Chapter 273: A Kyoshi Farewell (2)
Liaj cares little about the 'world' he is in. Once decorated as one of the meanest Earth Kingdome General against the Fire Nation Forces 92 Years ago has nothing to his name now. His descendants did not stand the test of time, and his wife died even before his encounter with the Spirit creating a collective group of tragic people now living out of their times. So, when that woman found him not an hour later after a large portion of people decided against living under their Hero's care, he decided to accept her terms.
Frankly, Earthbending of this time is a bit non-fatal to his liking. But that is not why he accepted the woman's terms. And he definitely did not carry her request because her goals enamored him. He simply had little to live for. At the time, if a Five-year-old came to him to ask his request to rob someone, chances are he'd do it. Liaj alone isn't the only one feeling like this. He understands he needs time to recover. He needs someone to talk to, someone to depend on.
But he cannot.
Nobody taught him how to.
Nobody had such luxuries during the peak of the war under Sozin's and Azulon's regimes.
'So, all I need to do is create a landslide to consume the village downhill if that girl walks down the shrine,' Liaj rests atop Oyaji's snowy roof. 'I still cannot believe Earthbending has become as simple as creating bits of rocks and throwing them with loud shouts. What about traps? Finger-long earthen bullets to pierce the enemy from a distance? The Fire Nation didn't take decades to win against us just because we have a large land to conquer!'
He sighs explosively, causing his long greyish bangs to bounce away from his left cheek and rest on the thick snow.
'We used to dream of adventuring to the islands near the Northern Tribe to see the snow,' Liaj chuckles. 'Haah. I wish I were dead instead. Though a little disrespectful to the young hero who saved us. But I have nothing. If I die tonight, nobody will even remember me. Those who would mourn me are already dead, and I can barely recall them over the cries of my enemies and splashes of blood in the night.'
His dull musings present a stark contrast to the vibrant atmosphere of the island, from snow-clad villages to distant, destitute cliffs that he'd uproot those little plants for the rest of the pirates to bake bread out of to feed the school of Elephant Koi.
"-quick!" An unamused huff fills Liaj's senses as he trains his ears to pick the arrival of a group of women, more than 10, he surmises. Just as he wonders if he should plan to take care of them due to their predictable affiliations to the Kyoshi Warriors, his eyes snap open as Liaj hears a pair of feet stepping on the snow-capped roof behind him—then another and more!
Liaj rolls over and looks back with narrow eyes and caution, only to find the Kyoshi attire masking a group of seven stunningly similar women whose brown eyes stare at him curiously.
"Are you alright?" Questions one of them with a sweet and concerned voice. "Your Aura looks quite pale. And you should wear something heavier, Old- uh, Sir."
"Hey!" A voice calls from below. "What's the big idea?! You shouldn't just climb Oyaji's roof like that!" A Kyoshi Warrior calls out from down below.
Maybe it is the long-sated urge not to get exposed behind the 'enemy' line or his hands so bloodied with the blood of innocents in the time of need that Liaj didn't take a second to bend the rocks in his worn pockets as bullets they need to be to attack the seven women ahead! The bullets pierce through the fabric and stab the seven women's shoulders in a second, or so the old Earthbender hoped as the seven sets of curious brown-grey eyes never lose their uppity emotions as they follow the path of the attack, meeting the bullets with metal war fans, drawing a gasp out of one of them, "Did you just attack us! You filthy asshole! I'm going to pound you so hard your wife's going to be jealous!"
To be fair, Liaj has heard worse from his enemies. But his eyes almost widen in disbelief as the women move far more athletically than their deceptively heavy armor should allow them to move—the ends of their refolded fans hitting many spots of his body as the experienced Earthbender doesn't realize when his knees collapse on the snowy roof, and his face planting into the nippy surface.
"What the heck was his problem?" Ty Woo(6) grumbles, kicking the paralyzed Earthbender again. "And if you're going to Earthbend, use large rocks!"
Now the latter half depressed Liaj more since he believes the Earthbending of the current era is subpar.
"We're alright up here!" Ty Lee(7) chimes. "We just caught an Earthbender with a suicidal aura who attacked us."
"What?!"
Others exclaim.
---
Meilin collapses on the ground as she stares at the unperturbed Suki.
"Watch the slaps of the fan on the wrists," Suki points out calmly, neither mocking nor smug about Meilin's fall for the umpteenth time as she smiles. "Mingxia did a way better job than I ever did with Nik. He started to grow by a large margin after he earned a few life-death experiences. Else we would have continued fooling around."
Meilin grits her teeth, "Even if I stay here and the Hero stops my crew, the Island will have to break its norm or perish with time! I still win!"
Suki works her jaw before shrugging. "Again, you haven't hurt anyone. The Kyoshi Warrior has seen tougher times and will exist long after we're gone. I'm truly more interested in spending time with you for the little time I'm here for." The Kyoshi Warrior smiles, helping a peeved Meilin up. "Stop patronizing me!" Meilin slaps Suki's arm away, snarling as she squares her fists.
"I'm not," Suki cracks a smirk. "We have sparred for many rounds. Please, I'm satisfied. I would rather talk to you about Mingxia before I leave. She talked a lot about me, didn't she? Can't you share a few of your stories?"
Meilin bristles with anger, "Stop acting like that!" She shouts. "She died! Mingxia died! What's the point? Can she hear us? Can she reply to me? Can she hold me again?"
The woman clenches her fists, "Why aren't you afraid about YOUR community? Do their fates not worry you?! If the traders leave, your people will have to move! By ME!"
Suki sighs mutedly before shaking her head. "Calm yourself and think properly. I said it before, and I'll say it again. Mingxia was never unfortunate—She had you. If she's the Mingxia I knew, she would dream of no more!"
Meilin grows silent before she starts chuckling. She places her bandaged hand on her face, covering her eyes as she throws her head back and laughs loudly!
"Stop it!" Meilin then snaps at Suki with red and warm eyes. "The only reason I didn't attack this damnable Island was out of respect for Mingxia! If only there were some of your kind helping her—"
"No!" Suki interjects sternly. "Blames? Is that what you'll resort to?" Her blue eyes pierce into Meilin's being. "Think better! Who is to blame? The enemies who killed Mingxia or us?"
Meilin grits her teeth as Suki knowingly hammers the nail in the coffin.
"Or you?"
Meilin's gaze snaps up in the Kyoshi Warrior's direction as Suki remarks, "Is that your drive? Anger at your helplessness?"
Meilin's eyes widen as a scene of bloody despair reflects in her eyes—a cheerful woman happy to help anyone in need lay as a half-burnt corpse in the pool of her blood. While Meilin herself held her helplessly, weeping and wailing in anguish.
Helpless.
Mingxia helped her learn so many things.
Mingxia helped her.
She was always helpless.
"I-" Meilin's voice quakes as she stares at Suki, seeing a familiar brown-haired woman with her characteristic mischievous smirk.
"Yo~!" She grins toothily.
"A-am I seeing things?" Meilin whispers shakily. Her steps quickly travel as she grabs the woman's shoulder, earthen tones covering her body. "Mingxia?"
"In the flesh- er, Spirit? Did I get that right?" She chuckles before hugging Meilin. "Damn it, Lin! You're scary! Eager to fuck over my home just because I didn't spoil you for some time?"
Meilin pries out of the hug with a scowl, "This is an illusion! Another trickery!"
"Well, yeah, girl. I'm a spirit," The girl inclines her head with a casual look. "But a weak one. You know, I can't always be with you. But I'm well. Truly. Come here," Mingxia pulls Meilin in another hug as the girl struggles.
"You're not real!"
"Just stop~!" Mingxia giggles, pecking Meilin's lips as the girl freezes on the spot at the very real sensations. "Real enough for you?"
Meilin's lips part as Mingixa leans forward, whispering huskily. "Now, how about we make use of this shrine to punish you for the bad girl you've been?"
Not even the Primordial Spirits could have seen such a turn of events as Meilin finds herself in the throes of passion with her dead yet strangely alive girlfriend."
---
Just as Meilin finds her life 'intertwined' with Mingxia's, Suki looks ahead in shock as a spartan figure stands before her within the 'greyed' Kyoshi Shrine as if they are in a different world altogether.
The veneer of an experienced warrior helping her late friend's lover through her grief vanishes in a fraction of a second as her blue eyes sparkle with an intensity far greater than receiving a rather telling engagement choker from Nik—
"Kyoshi!" The woman ahead draws a loud gasp from Suki as she bows but 'impudently' tries glancing up at the legendary Ancestor of their Warrior Group.
"You can look at me as is, Suki," Kyoshi blinks and tilts her head with a smirk once Suki stands straight. "So, I hear you wish to take away the settlement I protected for decades?"
Suki gulps, looking around only to find a familiar yellow spirit that Ignit drew from her presence not that long ago.
The spirit trembles in the corner, curled, muttering, "I swear your feet are not too big... I swear-"
The spirit's words attract Suki's attention to Kyoshi's boots, shivering.
"Something to add?" Kyoshi inquires curiously. Yet her green pupils betray the power the former Avatar can unleash in this world as Suki shakes her head and bows slightly again.
"I did not wish to break the community you spend your life protecting, Great One."
"Great One? You can call me Kyoshi as is. Your Fiance does, after all."
"You met him again?" Suki straightens her back as the woman smiles. "I like saving the best for the last."
Kyoshi's words did not answer Suki's question. Is she the best or Nik? Or is Kyoshi doing this on purpose? Suki cannot answer such questions when Kyoshi exhales gently.
"Suki, Meilin was right. What I did to protect my Land was also a way to give you all a Future. Of course, I hold no right to admonish the settlement's fear of the war. War is often brutal and spiritually torturous to men and spirits."
Kyoshi doesn't stay in place and strolls toward the yellow imp-like spirit before comforting its back and mysteriously sending it away. She turns around to look at Suki, snorting in amusement. "And I certainly don't hold it against you to try and leave with your friends. In my eyes, it's a shift in risk of their survival rather than accumulation or disregard of it."
Suki averts her gaze, unable to fangirl over Kyoshi after the things she has experienced, questioning, "Even if Meilin is right in her capacity, her actions aren't. The Elephant Koi-"
"Nothing will happen to the school of Elephant Koi," Kyoshi interjects, walking near Suki to reach out with her hand and patting the younger Kyoshi Warrior's shoulder. "I came here to have a few words of farewell."
Her hand slides from Suki's shoulder to her neck before Kyoshi's long fingers slip into the collar of Suki's Kimono, revealing a viridian green choker around her neck connected to a fan-carved Bronze Pendant.
"It looks good," Kyoshi compliments with a smile.
"T-thank you!" Suki's makeup hides her beet-red face as she gushes again, losing her calm facade.
"Remember Suki," Kyoshi pulls her hand away, walking to put distance between them before looking at the young warrior. "Kyoshi Warriors are always next to each other. It is as you reminded Meilin. This Island has its issue, but so does the entire world. You cannot solve everything."
With that, Kyoshi bends her waist ever so slightly in a bow so graceful that Suki's vision clouds with a surge of emotions.
"We will always be with you," Kyoshi repeats. Trails of gray sand fade into existence around her as the walls of the shrine crumble to reveal a massive stretch of verdant land. Suki finds herself surrounded by thousands of bowing Kyoshi Warriors!
And Suki knows one of the spirits nearest to Kyoshi.
"Mingxia," Suki whispers as the bowing woman looks up with a coy smirk.
"Leaving for a man, huh?" The spirit giggles. "And I heard what you said to my Mei—Cannot train your lover without things going out of hand?"
Suki falls into a trance before she hurries forward, pulling Mingxia into a deep hug that cares little for balance. They both fall on the ground while the surrounding spirits smile gently, including Kyoshi, as they fade away.
"Heh!" Mingxia chimes. "I missed you, too!"
---
"So, all these are the real Kyoshi Warriors you trained during the war?" Nik muses as he looks at the tied-up bunch before glancing at the beat-up man past his prime with a look screaming—You fucked around and found out.
Liaj did, didn't he?
Melin glances at Nik, tied in Oyaji's room along with her team, the news of their actions still kept under a tight lip.
"Mingxia and I trained with them together," She looks down again with a fond smile. "No matter what you do, I understand the consequences of my actions, and I no longer bear ill will against the Island. Keep me here to be punished and let my team travel the world. They can do good while the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors stay here doing nothing."
Nik decided to stay behind with them as the rest started preparing for the evening feast as Suki had her farewell with others.
"It sounds like you still bear ill will against the island." Nik snickers, finding a chair to sit on as he looks at the group as a whole.
"You lot were in over your heads. I empathize with the situation." He huffs and rubs the back of his head. "You can say I'm still here to talk for a bit because I feel sorry."
"You saved us," Meilin grumbles. "You do not need to feel sorry."
Nik smiles while sitting in place.
"Are you coming?" Katara peeks inside the room before calling Nik with a smile as he looks back and nods.
"Well, Suki told me she had a few words with her friend—Mingxia. I suppose Kyoshi didn't want to harm you, too, if she could appear using her powers. That's why you all live in the first place."
His words shock others as Nik shrugs, "Don't beat yourself down. Nobody can stop you from feeling worthless for yourselves, but the rest of the Island won't hate you if I understand the situation well enough."
Meilin chuckles bitterly, "We just tried ruining them."
Nik hums and starts laughing, "I've learned the people of this world are kinder than the spirits. If even the spirits have forgiven you, people would, too."
He exits the room, happily holding Katara's hand as she snorts in amusement, "You look happy for someone who couldn't employ the Island into your world."
"But I did get Elephant Koi eggs," Nik grins, "And the next stop, I can finally do the things I've been waiting for a long time."
He glances at Katara's neck, bereft of her earlier choker since she gave it to Sokka.
She doesn't shy away from his gaze and smiles broadly, "About time!"
The two of them walk out of Oyaji's house, seeing the descent of the slope decorated with brightly-colored streamers as everyone laughed with a massive bonfire in the middle of the settlement, cooking the food Nik brought out of his personal world.
"The rest are also eager to meet the Plunderer," Katara scoffs under her breath as she glances at Nik.
"Why do I get the sense you like the epithet of the Plunderer more than the Hero?"
"No point in denying the truth, right?"
Nik grins at her, feeling unimaginably relieved as he recalls his conversation with Kyoshi. "I'm a Filthy, Dishonorable Plunderer~!"
Katara rolls her eyes, saying nothing but leaning against his shoulders.
"Nothing dishonorable about plundering those who wish to get plundered," she whispers with a happy smile.
***
Alternate Title: Liaj Fucked Around and Found Out; The 14 Fists of Fury; The Kyoshi Arrives; The Lovers Reunite; Friends Meet Again; The Final Stop; Kyoshi is With You; Kyoshi's Will is Not the Future's Will; The Kyoshi Pendant; Suki's Farewell; The Fish in The Personal World; People are More Forgiving; More Plunderer than a Hero; Kyoshi Lowkey Messing With the World; Traumatizing Spirit; Kyoshi's Feet Pics?; Nothing Wrong With Wanting to Be Plundered, Right?
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