Disclaimer: We own nothing... but we are forming our legion... we will conquer, and we will own.


Jade's Authors Note: well hello! as you can see we are keeping up with the quick updates... but there might be a slight delay on 15.. seeing as 15 and 16 are both mine and the last two before Richard, gets his blood on. Let me jsut say that he's been a little quiet lately for a reason, and it will be a heart stopping moment.

and it it almost certain that chapter 17... the next Richard chapter will be the first "M" rated. Alert us or turn up your rating systems (if age allowed; as i don't want to be deleted) the story is jsut about to explode and you'll hate yourself if you miss it!

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Beta Note: Hey everyone! I hope you're as excited as I was to read this chapter. I don't think I missed anything grammar-wise, but if you spot anything please let me know! Thanks.

Enjoy!

Kitty


Sokka: Master of the Black Sword

Author: The Jade Knight

Co-Author: Richard Caine

Beta: Kitty (A.K.A. kathykatinahat)


-The Resistance Saga-

Chapter 14

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The Story of Arckon

Part 1: Of Legends and Iron Men

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-8 hours ago

My name is Arckon Hagane, the ninth of the great Hagane clan, a very old and respected Earth Bending clan. Most people just call me Arc; it's less confusing seeing as I'm the ninth guy to have the name. Helps keep the books straight.

I have lived seventeen years, but sometimes it feels like a hundred; sometimes it's hard to believe that only two years ago I was champion of Earth Rumble tournaments and happily running from the fan-girls. It was also hard to believe that I was once what some people could call 'dashing and handsome' or a 'heart throb.' I almost smiled as I remember how a good friend of mine – who had a thing for nick names – used to call me 'Pretty Boy' just to get under my skin. But that all ended with the death of my father.

My family is old – ancient really, going back thousands of years. And of all the things we are known for, our greatest achievements, our most important and sacred duty is an absolute secret; no one knows. Well, thats kind of a lie. They know of the secret, they just don't know whose secret it is; and that's the way it has to stay, by order of the Avatar himself.

In each generation, there is trained one, and only one elite warrior. A man or woman who can stand as a singular army. Someone who will lay down our lives to hold back the darkness when the Avatar is weakened, or when he calls upon us. The Hagane is the family clan of the Earthen Scroll, and it is our sworn duty to stand behind the Avatar against the darkest hearts of the world.

My father was the last generation's Earth Jenkotsu, and I am the next in a line tracing all the way back to the forgotten war. My good fist clenched over the small bit of black fabric I held. The forgotten war, known in its time as the Great War. The war that wiped out an entire race. We don't really know too much about what went on in that war, as much of the information has been destroyed by weak minded fools fearing a repetition of those bloody battles. Idiots, the lot of them.

Everything the Hagane clan does know about the War is kept in a scroll, one of four identical scrolls, actually. Each is passed down from one generation to another in the four chosen bender clans. Inside each scroll are hundreds of pages, some ancient, and some newer, but all containing forbidden or forgotten information. I slowly reached inside my loose shirt and pulled out the Earthen Scroll entrusted to my clan; entrusted to me.

Inside each scroll there are handwritten pages, each added with every generation. On these pages are many things, both wondrous and terrifying. Some of the things mentioned there would benefit the future of mankind when released at the right time; and other things written here would corrupt and drive the world to destroy itself just to keeps its secrets. The oldest of these pages tell of the war in sketchy terms. Too many pages were lost to the ravages of time even though we tried our hardest to maintain and even recopy the old scrips. Aside from the retelling of the war there are also countless pages containing the teachings of the Earth. Some of the techniques are more twisted and horrid than anything that should ever touch the light of the sun. At first I had been repulsed by the thought of even looking at those, but then I noticed the message carved into the inside of the stone scroll.

"When fighting the vilest monsters of this world, one must sometimes embrace the monstrosity within thy self."

I read every word after that, knowing that if my ancestors felt the need to develop these horrendous techniques then they must have been dealing with beasts a hundred times worse than what I could imagine. And I was right.

I felt a dull ache set into my right shoulder and shoot down to where my elbow once was. 'Phantom pains' the doctors called it. I grasped my shoulder where my right arm had once been, feeling the knotted scarring and long-healed torn muscles beneath my fingers and tried to will away the pain.

I stared deep into the mirror before me, trying to convince my unconscious mind that the arm that thought it was suffering damage was a year and a half gone. Nothing except the slow dripping of the taps in the bathroom filled my ears as I stood there, the pain slowly fading. I grimaced as the pain came in one last painful stab; a reminder of the agonizingly long minutes in which my arm exploded from the inside, one bloody painful inch after another until it was all gone. Then she moved to my face. I could still hear the crack of bone, the wet splash of my blood on the cold stone floor and the echoing sounds of my screams. I could even still taste the coppery blood as it had flooded my mouth.

I needed to get moving soon. Using my left hand I carefully tied the black patch over the empty eye socket. Looking back into the mirror I held my face back once more. A mismatched pair of eyes stared back at me; one a pale blue and the other a black patch amidst the scarring that went from my hairline down to the edge of my jaw, twisting my mouth up into a permanent sadistic half-smile. That black patch had become my new face. No one here even knew what I looked like before, or who I really was now. They all knew me either as the as the cripple that had risen to the rank of general along side the mighty Iron Titan, provided the resistance with some valuable information and planned most of our missions to success. Or the grim avenger that lead the attacks from the front lines, fighting through the opposition along side the rest of the freedom fighters. Always swooping in at the worst moment to pull everyone back before everything went to hell. Most everyone thought we were two separate people, but there had been a select few that had connected us; and they were telling no one. I made sure of it.

I was never good with keeping secrets until I got my new look. Now, I didn't think most average people even suspected that I was their celebrated Iron Titan. All the guys want to have a drink with me after the mission when I'm still in the armour and all the girls want to talk to me; to bring me out of my shell or something overly romanticized like that. They know nothing.

Now -as opposed to when I was young and stupid- I'm very good at keeping secrets, at keeping the calm head that I was always trained to. I do not let emotions get in my way anymore. Yes, I still have friends and allies of a sort. I still trust people to have my back. But now I am well-prepared for what I have to do when they turn on me.

I absently ran my fingers over the carved white marble of the scroll. Something was coming-I could feel it. Every Jenkotsu was trained to listen to themselves. Trained to gain a sixth sense sensitive to the powers of the Gel-Hassad, to the Void as they called it. And there had been a constant prickling at the back of my next for about five days now. I didn't know what it meant. Usually I got a very strong and undeniable lock on something, or nothing at all. When they were hiding their true forms, contact, even something as small as a brushing of shoulders was needed for me to feel the Void within them. But now, it was like there was a disturbance, a great disturbance. Nothing I could pin down, but something powerful and dangerous was definitely coming.

I looked down at the Earthen Scroll, running my fingers over the carvings on the aged marble. I rolled it over, gazing at the history I had memorized years ago. The carvings on the outside depicted the last fight of the Great War. I ran a finger over the fleet of ships, carrying benders from all four nations to that last slaughter. I trailed down to the next frame, looking down emotionlessly at the army assembled on the river bank, waiting for the bender fleet to land. At the head of the army a single man stood out, his body meticulously carved using the verbal memories of the few that survived that day. Although I believe the artist had a slightly biased view of him; I have never before seen a Gel-Hassad without their seeming with such an open look of hate and rage on their face.

The next carving was of the battle itself. This side of my scroll had been badly damaged centuries ago. So much of the detail had been lost. But one could still see the fighters frozen in time, the worn stone making it look as though they fought within a deathly fog. And the very last carving was the most deeply striking. It was a near perfect rendition of two bodies; one Gel-Hassad and one human, each clad in totally destroyed armour. Lying dead, next to one another.

"The life of the Jenkotsu is a hard one," my father once told me. "We are Jenkotsu. I know you have always been told that any one of your cousins could be chosen by the spark of the earth. But I believe it has chosen you. It is because of this belief that I am going to begin teaching you how to think like a Jenkotsu. For instance; as Jenkotsu we are expected to be the Avatar's generals, to direct and lead the forces that ally behind him."

He leaned in close, his eyes boring deeply into my own. I could not help but hang on his every carefully-chosen word. "As a general you will be expected to lead people, sometimes even to their deaths. This is a fact of the life you were born to, and you must bear this burden just as the Avatar must bear the world. But there is both a right way and a wrong way to bear this great weight. There are many ways for you to be corrupted and turned against those you have a responsibility to. You will see many temptations and distractions to turn you from your path, but the greatest weakness is within you.

"Self-doubt will destroy you if you let it. Never take a step in haste, but also never hesitate to do what you must. You must be smart enough to lead thousands, but humble enough to know when to ask for the help of advisors. But most importantly you must be sure of every move you make. If you doubt yourself, even for a moment you become your own worst enemy. Plans will crumble around you and soldiers will die at your feet."

He leaned back in the chair, and it squeaked just like always. He looked at nothing over my head, gathering himself again. Preparing himself to take a sure step, without hesitation. He turned his gaze back at me. "I know this is a lot to take in for someone so young, but you must be prepared for the worst."

He sighed deeply, looking older then I had ever seen him before. "Son, you know that the Avatar vanished nearly a hundred years ago now. You have always been told that he will be returning soon, that he is eternal and will forever be reborn. But there is a way for the chain of the Avatar to be broken."

I remembered being stunned into absolute silence when I had first heard this. It was like a piece of the world had fallen out from under me. "I can see you are very confused, but know that I am telling the truth. It is an unwanted truth that few know, even fewer can come to terms with; but you must understand this. This is one of the reasons why the Jenkotsu were created-to stand when the Avatar has fallen, to be there when he cannot. As much as it saddens me to say this, I think he may have finally left this world forever. Now more then ever you must grow strong. A single weak link among the four fists could be all that the dark-hearted need to cover the world in a lasting black.

"You must become a strong warrior and an even better leader. And the most important thing to know about being a leader, the Avatar's fists' more so than any other, is to know sacrifice. But I do not mean self-sacrifice, that you already know. What you need to know is how to sacrifice others. Now, I know that sounds cold, but sacrifice is a necessity of war. Life is a precious thing that should never be wasted, but sometimes it needs to be sacrificed to gain something. There is a noble sacrifice to gain something vitally needed, and then there is a meaningless sacrifice. Before every battle ask yourself; the soldiers following you, are their lives being spent to bring about a better tomorrow, or are they being wasted? Lives must be spent in war, that is what makes it an ugly thing that should be avoided at all routes. But when war does come... when it is unavoidable... make every lost life count. Let no one die in vain. Waste not a single one."

My father was a great man, and I learned many things from him in the short time we had together. I was drawn out of my thoughts knowing what needed to be done. Take every step without haste or hesitation.

My pale blue eye met its counterpart in the glass and hardened. My loose brown hair was pulled back into a tight tail, keeping it out of my eye sight should I need to fight; revealing my mutilated face for all to fear. The scarring left me without any hair on the right side of my face and turned the twisted skin to a sickly white. Like I said, fearsome. I didn't want to be feared, but it sometimes had its uses. And it was kind of unavoidable. After all, one does not get along easily with half a man. My left fist clenched tightly at my side, the brown fingerless leather glove creaking loudly in the echoing space of the bathroom. My 'issued' loose earthy colored clothes were plain aside from the blue outlines on all of the seams. They were also no protection in a fight, but I had my armour for that. I smiled at myself in the mirror, curling up the healthy side of my mouth into a likeness of the scarred side, creating a very intimidating look.

"Let's go old man, they ain't going to wait for you forever," I said to myself. I pushed away from the water basin, turned and left the place of my reminiscing. I was back in the main room of my quarters, if you could call it that. The resistance had gotten a few good contacts recently and one of them had the deed to a big old hotel that had gone out of business a few months back. Now it was ours for as long as we could keep it secret or Red May got another of her feelings and moved us out of here. She had done so a few times already with absolutely no warning. We were just told each time to be out of the building in ten minutes. I think everyone would have been a lot more upset with that if she hadn't been right every time.

Ba Sing Se was a huge place; most who'd never been to it assumed it was just a huge city. However, it was really a country unto itself. The tram system the Earth King had installed centuries ago made transportation much simpler, but it was still an enormous area. In addition to the Great City, there were also several 'minor' towns that would qualify as cities in any other land, including the Fire Nation itself.

Shong Te was one such city, the Gate of the South. It was where merchants flowed into Ba Sing Se, bringing their goods to trade with the Dai Li 'approved' merchants in a different era. It was hard to pretend that the city was not in a state of siege if the merchants could simply say so and point to the difficulties that they had. People tend to believe that.

The Dai Li solution to this was as intelligent as it was ruthless. These 'border towns' were contained markets that isolated the merchants from the people of the city; here the merchants traded with those merchants who were screened by the Dai Li for their loyalty and their ability to keep their mouth shut. Thus, goods continued to flow, at a higher price of course, but information did not. Those who lived here could not ever journey into the city itself. They were second-class citizens.

That being said, they still had managed all right, until the fall of the city itself. None could now deny that the city was at war, however, and with that the fortunes of Shong Te had declined as trade withered and died. The Sand Benders and Beetle Men who once traded with the great city now stayed in their desert, watching from afar. The lack of trade was crumbling the city. Soon it would be empty; but for now it had minimal Fire Nation presence and enough abandoned structures to suit Red May's needs. Soon we would be back in the city; but for now we waited.

Just than a knock came at the door. I made my way over to the door and slowly opened it, making sure to keep the door between me and the person on the other side. I had already tensing for a fight should the wrong sort be on the other side. But I relaxed when I recognized the messenger I had rescued from a patrol a week ago.

"Yes?" I asked slowly

The messenger was still breathing a little heavily, and from the sweat on the collar of his shirt I could tell that he had been running for a while now. "Red May wants to speak with you."

As he spoke he focused -like most people- to a spot just over my left shoulder somewhere around my ear. It was the furthest one could look away from my scarred face while still appearing to hold a respectful eye contact. I didn't blame them.

"I understand," I said simply. He nodded once before turning and jogging off, hurrying to his next assignment. I stepped out into the hall and closed my door quietly behind me. I kept a wary eye on the man in the chair three doors down from me as I gave the door knob a little twist, fusing the metal in the locking bolt. No one had ever tried to break into my room yet, and I intended to keep it that way. I never knew if my 'old friend' or her associates would come looking for the Earthen Scroll. Of course I kept it on me at all times, but they didn't need to know that.

I made it to the basement of the hotel in good time. I pushed open the fire exit having taken the stairs and passing up the elevator. Sure we might be able to spare an Earth Bender to operate it, but the sounds of an elevator operating in an abandoned hotel would appear too suspicious.

I crossed the large space, weaving my way through tables covered in plans and intelligence reports. I didn't have to step around too many people; most just took one look at me and either just stepped aside or threw in a quick salute before retreating. I supposed the room was spacious enough, covering the entire perimeter of the hotel, bisected by a strengthening wall or pillar here and there. Scurrying around were thirty odd people, none of them combatants, moving papers from one desk to another. I planned, I fought, but I could never do this type of work. Sure, it was vital, even I agreed on that. But I always had to feel like I was improving the situation- I could never just monitor it.

I finally made it to the other side of the room and to the door that lead to Red's 'back office'. I knocked twice in quick succession and was just able to pick up the sound of a bow string tightening. The door opened a second later, revealing a hook-sword and a face that looked me over quickly before stepping back to grant me admittance. No one could impersonate me, so most of the security measures were for not. All that was really needed was to make sure the scars were real and I got in everywhere with my level nine clearance.

I nodded once to Smellerbee. I had no idea what the girl's real name was, and she didn't want to share. I could relate. "Song?" I asked her, keeping with our little game.

"Nope," she replied with a small smile. This had been going on for almost as long as we had been acquainted. Every time I met her, whether it be in the mess hall or even in a meeting such as this, I would take another guess at her real name. She said that she would tell me when I finally got it, but I didn't know. She might just keep me guessing forever. But it didn't matter. She was one of only three people I still called a friend, and if she wanted to keep her name a secret, so be it.

Not a lot of people dared to play these kinds of games with Bee, they were a little afraid it might be seen as flirting. There was never anything more to our little games then a little goodhearted fun and we both knew it. But I suppose having a boyfriend that could pin a fly to a bullseye at a thousand yards put a little fear in most men. The fact that he was of the Gel-Hassad race probably didn't make it any easier on those that knew either.

I nodded my respects to the other guard in the room and he returned it just as he was putting the arrow he had drawn against me back into his quiver. Longshot, also another name-mystery. When I had asked him about it he said that his people had turned their backs on him for who he was, stripping him of everything, even his name. I understood this. But I still ask him regularly what Bee calls him in private. If Longshot were capable of blushing I'm sure he would look like a forest fire every time; my own opinion was that his capacity for such things must have been removed at birth. I had yet to get an answer from him.

Longshot was the second person I considered a friend. Yes, he was a Gel-Hassad, but my mission was not to wipe out the race; it was to return balance to the world. And unlike most of his people Longshot seemed to want the same thing; thus we were also allies.

I snapped to attention in front of Red. She was not my commander, that title belonged to only one. But I was only a general, and a general without a flag to fight under is lost. So until the moment the Avatar called upon me, or Red May turned against the balance of the world I would hold her name as my flag. Fighting the darkness of the world in the last fallen city.

"Arckon, good. We have matters to discuss," said Red smoothly, leaning forward in her wing-backed chair. A third name mystery, but one I had solved in secret months ago. I would not be blinded by trust ever again. I will always be watching, especially my comrades.

"Yes?" I asked, focusing on her.

"It seems that, with the help of The Second Grandmaster of the White Lotus organization, and Longshot have managed to acquire the alliance of the Green Dagger Special Forces."

I was very surprised at our accomplishment, and rightly so. This was a very big attainment. The Green Dagger battalion was the elite of the elite in the Earth Kingdom's military. They were a division made up of only non-benders, and they could defeat a force twice their size, benders or not. The Green Daggers had achieved their name through the many secret repressions that were orchestrated behind the King's back. The reports stated that the Green Daggers, then the Ninth Fighting Squad, had been on their way back to Ba Sing Se, returning from a mission, when they had stopped for the night at a small town. Sometime in the night a betrayer among them gathered up all of their weapons and ran.

The next morning the betrayer had brought back a Fire Nation battle group three hundred strong. The Green Daggers were outnumbered six to one, not to mention they were without any means to fight; at least that was what the betrayer thought. The night before, when he had been gathering up weapons he had missed the single crate of jade hilted daggers the weapon smith had planned on selling off that morning. So armed with six inch daggers the Ninth Fighting Squad readied themselves, thinking that if they were going to hell they were going to take as many of the Fire Nation's troops with them as they could; if just to leave one less man in the world to threaten their city or families. And so they marched out the front gates of that small town; fifty men against three hundred. They faced death with a grin and a dagger, and charged.

Outnumbered six to one, and armed with only daggers, the enemy forces gravely underestimated them. With the surprise from both the frontal assault and their choice of weaponry the Ninth Fighting force managed to battle their enemies into a full retreat while only losing thirteen of their own.

When they returned to the city, they could not receive medals or parades to mark their impossible accomplishment as the war was to be kept a complete secret. So the only recognition the masters of the war bestowed upon them was the renaming of their battalion. A little short, yes; but they never complained. And to this day a green dagger had become part of the uniform for the Green Dagger Special Forces.

"This is very good news," I said honestly, a small smile gracing my face for a moment. It said something that my two friends mirrored my twisted smile, while Red May smiled that brilliant smile as she always did. The one that had no soul.

"Indeed it is," she said. "I will have you introduced as soon as possible so that we can integrate them into the resistance."

I nodded my agreement. This could mean many more successful raids and rescues. Already, plans utilizing the Green Daggers filled my head.

"Also, the Avatar's flying bison was seen flying over the desert four hours ago. It was heading in our direction and, if they hold their course and speed, should be arriving at the gates of the city in a few hours." Red May said all of this in a perfectly reasonable tone of voice, not as though she was talking about the return of the Avatar to Ba Sing Se. I quickly snapped my eye back to her face, tempering my face back to cool indifference. I didn't trust Jin, she was too cold, too calculating. Sometimes I even questioned her humanity with some of her orders and acts, and now all of that cold analysis was directed at me. She was testing me for something, trying to discover something by revealing this to me face to face. But I think I kept anything from my face. It was relatively easy not to let your emotions and thoughts show on your face when over half of it was immobile.

"I see," I replied after a long pause. "And what do you plan on doing about this newest development?"

"I intend to see the Avatar into the resistance movement and, with his help, the fall of the Fire Nation inside the walls as soon as possible." She spoke casually, even as her eyes were still locked on me, reading me. I felt like a bug on a microscope being scrutinized.

Several more moments past pregnantly, with no movement from anyone. Finally Red seemed to find what she was looking for and broke the stand off. "I want you to find the Avatar as soon as possible. There is no doubt that he will find a way to secret his small force into the city. Bring them here. We will then work with the Avatar to find the best course of action to bring the Fire Nation down."

"His name is Aang," I said carefully.

"I know," was all the reply I got. I didn't like it. There was something about the way she only referred to him as 'the Avatar' that bothered me. It was like, she was speaking about ... something other than a human being. A living god, yes. But a human like most of us, none the less.

"Now Arckon, there is also the matter of the Fire Nation reinforcements that are on the way-" she was interrupted when another knock came at the door. Again I heard the twang of a bow string and the scrap of metal as Red's two guards readied against a possible assassination attempt from within our own ranks.

It has happened five times in the last month alone.

I turned to the door and just touched my armour with the edges of my senses, readying it should I need it. But when Bee opened the door, checked a face and stepped back we all calmed back down. She was well known to us.

She walked into the room slightly hunched over, wearing layers of clothing to mask her fit physique as one belonging to an old woman. Once the door closed she removed the hood from her face and stood proudly before Red. She wore the disguise as a precaution against any moles we might still have among our forces. As a spy she was useless if the enemy knew her face.

She had joined the resistance months ago, soon after the fall. Back then Red May was just beginning to build her resistance and was in dire need of hands. And where better to get willing freedom fighters then in a prisoner caravan headed to the Boiling Rock?

Suki saluted to both Red and myself before slipping into an easier stance, but I saw something in it. She was worried about something. "I have the latest intelligence reports on the Fire Nation's moments."

"Good," said Red. She was a hard one to read, but she also seemed to pick up on Suki's tensions. "Is there anything vital to report, or can it wait until after my meeting with Arckon."

"No, it's about the reinforcements that are coming," Suki said. "Princess Azula knows me."

"Oh?" asked Red, quirking an eyebrow in interest. "Anything we can use?"

"No, she will most likely have me killed on sight."

"I see," Red said pensively. Suki looked over in my direction and I tried to give her an encouraging smile. With my face all messed up it probably didn't look too good, but she seemed to have gotten the meaning and allowed one side of her mouth perk up.

"It seems that we will have to extract you before they arrive," said Red. "Our best guess is that they will arrive in approximately four days, maybe as much as five. We will have an extraction plan made up by the end of the day and at the first sighting of anything that looks like an airship you will be pulled out. But until then you will continue with your assignments to the best of your ability."

"Yes ma'am," Suki said sharply with a final salute. She seemed relived and a little more apprehensive with what Red May said, but she kept it together like any good soldier. As she passed I nodded to her once. We couldn't have bad morale poisoning the troops.

And then suddenly my head was filled with light and flaming pain.

I know pain. I have been shot with arrows, had grenades go off in my face – dammit, I have even had my face actually explode from the inside before, but nothing could have prepared me for the feeling of my Void sense literally redlining. I clamped my head with my hands in some primal instinct to protect the pained area, but it was useless; my head was being burned from the inside and there was nothing I could do except fall to my knees and groan with pain. I live with pain everyday, it is nothing new to me; but this was something new. The pain was so great that it didn't even occur to me to shut down my Void sense.

I felt small hands on my back and a voice next to me said something, but I couldn't make it out. The pain was my entire universe, filling my head completely; forcing all else out. But I have dealt with pain before, even of this magnitude. Slowly, in agonizing seconds, my mind became my own again as I adapted to the smoldering embers in my skull; finally managing to shut down my Void sense.

The world slammed back down around me and I opened my eye, trying to blink away the light that still dominated my vision.

"Arc, are you okay? Do you need to go to the infirmary?"

Bee? What was she asking me? I think it was something about being hurt, but my mind was so scrambled I couldn't even begin to make sense of it.

"I'm fine," I mumbled, every word like death to my throbbing head.

I needed focus.

I slowly began to even out my breathing, concentrating on the familiar sounds in the room, counting the seconds between breaths. Then I began to shut down my pain. Painkillers could do wonders sometimes, but there is only so much they could do. I had developed this back while I was recovering, when the deep, throbbing fire of my wounds became too much for the drugs. Shut down the parts of my mind that feel the pain, one at a time, until it was gone. Eventually – exactly how long I have no idea – the pain faded enough for me to be able to straighten up, although I had to have a hand on the wall for balance for the first few seconds.

"Arc?" asked Bee looking distressed.

"I'm alright now," I said through the numbness in my head. The pain was, thankfully, gone; but the technique I used left me feeling weak and a bit unsteady for a little while after.

"What was that?" Red asked, her face showing no concern for me.

"Something big is happening," I said, still trying to piece it together myself. "Something drawing a lot of power, more power than I have ever felt at once."

"Is it a threat?"

"I don't know," I said honestly. I had no idea what it was, what it could be.

"Arckon, I need to know what's going on," said Red May in that falsely friendly voice, looking at me from her chair with those damned unreadable green eyes. I pushed off of the wall and again took my own weight. Red knew I was something much more then anyone else. She didn't know exactly what, but she knew I could do things that were impossible for most. Many times in the past I had sensed something in the Void and it had led us to a victory or gained something valuable. This was not one of those times.

Whatever I had felt was powerful and angry, something that commanded more Void energy then any score of Gel-Hassad could contain without suffering a very messy death; violent and painful and all over the place. I was just about to tell Red to go screw herself when the entire Hotel almost jumped off of its foundations with the force of an ungodly detonation.

Red's desk toppled over, and would have crushed Suki if it wasn't for Longshot's quick reflexes. The tiled ceiling crumbled and fell down on top of us, throwing up a suffocating blanket of dust. I heard Bee gasp in pain right before something heavy landed on my own back, pinning me to the ground. This building was old when we got here, very unstable on its own, but whatever had brought it down on top of us had definitely shocked the entire city.

I bend a small column of stone from the floor to lift the chunk of concrete off of my back and got up, testing myself for any broken bones. Finding none I went inside of myself, just catching a glimpse of Longshot helping Bee up before I closed my eye. I very carefully opened my Void senses a fraction, weary of a repeat of the pain of a few moments ago.

Again I was almost slammed to my knees with the sheer force of the power I was feeling. It had grown in the few moments I had shut down. This was very bad. I left my sense open slightly, keeping a mental eye on it while I tried to figure out what the fuck was going on.

Red May was still seated in her chair, observing the rest of us as we picked ourselves up. Damn, I don't even think any of the ceiling fell on her. It's times like this I wonder if she's what she seems. I had checked her for Void energy or a spark many times, but always come up with nothing. She was just unnaturally good at surviving.

I quickly looked over the others in the room. Suki seemed a little stunned, but otherwise alright. Bee seemed fine as well, her hook-sword in hand should she need to hurt someone for dropping a hotel on her. And Longshot; silent, sullen Longshot had the most cracked grin on his face I have ever seen. I had never seen this man smile, and now he looked like he was just handed a golden bow.

"He's waking up," Longshot said, never losing the grin. I quickly glanced around at the other people still picking themselves up. They all looked as mystified as myself at Longshot's words, so with a mental shrug I brushed them away and began to plan how to deal with this new gathering of power.

"Who's he?" asked Bee, and Longshot just smiled wider causing Bee's eyes to bug out. "Him!"

"He is fighting his nemesis," said Longshot. He almost seemed to be lost within himself, watching something.

"Shouldn't we go and help him?" asked Bee, looking almost panicked.

"There is no time," said Longshot. "He can only sustain his current power level for a further sixty seconds, not enough time for us to reach him. He must face his judgment alone."

"Who's waking up?" asked Red, ignoring the fact that Longshot never spoke this much. Again she got no answer. This was a new thing for Red, and she seemed to be taking it badly. "Withholding information could get people killed. I order you to disclose anything you know."

I drew a startled breath, not listening to what Red May was saying in the slightest. My entire being, body and soul, started to shake with barely controlled adrenaline and energy. I had never felt it before this instant, but I knew what it was immediately; just like any Jenkotsu would. A powerful pull that stretched out over my entire body, almost painfully, as though someone was calling out to my spark itself.

The Call of the Avatar. I was being summoned to a battle, just outside the gates!

Oh Kami, no! I locked eyes with Longshot for only a moment.

"The Incarna," I whispered, terrified by the very thought.

I turned and ran through the door leading back to the main basement, not even stopping as Red screamed at me to come back. I tore through the mess that was once our command center, jumping over downed tables and people, racing for the door that would lead me to the surface. I almost armoured up, but the extra weight would slow me down, and I needed to be there now. I slammed through the fire exit door and bolted up the two flights of stairs that lead to the surface streets. In a matter of seconds I was running into the sunlight.

I fired out of the mouth of the lonely alleyway like a mad bull-rhino, using my Earthbending abilities to skate across the top of the beaten ground like any Waterbender would on a sheet of ice. I sliced around a corner as elegant as a Waterbending master, my shoes kicking up a dust devil as I skated faster and faster, tearing past dozens of surprised faces. I screamed for people to get out of my way and when they were too slow I brought a wall of earth up to push them aside, as gently as the situation would allow.

I was breathing hard and drawing closer to the outer wall when the first Fire Nation troops caught sight of me. They didn't recognize me as the Iron Titan, but they did see someone using a very advanced Earthbending technique; and Earthbending was forbidden inside the walls of Ba Sing Se if you weren't monitored by the Fire Nation. It was not even a challenge to outrun the foot patrols as I was already moving as fast as a horse in a full run. Too bad that's what I found when I rounded the next corner.

I could just see the bottom of the great wall coming into sight when the first chariots clattered up from behind me. Inch by inch the hissing and gasping salamanders crept closer to me on either side, bringing their fire-wielding riders within range. Now I had to evade fire balls as I poured on more speed, begging the gods to let me be get there in time.

I felt the next concussion coming through the earth a moment before it struck me, throwing the ground around like wild waves on the angry ocean. I stumbled and, if not for the mere seconds of warning, I would have gone down like the salamanders. Behind me I heard the sounds of splintered wood and the cried of pain as the two chariots slammed together and emerged from the smoke as a pile of firewood and benders. But I paid it little mind as the very air itself rippled with impossible powers and something that upset the nature of the universe itself.

I pressed harder, my body shrieking through the streets now, drawing ever closer to the great wall. The air around me was so thick with the Void that it almost felt like I might drown in it. I was getting closer to the battle, I could feel the pressures through the earth as godlike forces slammed against one another, tearing apart the world around them.

There was no time to pass through the gates so I pushed myself faster and harder to the only option left to me. With a gesture of my hand I erected a dangerously steep ramp against the wall, ready to redirect my body high into the air. I needed much more velocity than I had now if I hoped to clear the nine hundred foot wall.

My knees almost crumbled beneath me as I hit the incline, but I just gritted my teeth against the pain and held on. An indescribable relief washed over me as my mad plan succeeded and I flew through the air, perfectly perpendicular to the ground, my chest barely an inch away from the rough granite of the wall. If I were to even so much as touch the stone racing below me, my flesh would instantly be ripped from my bones under the immense friction. But, thankfully, my flight was as perfect as it was harrowing and I rose higher towards the clouds.

For what seemed like forever I ascended, arcing gracefully into the sky in a never ending trek to the stars; but I eventually began to slow down as my momentum began to ebb away into nothing, and I could once again pick out the individual blocks of stone that made up the great wall. The edge of the wall, the topmost point was coming ever closer, but I didn't know if I would make it.

At the last second, just as I reached the absolute apex of my flight and hung there for an endless second, bare inches from the edge of the wall, I reached out with well trained reflexes and was able to get a hand hold just before the undeniable force of gravity once again grabbed me. I grunted once more in pain as my fingertips were ripped upon the jagged edge of the wall as my full weight made its presence known. I held that position for as long as I dared, hanging by the finger tips of my only remaining arm, over a nine hundred foot fall to an inevitable death.

I took a steeling breath and began to swing myself back and forth, trying to get one of my feet near enough to the ledge to be able to pull myself up. A moment later I pulled my body onto the relatively even surface of the great wall, as my chest heaved for breath. My body wanted to just sit here for a few minutes to catch my breath and rest, but I could not; I was needed at the most important battle in two centuries.

I wrestled myself to my feet and ... saw it for the first time.

Oh, Kami.

Far out into the distance, almost at the edge of eyesight I knew a small oasis was nestled in the sands of the Monjava desert – I had taken refuge from the heat of the desert there myself on my first journey to Ba Sing Se. But now it seemed like the underworld itself was trying to claw its way into this reality with rotting hands.

A cloud of thick smoke slowly rose into the sky, with flames spewing from a hundred wounds upon the desert's gray flesh. The sky even at high noon was stained a sickly red. The broken corpses of the desert trees twisted in agony as they were consumed by the firestorm. A keening cry that echoed on the empty plain was the only warning when the air exploded out, laying low all of the blackening trees with a pressure shockwave.

The entire wall – all million tons of it – shook as an explosion painted the horizon a blinding white, throwing another smoky blemish onto the face of the sky. I was nearly thrown from the wall as the sound and force of the blast slammed into me; my quick Earthbending skills were all that kept my feet planted on the wall.

My one remaining eye seemed to have gained an unmatched acuteness when I had lost its counterpart, so I could see much further then most people; and when the uniform white that had been etched onto the backs of my eye slowly lifted, I saw it.

Two beings, one with burning red hair throwing masterful fire based attacks – not the small Airbender that I was told held the power of the Avatar – and one who seemed to be warping the light of the noonday sun, a whirlpool of... absence surrounding his weapon. The red-haired Avatar, the one who I felt the call from, bent all four elements against this foe in ways even I, considered one of the greatest Earthbenders in the world, had never thought of. And that monster just danced through them, screaming like a demon from the Seven Hells, moving like nothing I'd ever seen. It was as if he were in five places at once, and none, all at the same time. He was little more than an indistinct blur.

The blur raced though the flame and winds, slammed through the walls of stone as though they were nothing, never slowing even as the Avatar commanded all of the elements against him. The Incarna closed in on the Avatar, slashing and tearing with that sword of his, every moment a second closer to the Avatar's throat.

This Avatar, although possessing techniques far beyond me, was weak; she did not fight with the power one would expect of the Avatar. She did not have her full strength. I needed to get there as fast as possible lest the balance of the world be shattered forever. I was just about to leap from the lip of the great wall when the Avatar released a raging firestorm. I almost cried out in joy. I thought there was no way the Incarna's tricks could get him out of that. But I was wrong.

The Incarna brought his sword up in defiance, and it ate the endless sea of fire like a voracious beast, allowing its master to charge forward. For the first time in almost two years, and a long time before that, I felt true terror. This time it was not simply myself accepting the horror of the situation; I was terrified. I was faced with something out of legends, something that hadn't tarnished the face of the world in unknown millenia. It was one of the weapons that had given the Gel-Hassad the power to bring the world to its knees in the first great war.

My scroll only had bits of the language, scraps of information, but I knew what this was. They called it Hassad Yavim, the black steel. In the hands of a master it was said one could tear a hole into the Void itself, capable of devouring any substance; including any of the four elements. Such weapons were supposedly only fabricated in the the Gel-Hassad's 'city of stars', but if such a place existed it wasn't called that now. But it was supposed to be lost! If this Incarna had such a weapon, and the means to forge more ... it could lead to the next great war; the final war.

We needed to stop this man, at any cost. The two figures slammed into one another in the distance and the wall shook again. I just got my balance back and was once again about to leap, already preparing to dive into the sands like it was an ocean when I was once again almost blinded. Looking up I saw that the Incarna had give the Avatar a little space, but it was the Avatar that drew my attention.

I had heard of this once before, from the Fire Jenkotsu. It was a technique called the Fires of Hell, a technique that pulled from the deepest reaches of one's soul; it was only possible when you truly hated your enemy. It was not the hate you have for a faceless warrior on a battlefield, but true hate for the person themselves. And when it detonated nothing was going to be left standing.

The Avatar channeled the Fires of Hell, and my heart fell when the Incarna sidestepped it. But then he did something I never expected: he started racing it. I stood amazed as the Incarna turned his back on his nemesis and raced after the attack designed to kill him. What was this thing thinking? My entire world seemed to stop when the Incarna threw himself in front the the flames and grabbed two people I hadn't noticed before, hurling them to safety before it was too late. The earth shook with the anger of the gods and wave after wave of searing heat rolled over me, brining tears of pain to my eye as I bore it unflinching.

Finally the light faded from my eye enough, allowing me to survey the damage. For a single second I could see nothing; I thought at first the glare was still from the attack, but I was wrong. The floor of the desert had been warped into a glass crater that reflected the noontime sun back into my eye. It was over, I had not been able to reach the Avatar. Even if I had not taken the moment to assess the situation I would never have been able to reach them in time. I felt the immense spirit pressure of the Avatar diminishing as my own doubts grew.

Had the Incarna, the seed of all evil, just sacrificed himself for two strangers?

-

-Sokka-

-

-Present

The last rays of the sunset were fading into the starry night as we became closer to the inner wall one step at a time. It had been decided that we should approach the inner wall on foot. Too many people knew what Appa looked like and there would at least be Fire Nation sentries on the lookout. We'd probably have to hide him somewhere if we were going to stay in the city itself. I wasn't sure now how we'd do it; but hey, I was the idea guy. I'd think of something.

As we walked I told them as much as I could remember about the airships. I spoke of the fear I felt when I looked at Azula, the paternal memories I had looking at the Knife-Girl, and the anger as I saw Combustion Man. I told them that we only had four days left before they made it to the city and Azula was unleashed upon it, and we agreed something had to be done, but tomorrow. Tomorrow we would plan and strategize, but today we were all too burnt out mentally and physically from the events of the last few hours to think much. We would find a way into Ba Sing Se, then find somewhere to sleep and deal with all of this in the morning.

For what seemed like the hundredth time I looked behind me, again seeing nothing.

"Sokka, there is no one behind us," said my sister not even bothering to look back anymore.

"I know," I said, not entirely convinced. I still couldn't shake the feeling someone was following us, even when I was looking back. Suddenly I stumbled and fell on my face, getting a mouthful of sand. Of course everyone burst out laughing as I spit out the wretched tasting sand. I tried my hardest to glare at them, but my heart wasn't in it. It felt great to be able to laugh again. For too many days I had been to serious, worried about the fuzz ball, the wolf and Mouretsu, but not anymore. Now everyone shared the burden with me. I didn't want to worry them or place anything more on their shoulders, especially Aang, but I had been told that's what families do; we help those of us in need. I was also told to stop being such a pig headed fool, trying to protect them from everything and bearing it all myself.

The faint sound of footsteps on the dirt behind us spun my head around once more, and again I saw nothing. It had been so distant I almost wondered if I had imagined it. I had some decent tracking and hunting skills taught to me by my father, and although I was taught to track in the snow and ice, they had proven pretty useful so far in all terrain. And if I wasn't mistaken, it sounded like there were four separate footfalls, spaced as though they belonged to a four legged animal. I frowned in concentration, trying to hear further, but nothing more made itself known.

This time I felt the earth form a small bump right in front of me and easily stepped over it as I reached into my pocket for the pebble that I had picked up the last time I had fallen. With a flick of my wrist I pinged the pebble off of Toph's bronze tiara and laughed at the surprised look on her face as it dropped down around her eyes. Sure she was already blind so it didn't really do anything, but it was funny. "You knew?"

"Yeah," I laughed.

"Knew what?" asked Aang.

"He was getting all broody again so I tripped him to break him out of it," Toph explained as she rearranged her tiara.

"You tripped him because he looked broody?" asked Aang incredulously. Toph just nodded. "What if he actually got hurt?"

"You're just sore because boomerang boy kicked your Avatar ass," Toph shot back.

"Shut up, too late to argue," muttered Katara.

"Sleep, sleep," I moaned, arms stretched out in front of me like a zombie. Aang laughed along with Toph as Katara threw one of her water skins at me which I easily dodged, running ahead cackling. I stopped well out of throwing range and waited for them to catch up.

"So, where are we going to sleep for the night? Camping again?" asked Aang.

"We'd have to camp pretty far out or the wrong kind of people might notice us. There isn't a lot of camouflage in all this farmland," said Katara yawning.

"We'll find a place inside the city," I said confidently, getting looks from everyone. "What?"

"You sound like you already got something planned," said Toph.

"Do I?" I asked with my eyebrows raised. When I got three nods back I just shrugged. "No, I got nothing right now, but with the remains of the tournament winnings and our winning personalities we should have no problem." I looked over to Toph for a moment and let another goofy smile develop. "Although Toph might want to keep her winning personality to herself."

"What?" she shouted in false indignation. "What's wrong with my personality?"

"Nothing," I said airily. "It's just that threatening and smashing everyone in sight until they give us a place to stay might be a little counter-productive, not to mention noisy and we don't want the Fire Nation to know were here, do we?"

"Always worked before," said Toph with her nose in the air.

"That may be, but sometimes a little money and flattery get us places a rock to the face won't."

"Don't make me come back there and put my foot against some of your flattery. We'll see what's better then."

I laughed again, "No Queeny, I give. Your foot is mightier then my flattery."

"Damn right, it is," said Toph sharing my laugher.

I chanced a peek over to where Katara and Aang were talked quietly. Really, they must think I'm an idiot. I may not have the best skills when it comes to reading people, but I'm not totally blind. Even I could see that they genuinely cared for one another. That's actually what I had taken Aang aside to talk to him about earlier today. I had planned on having a discussion with him about Katara. I knew she hated the Water Tribe traditions on people seeing one another, and even though tradition demanded that Aang talk to the oldest available male before asking her out for the first time I was willing to throw him a line.

Personally, I was still a firm believer in the traditions; well most of them anyway, even I had to admit a few of them are pretty stupid and sexist. I knew Aang would never hurt Katara, and she was no dainty little girl either, but I still felt the need to make them think everything over, to make sure they knew what they were doing.

I had come so close to losing Katara and Toph to Yasuragi that it terrified me. I didn't want to lose anyone, I would lose no one, but it had opened my eyes. We were in a war, and war was an ugly thing. It was possible that we could lose ourselves in the fighting and anger. I wanted us all to have a little anchor of happiness to hang onto, something to remind us who we were and what we were fighting for.

I had been just about ready to tell Aang that he had my blessing with a few conditions when he had come out and – in a very horrible imitation of casual – asked me about the Water Tribe traditions. To say that I was surprised was an understatement of the largest caliber. From the looks of it Aang had come to the same conclusion that I had and wanted to build that anchor with Katara, and if I knew Katara she did too.

If Aang was respectful enough of Katara's culture – even if she didn't embrace it – then that was fine with me. I would let Aang do the honorable thing if he wanted too, even though I knew Katara would kill me if I even thought of saying no.

It went like this the rest of the way to the base of the city wall – we had to tell Appa to go find somewhere to hide until we could sneak him into the city, and Aang kept the bison whistle close – with jokes, games and a few threats of drowning us in our sleep. It was really nice to loosen up once again. I looked up the near thousand foot wall that surrounded the city and almost got sick; it was tall and I was getting a killer case of vertigo.

"So what now?" asked Toph. "I can get us all up there, but it won't be quiet and if there are any guards on this section they will ring the alarm."

I dropped my focus from the top of the wall back to something a little more about eye level. I walked forward, and ran my fingers over the edges of the blocks. The crevices were barely wide enough to get my finger tips in, and each block was at least ten feet tall. I toyed with one of the thousands of jumbled memories that the Archive had just throw into my head for some reason beyond me, and slowly a plan formed.

"I don't know," Aang said. "I guess me or Toph, going slow, could get up there without alerting anyone and then send down a signal to the other. But I'm not good enough with Earth Bending yet to be able to confidently climb that wall without making a racket. I could run up the wall with Air Bending, but that would leave you guys down here."

"Guess it's settled, I go alone and send down a signal-"

"Not alone," I said quickly, coming to a decision.

"What? Don't you think I can take care of myself?" asked Toph in an accusing voice.
"Of course you can," I said easily, running my hand over the crevice in the stones again. "Its just that we're going into unknown hostile territory. It would be stupid for one of us to go off alone."

"I agree, but we have no choice. I can't climb a wall like this quietly, and even if I could that would leave no one down here to bring you and Katara up," Aang said. I turned back from the wall and locked eyes with him. For a moment he seemed to be lost, until he once again trailed his eyes back up the wall. "Oh."

"What?" asked Toph, obviously out of the loop.

"You two really have to stop these 'inside' talks," said an exasperated Katara.

How was I going to explain this to her? She accepted who I was becoming before, but that was when I had saved everyone's lives from a psycho Avatar. Would she still see me as me if I started doing more weird stuff all the time? I looked from Aang to Katara to Toph and back again, trying to figure out how to say it.

"Its more of that magic stuff isn't it?" asked Toph, sounding interested with a little grin on her face.

"Yeah, kinda," I said slowly, unable to tear my eyes away from Katara. The next thing I knew she was walking toward me confidently and took me into a very surprising hug. I was so stunned I just stood there dumbly until I heard her speak.

"Sokka, you're my brother and I love you. I admit this Incarna thing is a little overwhelming right now, but it's a part of who you are. I may be a little amazed or lost for words at times but I am not going to abandon you or fear you. Got it?" Okay, I once more felt like the world's biggest idiot.

"Yes," I responded past a clenched throat.

"I thought I already beat that 'monster' crap from you," said Toph with a grim expression.

"He's just an idiot sometimes," said Katara as she pulled back, "and he forgets that we're all in this together."

"He does," smirked Aang.

"Ah, cram it arrow boy."

"Come here and say that again Frosty," Aang said, spreading his arms in challenge.

"Wouldn't want to be blinded by the reflection from your head," I said, mimicking Aang's sly grin.

"You're just afraid your little black pocket knife can't stand up to the great and mighty Avatar," said Aang importantly, puffing out his chest.

"Okay, that's enough testosterone for now," said Katara as she poked Aang in the stomach, making him sputter. Toph just raised a fist in my direction and I pretended to shake in fear. "Now Sokka, what do you have planned?"

I though my plan over once more; it was simple enough. "Well, I was thinking I would go up with Toph and check for guards or the like, and then we would send down a signal and you would come up with Aang."

"And how are you going to climb the wall?" Katara asked frowning.

"I – I dunno," I said honestly. "I remember how to do it, at least a part of me does. It's simple and complicated at the same time. I just can't explain it in a way you would understand, hell, most of me doesn't understand it. It has to do with the Void and a little bit of the physical body, and ... I'm sorry I really can't explain it, maybe in that other weird language, but not in this one."

"It's okay," my sister said, with that motherly voice of hers, "just be careful."

"I'll make sure he doesn't fall on his head like every other time," added Toph.

"Hey, I only fell because of you," I said, pretending to act wronged.

"Well, don't get all broody and I wouldn't have to."

"Oh, shut up all of you," Katara said tiredly. "I want to get into the city and in a bed before sunrise."

"Aye, captain," I replied sharply, saluting to Toph's glee.

"Just climb the damn wall you morons," muttered Katara.

I had to agree, I was getting tired too. So, without too much more joking around I moseyed over to the wall next to Toph. "How are you going to get up there?" I asked her curiously.

In response she dug her fingers effortlessly into the stone, sinking up to the second knuckle. "Try to keep up Snoozles."

"Oh," I said slyly. "A race is it?"

"More like an humiliating defeat for you," she mocked.

I smiled widely as I reached deep inside of myself, searching for the cold flame of the void. It was much simpler to find it now. The memories said that once I found it I would always be able to call upon the Void at will. Huh, guess its like riding a penguin, once you learn and all that jazz.

The data began to scroll down the corners of my vision in a long chain of green light. Point seven percent maximum capacity; initial system overrides engaged. All subsystems functioning within acceptable parameters. Presence within Archive system – undetected.

I released a shuddering breath as my heart rate and vitals synced up with the Void energies inside me. I smiled wider at Toph. "Ready?" I asked in the Old tongue and before I even finished speaking she was off, tearing her way up the sheer face of the wall. I smirked and let my eyes slide up the wall as I plotted the best route to the top. It only took a few seconds before I had a direction and I raced up the wall after Toph, my fingers catching every little crevice and crack perfectly and my muscles easily pulling me up the wall. I felt lighter, as if something was adjusting my weight, making what would be exhausting motions almost effortless.

I looked back after I had gotten up sixty feet or so, still climbing at full speed, and caught sight of an open mouthed Katara staring up at me in the fading light. Noticing that I was watching her face immediately shifted into a sincere smile of encouragement. I smiled back and then shifted my focus back to the task at hand.

With a little over six hundred feet to go I pulled up next to Toph as she tore up the wall like a rabid dog, not very feminine sure, but making her look very beautiful with her hair blowing back from her face, allowing it to glow with the last rays of light just as the sun sank beneath the horizon. There was an expression of focus on her face, joy in the struggle and the challenge; it was prettier than any makeup. I was so entranced by her that I was surprised when she shot ahead. "Gotta do better then that! I don't lose that easily."

I laughed as loud as I dared and poured on more speed, my fingers and feet catching holds that would be impossible for anyone else, even some of the younger Gel-Hassad. I looked back once more just before I once again pulled up with Toph. I had just climbed up a little over five hundred feet of the great impenetrable wall, without aid or equipment. Yeah, I'm just awesome that way.

When we got within a hundred feet of the top we stopped, just hanging off one of the largest walls in the world. "Nivech sethras alhem et," I said airily to Toph in the flowing dialect of the Old Ones. 'Fancy meeting you here.'

"I know that was some stupid joke," said Toph as she closed her eyes and concentrated on feeling of there were any footsteps right above us. "It's good, c'mon."

I skittered up the wall next to her and dropped down onto the stone in a crouch, quickly scanning the shadows for anyone. Seeing nothing and no one I straighted up and walked back over to her just as she slammed a fist down onto the edge of the battlement, sending a ripple down the side. I assumed it was the signal that she talked about. I was just about to drop the Void so that I could talk to her again when I noticed something.

A nearly invisible gossamer thread was stretched between absolutely nothing just about eye level. It was beautiful and eternal, something that existed forever and was a binding force in the universe. I slowly reached out a hand and let it hover a fraction of an inch above the mysterious thread. What was it doing up here?

I barely noticed as Aang and Katara climbed over the battlements and started to whisper with Toph about something. I opened my senses a little more and was able to see more of the strange thread. I got a sudden flash of eyes with sideways hourglass pupils boring into me with laser intensity.

"The lines of Fate are strong and true, but free will can overcome anything predestined."

The lines of fate. That's what this was, a fate line. I let my finger gently rest on the thread, almost afraid to break it and was amazed to feel a tug at my chest. Looking down I saw that the line was connected to me just above my heart. Suddenly a muffled and distant explosion caught my attention and I looked up into the starry night, catching sight of what appeared to be a large metal ship floating above me, and falling from the ship was a ball of flames and flailing limbs. The body, unnaturally silent as it burned, fell behind the great wall with the sound of something heavy hitting a lot of water.

"Sokka!" Toph yelled, almost right into my ear. I turned very suddenly to her, the fate line slipping from my fingers. I quickly looked back to where the line had been only moments before, but it was gone. I had lost whatever it was that allowed me to see it in my distraction.

"Ghen'ethem?" I asked in irritation, still looking for the little thread.

"Lose the powers, we're going into the city right away," she said. I nodded and released the void, feeling the empty vastness of it leave me.

It took us a long while to creep our way down the stairs of the wall. Twice, Toph had to seal us all into a small alcove in the wall when a patrol came around, but eventually we set foot on the ground again and walked as quickly as we could while looking inconspicuously into the city. We had done it, we had snuck into a Fire Nation occupied Ba Sing Se; sweet. Now what?

The sound of the footsteps following us had stopped when we had crested the wall, but I couldn't shake the feeling that whatever it was was still back there. We stopped on a random street corner beneath the pale light of a spark rock lamp pole and tried to figure out our next course of action. When we had last been here we had been forced to stay almost exclusively in the higher class district, and although we still had almost the entire five hundred gold pieces of the tournament winning I wasn't sure it would cover the prices of any hotels we might remember. That means we would have to wander around until we found somewhere more in our price range. Katara groaned in frustration at that, but something silver caught my eye.

"What is it?" asked Aang as I slowly made my way over to where I saw the ... thing.

"I don't know," I said as I neared the corner. I looked down the next street with caution and just caught the last moments of a white tail snapping around the corner a little ways away. I felt a little fear, but there was something in the back of my head that told me this was natural and fine. I wasn't too sure about that, but my curiosity overcame me and I almost seemed to be walking toward the next corner not of my own accord.

"Sokka, we need to find somewhere to stay for the night," said Katara from somewhere behind me.

"I know," I responded simply, not really aware of what I was saying anymore; all that mattered was following the white tail. "I'm sure Pattern would be nice enough to put us up for the night."

"Pattern?" questioned Toph. "Sokka, are you sure your okay?"

"The Ger-Ghanim," Aang said, finally understanding.

"What, the teachers?" Toph asked as I lead them around the corner and down a long road.

"Yes," said Aang. "He must really need what this pattern guy can teach him."

"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Katara as she walked right beside me, studying me with a worried eye. "Why does he look like he's sleep walking?"

"How many times did I fail to find an Earthbending teacher?"

"We looked for a while," Katara admitted looking back as I continued to walk, barely taking in what they were saying.

"Exactly, I failed over and over to find the Earth Henkotsu. So the Avatar spirit or something else got tired of waiting for me or saw that I would need it very soon and gave me the visions of Toph that I had in the swamp."

"So," said Toph considerately, "something inside Sokka or watching him got tired of his bumbling and has taken the control and is guiding him to one of his senseis?"

"I think so," said Aang.

"What do we do?" asked Katara, looking back into my eyes.

"Nothing," said Aang, "Something powerful obviously thinks he needs this, so all we can do is watch out for Fire Nation guys and follow him."

"Do you hear that?" I asked, making Katara jump.

"Hear what?" she asked

"The clicking, like nails on the stones," I responded. I heard it, like canine nails on hard stone, clicking as something lead the way I could not help but follow.

"Sokka, do you know who's leading you?" asked Aang as we passed under another street lamp.

"Yes," I said smoothly as I turned again.

"Who is it?"

"The Incarna Spirit," I replied, still walking forward with total certainty.

"How do you know?" my sister asked.

"He told me," I muttered just loud enough for them to hear as I focused on something. "Now I smell puppies."

I might have been hurt or lost when Toph struggled to contain her laughter if I wasn't busy stalking my invisible companion.

"Are you sure he's okay?" asked Katara, looking a little leery. "I don't remember you getting all closed off and well... off when your spirit led you to Toph."

"Yeah, well his head isn't as thick as Sokka's either," said Toph once she could speak words again. "This spirit has probably been dropping hints the size of houses on his head and just got fed up with them not catching and started to shove him in the right direction."

"I suppose," my sister said, not sounding entirely convinced.

I stopped so abruptly that Aang walked into me before Katara caught him. I looked around, looking over the unfamiliar buildings bathed in the gold and silver of the moon and street lamps. We appeared to have stopped outside some sort of two story pub and gaming parlor. "Uh, guys? Where are we?"

"Sokka? Are you back?" asked Katara walking around in front of me looking into my eyes, as though trying to find my soul.

"Where are we? How did we get down from the wall?"

"We've left the wall nearly a half hour ago," Aang said slowly.

"What?" I breathed, "then why don't I remember --"

I stopped, looking deep within myself and found memories, explaining everything that had happened since we left the wall. It was all foggy and faded like a half forgotten dream, but it told me many things.

"I'm supposed to meet the Architect here," I said softly, once again turning my gaze to the building before me. It looked like nothing special, the 'Lotus Garden' looked just like every structure around it. Step by step I closed the distance between myself and the darkwood door.

"Oh crap, did the spirit thing take him again?" groaned Toph.

"No, I'm still me. But if I don't go in he probably will come back and force me to."

"Well that's a pleasant though," said Toph as she moved up right next to me. "Sounds like a bit of an ass to me."

I laughed. "Not really, I got more of a feeling of base instincts and goals. I figured out a while back that the Incarna spirit is just concentrate power with a list of goals to accomplish, its me that gives it personality and tact and whatnot."

"I suppose that makes sense," Toph said, not sounding convinced. "But I'm not sure. You giving tact to anything is a big leap of faith for me."

"So, are we going to go in and meet this sifu of yours?" asked Aang looking excited.

I nodded and lead the way forward, with Toph right at my side and Katara and Aang just behind me. I pushed open the door and immediately the clacking of tiles on boards drew my attention to the dozen or so tables of people, either graying with age or young and strong, all playing Pai Sho, drinking and talking. I made my way to the small bar they had between the entrance and the sitting room. Sitting there was a middle age man wearing clothes that seemed a little out of place in here, a little too expensive.

He eyed me suspiciously as we walked up and his eyes immediately snapped down to my right hand where I now held the white lotus tile that Piando-sensei had given me. I don't even remember taking it out of my pocket.

"Good evening, how may I help you?" he asked in a tone much more kind then he looked.

"Yegoth still stands in her people's hearts," I replied on pure impulse, getting a strange sideways look from Katara and an arched eyebrow from the man before me.

"Indeed it does," said the man. "What may I do for one of the People?"

"I require a game with the grandmaster," I said, still following instincts and repeating the replies that surfaced inside the memories of the Archive.

"I see," he said, looking a little harder at me. "Master Rashi could be out with you shortly."

"No," I said kindly, "I have a meeting with Haiyahi."

Both of his eyebrow disappeared into his hair at that. "Master Haiyahi is a very important and busy man. Are you sure about your meeting with him?"

"You'll find that I am also a very important man," I said with confidence, locking eyes with him.

"I see sir, I will see if Master Haiyahi has time to see you now." Then he turned and made his way to a door to the back room.

"What the hell was that?" whispered Toph as she continued to 'watch' the other people in the room.

"That was a conversation that would be held between two Gel-Hassad," Aang said, grinning.

"But Sokka isn't a Gel-Hassad," Katara muttered, trying not to be overheard.

"No, but the other man was."

Katara, a little pale, looked like she wanted to say something else, but the man was already striding over to us, looking somewhat surprised and just a little afraid. "Master Haiyahi will be out shortly, if you would like to follow me I could bring you to your table."

"We would like a corner table," I said smiling at the man.

"Of course sir, right this way." He turned heel and lead the way to the far corner where an empty Pai Sho board was sitting with two chairs. "If you like I could arrange more chairs for your companions?"

"We'll stand," Toph said in an authoritative voice. I couldn't help but smile a little; my little warrior Toph, always on guard. I would never have to watch my own back again as long as I had her around. I took the chair against the wall and the others stood on either side of me, looking out dangerously over the people in the room. A few looked back, but most looked away quickly when they saw Aang and Katara's expressions. You don't often get the dead eye stare from a bunch of teenagers.

"How many of them are Gel-Hassad?" asked Aang uneasily, though it didn't show on his face. He looked at me out of the side of his eye. I wasn't too good at spotting a seeming yet, and judging from the fact that the man at the counter had passed on my words, I guessed it wasn't a skill that too many had in spades. But I could get a general feel for the seemings, something that the Archive memories assured me would only increase; and they told me a very disturbing number.

"A lot," I smiled thinly at Aang and he gulped appropriately.

"Well, that's kind of an expected surprise," said Toph. I turned and looked at her confused.

"Your sensei is here," she explained, pointing toward the door that the desk man had disappeared into. I turned and felt dazed. Maybe Aang got this 'fall into you lap' thing right.

"Good evening, Sokka. It's good to see you again," said Piando as he stopped before the table.

I slowly rose to my feet as jaws dropped around me, well two anyway. "Oh, c'mon," huffed Toph. "Am I the only one that isn't surprised?"

"It would seem so Henkotsu," Piando said casually. "Now, I am sure everyone is tired and wishes to retreat to the beds in the back, so why don't we get started?" For a long time I was speechless; I supposed it made sense, but to actually know that Piando-sensei was one of the Gar-Ghanim was a little much to take in.

While I gathered my thoughts Piando gestured a waitress over. "I would like a cup of white leaf tea if you please," he said to the young brunette waitress that came over. "Would you like anything before we start?"

"Start what?" I asked, getting a little of my sense back.

"That, Sokka, will all be explained in time. Just know that it is vital training if you are to continue on your path. Now if you would like to have a seat," asked Piando with a smile. "Why don't we play a friendly game while we're here? You can learn much from Pai Sho. I have always found it to be most enlightening."

Toph tilted her head towards the other people in the Pai Sho parlor, her unseeing gaze sweeping the room as I sat down, looking at the tiles before me. Figuring I was as collected as I was going to be I ran my hand over them. "I've never played Pai Sho before."

"That's okay. We're going to do this a little differently Sokka," Piando said. He reached for a tile and looked me straight in the eye, placing it at the center cross section of the board. "Do not think. Just look into my eyes and do what comes naturally. Allow your instincts to guide you."

With hesitation, I picked up a tile. I placed it on the table.

Clack.

I remembered.

The ice field was my home, and my stubby little four-year-old legs carried me as fast as they could over the frozen plain. Piando strode beside me with a deep red coat wrapped around him. I was running to get stronger, to get faster. I was only four, and Piando was a grown up, but he kept pace with me, talking all the while.

"In the beginning, there was the World," he said in his most serious voice. "And the Gods and Man lived as one. This was called the time before ages. Then the Old Ones came. From the stars they arrived, bringing with them steel, science, and burning light. This was the beginning of the First Age, the age of the Elder Ones."

Clack.

I was practicing as a five-year-old with my machete, swinging it wildly. A firm hand grasped mine.

"No Sokka," Piando commented. He adjusted my grip and gave me a stern look. "You must practice the forms in the proper way or you will never be able to move beyond them. Once you have, you will be the ultimate Pattern; the pattern without form, the pattern of the Universe itself."

Clack.

I sat in the snow, watching as Piando stood beside me, a whalebone in hand, sketching symbols upon the icy surface with immaculate care.

"You must remember Sokka," he said patiently,"that interlocking seals have only certain acceptable configurations. If you do not align the seals correctly, the spell will not function; or worse it could backfire on you."

I nodded with the conviction that only a five-year-old could muster. He handed me the bone.

"Your turn now."

Clack.

"The key to Gel Hassad spirit shaping is in the understanding that you are not altering the fabric of reality," Piando said, sitting next to Gran Gran with a smile. "Instead, you are tapping into rules of the universe, rules that must be obeyed, just as any rule. The key to mastering the gifts of Pattern is to understand that the world's rules are not breakable, but rather have shortcuts within them. You cannot, for instance, turn back time, reset the world."

We sat around the village's central fire. Piando accepted a bowl of sea prunes and passed yet another to me, with a smile to my grandmother. She went over to help six-year-old Katara with delivering the meals to the older tribeswomen. She winked at him as she left and he turned back to me with a serious expression.

"Think of this," he said with a wry smile. "I could not reset time, no mortal could do such a thing. The laws of the universe forbid it; but what is time save for the order that memory gives it? What if I were instead to re-order memory in the present? Is it time travel? Certainly not. May it achieve some of the same ends? Can creativity trump raw power? Achieve what others deem impossible? I will let you be the judge of that, Sokka."

Clack.

I finished the intricate seal array upon the glacier. Piando gave me a stern glare as he walked up and corrected one of the sigils. Then he hit me upside the head so hard I flew into a nearby snow bank.

"Sloppiness will kill you Sokka," he said grimly. "And not just you. Your sister and your friends will be in danger as well. Again!"

Clack.

"There are many who revere the Old Ones, Sokka, not just the Gel Hassad," Piando continued to lecture as we repaired the fishing nets for the catamarans. "The Beetle worshipers of the Earth Kingdom Desert being a well-known sub culture. Others, such as the Yu Yan include humans in their ranks. Even the Sand Benders worship gods that are in true fact Old Ones."

"Really?" my ten-year-old voice squeaked.

"Never believe for a second that this world is a vacuum my boy," Piando said with a sage nod. "The Old Ones had just as many supporters once as the Gods of this world. The Incarna was as much the mind of the peoples of the world as the Avatar was their heart. Let this be a lesson as well; when the head and the heart fight, usually the head loses. Mouretsu lost, despite superior combat forces, because he could not understand why the humans fought so hard at such random intervals. Yasuragi, for all her many flaws, was a passionate woman with the will to win and win she did, though at hideous cost."

Clack.

"It worked!" my twelve-year-old voice shouted as the intricate shaping worked into the snow lit up with green hell fires. There was a horrible crack of lightning and the working was gone. I fell to one knee in the snow, panting as I looked upon what I had called across the mists of space and time.

The shoggoth reared up in the snow, angry and formless, shaping horrible maws and tendrils while it's piping song made the air around us ripple with its power. I stood again and raised my palm outward, the uneven five pointed star of the Old Ones inscribed upon it glowing with more green fire.

"Bow before your master, slave," I roared. Even though I was exhausted, I felt a cold sense of triumph and determination. Our wills clashed and the snow flew away from us as the winds were kicked up by its unnatural presence. Primal unthinking hunger fought against an interlocking pattern of thought and will that I had chained around the beast. It's black oozing form reared up in anger, but I just stared. Stalks with slitted eyes extruded from the mass and peered at me. Then, with agonizing slowness, the great beast bowed before me.

I howled my victory cry to the stars, and a strong hand clasped my shoulder.

"This is only the beginning of what you may accomplish."

Clack.

"So the Old Ones and the Gods made a treaty then?" I asked. Piando nodded. I watched as thirteen-year-old Katara walked past me and waved. I returned the wave. My little sister was growing up.

"Yes, but only after the Old Ones had forced them to," Piando said. He added more bait to his fishing hook and dropped it into the ocean again. "You see, they had achieved the greatest spirit shaping in all of history. They created the Great Barrier between the worlds. They sought to keep the Gods in check, for the Gods could be petty and cruel as well as powerful and magnanimous. The Great Barrier was their response to the Gods creating their chosen bender children."

Piando rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Just as the Old Ones together were mightier than Gods, Man united was mightier than the Old Ones. Remember this Sokka; unity and will are greater than any power save that of the Source of the Universe itself. Even the Demon Sultan Azathoth bows before it. However, without desire, will, and knowledge of the Pattern of the Creator, Azathoth will triumph. You must remember Sokka; ITS agents promote chaos, anarchy, and strife. Only unity, love, will and faith can stand against IT, which is why IT hates them so."

Piando gave me a serious look. "Remember this Sokka. Alone you are just a man. Together you are not just people, not just legend, you are the sum of what is put together and more. You are an Idea and a Mission. It is much harder to kill an idea than a man."

"So I need to become an idea?" I asked, feeling a tug on my line. Piando shook his head.

"No," he said. His eyes became red, black cross pupils locking with my own. "You must induce them to believe. If you do this, not even the Haunter in the Dark will be able to fight you. The belief will make what was destroyable untouchable. Indestructible."

Clack, clack, clack.

Zuko's ship prepared to ram the iceberg that the village rested upon. I stood there. In another life I would have worn the gray and black face paint of the Water Tribes. Now I stood with the black cloak of a Spirit Shaper, dressed in the insectoid-segmented armor of a servant of the Old Ones. In my hand I held no weapons.

A master Spirit Shaper needs no weapons. His mind and will are weapons that even a master bender should fear.

The huge bulk of the ship approached, and I held out one hand, green fire glowing on the tip of my finger. My eyes became black like the night's sky, and I could feel the other villagers, even Katara, back away from me. I turned to look at them and smiled.

"Go," I said. I watched Katara nod hesitantly, and gather the elderly of the village up and move them away from where the ship was heading. I turned back to the incoming bulk of metal and traced my finger through the air in a pattern that I had practiced a thousand times with Piando. The air itself rippled as the frigate's hull rammed into the iceberg. Good-it was nice and stuck. They couldn't run away fast enough. The seal inscribed upon the air amplified itself, growing out from the small beginnings to become a glowing wall of green light, ten thousand symbols upon the air, a hundred feet in diameter. I closed my eyes, and my breath misted even the dry air of the South Pole.

When they snapped open I spoke.

"Je'halam Ve Ne Salkehm," I hissed. "Invetres Divish'na Olrec in ghem!"

The surprised Fire Nation crew watched as the sky peeled back and the song of the Void echoed through the aether. Then It came. The soldiers on the main deck were bathed in a light that had no name, a color from beyond space and time, something that the human mind, even my own, was not equipped to handle. Good thing I wasn't able to see it.

I almost felt sorry as the Fire Nation soldiers clawed their own eyes out to make it stop. Almost. Their screams were pitiful.

The working was powerful, but it wouldn't last long. I was in motion even before it collapsed in on itself, slamming my hands into the spells I had wrought onto the ground behind me. They sparked with green lightning, so unlike that of the fire benders, yet similar enough to cause fear. There was a snap and they were there. Two of them. Their piping song drifted across the glaciers and oceans, haunting and terrible.

Tiklili! Tiklili!

"Your master commands you," I said.

Tiklili!

"Consume."

The Fire Nation soldiers screamed. I turned, my cloak floating in the wind, and walked away. It was already over. They just didn't know it yet.

I am the destroyer. The Incarna.

They didn't stop screaming for a long time.

A final 'clack'.

Aang and Katara stood next to Appa with me. Gran Gran was handing up supplies with Aang's help when Piando walked up next to me and placed both hands upon my shoulders and smiled at me. I felt a tug at my gut. No one had smiled at me that way since my father left. He looked... proud; very proud.

"You have proven yourself Sokka," Piando said. "You have been given the histories of our people and a more thorough education in the art of spirit shaping than most will ever get. I prepared this spell years ago, and spent almost five years of my life crafting it. I can proudly say that it is my finest work, my greatest triumph."

"I kept watch for you," Piando said. He looked me in the eye and pursed his lips. "I knew that you would come. In truth, I suspected that you were the Incarna the moment you brought the meteor to me."

He let out a long sigh. "I have always wanted to help this world. I have known since I was a young man that I would meet you one day. Once long ago, a beautiful prophet told me that I would craft my greatest work for the sake of this world. She told me that I would forge the sword that would save the world."

"At first I thought that it was the blade itself, but as I grew older I understood," Piando trailed off for a moment. "The true forge of the sword is not in the fire, but in the mind. The Black Sword is just a tool. I have given you my true sword Sokka, the greatest weapon, the greatest gift I have to give; my knowledge."

His blood red eyes pierced me as his seeming vanished, and he stood tall. Black stabilizers rose over his back like insect wings and his hair and beard became whipping tendrils that danced over armored exoskeleton. Still, despite the pain I knew that facial expressions caused them, Piando gave me a brilliant smile. He went down on one knee before me and bowed.

"My lord," he said quietly. "I am at your command."

"Stand," I said quietly, kneeling down beside him. "You will never bow to me, sensei. Never."

The two of us stood up and I felt the rays of the setting sun upon my face. I was a spirit shaper now; a real one.

"Well, at least it doesn't have a rainbow this time," Piando said, breaking the eternity of silence. He was smiling like Momo with a freshly caught badger frog. I looked at him, our eyes still locked, and tears filled my eyes. He nodded once, and made a gesture at the table. I looked down to see the jagged Yang symbol on the board.

The symbol of the Incarna.

"Also," Piando said with a twinkle in his eye. He snapped a tile at me with a nonchalant ease. I caught it with one hand. "A young lady asked me to send you her regards. She still remembers you fondly and sends her deepest love. She looks forward to meeting you again, and she has not forgotten her promise. I must say, she was a most insistent and charming young woman."

I opened my hand and stared down at the crescent moon on the tile. I almost couldn't believe she'd spoken with him, save that my memories told me it was well within his capabilities. Now they were my capabilities too.

"Yue."

"So I am given to understand," Piando said in agreement. "Sooner would be perhaps better than later. You have the means, do you not?'

"I do now, sensei," I said and I couldn't keep the humor out of my voice. Talk about your ultimate inside jokes. "One thing though; I never did understand why you loved sea prunes so much."

"They remind me of ocean kumquats," Piando said with a shrug. "A taste of home I suppose. Anyhow, no doubt after that little display, word will get around that you're in town. Perhaps it would be best were we to speak elsewhere. Come with me."


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Jade Knight - Richard Caine - Kitty

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