Rangi paced and paced and paced and paced. A groove was forming in the guest room floorboards.
She'd been pacing for an hour. It'd been exactly one hour since she and her mother, Hei-Ran, had landed back in Yokoya; after shadowing her mother at a Fire Navy delegation meeting. Exactly one hour since her mother and Master Jianzhu had shoved her into this guest room, so that they could speak amongst themselves in private.
Exactly one hour since the pit in her stomach was formed.
Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.
Rangi stopped pacing right in front of the window, unable to take her eyes off a persistent drip that hung off a stray bamboo shoot. Something about it just felt louder than the rest of the storm outside.
It had been over a day since she had last seen Avatar Yu-... since she had last seen Yun….or Kyoshi. They'd gone on some trip with Master Jianzhu, but despite Jianzhu being here, she'd yet to see her two best friends.
Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.
Her anxiety started to overflood, and she began pacing again.
I should've-I knew I should've stayed. She gnawed at the inside of her cheek to the point it started secreting a metallic taste.
Her gut had screamed at her to stay and not go with her mother. But she didn't listen. She thought the delegation would give her a chance to clear her mind. She didn't want a repeat of what happened in the infirmary.
She stopped pacing, focusing all her energy in clenching her fists. Stabbing her own palms with her fingernails, hoping to draw blood. She deserved it, she deserved it and worse for what she did back then.
In a fit of fury, she'd lost control. While she was jabbing her finger at Kyoshi, trying to extract answers, she had ended up burning her. She had assaulted the possible Avatar. Her friend. Her…..her Kyoshi.
Rangi started taking sharp breaths, repressing her sobs, trying to keep herself from crumbling on the floor into a weeping mess. Or setting the room on fire. Or both.
She hadn't been able to control herself then, but she needed to now.
She needed to gather herself, so when she could finally leave this accursed room she could be there for them. For Yun, for Kyoshi. She could get on her hands and knees and apologize for what she did. Hopefully she'd be forgiven.
The door behind her opened.
"Finally, can I leave, I need to talk to Kyo-" Rangi finally finished turning and saw the state of Jianzhu and her mother.
Jianzhu looked like he had battled a mountain, and her mother…. Well, her mother's eyes looked heavy with regret, a look Rangi knew all too well. She'd seen it many times, in regards to certain familial relations. "Rangi….."
Rangi instinctively took a step back, trying to brace herself for the bad news that was about to follow. No, she would go on the offensive, even if the offensive meant just running right past the problem. She needed to talk to Kyoshi and Yun before her will faltered anymore.
She attempted to move past her Hei-Ran and Jianzhu.
"Mother, please, let me go talk to Kyoshi and Yun, then you can-"
A strong, motherly hand clasped around Rangi's bicep. "I'm afraid that will not be possible."
There was a weight in her voice, as if there was a meteor hammer in her throat. It wrapped around Rangi, and started pulling her down into her own ocean of despair.
Hei-Ran's face contorted into a pain that Rangi had only seen once before, when she had to break the news to Rangi about her father. Hei-Ran just looked at Rangi, unable to speak. She couldn't. She didn't need to. Rangi understood.
"Kelsang is dead," Jianzhu stated with softness in his voice, breaking the delicate silence the mother and daughter were sharing.
Rangi looked at him, shaking. Her thoughts flitted to Kyoshi, wondering if she was alright, if she'd be able to handle this loss. She'd known how much Kelsang meant to her.
"Avatar Yun is dead." Jianzhu continued as if reading off the world's most ghastly checklist, but his voice was more hardened this time. This blow hit Rangi square in the stomach. She fought with gravity to stay up right, every part of her felt like lead. The air thinned, and her vision began to blur.
Jianzhu inhaled, as if preparing to deliver the final blow. "Kyoshi…." Rangi shut her eyes, wishing she could do the same with her ears, bracing for what she knew he'd say. "Killed him."
Those weren't the words Rangi expected to hear, but it tore through like an animal all the same. Rangi lost her battle, and fell to the ground.
Rangi was vaguely aware of her mother trying to keep her upright, but it wasn't long until her forehead collided with the floorboards. She pushed her forehead harder and deeper into the floor, trying to ground herself even though she still felt like she was falling.
Kyoshi….murdered Yun? Rangi reeled. Kyoshi? Her Kyoshi? A murderer? An assassin? No, it didn't make sense. Kyoshi couldn't even stand up for herself in the village, let alone kill anyone.
Her vision blurred, and she began to see things that weren't there. Oh. Right, a mirage. Her breath must be overheating and out of control.
She took sharp breaths and then lifted her head up, ignoring the water dripping from her eyes.
"Him?" She gasped. "Not them?"
Jianzhu's jaw flexed, "Yes. Kyoshi only killed Yun."
"Bu-...but what about Master Kelsang?"
Jianzhu looked away, pained. "He…was in cahoots with Kyoshi. He died by my hand in the crossfire, while I was trying to save Yun."
Rangi ran a shaky hand through her hair, hyperventilating. "Th-this doesn't make any sense. I mean, it's Kyoshi. She can't even protect herself from her bullies! She can't even bend a pebble! She-"
"Rangi!" Hei-Ran yelled, grabbing her daughter's shoulders, shaking her. "Rangi! It was a ruse! A ruse!"
Rangi's eyes were swimming, she couldn't look at her mother despite her being right in front of her face.
A ruse? But- Rangi put her face in her hands, drawing shaky breaths. Memories of all the time they spent together flooded her mind. And then slowly distorted, mangled beyond repair. Their laughter, their tender moments, were now all ravaged and desecrated. All that was a lie?!
In her despair, Rangi saw a light. One last bastion of hope, and she greedily grabbed it.
"Bu-but Master Kelsang, he was a monk!" She yelled at the adults. "How could he plan something like this? To murder the Avatar. To…. To…." None of it made sense. It went against everything that the Air Nation stood for.
"Rangi," Jianzhu's voice was very even and matter of fact. "He's been disgraced by his own people."
Rangi tensed up, she'd remembered what Takaga said back on the iceberg. She was more concerned with how…..Kyoshi would react to hearing about her mother's own sordid past. But she remembered the accusations of devastation and death that Kelsang also brought about. And how much he lost favor with his own people.
It didn't paint him in a credible image.
"To be honest," Jianzhu continued, "this isn't the first time I've heard an Air Nomad has gone rogue, or committed acts unbefitting of the Air Nation. I mean, it's not often this happens. But there's precedent. Some people just aren't very good monks."
Rangi didn't want to let that last bit of light go, she was going to fight her reality to the bitter end. "But why?! What was their reason?!"
"Chaos!" Jianzhu yelled, causing Rangi to flinch. "They wanted to descend the world into chaos! To stall the Avatar from being able to perform their duties! Is that not reason enough for these madmen?!"
Jianzhu put his hand out, more like a metaphorical life line than to actually help Rangi stand up. "Rangi, they've attacked our honor! Everyone's honor! Their livelihood! They care only about their own personal gain! Nothing about the long term nor benefit for the greater good!"
Rangi felt the weight of Jianzhu's words crushing her resolve piece by piece, and trying to coax her honor out for strength.
Rangi looked at her mother for confirmation, a childish hope in her eyes. "Is it true?"
Hei-Ran closed her eyes and looked away, but the pain was evident on her face. "I'm sorry, Rangi. I'm so sorry."
Rangi looked at the floor, defeated. So what they had been saying was true. Everything she knew was a lie. Everything she and Avatar Yun had known was a lie. An assassin had snuck into the house, under her own nose, and destroyed her purpose. Everything she'd known and held dear.
She curled her fists, this time hard enough droplets of blood spilled from the cracks, and stood up.
"What are we going to do?" She asked steely, still not looking up from the ground. She was ready to uphold her duty, or at least, what remained of it.
"We need you to capture Kyoshi," Jianzhu instructed.
"Capture?"
"Yes, we need to set an example of an Avatar murderer," Jianzhu responded, oh so matter of factly again.
I suppose that makes sense. Rangi thought. It also eased a big burden off her mind. Even she wasn't sure if she'd be able to kill someone she once called a friend.
"You're mother mentioned you're an expert in escape and evasion," Jianzhu began to pace around Rangi, sizing her up. "I'm hoping that'll come in handy, when you track Kyoshi down."
He clasped his hand on her shoulder, "She has Kelsang's bison, it'd be best if you move out soon. We'll send shirshus to aid you if this takes too long." And then he left, leaving the mother and daughter to their own devices.
"Rangi…." Hei-Ran reached out to her daughter, to comfort her. Rangi backed away before she could, and finally picked her head up.
Hei-Ran flinched away when she saw Rangi's face. Rangi wasn't sure what expression she was making, the only thing she could feel was the tears drying on her face. There were no more tears left to cry.
"I need to get ready, I'm late for my mission." Rangi turned and stormed out of the room, not wasting time to see her mother's reaction.
Rangi took off like a spirit in flight to her room and grabbed a rucksack. She put two change of clothes, and money inside. The whole process took less than a minute. Her next order of business was Kyoshi's room.
As she trudged through the once familiar hallways she could hear the staff's whispers. Rangi took her time, hoping to get whatever information she needed. She heard things like "rampaging axe-wielding teenager" and "deranged." Bile rose in Rangi's mouth as the picture of this new Kyoshi became more clear. She finally found the small crevice that Kyoshi would call a room, and walked through it.
It looked like it had been picked clean, the only thing left behind was a stray shoe, a gold-dye tassel, a few beads, and a coin. Rangi picked up the shoe and threw it into her rucksack. Then after a small deliberation, she grabbed the tassel.
She rolled it in her hand, looking at it from every angle, and then curled her fingers around it. She closed her eyes, focusing on not burning the item, but also trying to stave off the once sweet memory it conjured up for her. She threw it into the rut sack along with the shoe.
Her next order of business was following the rumors the servants were spinning, the chest. She'd noticed that Kyoshi's chest was no longer in her room, and made her way to where it may have been moved to. But when she arrived, she realized two things. One, the rain had stopped, and two, the chest was empty and promptly left.
The last order of business, before gathering the prepackaged supplies and an ostrich horse, was to see if she could find something of Kelsang's flying bison, Pengpeng. If she was going to have shirshus help her, having Pengpeng's scent along with Kyoshi's would be helpful. The more options the better.
She found a mass where it had rested, the animal's giant footprints stamped into the ground, along with stray tufts of wet hair. Rangi picked up the mass and was about to head to the stables, when her foot hit something.
On the ground was a leather bound book and recognition dawned inside Rangi, she'd seen this book in Kyoshi's possession in the past. It was something she'd usually hide away and would not let anyone see.
Rangi bent down and picked up the tomb, and unfurled it with shaking hands.
As she read the contents, her nails carved at the leather bindings, trying and failing to stop the feral scream that broke from her lips.
A/N: Gonna be honest, enemies to lovers? Not really my wheelhouse so we're gonna see how this goes. TT0TT I just really wanted to explore the "what if Rangi actually had to chase Kyoshi down."