Disclaimer – all original Avatar: The Last Airbender characters in this fanfic (excluding my OC's) are the property of Bryana Konietzko and Michaela Dante DiMartino.
Chapter 17. Corrupted Half - part 2
Spirit World, Ek'Noshi Pond.
Yan Zu watched in shock and utter disbelief as his own son was about to attack him with firebending. "Huo!" the man whispered.
"Huo, stop it! He's your father!" Shen'Rai exclaimed as he stooped between Yan Zu and his son. He decided to help Yan Zu since Ek'Noshi had the means to defend herself. Huo shot a fire blast towards Yan Zu, but the phoenix swung his wing and extinguished the blue flame effortlessly. Without a word, the boy leaned his head back and sharply moved it forward, firing a combustion beam towards them.
Shen'Rai surrounded himself with a violet-colored fire shield. The ray of heat collided with it, resulting in a powerful explosion. The ground shook, and smoke filled the area of the blast. After a moment, Shen'Rai emerged from the smoke and flew up with Yan Zu, who held onto his leg.
"Is there a way to save him?!" Yan Zu asked.
From above, the phoenix glanced at Yuan'Shi. The ancient spirit, who began to walk towards Ek'Noshi, didn't pay attention to them, so it meant she didn't need to focus on Huo's actions. "It has to be 'that' earthbending technique," Shen'Rai thought and answered. "Huo became Yuan'Shi's puppet and he won't stop until he finishes her command, which is killing you. The best way to break the technique is to kill Yuan'Shi, which is easier said than done, but time works in our favor. When the others will arrive, the Earth Keeper can simply use his earthbending to cancel her technique."
Huo conjured more fire and began to shoot at the two with blue-colored fire blasts, although Yan Zu noticed that the attacks were aimed only at him. "He's solely focused on killing you and won't pay any attention to me even if I attack him," Shen'Rai explained while evading the attacks. "And his ash-like skin acts like an armor, which protects him from harm. I'm going to take you far away from here and-."
"No!" Yan Zu refused, glaring at Yuan'Shi. The man snapped out of his confusion and shock. He'd be dammed if he would let that monster take Huo away from him. "I won't allow her to use my son like a mindless puppet! Land near the tress! I fought firebenders before and I know how to handle myself! I'll keep him busy while you deal with her!"
"Yan Zu, you don't have your firebending anymore," Shen'Rai pointed out. "It's foolish to risk like that."
"Risking to save your family is never foolish," Yan Zu replied and looked up at the phoenix. "Do it!"
Shen'Rai looked down, meeting Yan Zu's gaze, and nodded. The spirit flew towards the farthest blue trees and dropped the man down. Huo began to run towards his father while the phoenix headed towards Yuan'Shi and Ek'Noshi. Shen'Rai passed over Huo without any reaction from the boy.
Yan Zu knew the forest, which surrounded the pond, pretty well and knew how the trees behaved. "Come on buddy!" the man called out to the boy. "Show me what you learned!" He quickly entered the forest, and since Huo no longer had a clear shot, he pursued his father.
In the meantime, Shen'Rai reached Yuan'Shi and immediately shot a large violet-colored ball of fire from his beak. The pale-skinned woman quickly turned her head towards the attack and stomped her foot while extending her right arm towards Ek'Noshi. A thick, tall, rock-made wall shot upwards from the ground and blocked the ball of fire. At the same time, Yuan'Shi conjured a stream of black fire, which she shot at Ek'Noshi.
With a green-colored flash, the woman with light blue skin and green-colored lips vanished, avoiding the black flames, and reappeared right next to her pond. Shen'Rai flew to the right to once again have Yuan'Shi in sight. He leaned his head back and sharply moved forward, firing a combustion beam at her.
Yuan'Shi levitated a small rock and precisely hurled it at the beam, causing it to explode before it could reach her. She quickly moved her arm clockwise as lightning sparks danced around her fingers. With a swift thrust of her arm, Yuan'Shi shot a lightning bolt at Shen'Rai, who extended the tip of his left wing towards it. The phoenix absorbed the lightning through his left wing, guided it through his stomach, and shot it back at Yuan'Shi with his right wing.
With airbending, Yuan'Shi propelled herself high into the air, avoiding the bolt of lightning, which hit the ground. Keeping herself in mid-air with the element of air, she extended her arm towards the phoenix. Shen'Rai immediately was ready to launch another fire attack, but he suddenly lost control of his body. His wings and legs were being twisted in random directions.
"Veins and muscles are such a good source of water to control," Yuan'Shi grinned as she used bloodbending to take control of Shen'Rai's body. She landed back on the ground, pulling the phoenix down as well.
Before Yuan'Shi could do anything more, she felt something grab her ankle and looked down, noticing blueish vines which coiled around her ankle. Not giving her time to react, the vines pulled Yuan'Shi, forcing her to fall over and stop holding Shen'Rai with her bloodbending. The woman was quickly pulled towards the pond, from which the blueish vines emerged, and noticed that it was Ek'Noshi, who controlled them.
Yuan'Shi was pulled into the clear water, which instantly froze, trapping her. Shen'Rai shook his head and looked at the pond. "This won't hold her," he stated and looked worriedly at Ek'Noshi. "If her pond-"
The phoenix didn't even finish his sentence as the ice began to crack and the ground shook. A powerful vortex of black-colored fire burst through the ice and burned the vines. Ek'Noshi, who stood next to the pond, only saw darkness as a stream of black fire immediately engulfed her. The spirit of the pond vanished. The wind, which suddenly blew over the forest, made a sound similar to a long wail. The grass and flowers under their feet began to wither away.
Yuan'Shi stood in the dry pond with tentacle-like water prosthetic for her left arm. The woman looked at the tentacle. "Hmmm... not as good as my real arm, but it will do," she stated with a grin and took a few steps forward.
"How can you attack your own kind?" Shen'Rai asked with disgust in his voice. "Ek'Noshi was a kind and gentle spirit."
"A spirit, who attacked me," Yuan'Shi replied with a shrug. "I have no patience for spirits who help humans. They betray us, betray the Spirit World. Even Raava betrayed us when she fused with a human to create the Avatar."
"How do you know about that?" Shen'Rai asked.
"I talked with a few old spirits after I woke up so I know what happened during my sleep," Yuan'Shi explained. "The humans kill themselves and are nothing but trouble, but after I'm finished with them, the world will finally be at peace."
Shen'Rai frowned and spread his wings while Yuan'Shi leaned slightly forward. "How about we stop playing with the basics and begin to use advanced bending techniques," she suggested. "We are Keepers, after all."
Since there was no reason to control his negative emotions, Shen'Rai decided to release all his bottled-up anger. His feathers began to turn violet and emit smoke along with tiny sparks. After a few seconds, his whole body was engulfed in violet-colored flames. Yuan'Shi only laughed maniacally and charged forward.
Yan Zu ran through the forest with Huo on his tail. Every leaf and branch was covered with sharp thorns, and since the trees could move their branches, they wanted to grab the intruders. Yan Zu, however, had a plan.
Since the boy shot at the man a few times and missed, the blue flames hit the trees and lit them on fire. The forest immediately reacted and focused more on Huo than Yan Zu. The branches began to coil around Huo, but thanks to his ash-like skin, the thorns weren't cutting him.
Yan Zu planned to stall for time as long as he could till the other Keepers would arrive. Everything seemed to work according to his plan until the wailing wind reached them. The tall blue trees stopped moving their branches and began to wither. The leaves started falling from the branches, and the trees began to lose color.
"What's going on?" Yan Zu asked out loud and looked around. The forest was withering away before his eyes. "Ek'Noshi..." he whispered, feeling something terrible had happened to the spirit. When the branches stooped holding Huo, the boy broke free and continued onward.
Yan Zu quickly hid behind one of the withered trees and began to think of a different plan. Since Huo lost track of his father, he conjured two flames, which took the shapes of two hawks. The blue-colored birds made of fire began to fly around the trees while Huo walked around and searched for his father on the ground.
"What are you up to, Huo?" Yan Zu asked silently, hiding behind the tree. The man peeked around it and noticed one of the hawks, which landed on a tree branch, and Huo. Both of them faced him with their backs. While Yan Zu didn't notice any differences in appearance, he did see the difference in the hawk's movement. When Huo created the animals earlier, they moved more naturally, but now, their movements were rigid and forced.
Huo's body suddenly twitched, and the boy shook his head, which didn't escape Yan Zu's notice. The boy placed a hand on the side of his head. However, at that moment, the hawk on the branch spotted Yan Zu, whose brown-colored eyes widened. "Oh, crap!" the man quickly began to run while the hawk pursued him, and Huo joined shortly.
Yan Zu realized that maybe he could help Huo break Yuan'Shi's control. The man ran, using the withered trees as cover, while Huo shot blue arcs of fire, which hit the trees and began to burn in orange.
"Huo!" Yan Zu called out, looking over his shoulder as he ran. "Fight it! You're stronger than her!"
When he turned his head back to look in front of him, the second hawk cut him off and attacked his head, causing the man to trip. Yan Zu quickly got up to his feet and turned towards Huo. The man noticed that the boy moved his arm in a circular motion, preparing to shoot lightning at his father.
"Huo! Think about your friends!" Yan Zu spoke loudly. "Eilu and Shaku!"
During the circular motion, Huo's fingers began to drag thin forks of lightning, and he was ready to shoot it at Yan Zu. While the man didn't want Huo to remember unpleasant things, he needed to use anything he could to bring his son back. "Think of your mother!" he yelled. "How she tried to attack Eilu and you saved her!"
Huo flinched at those words, and his mind wasn't at peace during that short duration. When he extended his fingers towards Yan Zu, instead of a lightning bolt, the boy created uncontrolled combustion, which exploded into his face. Huo was blown away and hit the ground, but his ash-like skin absorbed a fair share of the impact.
"Huo!" Yan Zu exclaimed and made a few steps forward, unsure if it was safe to approach Huo. The two hawks flew over and landed right next to Huo, whose body began to shake once again, and this time, the ash-like skin began to crack, and bits of it began to fall down. His green orbs also cracked, and a glimmer of orange illuminated from the cracks.
"That's it, Huo! Fight it!" Yan Zu exclaimed, spurring his son on.
As the cracks became bigger and the ash-like skin didn't cover Huo's mouth anymore, Yan Zu heard his son scream. The boy turned on his belly and rose to his knees, scratching his whole body. With a final scream, the ash-like skin completely fell off his entire body. Huo remained on his knees in ashes, breathing heavily while the two hawks flew and landed on his bare shoulders, once again moving like real animals.
Tears began to run down his cheeks. Since the technique was undone, Huo's mind was again in shambles. Betrayed once again, this time by Yuan'Shi, the boy gritted his teeth and stood up, feeling pain in his whole body. A sudden flash and thundering sound reached Huo's and Yan Zu's ears as Shen'Rai and Yuan'Shi began to fight seriously.
Powerful gusts of wind began to move the dead branches. Yan Zu could see violet-colored flames and bolts of lightning in the sky, which took many shapes and forms. Boulders and rocks were tossed around, and random explosions were heard.
Huo frowned, turned towards the flash, and began to walk slowly towards them. "Huo, wait!" Yan Zu called out and ran up to Huo. He grabbed his son by the arm, attempting to stop him. "Get away from me!" Huo yelled, yanking his arm free. The boy no longer trusted anyone. One of the hawks turned around and attacked Yan Zu, forcing him to step back.
"Huo, where are you going?!" the man asked as the hawk returned and landed on Huo's shoulder.
"Kill..." Huo whispered and began to chuckle. He was angry and wasn't thinking clearly. Not to mention that he kept hearing the voices of the hawks in his head. "Kill the liars... burn them... devour them."
"Huo! It's too dangerous for you to go back there!" Yan Zu warned as the boy continued forward. "You'll get killed!"
Yan Zu was ready to rush at Huo and grab him, not caring that the hawks would attack him, but Huo took a few more steps, staggered, and fell to his knees from exhaustion. The man approached his son, who relentlessly kept walking on all fours towards his destination.
At that moment, a large violet-colored flame came flying through the forest, burning down all the trees in its path into ash, and stooped not far from Yan Zu and Huo, who realized it was Shen'Rai himself. The phoenix's body was surrounded by violet-colored flames.
A rumbling sound came from the side, forcing Yan Zu to turn his head and notice Yuan'Shi, who rode an earth wave and headed straight towards the phoenix. Yan Zu noticed that she had used waterbending to replace her lost left arm with a water tentacle.
The woman stooped and stood on a now-created hill with a sinister grin. She raised her fleshy hand, and a wave of lava shoot upwards behind Shen'Rai. The phoenix turned around and touched the molten earth with his wings, quickly absorbing the heat and redirecting it through his five tails, changing the lava into a solidified magma rock.
Yuan'Shi moved her hand downward, forcing Shen'Rai to completely sink into the ground. She then took control of the magma rock and, for good measure, placed it on the spot where the phoenix sunk.
She glanced at Yan Zu and Huo, squinting her orange-colored eyes in confusion as she noticed that Huo was no longer under the effect of her technique. "Huh... I'm aware that I'm not at my strongest and that you have impressive willpower, but I didn't expect you break out of the technique," she stated.
Huo lifted his head, meeting her gaze, and frowned. "I'll kill you... I'll kill you!" he growled, and the two hawks turned to look at her as well. When the boy managed to rise to his feet, the two hawks left his shoulders and flew straight at Yuan'Shi. The woman smirked and swung her tentacle arm with lightning speed. Since they were made of fire, the hawks were immediately extinguished.
"Ghhaa!" Huo grabbed his chest and felt forward, feeling a crippling pain.
"Huo!" Yan Zu crouched right next to Huo to check on him. The man whipped his head at Yuan'Shi. "What did you do to him?!"
"The detailed shapes he creates are not just fire," Yuan'Shi explained. "Unlike normal firebending techniques, the shapes are a part of him, so when they 'die,' he feels the pain and becomes 'injured' himself. If too many shapes die while he's exhausted, he'll die with them. Not that it matters in this situation."
Yuan'Shi moved her hand, levitating a rock, which she turned into a hot-red, molten spike. "Since I can't control him, he could become a nuisance, which I can't tolerate," the woman announced and prepared to throw the spike at Huo. Yan Zu immediately stood up and moved between Huo and Yuan'Shi, ready to protect the boy with his own body.
Suddenly, Shen'Rai burst out of the ground and fired a white beam of pure light from his forehead at Yuan'Shi, who barely dodged it. The beam hit her water tentacle, literally vaporizing it on the spot.
Yuan'Shi dropped the molten spike with a frown and used her right hand to send a current of air at the phoenix. Shen'Rai stood his ground, but Yuan'Shi clenched her hand into a fist. The air current immediately froze, trapping the phoenix in an oblong chunk of ice, which began to emit vapor. Only his feet and head were free.
The violet-colored flames which surrounded his body were put out, and his feathers returned to their original color. Shen'Rai felt to the side and immediately began to shoot the ice with violet-colored flames from his beak, but the ice wasn't melting. "This ice isn't made of water, so you can't melt it," Yuan'Shi said and turned back at Yan Zu and Huo. "Now, where were we?"
As Yuan'Shi was about to deal with Yan Zu and Huo, she turned her head to look at something. Yan Zu felt the earth shake and followed her gaze. He spotted three beings heading straight towards them. Since Yan Zu recognized Wei'Rai, he guessed the other two were Keepers as well.
The tree Keepers closed the distance and surrounded Yuan'Shi from three sides. The Keeper that resembled a pangolin, with a body covered in large, hardened, brown-colored, overlapping, plate-like scales and knobs made of green-colored minerals, moved to one side. The Keeper, which resembled a serpent with a body covered in green-blue, shiny scales with light-grey stripes, positioned itself between Yan Zu and Yuan'Shi, coiling his body like a viper. Lastly, Wei'Rai landed between Yuan'Shi and Shen'Rai, who remained encased within a chunk of ice.
Just then, Yan Zu noticed that a small butterfly-like creature, which rode on Wei'Rai's back, flew over to Shen'Rai and landed on the chunk of ice. When the butterfly touched the ice, it immediately turned into fog, freeing the phoenix, who got up to his feet.
"It's nice to see you all again," Yuan'Shi spoke with a smirk, looking down at the Keepers from her hill and focusing on the butterfly-like creature. "And it pains me to see you like this, Nin To. Rest assured, when the humans will finally be under my control and when I use the Avatar's chi to restore my body, the spirits will control the physical world."
"Controlling the humans never was and never should be our purpose, Yuan'Shi," stated Shen'Rai, moving right next to Wei'Rai. "And you know that."
"My 'purpose' was stolen from me by a human," Yuan'Shi replied, squinting her orange-colored eyes and gritting her teeth. "He received the power of the four elements only because he meddled into spirits affairs."
"He offered to help Raava to fix his mistake," Shen'Rai replied.
"There would be nothing to fix if he'd simply mind his own business," Yuan'Shi stated, her larger eye twitching in anger. "Not only he kept the power, which weren't his to begin with, he dared to announce that, as the Avatar, he would be the bridge between the two worlds and would work to maintain balance in the world of man while teaching them to respect the spirits."
Shen'Rai shook his head. "He tried-"
"He did nothing!" Yuan'Shi yelled, making all the Keepers take a more defensive stance. "Humans wiped out the ancient ones to near extinction! Beings that protected them, allowed them to build cities on their backs, and gave them bending were hunted down! Where's the respect?!"
Before anyone could reply, Yuan'Shi continued. "He closed the portals to the spirit world and took away your power to balance the bending if the need appears! He needs to be erased from existence!"
"I heard enough," Wei'Rai spoke, spreading his wings. "You're nothing more than corruption in a human body. Since we cannot seal you away or place you in the Mist of the Sleeping Souls once again, we need to destroy you."
Yuan'Shi frowned, then smiled, and after that, she began to chuckle. "If you'd have the courage to kill me, that would be the first thing you would've done instead of placing me in a dream," she replied. "But you didn't want to take the risk."
"This time, we will," Nukuio stated, glaring at Yuan'Shi with his reptilian blue-colored eyes. "And if the worst happens, so be it."
Yuan'Shi leaned her head back and began to laugh. "In that case, this is goodbye!" she exclaimed. With a wide grin, the woman's body began to shake uncontrollably as the air around her became hot. Both phoenixes realized what Yuan'Shi was about to do. "Everybody run!" Wei'Rai exclaimed.
Shen'Rai immediately flew over to Yan Zu and Huo, grabbing them both with his claws, while Wei'Rai did the same with Nin To. Both phoenixes flew at top speed while Denger and Nukuio moved on the ground. Everyone headed in one direction to get as far away from Yuan'Shi as possible.
Yan Zu turned his head and looked down at Yuan'Shi, who was now a tiny dot on the ground. While he had no idea what was going on, he knew that it was something terrible since all Keepers had decided to retreat. Suddenly, he noticed a flash, which forced him to close his eyes for a moment, and he heard a deafening explosion.
A powerful shockwave began obliterating everything in its path, ripping the withered trees with roots. Even though Yan Zu was in the air, he felt the shockwave. Since the Fire Keepers knew what Yuan'Shi planned to do, everyone managed to escape the blast radius. Still, the whole forest was gone. The only thing remaining was flattened, scorched earth with a large hole in the middle.
The phoenixes hovered in mid-air above the Earth and the Water Keeper. All of them looked at the destruction Yuan'Shi caused. It was hard to believe that this dead field was once a bountiful forest with a beautiful pond.
"Such power," Yan Zu commented in disbelief. Such a blast would easily wipe out his entire village where he lived with Hama.
"The explosion should've been much bigger," Shen'Rai noted as he and Wei'Rai began to land next to the two other Keepers. Shen'Rai dropped Yan Zu, who reached out and grabbed Huo, placing him gently on the ground.
"I can't see her with my seismic sense," announced Denger. "If she's still there, she's not touching the ground."
"She's not there," Wei'Rai stated with a frown. "She released the energy much sooner in order to survive the explosion and to leave the Spirit World while we retreated. She knew we'd not let her do that otherwise. Yuan'Shi is already in the physical world, and I can only imagine the destruction she'll cause."
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