Alright time for the next chapter, hope you all are having a good time and staying safe.
Broken Angel: Rising Demon
Chapter 23: A World of Trouble
-?-
Riley crossed her arms with a smirk as Gaia's sand shielded them from the incoming blasts of fire. Yugito stood by her side, ready to react at a moment's notice, but otherwise relaxed.
The four spear-men charged forward, intent on surrounding Gaia, only for her sand to rush out, and seize them, wrapping around the four and lifting them into the air.
The man throwing fireballs at her, ceased his actions when he saw that his entire squad was now trapped in her midst.
"Release them, and I may show you mercy!" The squad leader demanded.
Gaia stared back with a hard look as she slowly raised her hand.
"Sand Coffin." She began, her eyes locking with her enemy's. "Sand Burial."
With a clenching of her extended hand, all four spear-men were crushed to death by the cocoons of sand that held them aloft.
Blood showered down, and their screams of pain were quickly replaced by the loud crunching of bones.
The enemy squad leader began to back away, his face twisted in horror, as the corpses of his comrades were unceremoniously dropped onto the ground.
As Gaia took a step towards the man, he lost whatever confidence he had before, and turned to run. He barely made it a half meter, when Gaia's sand lashed out, rushing after him, and wrapping around his leg, dragging him back towards her.
He began to cry out in fear, and attempted to launch another attack against her, this time punching out at her and sending a continuous stream of fire at her.
Gaia remained safe behind a sand shield, while her sand slowly climbed from the man's leg, up his body and began to encase him.
As soon as it wrapped around his arm, he began to beg for mercy.
Gaia had none, and once more she reached her hand out, and as soon as the man was fully encased, she closed her hand into a fist, willing the sand to crush the life out of him.
As his body dropped lifelessly to the ground, Gaia turned her attention back towards Riley and Yugito.
"Well done." Riley complimented, walking towards her.
"Why were they so eager to attack you?" Yugito asked, walking with Riley.
"I'm not sure. They treated us with suspicion the moment they saw us, and reacted with outright hostility when they saw my abilities." Gaia replied.
"They said it was a crime to 'earth-bend', whatever that means." Yugito noted.
Riley listened to their speculation for a moment before quietly drawing in the souls of the recently deceased, taking in the spirits of the five dead men, and taking a moment to look into their lives and see what she could learn.
From the collective memories of the five men, she learned that they were in a place called the Earth Kingdom, a confederacy, ruled by a central government along with various regional governments. This land was one of four territories.
To Riley's confusion and curiosity, the geography of the area made little sense to her. To the knowledge of these five men, they believed that the lands that they knew of, were what the world was comprised of. The confusing thing was, these lands were stretched over a round surface. In essence, these four lands comprised the 'world'. Along the equator was the largest continent, the Earth Kingdom. In the far west, was the Fire Nation, the land where these soldiers hailed from. Scattered around the Earth kingdom were small sets of land that once belonged to the nomadic Air Nomads, but those people had been wiped out decades ago, and finally there were the two poles of the 'world' where the Water Tribes resided.
The world was round, it rotated, had a day and night cycle, seasons, and all of that good stuff, the issue was that it was far too tiny to be Earth. This round world was possibly a thousand miles across at most, a tiny world, yet one where gravity seemed to operate similar to Earth's.
Riley's confusion showed on her face, and noticing her silence, Gaia and Yugito turned their gazes towards her, and could tell from the way she folded her arms and stared up at the sky, that she was obviously thinking about something.
"What is it?" Gaia inquired.
"I'm confused." Riley responded, still staring up at the clouds in the sky.
"What about?" Yugito asked.
"The Time turners are meant to take us to a different time and place in the world, basically. My confusion stems from this not being Earth." Riley answered, causing the two to share a look before adopting their own confused looks.
"Mind explaining?" Yugito inquired.
"One second." Riley answered as she lifted off the ground and floated up into the sky.
She rose up higher and higher, as she turned her gaze out towards the horizon. Confirming what the men knew she looked out over the curvature of the world, it was indeed much smaller than the Earth. To further prove that this wasn't the Earth she activated her Byakugan, and rushed forward, flying quickly through the air.
Riley accelerated herself in a straight line following the curvature of the world, her gaze extending forward as she kept watch for Gaia and Yugito to appear in her vision.
She circumnavigated the small world in moments, and arrived back at her previous position high above Yugito and Gaia.
"Well this is weird. What do you think it all means?" Kurama inquired.
"I don't know. Maybe these children somehow ended up on another planet? That is a possibility though the fact that this world had gravity just like the earth, despite being so small, seems highly unusual. It could be the result of magic though. Magic is powerful here, flowing in great torrents through the air, almost like the wind. I can see it with my eyes, the raw nature energy of this world. I wonder… maybe I can see if I can sense the Earth." Riley thought back, closing her eyes and extending her senses.
The Rinne Sharingan, was capable of sensing things from across dimensions, so sensing the Earth within another part of the galaxy, shouldn't be that hard. She allowed her senses to extend outward, and immediately recoiled in surprise as she felt the familiar feeling of the Earth all around her.
"What the hell…?" Riley wondered as she turned her gaze up to the sky.
She stared intently at it for several moments before she shot upward, flying high up and out of the planet's atmosphere. She passed beyond the boundaries of the planet and found herself drifting through space. Despite the supposed emptiness, she found that she could still feel the Earth all around her, despite being in the cold vacuum of space. She continued outward, accelerating her speed.
She moved faster and faster, making it an incredible distance until something in space forced her to stop.
Extending outward, like a massive bubble was some sort of barrier. Activating her Byakugan, Riley could see that this barrier extended outward forming a solid wall before her. She could just barely detect a minor curve in the barrier indicating that it wrapped around the solar system she was within.
"What the hell?" Riley thought to herself as she shot forward, passing through the barrier with ease.
To her surprise, instead of finding empty space beyond it, the moment she passed through the barrier, she was consumed by water, and she felt gravity reorient, and begin to pull her downward. Looking down, she could make out in the murky depths a black, mirror-like shelf that seemed to spread out across the floor of this body of water.
Riley leaned down and pressed her hand to the glass-like substance, finding that it felt like obsidian. Extending her senses into the glass substance, she found that she could feel Gaia and Yugito within. Pressing onto the glass she felt the magics of the barrier attempting to halt her passage back through.
Whatever barrier was in place seemed to allow things out, but now back in. Instead of attempting to brute force her way back in, Riley reached out her senses to try and locate if her Hiraishin seal was still on Gaia's body. She felt the presence of the seal, which assured her that she could return without needing to breach the barrier.
"You know you teleport back like that, Gaia's going to know you marked her with your seal." Kurama noted.
"Eh… she probably suspects that I did anyway, and if not, we can fight about it later. For now though..." Riley turned her attention upward and lifted up through the murky water. The lake itself was sixty, maybe seventy feet deep, and filled with fish, some of which Riley recognized, which confirmed a suspicion she was developing.
She rose out of the water and used her Byakugan to gaze out at the surrounding area.
Her gaze stretched out, searching for life across the vast expanse beyond the lake. Her eyes soon fell upon a town to the east, a small village, no more than a hundred people or so. They bore a distinctly Asian appearance to them, and from what few scraps of a written language Riley could find, she realized that she was in China.
"So there's an entire damn solar system hidden within a pocket dimension in China? Well shit..." Kurama muttered.
Riley made a face and turned her gaze back down to the water. This lake was rather large, being nearly a mile across, and was almost completely circular. Using her Byakugan, she extended her gaze down into the lake, back to the barrier of obsidian that contained the world she had just come from. She allowed her gaze to travel across the outer edge of the barrier, tracing it's exterior. She found that it was slightly curved, forming a bulge that extended the entire length of the bottom of the lake, though with her eyes she was able to see that the full extent of the obsidian's reach was greater than the perimeter of the lake.
The obsidian barrier almost seemed to form a dome, which Riley speculated actually formed a large sphere which contained this pocket dimension.
The existence of such a pocket dimension surprised her, but that it could exist, did not. Riley's Kamui dimension was contained within her eye, and as far as she could tell, had no limits to its size. So having a solar system sized pocket dimension, contained within a several mile wide sphere was not at all impossible. It was simply taking her ability with Kamui, to a greater extreme.
A question formed in her mind. Who had created this pocket dimension? Such a strange occurrence was not natural, and it wasn't like it was some sort of hidden continent, like the Elemental Nations. This was an entire world, a star, a solar system with other planets, all contained within a barrier that was only a few miles wide.
While Riley hadn't investigated the other worlds within the solar system, nor had she gotten close to the nearby star that provided it light, she could speculate based on how small the world she had been on was, and how small the solar system was, that all of the worlds within it, and even the star were incredibly and unnaturally small. Almost like it was a miniature of a normal solar system with worlds that were thousands of miles across, instead of tens of thousands.
The solar system itself wasn't nearly as large as their own, as Riley hadn't really been flying all that fast, even moving at around light speed, she'd reached the outer extent of the solar system in about five minutes, which meant that the total size of this solar system couldn't be more than two AU across. In other words, it was small. A structure similar in size to the pocket dimensions that Kaguya had created long ago. Places Riley knew about but hadn't visited.
She took the opportunity to take one last look at the expanse of the barrier, noting something interesting about it's full appearance. She had to extend her gaze deep underground as the full expanse of the obsidian dome was larger than the circumference of the lake, but from what she could tell, at the edges of the dome, it sort of fanned out, and upon closer examination she noticed that it wasn't perfectly circular either, it was more of an oval. In her mind, this obsidian barrier almost looked like the top of a turtle shell.
"What do you suppose that means?" Kurama wondered as he too saw the similarities.
"I have no idea." Riley thought back as she shook her head. For a few moments she was silent, she then took one last look around before using the Hiraishin to teleport back to Gaia and Yugito.
Both women were just standing around, quietly waiting for her. Her sudden reappearance, right next to Gaia earned a curious look from the Kazekage.
"Alright, so I figured out where we are. We're in a pocket dimension, contained within some sort of large oblong sphere of what looks like obsidian. It's a pocket dimension with it's own internal star, planets, and all sorts of stuff like that. Also it's located somewhere in China." Riley explained, earning dumbfoundment from the two of them.
"Are you serious?" Yugito asked after a moment of silence.
"Yeah." Riley replied.
"You do realize that what you just said is a little on the crazy side, right?" Gaia noted.
"I mean I guess it is. I'm just telling you what I was able to determine by just flying around." Riley replied, earning a sigh from Gaia.
"You know you're very lucky that I've seen enough crazy in my life to believe something like that is possible." Gaia said after a moment.
"Yeah I know what you mean. This place is saturated in magic, whoever made this pocket dimension must have been incredibly powerful because this place seems like it was scratch built. As in someone made it themselves, not that they chose to hide it away." Riley stated, scratching her head as she did.
"Who could have possibly built an entire solar system and hidden it in a pocket dimension?" Yugito asked, still trying to wrap her head around something like that existing.
"Something incredibly powerful. Perhaps some sort of ancient god of some sort. Whatever it was that did this, it's definitely older than the Tailed Beasts, because Kurama doesn't know what did it." Riley responded.
"Does the Darkness?" Gaia asked, knowing that the Darkness had been around longer than the Earth.
Riley was silent for a moment before folding her arms and closing her eyes.
"That's a good question. Do you know anything about this?" Riley questioned her demonic child.
The Darkness was silent for a few moments before it gave a reply.
"In the annals of the ancient past, long before great-grandmother came to the Earth, there once was a great war between demons and gods. Dark entities sought the world for it's power and they attacked it, they were repelled by the gods, and the great spirits of the Earth. One such sect of spirits was the Annun-k'dat. They were a race of giants. Great lumbering beasts that drifted through the skies and seas. Their powers were vast, and they were worshiped by mankind as gods. When the war broke out between spirits and demons, the Annun-k'dat, allowed the humans who worshiped them to live upon their bodies so that they may escape the war. For their act of benevolence, our kind assaulted them with relentless ferocity and slaughtered most of their race. What you found was nothing more than a fossil, once belonging to the old gods." The Darkness relayed, showing her images, of an ancient and bloody war fought between demons and earth-bound spirits of nature. She even saw glimpses of these Annun-k'dat, through the perspective of the Darkness.
Great and powerful they most certainly were. These creatures were giants. They almost looked like a cross between a turtle and a lion. They were absolutely massive creatures, with bodies that could be upwards to several kilometers across. They had lion-like heads, limbs, and tails, encased within massive turtle shells. The shell she had discovered, was indeed a fossil. Nothing more than a remnant of a dead god, used as an anchor for this pocket dimension. Though that still begged the question, who had built the pocket dimension? She directed the question as her child, curious to hear if it knew more.
"One day the Annun-k'dat simply vanished. They had suffered vast casualties in the war, and near it's end they simply disappeared. I do believe we've located their hiding spot. Or at least, what was once their hiding spot. Most likely it is now nothing more than a tomb." The Darkness answered.
It was left unspoken, but Riley knew well enough that her child had most likely participated in this war, all those tens of thousands of years ago. That was how it knew so much, as Riley could vaguely recall snippets of a war like the one it described from when the two had first met and had glimpsed into each other's memories.
Now Riley knew she was definitely interested in this dimension. What had once been a hideaway used by an ancient race of spirits to hide from demonic invasion, and it could now be nothing more than a grave marker, for the world to know that this species had existed, at least at one point. The idea that the Earth had been invaded by such a demonic force before, also interested her. Either the demons got what they wanted, or their leader was killed and the demonic force turned on itself and lost interest in the Earth. Such a time truly was an Age of Magic and Gods.
"Riley?" Gaia inquired, taking note of her silence.
"The Darkness says that it may have been ancient gods who built this place as a hideaway. Something about a war fought over ten thousands years ago." Riley answered, earning a nod from Gaia, while Yugito seemed a bit confused.
"Who's the Darkness?" She inquired.
"One of my full demon children. It's older than the Earth." Riley answered simply. Yugito stared at her for several long moments before blinking a few times and shaking her head as she wrapped her mind around that.
"So… now that we know where we are, how do we go about finding our missing children?" Gaia inquired.
"Hmm… I guess we just start advancing. Every time I've done this before, I was set on a path to already finding the child in question. So I assume some of the hard work is already done. Also with how small this world is, it shouldn't be nearly as hard to locate a half demon, even if their power is suppressed, they'll still be a lot stronger than most normal people." Riley answered as she extended her senses, and looked for the stronger magical concentration nearby.
"Found it." She said with a smile, as she located a possible individual. "A strong power is coming from the west of here, only a few miles away. Why don't we go and see who it is."
"Lead the way." Gaia replied, as the three headed off.
As they ran, Riley reviewed what she knew about the area from what was taken from the squad that had attacked them.
They were in the Eastern part of the Earth Kingdom. The men who had attacked them were members of the Fire Nation, and the Fire Nation was at war with the Earth Kingdom. Another interesting tidbit was that the reason 'Earthbending' was a crime, was because each of the four nations were separated by culture, but also by which type of magical elemental ability they possessed. Those in the Fire Nation could manipulate and generate fire. Those in the Earth Kingdom could move and manipulate the ground beneath their feet, and so on and so on.
So essentially, if you had a certain set of skills, that could mark your homeland, relatively definitively, which is why those soldiers attacked them, believing Gaia to not only be a local, but an enemy combatant due to her sand manipulation giving them the impression that she was an Earthbender.
The idea of their bending ability was in and of itself an interesting concept. She'd need to see how it was accomplished by benders of other elements, but from what she could tell, at least with Firebending, was that it was very similar to Fire Elemental Magic. The creation, and manipulation of fire was basically shot for shot, the same as it's Elemental magic counterpart, the only main difference, that made bending stand out, was that the body was the focus.
In magic there were two primary needs. Power and focus. What kind of power and where it came from often determined the type of magic used, same with the focus. Witches and Wizards drew magic from their cores and used wands as foci, while Shinobi drew magic from their coils or Chakra points, and their focus was hand signs. In the end it was all still magic, it was just their method of using it that altered their perceived abilities.
These benders appeared to draw their power from their cores, and used their entire bodies as focuses. At least what she could tell from Firebending, the use of it appeared to be tied to body movements and the flow of energy within a person's body.
The only aspect that was curious to her was the nature of how these 'bending' abilities seemed to only correlate to one elemental affinity. While genetic elemental affinity was a documented occurrence in the magical world, if your parents were a certain element then you would likely have that element, there were still aberrations where a child would have an elemental affinity that didn't correlate to their parents or even grandparents. It just happened sometimes. Not here in the bending nations it seemed. If your parents were firebenders, then if you were a bender too, then you'd be a firebender.
Benders couldn't learn to bend other arts. The only person who could was an individual who was known as the 'Avatar'. Aside from the Avatar, everyone else was stuck in their own lane, as it were.
"The only reason why their magic would be so constricted to one elemental affinity and no others, would be if they were in fact Elementals." Kurama noted.
"That's a very good point. Elementals are cemented to the element for which they are born too. Their powers within that element are vast but beyond it, they are almost unable to perform even basic magical abilities. These are human elementals. Crossbreeds in a way." Riley thought back as they ran.
The three found themselves in a forest moving rapidly through the trees. They were closing in on the powerful signature that could very well be one of Riley's children.
The sun had already set but the three were undeterred as they rapidly closed in on their target. They eventually came upon a road and found it heavily upturned, almost as if a horde of giant animals had ripped through the area.
Racing through the tree along the path, they quickly came upon an interesting sight. A young girl racing down the road, using the earth itself to enhance her speed. Large domes of earth rose up beneath her feet, acting in a way that allowed her to accelerate herself down the road at decent speeds, much faster than a human could run at least. The trio shared a look as they raced after her, Riley leaping from the tree and gliding down towards the young girl to open a dialogue.
Riley quickly caught up to her and floated down in front of the young woman, expecting her to stop upon seeing her, but the girl didn't react. She couldn't be older than twelve or so. She had black hair, and pale, sea foam green eyes, that were glazed over. Her lack of reaction to Riley's appearance immediately clued in the demoness that the girl was blind and couldn't see her.
"Someone with your genes, blind? That's a bit of a surprise." Kurama noted, while Riley flew in front of the young girl, keeping pace with her and maintaining a few feet in front of the racing girl.
For several moments, Riley examined the girl, taking in her features and her outfit. After several moments she smiled and decided to speak.
"Hello there." Riley greeted, loud enough for the girl to hear.
"Gah!" The girl let out a cry of fright and came to a sudden halt. "Who said that?" She asked.
Riley watched her reaction with a curious look. It seemed like she was listening for the response as was to be expected.
"Sorry to startle you." Riley greeted, still hovering right in front of the young girl. She made a face at Riley's voice and her eyes seemingly narrowed.
"Are you floating?" The girl asked.
Riley raised an eyebrow at that, and then a smirk touched at her lips. Slowly she lowered down until her feet touched the ground. The instant they did, the girl focused directly on her.
"Your sensory abilities are quite refined. You can detect vibrations in the ground, through the soles of your feet, it appears. Impressive." Riley noted, smiling as she did. From the tree on either side of the road, Gaia and Yugito stood, watching over the exchange.
"Uh… thanks. Can I help you? Cuz if not, I've got places to be." The girl replied after a quiet moment.
"My name is Riley. You seem to be in possession of one of my feathers." Riley noted, taking note of the black feather, tucked into her green wrist bracers.
The girl made a face at that, her hand drifting over to the feather in her bracer. She ran her hand over it, and then narrowed her eyes at Riley.
"Who are you?" The girl demanded.
"I'm the one who gave it to you." Riley answered, her wings erupting from her back. The sudden action was enough for the girl to feel what happened. Riley took note that despite being blind, the girl could clearly tell that Riley had just sprouted wings.
"It's more than just vibration sensing. It's like she has her own form of sonar or echolocation." Riley thought to herself.
"You gave me this feather? When was this? I'd think I'd remember a woman with wings." The girl responded, her attitude strong, and fiery. She was direct and focused, strong-willed just like her mothers.
"When you were very little. I gave it to you so that I'd always be able to track you down if you were ever lost. It took me a while, but I eventually managed to track you down. As I said, my Name is Riley, Riley Uchiwa. You are my daughter." Riley answered the young girl, who stared back at her blankly. For a moment she was quiet. Riley awaited her reaction, not really knowing what to expect. After several long seconds the girl let out a sigh.
"Normally I can tell when people are lying, but you sound all weird on the inside. If I'm really your child, then why was I with the Beifongs?" The girl asked in response, folding her arms over her chest.
"One of your sisters has the ability to open portals to other times and places. When you were very little, you and your siblings were attacked. It was an accident of her powers that led your sister to sending you here. That's why you were with the people that raised you. I'm curious though, you seemed to already know that they weren't your real parents." Riley answered, openly noting how it was curious that the girl, despite still being young, was already aware that something was up. She wouldn't have been the first of her siblings to suspect the truth, but still it was curious, especially because she was blind.
"Like I said before, I'm good at knowing when someone is lying. They've been lying to me since I could first remember. Always lying, always talking down to me. They think I'm just this fragile little girl who can't look out for herself. They've got it in their heads that they're saving me, protecting me, that I'd be dead if not for them. I can tell when they're telling the truth, and when they're lying, and when it comes to me being their child, I know that's a lie. The question is, how do I know you're telling the truth? I don't know you." The girl replied, her tone hard, and despite her lack of sight, her gaze was piercing and cold.
"Heh, she reminds me of grandfather Madara, or Great-Uncle Tobirama." Riley thought to herself with a smirk.
"You're very wise for your age. I have some ways of proving it, though perhaps you'll feel the connection between the feather you hold, and me." Riley answered, reaching her hand out. The young girl was still gently fiddling with the feather with her finger with it began to pull free from her bracer and float towards Riley.
She quickly reached out and snatched it in the air, luckily managing to grab it, despite not being able to see where it was. As she held it in her closed fist, Riley reached taking the smaller girl's hand in her own. She tensed at the contact, and started to pull away, but stopped when she felt a warmth spread through her hand.
It was a comfortable warmth, like a gentle hug, something the young girl rarely had the chance to experience in her life. Slowly Riley rotated her closed fist till the palm was facing upward. Using her free hand, to gently open her daughter's fist. The moment she did, the young girl felt a warm heat pass over her, almost like the warmth of a comforting fire.
She couldn't see it, but she could tell that the feather was reacting, almost like it had been lit on fire. For a moment she didn't understand, when Riley suddenly released her and the heat retreated and the cool air of the night replaced it.
She was quiet as she ran her fingers over the feather, it was unburned, and felt warm to the touch as it always had. She was confused and didn't quite understand what had happened. After several long moments she placed the feather back in her wrist bracer and focused her attention back onto Riley.
"Well that's never happened before. Let's say I'm willing to hear you out, what other proof do you have?" The girl inquired, earning a smirk from Riley.
"Hmm… well now, I could describe how your appearance is a stark combination of mine and your mother's. Or how your attitude reminds me a lot of your great-grandfather. I could tell you about how your extrasensory ability seems to be an improvement on the sensory abilities of your grandfather and great-granduncle. Though perhaps allowing you to meet your other mother, will help prove my words as the truth." Riley replied, earning a confused look from the girl as she motioned for Gaia and Yugito to hop down from the forest.
"I have two moms?" The girl inquired.
"Yep. And to answer your next question, I'm not human. You're only half human, which you get from the mother that birthed you. Your other half came from me." Riley explained.
The girl stood there in silence for several moments before scratching the back of her head and then shaking it as she tried to grasp what that could possibly mean.
"So this is one of your children?" Yugito noted as she eyed the girl.
"Yep, mine and Gaia's I do believe." Riley replied, sharing a glance with Gaia as she did.
"She looks like you Riley. Pale, dark hair, she holds herself like you do." Gaia noted.
"Like you too, my love. She has your eyes, and you and I hold ourselves in similar ways." Riley responded with a chuckle.
"Wait, you have eyes like mine?" The girl asked, still having not given her name.
"Our coloring is the same, though I'm not blind. I'm honestly surprised that any of Riley's children could lack in that particular sense, considering her lineage if well known for their ocular abilities. Has your sight always been this way, or is this the cause of an injury?" Gaia inquired curiously.
"Uh, it's always been like this. At least as far as I can remember." The girl shrugged, turning her gaze towards the new voice.
"I see. What do you think caused it?" Gaia inquired, glancing at Riley.
"Not sure. If you'd like I can see if I can correct whatever caused you to go blind." Riley responded, her offer earned a look of surprise from the girl.
"Wait you can?!" The girl replied with surprise.
"Maybe. I mean I have to know what's causing your blindness first, but I'm very skilled at healing, so I should hopefully be able to manage." Riley replied with a smirk. "If you'd like I can at least see what's wrong?"
The girl was quiet for a moment as she seemed to think on the offer, after a moment she offered a nod, curious to see what Riley would say.
Riley stepped up to the young girl and placed her hand over her eyes. Using healing magics she began to do a scan of her eyes and ocular nerves to try and discern what the issue was. While she was carrying out her work, the girl shifted as she felt a familiar warmth pass into her. It felt almost exactly like the warmth from the feather. It was a familiar feeling, something that had been a constant in her life for as long as she could remember. She was still skeptical, but she was now a bit closer to believing that Riley was telling the truth.
"There's nothing wrong with your eyes." Riley stated aloud after several moments.
"Other than that they don't work?" The girl replied with just the right amount of snark.
"No they work, just not like regular eyes. Or I should say, not like human eyes. Your eyes aren't missing the ability to see, they simply never could. And that's because your eyes are a mutation of sorts. Allow me to show you..." Riley explained as she reached out with her magic, passing it into the girl's body, using it to grab hold of the girl's magic and guide it to her eyes, passing it deliberately through the magical pathways that clustered tightly around her eyes.
The girl could obviously feel her own energy moving in a strange way, and tensed up.
"What are you…?" She began only to let out a grunt of pain before gasping as something amazing happened.
From what had once been complete darkness, figures exploded into view. While terrain itself remained black, a bluish energy washed out over everything like a light mist, wrapping around rocks, floating over the ground, moving around trees, she could clearly make out these objects contrasted by the blue fog.
Standing before her was three figures. All three had human outlines, the two that stood further back, one being her birth mother, had dense blue pathways of energy lining their bodies, stemming from where the heart would be. At their heart's was a large and dense glow of this blue energy, and very near to the heart, was a very different kind of energy. In her mother, it was a sickly yellow coloring, and as dense as stone, and within the other woman, it was a darker blue, with black specks in it. Both of these strange colorings made her nervous.
It was Riley's shape that drew the most confusion and fright. She lacked in the pathways that the other two possessed. Instead her entire form seemed to be comprised of dense dark energy. Energy that was almost purely black. The only coloring it had was a fiery red that burned near where the heart would be, otherwise Riley's entire form was black.
"She possesses the Byakugan." Gaia noted, seeing the veins emerging around the girl's eyes.
"How does she have the Byakugan?" Yugito inquired curiously.
"Riley has it." Gaia answered, glancing at her companion.
"Oh. I didn't know that." Yugito admitted.
"I don't rely on it for combat, and I only use it for taking a look around if need be. With that being said I actually have another reason why I don't use it, I'll explain it to you later." Riley stated, earning a nod of understanding from Yugito.
"This is so weird..." The girl muttered as she felt her vision begin to drift. The sensation was a completely foreign one as her sight seemed to advance and then move in different directions, despite her body remaining unmoving and her with her facing forward. It got to the point where she was looking somewhere to the right, in the forest, despite having not moved.
The feeling of her sight drifting, seemingly on it's own, was enough to make her dizzy and she started to teeter.
Riley let out a chuckle and cut off the magic flowing to her daughter's eyes, and used her hands to steady the young girl.
The intensity she'd been feeling in her eyes, quickly vanished when Riley removed her hand. And with the vanishing intensity, her sight went with it, everything returning to nothingness.
"Wow… that was crazy." The girl muttered as she rubbed at her eyes.
"That was the power of the Byakugan. If you would like I can show you how to control that power, and use it to your advantage." Riley offered.
"Hmm… I might take you up on that. Alright, let's say I believe you, you said you weren't human, so what are you?" The girl inquired.
"I'm a demon. I believe around here you'd call me a spirit." Riley answered.
"You're a spirit? That means I'm a half spirit? What does that mean?" The girl inquired.
"It means you're stronger than a normal human. Your powers are greater, your abilities more vast. You aren't constrained like the people around you. Unlike these Elementals, you are free to walk your own path." Riley replied.
"Huh… alright… I think I wanna know more so why don't you follow me back to Ba Sing Se. We can go to where I'm staying and talk more there and I can introduce you to my friends." The girl offered after a moment.
"Sure, I think we'd like that." Riley responded, earning nods from her mates.
"Alright then. Follow me, and try to keep up. Oh, and by the way, the name's Toph." Toph said to them.
"Toph. Alright, as I said my name is Riley." Riley replied.
"Yugito." Yugito offered.
"Gaia." Gaia added.
Toph took a moment, memorizing the three names, especially the names of her mothers. After a few moments she nodded and raced off, the three quickly following behind her.
The four made their way to the walls of the city as the sun began to rise. They were less than a mile from the edges of it, when a strange sight fell from the sky. A large, six legged mammal floated down from the sky. It looked like a bison, though it had the flat tail of a manatee. It was covered in white fur and had a saddle on it's back. In the saddle sat two young men.
The creature drifted down next to Toph as she raced forward, unaware of it's presence, she continued onward. One of the boys called out, asking if she needed a lift. Toph let out a startled cry and lost her balance flipping onto the ground, both boys cringing as she hit the ground hard.
Toph let out a grunt of annoyance and pulled herself to her feet as the large creature landed nearby.
"Toph, quick hop on, we have to go. Katara's in danger!" One of the boys shouted to her.
Toph stared back for a moment before nodding and turning her attention to Riley, Gaia, and Yugito.
"Looks like there's gonna be a change of plans. I've gotta go help my friends. Can you guys just wait around here until I get back?" Toph asked.
"Do you need help?" Riley inquired.
"Nah, I'm sure I can handle whatever trouble my friend's gotten into. You are looking at the greatest Earthbender in the world after all." Toph replied with a smirk, brushing off their concern.
"When should we expect you back?" Gaia asked.
"By no later than tonight. I'll come find you guys, and we can keep talking. For now I've got to go." Toph replied, as she turned back to her friends and used her earthbending to leap up onto the bison's back.
Riley and her partners stared after her as Toph and her companions took to the skies and flew over the towering walls of Ba Sing Se.
"Should we follow them?" Yugito inquired.
"I've got her in my senses. If she's not back by tonight, we'll go see what's up. For now, let's let her handle it. After all, we're supposed to be bonding, and she seems like the prideful type. Best to watch from a distance and give the illusion of separation." Riley responded to her question.
"Coming from you, that's unnerving." Gaia noted, earning a smirk from Riley.
"Am I ever not there, Gaia? That is the question. Are you ever truly alone? I mean, not counting the bat shit crazy raccoon-dog." Riley inquired in reply, earning a shake of the head from Gaia, who showed her annoyance.
"The sun just came up. If we're going to wait until nightfall before acting, perhaps it's best that you explain to us what you know of these lands. I know you took in the souls of those soldiers I killed, and also perhaps you should fill Yugito in on more of your abilities. She knows what you are but maybe explaining a bit more about what you can do will help with any confusion. While that's going on, I'm going to rest. You did drag me on this adventure without a full night's sleep after all." Gaia suggested, earning a nod from both Yugito and Riley.
From there, Riley quickly built a makeshift shelter using Earth and Wood style. Something small and inconspicuous, so they could get out of the sun.
The three spent the day discussing what Riley knew. That this world was embroiled in war, that it was basically the Fire Nation versus everyone else, and that they'd already taken out the Air Nomads. Riley explained how the magic of these people seemed to work. That they were a type of magical being called an Elemental, and could only use magic of their given element, or magic with no element. The magical people here called themselves benders,and used body movements in the form of martial arts, to manipulate the elements.
The only outlier was a being called the Avatar, which was a unique individual with the power to use the four elements of Fire, Wind, Water, and Earth.
Toph was an Earthbender, though she wasn't an Elemental like the rest of these people, she simply had a powerful Earth affinity, and was thus able to learn the skill as they had developed it. At least from what Riley could tell. Though in truth, Toph's magic showed that she had two elemental bases that she had received from Gaia, namely Earth and Wind. So it was curious to see if she could learn Airbending as well. Considering they were all dead now, perhaps the art was simply lost, then again, the Avatar was supposedly an Airbender, so perhaps it was possible.
While they discussed, Riley kept her senses open for any demonic presence nearby that could be Yugito's child. She couldn't sense anything right away, though there was a significant darkness coming from the heart of the giant City of Ba Sing Se, though that was to be expected from a city that large. After reconvening with Toph and getting their bearings, the trio could start their search for the second missing child.
Once Riley had filled them in on everything she knew and suspected, Gaia went and took a nap, leaving Riley and Yugito to discuss some of what Riley could actually do, thanks to her demonic powers. Such as her ability to take in the souls of people she killed, which was how she knew so much in general.
The two kept up their discussion all day, and had Gaia rejoin them several hours later when she awoke.
Eventually nightfall came again, and the three set up outside, waiting for any sight of Toph.
An hour went by and they were about to head into the city to start searching for her, when the sight of the large white bison caught their eyes. It was heading out of the city as fast as it could fly. Riley could sense desperation, fear, and despair ebbing off of the people on the bison's back.
Riley shared a glance with her mates, and noted that something was wrong.
In response Gaia gathered together a platform of sand and commanded the other two to hop onto it. She then joined them and used it as a platform to fly up to the bison.
Once they got close, Riley hopped off the platform and onto the saddle.
"You guys alright?" Riley inquired.
"Who are you?" Came the question from a man, the only adult of the group.
"You're the lady who was with Toph from this morning, how did you get up here?" Came the question from one of the two boys from earlier in the day.
"I knew you could float. Hey can you help my friend?" Toph asked.
Riley stared back at her for a moment then glanced over to see a young woman cradling the other boy from earlier. He seemed injured, and wasn't responsive.
Riley moved over to the two, and knelt next to the girl. She glanced up at Riley and for a moment there was suspicion in her gaze, but it quickly retreated when she locked eyes with Riley, and found herself almost hypnotized by the Rinne Sharingan.
"Toph who is this?" The older of the two boys asked.
"She's someone we can trust, and Aang needs help." Toph replied.
"Allow me." Riley offered.
"You're a healer?" The girl asked.
"I know a bit. What happened to him?" Riley asked.
"He was struck by lightning. I think it stopped his heart. I tried to heal him with spirit water, but he still won't wake up." The girl replied, earning a nod from Riley as she repositioned herself and placed her hand over the boy's back.
The girl watched as glowing green energy flowed from Riley's hand into the boy's back.
Riley was quiet as she ran a diagnostic on the boy's injuries.
"Who did this to him?" Riley inquired as she felt something unusual coming from the wound.
"Azula. The Princess of the Fire Nation." The girl replied, malice entering her voice as she did.
"Princess of the Fire Nation. That's interesting. You must be the other, princess Azula." Riley thought to herself as she felt the twisted demonic energy that churned within the wound, keeping it from healing and tainting it. The spirit water that was used on it, seemed to have diluted the darkness considerably, but it was still there, and it would continue to taint the wound unless it was purified.
Riley placed her hand onto the injury, using her powers to draw upon the darkness within the wound. Static jumped from the boy's flesh and into her palm as she slowly pulled away, drawing out the power within the wound and clearing the corruption. Everyone watched as she did this, silent as the bison flew through the skies.
It took several seconds to accomplish the delicate task, but finally the wound was cleared of corruption.
"There. He should respond to healing now. His wound was corrupted by dark energy. I've removed it." Riley explained to the girl. She offered a nod at that and hugged the boy to her.
Riley slowly turned her gaze over to Gaia and Yugito, both still flying beside the bison.
"We may have a bit of a problem." Riley sent through her mental link to Gaia.
"The look on your face says as much. Let's figure out what's going on and see how we can help." Gaia replied.
Riley nodded at that, and began to ask about what had happened. In the back of her mind though, she knew she'd just ended up in the middle of a headache of a situation. One daughter fought with the Avatar, and one fought for the Fire Nation. This was gonna be interesting, if nothing else.
For now though, Riley would keep the identity of the second child constrained to her and her mates. Best not to let that information out until they had a game plan.
In the meantime, they would stick with Toph and her friends, and see what they could do to help them. It seemed like she would need a lot more help than the other daughter would. Or at the very least, her situation was far more perilous.
A short while later, they arrived at a small camp where members of the Water Tribe were returning from a raid against the Fire Nation. During their trip, Riley and her mates learned the names of their new companions. There was Brother and Sister, Sokka and Katara, the king of the Earth Kingdom Kuei, whom the group had rescued. And finally the injured boy was actually the Avatar, the last Airbender, named Aang.
While Toph and her friends were in low spirits, they were quick to accept Riley, Gaia, and Yugito thanks to Riley's help in healing Aang. While they traveled, they got the story of what happened after Toph had left them.
The Fire Nation Prince and Princess had orchestrated some sort of coup with the secret police of Ba Sing Se, the Dai Li. With the capital of the Earth kingdom now taken, the Fire Nation had effectively won the war.
Now they were arriving at a camp where Sokka and Katara's father led a small force of Water tribe soldiers. With any luck, they would find some help there.
After arriving and meeting with the Water tribe soldiers, Katara set to work on healing Aang's remaining injuries. The wound had almost completely vanished, save for an ugly round scar in the center of his back. Thankfully it seemed the boy was no longer in danger, but he hadn't yet awoken, and after a quick check from Riley, she surmised that he had very nearly died from that attack. He had essentially come as close to death as a person could without fully crossing over.
His life functions had begun to shut down, and he was essentially heading out the door, but thankfully, the special spirit water that Katara had used to heal him, managed to restore life functions.
Knowing this, it didn't surprise Riley that he hadn't awoken yet, and she even told his friends that it may be several days before he did awaken. Coming that close to death was not something easily recovered from.
While they remained worried for him, they were at least thankful that he was still alive. For the moment, Toph hadn't told her friends who Riley claimed to be, and just kept it that the three were new friends she had met.
That was fine with Riley, Gaia, and Yugito. For now they had more important things to worry about.
By morning the following day, Fire Nation ships began to enter the lake, so Sokka and Katara's father, Hakoda, came up with a plan to capture a Fire Nation vessel and use it to slip out of sight. Riley, Gaia, and Yugito offered their services to the operation and after a quick showing of their speed and stealth, Hakoda saw no reason not to accept their assistance.
That night, they scuttled the Water Tribe vessels and successfully captured a Fire Nation patrol ship. With a means to escape, they now made a break for it, concealing Aang and his flying Bison Oppa, within the ship's hull.
Not long after taking the ship, Riley pulled her mates aside and explained to them her suspicion that the one who had delivered the near lethal strike to Aang, was a half-demon, and was most likely her and Yugito's daughter. The Fire Nation princess, Azula.
Both women shared thoughtful looks with one another but agreed that the chances that it was another half-demon who had done it was simply too slim, especially on a planet this small. More than likely, Riley was correct. Which meant that they were now stuck in the center of a hundred year long war.
On one side, was a daughter fighting with her friends against tyranny, and on the other was a daughter, elevated to the role of princess, who was fighting to conquer the world. Needless to say, they would have to proceed very carefully.
For now they would work with Toph, and begin investigating Azula. If Riley was correct then a plan would be needed to get into contact with her. For now though, she was in far less danger than Toph was, so it was agreed by the three to help her and her friends get to safety and use that time to figure out what they were going to do.
So with that in mind, the three settled in with their new companions. For the foreseeable future, everyone would simply be cautious around one another until they had escaped the Fire Nation. So that gave Riley's group some time to plan out a course of action. So that's what they did. Kept their heads low, and drew upon their roots. All three were kunoichi after all, so it was time to bleed into the background, watch, and listen.
-TwoWeeks Later-
The Fire Nation prince, Zuko sat quietly by a pond in the gardens of the royal palace. He was deep in thought reflecting on his actions that had led him to this moment.
He had betrayed his uncle, an action that still stung at him. Even now he didn't know if his betrayal had been worth it. His father had yet to see him, and with each passing moment his trepidation at their eventual meeting grew.
Would his father accept him? Would he judge him unworthy since he had returned without the Avatar?
These thoughts swirled in Zuko's mind and it left him uneasy.
"What's got you so down? Mai seems to be rubbing off on you." Came the mocking tone of his younger sister.
"What do you want?" Zuko asked with a tired sigh, knowing full well that her presence here wasn't going to be a comforting one.
"I just came to check on you. You seemed kind of downtrodden and moody, well more than normal. After everything that happened I figured you'd be happy to finally be home." Azula responded, folding her arms over her chest as she did.
"I am happy. It's just... I don't understand why father hasn't seen me yet. What if he doesn't accept me back?" Zuko responded, turning his gaze up to her.
Azula let out an annoyed sigh and shook her head. "Look Zuzu, the Avatar is dead and together we brought down the Earth Kingdom. If father doesn't accept you back then I guess you were simply doomed from the start. No need to get so fussy about it. Whatever happens will happen. Personally I think you're just freaking out over nothing. Father has no reason not to accept you back. That is... unless you know something that I don't."
"What are you getting at?" Zuko asked, sending a suspicious gaze her way.
"Oh nothing. It's like I said before. With the Avatar dead, father has no reason not to accept you back. Unless of course you believe there's a reason he could have survived." Azula responded, returning his suspicious look with a curious one.
Zuko was quiet for a moment as he recalled the Avatar's friend from the Water Tribe telling him about special healing water she had taken from the North pole. There was a possibility that she had used that water to save the Avatar, but Zuko wasn't about to tell Azula that.
"No. It's impossible. There's no way he survived." Zuko replied. His response earned a nod from Azula. One that showed that she was letting the question drop, but it didn't reveal if she believed him or not.
Zuko sat quietly for a moment as Azula turned her attention towards the approaching form of her two friends, Mai and Ty-Lee.
"Wow! This place hasn't changed a bit!" Ty-Lee stated cheerfully as she reached Azula.
"Yeah still as dreary as always." Mai agreed.
"What are you guys chatting about?" Ty Lee inquired.
"Not much, Zuko's just pouting." Azula responded with a smirk.
"I am not pouting." Zuko growled out sending a glare his sister's way, his actions only serving to amuse her.
The four quietly chatted with one another for several minutes when a royal guard approached them. The guard seemed to be watching over a servant woman. It was the woman who spoke when the four turned to face them.
"A thousand apologies for interrupting you princess but... well... he's upset. I think he wants to see you." The servant woman explained, her eyes on the ground and her tone submissive.
Azula stood in silence for a moment staring back at the woman while her friends and brother glanced at her, all three wondering who 'He' was.
After several seconds, Azula let out a sigh and then shrugged her shoulders.
"I guess I have little choice in the matter. Come you three, there is something I want to show you." Azula commanded her sibling and friends as she began advancing in the direction the servant and guard had come from.
The three followed after her, curious to see what she intended to show them.
They made their way deep into the palace, winding through hallways and past dozens of servants and guards. Eventually they made it to a rather secluded section of the palace that was surprisingly under heavy guard, from the elite royal guard.
Zuko, Mai and Ty Lee, all took note of the heavy guard presence, and it was Zuko who voiced his curiosity.
"Why are there so many guards here?" He asked.
"They're protecting someone, dummy." Azula replied with a snort of amusement, earning one from Ty Lee as well.
"That's not what I meant. These aren't royal chambers, what are royal guards doing here in such numbers?" Zuko clarified, glaring at the back of his sister's head as he did.
"They're doing their job. Come, best not to keep him waiting." Azula replied.
Once again, things were being kept ambiguous. It certainly wasn't the Fire Lord they were going to see, she wouldn't have invited Mai and Ty Lee if that was the case, so then who was it?
The four passed into a heavily guarded chamber, following beside the servant woman and her guard.
They arrived in a rather cozy room, fancily decorated, and fit for royalty. There, in the center of the room was a crib.
Upon seeing it, Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee all froze, and their jaws fell open.
Azula glanced back at them and smirked at their gawking.
"Come on Zuzu. Don't you want to meet your baby brother?" Azula inquired in that innocent way of hers, that always meant trouble.
Zuko stood there, dumbfounded, as he heard the soft whining of a baby.
The servant who had sought them out was already over at the crib, she reached into it and removed a swaddled infant from it.
"Oh my goodness he's adorable!" Ty Lee stated cheerfully at the sight of the baby. The Servant nervously approached Azula and offered her the baby. For a half second Azula regarded the child with a curious look before accepting him.
She held the baby in her arms, showing an uncharacteristic gentleness as Ty Lee approached her to get a better look at the baby.
Zuko slowly began to follow, crossing the room until he was by his sister's side, staring down at his newborn baby brother.
He almost couldn't believe it. His father had found a new wife, or a concubine, regardless, he had a new sibling. The baby couldn't be more than six months old. He had night black hair, similar to the Fire Lord's and golden eyes, that actually reminded him of Azula's eyes.
He definitely had the looks of a member of the family and much to his surprise, the babe seemed comforted by Azula's presence. He no longer seemed to fuss about, and wasn't making noise. Instead he was just staring up at her with those big golden eyes.
Furthering his surprise, Azula simply stared back as she gently swayed back and forth, as if attempting to rock him to sleep.
It was definitely unlike her, but then again, not even Azula could be so cruel as to terrorize a baby.
Despite his surprise, Zuko couldn't help but smile at the child. He had a little brother, one he didn't even know about.
"What's his name?" Zuko asked.
"Shakik Azulong." Azula replied with a smirk, taking pride in the powerful name. Something that didn't go unnoticed by Zuko.
Now he was certain he was seeing a side of his sister he'd never seen before. The child was named after their grandfather Azulon, which wasn't really a surprise, though Shakik Azulong sounded more like a title than a name. It was most definitely powerful, but Azula seemingly enjoyed it, instead of rolling her eyes at it, which was something that confused him.
Azula was quick to turn her attention to Ty Lee, as her friend began to ask all sorts of questions about the baby. Zuko was more than happy to listen in, and take the time to memorize his newborn sibling. It took a moment, but he realized that there was something missing. He slowly glanced around until his eyes fell onto Mai, who still stood by the entrance.
To Zuko's surprise, he found that Mai looked sick to her stomach. Revulsion was plain to see on her face. For a half second, Zuko wanted to chuckle at that, knowing full well that she didn't like children, but then he remembered something he'd heard on the trip back from the Earth Kingdom. Mai had a baby brother. She shouldn't find the presence of a baby so mortifying.
Remembering that, he took notice of the fact that her visible disgust wasn't meant to be an overreaction or a typical Mai-ism. She was genuinely disgusted by something she was seeing.
Zuko didn't understand. He followed her gaze towards Azula and the baby, then turned back to Mai, then back to Azula and the baby. It took several moments, but Mai seemed to slowly come out of her state and her eyes met with Zuko's. Surprise reflected in them, and she immediately diverted her head, turning away from the sight and taking a deep breath.
It was apparent that she was attempting to try and repair the mask that she always wore, a cold mask of indifference, making it seem like nothing could bother her. But whatever she was experiencing had shaken her to her core.
Zuko allowed his confusion to show, as she returned her gaze to his. She met his eyes, and for the briefest moment, he could see realization flash within hers, as if she understood something in that moment. Then he saw pity, it was only there for a moment, but he knew that it was definitely pity. Mai didn't pity anyone, but in that moment, she pitied him. Because she knew something that he didn't.
He turned his gaze back to Azula and the baby, wondering what about the sight could make Mai react like this. He didn't see it, if anything, this was the most genuine he'd ever seen Azula. If he didn't know her as well as he did, he'd say she even looked motherly, with the way she held the baby in her arms and gently bounced him, trying to put him to sleep.
It was at that thought though, that he had to wonder, who was the mother, and where was she? Why wasn't she here to look after the baby?
Zuko didn't know the answer. He half caught as Ty Lee asked that very same question, and Azula simply shrugged and waved off her question, claiming that the mother was 'no one to overly concern yourself with.' and that where she was now was 'unimportant.'
It was at that moment that Zuko felt a chill run up his spine from out of nowhere. The tone of Azula's voice. It was typical for her, and she was a liar by nature. She was lying right now. Zuko focused his gaze onto the baby's face, but found that he couldn't find anything that stood out, there was no woman he could remember from the palace that matched the baby's features. The baby looked just like his father, just like him and Azula.
Slowly Mai made her way over and stood by his side. Her face, a cold mask of indifference, her mask firmly reset.
"You alright?" Zuko asked.
"Fine." Mai replied coolly.
Zuko stared at her for a few more moments before turning his gaze back to his newborn brother. Something was going on here, something that Mai either knew or suspected. What it was, he wasn't sure, but he knew he'd have to figure it out. A sinking feeling in his gut though, told him he wasn't going to like the answer.
For now though, he'd simply enjoy the time to spend with his newborn sibling, the war was over, and he was home. It was time to make the best of it.
-To Be Continued-
Alright, hope you all enjoyed, just so we're clear, the Avatar Arc is actually gonna be a longer one than most of the Child rescues. More is going on than just canon avatar. I think you all know who the children are, but are your guesses correct? Well now that is an interesting question. We'll just have to see. Big shoutout to Kilare T'suna for coming up with the idea for Shakik, he's been a big help in offering up ideas, and I'm most thankful.
Beyond that, have a great day and until next time, Ja Ne!