AN : if we hit 200 power stones, there will be an extra chapter .
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What I did only worked because they don't want us dead and our continued presence wasn't worth losing a commander for.
My threat… I would've followed through. You don't make threats you can't follow through on. Would've gotten me an earful and maybe a separation from Team Avatar, though.
...
We cross one river and follow the next to the mountain that separates us from Omashu. We decide to take a couple day's rest here. Aang needs some time to sort himself out and so do Katara and Sokka who are still out of it. Aang and I deposit them in the shade of a tree with a few strong-smelling plants nearby to startle them out of it.
"Kaito," Aang says, his face a mixture of curiosity and dejectedness, "How did you manage to get free? I saw how they cuffed your hands and feet."
I give him a grin, "That's an easy one. I can bend with my face."
His eyes grow into gigantic proportions. "What?"
"Oh yeah," I say, jerk my chin and direct a tendril of water from the river to wrap around Aang's ankles and yank him into the air.
"Whoa! That's awesome! Teach me!"
Eh, sure. Not like we've got much else to do while the other two sleep. Other than… making Aang realise that the only sensible thing to do is to master all four elements before the Comet arrives.
So I teach him to face bend.
"Aang, this is about fine control. You know how it goes with air, yeah? Try to find that wispy feeling or whatever you want to call it. Try bending air with your face. Then move on to water."
And he does, he tries and I make dinner, chuckling at the faces he makes.
"Hey, I get it now!"
And he does. A bit. Droplets.
Maybe I should've showed him how to draw moisture from the air first?
Well. This way he'll be able to do it anyway.
"Aang," I say.
He stops, sensing that the topic is a heavy one. He comes to sit by me.
"You realise that what Fong wants, this insane plan he proposed… it's not just because he's losing ground faster than ever before. There is something you need to know. And we should also tell Katara and Sokka, but I want you to come to terms with it first. Because this will determine your outlook on life, on your… world-imposed mission as the Avatar."
"…Okay. Tell me, Kaito."
"It's. Easiest to explain by mentioning what happened to… to the air nomads. I'm sorry to bring this up, Aang."
He shakes his head sadly. I am about to continue when he stands. He's going to leave? Well. Okay then, better find another way to explain-
He sits down directly next to me, pressing his shoulder to my arm and that's basically a request for a hug, from him, so. So I put an arm around him. I have no idea what I'm doing.
"Go on," he says, after some time.
"The reason the Fire Nation could do what they did to your people was what's today called Sozin's comet. It grants firebenders great power while it is close. And it passes by our world every hundred years," I pause, unsure if he's making the connection. "Aang… it will return in about ten months."
"Oh," he says, and pushes his face to hide in my tunic.
…sorry.
...
In the end, Aang returns to face bending and can get a drop of water to fall on my head, but not much more.
Then, his stomach growls and we see what the earthbenders packed for us. There are some fruit and bread. To my delight, there's some booze and to Aang's some vegetables, but no meat. Well, Aang doesn't eat any anyway, if I recall correctly. With combined efforts, we manage a decent soup.
That is what Sokka finally wakes up to, his nose leading the way.
"Hey! Where are we?" he shouts as soon as his eyes open.
"General Fong tried to trigger my Avatar State by drugging and earthbending you to a wall!" Aang reiterates, "Did you know that Kaito can bend with his face? How cool is that?"
And, apparently, that's all the information Sokka needs to prioritise food.
Katara wakes to the sound of their voices, demands to know the same thing Sokka did, in more detail and then eyes me throughout the entire meal. She probably wants to get me to offer teaching her to bend with her face, too. Well, no one said I can't be petty. She's going to have to ask.
I lay back for a nap in Appa's fur and sleep the afternoon away. These kids have never even heard of the concept of taking a watch, so I'm taking all the night shifts.
To keep myself from becoming too much of a vegetable, I go through some forms my father taught me before he died, then I practise my bending with a miniscule amount of water. I got lucky today, but if the earth bindings had been any thicker, I wouldn't have been able to free myself with just that.
There are enough rocks to practise with, thankfully.
Once I've deemed it enough, I find a tree to lean against, not close enough to the fire to blind my eyes to the dark forest.
My thoughts drift back to what I thought about Aang only having two paths pointed out to him. Now, of course, it's back to only the one, but there must be another.
I vaguely remember there being a quote from some pope about injustice becoming justice and therefore resistance becoming duty. The way the Firelord is portrayed in the series indicates that he's actually a tyrant the likes of which this World can't remember having seen before Sozin. He propagates the strength of the Fire Nation and furthers their patriotism blatantly. But there must be some who recognise it for what it is.
Even though this has been going on there for over a hundred years, there must be those who question. Now, if they're smart enough to see through the propaganda and not get caught, how do I find them? They'll either be organised like the White Lotus is, or they will be all over the place and nowhere to be found. The problem with that, aside from the obvious, is that any whispers of anything approaching treason will be met with arrest or a flame to the face.
From what I know, the Fire Nation has forgotten the original way of bending and they channel emotions like anger and hate into their bending. Of course, that requires them to hate something, and so, they are taught to hate all who are not Fire Nation.
Infiltration with features like mine is nigh to impossible. My skin might not be as dark as Katara's or Sokka's, but the difference would be noticeable amongst all the pasty whites of the Fire Nation nobles. And it's the nobles I'd need to have access to, as well as the general populace. Then, there's the blue eyes that no one there has. Sunglasses, maybe, but I haven't seen any yet. I could pretend to be blind, but that's entirely unhelpful.
But I should learn to sense water surrounding me when I can't see well anyway.
Besides, at some point there are going to be wanted posters of us and try as I might, I can't hide my nose. It's the long and slim kind with the typical watertribe crook, so nothing special, but it's so long that it's not forgettable. Makes my face all planes and angles. So, I'm recognisable instead of the average I'd want to be.
Before I worry about that, though, how would I find out about whether there are pockets of sceptics in the Fire Nation or not?
"Hey," Sokka's whisper from his bedroll interrupts my thoughts.
"Hey."
"D'you wanna spar?" he asks, getting up and tiptoeing towards me with exaggerated movements. It makes me smile.
"A spar? I could make us some swords, I suppose."
And so we spar. I'd say that if I hadn't been training with Hahn for so long, Sokka would definitely be better with a sword than me. As it is, I just about beat him. It's good that he's such a fast learner.
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Don't forget to throw some power stones :)
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