Brothers Avatar

The Legend of Two Avatars

Book 1 – Family

Chapter 17 – Measures for Sanctity

"I'm sure it's somewhere around here." Minege said riding atop Tanton, nervously looking side from side.

"Are you alright, Minege?" Taresc said noticing her fidgety nature. Taresc and the others walked behind Tanton, as for why, Minege said it would help with searching if they could move around independently of Tanton.

"Oh me?" Minege turned around and smiled exaggeratedly, "I'm just so excited to find this Avatar scroll."

Once Team Avatar had woken up that morning, they were greeted by Abakita of the Oligarchy. She regretfully informed them that their entourage of soldiers to take on the Northern Water Tribe wouldn't be ready due to some necessary screening checks after yesterday's fiasco. Pio, Lozulia and Xulo were disappointed that their crusade was halted but Ibera was excited to browse the White Lotus fashions and Taresc was happy that things would be delayed for at least one day more.

Minege was in the latter camp, as she excitedly told the group that through her connections she made, she had heard of an Avatar scroll. It has clues on how to master and control the Avatar state, she said, it also has a bunch of other goodies that you could use. "What exactly are we looking for, Minege?" Ibera said looking under a giant leaf.

"My contact said it would be in a partially uncovered chest." She said.

"I feel like a pirate." Lozulia said, bored out of her mind, "Tell me I look like a pirate, Tare."

Taresc obliged, "You look like a pirate, Lozulia."

"Thank you, Taresc, argghh." Lozulia let out a sigh.

Pio walked on in annoyance; sure that Minege had no clue what she was talking about. He looked at her and noticed that she wasn't looking down so much she was looking up. It seemed rather odd to Pio, but he decided not to press it. "Who wrote the scroll, Minege, did they tell you that?"

"I don't know." Minege began to sweat.

Pio pushed, "Not at all? Not even a nation of origin?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, yeah I know that." She paused, "Uh, the Air Nomads wrote it, that's what they said."

Pio only grew more suspicious, "Alright."

They walked for a little longer until Pio's suspicions came true. They got to a certain spot in the woods when Minege yelled, "Go!" and she sped off into the distance with Tanton, leaving her team behind.

Everyone looked at each other in confusion, "Minege?" Lozulia called out. Pio looked up and they were descended upon by a pack of Stormbenders. Team Avatar was slow to respond as they tried to absorb the situation. Expecting this, a Stormbender was able to blow them all down with a gust of wind.

The team was entirely unprepared to take on the threat. As they tried to get to their feet, the Stormbender just went and blew them down again. Ibera was the only one that could brave their second wind and was able to disperse a sharp wind slash the leader tried to send. Ibera immediately began a fight with him and while that was happening, Xulo got up and began a fight with one of the waterbenders.

Sadly, Xulo was off his game, as he always did best when he was ready to fight. The waterbender was able to get a good slash to the stomach and he started bleeding. Everyone was doing rough when it came to fighting the Stormbenders. Pio's opponent got an air slash to cut part of ear, Ibera's and Lozulia's separate opponents got solid hits on them and they began to bruise.

One by one, Team Avatar fell to their opponents and ended up in a pile in the middle of the road. It seemed like they were about to be finished when Xulo's eyes began to glow and he transcended to the Avatar State. Xulo brandished a whip of multi-tailed flames and began whipping at the Stormbenders at amazing speeds. As Taresc looked up, he could barely see the flames, it was all such a blur of orange light. Eventually the Stormbenders were cut, cauterized and beaten to the ground and Xulo left the Avatar State. He fell to the ground and gripped his side where he was cut.

Hearing the fighting stop, Minege rode back, jumped off and ran to Xulo's side. "Are you okay?"

Taresc looked over and saw his fear incarnated. Xulo's eyes, they were murderously carnal; they were the exact same shade of berserk the day Avatar Rinley told him that someone close to him would betray him and try to take everything he had. He was breathing through his nose increasingly fast and his face was redder than a boiling cardinal; Xulo had found his betrayer. He backhanded her across the face and crawled to his feet, holding his wound. "You set us up!"

"Xulo, please, I can explain!" Minege crawled holding her bloody nose.

Xulo began advancing on Minege, "You were going to have me killed; for money, for some kind of glory? You betrayed me, there's no talk now." Tanton began running at Xulo to protect her owner but Xulo bent a pitfall to trap her.

The team watched on in horror, certain that one of their friends was going to die right here before them. Xulo eyes flickered and he was ready to strike her down, people closed their eyes and turned their heads; they wanted to stop him but no one was willing to stand in the way of bull with a logical and furious cause.

"Wait, Xulo!" Taresc yelled out. Xulo whipped his head around and his eyes faded just a little bit. Taresc realized things didn't quite add up, "She came back, she must have a good reason for all this."

"Or maybe she felt so guilt-ridden that she decided she had to come back and grovel." Pio pondered distantly.

"Please, Xulo." Minege begged, "Don't let that man go and let me explain." Tears began streaming down her face, "Do you remember what you said after Dayue burnt to the ground, you said you'd make it up to me."

Xulo—without even turning—bent a cage of earth around the leader who was trying to slip away. "Explain." Xulo said with voices of all the past Avatars.

"Thank you." She said and then mouthed it to Taresc as well, "After you appointed Lozulia the head navigator, I started asking around about postal workers… It was just some casual talk at the Flying Chakras, but then this one guy told me that some man was stealing them away. My father is alive, Xulo!" Xulo started coming down from the Avatar State, but his face was no less manic, "So we get to Cirkenad and I meet with this guy who tells me that the postal-worker-stealer is a Stormbender and his base of operations is somewhere around The White Lotus, he then recommended me to a guy in Mudide that could get me more information." She didn't have the strength to look Xulo in the eyes, "We get to Mudide and he tells me his name: Lieutenant Quiku, but even he had no clue where he was holding my father… but he knew a woman that could get me to him." Taresc recalled seeing her give some gold coins to a woman in Lotus Capital, "She was a former Stormbender and could set up an ambush, led by his second hand man." She pointed to the man in the earth cage, "That one." She bit her lip to keep the tears from flowing again, "It was the only way I could possibly get close to finding my father, he's all I have left, Xulo."

"You couldn't tell me your plan?" Xulo grumbled venomously, "Did you even care if one of us died?"

"Honey, no!" She stood and placed her hands on Xulo's shoulders, to which he quickly brushed them off, "It was just that I know how fixated you are on this crusade and I knew you wouldn't devote time to this and I knew you wouldn't be okay walking purposefully into an ambush."

In Xulo's mind, he knew that Minege wasn't right about what she said, but she also wasn't completely wrong. "This is ridiculous." He spat, "We could have been captured—or worse—one of us could have died, Minege, do you realize that?" Minege didn't answer she just hung her head in shameful silence, "I don't see why we should devote a second more to this garbage."

"Please, Xulo!" She got onto her hands and knees, "You said you'd make it up to me and this would mean more than life to me!"

Xulo looked back to see what his party's reactions were. Pio looked and slowly shook his head, while Taresc was looking at him with pleading eyes. Lozulia ran her fingers through her hair with a stare that said she was preoccupied with something else. Ibera didn't even look in the general direction of the scene, his whole entire being was a statue devoted to his displeasure.

"Lozulia, Ibera?" Xulo said at last. Lozulia looked up with a soulless gaze and Ibera stared with vexed eyes, "Take Taresc far away, wherever it is, we'll meet you there later." He started walking over to the cage where the Captain's assistant lay unconscious, "I'm getting answers from this guy and I think he'd rather not see how." They nodded and slowly they escorted Taresc away.

Minege's eyes filled with hope and she was about to burst with gratefulness when Xulo held up a hand, "Don't say a word." She stopped dead in her tracks, "I'm doing this because I'm angry and this is the only justifiable way of releasing it." He turned to Pio and released the earth cage, "You ready, Pio?" Pio grabbed water out of his flask and turned his hand into an icy blade, "Wonderful… let's begin."

Tanton rushed through the woods with Taresc taking the lead instead of Minege. Taresc learned a while back how to steer Tanton, he wasn't too good at controlling her, but today they decided that Minege shouldn't steer.

Once Xulo, Pio and Minege found the others, it was complete silence once they got on the alligator-duck. The tension was thicker than iron, it shackled everyone's mouths closed in fear of being next on Xulo's chopping block.

Finally Ibera was the one to break the silence by whispering to Pio, "So what exactly happened?"

Taresc perked his ears to Pio's voice, "Exactly what you imagined happened." He flippantly said, "We mutilated him until we found the location."

Minege was shaking at the bottom of Tanton, she was forced to watch it go down. "He screamed when they took fingers." She said.

Taresc didn't hear what he wanted to hear (even though he himself didn't know what he wanted), "It wasn't too bad, it just took a few fingers for him to talk." Pio said. "Not too indomitable was he? So weak-willed it made me gurgle."

Taresc was terrified at what his brother was becoming and what Xulo grumbled next only made him fear more, "I took a couple extra toes to get some of my anger out." The small talk quickly ended with that until they reached the town.

"It's a town?" Lozulia said, "You say no one knows and the prison is located in a town?"

Minege mumbled, "The captain runs prisons in 12 other towns in this area…" She didn't raise her head, "Apparently he switches the prisoners from one prison to another to keep things like this from happening."

Looking at the town from atop the hilltop, it seemed to be a fairly populated town in a circular design. But what stood out the most was the giant, skinny tower that stood in the middle, "Should we assume that's where Mr. Baikal is being kept?" Ibera said.

"Yes, Maol Baikal and the other postal workers are being kept there." Xulo said, "It was one of things the boy told us."

"Do we have a plan?" Ibera asked, elbowing Taresc.

Xulo intercepted, "We're not doing a plan this time." Xulo projected his absolute annoyance and lack of patience, "We're doing an all-out assault and if that doesn't work, we're going home." He narrowed his eyes, "Is that clear?"

The team nodded and they started walking down the hill, Pio held Minege back, "Not you, you're not coming."

"Why not?" Minege said.

Pio held a finger to his lip, "Because you're temperamental and you're going to besmirch the mission. You will stay behind, Avatar's orders." Minege turned around in frustration and went to go sit with Tanton and watch the prison break unfold.

The team wasted no time as soon as they got to the base of the tower. The team began frantically climbing the tower from the outside. Taresc and Xulo used their earthbending to rip out bricks and quickly tear their way up the tower, while also throwing bricks for Ibera launch himself off of as he flew up. Lozulia used her fire as a ways of propelling herself to the top, leaving Pio at the bottom with no true way of getting up there. He instead went in through the front door and decided to take on the tower by battling the inhabitants one by one.

The Stormbenders in the tower immediately began looking out the windows to see what the noise was and saw that they were under attack. As the team got close to them, they sent blasts of air and water to try and throw them off their course, but nothing was stopping this prison break.

They reached the top and flew into the window. There was one Stormbender there, with whom Xulo made quick work of with his waterbending. They looked into the prison cell, "Maol's not here." Xulo said and quickly ran to the stairs. Taresc stayed for a second and used a brick to the break the lock.

Descending to the next level, Lozulia took charge of the next two Stormbenders and shot fire at the ground, lighting their shoes on fire. While they were hopping like mad, Lozulia swooped in and swept their feet. She dug her heel into their heads, knocking them out cold. Xulo went up the prison bars where the captives were knocking at the bars when suddenly one said, "Xulo, is that you?"

Xulo immediately recognized Maol's mawkish face and broke the lock with a fiery fist. "Come with us, Maol." He stepped out and now they were a stampede of two level's worth of prisoners.

They began walking down the stairs and Maol said, "Xulo, what are you doing here? Is Minege with you? Who are these people?" Xulo ignored him as they got to the next level with three Stormbenders now. They started throwing water at Xulo in an attempt to freeze him in his spot but Xulo took the water and sent it right back at them. He used the water to lasso them into a corner and then freeze their bodies to the wall, "And you can waterbend now?"

"This probably isn't the best time, Mr. Baikal." Taresc said as he freed another level of prisoners.

They all geared up to go to the next floor, when Lozulia stopped them, "Wait!" she held her ear to the floor, "There's at least eleven Stormbenders on that level waiting for us."

"That shouldn't be too much of a problem," Ibera cracked his knuckles and whispered into Xulo's ears, Xulo nodded and they both got to work. Xulo bent a hole in the ground and jumped in. Once on the next floor, he busted down a huge hole in the wall and then immediately bent another hole in that floor and fell through while the Stormbender looked on, confused. Ibera then jumped out of the window and blasted himself into the window on the next floor. With one giant gust, he threw all of the Stormbenders out of the window. Ibera looked out and saw the flying Stormbenders end up falling through people's roofs and one fell into one guy's cabbage cart.

The prison break crew flew down the two sets of stairs and saw Xulo had dealt with the Stormbenders on his level quite nicely. The next five levels were fairly barren, probably because they all collected on that one floor to try and take on the Avatar.

They were about two thirds of the way down the tower, when they encountered Pio. "What took you guys so long?" He standing amongst a pile of slumped over unconscious bodies. They ran down the rest of the tower, uninhibited by guards and they all poured out in the courtyard. Postal workers were hugging each other and patted their saviors on the back, but Xulo didn't have time for it.

Xulo instructed for his team to start walking back to the hilltop where they left Minege and Tanton, leaving the postal workers to do what they wanted to do. They got a quarter of the way there when they saw Minege leading Tanton to the courtyard. Minege instantly spotted Maol and he instantly spotted her. She let go of Tanton's reins and started running towards him. "Dad!" Tears began welling up in her eyes, after so many years, they were finally together again.

She ran past the team when she suddenly felt her arm being gripped. She looked to see that it was Xulo who held onto her and stopped her from running. "Xulo?"

"Taresc, take us back to the Capital." He began dragging her onto Tanton.

She struggled to get free of his death grip, but he was too strong for her, "Xulo let me go!" She screamed. He was able to detain her on Tanton and Taresc took them away, "DAD!" She yelled to Maol who stood there, staring at her daughter being taken away.

They got a great deal of distance away from the town when Xulo finally released Minege's arm. She shook violently on Tanton, with her eyes burning from the tears being poured out of them. Eventually, in the meekest and most pathetic voice, she managed to say, "Why did you do that?"

Everyone was silent, no one wanted to answer that. "Hm?" Pio said, "No one will answer it? Well then, I suppose I could enlighten you." Pio rubbed his hands together, "You see, honey, you are only here—on this crusade that is—because you have this nice little alligator-duck and Xulo feels somewhat culpable for getting your village burnt down—even though I have assured him that they probably would have burnt down every village in the general vicinity until they found him." Pio sighed, "You are at the lowermost of this totem pole—the deadwood, even—and if you didn't have the bare minimum of worth, I would kick you off this crusade right here, right now." He mimed kicking her off Tanton, "Boop!" he laughed, "Now with how insignificant of a gnat you are, you would think you would have the decency of not trying to get us all sacrificed, silly us!" He scowled, "You decided to act on your own narcissistic terms and not on Xulo's decree and we cannot have that." He spoke with a singsong tone, "What happened back there was simply a measure for sanctity." His voice heightened, "Do you understand?! We want you to realize that this man decides what happens on this trip, NOT YOU!" He shook Minege, "You don't get to see your father because we say you can't see your father!"

Lozulia yelled, "That's enough!" Pio released Minege and went back to where he was sitting, Lozulia went over and rubbed Minege's back, "Are you okay?" she whispered.

Minege nodded and the team went silent once again. Xulo finally spoke up, "This isn't going to be a dictatorship." He said firmly, "But I will not tolerate behavior that almost gets me or anyone killed." He looked to Pio, "Punishments will be handed out accordingly."

Taresc had to bite his tongue to keep his whimpers from being heard by the group. Every step forward Xulo takes to being the Avatar he wants to be, a step in taken away from the brother Taresc wants him to be.

Taresc wandered around his impressive guest room; staring mindlessly at the ornate gold decorations that seemed to manifest itself in every piece of furniture. He couldn't release his mind from today's events and was trying anything that could calm his mind but nothing worked. He decided to move over to Lozulia's room. He knocked on the door three times but there was no answer. He decided to go in anyways and he found Lozulia sitting on the edge of her bed, looking off into the distance with a distressed look upon her face.

"Lozulia?" Taresc said cautiously.

She snapped back to reality and looked at Taresc for a second and said, "Oh hi, Taresc, how are you doing." She half-smiled.

"Um, is there something wrong?" He said, "Are you doing okay?"

She placed a hand on her cheek and shook her head, "Oh yes, I'm fine, I just blank out sometimes! Classic me move." She laughed insincerely, "So I'm guessing you're here to talk."

"It was pretty rough out there."

"You must be fairly relieved, right?" She said. Taresc looked at her as if she said something in a different language, "Xulo found his betrayer and it's not you. You must remember Rinley's prophecy."

"Oh yeah, that." He recalled how Rinley said someone close would try and take everything from Xulo, "Sadly, I don't think that's the case."

"Why not?"

"Minege might have pulled that stunt, but her intentions were in the right place and the way Rinley told the prophecy… they just don't match." Taresc frowned deeply, "He was talking about me, I know it."

"Aw, bummer." She said, "Are you doing okay, though?"

"Not really, Loz, I'm not doing great." She moved in to hug him, "My brother tortured someone today, I didn't think he'd be capable of that but he was." He voice started to quiver, "He almost killed Minege."

"But you stopped it." Lozulia said, "Doesn't that feel good?"

"Not really, I wish there wouldn't come a time that I'd have to stop my brother from killing someone." He wiped his nose, "Thanks for being with me, Loz, you're what keeps me going."

"You too," Her eyes darkened, "you too."

"Have you talked to the others?"

Lozulia let go, "Xulo and Pio?" She let out one laugh, "Hell no! I'm waiting for their homicidal killing mood to settle down a bit before I even attempt to talk to them. I did talk to Ibera however."

"What does he feel?"

"He's a little rattled, surely." She said, "But he gets it, he understands why things happened the way they happened, measures for sanctity and all that." She chuckled a little, "He said, though, if Xulo tries to make Pio be in charge of him, he'll be out of here real quick."

"That's funny," Taresc chuckled a little too, "Have you seen Minege?"

"Not yet." She said, "Do you want to go with me to see her?"

Taresc nodded and they exited the room and went outside of Minege's. They were hesitant to knock, but knew that Minege needed someone to talk to right now. Taresc knocked and Lozulia yelled, "MINEGE! IT'S YOUR GIRL, ZULI!" she paused, "oh yeah, and Taresc is here too."

They could hear her sniffling, "Come in!" They walked in and found her brushing Tanton, when she turned around they saw her eyes were red from how much she was crying, "Hi, darlings."

"Hey, Minege, how are you doing?" Lozulia said.

"Oh me?" She put a hand to her chest, "I am doing just fine and how might the rest of you be doing?" She was pleasantly cheerful.

Taresc was speculative, "Are you sure you're doing okay?"

"What did I say? I said I was fine, right?" She scolded and Lozulia went for Taresc's hand as he looked dejected, "I'm sorry honey, I'm taking my frustrations out on you. I think it's cus you look too much like your brother."

"So, you are frustrated," Lozulia said, "The plot thickens!"

"Well I don't really have the right to be frustrated," She stroked Tanton, "I did almost get you guys killed, sorry about that."

"None taken!" Lozulia said.

Taresc interrupted, "You're supposed to say none taken after someone says no offense, not sorry."

"Very much taken from you, Tare." She shook her head slowly, "so taken."

"All in all, I'm doing just fine." She touched her bruised nose, "My nose hurts, but I guess I deserved that." She sighed.

Taresc asked, "But what about your dad?"

She let out a soft laugh, "What about him? Sure, it would've been nice to see him but at least he's alive and free now, so I'm sure sometime down the road I'll see him." She rested her head down on Tanton's back, "I'm fine, as long as I get to see the views, I'll be fine." She raised her head and her eyes seemed so tired it was if they were about yawn, "It's really such a shame, though…" She pouted and resumed work on Tanton, "If I told him earlier, this all could have ended much differently."

Taresc spoke quietly, he gripped Lozulia hand and closed his eyes gently, "It could have, couldn't it?"