Chapter 12
The silence between them was palpable.
The great spirit seemed to be waiting for the boy to elaborate on his accusation. Takaro was determined not to give Vaatu the satisfaction of making him stumble over his words again. Eventually, the spirit relented and spoke.
"And how exactly have I lied to you?"
Takaro was practically grinding his teeth at this point.
"You told me you wanted me to free you so that you could restore balance and start some new world. You didn't say anything about destroying the mortal realm or killing the Avatar. There's no way I'm going to help you do any of that."
Again, the colours of the spirit's presence darkened.
"I did not lie. You simply both overestimate and misunderstand my desires."
Takaro swallowed. He shouldn't be entertaining this. He should turn and run, take his chances in the spirit world. He wouldn't last two days out there, but it was probably better than whatever this thing had planned for him. It would have been the right thing for the rest of the world.
"Oh, and what do you desire?"
At that moment, Takaro realised just how selfish he truly was.
"What I desire is the right to exist." The spirit boomed. "Raava believed that she could achieve what she wanted by remaining passive, by trying to maintain what she thought to be balance, keeping the world a certain way. A stagnant way. Meanwhile, I remain trapped here, while my way happens on its own. Forests grow uncontrolled, wars are fought, and life presses onward. Think, boy. How much did the world change in just a single century of the Avatar's absence?"
"Change? A hundred years without the Avatar was a hundred years of war. How could that have possibly been any kind of good?"
"I never said good." Vaatu snapped. Takaro still had no idea where this was going as the spirit continued.
"That war was inevitable and entirely necessary. It brought an end to a brutal regime and catapulted the world into a new age. These things may not be good, but they are better than the alternative. No, what made that war an atrocity was the simple fact that your Avatar wasn't there for it."
Takaro's jaw fell open. This spirit had gone on and on about the failings of Raava and the Avatar, and now he revealed that his biggest problem was that they couldn't live up to her wishes. And then it hit him. He understood exactly what Vaatu wanted.
"Yo… you want another Avatar?"
Vaatu's symbols spread out, becoming more prominent and even regal-looking.
"Not another Avatar. My own."
A cold sweat ran down Takaro's neck. Him, an Avatar? He knew nothing of bending or spirits. How could he possibly hope to handle that kind of power?
Wait, Raava didn't give Wan access to all four elements, the lion turtles did; she just made him capable of wielding them all at once.
So what would he as an Avatar even be? Would he have to go and find the lion turtles himself? Did he even want to be a bender? After everything he'd been through, becoming a bender just seemed… cheap. Like he'd be taking the easy route.
Did the world even need a second Avatar?
He was getting ahead of himself. He hadn't agreed to become a new Avatar and didn't know if he would. He looked back up to the tree.
"Why would you even want that? If you were to be free of this tree, then you could just do whatever you want. You don't need a human vessel, just a means of escape."
"If any other human stood before me and said this, they would be correct," The spirit stated. "You, however, have presented me with a unique form of revenge against Raava."
That didn't sound good. Takaro could hear the excitement building in Vaatu's voice.
"With your natural affinity for communing with spirits, not only would a fusion between the two of us be seamless, but may even result in be being that could rival Raava's Avatar without having to rely on the advantages of bending. And I can think of no greater vengeance than to outdo her in the thing that defines her existence."
Takaro almost stumbled at that.
"Wait, you want an Avatar that just does the same a the one that already exists? You don't want to destroy the world or something?"
Vaatu scoffed as if everything about that question insulted him.
"Wrong on both accounts. I do not need a ruined wasteland, nor do I wish to merely parrot the actions of another. No, my Avatar will have their own role to play; the scourge of the powerful, the liberator of the unheard, the harbinger of change itself!"
Takaro swallowed, thinking before speaking.
"That all sounds… like a good thing, honestly. But you still haven't explained something to me. I saw what you were like ten thousand years ago, what you did with your freedom back then, and all the people and spirits that were hurt because of you. So I ask again; why should I trust you?"
The fact that he was arguing with someone who didn't have a face was starting to get to him. The spirit's voice had a sort of brutal conviction to it that made it seem like whatever he said came from a genuine belief, and the dark symbols only served to further intimidate the teenager. He didn't have so much as a twitching eye or brief smile to use to signal if Vaatu was lying.
Because of this, Takaro didn't know what to make of the spirit's next statement.
"It is true, I once desired nothing more than to shatter the world as it was known, but do you truly think that was all I wanted? A dead world full of not but ash? No, my ambitions were, and still are, far more than that. Everything I did back then, I did for a simple reason; Change!"
Takaro thought back to the vision, remembering every time Vaatu had shown up and what he had done.
"You wanted people to leave the lion turtles. That's why you attacked the air nomads. You wanted them to go out into the spirit wilds and create new lives for themselves."
"Exactly-"
"But when they went out there, they started fighting the spirits. They destroyed parts of the forests and got into massive battles that wiped out entire tribes of people. That's not change, that's just a violent and horrible ending."
That got the spirit to hold his tongue, if only for a moment.
"As I said, causing change is my responsibility; bringing peace is Raava's."
An arrogant and feckless thing to say. Of course, it was his responsibility, he was the one who forced such violence to happen in the first place. But it did indicate something that Takaro hadn't considered yet.
"So what, you'd be willing to work with Raava's Avatar to avoid calamity? you make a mess and she cleans it up?"
"Humanity has always caused its own disasters, and Raava will happily come along every time to solve all their problems for them. This does nothing but stunt your kind, putting things back the way they were instead of moving them forward. Or did you not just have your largest leap forward after a hundred years of her absence?"
Takaro nearly choked on his breath.
"Are… are you suggesting that the longest and bloodiest war in history was a good thing because it forced the world to change?"
"I am suggesting that the world is more complicated than Raava allows it to be. And perhaps humanity must confront and conquer its worst aspects to be able to embrace its best."
Before Takaro could think of a response, Vaatu went off on another tirade.
"You focus too much on the one part of my being. I am the embodiment of the natural chaos that all life descends from. I am the flowers that grow in the forest without rhyme or reason, the beasts that stalk the night and hunt for the survival of them and their own. I am what makes every life different from each other. Do not try and tell me that existence without struggle is truly living."
It was then that Takaro finally realised that regardless of what Vaatu was and what he wanted, he was going to be free eventually. He was the incarnation of something that could not be controlled or suppressed, at least not forever. Vaatu would get what he wanted, and all the teenager could do was decide if he got it from him.
Takaro likely wasn't the first person the spirit had contacted, and if he left here today on his own, he wouldn't be the last. Eventually, some power-hungry moron would come along and set him loose, probably without even the promise of becoming a new Avatar.
Vaatu's freedom was a certainty. Takaro's only option was to try and mediate it.
Like an Avatar would.
"Okay, so… I release you, you bind yourself to me, and we become the… Avatar of Chaos. What happens to me? Am I just a flesh puppet for you to control or do you just become a voice in my head?"
He remembered the feelings he had gotten whenever he was around other spirits. The connection he had to them didn't feel unnatural, but it was different from any other way he'd ever felt. Would being the Avatar feel like that all the time?
"It is as I said, us two would become one, with you as the master of the body and mind, and I as the power within your soul."
Takaro's confusion must have been obvious because Vaatu quickly elaborated.
"For the ten thousand years I have sat in this prison, my prevalence has waxed and waned. The world at large has known times of lasting peace and horrific turmoil, affecting me all the while. Put simply, after the joining, my strength would become... finite. A set level of power housed within a mortal shell. Were I to bond myself to an ordinary human, they likely wouldn't survive the process. You, however, stand a chance."
The implications of that were horrifying.
"Raava had little left when she became bonded to the first Avatar, only the strained abilities of bending. I am still whole, so whatever new being we become would be both similar to the existing Avatar and very different from it."
In short, he didn't know what would happen. Great.
Takaro exhaled and looked to the ground. This was the pivotal moment in his life. Right now decided where everything would go from here, not just for him, but maybe the entire world. He just didn't know if what happened would be a good thing or not.
If Vaatu was telling the truth, and he genuinely wanted to become a new Avatar, this was a chance for him to become powerful enough to make a difference and seek justice for Shuna. But what kind of difference would he make? Topple every dictator and uproot corruption? Force people into the kind of change Vaatu had wanted ten thousand years ago? What role would there be in the world for a Chaos Avatar?
And what if Vaatu was lying? He never said anything about only being able to exist within a human vessel like Raava had, so all he actually needed Takaro for was releasing him from the tree. He might just kill him the second he got out and go on a rampage. The last Avatar only died fourteen years ago, the new one probably wasn't ready to take on something like this.
If he just walked away now then maybe Vaatu wouldn't be able to get someone to free him for long enough that Takaro could warn the White Lotus. They would be able to prepare for it. But where did that leave him? Alone again to carry on with his quest for vengeance against a crazy bloodbender? Would the White Lotus even allow him to continue with that mission? He probably wouldn't be able to tell this story without including that detail.
Would anyone even believe him if he did tell the whole truth?
He swallowed and looked up at the tree again, still without any response formed. As if sensing the teenager's inner turmoil, Vaatu spoke for him.
"You do not trust me. That is both obvious and understandable, wise even. You would do well to assign this decision the importance it deserves and act with your best interests in mind. But, if you are not yet capable of such insight, perhaps you should defer to the judgement of another."
Takaro raised his brow, then startled when he felt something brush against the side of his leg. He looked down and saw a familiar little creature standing next to him, wing slightly bristled.
"Would you stop doing that?" He cried at the cat. Her only response was an innocent meow.
The boy huffed, but couldn't stop a smile from creeping onto his face. It was strange how happy it made him to see her again, considering it had been less than an hour since she'd disappeared and he'd only known her for a day.
He knelt next to her, laying his sword down, and held out his hand to her. She nuzzled her head into his palm and purred lightly. The simple contact seemed to reinvigorate Takaro just a little bit. It made him realise how tired he was.
His body still ached from the full day's trek through the tundra, and his mind was starting to go fuzzy from the fatigue. He needed sleep and food. He wasn't in any sort of state to be making this kind of decision.
So, once again, he looked to the cat for guidance.
Her eyes were shining silver this time and held a boldness to them that showed an unshakeable resolve. With a tired smile and nod, Takaro picked his sword back up and stood.
She believed that he should do this. That would have to be enough.