held the two swords also held what I recognized as several small round hand-held grenades; what kind I couldn't tell from this distance.
I tried to focus in on him but the distances were too great. I felt like reaching out; something about this was eerily familiar to me. I concentrated, and there was a momentary distortion of my vision. Suddenly I was on the street, standing next to him.
He passed under a street lamp, completely unworried about anyone seeing him as he walked down the center of the street. The rain was falling harder now as the golden light of the gas lamp fell on him and brought his features into sharper focus. His eyes were sharp and focused completely on the soldiers behind me. His hair -shorter than mine- hung wild, held back only by a simple green bandanna tied tight around his forehead. The face beneath it was a mask of fury, agony and seething rage. He looked like a man who was fighting for everything he had, like if he failed his life would be over. His contorted face was painted in blacks and grays in a savage style, giving him the appearance of a mindless berserker. And he – was me.
I gasped raggedly and took a step back. It was me! He was me! What the hell was I doing here dressed like a one man apocalypse? It looked like he was off to take on the entire Fire-Nation. I spun around quickly, to the small army camping at the base of the stronghold. Hells bells, he – I was going to storm the bloody place. It was the vision. I was looking at my own death, one way or another.
Then so suddenly it made me jump a long wolfs howl pierced the dark rainy night. I turned back to the berserker-Sokka and saw the form of a large white animal step out from behind him. It was big, its shoulders coming to about the level of my hips, and covered in thick silver fur that shone in the low light. It revealed rows of dagger like teeth as it pulled back its ears and growled as it followed shoulder to shoulder with my doppelganger. It was a huge beast with sharp and intelligent yellow eyes that glinted dangerously in the night.
In the rainy night I stood awestruck by the sight. But that was nothing compared to when he whirled his face and looked right at me. The White Wolf tilted his head back and smiled at me, revealing rows of shark-like teeth. Then it started to fade, I could see the buildings behind it. Within a matter of seconds the beast had completely vanished, leaving not a trace. I continued to stare at the spot it disappeared into for several moments, trying to figure out what happened when my attention was grabbed again. My double closed his eyes and released a shuddering sight. The air around him chilled, creating a frozen wind that even I could feel in my ghostly state.
At the edge of my hearing, I heard the chanting of a million whispered voices; sounds that had no meaning in a human tongue, and echoing sounds that no man could make. His eyes snapped open again, and the volume of the whispers increased. But I hardly noticed.
His eyes, my eyes, had been replaced with an infinite starry expanse. As I stared into the black pools filled with starlight, the whispers grew stronger, echoing in my mind. They sang of lost Yethor, sunken and eons gone. They chanted an ode to the frozen wind of the deep, and they whispered theories of planets, stars, and emptiness. And they sang of rage; a rage so deep that I could feel it thrumming in my bones, even as the aching cold seeped into them. I had never felt so cold, not even back home on the ice. It was a cold I didn't even have a name for. I watched the rain around him freeze in mid-air, and puddles frost over into steel-hard sheets of ice beneath his boots. He smiled at me, right at me, a frighteningly empty smile. I felt his rage slithering through the air; freezing everything in its path, peering into the darkest reaches of nightmares and shadows of everything and everyone. Then he called to me; his words echoing as if I perceived them both before and after he spoke.
"I see you," he said in a calm alert voice. Underlying his voice was a harmony of unknowable words. The whispers surged beneath his voice as he spoke, chittering and caressing. When he spoke it was the voice of a scared man, even though he was about to take on a small army. He seemed sure, like he knew what needed to be done; what price needed to be paid.
Behind me, from somewhere in the encampment a shout went up, looking back I saw a few soldiers staring up at my doppelganger. Someone in the back screamed and set the others into motion. Some ran to tear the tarps off of what looked like small artillery pieces as others picked up weapons and turned to face the new enemy. Most of the solders seemed to be Firebenders judging from the fact that only a handful of them had drawn blades.
The unearthly trance broken for an instant, I looked back at the other me to see him draw his black sword and unclip one of the grenades from his waist. With a flick of his finger he ground the tip of the fuse between his fingers and the chemicals reacted, igniting the fuse. The fuse smoked in the frozen air as the doppelganger continued forward at the same pace he had previously.
In the encampment someone managed to get to the alarm and an endless rising and falling wail cut the panic. With utter silence my doppelganger threw the grenade and it flew like it was a rocket, disappearing into the encampment. I tried to strain my eyes to see what was happening, but the darkness that had brought me here was returning.
"No, wait, I need to know more!" I bellowed into the nothingness.
"Remember this Destined One; power can corrupt the most noble of us, you are no exception." Genzou said from somewhere in the black. "Follow your heart."
-
When I awoke I was shaking and drenched in sweat. I would love to have said I learn some lesson, shrugged it off and went on with my morning. But for half an hour I just sat there and shook. How the hell was I supposed to stop this terrible thing from happening if I couldn't even cope with seeing it in a vision? And what the hell was I going to do about Mouretsu? Was that because of him or the fur-ball who was worse than cactus juice? I wasn't worried about myself so much; sure I had looked pretty messed up in that vision, but what I was so worried about was what made me that way. Looking inward I though of only one thing that would make me do something like that; one thing that would make everyone else's lives forfeit ... even my own. My gaze wandered over the others, sleeping, peaceful.
I would not lose them. I would sooner fight the entire Fire-Nation than let any of them get hurt; they were part of my family. Yes I still had my Dad, but he was far away, and aside from him all I had in the world was sleeping in this dark cave: my sister, my best friend and ... Toph. They were my family in every way that mattered and like hell would I let anything happen to them.
The sun was just starting to come up on a new day, chasing away the cold empty gaze of the stars and taking the edge off of the memory of the vision. Had I really been in the spirit world? And what was this new power that I was supposed to have? I sighed; I decided that asking myself questions I had no answers to was pointless. So I only questioned myself for another ten minutes before I gave up.
I grabbed the flint and the cooking rack from Appa's saddle and grabbed some eggs and bacon from the food store. Then I walked to the mouth of the cave where we usually kept the fire. I built a fire using the logs we had collected yesterday and waited a little while for it to be hot enough. Soon enough I got lost in the ritual that was breakfast and before long I heard stirring from behind me.
I was just taking the last of the bacon out of the pan when Toph wandered over sleepily and dropped down across from me. She yawned widely and stretched. Looking up I felt a little twinge in my stomach. She looked really pretty with her hair all bed messed and her eyes half-lidded in drowsiness.
"We got some bacon today." I said offhandedly. We moved around so much all we could carry was dried meat most of the time, or whatever I hunted down. It was a rarity when we had a fresh professional cut of meat to eat; although Aang wouldn't touch it. Bloody vegetarian, he can have the damned dandelions. Toph grumbled some response before taking a plate form the little stack I had gone to get a minute ago and loaded up with a few strips of bacon as I dropped the first egg into the pan.
"What smells good?" asked my sister as she took up a place to my left. "Oh, eggs. Wait, what are you cooking for? You never want to cook. Are you feeling okay?"
I grinned. Katara could be so protective sometimes. "No, I'm fine. Just got up early and decided I wanted some bacon." She frowned at me a moment longer knowing I was hiding something. I've never been a good liar, and keeping all of what I'd seen to myself from affecting me would be impossible; but she eventually let it go and got her own plate going. "Hey Aang, you up yet?" I called over my shoulder.
"No." Aang growled from the other side of Appa's great bulk.
"Come on, food." I called back as I tipped the first egg onto Toph's plate and the second onto Katara's before cracking open another two for myself.
"I smell the meat, but that ain't food."
"Well I'm sure we got some weeds growing around here you could eat." I replied. Toph snorted with laughter and Katara gave me a look that said that wasn't nice, even though she was smiling too. A bit later Aang joined us, sitting on my right carrying some kind of green crap in a bowl he got from our supplies. For a time we all sat there, just eating. Later we talked about when we would get going again, and where. It was a nice peaceful morning spent with family. I was happy.
Jade Knight
Richard Caine
