AN: Sorry this is late, it's entirely my fault. I'll be back on schedule by the next chapter.
So, uhhhh… stuff happened this weekend.
…aaaanywaaaay, finally found Transformers Prime Season 2. My burnout countermeasure has been refueled… for now. Also discovered Transformers Animated. Good show. By the way, is it healthy to binge an entire season in less than a week?
I decided to set up that Discord server I mentioned a few chapters ago. Code to join is gC4QKrHDf3.
Anyway, I don't own Halo or Avatar, nothing I haven't told you before.
Facing the Past
Earth-4476
Sigrid Eklund wearily cracked her eyes open. The first thing she saw was a set of pitch-black armor surrounded by crimson holograms.
Her brain jolted into awareness as she recognized Iratus. Instinctively, she tried to rush at him, but she found her arms were bound by red energy, and in front of her was a similarly colored energy barrier.
She turned to the construct. "You," she growled.
Iratus chuckled. "Me. So you're one of the annoying demons who thieved me from Camber."
"Where am I?" Sigrid probed.
"You are in a place where your fellow nuisances cannot reach you," Iratus responded with a cruel laugh. "Another universe."
"Where are Hieu and Neil?!" Sigrid demanded.
"Even if I did know, you wouldn't be told," Iratus said, his smile turning to a frown. "What I will tell you is that they are somewhere in this world."
A golden-armored elite then walked into the room. "Chieftain, the scout party is ready to deploy."
"Thank you, warden," Iratus replied. "Now make sure our guest is… comfortable."
The warden's mandibles contorted into the equivalent of a malicious smile. "With pleasure."
As Iratus left the room, the warden approached a console. "Since we are going to become very close, let us introduce ourselves. I, of course, know you, but you do not know me. I am Kel 'Sumar, Sangheili warlord and your host."
"Save the pleasantries," Sigrid spat. "I'm not telling you anything."
"Is that so?" 'Sumar replied. "Well then, let us see if you speak the truth." He palmed the console, and electricity flowed painfully through his prisoner's body.
Sigrid Eklund screamed in agony.
A few days after the group's encounter with Jet, Neil carefully unwound the slightly bloodstained bandage from Katara's face. "Your little memento's healing up nicely, in my semi-professional medical opinion."
"Thanks," Katara replied.
"Looks just like the one Hieu's got," Aang remarked from his spot at Appa's reins. Indeed, the two scars were almost identical.
Sokka turned to Neil. "Since when were you a healer, anyway?"
"I was a combat medic back in Force Recon," Neil answered. "Doesn't make me any less a rifleman, though."
"Cool," Sokka shrugged. "Anyway, I think we should find a place to set up camp. It's getting late."
"Sounds good," Aang agreed, directing Appa towards the ground.
The group had found a rather well-hidden spot among several rock columns, directly adjacent to a forest. Right now, Sokka was just finishing setting up a tent, and Katara was returning with firewood. Meanwhile, Neil and Hieu were busy setting up their side of camp.
As the teen grunted his way out of the tent, the girl noticed something. "Um, aren't you forgetting the tarp?"
"Right, got it." However, instead of laying the tarp over the tent, Sokka chucked it inside.
"Sokka, you're supposed to put the tarp on top of the tent," Katara said with a frown. "You know, so we don't get rained on?"
"Ordinarily, you'd be right, but seeing how it's the dry season, you're not," Sokka countered. "Besides, that tarp makes a pretty warm blanket."
"But what if it does rain?" Katara queried.
"What if it doesn't?" Sokka questioned back as he tied up the stakes. "Then I would have put the tarp up for nothing."
"Ugh, you're infuriating!" Katara groaned, stomping a foot.
Sokka turned to his sister. "Katara, why don't you worry about gathering the firewood? Because that kindling's looking pretty sorry."
"WELL, IF YOU DON'T LIKE MY FIREWOOD-" Katara exploded, tossing the sticks at Sokka.
"Ah!" the teen yelped, before getting up quickly. "FINE BY ME! IF YOU'RE NOT GONNA DO YOUR JOB-" He yanked a rope on the tent, causing it to collapse.
It was at that moment that Aang arrived. "Okay, I got the grub if you guys got the- Hey, where's the campfire, and what happened to the tent?"
The siblings, meanwhile, crossed their arms and turned to face firmly away from each other. "Why don't you ask Miss Know-It-All, queen of the twigs?" Sokka sarcastically said.
"Oh yeah?" Katara shot back, rapidly turning to her brother. "You're Mister Lazy-Bum, king of the… tents!" She then chucked a stick at Sokka's back, drawing his ire.
Aang let out a rather poorly timed giggle. "Okay, listen guys. Harsh words won't solve problems. Action will. Why don't you just switch jobs?"
"...Sounds good."
"Whatever."
"You see that? Settling feuds and making peace - all in a day's work for the Avatar," Aang said, satisfied.
The boy then heard Momo let out a yowl. Looking over to his left, he spotted the lemur trying to yank a melon out from under one of Appa's toes, before seeming to give up. As Appa went to eat it, however, Momo swiped it off of the bison's tongue, before Aang picked it up and used his airbending to slice it into two. The larger side went to Appa, who swallowed it whole, while the smaller side went to Momo, who mewled in disappointment.
"Come on, Momo, that's fair," Aang said. "Appa's got five stomachs."
Meanwhile, a short distance away, Neil was setting up his and Hieu's tent, while Hieu gathered food. The cadet seemed to be struggling with getting the tent to stand upright, as something inside the tent seemed to be wriggling around.
"Come on- stand up- WORK WITH ME!" The tent suddenly slumped, and a certain gray armored Spartan emerged with a disgruntled look on his face.
"Something wrong?" Hieu asked as he set the food down.
"Can't figure out a stupid tent," Neil groused as he pulled himself out and stood up. "Doesn't help that I never went camping as a kid."
"You never went camping?" Hieu questioned in confusion.
"Yeah, after Dad died, Mom got really protective," Neil explained as he calmed down. "She had some rather choice words when I told her that I was joining the military. Heck, the last phone call I had with her, she was going on and on about how dangerous Spartan work was." He chuckled at that memory.
Hieu sighed. "At least you have a real family."
This piqued Neil's interest. "If you don't mind explaining, I'm listening."
Hieu hesitated for a moment, before saying, "No. Not yet."
He then stood up. "So, how about that tent?"
The next morning after packing up camp, the group overlooked a massive canyon.
"There it is, guys - The Great Divide," Aang proclaimed.
"Wow. I could just stare at it forever," Katara whispered in amazement.
"Reminds me of when I took a field trip to Earth, back in eleventh grade," Neil reminisced. "There was this place called 'The Grand Canyon' a couple dozen miles from New Phoenix. Almost three hundred miles long, up to eighteen miles wide in some places, and over a mile deep. Real shame the city got- know what, I think you guys are better off not knowing what happened."
"Okay, I've seen enough," Sokka suddenly said in disinterest, before turning to board Appa.
Katara turned to her brother. "How can you not be fascinated, Sokka? This is the largest canyon in the entire world!"
"Then I'm sure we'll be able to see it very clearly from the air while we fly away," Sokka responded, gesturing to the sky.
It was then that a man in elegant white clothes with gold trim shoved his way past the teen. "Hey, if you're looking for the canyon guide, I was here first!"
"Wha- they offer tours of this place?" Neil asked, surprised. "Remind me to file a reservation when our journey's over."
"Believe me, he's more than a tour guide," the man responded. "He's an earthbender, and the only way in and out of the canyon is with his help." Sokka leaned out from behind him and made talking gestures with his hand. "And he's taking my tribe across next!"
Sokka turned to the man. "Calm down, we know you're next."
"You wouldn't be calm if the Fire Nation destroyed your home and forced you to flee!" the man retorted. He then gestured to the canyon. "My whole tribe has to walk thousands of miles to the capital city of Ba Sing Se!"
"So you're a refugee," Hieu observed.
The man humphed. "Tell me something I don't know." Katara and Aang shared a glance, before they spotted a massive crowd of people coming along a nearby path.
"Is that your tribe?" Katara asked.
"It most certainly is not," the man replied with contempt. As the crowd hobbled over, the group got a better look. They all seemed to wear crudely trimmed brown animal furs and patches of cloth, in stark contrast to the fine white and gold tunic the irate man wore. "That's the Zhang tribe, a bunch of lowlife thieves. They've been the enemies of my tribe for a hundred years."
"That's a long time to hold a grudge," Neil quipped.
The man then whistled to get the other tribe's attention. "Hey, Zhangs! I'm saving a spot for my tribe, so don't even think of stealing it!"
A rather large woman with a rather large sword on her back walked up to the man. He recoiled, whether in fear or disgust, Neil didn't know. He was willing to bet on the second option, though.
"Where are the rest of the Gan-Jin?" the woman leered. "Still tidying up their campsite?"
To his credit, the man regained his composure, before getting up in the woman's face. "Yes, but they sent me ahead of them to hold a spot!"
The woman crossed her arms with a smirk. "I didn't know the canyon guide took reservations."
"Heh. Of course you didn't," the man chided. "That's the ignorance I'd expect from a messy Zhang. So unorganized and ill-prepared for a journey."
The man's remarks drew a clamor from the Zhangs, before a slight tremor gathered everyone's attention. Momo leapt off a nearby pile of rocks as it floated into the air, before the pile was flung off to the side, revealing a pudgy old man in a green tunic and straw hat.
"Sorry about the wait, youngsters," the old man apologized as he brushed dust off his clothes. He then gestured to the path behind him. "Who's ready to cross this here canyon?"
"Uh… one of them, I think," Katara slowly answered, pointing to the assemblage of Zhangs and the singular Gan-Jin.
"I was here first!" the Gan-Jin man said quickly as he rushed forward. "My party's on their way."
"I can't guide people who aren't here," the old man responded.
"Guess you guys will have to make the trip tomorrow," the Zhang woman mocked as her tribe went to follow the old man.
Suddenly, the Gan-Jin man's face brightened, and he gestured to the nearby forest. "Wait! Here they come!" The arriving Gan-Jin tribe wore clothes similar to the man. They carried themselves with poise and dignity, unlike the Zhangs.
The Zhangs collectively turned to the newcomers, with expressions of contempt forming on their faces. The woman aggressively turned to the old man. "You're not seriously gonna cave in to these spoiled Gan-Jins. I mean, we're refugees, too! And we've got sick people that need shelter."
"I, uh, well-" the old man stammered.
"I can give them a look-over, if you want," Neil offered. "I've got experience in field medicine."
"As if we'd accept help from someone who looks as stuck-up about appearances as the Gan-Jins," the woman sneered, gesturing to Neil's near-unscathed armor.
"…ouch."
"We've got old people who are weary from traveling!" the irate Gan-Jin man clamored.
"Sick people get priority over old people!" the Zhang woman leered.
"Maybe you Zhangs wouldn't have so many sick people if you weren't such slobs!" an older Gan-Jin ridiculed.
"If you Gan-Jins weren't so clean, maybe you wouldn't live to be so old!" the Zhang woman mocked.
"Isn't that supposed to be a good thing?" Neil muttered under his breath.
As the two tribes feuded, Katara turned to the resident Avatar. "Well, Aang, ready to put your peacemaking skills to the test?"
"I-I don't know," Aang responded. "A fight over chores is one thing. These people have been feuding for a hundred years."
Katara stepped forward, and called out, "Everyone, listen up! This is the Avatar, and if you give him a chance, I'm sure he can come up with a compromise that will make everyone happy." Nobody objected.
"…uh, you could share the earthbender and travel together?" Aang eventually said.
"Absolutely not. We'd rather be taken by the Fire Nation than travel with those stinking thieves!" the older Gan-Jin vehemently denied, pointing at the Zhangs.
The Zhang woman pointed back. "We wouldn't travel with you pompous fools anyway." One insult led to another, and all of a sudden, the two tribes were clamoring back and forth again.
"ALRIGHT, HERE'S THE DEAL!" Aang burst out, having officially lost his patience. The tribes immediately went quiet. "YOU'RE ALL GOING DOWN TOGETHER, AND APPA HERE WILL FLY YOUR SICK AND ELDERLY ACROSS! DOES THAT SEEM FAIR?!"
The Zhang woman eventually nodded in conceit, with the Gan-Jins doing so as well.
"Sorry, Appa. You'll have to do this on your own," Aang apologized as he patted his bison, who offered a small grunt in response. The saddle had been filled with the Zhangs' sick and the Gan-Jins' elderly. Meanwhile, Neil was conversing with the guide, and had quickly struck a rapport with him from the look of things.
Sokka then walked up to him. "Aang, this feuding tribe stuff is serious business. Are you sure it's a good idea getting involved in this?"
"To tell the truth, I'm not sure," Aang honestly answered, before offering a wide grin. "But when have I ever been?"
"It isn't like we have many other options at this point," Hieu pointed out.
"And besides, he's the Avatar, Sokka," Katara said, putting her hand on Aang's shoulder. "Making peace between people is his job."
"...his job's gonna make us cross this whole thing on foot, isn't it?" Sokka dourly responded.
The old earthbender then spoke up. "Okay, now comes the bad news. No food allowed in the canyon. It attracts dangerous predators." His warning drew an outcry from both tribes. "Aww, you babies can go a day without food. Would you rather be hungry or dead?"
He then raised a stone pillar from the ground, and called out, "Now, we're heading down in ten minutes! All food better be in your gut or in the garbage!" In response, the Zhangs pulled food from their clothes and wolfed it down, while the Gan-Jins elegantly used their chopsticks and wiped their faces when they were done.
"Appa's gonna take good care of you till we get there," Aang reassured the people in Appa's saddle, before hopping down and turning to the bison. "See you on the other side, buddy. Yip-yip!" Appa took to the skies.
The combined party trekked down a narrow earthen ramp on the side of the canyon. Aang noticed that Neil had started humming a song to himself to pass the time, seemingly about something called "sourcrout" and a journey to a place called Albuhkerkie. Hieu seemed mildly annoyed at the cadet. Suddenly, the guide stopped the assemblage, and it wasn't hard to see why. A gap laid ahead of them, which the old man fixed by bending a bridge from the side of the canyon.
"Nice bending," Aang complimented as they resumed the hike.
"The job's much more than bending, kid," the guide responded. "Folks want information." He then stopped and turned to the tribes.
"Many of you are probably wondering how canyons are formed," he said, gesturing to the Great Divide. "Experts tell us this canyon was most likely carved into the ground by Earth spirits, who were angry at local farmers for not offering them a proper sacrifice."
Suddenly, the travelers felt a rather unsettling rumbling. Looking up, Aang spotted a massive rockslide tumbling down towards them. Thankfully, the old earthbender used his skills to deflect the rocks away from them.
"Ha ha! Guess the spirits are still angry!" he guffawed. "Hope you all brought sacrifices!" he said as the party resumed the trek.
At the bottom of the ramp, the old man told everyone to stay away from the wall, before flinging a boulder towards the bridge, destroying it. The rubble that fell created a massive dust cloud.
"Why'd you do that?" Aang asked in confusion.
"These people are fleeing the Fire Nation, aren't they?" the old man answered. "I've got to make sure we can't be followed. We'll be safe now."
As he said that, however, a large, insectoid limb emerged from the dust, grabbing the guide by the neck and lifting him off the ground. In response, Aang swung his staff in a circle, using a gust of air to blow the dust away and revealing a massive, four-legged, hairy bug with eight eyes. Right now, it held the old man by its jaws, swinging him around like a rotund chew-toy. Neil donned his helmet, grabbed the Bandit off his back and shouldered it, while Hieu and Sokka unsheathed their machete and boomerang, respectively.
"We've gotta help him!" Sokka yelled, before heaving his boomerang at the spider-creature. The weapon struck it squarely in the forehead, causing it to drop the old man with a screech. However, the creature now had a new target: Sokka.
"OKAY, NOW WE'VE GOTTA HELP ME!" the teen yelled as the creature chased after him.
As Neil rushed over to the old man, Katara bent water from her pouch, using it to whip the monster in the forehead. It briefly hissed in pain, before snapping its jaws at her. The girl dodged with a yelp, before Hieu ran in front of the creature and leapt onto its head. While it swung about in an attempt to dislodge him, the veteran raised his machete, before plunging it down into its skull. As the creature writhed beneath him, the veteran twisted the machete with a sickening crack of exoskeleton, causing the monster to drop to the ground lifelessly.
As Hieu jumped off and wiped the hemolymph off his machete, Aang turned to the prone form of the guide. "What was that?"
"Canyon-crawler," the old man said, before painfully groaning. "And there's sure to be more."
"Your arms look like they're broken," Neil diagnosed as he felt the guide's arms. He immediately got to work on wrapping them up. "I can put them in slings and splints, but it'll be a couple months before you can use them."
"Without my arms, I got no bending," the old man whimpered. "In other words…"
"...we're trapped in this canyon," Aang realized.
Sokka stepped forward. "I thought the whole point of ditching our food was so we wouldn't have to deal with things like canyon crawlers."
"It's the Zhangs!" the older Gan-Jin accused. "They took food down here even after the guide told them not to!"
"What?! If there's anyone who can't go without food for a day, it's these pampered Gan-Jins!" the Zhang woman shot back. Neil muttered something about his life being like a "serialized teevee show," whatever that was.
"I hope you're happy," the Gan-Jin man responded. "We're stuck in this canyon with no way out!"
"Why don't you thank yourself, food-hider?" the Zhang woman leered.
Aang walked forward. "Look, sticking together is the only way to-"
"I'm not walking another step with the likes of them!" the Zhang woman interrupted.
"Now, there's something we can agree on!" the Gan-Jin said.
Aang turned to his friends. "Any ideas?"
It turned out the old man was rambling off to himself about not becoming part of the food chain. Hieu simply shrugged, drawing a confused glare from Neil.
"See?! We're going to become part of the food chain because of you!" the Gan-Jin exclaimed.
"Sure, unjustly blame the Zhangs like you always do!" the Zhang woman crabbed.
"Gladly."
"ENOUGH!" Aang's yell sent a gust of wind at the feuding tribes. "I thought I could help you guys get along, but I guess that's not gonna happen!"
He then leapt up to a nearby wall of rock. "We should split up. Gan-Jins on this side, and Zhangs on that side. We'll travel in two separate lines." The two tribal leaders nodded at each other, before leading their tribes off in the prescribed directions.
As the Zhangs and Gan-Jins departed, Aang leapt down to his friends. "Sokka, Hieu, you guys go with the Zhangs, and Katara and Neil can go with the Gan-Jins. See if you can find out why they hate each other so much."
As the group split up, Neil contacted Hieu on the short-range. "You sure about this?"
"What are you asking?" Hieu questioned. "We've been apart before."
"Yeah, but… these guys hate each other with a passion," Neil pointed out. "How are we supposed to fix that?"
Hieu took a moment to answer. "We play things by ear, and go from there. We'll be fine."
"If you say so…"
"Look…" Hieu's sigh was audible through the radio. "We aren't going to do this sitting around. Besides, not much can go wrong that hasn't already."
"...okay. Neil out." With that, the cadet clicked off the radio.
"Here goes nothing."
That evening, the Zhangs were haphazardly setting up their camp. Tents were being pitched wherever there was room. As this was happening, Sokka walked up to the large woman with the sword as she put up her tent.
The teen briefly cupped his chin. "So, you guys aren't gonna put up your tarps?"
"What for? It's the dry season," the woman responded.
"Exactly!" Sokka exasperatedly said.
The woman turned to the pair with a smirk. "Besides, we like to use the tarp as a blanket."
"Finally, someone gets it," Sokka remarked.
Meanwhile, the Gan-Jins were neatly organizing their campsite. Their tents were set in straight rows, set perfectly in line with each other. Katara and Neil watched as this happened.
The girl turned to the Gan-Jin leader. "Do you really think it'll rain?"
"No, but you can never be too careful, right?" the Gan-Jin answered, drawing a smile onto Katara's face.
That night, the tribesmen and women all silently sat around the campfire with their arms folded. Katara and Neil sat near the leader in equal silence. The man briefly glanced around, before pulling out…
…what looked like a small lump of bread from his sleeves.
Katara gasped in surprise, before looking around and seeing the other Gan-Jins eating more stowed-away food.
Meanwhile, the smack of Neil's hand on his forehead was quite possibly the loudest thing in half a mile. "OH, COME ON!"
The leader glanced over at the pair, before holding out his snack. "Would you two care for some bread?"
"So it was you guys who had food!" Katara said in shock.
The man's expression darkened. "Oh, come now. Do you really think that tribe of thieves isn't smuggling food? Why should my people go hungry when the sneaky Zhangs are stuffing their faces?"
"...well, I guess it's okay if everyone's doing it," Katara slowly responded as she took the bread and took a bite. Another loud smack then resounded.
"At this rate, I'll be eaten by spider-monsters before I find a way home," Neil grumbled under his breath as he peeled his hand away from his face. His voice took a mocking tone as he mumbled to himself. "'Well, I guess it's okay if everyone's is doing it.' Well, I guess it's okay if everyone becomes canyon-crawler food. Why wouldn't the multiverse decide it hates my very existence?"
While Neil murmured his little rant, Katara turned to the leader. "So… why does your tribe hate the Zhangs so much?"
"You seem like a smart girl, Katara," the man responded darkly. "I bet you would enjoy hearing some history.
"The patriarch of our tribe, Jin Wei, was an earthbender warrior who was assigned an important duty: Transporting our sacred orb from the Great Eastern Gate to the Great Western Gate. Taking the orb from the east to the west represents the sun's rising and setting. It was our tribe's ancient redemption ritual.
"But as he approached the gate, Jin Wei was attacked by one of the Zhangs - a vermin named Wei Jin who looked at the orb with envy. That coward Wei Jin knocked Jin Wei to the ground and stole our sacred orb."
The leader closed his eyes briefly. "Our people have never forgotten. You can never trust a Zhang."
Neil, who by now had stopped his murmuring, spoke up. "Just to recap: Jin Wei, sacred orb, two gates, redemption ritual, Wei Jin, orb stolen." The man nodded.
While Katara glared at the Zhang campsite with disgust, Neil meanwhile took on a contemplative look, realizing just how monumental their task was. If this conflict was that bad, how could he possibly help to fix it? He patched up bullet holes, not tribal relations.
Maybe Hieu could offer some advice in the morning.
While that was happening, the Zhangs, too, pulled out smuggled food. The large woman held out a freshly cooked steak to Sokka. "Care for some meat?"
"Would I?" The teen eagerly accepted the steak and took a bite, humming in satisfaction. Meanwhile, Hieu let out a disappointed sigh.
Seemingly recognizing the veteran's feelings towards the matter, the woman said, "I know what you must be thinking. We're horrible for endangering everybody by bringing food down here."
"That's about right," Hieu muttered under his breath. Sokka, meanwhile, distractedly hummed in agreement as he chowed down on the steak.
"The Gan-Jins think so badly of us, they probably assumed we brought food in and decided to bring food in themselves," the woman said disdainfully. "That's why we brought food in."
"So you vindicated them?" Hieu stated more than asked.
"Our conflict with the Gan-Jin goes back over a hundred years," the woman began. "Our forefather, Wei Jin, was leaving the western gate of our village when he saw a figure in the distance. It was a man of the Gan-Jin tribe - Jin Wei, collapsed on the ground. Noble Wei Jin stopped to help him.
"Jin Wei was transporting a sacred orb, a very powerful relic used in his tribe's redemption ritual. Wei Jin tried to tend to the man's wounds, but Jin Wei insisted that the orb was more important and asked him to take it back to his tribe. Kind Wei Jin promised to send help for the man as soon as he could.
"But as Wei Jin crossed the border to return the orb into Gan-Jin territory, he was arrested. Instead of thanking him for his kind and selfless deed, they sentenced him to twenty long years in prison. We Zhangs will never forget that injustice."
"That's just terrible," Sokka sadly responded, before gesturing to the chicken leg in the woman's hand. "You gonna finish that?" She loudly took a bite in response.
Hieu, meanwhile, glanced at the Gan-Jin camp contemplatively. If this conflict was that bad, how was he supposed to help fix it? He was a spy- 'Soldier,' he mentally corrected. What he was not was a diplomat.
Maybe Neil was right about this being too big for even two Spartans.
Perched up on a nearby cliff, Aang sadly gazed at the two tribes' camps, Momo by his side. "Sure would be nice to be around one of those campfires. Telling stories and laughing." Momo purred next to him.
"It's okay, Momo," Aang tried to reassure the lemur. "We'll be out of here soon enough, and then we can eat our weight in lychee nuts."
Momo suddenly squeaked and perked up, before snatching a fly out of the air and eagerly munching on it. He then held out a hand that had insect guts on it.
"Nah, I'll wait for the lychee nuts," Aang said, with Momo resuming his snacking.
"It's lonely, isn't it, being impartial?" a weary voice suddenly said. Aang turned to see the old earthbender limping towards him, one arm in a splint and the other in a sling. No doubt those were Neil's doing.
"I wish I could help these people get along, but it just seems impossible," the boy lamented as the old man took a seat by him. "Anyhow, I think our biggest problem is getting out of here."
The old man turned to Aang. "I'm not so sure the two problems are unrelated." He then nodded off to sleep as Aang looked at the ground in thought.
The next morning, the two tribes resumed their journey while Aang and the guide watched from a wall in the middle.
"All clear! We're almost to the other side!" the old man announced, gesturing to the canyon wall. The tribes emerged from their separate paths and watched in wonder as their destination neared, with brief glances of anger being passed as they spotted each other.
Aang briefly stopped as his friends passed by him. "Guys, will these people cooperate long enough to get out of the canyon?"
"I don't think so, Aang," Katara replied. "The Zhangs really wronged the Gan-Jins. They ambushed Jin Wei and stole the sacred orb."
"What are you talking about?" Aang asked in confusion.
"Yeah, Katara, what are you talking about?" Sokka said. "Wei Jin didn't steal the orb. He was returning it to their village gate and was wrongfully punished by the Gan-Jin!"
Katara crossed her arms. "Not punished enough, if you ask me!"
"Okay, okay, I get it!" Aang interjected before the argument could escalate. "Now I need your help. Let's get everyone together at the base of the canyon wall." He then snapped his glider open and took off.
After the siblings' argument, Neil opened a private channel to Hieu. "Man, this is worse than I thought. Two tribes, two different versions of the same event."
"You're right. This is worse than either of us thought," Hieu responded.
"I don't suppose you have a plan for this like you always do, right?" Neil asked, honestly hoping that Hieu did in fact have a plan.
"...I don't."
Neil was confused. "Don't you usually have a plan?"
"This time, I don't," Hieu reiterated. "I was trained for covert ops, not diplomacy. I'm as lost as you are."
"...right. So we play this by ear again."
"It's the best idea we have, so do what you think is necessary," Hieu agreed.
"Okay. Neil out." As the cadet clicked off the channel, he looked towards the assembled tribes and wondered what the heck he got himself into.
I didn't sign up for this, he thought.
The tribes cheered as they neared the canyon wall. Aang landed between them and raised his hand to forestall any argument. "Please, everyone. As soon as we get out of here, we can eat, and then go our separate ways. But I need you all to put your heads together and figure out a way up this cliff."
"Maybe the Zhang can climb the wall with their long, disgusting fingernails," the Gan-Jin leader sardonically suggested.
"Oh, sorry. I forgot that to the Gan-Jin, unclipped fingernails is a crime punishable by twenty years in jail," the Zhang woman sneered.
"Why, you dirty thief!"
"You pompous fool!"
Almost as soon as the first insults were cast, the tribes descended into their customary bickering, with Sokka and Katara joining in. Before Aang could break it up, however, Neil beat him to the punch.
BANG!
The gunshot immediately silenced both sides, and the cadet lowered his smoking Bandit from the air and took charge. "I just wasted a bullet, so I'll make this quick. We're not getting anywhere while we're bickering about which side was in the wrong! So I suggest you do something about it!"
The Zhang woman spoke up first. "Perhaps the Spartan is right."
"Yes, perhaps he is," the Gan-Jin leader quickly agreed, drawing a smile onto Aang's face.
"Bickering won't get us anywhere," the Zhang woman leered, quickly souring the general mood.
"So we should do something about it!" The Gan-Jin leader drew his sword, and the Zhang woman pulled a wickedly curved blade from her back in response. With a clang, the swords met between them, causing Aang to scream in fright. "To the death, and let this be the end of this rivalry!"
Neil quickly backtracked on his words. "On second thought, I prefer the bickering!"
The Zhang woman then raised her blade above her head, before swinging it down and commencing the duel. The two leaders consistently parried each other's blows, neither side gaining an advantage for long. Eventually, they shoved each other away, revealing that one of the woman's pigtails and the man's beard were cut.
This only renewed their rage. In a fury, they swung their swords with reckless abandon, before Aang intervened by swinging his staff at the ground and sending gusts of air into both tribes, knocking everyone on their backs. Aang huffed in rage, before his jaw dropped when he spotted…
"Is that food?" the boy asked. His shock quickly turned to fury as he remembered the guide's very clear orders. "Everyone smuggled food down here?! Unbelievable! You guys put our lives in danger because you couldn't go without a snack for a day?! You are all… AWFUL!" His furor quickly dropped, however, as his eyes widened at what looked like a delicious treat.
Aang clutched at his very much empty stomach. "So hungry… is that… egg custard in that tart?"
Suddenly, a monstrous growl was heard in the canyon. It seemed that there were indeed more canyon crawlers. Members of both tribes ran for their lives as the spider-monsters attacked. Sokka and Katara, meanwhile, took cover behind a boulder.
"Oh, no! That's a lot of canyon-crawlers!" Katara groaned.
"We barely survived one!" Sokka yelped as he drew his boomerang. Behind them, the guide was rambling about the monsters being back for him. Several gunshots echoed through the canyon, alongside the panicked voice of Neil.
Sokka began to rush forward, but his sister grabbed his shoulder. "Sokka, wait! I don't care about the stupid feud! I just want us to get out of here alive!"
"Me too," Sokka admitted. "I only took their side because they fed me."
It was at that moment that Neil slammed into their cover. "You guys can admit your failures later. I'm down half a mag and need help dealing with the spider-monsters."
Aang then leapt into the air, twirling his staff before slamming it on the ground and kicking up a massive dust cloud. It only lasted for a brief moment, however, and only seemed to anger the canyon-crawlers. They rushed toward him, but as they lunged to take a bite, Aang leaped high into the air, narrowly escaping becoming lunch. He then landed and sent a massive wave of air into the dogpile, sending the creatures everywhere.
This had the opposite effect than the boy intended. Instead of sending the canyon-crawlers running scared, they began attacking whoever they could reach. It was clear that the odds were not in the humans' favor.
Katara spotted a canyon-crawler advancing on two Gan-Jins, and sent out a water-whip to strike it. As she wound up for a second attack, however, a creature walked through her tentacle, causing it to drop and making her stumble.
Sokka, meanwhile, was running for his life. He vaulted over a pillar of rock, before tossing his boomerang at a canyon-crawler that was chasing him. He deftly caught the weapon as it returned, before a canyon crawler rushed up to his side and forced him to run again.
Hieu shot towards one of the monsters, using his machete to slice one of its legs off. He then leapt onto its back, before impaling the blade into its head and twisting, causing it to drop limp. As he ran off towards another crawler, however, he found himself flying into the air when one of the monsters smacked him in the back, flaring his shields bright gold as they nearly shattered.
With a click, Neil realized that the Bandit was empty. With practiced ease, he yanked the depleted magazine from the well and packed it away, before pulling a fresh one from his hip and slotting it in. In his rush to survive, however, he again neglected to check his motion tracker. A crawler grabbed the cadet in its maw and lifted him up, before slamming him on the ground and draining his energy shields. Stars floated in his vision as he struggled to get up.
As more crawlers circled Aang, he spun his staff above his head and sent gusts of wind at them, blowing them away. Looking around, he saw crawlers looming over the tribespeople. He also spotted…
…several of the creatures digging into the sacks of smuggled food. A candle was lit in his brain.
Nearby, there was another sack of food, this one left untouched… for now. He grabbed it and held it up for all to see. "Everybody! Watch me and do what I do!"
The boy grabbed a rock and tossed it at a canyon-crawler, grabbing its attention along with several others. As they rushed towards him, he swooped the bag over its jaws and yanked the drawstrings, before landing on its back and guiding it away. The tribespeople, recognizing what was happening, rushed to follow his example. It wasn't long before all the crawlers were tied up and the people were riding them.
Aang tied a sack of food to the end of his staff and held it out in front of him. "Now follow me! We're riding out of this hole!"
He then swung the bag of food, grabbing the crawlers' attention and causing them to rush towards him. His own mount led them up the cliff wall, and before long, dozens of the creatures were lifting the Gan-Jins and Zhangs out of the canyon.
As they reached the top, Aang leapt off his crawler and announced, "Everyone! Get off!" The people leapt off their mounts as they got to the top of the wall, before Aang swung his staff and tossed the sack back into the canyon, with the canyon-crawlers rushing to follow. Adrenaline slowly began to fade throughout the crowd.
"I never thought a Gan-Jin could get his hands dirty like that," the Zhang woman remarked.
"And I never knew you Zhangs were so reliable in a pinch," the Gan-Jin leader replied.
This drew a smile onto the Zhang woman's face. "Perhaps we're not so different after all."
Aang sighed in relief…
"Too bad we can't rewrite history," the Gan-Jin man darkly said, before drawing his sword again. "You thieves stole our sacred orb from Jin Wei."
The Zhang woman drew her blade, too. "You tyrants unjustly imprisoned Wei Jin for twenty long years."
…though that relief was short-lived.
Aang slapped his hands on his face with a sigh, before another idea popped into his head. "Wait a second. Jin Wei… Wei Jin… I know those guys!"
"Yes, yes, we're all aware of the story," the Gan-Jin man said dismissively.
"No, I mean I really knew them," Aang corrected. "I might not look it, but I'm a hundred-and-twelve years old. I was there one hundred years ago on the day you're talking about.
"There seems to be a lot of confusion about what happened. First of all, Jin Wei and Wei Jin weren't enemies. They were brothers - twins, in fact. And they were eight, and most importantly, they were just playing a game. The sacred orb from the legend - that was the ball. And the eastern and western gates were the goal posts.
"Jin Wei had the ball and was running toward the goal when he fell and fumbled it. Wei Jin didn't steal the ball. He picked it up and started running it back toward the other goal, but he stepped out of bounds. So the official put him in the penalty box - not for twenty long years, but two short minutes.
"There was no stealing and no putting anyone in prison - just a game," Aang concluded.
"You're saying the sacred orb was actually a sacred ball?" the Zhang woman asked in confusion.
"Nope, just a regular ball," Aang answered.
"What about our tribe's redemption ritual?" a Gan-Jin questioned.
"That's what the game was called - redemption," Aang replied. "As soon as someone got the ball from one goal to the other, everyone would yell, 'Redemption!'" He pumped his fists in the air.
As the tribal leaders looked at each other, Aang continued, "Don't get me wrong, Wei Jin was kind of a slob, and Jin Wei was a little stuffy. That much is true. But they respected each other's differences enough to share the same playing field."
The Zhang woman looked at her Gan-Jin counterpart. "I suppose it's time we forget the past."
"And look to the future," the Gan-Jin leader replied with a bow. The Zhang woman mimicked his gesture.
Neil removed his helmet and placed his hands on his hips. "Man, I love when people aren't trying to kill each other. Remind me not to try hardball diplomacy again. It cost me fourteen bullets."
"Noted," Hieu replied with a smirk.
As the two tribes reunited with their sick and elderly, Aang hugged Appa. "Good to see you, boy. Did you miss me?" The bison responded with an affectionate lick, causing the boy to giggle.
The Gan-Jin leader then walked up to him. "I cannot thank you enough, Avatar."
A slobber-coated Aang turned to face him. "Well, you know. I try." The Gan-Jin quickly recoiled in disgust, before walking back over to the two tribes.
"Let us travel to the Earth Kingdom capital as one tribe," the Zhang woman declared, drawing cheers from the crowd.
The old guide hobbled past Aang and his friends. "I'm going, too! I'm sick of this place!"
"Remember not to hurt your arms further!" Neil yelled after him.
Hieu turned to Aang as the crowd left. "It seems we were lucky that you knew Jin Wei and Wei Jin."
"You could call it luck," Aang responded, "or you could call it lying." His expression turned devious.
"...excuse me?"
"I made the whole thing up," Aang admitted.
"You did not," Katara gasped, before a wide smirk graced her features. "That is so wrong."
"Now where's that custard tart?" Aang said as he looked around. "I'm starving!"
Next chapter: Haunted
Coming 10/23/2023
AN: And that is Chapter 11 done.
Before you ask, yes, I referenced Albuquerque by Weird Al.
Anyway, onto the story matters. I decided to open with the Banished scene instead of closing with it in order to flow from the previous chapter better. The most I will say about my plans for the Banished story is that 'Sumar is not very important to the story. He is named, yes, but not important.
I initially had Hieu spilling his backstory to Neil in the tent scene, but I cut that because I felt it wasn't in character. Plus, it was really, really long, and I didn't want to bore you all.
On that note, I had to make up a backstory for Hieu, since he doesn't really have an official one right now. I can honestly say that it's incredibly unlikely that it's his real backstory, though.
I mentioned in the last chapter's closing AN that I wanted to expand on Hieu and Neil's dynamic in this chapter. I'm trying to make it kind of a mentor-protégé relationship where both sides can learn from each other. Let me know in the reviews how I'm doing.
Also, Neil is down a magazine. I think a horde of spider-monsters qualifies as "life-or-death".
Remember to follow, fave, and review. The last one is the most important.
This is Believer218, signing off.