It is a quiet night at the barracks as the Knight types away, fingers dancing over the keys. Outside, unknown to him a mob is forming. They have been hunting him for a little under six months now, and they have finally found him.
The green knight gets up from his desk and walks over to the window of the highest tower, expecting to see a peaceful sunset. He had a rough few months. Physical problems matched with questions about his future as a writer. Was he good enough, could he match those greats already out there?
He had decided a month ago he could damn well try and thats just what he planned on doing.
Below him in the courtyard he notices touches and people milling around. Some were quickly setting up tents and other equipment including what looked like a catapult . For a single moment he grinned beneath his harlequin visor... at least until he saw them raising a large green painted wooden man who looked a little like a knight with his sword and shield. He was getting a bad feeling.
His feeling were confirmed as they set fire to the huge replica of him.
"Jade!" screamed the lead lunatic. "We tried sending you private messages. You received almost twenty one of them and yet you did not update."
"But I have it now!" he tried to call to them.
"We have come to send you the way of Frankensteins monster you horrible man!" a little girl shrieked from the shoulders of her big brother.
"Listen people," the knight pleaded. "I have chapter fifteen done; sixteen is in final edits and seventeen is almost finished being drafted! I even have some work done on eighteen!"
suddenly he catches a glimpses of cat ears in the masses. "NO, you monters! We've been looking everywhere for Kitty! What are you doing with her?!"
"She lead us here!" called a random man holding a sword.
"She would never!"
"You'd be amazed at how persuasive a ball of string and catnip can be," cackled an collage student.
"oh crap, that'd do it," muttered the knight. A moment later a boulder flew through the wall right next to him, scratching his armour. "AHHHH!"
He clambers up the stairs to the battlement and almost weeps in relief at what he sees. "Richard!"
"Hell you want?" Richard Caine asks as he lounges easily against the stone sipping an umbrella drink.
"You can stop them!"
"Why?"
"Why what!" screeched the knight. "They want to burn me alive and dance on my ashes!"
"Serves you right," he laughed as flaming arrows just barely miss him. "You should never abandon the great and powerful being known as Writing. She is a cruel mistress that you never want to mess with."
"I know that! But you have to save me from these psychos!"
"I have to do no such thing, I had my forty pages over to you five months ago. This is your problem."
"You monster!"
Richard grins demonicly. "You've read what I'm gonna do."
The Jade knight can only shudder as the battlement is blown apart.
-The 'M' rated chapters are under dispute again. They are coming, my stuff just mutated a little too much this time and its been pushed back again.-
And if you could please release Kitty... we need our beta! That means this chapter is unbeated and may be re-uploaded later.
KITTY WE NEED YOU! (Richard coughs) alright fine my writing needs you. (sticks out tongue at Richard.)
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I added more Forum Topics! Go check them out. I listed them at the bottom of the page as to not ruin anything. DO NOT READ THE TOPICS BEFORE THE CHAPTER! THEY ARE SPOILERS!
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One last thing; We are NOT 'becoming crossover'! you will find a few 'Easter Eggs' as Richard likes to call them strewn throughout this and other chapters. They are for fun and not the core of the story. and I didn't tell you this... but Richard just may have already slipped one past you! now am I easing you into the idea or and i telling the truth? I dunno... but he is much more subtle then I am. I'm more of a 'shoot first, shoot later, shoot some more and then when everything's dead ask a question or two" kinda guy.
hehe, wild wild west.
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-Curtain up!
Sokka: Master of the Black Sword
Author: The Jade Knight
Co-Author: Richard Caine
Beta: Kitty (A.K.A. kathykatinahat)
-The Resistance Saga-
Chapter 15
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The Story of Sokka
Dreams and Wolves
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I stood on a grassy cliff overlooking the ocean. I sighed deeply as the setting sun caressed my face. I wasn't sure how I got here, but I knew I was asleep; so I think it was a pretty good assumption that either the Cat or Mouretsu had a hand in this. I listened to the crashing waves as I waited for the Furball to come frolicking along, casting more fire and doom prophecies at me. I really didn't want to deal with either of them right now.
I turned around to start walking down the hill. Maybe they were waiting to pounce at me from behind a bush or something. Wouldn't want to keep them waiting; after all, we haven't spoken in a while and it's only polite to keep in touch. The gravel of the path crunched loudly beneath my sandals as I dragged my feet. A stiff wind blew in off of the ocean and almost seemed to be pushing me along.
"Yeah, yeah," I muttered darkly. "I'll be right there, you bastards."
I walked along, following the path for a while until a small village came into view, a very familiar village. I knew I had been here before, I just couldn't place it. It was relatively small, what some people could call a quaint little fishing village. A small cluster of very beautiful houses were built around one another and painted a deep earthly green, all facing toward the inlet off of the ocean. The sun crawled a little higher into the sky as I drew closer to the border.
I realized why this village seemed so familiar about halfway down the path. But why would the furry rat bring me here? She'd best not be planning something dastardly. I crossed into the village of Kiyoshi still wondering why I was here and caught the sounds of fighting inside one of the houses. It was quiet here, unnaturally quiet. There were no children playing, mothers hanging clothes to dry or boats riding the waves. The village was bare save for the sounds of combat.
I walked toward the sounds, knowing that this was a dream and no one was really in danger. I paused in front of the building that housed the indoor dojo where I got my ass handed to me by Suki; sounds of fighting were expected to come from there.
I pushed open the door stopped just inside, not letting the door close all the way. I watched from there for a while as six figures dressed in full warrior makeup and battle dresses went through their training sequences. As I watched I remembered learning the same moves all those months ago, and I almost wanted to join them; no dress or makeup this time though.
As I watched, I was once again entranced by their fighting fans. I didn't know why they held me so before and nothing had cleared up with this new power of mine. I traced the edges of the folded cloth over sharpened metal skeleton with my eyes as a dozen of them flashed in the sunlight that filtered in through the windows. There was always something about them, something familiar and painful.
"Sokka!" someone shouted, and suddenly one of the six broke off and came at me and before I could even react to my name I was pulled into Suki's arms. I stiffened as soon as we touched and she pulled away and looked up at me.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes," I said tightly. Inside I was screaming that this was Genzou's new way to torture me; wasn't I confused enough with Toph? Now I had to deal with Suki also.
Wait, this wasn't right, something was wrong here. I looked down at Suki, she seemed fine, albeit looking at me a little oddly. I glanced around at the other girls. It was them, there was something wrong with them. As I took on more and more of Suki's attention the other girls in the room started to fade and lose their details.
"Suki," I asked, playing with a theory. "Where are we right now?"
"We're in the dojo Sokka, you know that we meet here every afternoon," said Suki, making it sound like a crazy question.
"Do we? Come here every afternoon I mean?"
"Yes," she said, leaving nothing to doubt. "You left this morning before the sun came up, and went down to the docks to get your fishing crew going like always."
"I have a fishing crew?" I asked feeling like the world had went and got crazy without me. What the hell was all of this now?
"Of course you do, you bought a boat when we came back to Kiyoshi seven years ago. You said it was the only thing you were ever good enough at to make a living. But I know you just like the water; it reminds you of the South Pole."
"I see," I said slowly.
"What's with you today?" she asked. "I haven't seen you this down since before the war ended."
"The war ended?" I asked dumbfounded as a revelation washed over me. This wasn't one of Genzou's tricks, somehow I knew this really was Suki, and that meant that...
A sinking feeling started to develop deep inside.
"Of course," she said, her voice chipper and light. "But let's not talk about the war, okay?"
"Papa!" someone else shrieked. I turned and was almost knocked over as something small in a tiny green dress much like Suki's slammed into my legs.
"Nani," Suki laughed as she reached down to pry off the small girl who had attached herself to me. "You're getting too big to do that much longer."
"Aww," groaned Nani as she let herself be picked up by Suki. Now sitting in Suki's arms I got a better look at her. She was small, maybe three years old and the phrase 'cute as a button' might as well have been coined specifically for her. She wore a small green dress, much like the Kiyoshi battle dresses but made from a light cottony material as opposed to stiff combat resistant fabric. She looked up at me with large sparkling blue eyes... my eyes.
"Ar' we 'till goin fer da pic'ic Papa?"
"Yeah Sokka, are we going for that picnic you promised me yesterday or what?" asked Suki as she and Nani both tried to look as cute as possible.
"Pweeze papa," said Nani, pushing out her bottom lip.
"Yeah, pweeze papa?" asked Suki, matching her daughter's near identical face.
I closed my eyes as sadness entered my heart. Something deep inside me, that cold abacus of inhuman precision that I'd come to understand was the Incarna's birthright, told me that this was Suki's dream, and I was intruding. For a moment I almost had hope that this was just a random dream; I knew how weird some of them could get. But the machine coldly reminded me that it wasn't. I was seeing her dream for the future, not just a sleep induced farce.
I realized then that I was no longer the man I once was. In truth, I don't think I ever had just a regular future, but now I knew many things about the path I was on. I knew who and what I was to become, and I knew that no matter how hard I tried I could never give Suki the future she needed. I had been silently pleading for some sort of resolution to this issue I was having between Toph and Suki, and it seemed I was given the answer.
I didn't know what I wanted, but it wasn't this. I always wanted what was best for both of them, for them both to be happy. But seeing this, I knew that I would have to break a dream to give Suki the life she needed.
"Suki," I said, my voice low and sincere. "You're in a dream right now."
"What?" she asked, her eyes squinting at me as if trying to find the punch-line to a joke. Nani squirmed in her arms uncomfortably as the other warriors in the dojo vanished. The almost comforting symbols began to scroll across the edge of my vision in green light, telling me that Suki's attention was being pulled to the possibility that this was all a dream, and so the dream was falling apart. It was almost enough to convince me I wasn't a complete madman.
"It's not a joke Suki, you're in a bed somewhere right now and I've somehow ended up in your dream."
"But -" she started, still searching my eyes for that little smirk that would tell her this was all some kind of joke; that she could go back to her perfect world. I pulled her close, into a tight embrace and just held her for a minute, little Nani fading in our arms. Sometimes what you need isn't always what you want or can handle at the time. I knew with a growing certainty that I was destined down one fork of this crossroads, and Suki was to travel down another.
"I'm sorry Suki, I'll find you and we'll talk about this more. I promise," I whispered softly into her hair.
"This is all a dream?" she asked, only half of her believing it. The world around me suddenly went black and the weight in my arms vanished as I was surrounded by nothingness. She had woken up and I was left in the dark, with nothing but my thoughts to torment me.
Love was not always easy or beautiful; sometimes it was hard and painful. The Gods knew that I had learned that in my life.
I don't know how long I stood there in the nothing, just gazing into the black, listening to my own breathing. I idly wondered what I was breathing, but it was a fleeting thought. Some part of me, some very human part of me just wanted to stay in here forever. In here, in the black there are no hard decisions or pain; there is no love and heartbreak. In here I didn't have to have that impossible talk with Suki. But I also knew that the world would not wait for me. Standing there, with just myself as company I came to a decision.
"I need to talk to someone who knows what's going on, someone with answers," I said into the darkness, not too sure if this would work. Queries in a language that I did not fully understand materialized in the black, hellfire green against the emptiness, playing before me faster and faster. Information whirled; it was searching, looking for an answer. Finally it locked onto something. I took a step forward into the black and immediately felt my foot touch down on something solid. I pulled myself completely into this new world and looked around. The sun was high in the sky and it seemed faded; less then I thought it should be. Frozen, empty tundra rolled off into the distance in every direction; the uniform white broken only by a few drifts. I was standing on an almost perfect ice sheet, in the middle of what looked like one of the poles. Okay?
My breath puffed before my face and the cold air bit at my face. Immediately I wished I had my Water Tribe weather gear with me and as soon as the thought was complete I felt my body get heavier as layers of cloth and fur formed out of nowhere.
Well, at least this was one good thing. I was cold so warm clothes appeared out of nowhere. I ran a gloved hand over the thick blue fabric, it seemed harmless. It might have just been my imagination but it seemed like every time I tried out a new ability or learned something more about this Incarna stuff something bad happened to me; whether it be burning or psycho avatars. Yeah I'm a pessimist, but I have better reasons than most. I surveyed my surroundings and was not disappointed.
Life just liked to dump on me, huh?
"You have summoned me, Lord Incarna?" intoned Yue from her spot kneeling on the snow before me. For a full minute I just looked at her, not moving, barely breathing.
I looked to my left just as a tall wall of ice rose up from the ground. It seemed that anything I wanted appeared in this dream world; useful. I did not respond to Yue, instead I walked slowly over to the wall, tested it with my hand first to make sure it was real, and then proceeded to slam my head into it over and over.
My plan was to continue banging my head until I was either unconscious or life felt that it had punished me enough, but then a hand caught my forehead from striking the ice again. "You're going to hurt yourself if you keep doing that," said a deep male voice form beside me.
"Seems like everyone wants a piece of me lately," I said sarcastically, not looking at this new man yet. I'm having girl trouble, so why not have all three of the girls I care for come at me one after another and force me to destroy everything? Yes, that will do nicely. And people wonder why I'm so upbeat. "I just thought I should get a few shots in too."
"Beating yourself up never solved anything, I thought we figured that out a long time ago?" said the man in an amused voice. "And you sound like you're giving up; nothing ever got done when someone gave up."
"What?" I asked, confused. I followed the arm that had stopped my head banging and came to a smiling face. "Do I know you?"
He stood a head taller than me and seemed about my build. He had messy brown hair that flew wild in the light wind we were having and his blue eyes smiled at me. I frowned as I guessed his age at about thirty; I could swear I knew him from somewhere. He wore a red and white jacket that looked well worn and when he pulled my hand forcibly into his own for a shake, I was still imitating a fish.
"Hello there," he said in a cocky little voice.
"Hello?"
"You do know she's going to stay that way until you tell her to get up," he asked, nodding to Yue.
"Oh," I muttered. I had almost forgotten she was doing that. "Yue, please get up. All of this bowing is very weird for me."
Yue stood back up – and although she hid it very well, the small grimace did not escape me. Almost as soon as she was righted again a graceful smile fell on her delicate face. Wow, she looked a lot more beautiful than the last time I saw her. But there was also something very different about her, something just as infuriatingly familiar as whatever this guy or those damn fans had. She glided forward over the ice with womanly grace, her complicate gown of sashes and thin silks flowing behind her. "It is good to see you once more Incarna."
"Yue," I pleaded, not knowing how much more strange I could handle today; but it wasn't much. "Please don't start using all of these titles; I'm uncomfortable with all of this as it is."
"Sure, Sokka." she said, smiling. "I suspect you have met with The Architect already?"
"Yeah," I said, glad for the momentary distraction. "He did some spell work with my mind and now I have the knowledge of the spirit shapers."
"What?" asked the man, eyebrows raised. "All of it?"
"At least enough to hold my own." Truthfully I had no idea how much I really knew or could do as I hadn't tried it out yet.
"But you didn't call me just to talk about what The Architect taught you, did you?" Yue asked. Smart girl.
"No," I said softly, my breath puffing before me, my eyes falling to my feet. Damn this Incarna crap back to whatever hell it crawled out of, my life seemed so much simpler before. I'm a smart guy, so I know on some level that it's just my perception. The Incarna bit has nothing to do with it; but it's nice to have something to blame. "I'm doing all of this aren't I? Suki, calling you somehow and created this this frozen world?"
"Yes, Incarna," the man said. I bit back my annoyance at the title and pushed on.
"Is there-" I started, but my voice broke. "Is there any chance that I was wrong? That it wasn't Suki I saw, or that it was just some random dream?"
Yue's face was edged in sorrow and I knew the answer even before she spoke. "I'm sorry Sokka, but that was what she really dreamed the future would be."
"Yeah, I thought so," I mumbled. I felt the urge to complain about how fast all of this keeps coming at me, but I already knew it would go nowhere. "Alright, let's get on with it."
"With what?" asked the man, a little confusion evident.
"Well, someone is going to come at me right away, knowing much more about this Incarna crap than I do, but they will be sure to tell me absolutely nothing I could use while trying to either make me think I'm becoming a monster or burn me alive."
"Wow, I see what you mean about seeing the bad sides first," the man said to Yue, who only cracked half a smile. "He wasn't like this back when I knew her."
"So it's you, huh?" I said stiffly, glaring at the man. "You're going to go on about this and that and never tell me who this 'her' is while telling me just enough to confuse the hell out of me. Well, get on with it; I'm sure Genzou or Mouretsu are waiting in line behind you, wouldn't want to keep them waiting too long."
For a long moment nobody said anything, we all just stared, smiled and glared at one another, until the man burst out laughing so hard he almost fell to his knees. I stood back to patiently wait for the merry making to be over when the tinkle of Yue's giggle joined in. My anger felt like a cold river in my veins. I reached out, again the green light coming into my vision. I looked at the underlying pattern to the dream and decided to make a few… edits. Silently I thanked Piando as I ended up sitting in a squishy red chair that appeared out of nowhere as they showed no indication of stopping. I reached over just as a cherry wood table rose up from the snow, supporting a steaming cup of tea sitting on a saucer.
"So," I said as the man stopped laughing to put on a surprised expression at the ease I made myself comfortable. "Are you going to give me a name for you or are we just going to call you La?"
The spirit of the Oceans' mouth dropped open and his eyebrows disappeared into his hair. Good, it's about damn time these spirit bastards were on the other side. "Damn, no wonder he's scaring the shit out of everyone."
"Alright boys it's time to calm down," Yue said getting between us obviously feeling the impending frosty doom. "Sokka, we are not here to confuse you; we're on your side. We're here because we want to help answer some of the questions you have."
"And what about when the Flea bag or Mouretsu get here?" I asked, not taking my eyes off La.
"They're not coming," said Yue, her grin creeping a little more. "You made sure of that."
I broke off my stare with La and turned back to Yue, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means you've got everyone running around in circles screaming like children, or hiding under things," La said, still sounding amused.
"Oh, so you can explain something huh?"
"Sokka, do you wish to meet with either Genzou or Mouretsu?"
"No," I said bluntly.
"And that's why you haven't seen them recently." She smiled wider at me in what was supposed to be a comforting fashion, and damn me it worked a little.
"What?" I shot back. How are my two most favorite people in the world going to make my day spectacular now? What was Yue talking about?
"Sokka, think about it for a minute," she said. "The first time you accessed the Void was only five days ago. But already you have defeated the Avatar, learned enough spirit shaping to be considered a combat-master, begun stepping into dreams and you recognized La as the spirit of the oceans at barely a glance."
"You're frightening them," continued La. "You've got more Void power then they thought any human could contain without going critical and your gaining power at an impossible rate. The last man to gain power this fast was-"
"The half-dead king," I finished, my face crinkled in thought as memories surfaced.
"See!" shouted La. "You shouldn't even know anything about the first Incarna. You're their worst nightmare. You are unpredictable and it's scaring everyone."
"First?" I asked, losing my thoughts. I met the Ocean's deep blue eyes. "He wasn't the first."
"Yes, he was. Whenever anyone has ever done a search of the Archive for the Incarnai he was always proclaimed as the first."
"He was powerful, and he did ... something great," I mumbled, but nothing came to me.
"He was the first," La stated with total conviction.
"Alright whatever," I conceded, waving a hand "Now what was that stuff you said about me not wanting to see the cat or Mouretsu?"
"Well," Yue said slowly, obviously still trying to figure out exactly how to tell me. "The Incarna is the most powerful spirit shaper in existence, meaning you will be one day, and both Genzou and Mouretsu are pure spirit energy."
"Yeah, what the hell are they anyway? Why is the flea bag a cat?" It had been bugging me since I had met her. If I was to give the 'keeper of the future' a form it sure as hell wouldn't be a little kick-able cat. I couldn't help but feel the answer would annoy me or scare me. Genzou seemed fond of those particular emotions.
"It's just a form she chose long ago," said Yue dismissively.
"So, is she actually a cat?"
"Not in the way you mean." Yue paused again, and considered me once more. "Genzou is the spirit of 'the futures that might be', she isn't a being so much as a concept, like time or space. She has the form of a cat because she chose it of her own will for her own reasons. Without it she is nothing but an idea."
"Right," I said slowly. So the rat chose to look like a rat? Why would anyone want to look like that? I'll have to think about it more later. "And what about Mouretsu?"
"He was the last Incarna to rise to full power before dying at the hands of Yasuragi; he is the spirit of a Gel-Hassad-"
"Whoa, wait," I started. "He's a Gel-Hassad? I thought he was an Old One?"
"No," said La. "He was the first Gel-Hassad Incarna, but he was no Old One."
"Does that change anything?" asked Yue, sounding genuinely curious.
I thought about it for a second. "I don't think so, I just never really thought about it."
"Fair enough," said La with a shrug of indifference. "Now, back to why you haven't been annoyed by catnip lately."
"Catnip?" I laughed. I have to remember that one. Maybe this guy wasn't so bad?
"Yeah," he smirked. "You think you're the only one she pisses off?"
"I suppose not, she does have that kind of a personality."
"You two are frequently distracted by passing shiny objects, aren't you?" asked Yue, hand on a cocked hip. She turned to me, her smile all but gone in seriousness. "Sokka, you haven't seen either of them lately because you don't want to see them."
I thought about that for a second, just to see if it would make sense in a minute. It didn't "Um, what?"
"You are a spirit shaper, a powerful one at that – or at least you will be, and Genzou and Mouretsu are both pure spirit energy entities. You don't have completely control over them, they are much too powerful for that, but you can easily keep them away from you if you wish."
"Really?" I asked, barely able to hope.
"Yes."
"Oh, thank the gods!" I praised as I fell back into the squishy chair in relief. For several seconds I just basked in the strange sunlight, my relived breaths puffing out above me.
La laughed. "Well, he seems happy to hear that."
Although La seemed to feel it was fine to let me revel in my little victory over strangeness and insanity, Yue had other matters to discuss. "Sokka, you should know that Genzou's been looking, quite frantically really, for a way to get into your head. She says she needs to speak to you."
"Why?" I spat, just thinking about her made me feel dirty and crispy. My soft chair suddenly got a lot less comfy. Why the hell did she want to get into my head for. I don't want to see her let alone have her in my head, whatever that was supposed to mean. It didn't sound pleasant.
"Kid, you seem to be fucking with the fabrics of reality," La said joyfully.
"I – what?" I asked, the feeling of complete confusion must have shown because Yue pitched in.
"Genzou is the keeper of the future, she is supposed to be able to look over the infinite complexities of the future and pick out the most likely possibilities."
"And she's never been wrong," La crowed gleefully, "until now!" I was really starting to like La. Anyone who hated the furball couldn't be all that bad.
"How's she wrong?" I asked eagerly sitting up. I knew it might be a little mean, but I couldn't wait to laugh over Genzou's mistakes.
"She foresaw two possible futures, and she was as sure about them as she ever was. But then you started gaining power and she got crazy, screaming about the universe being reordered." He looked a little too happy at Genzou's misfortune's, like he had something against her. One more point in favor of La. "Whatever you did almost drove her insane. Do it again, please?"
Yue clicked her tongue and smacked La in the shoulder as I reveled in the awesomeness that was me. Oh yeah, you don't try to burn the Sokka unless you want him to 'reorder' you something fierce.
"Okay, so they don't see me unless I want them to, Genzou's losing her mind; all good things." I counted off on my fingers just to get a feeling of all the happy things going on. Yeah, it was a little evil. But after having do deal with everything I have in the last little while I challenge anyone to act differently. "Anything else I need to know?"
"There is a little more," said Yue solemnly, her smile falling faster than a cat in barrel over a waterfall. Okay what's this about, a minute ago we were joking around; why so serious?
"We got a few helpful hints on women for you," La smirked. "We both know how stupid guys can be about your age; after all I was one of them."
"Oh," I mumbled. "Yeah Suki, Toph and -" I stopped and looked up at Yue, unsure how I should end that sentence. La shifted slightly and he shared a look with Yue. Hm. Interpreting women's cryptic gazes had never been my strong suit.
"Oh?"I asked, hoping she would elaborate. Only, something felt a little off.
"It's complicated," Yue said delicately.
"Uncomplicated it then," I said in my own direct way. The little nagging feeling I have been getting at the back of my head for the last couple days nagged harder and my thick skull started to put it together. Yue cocked her head to the side and looked into my eyes. There was something there… deep within her an alien being looked out at me like some kind of insect. It took all of my will not to growl as I felt the hair on the back of my neck starting to rise.
"So," I said, barely aware that the ambient temperature was going from cold to a heck of a lot colder. "You've decided to wear the face of someone I love. Drop the seeming now, or this might get ugly."
"It isn't so simple," her voice answered as it shifted into the same kind of dual harmony I'd only heard from two other people: Aang and myself. Her blue pupils were gone now, and the off-white of moonlight shone in their place. "It's me Sokka, but… not."
I stood up from my chair very slowly, leaving my hand on the armrest for a moment longer as I stared hard into her eyes, pulling away layers of reality. Yue was in there, somewhere. But, she wasn't alone. There was another presence in her, someone alike; someone tied to her somehow, but not her.
I walked forward slowly. My breath came short and shallow as I delves deeper into the Void, the green script crawling across my vision again. I was painfully aware of La's eyes on me as I stopped a few feet from the woman who was also Yue. I frowned deeply, focusing my sight into levels deeper than most understand or even believe in. I suppose it was kind of like how I saw gel-hassad blood inside Toph, only purely on a spiritual level.
I looked deep into her glowing eyes. No, they weren't glowing exactly. They were shifting back and forth between a pale blue and a light purple so fast that added with the natural moonyness she was projecting they appeared to be a gleaming white.
I pushed deeper, as gently as I knew how until I seemed to be looking upon their very essence. It was enormous and complex to a maddening level. They stretched out in ways that would drive a regular human insane just by looking at them. Whoever Yue and this other entity were, they were timeless, beings of the very earth itself; a part of the natural flow of the universe. I followed each strand of life, trying to decipher where Yue was inside this vast chain of links. There seemed to be pieces of her everywhere, but so intertwined within the other that even I couldn't figure out where she truly was. Maybe if I was smarter or possessed more of the Incarna power I would have had better luck; but I didn't, so what I understood was limited.
Yue and whoever else that was in there, were once one. They seem to have split somehow – oh! The moon. One of them was the original moon spirit. Yue had told me that she had been given a second chance at life by the moon spirit when she was first born. I looked harder, and knowing what I was looking for this time, I found the split where the moon gave a minuscule fraction of itself to a small sickly baby. But what the moon spirit had not counted on was that the infant Yue possessed the power of the Dreamer. The blue white and yellow white lights of the Dreamer and Lunarsa crossed each other like a tangle of threads that made a terrible mess. Even from here, I could see that the Weaving Dreamer was a powerful spirit being in its own right, so when Yue died and returned to the moon the Dreamer part of her clashed with the moon spirit. They'd begun to integrate a little, but this was... a giant mess. It made the world's largest ball of yarn look neat and orderly.
They were fighting one another on the spiritual level. The moon spirit was trying to merge with the smaller part of itself in Yue, and the Weaving Dreamer in Yue was fighting this. The two spirits fought one another, causing a lot of pain as the two sides ground together. They were wearing one another out, but the moon was the moon; a huge part of the universe itself and Yue was but the Dreamer. As powerful as the Weaving Dreamer was, it was an aspect, a shard of Dream Itself. Much like the Avatar spirit, one of the shards of the Ger-Ghanim wasn't enough to overwhelm a God. But it was doing it's damnedest to fight a rear-guard action. I slowly pulled away, my mouth that never stopped silent for once.
I had to do something about this or else Yue and the shard of the Weaving Dreamer would be crushed by the moon and the moon would be damaged by the desperate shard of the Dreamer, trying to keep itself intact. Both of these things were bad; one on a very personal level and the other on a global one. But how the bloody hell was I supposed to stop two great spirits from fighting like this?
"I'm a small part of something much bigger," said – Yue? Another name brushed at my mind, but it eluded me. "It's only because I was so important in restoring the Moon that I've lasted as long as I have."
"It's quite a strain maintaining your will as an individual in the face of such a thing," La said with a dark smile. "I would know, after all."
I didn't know what to say – ha, too bad Katara isn't here to gloat about this momentous event. What do you say to someone who is trying not to be swallowed up by the moon? I sighed deeply before wanting desperately to just fall back into the chair and think for a while. I rubbed my eyes hard, trying to get the weird feeling out of them. They tingled quite a lot. I guess it had to do with the – another word came to me, soul searching. "I'm sorry I got mad at you. I guess I'm just a little jaded to spirits right now."
"Sokka, I just want you to know that I meant every word I ever said to you. It wasn't some kind of game, that was me, just not all of me," Yue said softly and alone in her voice. "I'm very complicated and if you'll just listen I know – we can -" She stopped, seemingly lost for words and wrung her hands.
"I know," I said softly, meeting her eyes again her. I smiled slightly – after all what else can you do? "I won't pretend I understood half the stuff I saw, but I do know your telling the truth." I stopped for a moment as something surfaced in my mind. I blushed slightly in embarrassment. "And, uh, I'm sorry I soul searched you without your permission. It was intrusive of me."
The next thing I knew I had arms around me, very light slightly staticy arms. Her whole body seemed to be buzzing with some sort of energy; but I guess when you are a being made up completely of spirit essence you get a little buzzy. "Your forgiven."
"So," I asked after a moment. "What are we going to do?"
"We've tried everything we can think of," said La as Yue pulled back and looked away as she fixed her hair and rubbed her eyes. She was pure energy, but I guess a girl still wanted to look her best even when she could look anyway she wanted. And some habits from life were hard to break. "We have to admit that there was a selfish reason we were happy yo hear your call."
"Oh?" I asked, thinking I knew where this was going.
"Yeah. You see – well she's the Moon also, anything we can try wouldn't have enough power to separate them and not destroy the earth. Tui is too closely linked to the flow of the planet. So -"
"So, you want me, when I get my power to try something?"
"Basically," he replied, with the decency to look sheepish.
A thought struck me. "Why don't you just go get one of my predecessors? For that matter why can't I talk to one of them myself?" I asked, more to myself then anyone else.
"Because their in another dimension of the spirit realm; the realm of the dead," La said, getting a fake teaching voice on. Yue rolled her eyes at me even as her lip picked up into a small smile. "There are three realms. The realm of the gods – the divine realm I suppose you could call it. That's where we are right now, although we are on a fringe. Next is the neutral realm the acts as a buffer between the divine realm and the realm of the dead. The Archive and much of the old one technologies and magics work themselves in there. A few of the more minor gods who do not have the power to exist in the divine realm also stay there. And then there is the realm of the dead, which none may access unless the are destined to be there; not even most of the gods."
"But, Aang talked to Avatar Roku all the time," I protested. "Heck, the old bat's been around so much that I almost have a sense of his personality."
" Well, yes. But that was always under special circumstances. Times of great stress or circumstances. And they essentially share the same soul so they have an unfair advantage of having a rope to follow. You can also talk to some of your predecessors, at least we think you should be able to." La paused for a moment. "What I mean is that you might be able to talk with them since your one of them and share a strong connection. We can't because we have to follow the normal rules of the realms, and besides, they wouldn't have any power."
"What? Why not?" I asked. Roku and Kiyoshi had their power when they – no they didn't. They used Aang's power. Yasuragi too, it was the only thing that saved me.
"Because only their spirits go there, the power of the Incarna passes on to another living soul. It's one of the questions that plagues the Avatars. If we are reborn again and again into this world; are they their own people or are they are simply echoes of the one that came before them? Do they have souls? Will they go somewhere when they die or just cease as the soul rebirths?"
"You might want to talk to Aang when you get back too. He's been asking himself these same questions since he found out he was the Avatar," La said sympathetically. I squinted at him a little; something was up. "Anyway, the soul is the sum of its experiences and actions. When you or Aang pass on what makes you you will separate from the source and move on; the power goes to the next host and a new person begins to grow."
I felt my face grimace slightly. "You could have just said that. All that other explaining seemed overly complicated now."
"Don't blame him," Yue said in a slightly tired voice. "He just wanted a chance to lecture you for once.
Whoa, wait, that set off alarm bells. I focused on La as suspicion fell. "What do you mean 'for once?'"
If I had expected them to look guilty or caught I was disappointed. Yue just smiled at me again in a calming manner – dammit it was working again – and La looked like he was going to explain.
"Okay Sokka, think of it this way, why was Yue able to get through your bubble of spirit energy that keeps out catnip?"
"Because I trust her, I know she wouldn't try to lie or hurt me."
"And I never would," she said, he voice not wavering once.
"Alright, fair enough," La said. "But what about me? How did I get in here?"
I opened my mouth to say something, but the words stuck in my throat. How did he get in here? If what they said was true – and I have no reason to doubt it – then I must trust him. But how could I trust a man I had never met before? Although he did seem familiar. A memory from deep within, from somewhere long ago stirred.
"What do you remember?" he asked softly, trying not to break my line of thoughts. My eyes closed in concentration as I tried to hold onto the vague memories that bubbled up. They were fractured and incomplete, but they seemed to tell a story I felt like I had heard before.
"I remember," I fell further into myself. "We knew each other a very long time ago, and I also remember ... no, that's impossible."
"What is it?" he prompted.
"I remember, us, flying across the sky," I said as images flashed past. "We rode on the backs of huge beasts, skating across the sky on a trail of pink dust."
"Yes, what else?" he prompted softly, standing motionless as Yue stood silently beside him, lost like me, inside her memories.
"I was like I was now, a scion of the Incarna, but I had never heard of the Incarna or the avatar before. It was thousands of years ago, tens of thousands of years ago, even before the Great War. The world was constantly fighting with itself, not just the people upon it but the spirits and gods as well." I noticed that somewhere in my remembering, I linked to the Archive to try to piece more of it together. The information that came to me now wasn't a painful rush like I had been expecting, but a tiny trickle. There wasn't much recorded about the world then. The old ones of that time were still just figuring out how to use their archive, and so they were putting more thought into how to restore the balance of that damaged world then storing data. It was all a patchwork of random sensations and flashes of memory.
"The wall between the Spirit world and the living world was falling, spirits were falling though and," I stopped again as horribly accurate recording of cites falling to formless spirits haunted my minds eye. "The spirits were going mad the moment they entered the living realm. The forces they experienced when falling through the tears was too great for their minds. If they had only waited they would have regained their wits after a few hours but ... but they were terrified. There were creatures they had never seen before running and screaming all around them. The humans looked as fearsome to them as it to they. The humans attacked in fear and the spirits defended in terror."
I began to see through the eyes of one man. I felt the creepy wetness of being born, the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes, and his brother. I was watching his life just as I had dreamed of the lives of the Incarnae that had come before me. I remembered his big brother playing with him on a strange board he got from his father for his eighth birthday.
I jerked back as memories of war and blood began to flood my mind. I had seen worse in my dreams, but their was something personal about this one. I fought in a squad with a, small girl? She was not human. She fell though the tear and someone decided to use her to fight their war. I shivered as I remembered the first moment she became truly conscious. The first spark in her eyes, the first tears that fell as she tried to understand three crying children, one but a newborn with a deep gash in his head. And then I remembered standing over her, my alien weapon held limply in my hand as she became hysterical standing over their dead mother who she had killed just moments ago. My own heart ached even now as I remembered her begging me to help her gather the children. She had never asked for anything before, she had barely spoken or even shown a glimmer of emotion. And now she was shaking and crying holding the torn off sleeve of her uniform over the babies bleeding head.
I helped her that day, how could I not? Something deep inside me told me to help her, told me that it was part of who I was to help her. Back then, millenia before the great war I nor the avatar had come to the realization of who we were; at least not as we are now. But I knew what was right. That night I gave my squad the choice to either join me in flight from the government or to stay behind. They all followed me.
I fled in a ship, taking our flying beasts with us. We fought the war as best as best as our morals could figure, defending those who needed it. The little girl I had known grew and continued to care for those children as though they were her own. Over the years they even took to calling her their mother. When asked later the older one seemed to know she wasn't the one who gave them life, but she loved them and cared for them and to the younger ones she was the only mother they knew.
And then...
And then she met him. We had ... crashed near some little town and one boy had made her smile. Although she obviously loved the children, she was still ignorant about so many things. I wasn't sure when it had happened but I had become protective of her. I remembered watching them. They flew together and he seemed to want to be close to her. She was still learning and I didn't want him to take advantage of her. But I had laughed when I walked away from them one time. He was just as clueless if not more then her about most things.
We fought many battles and met many people. We tried our hardest to clean up the disasters caused by the tears. We brought food and medical supplies to the wounded and got out of there fast when the government ships came. For nearly a year we fought and ran and helped people as best as we could. But it wasn't enough, the world was still falling apart and it was shredding me with it. I knew there was something I could be doing, but I couldn't understand it. In my nightmares the words echoed; Void, Incarna, the Avatar, the old ones. But I didn't understand, and like any dream they faded when I awoke.
The old ones we're doing their best to try to mend the world, but they were forbidden from making direct changes that might make the humans aware of them. It was part of their deal with... someone.
I had known for many year what the girl was; what she was a part of. But everyday the idiot-boy seemed to becoming more important to her. He was her closest friend and I was afraid that he would push her away if he knew. But he was told, and he didn't care.
Finally everything came to a head. We barricaded ourselves inside a monetary of people devoted to protecting the balance of the spirits; the early monks of the Avatars I believe. The government had been prodding these tears, trying to widen them; trying to figure out how to control them. They were trying to make weapons out of the spirits within. Foolishness. Such terrible foolishness.
My – his brother had made a deal with an old one who was defying everything. That old one thought they should rule the world, not sit on the sidelines. He thought that if they humans were only eradicated by being lead to kill themselves off, the old race could take up their proper place.
It was this old one who cultivated the madness and fighting in the spirit realm. He twisted the human world in ways that caused the conceptual gods to fight among themselves. He pitted them all against each other and as their battles grew they drew in other beings and soon their was only war on either side of the spirit wall. Gods were cast out of the spirit realm through these tears as the endless combat of the eternals spiraled out of control.
He broke the harmony; cast one concept out of the divine realm and everything starts to fall apart. The little girl I had grown so attached to flew into one of these tears to try to close it. She was trying to bring an end to the death, but she was incomplete. She was only one side of the equation, her other half had been captured and twisted until it broke and faded away into nothing. The world was incomplete. The universe was broken and there was nothing we could do to fix it.
Until that one idiot decided to follow her in.
I bought them time in the only way I knew how. I flew my ship into the bridge of the enemy vessel. I survived the crash and confronted my brother. The fight we had severed whatever bonds we once had. In the last moments the twisted old one stepped into this reality and tried to take control. But his brethren apprehended him and pulled him back.
In the tear the idiot did what he did best. He found out that the one he cared for; his best friend in this world and the one who mothered three orphans was actually the spirit of the moon. She had been cast out with the oceans and without their souls the psychical manifestations of both began to die. She wept once more, the first time since she held the small bleeding babe in her arms and tried to push him back into his own realm, telling him to live his life while he still could. But he couldn't. His heart; the heart of an unknown Avatar would not let him. He took the place of the missing spirit and became the oceans.
I jerked back violently, almost careening over the back of the chair I had willed into existence a few minutes and a life time ago. This time, unlike the times I had watched the past Incarnae's lives, I had been awake and conscious. I groaned and held the sides of my head tightly. It hurt to have another life crammed forcibly into your head in the space of a few moments. I stood up and swayed for a moment before a pair of hands grabbed me. "Ow," I groaned. Okay I think I like the clip shows when I sleep better. At least then its only the highlights.
"Are you okay?" Yue asked. She sounded worried, but I couldn't bear to open my eyes to check yet.
"Yeah," I said, rubbing my temples. "Just had an overload."
"Yeah, you starting out describing it all. Then you just started flinching and couldn't seem to talk anymore." I guess it was La who was holding me up... wait. La, the spirit of the oceans? Oh my fucking god!
"You're the bloody Avatar!" I shouted leaping back from him, instantly regretting it as my head throbbed again. I grabbed it again but managed to keep one eye on La as his mouth dropped.
"Damn, you're starting to scare me now too," said La, looking honestly surprised. "I didn't think you'd remember enough to piece that together.
"And you're human!" I said, my voice a lot quieter this time.
"I was." he admitted. He didn't seem regretful or look like he was caught. Maybe he was planning on telling me this.
"But how?"
"Everyone, even humans can spirit shape, you figured that out yourself," La said. "Is it really that much of a stretch that a human managed to merge with a Greater Spirit?"
"I suppose not," I mumbled, still a little stunned. I opened both of my eyes again and shook my head slightly, testing it to see if it would blow up again. "But, how are you you if Aang is you?"
La laughed at that one. "For a smart guy you can sure be confusing sometimes."
"You know what I mean soggy," I spit back. I didn't want to think too hard right now, even just talking was painful.
"I told you before, only the power and sometimes the base morals pass on, sometimes not even that. I am me because I was the Avatar only because I had the spirit. My soul split with the Avatar's when I died becoming the new spirit of the oceans and it passed onto the next incarnation. I was born of the avatar spirit, but I was my own man. Get it?"
"I guess," I said slowly. "So your kinda like me. Two souls, one you and one the power?"
"Little different but close enough," he conceded with a shrug. "There was a bit of divine intervention there. I was stuck on this side of wall; made it easier."
"Are you okay?" asked Yue from right ext to me as she held a hand to my head.
"Uh, Yue?" I asked, letting a little grin rise. "Aren't we both just souls right now? How would I have a temperature?"
"Cheeky little boy," she said pretending to be offended, but I could see the relived little smile on her face.
"Okay," I started, trying to get my stride back. Ouch my head. "So I let you into my little bubble of fluff protection because you were once the Avatar and I knew you. Alright. So what about Yue?"
"What is one demi-god to another?" La asked with a raised eyebrow. "Sister I suppose."
"Good," I said. "One less complicated relationship in my life; hey, that might be a first!"
Yue laughed with a few tears leaking from her eyes. They shone like moon drops as they fell to the snow, and her eyes resumed their normal light blue color. I felt the harsh chill of the Void recede and La became visibly more relaxed as it did so.
"Moving onto less stressful topics, I hope," I joked. "Since you have lived more than once and were the close friends of a past Incarna, and let's not forget Gods, can you tell me what to do when I meet the spirit? Because Furball and Mouretsu keep telling me to either dominate it or let it take me over. Which is right?"
A sour look crossed both of their faces as soon as the words were out of my mouth. "Did I say something wrong?"
"No, Sokka, it's just that I can't tell you," Yue said. I felt a little bitter that she would keep this from me, but I supposed she had a good reason; I still didn't like it though, and something of what I felt must have shown on my face. "It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's just that the memories have been taken from me."
"Okay," I replied with a sage expression. "I don't understand."
"Not too long ago now, just after I rejoined with the part of myself that died at the north pole a man came to us in the spirit world. He was a Gel-Hassad and he possessed much more spiritual power then any individual aside from the Incarna should have. He attacked us before we could prepare, taking both of us by surprise with his skill. Before we could even begin to fight him he bit into us and ate our memories of the Incarna all those years ago."
I stared at her; I even think my mouth was open ... for a very long time. "He ate your memories?"
"Yes," said La. "I'm sorry Sokka, but we cannot help you with that."
"He ate them," I said again, still hung up on that. "He ate part of your mind!"
"We're fine now," said Yue reassuringly. "Since we are also pure spiritual beings it didn't cause us any damage other than forgetting a few things."
"That's just messed up," I said aghast. "Did you ever figure out why he did it?"
"Yes, and that's one of the reasons we needed to talk to you."
"He called himself the Master," La said. "And since he only went after our memories concerning the Incarna we think he's -"
"After me," I finished. "Oh, this is just brilliant; now I have a mind cannibal after me."
"You can make a joke about anything, can't you?" asked La incredulously.
"It is how he deals with being afraid," explained Yue
"Well, he must be afraid all the time."
"Bite me, drippy," I snapped back absentmindedly while most of me was thinking. "Oh, son of a bastard."
"What?" La asked while Yue just told me to watch my language.
"I think I might have finally gotten a piece of my grand puzzle."
"Now what the hell is that supposed to mean?" asked La, thoroughly confused looking.
"There is this man who I have been calling the 'shadow man' for lack of a better name, and he is messing around in the Gel-Hassad government thingy, recruiting people of both races and, well he pretty much started the war between the Fire-Nation and the rest of the world."
"And everyone that matters still thinks that the Fire-Nation orchestrated it, huh?" La asked, but Yue just considered me carefully.
"They think so too, but they are being toyed with and puppeteered just as much as the benders, maybe worse because they 'know it's all their idea'."
"So, what does this have to do with the Master?"
"Their leader, the 'shadow man' has thousands of men and women of both races passing him information and serving him, voluntarily or not; and on top of that he has at least some of the Jenkotsu in his palm; and the biggest threat to him, the worst thing that could happen would be -"
"The rise of the Incarna alongside the Avatar," gasped Yue. "Your shadow man is the Master."
"That's my theory at least," I admitted. "And he has to be powerful to be able to enter the spirit world and to take a bite out of two Elemental Gods Brilliant. Is there anything else about him you can tell me?"
"Not really," Yue said. "When he took the information about the Incarna he also took everything we knew about him other than vague impressions."
"Brilliant," I sighed. "Alright, aside from the brain eater, is anyone else trying to kill me?"
"Well," started La, smirking mischievously. "I know one little powerhouse that's about to kick you where it hurts if you don't get a clue sometime soon."
I thought about that for a second, and got nothing. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? I will kick you in the water goblet if you get all mysterious with me."
"Damn boy, how many water puns do you have?"
"Spew a few more riddles, you dried up puddle and find out."
"Boys, put them away before I cut them off," threatened Yue, her voice dark with promise, La and I immediately shut up and covered our bits with both hands. "Better; now, Sokka, the Master aside one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you was because of the conflict you are having with the women in your life."
"Alright," I said somberly, remembering that I still had to have that very difficult talk with Suki.
"Now, it would not be proper for me to come right out and say anything; but honestly, you are very blind sometimes."
"I'm not that bad," I said defensively.
"Sokka, one past stupid boy to another; yes, you are," La added.
"I called you 'Idiot-boy,'" I corrected and was met with another surprised look from La. I smiled weakly at him.
"Firstly," Yue continued. "Suki is inside Ba Sing Se right now. It's your decision, but you should be able to find her within the hour if you ask Haiyahi for help. Secondly, when you next see Toph, think deeply about your feeling to her, but most importantly think about what you would do to get her attention if you were to act." Yue stopped, and looked deeply into my eyes for what seemed like an eternity. I shifted uncomfortably beneath her gaze long before she continued. "Think hard on her reactions also, ask yourself, 'what would cause you to act in the same way'. Got it?"
"Yes," I said sharply. Wow, that wasn't creepy at all. Suddenly the snowy world I had created around us started to fade and shudder along the edges of my vision.
"Ah," La said, looking around at the shifting world. "It looks like you're reaching your limit for keeping this world together."
"Wait, you still never told me your names from your life before," I said desperately. It was something very small, I know, Yue would always be Yue to me, but I felt like I should know. The world darkened around me and I could barely make out Yue or La anymore. A sudden shift in the snow and black revealed two figures to me.
"I am Yue now," she said. She was still the girl I met at the north pole, I could feel that, but now she looked a lot different. It was a face I remembered, a face I once had. This was the face of the woman she once was, with her unconscious seeming up. She always had that seeming up, for her entire life she never knew who she was. She only learned of her heritage and her powers when she died saving the world "I will be Yue until I split and rejoin again into a new person, so please continue to use that name."
Next to her La stood tall and strong, his thick brown hair blowing violently in the wind. I could remember flying across the sky in a white skinned beast, him laughing the whole way. He raised a hand and waved a momentary good bye. I knew that I would see them many more times, so it was just for now. The wind pulled hard on his white and red jacket and I could remember that his grandfather had wanted him to become a mechanic as it was the family tradition – but then he went and fell for a God.
My newfound sister smiled widely at me, her purple eyes almost closing. I felt the undeniable force of her power as we looked into one another. All that was human about her was such a tiny fragment of the whole. But even staring into the light that framed both of them, and the terrible inhuman will behind it, I smiled. I had the vague sense that it would destroy anyone else who looked upon them like that. But I could- strangely for all their massiveness I felt no smaller. And as I looked into the face of Gods, the name returned to me; the first name to match the first face.
"Later Holland," said La.
-
Interlude: Hakota
The crisp night air felt good on my face, a relief from the constant stress of the day. The ropes creaked and the sails rippled in the light wind as I blew another puff of this white pipe smoke into the starry night. We had a few close calls today, and the weirdness didn't seem to be letting up, even on this beautiful night.
I always liked sailing, the smell of the salt water and the feeling of moving along under the strength of my own mind and muscles. It was a kind of validation. The thing that told me I had a place in the world, at least before Kya told me she was pregnant with Sokka. The day he was born I felt like the entire world just stopped and I was standing there alone, just me and my son. I thought I could never have a moment anywhere near that again, even if I lived forever, but then Katara came and I stood with her in that pocket of emotion and love once more. My children were my validation, they were the greatest things I have gifted upon this earth and I desire nothing else. They were my legacy, my memories of Kya ... everything that mattered.
I took another long pull on my pipe, well actually it was my father's pipe – he would have killed me if he ever seen me smoking it. The smoke rolled over my tongue and filled my senses, and for a moment I could almost feel my father standing next to me in the smoke. I wondered if Sokka would ever do this. I knew I would not live forever, and I can't help but think that he might one day stand like me; smoking this pipe and remembering his old man in his time of doubt.
I stared out over the black mirror of the ocean and wondered about where I was to go next. I bit down on the pipe, my teeth finding the same groves that my father had made years ago. I was the chief of the Water Tribe, a title I hope to one day pass to one of my children. I almost chuckle thinking of my little Katara leading our people. She did have the heart, and even though there has never been a female chieftain before I have no doubts that she would be able to do it. She was so much like her mother that way.
What was a chief to do for his people in a time like this? The Fire-Nation had almost won this war, there are only a few remote pockets of resistance left. I tapped the pipe on the railing, tossing the spent tobacco over the ledge before refilling and relighting it.
About seven hours ago we were sailing across the open ocean en route to Ba Sing Se, there was a resistance movement going on there, one of the only ones left. The rest of the world has fallen, what can ten Water Tribe battle canoes do to an army the spans the world? I had the captains of each ship talk to their crews and get a boat by boat take on their feelings; eight boats wanted to head to Ba Sing Se, one wanted to continue onward to Fire-Nation territory and one wanted to return home to our families. After carefully weighing all of their thoughts and suggestions I decided that we would try to make contact with the resistance.
Seven hours ago we had been sailing for three days already, making good speeds for the desert city – we would have to abandon the boats on the shoreline and walk the rest of the way to the gates. And then someone decided to point a spyglass behind us.
We had fought many battles in the last two years, but never had we faced so crushing a feeling of imminent death. Some men wept for their families that they would never see again, two men had to be confined to quarters after they had breakdowns. The rest of us readied to face the full force of nearly forty ironclad Fire-Nation airships. We were ten boats with pretty much nothing to throw at an airship; let alone one jacketed in steel plates, but we would fight anyway; if only because there was nowhere to run in the center of a calm ocean on a clear day. We would fight and die because that was the only course left to us.
I stood at the wheel of the lead ship, ranks of men lined up on the deck, marble faces among silence. We stood tall and brave and waited for death to collect us. The airships were an hour out, and I couldn't get my mind off of my children or the memory of my wife. I stood, my hands frozen on the damp wood of the wheel and just remembered; I remembered the birth of my children, the first time I laid eyes on Kya, the first time we shared a bed, the first time I held my baby girl, the first fish Sokka ever caught. I stood at the wheel. My hands were steady. Every face in sight damp or lost – we blamed the dampness on the non-existent swells.
And then the Airships passed over us, countless faces stared down at us over the railings in hate or wonder; but no fire rained. I don't think any of us could have done anything but just stare as they flew on into the distance. We followed them with spyglasses until the sun made that impossible. They seem to also be making a direct shot for Ba Sing Se. No doubt to also make contact with the resistance, but with more malicious intent.
I blew another puff of smoke out into the night air just as I heard footsteps coming up behind me. I put the pipe back between my teeth and turned around slowly. I looked over the other ships in the formation and found a face here or there also watching me with a strong intensity.
"Hakota," Bato started, but then he stopped, unsure how to continue. The two men behind him – Touse and Dando; deckhands– both seemed uneasy, Touse's tea mug even shook slightly with nerves.
"What is it?" I asked softly, trying to prompt some sanity to come of this night. "There is nothing you could possibly say right now that would make this night any stranger."
"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that old friend," he chuckled. I smiled knowingly at him for a moment and he seemed to rethink something. "Well, I was just at a very important meeting."
"At a very important meeting in the center of the ocean?" I half-joked.
"Yeah," he said carefully, a lopsided smile finding its way onto his face. "I want to tell you. I really do, but I can't. At least not right now."
I nodded slowly. I wasn't too surprised; Bato's family along with a few others seemed to have a great many secrets. They had arrived on a few small boats from the north and begged asylum. My father – then the chief – allowed them to stay on a trial basis; and over the years they eventually became our neighbors and trusted allies.
Bato thought deeply, marshaling his thoughts. "We all have the highest respect for you Hakota; you have protected our families as though they were your own, even being blind to our past, and for that we will be forever grateful. But something has come up." He swallowed hard and straitened up a little. "We will always be in your and your fathers debt for letting us stay in your village in our time of need, and mean no disrespect to you or any of the southern Watertribesmen, but our loyalties have been pulled elsewhere."
I mulled that over calmly as I took another puff of the pipe. "Can you explain further?"
Bato paused for a second, only a second and to the evident surprise of the two behind him he continued. "We must make our best speed for Ba Sing Se immediately, even if we do not move with the rest of the Watertribe, even if we must sever all ties with the tribe." I was surprised to hear this and it must have shown on my face. "Hakota, if you feel you must exile us for this, know we will go willingly and without resistance. We will understand."
I took the pipe out of my mouth and frowned deeply, there was much more to this than what was already on the table. "I will not exile you, any of you. You gave your lives to protect us just as we did for you. But if you need to break away from my fleet I would like a fuller explanation."
Touse and Dando both seemed to think the conversation was over and were turning back to the hatch to return below deck, but Bato held my eyes. "Have you ever heard the legend of an equal to the Avatar?"
The reaction was immediate, Touse whirled around and looked absolutely aghast at Bato, like he had just proclaimed his allegiance to the Fire-Lord.
"Y'eth ne'v j'han veleth nor?"Dando shouted in an unearthly fluid language, a mix of fear and anger in his voice. The strange thing was that his eyes were on me the whole time.
"Nor thoth na ilim,"Bato replied, the same liquid syllables coming from his mouth. "J'neth na sil in'ta adum."
"Veth na solen ta!" screamed Touse, "No velem na koth se."
"You know it's rude to speak in a language not everyone present knows," I said gently, not wanting to cause more of a fight.
"I am sorry, old friend," Bato said with a tired sigh. "But my two companions fear that our people's old customs would demand our deaths if we tell you anymore."
"Thoth na venem!" Dando, still glaring daggers at the back of Bato's head as he was facing me politely.
"We will speak the man's tongue in the presence of Hakota," Bato said flatly, turning to the two still shaking and sweating behind him. "Unless you would like to explain to the Incarna why you were so disrespectful?"
"Man's tongue?" I questioned, making Dando glow red with anger and Touse to sputter; but Bato just nodded.
"Another thing I am afraid is best you do not know."
"Can you tell me anything to convince me that this isn't some kind of mutiny? I want to believe you Bato, I really do. But you're not making it easy."
"I understand," he said slowly, thinking. Quite suddenly he seemed to come to a thought and faced me grimly once more. Somehow I got the feeling that his two buddies would not like this very much. "We are not able to be loyal to you because our loyalties now lie completely with your son."
I was right, the duo looked about ready to chuck Bato overboard. But they weren't my main concern right now. All of this might just be starting to make sense. I tapped out the burned remains from my pipe and refilled it again. Holding the fresh puff for a few seconds longer I stared off into nothing while the three men before me got into some sort of arguing match, Bato the only one talking in a language I knew.
"Did I ever tell you any stories of when Sokka was really young?" I asked, my voice still a little distant. The three men before me stopped their arguing, although Touse and Dando both looked at me like I had just lost my mind.
"Some," replied Bato. I smiled at him, my first and oldest friend.
"Kya and I were so worried about him for the longest time there. We thought there might be something wrong with him. It took him till he was almost three and a half to start speaking." I took another puff of the pipe, letting the smoke blur my vision again. "For the longest time he seemed to be trying to learn how to speak, you know how babies babble and go on making sounds at nothing. But when his second birthday and Katara came along we were really starting to worry."
"Katara actually started to speak first, she was only eleven months and she could already sort of toddle around on her little pudgy legs and say a few words; we were so proud. Sokka would follow her everywhere, almost like he was watching over her. If something was out of her reach he would get it for her, if she got hurt he would hold her. We think it was Katara that finally got him to speak. Only a few words at first but he picked it up so fast it was like he knew all along how, but just didn't."
I bit down on the pipe, finding those old teeth groves as I delved deeper into my memories. "Bato, do you remember me always trying to get Sokka to play his games around you. You know the ones. He never did, did he?"
"No," he admitted, clearly unsure of where I was going with this.
"He used to stare off into space like he was listening to something, or move around in the most peculiar patterns, not even minding his surroundings like he was following something. And then there were that weird baby babble of his. It was so strange. I was always so amazed by it." I took another long draw on the pipe, preparing myself to tell the story truthfully for once. "You can imagine my surprise when I first heard you and your families talking in the same language."
Dando seemed to lose the ability to speak and the shattering of Touse's mug was almost comical. Even Bato seemed to be gone. "He spoke the Old tongue?"
"I suppose if that's what you want to call that language you were just speaking," I conceded. "I remember him calling me vethen many times, almost like it meant Dad." I was right judging from the continued shock.
"Even when he started to speak he always seemed to be elsewhere," I continued. "I remembered being really confused for a while. He always talked about a dog. But whenever I brought the sled dogs around for him to play with he was never interested. So finally Kya decided he just liked the word and told me to put it from my mind. But I never could."
I took another puff of the pipe and released it out into the dead silence that now rested around me. I took a deep breath, steadying myself to relive one of the worst memories of my life. I met Bato's eyes and received a nod from my oldest friend, the man who stood by me and helped me through the death of my wife, and even helped raise my children. The man who held my total trust even if he couldn't explain everything. And if he said he was more loyal to Sokka then he was me? Well, that didn't make a lot of sense. But I could live with it.
"Did I ever tell you about the night I almost lost Sokka?" I asked Bato. Dando and Touse forgotten fixtures.
"No," he whispered, apparently numb from what he had already heard.
"It was late, and raining," I started, staring into the red glow inside my pipe. "I had been out on one of our patrols that night, watching for any sign of Fire-Nation activity and I was on my way back. Sokka was four then. He could speak, although he still gibbered a lot. Anyway, that night, like a lot of nights he had waited up for me. I was just leading the boat in as Kon was gathering up our supplies when I caught sight of Sokka standing on the docks like usual, practically bouncing up and down as he tried to wave to me.
I took another puff of the pipe. "It was a hot summer that year and the edges of the ice were thin, so very thin. There was a loud crack . It even caught Kon's attention; and Sokka fell into the water." I paused for a moment, a terrified shudder running down my spine. "I dove into the water before he even started to thrash around. I had taught him how to swim, but he was only four and he panicked. He went under before I got to him. For nearly twenty minutes I searched the dark waters for some sign of him. All of the men who jumped in after me had already given up. Even Kya who had come running, little Katara in her arms, was sobbing hysterically thinking she had lost her son. Some of the men even tried to pull me up onto the bank, telling me it was too late. Telling me he was gone. But I couldn't believe them."
"I was diving as deeply as I could, trying to catch some sign of him when I saw something. At the time I had no idea what it was, but I followed it to the surface anyway; hoping that it was my son."
I took another long pull on the pipe, the suspense thick in the air. "I crawled up onto the ice far from where I had left the rest of the village waiting. I learned later that I had scared Kya into thinking that I dove down too far looking for Sokka and succumbed to the ocean myself." I put the pipe back into my mouth and bit down into the wood, my next words slightly slurred as I spoke around it. "The first thing I saw was Sokka, soaked but breathing, lying in the snow. His face was a little blue when I fell to my knees beside him, but after I checked him over I breathed easy again. As long as I got him somewhere warm soon I thought he would be fine."
"It was then that I saw his rescuer. I hadn't gotten a good look at him in the water but he was the only living thing in sight, so it could only have been him that pulled Sokka up onto the ice sheet. I meet his deep blue eyes and saw an intelligence I have never seen in any animal before. I was too stunned to speak my gratitude, but he seemed to understand. The white wolf almost seemed to nod to me right before it faded away. It didn't run away into the snow or anything like that. It just vanished before my eyes."
I blew out another cloud of smoke as the weight I had been carrying seemed to lighten. It sounded strange, but telling this to someone; someone who wouldn't think me mad was relieving. "We camped out on the ice that night. Both of us were too soaked to last the walk back to the village, so I managed to dig us a shelter in a snow drift and held him close all night to conserve body heat. When I walked into the village the next morning carnying him, still unconscious I couldn't describe the look of relief on Kya's face to you."
"For the entire first week we couldn't tear Katara from him. It was like she was afraid he would leave again. I don't think she really understood what was going on, but she no doubt saw he mother crying and her brother missing and formed some link." I blew another puff of gray smoke into the night air. "Sokka never mentioned that dog again or spoke in that strange language. Oh, he was still extremely protective of Katara and still acted the same, but it was like he had forgotten why. I don't have anything to prove it. But I think whatever that wolf did, or had to do to save him cost him something. It was like the wolf was forced to sacrifice something that night, to keep Sokka alive."
I chuckled slightly. "It sounds a little crazy doesn't it? Me thinking all of this 'sacrifice' stuff concerning an animal I only caught a glimpse of? But if you had seen it… It wasn't just some animal, it was something more. Just looking at it you knew it was something much more."
"The Spirit," whispered Dando. Touse just stared blankly at me, not even aware of anything else, and Bato smiled the widest I have ever seen.
"It's really him," Bato said, awed. "I know everyone keeps talking about it but ... it's really him."
"So, are you guys with Sokka or against him," I asked, looking between Touse and Dando. I knew and trusted Bato, it was the other two I wasn't to sure about.
"What do you mean?" Touse asked.
"Well," I started putting the pipe back into my mouth. "I just got a little visit from one of Sokka's friends."
All three of them looked at me, clearly trying to understand what I just said. "Who?"
"About five minutes before you three came up a guy popped up out of the ocean and climbed on board."
"He what?"
I smiled. "A man made of seawater climbed up on board a few minutes ago. He said his name was Renton and told me that a couple of my people may approach me right away, but to be weary because there were some of these people who wanted to help my son and some that wanted to hurt him. So which are you?"
"Renton?" Touse weakly asked Dando, but Bato just started laughing, causing the other two to look at him strangely.
"Tui and La," he explained. "The Moon and the Oceans."
"The Ocean?" Dando said, almost terrified by the word.
"Yes," Bato said gleefully. "Looks like Sokka got himself some more allies."
"I hope you don't think I have the foggiest of what your all talking about?"
"Not to worry my friend, it is unimportant," Bato said stepping forward and holding out his hand. On instinct I reached out and clasped wrists with him. "Our families fled to the south pole because were on your son's side. You have nothing to fear." I smiled and nodded, receiving a nod and a smile in return as the small amount of lamp light glinted off of the white lotus Pai Sho tie Bato wore as a necklace.
The Forum had been updated with "Hakota and the White Wolf", "Tui and La" and "Easter Eggs -the corssovers-" go and have fun... we'd love to see your take on things!
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