Chapter 37

“So it’s confirmed then, we’ll stay and help the town first” Rangi announced as they were all gathered around where the fire was the night before.

“Shouldn’t we just help them after? We have the information we need, there’s no need to waste time” Lao Ge commented.

“Like you have room to talk” Kirima mumbled.

“What’s that?”

“I bet you don’t want to deal with them cause that means you would have to do something for once. I bet the real reason you really just want to take the easy way out is, I won’t say why” Kirima provoked.

Rangi and Kyoshi exchanged confused looks with each other, it seemed like it was too early for anything like this. Let alone Lao Ge being Kirima’s topic this morning. Rangi wouldn’t have guessed that she got over whatever it was that was going on yesterday with Kenna so quickly. Normally I’m the one she likes to bicker with.

“No, say it to my face Kirima,” Lao Ge demanded, standing up.

“old”

“Ha, old. I could still beat you with one hand behind my back” Kirima just rolled her eyes in response.

“Did something happen?” Kyoshi whispered to Wong as the other two continued to argue.

“Everything was fine, they were talking this morning. But then I think he started talking about someone having a potential crush, and it’s been downhill ever since.” Wong explained.

So Kirima is definitely not over yesterday. Rangi found herself thinking.

“It doesn’t matter, I think we should stay on track,” Lao Ge announced. The group all looked to Kyoshi who did not look like she was going to change her mind.

“She’s not gonna budge, so I’d suggest you switch sides. It will be less painful for us all” Rangi said as she gestured towards Kyoshi.

“Fine, then let’s get going”

“Old timer” Kirima coughed under her breath.

“Delusional” Lao ge coughed back.

Rangi and Kyoshi looked at each other once more before following the two. This could prove to be interesting.

The town seemed to be kinda normal, as they entered. Except for the fact of course that everyone they passed looked horrified at the sight of new people entering.

“So what are we doing exactly?” Wong asked as they paused at the end of a street.

“Looking for them I guess, I don’t know how to free towns. Do we kill them?” Kyoshi asked.

“Let’s not lead with murder, okay? But it would probably be better if we split up. We can try and find the men from last night faster.” Rangi suggested.

“And these groups would be?” Lao Ge asked, although he didn’t seem to be interested in the conversation.

“Those two are a package deal so don’t even suggest splitting them up.” Kirima commented, pointing to Kyoshi and Rangi.

“Did you actually forget that I’m legitimately also her bodyguard?” Rangi argued back.

“Right, plus girlfriend,” Kirima replied with a smirk.

“Fiancée actually” the firebender corrected, raising her hand to show off the ring.

“Whatever, I’ll take the old timer and Wong” She replied bordly, as the group slips in two.

Kyoshi nodded as she watched them head around to another street, leaving her with Kenna and of course Rangi.  

They had begun to walk through the town looking for the men from last night or anyone that may be involved. The longer they walked however the more empty the streets became.

“Do you think everyone went home?” Kenna asked as she turned to look at a set of houses.

It was then that Kenna was grabbed by another woman frantically practically shaking her.

She told them they had to hurry to the town square, that anyone found roaming would be dealt with. It appeared to be a mandated meeting of sorts.

The woman rushed off faster than the group as they walked deeper into the town until they could see the center. The whole town had to be here. It was practically packed, and at the front on top of what looked like a handmade stage, were a handful of men. Including the ones from the night before .

“We should try and get closer,” Kyoshi suggested as they looked over the crowd.

“No, your 6 foot ass is staying here. You’re not exactly discrete” Rangi argued back.

“Well jokes on you, I’m like 6 ‘5” Kyoshi rebuttaled.

Rangi narrowed her gaze. “Okay well you can watch from here then, Kenna and I will get closer” Rangi replied as they started forward. “We won’t go far, maybe see if we can talk to some people.”

Kyoshi nodded from their hiding spot around the corner as she watched Rangi lead Kenna into the crowd. It was then that she was able to get a better look at the crowd. Eventually being able to spot the others who had approached the gathering from another street.

Once the men had called the meeting to order the town had gone completely quiet. Very quickly Kyoshi realized that the only reason this meeting was called to order was to recruit the members of the town to the balanced nation.

When the town stayed quiet at the speech they began to threaten them to join. It took everything in Kyoshi not to intervene there, but she wanted to see what else they had to say.

The men suddenly shifted their focus to a woman who was trying to break free of the crowd with a crying baby in her arms.

When they demanded to know where she was going and why
she simply said she was going home, she didn’t wish to disturb anything that was going on. When they seemed reluctant to let her go she seemed to be done with the group entirely.

“Haven’t you done enough? You took my husband away, and now I just wish to go home and take care of our son.” She yelled back at the men who did not take a liking to her reply.

Kyoshi thought back to the family that had given them the information the night before. This woman’s husband could very well be that man’s brother. She was snapped from her thoughts as some of the men pursued forwards going in after the woman.

She watched as one tried to reach the mother with a water wip. This she took as her cue to intervene. Rangi had been trying to push through the crowd and make way to the scene, but Kyoshi figured she would act first. Sending up a slab of rock between the mother and the men.

Now leaving them all looking at her as she emerged from her spot in the shadows making her way towards them. “Go home” She instructs the wife.

“We did not allow that” the water bender snapped back.

“Well I did” She replied as she stepped close to the men, pushing the woman to leave.

As she did, they tried to press forward once more, which caused Kyoshi to send the slab of rock that she had risen from the ground and sent it towards them.

They all watch as the men barely dodge it and jump to either side as the slab crashes into a further back wall. “Want me to get the people out of here?” Rangi asked as she appeared at her side. There would definitely be collateral damage.

Kyoshi nodded as Rangi was joined by the others. “These guys are mine.”

As the words left her mouth one of the men tried to flee from the scene Kyoshi pulled some of the water from the fountain for her own water arm to pull the man back into the fight. 
“Fight me you coward”

Her first move was to try and sink the event in place, though she might have pulled this move one too many times because all but one of them were able to avoid it.

Wong had called out that he had the man that was stuck in the ground as Kyoshi pursued the rest. As she charged forward the men went down separate streets, each part of Kyoshi’s team avatar going after a different guy. Kyoshi had chosen the more talkative one from the night before, he was still on her nerves.

Through the allies between streets she could see Rangi going after the other guy, smiling at the grin she wore as the fire bender knew that she could catch the guy no problem. She’ll probably get her guy before I even land a hit on mine.

Suddenly the man in front of her stopped and turned. It appeared that he had been holding some water in front of him as ran. So as he turned to face her he sent the water forward in the form of numerous ice spikes.

Instead of trying to bend the water in front of her she simply produced a massive flame in front of her to stop the field of spikes hurtling towards her.

This might be a simpler battle than she thought. As the flames subsided she he stood in front of her smirking. When suddenly the ground below her began to soften, then began to pull her down into the ground. He had been manipulating the now present mud at her feet.

As she began to free herself he took off once more. Why couldn’t this fucker just sit still and fight her? Pushing herself up and out of the mess she could barely see where he was heading. So she proceeded to use dust stepping to gain speed and step over the town’s houses looking for the coward.

She had spotted him a row or two over, and rushed forward. That’s when she realized where she was, Kyoshi could see Rangi in a mixed hand to hand and bending fight. When Kyoshi saw the man she was supposed to be apprehending coming up behind her. She was probably too focused to notice him. 

Kyohshi watched as he used water to form an ice dagger, and suddenly that one day came flooding back to her, clouding all her judgment.

Yun came up from behind, stabbing that earth through Rangi as if he was puncturing parchment. The blood. Rangi’s limp body in her arms. The flashback repeated in her head over and over again. She would not allow this part of history to repeat itself. Never, they will never touch her again.

Before she was fully aware of what was going on she felt the energy in her body shift. With a fierce glow in her eyes she accelerated forward at the drop of pin crashing between where the man and Rangi stood.

From the crater she created she forced the man’s ice spike back at full force. It aligned with the man’s face, tearing through the flesh of his cheek. It wasn’t strong enough to go through entirely the spike breaking at the contact of his bone.

It wasn’t enough though, still all Kyoshi saw was red.

With the man screaming out using one hand to cover the wide gash, he began to raise his hand as if he were to try and bend again. 

Images of that last day with Yun flashed across Kyoshi’s mind once more. Rangi’s cries, the blood, her unconscious body. Never again.

“YOU WILL NEVER TOUCH HER AGAIN”

Though she wasn’t entirely sure who she was yelling at, it didn’t matter anymore.

Grabbing the earth from infront of her she pulled it forward and then threw it as hard as she could at the staggering man. The huge slabs of rock threw his body against a wall. Leaving him lying motionless and bloody on the ground beside the rubble.

“You’re a fucking maniac” the man that had been fighting Rangi yelled. But it took Kyoshi only a moment to turn around and sink him neck deep in the ground, completely immobilizing him.

“If you don’t wish for his fate, I’d shut the hell up” Kyoshi called as she began to approach the trapped man.

“Kyoshi stop!” Rangi yelled, and she grabbed Kyoshi’s shoulder, putting herself between Kyoshi and the man in the ground. “He may talk.”

But it seemed to have gone in one ear and out the next, and Kyoshi continued to step forward.

“Kyoshi” Rangi hissed once more, this time choosing to dig her thumb hard enough into the Avatar’s collar bone to make her turn to see the cause.

Kyoshi yelped out in pain as she tried to pry the firebender’s hand off. “I’m fine.” She said shortly, trying to focus on the man.

“Like fucking hell, look me in eyes and tell me and I may began to believe you” Rangi shouted back, and pressed her thumb down again to gain Kyoshi’s attention.

Kyoshi looks back semi frantically, her eyes darting all around Rangi’s face as if to validate that she was truely unharmed. “I’m fine you can see for yourself”

Rangi sighed and Kyoshi continued to look over at her. The man in the earth had seemed to either have passed out or just admitted defeat and took a rather disinterest in everything else surrounding him.

Kyoshi let out a short breath as if acknowledging what Rangi said. “I’ll let go, but if you kill that guy now, I’ll kiss your ass all the way back to the earth kingdom.”

Rangi knew that Kyoshi didn’t actually take any pleasure in killing. Using it as a last resort when she felt there was nothing left.

But this situation didn’t seem too bad or extremely bad from Rangi’s perspective, so it seemed odd that Kyoshi choosen that as her tactic. She figured Kyoshi needed a moment to catch up, wrap her head around it all.

Rangi looked over Kyoshi carefully, noticing as her hands shook as they grasped the fans for dear life. Her knuckles were probably white beneath her gloves.

Kyoshi’s breaths then became very deep and fast. She is definitely wrapping her head around things now. Rangi thought to herself. Rangi glanced back at the man on the earth, and back over to the corpse at the wall before returning to watching Kyoshi.

“Kyoshi, are you okay?”

Suddenly the Avatar’s eyes snapped to hers, before her face paled. “I thought-” Her breath became quick again.

“He would have stabbed you like- like” She didn’t have the chance to finish as she rushed a couple paces back before hurling in the street.

Rangi was at her side in an instant, grabbing her braid to hold it back. Even though Kyoshi hadn’t finished her sentence Rangi had already known what she was going to say. That instant, it reminded her of that last day with Yun. When he could have very well killed Rangi. She knew better than anyone that that day had taken its toll on Kyoshi but she never expected it to come back to haunt them like this.

“He’s not here, Kyoshi.” Rangi whispered. “And I’m fine.” She tried to reassure her.

Kyoshi began to pull herself together again, straightening her headdress and she proceeded to walk back to the captured man.

She had noticed that they must have looped back to the center of the town because she could see the rest of the group not too far away, and two more members surrendered. Kirima, Wong and Lao ge had probably seen the whole thing.

“What will we do with them?” Rangi asked as the other approached. Kyoshi paused for a second thinking on her answer as she turned to face the once man sunk in the earth.

Before Rangi realized Kyoshi had released him from the earth prison and left him free standing, though he stumbled slightly at the sudden weight of his body on his legs.

“What are you doing- you’re letting him go” Rangi gasped at the sight.

“They aren’t worth the efforts to keep prisoners, or send soldiers to come get them” She replied to the firebender, before focusing back on the man.

“Leave, I’ll fight you all if I have to but you will leave the innocent out of it.” Kyoshi warned.

“Why are you letting us go?” He asked, his voice trembling slightly.

“Frankly, you aren’t worth the effort to apprehend,” Kyoshi dead panned.

But he scoffed at her statement. “Really?” He asked skeptically. “Go, warn him. We’ll be coming, tell him to count his days” Kyoshi instructed. “Remember the fate of your friend is an option”

Kyoshi watched the fear flash through his features before signaling the other members to follow.

“How are you sure he won’t come back as soon as we leave?” Rangi asked as they watched the men flee in the direction they knew the portal stood.

“Because this is actually useful information”

“And because you send that guy’s ass through a wall” Wong intervened.

“She’s never killed for us before.” Kirima complained as she walked up closer.

“I’m pretty sure she has,” Wong replied.

“Okay well not like that” Kirima called back, when she caught sight of Gao le grinning. “What are you looking so smug about, last I checked you didn’t even what us to try and deal with them”

“it’s just that look in her eye”

” Violence?” Kirima asked bordly.

The group had started to head out of town to look for Kenna, Kyoshi and Rangi in the front.  

“No. That fear” Lao Ge replied once Rangi and Kyoshi were more so out of earshot. “All things considered Rangi probably wasn’t in grave danger but Kyoshi reacted the same” Lao ge said as he pointed to the corpse. “You saw most of that didn’t you?”

“Your point?” Kirima asked, irritated.

Lao ge shrugged. “I’m just glad we’re on her side, I think she’d burn the whole world for that girl”

Kirima looked over to the scene, the body, and the crater from her landing. “You make a fair point”

Suddenly Kenna approached them, “I’m sorry I couldn’t catch them.” She huffed as she slowed from her jog.

“It’s fine they’re all heading the same way anyways” Kyoshi replied and she stashed her fans in her sash.

Okay I got a comment that said that Kirima may have a crush on Kenna and I thought that it was hilarious so I had to put it in. Let me know if we want that to be more present in future chapters. Also I just know the idea of Rangi being in danger would 100% make Kyoshi physically ill and I will not be convinced otherwise. Anyways have a great day and let me know if you have any idea or thoughts. I always LOVE hearing from you guys, and thanks for reading again❤️