I don't own Avatar: The last airbender
Chapter 40
Getting some sleep was becoming harder and harder for Kya. The fact that they slept on thin matrasses on the dusty floor and the humidity of enclosed space full of people didn't help, but the constant noise of the thing that the madam calls a pet was the main reason.
Even ignoring the fact that the noise itself was loud enough to shake the ground a little (and wasn't that a scary thought), but the fact that the thing responsible was a room or two next to them was sure to keep her awake.
She remembered when they transferred her and the other women down to the tunnels. At first, she was terrified that they are going to kill her for some reason because they blindfolded her and dragged her like a sack of potatoes. Later, she didn't really relax when she found herself alive with some other women in this dusty storage room.
She had a hunch about the reason for all of this, she wasn't stupid. People talked, especially in her line of "work". She heard how the fire nation is slowly but surely pushing at Mi-Sha back, and how they were closing in on the city. The fact that the madam decided to store her interests in safe keeping instead of earning her coin was telling.
Frankly, she wasn't sure what to do. She despised both sides and wanted them both to suffer, but right now she would have preferred a fire nation victory. If she played her cards right, they may even set her free and she could finally go home.
And frankly, this had a decent chance of happening. Even down here they got news from above, most commonly from the guards on the other side of the door who talked among themselves.
She heard that Mi-Sha suffered a humiliating defeat against prince Zuko, who exposed the bandit as an air bender and apparently beat him so hard that Mi-Sha had to stay still under medical care. When she heard that, she was so happy that she could have kissed the fire prince, if she young girl again and he wasn't probably a monster even worse than Mi-Sha.
As things stood, she heard more and more whispers about the situation. The fire nation was gaining more and more ground, taking control of about a quarter of the city. Yes, those were the poorest areas apparently, but it still didn't paint a pretty picture for Amora.
Another roar from the creature, this time with a side quake to follow. She, as well as the rest of the women, moved even farther from the heavy door that was their only protection. The guards outside, if they even were there, didn't count even as a distraction.
"W-what do y-you t-think it's a-about?" One of the women, some minor noble from the earth kingdom whose husband didn't pay his dues, shakenly spoke.
"M-maybe i-it reacts t-to i-invaders?" Another woman suggested.
Another violent shake in the ground, followed by a sound that was terrifyingly similar to a beam of metal being bent, raised concerns about the construction's ability to hold back the beast.
Kya heard voices yelling at each other, but under the roars of the beast it was hard to make words and sounds. She did think that she recognized the voice of the madam, however. After that, she heard war cries and people fighting, together with the terrible sound of a metal beam giving up.
It was an uncertain amount of time that all the women held their breath as the fighting continued. Suddenly, the door that held them both prisoner and safe opened by force, and from there stepped someone who she nearly lost all hope of seeing again. He was tired, he was covered in blood of which some was his own, but he was here.
"Hakoda?!"
The sounds of the various animals grew stronger and stronger as Hakoda and company descended deeper and deeper into the belly of the beast. More concerning, Xing's shaking followed the same pattern.
"I've never seen him like that." The Kyoshi warrior Suki said with concern.
"It's afraid." Hakoda said plainly. "Which makes things a tad more complicate and concerning."
"It doesn't seem right." Kyoshi leader Lin commented. "This is the same dog that barked back at the Unagi, in the ocean, on a little more than a raff."
"It's an instinct more than anything." Hakoda explained. "Some animals just have those kinds of survival instincts. Like a rodent that hides away when a shadow passes over it with speed or an ape that will run if it sees something long that resembles a snake."
"So you're saying we're about to face some kind of predator or natural enemy of whatever the spirits Xing is?" Lyn asked.
"Yes. Although the verity of noises confuses me" Hakoda admitted. "There's usually only a singular creature to cause a reaction, maybe they have some animals of which one is the problem."
Why did his gut tell him that it's not the case, and that it's much worse? Mentally shaking himself, Hakoda continued walking.
On their way, they met various traps and opponents, but those were dealt with in a relative ease. One annoying trap was an iconic trapdoor for the entire width of the corridor. Xing discovered it by a long jump in which he hit the ground to activate it mid jump.
The Kyoshi warriors had an easy time as they had a machination on their arms that shot a grappling hook to the other side. One shot the rope as the others walked on it easily, a strategy that wasn't available for the water tribe warriors for a few reasons.
In the end, they made a makeshift bridge from the ropes the Kyoshi warriors shot back, but their advance was clumsy. They all made it in the end, but their pride was hurt.
Finally, Xing stopped. It nodded its head to the next turn before looking back at Hakoda. The message was clear. This is it, the final obstacle in their odyssey.
He and Lin shared a nod, before they both pulled smoke bombs. With a single order, they and their relative charges threw the bombs and charged. Sticking to the walls, they avoided the projectiles that were thrown at them while closing the distance.
Swords clashed as the two sides traded blows.
Hakoda just slashed the head of a random thug as he heard the sound of heels across the floor, joined by the sound of slow clapping. Turning to the source, he saw an admittingly beautiful woman with flowing long black hair and aristocratic features.
In spite of the carnage around her, she walked as if she was in control. Swaying her body seductively while wearing clothes that fitted more to a battle in bed than a fight for her life. A whip danced dangerously on her hip as she walked.
"Bravo, bravo!" She said in a voice that sounded beautiful in spite of its mocking tone. "I must say, what an exciting game you gave, darling. To be fair, I didn't expect you to go past Kruki. But not only did you manage to get past him, you actually didn't lose a single person. I'm baffled."
"Maybe you just had bad security." Hakoda couldn't help but snark. The movements, the clothing, the familiarity with the beast master, this woman could be none other the infamous madam.
"Maybe, maybe." She nodded as if she considered his point. "But I can hardly leave you be after such an unprovoked betrayal. Whatever did you hope to achieve here?"
"My wife." Hakoda said through gritted teeth. "Release her and I'll be done with you."
Of course, she will have to answer to an army of enraged Kyoshi warriors, but he didn't say it. The witch, however, had the gall to chuckle.
"Oh darling, this again? Weren't you embarrassed enough the first time you made those baseless accusations?"
"Enough with your tricks, hag." He said as he pointed. "I know that she's behind this door."
He was sure of it. Even without Xing pointing it out for him, his gut said that his wife was just behind the door. The madam, however, finally dropped the act and scolded. Whither because of the truth coming out or the hag comment was unknown.
"Oh well, the gig is up then. Have fun dying."
As she finished her words, she smacked her whip, and four enforcers came out seemingly from nowhere to join the fray. Luckily, however, they were intercepted by the Kyoshi warriors. Ten Kyoshi warriors for each enforcer seemed to put both sides to a standstill.
The madam was about to attack him as well, but she was intercepted by a dart shot and narrowly evaded a fan slash from Lin. Hakoda saw that Lin had this handled and decided to not disturb the cat fight.
So far, the battle was going in their favor. They slowly but surely were culling the number of the defenders, and it seemed like even the enforcers couldn't keep up in a ten to one for long. The disturbing sound from the metal gate always made him uneasy.
"Alright, enough of this!" The madam yelled after she was kicked by Lin. With a strike from her whip and command words in some language he didn't understand, the metal gate finally bent from the force striking at it from inside. It continued to do so until it finally gave out and released the monstrosity it failed to hold.
It was hideous and magnificent at the same time. Hakoda was used to hybrids, they basically made most of the fauna in the world, but that thing took it to an entirely different level. It was a mountainous mass of murderous intent that glared down at them from the height of an elephant.
It had a majestic lion head with a maw big enough for a grown man to sit inside, with a long crimson main bigger than many tents he'd seen. It's reptilian like eyes glow in a cruel golden light. The body itself started from two strong lion limbs with claws big enough to masquerade short swords, and basically ending the lion part.
The back had patches of fur and scales, as well as a goat head sticking from the side like a tumor. It had a dark brown fur and horns as tall as two men, perfect for goring even large thick-skinned beasts with ease. It's mist like breath stink the air as the goat eyes glazed over everything with growing salivating hungry mouth.
The other side of the back had a gigantic dragon wing in a dark red color, easily big enough to cover even a camelephant completely. To make matters even more bizarre, the wing was in the wrong direction, as in facing the tail as if it was the head.
Which brought up the tail, a gigantic serpent as thick as a palm tree and just as long. It's head alone was half the size of a man, and more than enough to swallow one whole when opened. The poison green color of the snake and the liquid dripping from its saber like teeth suggested that it was venomous as well.
It had the hind leg of a goat, as well as a draconian one. The goat leg faced backwards as the scaled leg faced to the outside. It was an abomination, an unthinkable mistake of un-nature, and it glazed them all with its various heads.
The madam laughed cruelly, actually half covering her mouth with her hand like a villainess from a play.
"Go, my dear!" She called. "Go and kill them all for your mistress!"
The thing gave e terrible roar from its lion head, enough to deafen Hakoda temporarily, and released a stream of fire so big that even the long extinct dragons won't find shameful. And in a relatively close space like that, it was disastrous.
The fire caught many people, both friend and foe alike. A good number of his man were caught in it, as well as a not smaller number of desert people. His own luck was his proximity to the madam, apparently the beast had enough common sense to not risk harming its owner.
The Kyoshi warriors had an easier time, as their training and equipment gave them the agility and opportunity to escape the flames, but even they had some losses. The enforcers, spirits damn them, unfortunately suffered no loss.
As the fire stream ended, the loin head got a direct explosion to his face, courtesy of their own feral beast. The two glared at each other murderously, as if they were natural enemies. Honestly, if so, Hakoda couldn't fault the reaction Xing had. He himself would have pissed his pants a few times over.
That explosion also restarted the fight that seemed to stop as Lin once again assaulted the madam and the combatants continue killing each other. The two beasts clashed against each other, or more correctly, Xing danced under the chimeric creature for its life.
A group of Kyoshi warriors was dispatched well to fight the beast, with Suki on the lead, and shot at it with darts while making small cuts with their fans. It was a thousand cuts strategy that Hakoda honestly didn't know if they had the stamina to keep up with. At least before realizing a horrible truth. Hakoda saw with his own eyes how, as the goat's head bleated, blood vessels on its neck seemingly grew and travelled the entire body, healing it in the process.
"Give up now dear." The madam said the Kyoshi leader. "You can't win. Surrender now and I promise your training will be less humiliating than usual, I'll even find some hunk gladiator to put a baby in you. It would be a crime to throw those genes to waste."
Lin's response was the continuation of even more ferocious attacks.
Hakoda paid them no mind, however. He battled his way to the door that supposedly held his wife. It was locked from the outside to erase any escape attempts, so he slashed it with his sword and then forced it open. Once inside, he saw various women huddled together. He, however, searched only for one.
"Hakoda?"
He recognized this voice, even after over seven years.
"Kya?"
The two looked at each other, almost not believing it was real. They slowly stepped towards each other, but gradually increased pace until they ran. When they reached each other, they hugged each other as he spans her around, neither of them lessens their grip out of fear that the other will disappear.
They kissed, they laughed, they cried. They let out over seven years of agony, as much as the situation allowed them.
"I can't believe you actually came." His wife said between tears of joy.
"I will go to Koh and back for you." He said as he touched her cheek. Looking at each other in the eyes, they kissed again. A deep loving kiss as strong as their bond.
"But how?" His love finally said after the kiss ended.
"Let's just say I made a deals with fire-y arrogant demons." He then remembered something and pulled it from his pocket. "And I believe that it's yours."
"My necklace?" She asked in excitement as he placed it again around her neck. "Does that mean…"
"Yes, I've met little ." He answered. "Charming little lady. She's fine and well with her family."
"It's good to hear, I really feared for her." She said before gaining a confused look as she saw his frown. "Is something wrong, dear?"
"No, not really." He said as he schooled his face. "It just that the meeting with little Toph reminded me that Katara is seeing a boy."
That made her laugh as she held her hand to cover her mouth, such ordinary problems seem to be just ridiculous after everything they'd been through. To be fair, she still didn't know that said boy was the prince of the fire nation.
"I'll see what I can do." She finally said.
"It's all I can ask." He said before hugging her on the waist with one hand and gesturing at the door with the other. "No let's get out of here."
It was in this moment, however, that they saw Xing evading a paw strike that would have torn a komodo rhino in two. The beast hot in pursuit after it with the Kyoshi warriors inflicting minor damage on it from the side.
"Maybe we should wait a bit." Kya said sweat dropping.
"I'm afraid it's one of those 'now or never' situations." Hakoda retorted. "Give me a moment to make sure that the situation is under control, and we'll get out."
He went outside. To his relief, it seems that the situation wasn't as chaotic as he expected. They killed most of the enemy fodder, and the Kyoshi warriors successfully overwhelmed the enforcers. In fact, it was only the beast that caused problems, but Xing managed to successfully direct all its attention to itself.
In the corner he happily noticed that the madam lay dead on the floor, body distorted as if she was thrown to the wall and a hole in her chest that indicated possible causes of death. His happiness, however, was fully evaporated as he looked at the body next to it.
"Oh… it's not good."
Shaking his head to refocus, he yelled for the hound.
"Xing! We've secured our objectives. Get that thing away from us so we can leave!"
A bark was heard in return, and Xing ran deeper to the caves. The beast hot in pursuit.
"It's gone now." Hakoda told his wife. "We're safe to go."
"It goes for all of you." He added, addressing the other women.
"Poor thing." Kya said sadly. "I hope it manages to escape ."
"Considering what I know on the fur ball and its owner, it's completely possible." He said before registering something. "Wait, that thing is called ?!"
Imposter, usurper, false idol. Those were the things that were on Xing's mind as the dog looked at the thing in front. Chimera, some part of the hellhound instinctively knew the identity of the thing, or at least a spawn or an imitation of. It needs to die, Xing needs to see it die
Xing was filled with fear, hate and rage towards his enemy, more so than Xing had ever felt before. Why such a reaction was unknown, by all accounts, the thing from below the ice and the thing from below the water were far more fearful and impressive. Whatever the case was, Xing knew that this battle would only end when one of them is dead. And for the first time, Xing wasn't sure who would prevail.
The chimera surpasses Xing by nearly all accounts, be it strength, skills, experience, stamina and more. Just keeping up with it took everything from Xing.
Swoosh!
Xing jumped away from another flame thrower and immediately rolled to the side to avoid an acidic spit from the tail. From the background, Xing could hear the sounds of battle, but ignoring the threat in the front was a death sentence. The fact that Xing couldn't even hurt the chimera should it allow a hit was an insult on the thankfully nonexistent injury.
The female imitations were good at distracting the thing and giving Xing a breathing room that was very needed, however as things are, there was little chance of winning. For better or worse, however, the chimera was on its own. The imitation that seemed to command it was at a losing battle with the pack leader of the female imitations.
"Behehehe!" The goat's head once again healed the chimera. Was that effect endless or will it exhaust in time was uncertain, but Xing knew that nothing would work unless they take the goat's head first. It seemed that the females had the same idea as most of their attacks were aimed for that head.
"Spirits damn it!" One of the females yelled. "It took enough shirshu darts to knock out a village, just what does it take to bring this thing down?!"
Xing didn't know, but Xing was busy enough evading a paw stomp by the hair of its neck. Xing didn't see, however, the wing that came and smacked it so hard that Xing was thrown to the wall with a loud sound. Xing immediately got up, albeit snakingly.
One hit, all it took was one hit to almost have Xing out of commission.
By the time it took Xing to get up, the chimera was left basically unattended. The females had to face the full burn (literally a few times) of the thing, and they started to get overwhelmed.
In a daring move to redirect the attention of the imitation of the false idol, the females distracted it by shooting darts at the heads of the thing. The leading female, that Xing recognized as Suki and a possible mate for the master, charged at the goat's head with her katana. Ready to dismantle it from the body, or at least do it enough damage to kill that head.
With growing terror, Xing noticed that they underestimated the speed of the chimera, as well as its reflexes. The snake head was faster than the others, and got its bearing fast enough to crane its long body to bite Suki. By instinct, Xing knew that the snake head will spear its teeth through the female from behind before she could reach her destination.
Xing had to stop it! Xing had to, Xing had to, Xing had to!
It didn't matter if the legs were giving up, it didn't matter if the distance was too long. Xing took a jump to intercept the snake at any cost, no matter what. It was when Xing stepped on a shadow when things got strange.
Xing pictured itself jumping on the snake's head from above, and suddenly Xing sank into a place with no lights. It was distorted and strange, there was nothing anywhere. Not in the sense of barren land, but as nothing at all. Everything was void and empty, even the ground Xing stood on was nothing.
It was then when Xing saw a hole in the nothingness, the image of the snake head growing ever closer to the female. Acting once again on instinct, Xing jumped at the hole and right on the head of the snake.
Xing immediately found itself outside of the nothingness biting the nape of the snake. The weight and the momentum of a beast Xing's size was enough to redirect the trajectory of the snake, missing Suki completely.
It was a moment later, when a feminine battle cry followed by the sound of a sword cutting through flesh was heard. Suki, however, didn't finish with only cutting the main vein of the goat head. Using the device master gifted her, she shot a rope to the other side of the cave. With her change of momentum, she put her sword to the side and let the combination of the sharpness of her blade and the speed of her momentum cut through the nape of the goat.
The chimera roared in rage and pain, it's voice so loud that Xing had gone deaf for a moment. With a whip like snap, the snake released itself from Xing's hold. Luckily, Xing landed on the feet, even if the force was enough to push the hellhound back a few dozen meters.
"It's not healing!" One of the females said in excitement. "Good job, Suki!"
"Thanks, but the battle's not over yet." The alpha in training female said. "Actually, it may have just gone worse."
She was addressing the fact that now the chimera went berserk. With the goat head limply attached, the lion and the snake spit fire and poison everywhere out of pain and fury. Many had been caught under fire. The only upside was that the monster seemed to lose its ability to heal, which was a big upside as the creature was beatable now at least.
"Pickles! No!" The enemy female yelled in pain and desperation. "You'll pay for this!"
"Not so tuff without your monster, are you?" The current alpha female goaded her nemesis as she made another sequence of lethal moves with her fan, keeping her enemy on the back foot.
The chimera seemed to finally gain some semblance of control, as it whipped both heads in Xing's direction. There was fire in the eyes, literally in the lion's case. It seemed that the chimera decided that Xing was the one responsible for all its suffering.
The lion's head breathed fire as it ran towards the hound. Xing barely evaded it, and was on the constant run from either the flaming breath or the venomous spit. It continued like that for a while. In the end, Xing nearly got caught in the fire but escaped to the side. The dog managed to circle around the paw that was meant to crush the smaller animal and prepared an explosion to blast the chimera from the side.
What Xing didn't anticipate, however, was that the chimera used its wing to hide the snake's head. Once moved, the green head was already in motion as it bared its fangs. Xing quickly prepared another explosion to fend the head off, but the hound already knew this was it. The head was too fast, it will gore Xing before retaliation.
Suddenly, however, something was between Xing and the snake. The head bit and speared it as two different feminine screams were heard. The confusion delayed the monster enough for Xing to finish releasing the explosion, right to the eye of the snake. The shockwave and the pain of the creature caused it to throw the, now two, objects to the wall with a sickening crunch.
The two animals spared a second to look at the unexpected development, and were extremely surprised to say the least. Xing and the chimera saw the bodies of the two alpha females of their sides. It seemed that Xing's alpha female shot the same thing Suki shot, only she caught the other female in the process.
After that, the rope led the two straight to the snake head's bite. The timing, the position, Xing knew that it was too much to be random. It was planned, the green alpha female chose to move in that direction to save Xing from certain death.
In the price of her own it seemed, there was no way for an imitation to survive a hit like that.
Whatever reaction Xing had, however, the chimera had worse. The beast just killed its own caretaker. Xing didn't know the relationship between the two, but it hardly helped for the thing's mind stability. And so, the onslaught continued. Thankfully, the chimera was too focused on Xing to notice the females gathering around their fallen alpha.
"Xing! We've secured our objectives. Get that thing away from us so we can leave!"
It seems that the blue thing finally got his things sorted, good. Xing was a bit at odds with the blue imitation for all the things Xing had to go through because of the blue thing, but master's orders are master's orders. Xing barked as he ran deeper into the tunnels, the chimera hot on its tail.
"Lin, Lin!" Suki cried to her fallen leader and teacher. "Come on, get up!"
As if by a miracle from the spirits, her mentor puked blood.
"S-suki…? Girls…?"
"Yes!" a sister to the left cried. "We're here! Help will come soon enough, don't worry!"
Lin tried to let out a chuckle, but all she managed was to puke another bile of blood. Blood that Suki now noticed had an unhealthy taint of green.
"Don't bother, we all know that I'm beyond saving." The leader of the Kyoshi warriors said between coughs of blood. "Please, tell me… are we winning?"
"Yes!" Suki said between tears. "The thing is gone, and Xing will lose it in the tunnels. The enforcers are all dead, and the enemy is all but defeated. The women are transported as we speak."
"Good… than I can die happy." Lin began closing her eyes. "It's so cold and painful…"
"No, don't leave us!" Suki cried. "We need you, you're our leader!"
"No… you don't, first sister Suki." At Suki's confused face Lin couldn't help but let out another bile of a chuckle. "Yes, silly girl. You're now the leader of the Kyoshi warriors."
"But-"
"No buts. You led your sisters well, you fought, and you won. You even made an immortal fall to mortality, it's stuff of legends." She of course was talking about Suki's attack that stopped the regeneration ability of the thing. "You are more than ready."
"Besides." Lin continued sorrowfully. "I lived my life, I made my mistakes, and now I'm paying for my sins. To many sisters were lost because of me to have it any other way."
"But the mayor judged you already, you're innocent!"
"Heh, I guess a higher authority will decide it soon enough. Just promise me three things…"
"Anything!"
"Bury me next to my family's graves. I don't want to be here forever. This city is my death bed, I don't want it to be my coffin as well."
"Of course!"
"Do your best as leader, but don't forgot to live. You don't have to throw your life away because of my mistakes. Don't forgot to be a girl as well as a warrior. That goes for all of you."
"We'll try our best!" Suki promised. "What's the last thing?"
"That goes for all of you girls as well, but double time on you Suki. For Kyoshi's sake, drink your moon tea before meeting with your boy, some of you were too relieved when their monthly time started."
"Lin!" Suki wasn't the only one who yelled in indignation.
Another spit of… well, you can't call it blood anymore if its color is more green then red, but whatever. The point is that the dying Kyoshi warrior made one last chuckle.
"You all are good girls, I couldn't ask for better sisters." Lin said between coughs. "The pain… The cold… it all fades away… so that's how it feels like, heh. Yes, I can definitely get used to it. Just a little rest… So tired."
The oldest Kyoshi warrior closed her eyes as she released one last peaceful breath, a serene smile on her face. She will never move again. Looking at her, Suki couldn't help but notice that she had never seen her mentor so peaceful before, all the problems of the mortal plane were finally behind her.
Suki took the crown of Kyoshi and wore it on her head, making her new role official.
"Come on girls, we have work to do." She issued her first order. "As one!"
"As one!" They called after her.
She will cry for the dead later, she had the living to worry about now.
The shaking of the ceiling was becoming more constant as time went on. Not a good sign, Mi-Sha pondered. He was at the finishing steps of getting his motor control back, disregarding future consequences for a fasten process did wonders. He probably should be worried, but if he took too long, he wouldn't have a future to worry about.
"What's the situation?" He asked his subordinates.
"A quarter of the city is under fire nation control. To make matters worse, they made a wall of fire as their pseudo border. It means that all the rabid animals are now infesting our forces instead of the more provision abled fire soldiers."
"Damn." Mi-Sha said as he considered more options. "What about the tunnels? Have some men do hit and run, wage guerilla warfare from the old crumbling buildings."
"Unfortunately, the tunnels were either blocked or destroyed." The man said. "Our own earth benders are unable to fix the tunnels, or at least not without making enough noise that will she their location to the fire nation."
"Not ideal. What more news do you have?"
"The arena is completely destroyed from the bombardment, any gladiator that was there is now dead. The only fit for duty gladiators are those who were initially deployed as first response, those who we would shed little tears to lose."
"Curse that fire breathing spawn…"
This was more than just a heavy hit to their forces. The catastrophe coliseum was a symbol for the might and prosperity of Amora and himself, a monument of everything they achieved. A hit like this, financial woes aside, was a heavy hit on morale and even more importantly, Mi-Sha's claim of power.
"What are the estimate numbers of our forces?" The crime lord finally said.
"About fifteen thousand strong." His assistant said. "Nearly all units heavier than the common foot soldier were decimated. There is a severe lack of supply on the surface, as the grain storages and other food storages were among the first targets for the fire nation artillery."
"The good news is that with the citizens running away through the holes, this food situation could be dealt with by opening the private stores of food in the tunnels. Should the need arise, of course." The man in front of him continued.
"We'll see…" It's not that Mi-Sha had any unique problems with sharing his food, but more of the fact that he didn't want those gutter feeders infesting his domain more than absolutely necessary. Which brought him to another issue.
"What do we know about the Hakoda situation?"
"We can't be certain, but the barbarian had breached the tunnels and seems to ally himself with the Kyoshi warriors. Which may explain why we didn't hear from the scouts we sent to shadow him." The smaller man explained. "Our last updates stated that he was intercepted by the madam, the results of the conflict are yet unclear."
The loud sound of that demented pet was once again heard throughout the entire tunnels, with mini earthquakes to follow.
"From the sound of it, though, is still out and about. So I don't think the barbarian managed to overwhelm the madam." His underling said.
"Whatever the case is, it's clear that the beast is out of control." Mi-Sha said his mind. "And she better have it back in its cage before I will."
He spun his hand slowly, feeling all his muscles working as they should, before turning again to the other person in the room.
"Vacation time's over." He said. "It's clear that nothing here works unless I'm personally evolved. Gather all the enforcers, I will lead them personally. We'll strike at twilight and kill that little upstart of a prince. We kill him, and everybody else will crumble enough for us to push through."
"Yes, my lord." The man said as he left.
Mi-Sha looked at a point in the wall above himself, as if it was the direction of the prince. They will end it. for better or worse, tomorrow it ends.
Dodge, sprint, turn. It was everything Xing did as the chimera chased with vengeance. The thing moved at a speed not expected from its size, and Xing's much shorter legs couldn't keep up ajead for long.
Xing turned in another corridor as a wall of flames closed in, engulfing anything that came its way. Of course, it didn't deter the chimera as it ran undisturbed by the flames from its own mouth. Xing had to lose it, to get inside a smaller tunnel or something, but frustratingly no such corridor was shown. Which was probably by design to let the thing behind to move.
As Xing ran, it was almost hit by inspiration. Literally. Some dust would have fallen on the eyes if Xing didn't jump away just in time. Xing could cause dust clouds as well, a blast to the ceiling was all it took. It may be just what was needed to slow the thing enough for Xing to either find a smaller tunnel or figure out how to get to the dark place again.
And so, every now and then, Xing blasted the ceiling when the breathing allowed it. It seemed to work at least a little, if the annoyed growling from the chimera was anything to go by. It was good, but not enough. Sooner or later Xing had to give, either legs, heart or fire, each means a painful death by the beast behind.
Suddenly, the opportunity Xing needed came when the next turn revealed another T turn. Xing shot at the ceiling again, bringing a cloud of dust to obscure the chimera 's vision. The hellhound stopped momentarily near the wall, partly to catch breath, but mainly to make the chimera accelerate as it smelled its prey stopped running.
Sensing the bigger monster just inside the cloud of dust, Xing used whatever fumes it had left to run alongside the wall. Both their noses could pinpoint the other's location through the dust, but not to the point where they could aim without seeing. When the chimera noticed that Xing passed it, the bigger creature was still in the cloud of dust and didn't see the wall in front of it.
Xing heard the satisfyingly loud sound of a crush, followed by the sound of a crumbling wall. The angry growls indicated that the chimera was far from over, but it didn't matter. Xing had enough time. Having the same line of thoughts as before, the desperation and resolve, as well as picturing being there, Xing thought about the tent master made home of for now.
Xing disappeared to the shadows right before a pow as big as Xing's entire upper body was about to splat the hound like a grape. Xing also failed to notice the cave crumbling around.
Zuko decided that the four of them will sleep in the same room, in case someone may get stupid ideas. It hit him that he was sleeping in the same room as two pretty girls for the first time, or any girl in fact. Mother and Azula are family, so they didn't count. But it was a necessity.
While Mi-Dved was more than enough to send any opportunities seven feet under, literally, he didn't have the row political power Zuko had. If someone of a high rank orders a few elite squads to apprehend the girls, the big guy would be hard pressed.
Katara's situation was even worse as Sokka lacked both influence and might. While Zuko was sure that the only teenager of the southern water tribe could hold his own, an opponent strong or experienced or lucky enough could still beat him. What's more, they couldn't find her brother, no matter where they looked.
It led to Sai having a theory that put Zuko in a very awkward conversation with the water bender. Zuko was going to skin Sokka if the guy's sister doesn't get him first. Like, seriously, what was he thinking?! Does he have any idea how disastrous it will be if he dies?!
Didn't he know how Hakoda would take it if something happens to Sokka under Zuko's watch? Any accord Zuko may have had could be vaporized in an instance. It was also very lucky that Katara was so understanding and didn't blame Zuko for it, instead focusing all her ire on her brother.
Never mind. He could do nothing but send an order to fetch Sokka back, he should focus on the things that he had some influence on. He already sent letters to his father, his uncle, Loban, and even Beifong in case things really go south.
He sighed as he looked at the final letter he had just finished writing, for Azula of all people. When Sai suggested it, Zuko was ready to throw the helmet to the waste pits, but Sai managed to at least make a few good enough points.
The letter was about mother, or at least about what the swamp had shown him. It was always in the back of his head, even if almost completely ignored now. Like a tick in his head that wouldn't go until he has closure at least. And, as much as it pained him to admit, Ursa was Azula's mother as much as his.
"It's the lesser evil, your highness. With the situation as it is, everything we'll do will be monitored once we lay foot in the fire nation. Azula, on the other hand, is in a much better position. And you can count on her to be invested as well, she will get results."
'Doesn't mean I have to like it.'
"As I said, lesser evil." Sai said in his head. "You will have to pull through a lot of those in your career."
Zuko sighed again, there was no rest for the righteous.
"Are you okay?" Katara seemed to pick up om his sigh.
"Hm?" Zuko turned to her before answering. "Nothing serious, just writing a letter to my sister for the first time in years."
"The 'Crazy, sadistic perfectionist one with the personality of e scorpion'?" Mi-dved asked.
"There are no other sisters that I know of." Zuko answered politically. If the visions had some truth in them then things may get complicated.
The big guy took a deep breath before asking in a tone as if Zuko said he was going to eat something brown from the stable floors. "Why?!"
"To search about the vision I had in the swamp, the same swamp that told us were to find Jasmine."
"Oh…" Mi-Dved said awkwardly, the big guy knew to not bring such a fragile point.
"Yeah, not my first chois either, but Azula will want to figure out what happened to mom as much as I am."
"Wait, you have a sister?" Katara asked incredulously. "How have I never heard of her?"
"To be fair, princess Azula is common knowledge." Jasmine said.
"I lived under a rock, I get it!" Katara rebuked before turning her attention to Zuko. "What I meant to ask is why didn't you talk about her?"
"Azula and I aren't in good terms, to say the least." Zuko explained. "Even with putting the rivalry for the throne aside, we were always at odds. Azula would always make fun of me and bully me because of her better bending, as well as the fact that she was father's favorite. In retrospect, this may have been a proxy result of our parents' conflict with each other."
"Oh…" Now it was Katara's turn to be awkward, she probably thought that all siblings should at least care for each other if not get along. "I'm sure that she's-"
"When father burned my face, she smiled." Zuko put a stop to whatever the blue wearing girl may say. I'm not about to try to build burnt bridges."
Katara stayed quiet for a few moments before trying to change the subject. "So… Your mother?"
"Disappeared when we were little. One day she was in the palace, the other day she wasn't. No one had seen her ever since. The whole thing is a mystery, and I think Azula may know a bit more about it. The swamp's vision had given me some clues to work on, and I would have planned it for the week in the fire nation I managed to score, but of course it would be impossible now."
Katara looked down in shame, she was probably thinking it was somehow her fault and blaming herself for ruining Zuko's chance to find his mother. Something that hit too close to home for her.
He was about to say something to try and calm her down, but at that moment, the shadows from the corner of the room moved and spit something with a burst of heatless black flames. All four of them immediately went to their battle stance, meaning Zuko, Mi-Dved and Katara were while Jasmine hid behind them, only to discover a familiar face.
"XING!?" They all yelled in surprise.
Indeed, the hellhound laid there exhausted, bruised and lost consciousness the moment it saw Zuko.
"What?! How?!"
"An ability of its kind. When hellhounds are strong enough, they can use the shadows to travel from place to place. It, however, takes a lot of energy and cannot be used constantly."
"What happened to Xing?!" Jasmine asked with worry.
"It seems that Adrenalin had finally worn out from whatever battle it was in. The physical condition is stable as well, but any physical activity is forbidden for a day or two. Ask Katara to help it heal, direct the energy towards the injuries and let biology do its thing if nothing else."
Zuko did so as he calmed everyone down.
"What could have done it?" Mi-Dved asked. "We all know Xing, and he's one tuff son of a she-dog. Literally."
"Scanners indicate the presence of a chimera variant, it may very well be the cause. A worrisome discovery which we should discuss at a later date." Sai said in Zuko's head as pictures of different hybrids were shown inside the helmet, none of them gave Zuko a good feeling.
"No idea, but I guess we'll see soon enough." Zuko answers.
"What about my dad?" Katara asked with fear. "Xing was supposed to guide him to mom, right? Where is he?!"
"I don't know." Zuko honestly said, but the possibilities didn't paint a good picture.
They spent the next few hours trying to calm Katara down.
Azula was kneeling in front of her the fire throne, his visage imposing as ever.
"Daughter…" He spoke. "Your brother is a disgrace and a traitor. Take a ship and set sail to Amora, bring him to me in chains and redeem our family name."
"Yes father." Azula bowed even deeper, the position hiding her smile. "I am your ever faithful servant."
AN
And here ends chapter 40.
At long last, Hakoda managed to rescue his wife, not without a price however. Zuko is now in a race against the clock to finish his mission at Amora, with the stares ever increasing. Suki is now the head of the Kyoshi warriors , like she was in cannon, and things are getting hot in the fire nation (pun intended).
now for the reviews:
Xpparda:
Will see all of their reactions soon enough. As for Iroh, he's still in Amora avenging his tea. By now he probably heard about the commotion and going back, but he has a few good hours of delay as he heard it from a passing talk between soldiers and not from a specifically sent falcon like Zuko.
Even amidst turmoil and certain death, teenage drama reigns supreme.
The water family should go back ASAP now that Kya is free again, which also answers your other question.
Xxxxxhggg:
We need to finish all the mess with the air bending, having that emotional breakdown in the fire nation and some other minor things. But timeline wise, we're three months or so before Aang comes out the Amora theater was an attrition war that spanned more than I gave it due in the story. Zuko of course didn't stay idle, but there wasn't much story wise to tell.
As for the helmet, Aang is clueless about it. He may heard a remnant of a bedtime story once, but that's it. There was a great effort to kill the story of the overlords, so that they may never rise again. Even Iroh had to dig in deep to find information, and even that was more stories than historical script. In Either case, Roku will make sure that Aang will know about this old threat.
Lord Lelouch:
This duality of Xing, or any guarding pet, will never cease to make me smile. I hope that you were satisfied with the fight.
You're absolutely right on all accounts. Zuko is walking on a mine field, one wrong step could be the end of him and all he worked on. Luckily, Sai took the influence of the gem into consideration when writing the letter.
Ozai may not kill Zuko, but borrowing the phrase from Disney's "Aladdin 2" - you'll be surprised what you can live through.
And it only took proximally 300K words to change Katara's mind, go figure. Why she may start wearing red another 300K words it this pace.
All's well that end's well regarding Amir. Well, not really, you can't bring back the dead or fix a lifetime worth of trauma, but it's damn well satisfying.
Engineer1869:
You were right on the money. I based Xing on the hellhounds from the PJO universe, and I needed something to stimulate Xing as well as lay foundations for something else. With hellhounds originated from Cerberus (or at least treat it like the alpha of all alphas), and with family killing each other the second famous thing in the myths (the first is Zeus being Zeus and other gods following his example), the Chimera was the most fitting choice. of course isn't the original chimera, far from it, but enough for instincts to take hold.
All those are things that were written in the letter, as well as many more. But in the end, we need to remember the changing mind of Ozai. Reason, especially for something like this and from Zuko, may not be the selling point. Luckily, Ozai still has way to go in that trail. but in any case, Sai noted this change when writing the letter.
Oh yeah, Sokka is a dead man walking. he will have to face his father as well, and worse, his mother. if he's grounded for life it will be a miracle.
Jasmine, by nature and by her upbringing, is a very selfish and paranoid person when it comes to certain things. As long as Amora stands, there is a constant threat that someone would hunt them and bring them back. It's partly survival for her to have the city erased, not mentioning the fact that she wonts that traumatic stain of her past gone. As long as Amora's shadow looms over them in any way or form, neither she nor Mi-Dved can have a peaceful life.
deniswanheda:
While I did take note about Sokka, he'll want to spend time with the rest of the family in the south. He needs this as much as Katara. He can later do whatever he wants (if he's not grounded for life after the stunt he pulled). And yes, Zuko's image in Katara's eyes grew considerably.
The point with Aang was something I considered many times. As a kid, I saw absolutely nothing wrong with most of the good people immediately agreeing with whatever Aang said because he's the Avatar, and those who didn't agree were obviously evil or jerks. But after growing up, I couldn't help but being disturbed by it. A kid tells you to forgive and cooperate with those who killed your family? And you agree immediately because of religion (and don't tell me that the avatar isn't a religious figure, the guy has a freaking secret cult). However Aang will never join Zuko, not only because of the difference in ideology (Aang will see everything Zuko does as imbalance to the idea of harmony), but because Raava (the avatar spirit) wouldn't allow something like that, no matter how weak her influence over her host is.
Hoped you liked the fight in the tunnels.
I couldn't pass om such a symbolism, and I'm happy you noticed. As for Raava, it's a bit unfair. The nations were created without the avatar's help by warrior kings (see wiki of the first fire lord and the first earth king), the system of people sharing the same bending seemed to be much more stable then the eons before, So the avatar kept it up. not to say it was perfect, but it was better then an alternative. for example see the screwup of the fifth nation.
02cjd:
To answer your questions in order:
When it stops being funny.
Yes.
You sure know when to ask your questions, I hope you liked how I implemented the shadow travel. Besides having Xing old enough, I needed a good reason for Xing to go far and beyond, and the chimera was it.
This entire arc of Amora is gruesome by the nature of the city, things will calm down a little once the arc is over. But yes, with Ozai's building obsession, and Zuko's growing up as an overlord while transforming his values little by little, we can see a rise in the gruesomeness level as time goes by. but I'll keep things at T rate as much as I can.
USSRFox:
Everything left unwritten is for the reader's interpolation, so go for it.
Lusamine:
You have a point, and this is indeed one of the arguments Zuko and Sai wrote in their latter. Although the fire nation had their chance to do it with their raids on the south pole, and miserably failed at that since we don't see any fire nation water benders in the cartoon (not that is says something, there could easily be some just unseen to simplify the things as well as keep it as PG as possible). And you're absolutely right when you say that Zuko can't show any attachments whatsoever. Even on a good day and without the gem, Ozai will be spiteful to keep his son in check. The gem empowers his urges, something that Sai build on their narrative for Ozai.