Down in the dark dreary depths of the underworld, there lie a hidden gem in the barren hellscape: a meadow with a single large tree, surrounded by flowers of every kind. what appeared to be the sun rose from the horizon, breathing life into the small patch of tranquility. Suddenly, a quaint drumbeat could be heard; a tiny parade of moving toys and stuffed animals happily patrolled around the tree, patting their drums and tooting their horns. And they played, and played, and played, and played, and refused to stop playing, no matter how horrifically their prisoner screamed.
And this was the cycle that Freiza was damned to endure eternally, as he hung off the tree, wrapped up to his neck in some kind of unbreakable webbing, ensuring he could never move again. Obviously, this experience wasn't exactly what a commoner would ever conceive as Hell, but Freiza was no commoner. This tranquil, peaceful place, devoid of any chaos, destruction, or calamity, was designed for his ilk - heartless, sadistic coldblooded devils with not a sense of bliss outside of the suffering of others. This was his own personal hell, made to torment his mind in every way.
"SHUT UP!" Frieza whaled."FOR BEERUS SAKE, JUST SHUT UUUUP!"
"What's that, Silly?" Asked a little fairy that floated up to Frieza's face with the most adorable smile." 'Keep playing' ? You heard'em, everypony!" she cried to her fluffy friends.
"WHAT'S THAT EVEN MEAN!?" he shrieked."WHO SAYS THAT!? NO ONE SAYS THAT! LET ME OUT OF THIS DAMN PLACE, PLEASE!"
"Well, since you said 'please'..."
In the next instant, the stuffed animals, toys, and fairies were all incinerated screaming in a blazing light, reducing the meadow to a field of embers, and the tree lifeless, yet somehow the webbing was unaffected.
It wasn't the actual force of the blast that shocked Freiza, but the deafening silence that followed: for the first time in a year, he'd actually seen and heard something other than cute singing animals."Oh thank God, it's over!"
"If by God, you mean Dr. Gero, he has little to do with this," Perfect Cell remarked as he slowly landed on the chard ground.
"Cell!?" Freiza exclaimed."How the f&^% did you get here!?"
"I'd tell you to watch your language, but," he giggled,"I mean, what's gonna happen, you gonna go to Hell?"
"Shut your trap and cut me down, NOW!" The dead emperor demanded, partially feeling a wave of relief at the realization that he was finally yelling at someone whom might do as he says.
"Yes, Dad..." Cell rolled his eyes. With a swift swing of his finger, a yellow laser sliced through the thread of silk Freiza dangled from. In a beat, Freiza felt all of his power crackling back to life, and with a scream, he vaporized his webbed restrains, his body free. The moment his feet descended to the ground, the entire meadow vanished, leaving only a pink void.
Cell's left eye squinted."Did you do that on your own, to the ground I mean?"
Freiza shrugged."Either way, I find the more hellish aesthetic to be ironically appealing."
"That's a surprise for no one," Drolled Cell.
"So, how exactly did you get here," questioned Freiza,"and with none the wiser I hope?"
Cell grinned, and tapped his forehead."Instantaneous Movement - a little trick I learned from your old friend Goku; let's me pop from one location to the next in the blink of an eye."
"Across realms?" Freiza supposed,"Shouldn't that include the realm of the living?"
"It should," Cell raised his hands,"But that'd be unwise for the moment: As long as I remain on this side of reality, my popping remains undetected by the powers that be." Cell looking away."Not that it matters, since I was vaporized to the last cell upon death; so I don't have a physical form to interact with the living...yet..."
Naturally, that ignited serious curiosity from the pale tyrant."Are you implying that you're searching for a physical form to imbue your soul?" he smirked raising his finger to his lips."Why do I get the feeling the Dragon Balls are involved in this?"
"Your feelings are wrong," Cell dismissed,"We don't need the Dragon Balls where we're going: I'm going to make one myself. The rest of you will have to find some on your own."
"Make a body? The rest of us?" Freiza frowned in confusion; Freiza did not like being confused."It seems you're holding me in suspense for a surprise - a surprise I might not like at that."
"Whether you enjoy the surprise or not depends upon my next question..." Cell smiled deviously,"How eager are you to be united with your brother...?"
Azula frowned in confusion; Azula did not like being confused, especially when it concerned her plans. The surrounding soldiers stared at her in similar confusion, given that their princess had literally just descended from the clouds above to grace them with her presence; but the princess wasn't here for them.
Azula quickly paced into a particular tent which the majority of her forces had dreaded to so much as look in the general direction of. Once inside, oblivious to the frightened pleas of the doctors, she pulled down the zipper which parted the leather drape within the tent revealing a small, moist chamber with a metal coffin on the other end, attached to various tubes that pumped steam into it.
Without a word, Azula abruptly kicked the foot of the coffin."I would like to have a word with you!"
The terrified doctors immediately zipped the chamber back closed, as steam seeped out of the coffin, its door slowly rising open, filling the room with warm mist. From out the vapor ascended Cell, his arms crossed; his eyes flashed open."How may I be of service to you, Princess?" he sneered with a heavy Romanian accent.
Perfect Cell's regeneration process had become far more strenuous since the crippling of his ki; after he was blown to hell and back again courtesy of Vegeta, what remained of his body was charred and barely recognizable; had he not been able to just barely call for help, Azula would have thought him dead. Cell found that he needed an isolated, clean, damp environment to hasten his regeneration, which was just barely complete, albeit his organic armor was still as sensitive as steamed shrimp.
"First of all, stop talking like that," Azula began."Secondly, I was just taking my usual airborne jog through the Earth Kingdom, when recently, I happened upon the Avatar and his friends..."
"And you did not kill them because...?" Cell paused.
"Because aside from your Saiyan friend, not only did I manage to see the Avatar in complete control over his Avatar State, but I also noticed that seemingly useless Water Tribe boy...suddenly bursting with an enormous surge of energy."
"Is this the part where I spit out my imaginary drink and suddenly gain a cowardly demeanor?" Cell snarked."I already told you what I did to him, which by the way was an accident, may I remind you."
"Oh yes, I remember," Azula lamented,"I remember you actually intending to give the Avatar himself a portion of your chi, and vaguely stating that it was more of a 'curse' than a gift..."
"As do I," Cell replied nonchalantly,"Where are you going with this, Azula?"
"Why the hell would you willingly make the Avatar stronger!?" She demanded,"because of your actions, there is now just as many beings that can control ki on the enemy side as us!"
"Ah, but that's the kicker: I didn't," Cell grinned,"That chunk of energy I accidentally gave that twerp? He's not in control of it; he may be able utilize for a little while, but eventually its going to become unstable, and destroy him along with both your and my enemies, which is why the Avatar was the intended target. Don't you see, Azula? I've turn him into a living time bomb."
That should have put Azula at ease, but she was too smart for that."And that's something you can do with your energy?" she inquired."Then tell me this: what's the difference between the chi you gave him and the chi you gave us? What's to stop myself and Ty Lee from losing control and going off like bombs?"
"Simple, not enough," answered Cell in a beat."I gave the boy far more power than you and your ditsy friend combined; so much that his pathetic body can't contain it all. With you two, I gave just enough stimulate your natural ability to control your chi, incase you were wondering why you haven't run out of energy yet."
This did nothing to do away with Azula's skeptical expression. She truly had no idea whether or not Cell was telling the truth - she was a people person, not for whatever in fire's name Cell was supposed to be. Regardless, the princess turned back and walked for the exit."One more thing Cell..."
"I know, I smell delicious, don't even think about it..." Cell deadpanned.
"...before you tried to stab the Avatar, you whispered something to him...what was it?"
Now this query Cell was not ready for, almost letting his perfect composure flinch. He just blinked "...oh, I dunno, something like 'prepare to die' or some other ominous jabber." he blew the question away with his wet, greasy hand.
"That's all." Azula finished.
When she left the tent, she found Ty Lee a few step away, making some kind of weird pose."So it goes like this, right? Oh-Okay, I do it with my other leg!"
"Ty Lee, who are you talking to?" Azula sighed.
"Just my new imaginary friends! They're teaching me how to improve my choreography!"
"That's nice..." Azula rolled her eyes, walking off to her own tent. It was as if each day became more complicated ever since that spiky-haired warrior showed up, and his tall green friend certainly wasn't helping: according to Cell, the one called "Sokka" not only was given more energy then herself, but he might even have control over it, and there was no doubt, with that ruthless Saiyan in their camp, that newly discovered power was being exploited to train the teen mercilessly.
The ruthlessly Vegeta mercilessly pounded Sokka's face with volley upon volley of punches and kicks."What's the matter, Water Tribe BITCH!? I thought you were a natural born prodigy, not a natural born BITCH! If you weren't such a little BITCH, you'd be deflecting these strikes that only a BITCH couldn't deflect, but instead you and your BITCH ass is taking them like a BITCH! Maybe you should change your village's name to 'the Southern BITCH Tribe'!"
"Would you believe that's a real derogatory name for the Southern Water Tribe where I'm from?" Mai pointed out to Katara.
"I'm not even remotely surprised..." Katara sighed.
With an unapologetic hay-maker to the temple, Sokka's limp, bruised, barely conscious body flopped to the ground.
Vegeta did some post workout stretching."Well, that's enough training for today..."
"Are you serious, brother?" Tarble demanded."Sokka didn't even get a single block in; I'm getting the suspicious feeling your just taking advantage of his durability to make for a punching bag to vent your repressed anger."
"What are you on about?" Vegeta queried."I'm always like this; I have no pent up rage against anyone, particularly speaking." he said, but then Sokka dizzily arose next to him."WHO SAID YOU COULD GET BACK UP, KAKAROT!?" he shout before pounding Sokka's head into the sand.
Aang's earthbending training wasn't fairing much better; though ironically, it was the teacher that was suffering more. As the frustrated Toph hurled boulder after boulder (spirit's rest his soul...), the Avatar merely dodged them like he would any attack, the exact opposite of what he was suppose to do.
After he dodged the lat rock, Toph sighed."Aang, what nation are you from?" she asked so calmly that Aang could barely hear her.
"What?" Aang naturally asked, before Toph slid in front of him, seized him by his collar, and body-slammed him to the dirt.
" The 'What' Nation ain't no nation I've ever heard of! They bend earth in the What Nation!?"
"What I-!?" Aang gagged.
"EARTH, MUTHA&(&*UH! DO YOU BEND IT!?"
"I dunno how!" Aang pleaded."I'm sorry, but everything about it is like the opposite of airbending!"
"Yeah, you are sorry!" barked Toph like a drill sergeant," If you're not tough enough to stop the rock, then you could at least give it the pleasure of smushing you instead of jumping out of the way like a jelly-boned wimp! Now, do you have what it takes to face that rock like an earthbender?!"
Katara frowned deeply. Neither Aang or Sokka was making any progress in their training. Aang was especially starting to trouble her: he was the Avatar, learning earthbending was supposed to be his destiny; she was certain, despite what Vegeta said, he couldn't face the Fire Lord without it.
"I've got a better question:" Vegeta posed,"How about he faces them like a Saiyan and let's the pebbles bounce off? Your wasting his time; if you just let me train him, he would have to worry about your stupid rock throwing."
"Yeah, I'm taking a hard pass on that..." Aang admitted, eyeing the comatose Sokka.
"Then you will fail!" Vegeta flung his finger down at the possibly still breathing teen."This is how real training is done! You break your body down to fine dust, recover from your injuries, learn from your mistakes, and become stronger than ever!"
"Perhaps if Aang or Sokka actually were Saiyans, you'd have a point, but their not," Tarble reminded."Getting stronger from your injuries is a Saiyan-exclusive trait; and at the rate your 'training' him, I doubt he'll be able to remember his own name..."
"I already forgot it..." Sokka moaned.
"Well, between that and your love of meat, you have even more in common with Kakarot..." Vegeta joked.
"Alright, I have it with this!" Toph stomped her foot."Who even IS that Kakarot guy!?"
"That's a very good question..." Tarble added."You keep speaking of this lower-class Saiyan never discovered by the Frieza Force that you fought in the past. Why does he make you so angry?"
"None of your damn business, he's freaking dead!" Vegeta snapped."Cell killed him..." he added quietly, and, oddly enough, with a hint of depression.
Katara stared at the Saiyan in confusion."Was he close to you?"
"NO!" Spat Vegeta immaturely."He was a clown, a weakling, and a total dumbass! End of story!"
Everyone who wasn't Sokka stared at the older Saiyan as he looked away and crossed his arms. It wasn't the way he usually did it, to look cool; it seemed more like it was out of unspoken anxiety.
"well, whatever..." mumbled Sokka,"We get it, you hate him; can you at least stop pretending I'm him?" he requested as lie there, rubbing his head."It's kinda hard to enjoy my new-found powers with there's a guy with way more of it than me beating me up every waking moment..."
Aang huffed."You know what, guys? I think we all need a mini-vacation," he said as he jumped into Appa's saddle, jump off, and produced a map."There's this great place near by called the Misty Palms Oasis."
"Oh, I'm familiar with the name," Vegeta responded,"Evidently, you and my father spent a very passionate night there three hundred years ago..."
Aang's face paled."yeah...that place..." he repressed the image."Anyway, I've been there-"
"I know," Vegeta retorted.
"...in THIS life..." the boy added." It's a pristine natural ice spring, and I usually don't use the word 'pristine'. It's one of nature's wonders!" he beamed.
Perhaps a century ago, the Avatar's statement was true; the rest of the group would never know, however, seeing as how the current state of this place barely reassembled the illustration: there were no palm trees, the area was filled with gangs and homeless people, and the 'nature's wonder' had melted down into barely a few feet tall.
"If this is where Kyoshi and my father made love..." Vegeta glared,"that slut must've had pretty low standard's..."
"How drunk was Father!?" Tarble's eye squinted.
"A hundred years is a long time, okay!?" Aang defended himself.
"Whatever, might as well get something to eat while we're here, if there's actually something edible..." Vegeta grimaced.
They headed toward what looked like a tavern. Before Vegeta could take a step closer, a loogie hit the dirt right in front of his boot, stopping him in his tracks; he eyed the grizzly-looking sandbender that spat it, the thug's toothless mug grinning wide.
Vegeta then looked at Tarble."Take the kids inside..." he said tentatively.
Tarble immediately rushed the young ones into the bar.
Sokka looked around."Hey, this place isn't so-"
The building suddenly rocked with a bone-crunching crunch, spreading a crack on their side of the wall, dust falling from the ceiling.
"...weeee might not wanna look outside..." Toph remarked, having sensed the full extent of the damage.
"Alright, let's get a drink," chirped Vegeta as he walked in, wiping some red and pink substance off his glove.
"One Mango please..." asked a nerdy looking man with a flat hat, sitting at the counter. The waiter proceeded to whip out to swords and skillfully slice a whole mango to pieces without killing anyone, pouring the juice into a bowl for the customer to drink.
"I wonder what variety of cocktails this place has?" Vegeta grinned, leering over Aang.
"Please stop..." Aang sighed.
The group stepped over to the counter as Sokka called for a drink, the flat-hatted man bumped into Aang, spilling his drink onto the boy clothes.
"Excuse me!" The man hastily apologized.
"Wow," Vegeta's brows rose, fisting his palm,"two in a row, huh? Close your eyes, boy..."
"For Kai's sake, Vegeta!" Tarble stopped his brothers advance.
"No worries, I clean up easy..." Aang replied, before putting his fist together and blowing his own clothes dry, naturally astonishing the man.
"You're a living relic!" The man marveled.
"Come on, boy, he just called you 'old', he's practically asking for it!" Vegeta growled, further clenching his fist.
"An Air Nomad - right in front of me..." the nerd continued,"I'm Professor Zei, head of anthropology at Ba Sing Se University."
"And I'm Prince Vegeta, head of my broken foot up your ass."
The professor examined Aang's bald head."Tell me, which Air Temple do you hail from?"
"The Sourthern Air Temple." Aang responded.
"Are you not even remotely interested in who I am or where I hail from?" Vegeta inquired.
"Oh splendid!" The professor beamed, now measuring the dimensions of the airbender's cranium."Now tell me, what as the primary agricultural export of your people?"
The prince visibly twitched."Your about to see my people's primary export if-!" The younger prince tightened his grip.
"How could this man even know what we are?" the brother queried.
"I'm sorry, are you someone important?" the professor finally addressed the man.
"I'M THE GODDAMN PRINCE OF ALL SAIYANS!"
The scientist blinked."ah, so no one relevant then..." he continued to scan the airbender as veins spread across Vegeta's forehead.
"Oh YOU DONE F$%^'D UP NOW...!" Vegeta howled, charging a ki ball inches from the oblivious man's head. Tarble hastily perried Vegeta's shooting hand upward, causing him to shoot the ceiling, making a rock fall on Toph's head, knocking her out. This made Vegeta laugh, making him forget why he was so angry seconds ago.
"So professor, you seemed to be a pretty, traveled guy," Sokka remarked,"You wouldn't happen to have any maps of the Fire Nation?" he asked. After all, they had to go there inevitably to end the war and etc. Knowing a decent lay of the land couldn't hurt.
"The Fire Nation? I'm afraid not..." the man replied.
"Seriously? Does nobody have a good map of that place?" Sokka glared.
"Well obviously not here," responded Vegeta,"as if they would allow any illustration of their country on enemy territory."
"I do, however, have drawn out a very detailed map of this desert..." The professor said, taking the chart out of his pack and spreading along the counter."This area is full of lost civilizations, but I'm searching for the crown jewel: Wa Shi Tong's Library. According to legend it was created by a spirit of the same name, and is said to contain a vast collection of ancient knowledge."
Now that peaked Vegeta's interest in a way that didn't tempt the Saiyan to murder him." 'Ancient'? How ancient?"
"As ancient as history itself..." the professor replied enthusiastically.
Vegeta and Tarble shared the same look, and the same epiphany.
"This library sounds like a place old enough to have first-hand accounts of the Saiyan invasion..."
"...And some accurate maps the Fire Nation could never know about..." Sokka added.
Vegeta smirked."Alright, kids, I think we've found our next mini-vacation: we're going..."
"TO THE LIBRARY!" Sokka and Vegeta announced with epic voices.
"Excellent!" Zei clapped his hands together."Let me go grab my things!" he spun around and ran out the door.
Just then, Toph remembered, but it was too late."er-Wait! Don't go outsi-!"
"OH DEAR SPIRITS, HIS BRAIN IS EVERYWHERE!" the voice of the professor shrieked.
"Something tells me we ought to use the back door..." Tarble deadpanned.
The journey, compared to Professor Zei's long perilous ones, was child's play with Appa. Not to mention Vegeta and Tarble flying at Appa's flanks to widen their line of sight (to Vegeta's further agitation, Zei seemed totally disinterested. Sokka tried to fly with them with unsurprising failure; at best, with his power, he could leap over tall buildings in a single bound, though Vegeta dismissed that feat as something the universe's weakest races could accomplish.
As the quest grew longer and more grueling for the kids, Toph's patience to find something she wasn't even remotely interest in grew worse.
Does this place even exist?" Asked Toph at some point.
"Some say it doesn't," Zei answered with a smile.
Toph scowled."Shouldn't you have mentioned that before?"she was, clearly, blind.
"Yeah, well, I thought aliens didn't exist, and yet here we are..." Sokka noted.
Out of boredom, Toph successfully pranked everyone by pretending to spot the building herself, reminding everyone that, she was still blind.
"What if Vegeta yelled really loud so you could sense it?" Katara proposed.
"Yeah, I didn't tell you guys earlier, but I could literally hear Vegeta screaming from hundreds of miles away, long I even met him, so no thanks..." Toph grimaced at the thought.
"How long ago?" Aang wondered.
"Omashu long ago..."
"THERE IT IS FOR REAL!" Tarble announced, pointing to a structure in the distance.
"Are you referring to that thin tower in the middle of nowhere that looks nothing like the enormous monolith of a library in the illustration?" Vegeta queried.
"Look closely," Tarble explained, flying into the saddle and taking the parchment out. He pointed to the top of the building."You see? That tower sits at the crown of the library: that IS the place!"
The group landed before the tower, raising their heads to the top.
"Blind girl! Give us a reading!" Vegeta ordered the living sonar.
Toph walked up to the tower and felt it."It seems like the entire library is intact, just buried under all this sand."
"Welp, time to start excavating...!" Zei beamed, whipping out a tiny shovel.
"Sure," Vegeta looked away,"while you're at that for the next millennium, the airborne members of this party shall use that window," he pointed up to said window.
"And what is everyone else supposed to do?" Toph questioned.
"I suppose you'll have to do that thing that you flightless people need to do to get to higher elevations," Tarble shrugged. He turned to Vegeta."What's it called? Clooming?"
The group, minus Toph and Mai for obvious reasons, descended via rope into the vast open sanctum of the library, landing on the top of the many bridges that stacked down the massive building.
"Oh, it's breath taking. The spirits spared no expense designing this place," Zei was awestruck."Look at those beautiful buttresses!"
"Oh yeah, totally breathtaking..." Katara muttered, her eyes affixed to Vegeta's tightly strapped buttress.
"One day..." Sokka glared."You can't go one day!" Sokka glared up at the ceiling, his fingers clutching like claws.
"There must be something about Father and that Yangchen person in this library..." Vegeta's head scanned the various floors.
"Maybe it's all divided by topic?" Tarble wondered."Or arranged in alphabetical order? Of course, given this world's Space Mandarin grammar, this may be more difficult than we first thought. I wonder what the symbol for "Saiyan" looks like...?"
"It's the same as 'vegetable'."
"Why would it be..." Tarble froze, noticing the petrified faces of the group staring up at something behind him, as well as the sudden large shadow covering his head. He gulped, and slowly looked up himself...
...A gigantic black owl staring back down at him...
"Right next to the collection of dead grave robbers."
Meanwhile on the outside, Toph and Mai's attention were suddenly gripped by a distant, elongated scream.
"...huh..." Toph said,"That's not Vegeta..."
"How the hell did a twenty foot tall bird sneak up on us!?" Vegeta gawked, holding his shivering brother in his arms as if he were Scooby Doo.
"I guess that's was we get for relying on Toph too much..." Aang sweatdropped.
"You're the great spirit of the library!" Zei realized.
"Indeed" confirmed the spirit,"I am Wa Shi Tong - He Who Knows Ten Thousand Things."
"Given that the average brain contains over one quadrillion neurons, ten thousand is not very impressive, you overgrown barn vermin..." Vegeta dismissed, dropping Tarble.
"It is a metaphor," glared the black eyes of the spirit owl,"In ancient times, 'ten thousand' was the highest number the ignorant humans of the time could count: to put that in proper perspective, it means I know everything."
"Greetings! I am Professor Zei, Ba Sing Se's head of anthropology."
"You should leave the way you came," replied the owl,"Unless you want to become the a stuffed head of anthropology."
"Okay, he OPENLY threatened us!" Vegeta yelled at Tarble, flinging his hand at the bird."May I please pound this turkey's head in now?"
"Typical mortals..." Wa Shi Tong shook his feathery head,"Always killing whatever offends them. This is exactly why your kind are no longer welcome here."
"What?" Aang questioned."What do you have against humans?"
The owl moaned to himself." humans only bother learning things to get the edge on other humans, like that firebender who came to this place a few years ago, looking to destroy his enemy. So," the bird leaned down towards Vegeta and Tarble,"who are you two Saiyans trying to destroy?"
The pair's eyes shot wide open.
"When I say I know everything, douchebag..." he arose to full height,"I mean it."
"So you know about the Saiyan invasion!" Katara realized.
"Of course I know, what did I just say?" Wa Shi Tong glared at the girl."You speak as if you know very little of it."
"We don't know anything about it," Sokka said,"that's actually why we came here. Could you tell us?"
"Do you think I'm going to dole a single word of my vast knowledge, to humans of all people, for free?" the owl scoffed at Sokka.
"Sorry, we forgot our library cards," Vegeta mocked,"Either you give us what we came here for or your next on the menu, with my own special secret seasoning..."
"You use peanut oil."
"GODDAMMIT, NOW EVERYONE KNOWS!"
"Told you: everything." he reminded."And besides, your threats meaning nothing to me: your raw power is inconsequential to a spirit. You will not be receiving any of my knowledge without my permission."
"You want to bet, Foghorn Deadhorn!?" Vegeta clenched his fists.
Tarble zipped in front of him."Wait! Before you level this entire structure to ashes, can we just humor him long enough so that he can help us with the entire reason we're here?"
"Fine..." Vegeta groaned,"What's the toll fee, bird?"
"I demand that each of you contribute your own sample of worthwhile knowledge, to prove your worth as scholars."
Professor Zei was naturally the first." Please accept this tome as a donation to your library."
"First edition, very nice," the owl simply waved his huge wing over the man's hand, and then it was gone.
"And for my next trick, I'll pull a rabbit out of my ass..." Vegeta thought.
"I could pull a thousand out of yours if you'd like..."
"I GET IT! ALL KNOWING!"
Next was Katara," I have an authentic waterbending scroll."
"Oh... these illustrations are quite stylish."
Aang wondered what he could contribute."Uh, oh, I know!" he produced a wanted poster of himself." Ha!"
"I suppose that counts..." The owl took the parchment.
"Oh, great spirit, check this out!" Sokka announced, quickly tying a knot and holding it out like trophy."Ta-da!"
Only silence from the spirit...
"It's a special knot! That counts as knowledge."
Wan Shi Tong glanced over to Vegeta.
"He's an idiot." the Saiyan explained.
"Ah" noted the spirit, taking the knot from the frowning Sokka's hand regardless."Now then, would do you Saiyans have to contribute?"
The older prince rubbed his chin over this question. What exactly did Vegeta have to even give this bird? He considered showing him his signature Big Bang Attack, but he had the feeling the spirit wouldn't appreciate his millennia-old library being blown to ashes. So then, what other knowledge could he give that was unique to himself?
"You might wanna step back..." Vegeta took a deep breath...
Long Feng was startled off of his toilet sea.t"What the hell was that!?"
"Bet you've never heard vocal cords like that..." Vegeta crossed his arms with a smirk.
"...And I pray to Raava I never will again..." Wa Shi Tong crouched over, his feathery coat disheveled like a cat with its tail under a rocking chair."Please tell me the smaller one is far quieter?"
"My voice isn't very unique..." Tarble assured."But I suppose I can give you my scouter..."
"You what now!?" cried Vegeta.
"Relax, Vegeta, I don't need it anymore..." Tarble assured his brother, a giant wing waved passing over his hand, the scouter disappearing.
Vegeta blinked. Had his brother figured out how to sense powerlevels with his mind overnight? Not that he was that surprised - so had Vegeta. He turned his attention to the owl. "Now then, Big Bird, would you mind guiding Tarble and myself to your Saiyan section whilst the kids search for their map?"
"Very well," nodded Wa Shi Tong,"But try not to trip over the corpses - I wasn't kidding about the dead thieves..." He reminded before spreading his massive wings and leaping into a glide off the bridge, Vegeta and Tarble following him down passed the various levels.
Vegeta had figured any information on the Saiyans from a thousand years ago would have been close to the bottom; but the owl had perched at a level that didn't even seem half that distance, attesting to this libraries own age. Vegeta and Tarble walked with Wa Shi Tong through a certain isle of tattered papers likely turned into scrolls and uncatalogued by the owl personally.
"This is the 'Saiyan section' " confirmed Wa Shi Tong."You'll find everything related to your father here."
Vegeta eyed the bird for a moment quizzically."Wait, just this one isle?" he questioned as his head whipped back and forth between the two."This is all you have about the Saiyan race?"
"I would have dedicated an entirely new library to your people, but I simply didn't have the time..." responded Wa Shi Tong in obvious sarcasm.
Tarble plucked one of the scrolls from the shelf and unfurled it, and after looking it over, his face taken by shock."This is Father's hand writing!"
The older brother zipped behind Tarble, wide eyes and all."I knew he was here! What's it say!?"
"I..have no idea..." Tarble raised an eyebrow, turning the scroll at many angles."It's definitely his his, but this scroll is written in Saiya-script."
"Written in what?" Vegeta questioned.
Tarble turned and looked at his brother with his own quizzical face."Saiya-script. You know, the ancient text of the Saiyans? Created on Planet Saiya, original home-world of the Saiyans? How could you not know this?"
Vegeta breathed."Because I killed all of my Saibamen teachers, as all cool Saiyan kids did. How could you not know this?" He chuckled."Oh right, because you weren't cool."
"Unfortunately, all of this scrolls are written in this text," pointed out Wa Shi Tong."The first Vegeta had plenty of time to write during his imprisonment here."
"Well, technically our father was the third King Veget-hang onWHAT was that about imprisonment!?" the fourth Vegeta gawked.
"I said he was imprisoned here, in this very structure," replied the spirit,"Would you like to see his cell?" he offered casually.
Thanks to Tarble's intervention, Vegeta tolerated the owl's existence long enough for them to be led deeper down the library, through a dark chamber lined with cages full of all kinds of ancient relics, as though this creepy area was just some storage room for things too large to put on display, until they stopped before an open, seemingly empty cell.
"This is where King Vegeta was lock away after being defeated by the Avatar. Ever since then, I was force, by her, to have my foxy knowledge seekers sink the entire library underground. I'm surprised you even found this place..."
"The spire at the top is sticking out." Tarble explained.
"dammit, no wonder people keep find this place suddenly..." Wa Shi Tong muttered."Anyway, the battle with the Saiyans was a fierce one, as I am told, but I was not there..."
"oooh, So what you mean to say is that there's something you don't know?" Vegeta leered.
"How did the Avatar do it?" Tarble asked.
"If you are referring as to how she managed to negate the powers of your species in one fell swoop, I'd tell you, but the Avatar herself never told anyone. It simply happened, whatever it was, and then she took the king here, never to see the light of day, and foolishly took her secret to her grave."
"ANOTHER thing you don't know!" Vegeta leered even harder.
Wa Shi Tong Stiffened up visibly."Right...maybe you'd like to take a look inside? Perhaps you'll find some petrafide fecal matter?"
The brother saw none, but what they did see were a bed, rags, and row after row of scribbles edged into the wall, growing less formal as it went on. All four walls and even the ceiling were covered in the scribblings, to their moderate surprise. Tarble felt one wall.
"It's also in Saiya-script...at least at first; it seemed to have degenerated over time..."
"Do you seriously have no idea what this stuff says?" Vegeta asked."This could hold the key to what Avatar Kyoshi did to his chi-er-dammit, they've got me me saying it!"
They said that owls couldn't raise an eybrow, but the giant one behind them just did."Kyoshi? You seemto have your Avatars confused - the Avatar that defeated the Saiyans was Avatar Yangchen."
Vegeta spun around so fast he created a small whirlwind."YANGCHEN!? I KNEW it! Yangchen was another one the bald kid's past lives!" He flew into the owl and seized him by his plumage."How did she do it!?"
"I believe I just told you I don't know how, to your delight I might add."
Vegeta angrily dropped to the floor."That's it! We're taking all of those scrolls Dad wrote and we are going to translate them ourselves!"
Tarble tapped his tapped his chin."Wait a moment, if Vegeta-Father I mean-was imprisoned here, how did he get out? And more importantly..." his brows edged "How did he get off this planet!?"
"To answer your first question, that would be Avatar Kyoshi. She once came to this library to learn forgotten styles of bending, and stumbled upon the king. In her young naivety, she felt sorry for Vegeta, whom begged her to set him free. Against the wishes of her past life, she did so. And so after 300 years, the Saiyan was free."
"Free to land the Avatar..." Vegeta shook his head
"Pardon?"
"Let's just say there are some things you don't need to know..." Tarble left it at that.
Suddenly, a gray fox ran up to Wa Shi Tong, squealing urgently. While the two Saiyans didn't understand it, the owl did, and for the first time ever, they had the privilege of seeing what an angry owl looks like."That moronic human is doing what!? I knew he was lying..." without explaining anything, he spread his great wings and took flight, soaring to the upper portion of the library.
"HEY! Get the hell back here!" Vegeta took off after the spirit, and Tarble did as well.
"You betrayed my trust! From the beginning you intended to misuse this knowledge for evil purposes."
"You don't understand!If anyone's evil, it's the Fire Nation," Sokka tried his best to explain." You saw what they did to your library. They're destructive and dangerous. We need this information!"
The three were exposed. While Wa Shi Tong was giving Vegeta and Tarble a tour, Sokka had found a gigantic domed chamber that turned out to be an enormous mechanical calendar, that was able to display acerrtian date referred to as the "Darkest Day in the Fire Nation", which involved a solar eclipse; Sokka had correctly deduced that an eclipse negates a firebender's bending. As soon as Sokka figured this out, Wa Shi Tong was already among them.
"You think you're the first person to believe their war was justified? Countless others before you have come here, seeking weapons or weaknesses or battle strategies.
"We had no choice" Aang pleaded."Please, we're just desperate to protect the people we love."
"And now..." Wa Shi Tong scowled "...I'm going to protect what I love." Wa Shi Tong beat his enormous wings, creating a powerful gust of wind throughout the chamber. a moment later, the entire room began to tremor as though there were an earthquake.
"What are you doing?" Aang had to ask.
(Cut to a shot of Wan Shi Tong beating his wings.)
"I'm taking my knowledge back. No one will ever abuse it again." he replied, as san began to pour through lenthening cracks in the ceiling.
"He's sinking the building! We've gotta get out of here!" Katara realized
Upon hearing this, Wa Sho Tong transformed, his neck lengthening, and horn like protrusions sprouting from his head; he loom over the terrified kids. "I'm afraid I can't allow that. You already know too much..." the spirit said in a threatening tone, before cocking his massive head back to strike.
When suddenly, Wa Shi Tong's head exploded in a burst of light; blood geyser-ed out of his neck, staining the ceiling of the planetarium in red. The lifeless feathery body slammed to the ground, revealing Vegeta behind, his raised hand smoking like a discharged gun, releasing gallons of liquid that soaked their shoes and covered the entire floor.
When the frozen Aang found his breath, he began screaming in intervals, while the others remained frozen.
"Why are you screaming? I just saved your life!" Vegeta growled.
"YOU KILLED HIM!"
"No shit I killed him! Whenever someone says 'you already know too much', it means they're about to murder you!" Vegeta slapped his head."god, first you get all upety about wanting to hurt the teacher after he insulted you, and now your complaining about this!? There's no pleasing you brats!"
Sokka blinked."I mean...it would have been nice to do that...before he caused the whole library to start sinking..."
Vegeta blinked also."...what...?"
The group dashed out of the window as the tower itself vanished under the sand.
"PERFECT!" Vegeta barked."There goes our best chance at figuring out what happened to our ki! Where's that teacher's spoon!? We need to start digging!"
"While we're at it, where's Professor Zei?" Sokka wondered.
A collective chill ran up the groups spine upon realization...
"...we take this to our graves..." Katara settled, shifting his eyes among the group.
"Whatever, he was asking for it anyway, let's just get back on the bison, " he said, and proceeded to turn around and walk towards Appa, whom was totally still there, why do you ask?
"By the way, a bunch of sandbenders tried to steal Appa," Mai revealed.
"Don't tell me, ya killed 'em?" Vegeta predicted.
"Without a drop of mercy."
"See, Aang? I'm not the only one..." Vegeta glared at the airbender.
Appa carried the group on the way out of the desert.
"I gotta say, it was really great you were there, Mai, otherwise Appa might have been taken," Katara noted.
"And that would've been highly inconvenient," Sokka added.
"Truly," Katara agreed.
"Well, that library was an absolute bust," Vegeta lied at the back of the saddle."The great collection of this planet knowledge, and we learned absolutely nothing."
"No so," Tarble sat to his left."We did learn which Avatar it was that defeated the Saiyans."
"What do you mean?" Aang turned back to Tarble, holding the reigns.
"I wasn't Kyoshi that fought the Saiyans," Vegeta explained."It was an older one; her name was Yanchen."
"Hey, that's who Kyoshi mentioned!" Katara remembered."So she was an Avatar."
"Yes, what a grand load of useless information; we STILL don't know the hell she defeated them, or what means she weakened them, which by extension is weakening us." Vegeta reminded."Perhaps we could've learned something more if that damn bird hadn't hit the self-destruct switch. What exactly did you did to piss him off in the first place?"
"We found out that a solar eclipse makes firebenders loose their bending," Sokka said."Then that stupid spirit was all like 'you shouldn't use knowledge to hurt others'!" he mocked with wavy spirit fingers."I wish we could've stayed longer, then we could used that giant calender thing to find out when the next eclipse is." he crossed his arms in disappointment.
At this Mai turned to Sokka."Oh, that's an easy one," Mai said,"The next one's just a few months away."
The group spun their heads to Mai in shock.
"How do you know!?" Sokka demanded.
"Everyone in the Fire Nation knows when solar eclipses happen; you seriously think we would't know how to keep track our greatest weakness?"
Aang, Sokka, and Katara looked among one another.
"Why did we even go down there!?" Sokka exclaimed.
"To get a man killed?" Vegeta proposed.
"That's about the size of it..." Tarble lamented.
They flew off into the horizon.
Iroh felt kind of conflicted. On the one hand, his nephew had just displayed a highly impressive mastery over his new-found ability; the other, he had just display the ability by ruthlessly annihilating the Rough Riders from the face of existence, leaving nothing but smoking patches of black dirt, pointing out where each of the riders, and their mounts, once stood. Yet more disturbing was the cold smile adorned on his nephew face after the fact, his arms crossed. it was a real shame, thought Iroh, Kachi seemed liked a jasmine man...
"er, Zuko, I don't mean to spoil your good mood or anything, but I think you miiiiight have overdone it just a tad..." he expressed his feelings, making a "slight" gesture with his fingers.
Though Iroh's input did little to nothing to affect the mood of the teen."It's alright, Uncle..." Zuko's eyes never left the destruction in his wake,"I just felt like spreading out my wings..."
Though Iroh didn't know, Zuko actually was more than a tad conflicted about the dead soldiers, but it was hard to express that sentiment given that he had temporarily relinquished control over his own body.
The only space that Zuko could currently perceive was the dark control room from before, watching events folding from the huge window, showing the FP perspective of his eyes.
"um,Cooler, Uncle kind of has a point..." Zuko noted, sheepishly turning to the alien sitting in his floating throne.
"Don't be ridiculous, child," Cooler rolled his eyes."When your on the run, you cannot afford anyone to know of your whereabouts and live to tell it."
"Right..." Zuko looked down."Could I have control of my body back?"
Cooler chuckled at his own carnage.
"Cooler?"
The alien was brought out of his laughter."Hm? Right! rightrightright, hehe" with that, Cooler quickly snapped his fingers.
In a flash, Zuko was back in his own body. He shook the dizziness out of his head."Next time, I'll let Uncle do the fighting..."
"I have to agree with you, Nephew," Uncle replied, scaring Zuko."I think it's time we look for some old friends that don't want to kill me. I have an idea: let's head to Misty Palms Oasis; I know a man who is very savvy at Pi Sho..."
"Uh, sure, whatever, Uncle..."
The two made their way to the oasis...or should I say...three?