Sorry this is both late and rushed.
Day Thirty Three, Earth Continent Wilderness
“Before you wander off again, there are some things you need to
know.”
Zuko stared over his shoulder at me. I was sitting in front of a
circle of earth that Ed and I had cleared out for practice when we
had stopped for the night. Zuko had been more than willing to sit
back and stare at our practice, as if watching intently enough would
reveal the secrets of alchemy to him. When I passed that little
thought on to Ed he almost fell out of his saddle laughing.
But after two days of careful reflection it was time to offer the
first olive branch. Zuko hadn't even slept at the same camp as us
since we had set out, prefering to wander off and practice out of our
line of sight at night and then presumably sleep out there as well.
“Well, do you want to sit down?”
“What is this about?”
“The monsters that may have killed your father.”
Zuko considered this for a moment and then dropped his bags. “Okay.”
He sat on the other side of the practice circle.
“Hmmm. First off, I have to tell you that I can't tell you
everything about them.” I gestured to Ed. “Ed is the one who ran
into them before, so he knows the most. However when we encountered
one of the homonculi on this continent she apparently didn't look the
same.”
“So, these monster are from the same place you are?” Zuko asked.
I paused and then nodded. “That's a simple version, but
essentially correct.” I placed my hand on the ground and seven
symbols appeared, etched into the earth with blue light. “Ed
encountered seven homonculi.” I pointed at each symbol in turn.
“Wrath. Sloth. Pride. Envy. Gluttony. Greed. Lust.” I continued
holding my hand over Lust's symbol. “Some of them look like normal
humans and could pass as one.” I pointed at the symbols for Sloth
and Gluttony. “Others could barely pass as human at all.” I
pointed at the symbol for Envy. “At least one could look like
anything he wanted.”
“Anything?” Zuko's good eye narrowed.
“Ed said that the Envy homonculi could change shape at will. It's
true form is a massive grotesque monster, but it can look like a
child if it wants to.”
“Shapeshifting...” Zuko's scowl deepened.
“The other seven homonculi have different powers.” I gestured to
them in turn again. “Lust has the ability to form her fingers into
ba long claws that can cut through metal as easily as air. Gluttony
could eat anything. Greed could change his skin into impenetrable
armour. Sloth had super-speed and endurance. Wrath could see
everything with his Ultimate Eye, even through other objects and
maybe a bit into a future as well. Pride could animate his shadow,
think of it as shadowbending, where he can use the shadows to strike
anything in his range.”
“But none of them could bend the regular elements?” Zuko asked.
“No, not as far as I know.” I shrugged. “None of them could
use traditional alchemy either. But don't underestimate them.” I
waved my hand over the whole circle. “Unlike humans, they don't die
when they are killed.” Zuko raised his good eyebrow at that. “I
mean, even fatal wounds aren't enough to stop them. One of them came
back from being burned to ash.” I paused, wondering if I should
reveal this next bit but pushed ahead anyway, “The reason is that
each homonculi literally has dozens, maybe hundreds of lives inside
of them. They are created when many human souls are forged into a
homonculus. To kill them you have to work through all those souls.”
I sighed. “And you have to do it all at once. If they escape they
can... they can eat more people to regain their lost powers.”
Zuko's face went pale. “You're joking,” he pleaded.
I looked at Ed and Ed nodded solemnly. “I see it,” he said.
“Homonculi eat people. Eat each other, even, if desperate. Very
bad.”
Zuko shook himself out of his shock and turned to me. “So that's
it. You just kill them enough and they're done?”
Except Lust was still alive, even after she had been destroyed in
Amestris. But I didn't point that out. “There is a bit more, but
yeah, that's basically it.”
Zuko looked down at his fists. “I can do that.” He looked back
up at me. “How do you know so much about these things anyway?”
“Like I said, Ed knows more than me. He fought them once.” I
stood up. “Understand that these homonculi are dangerous beyond
belief. Back on Ed's continent they destroyed an entire nation,
hundreds of thousands of people, for the sake of power and would have
done the same to Ed's homeland.”
“What stopped them?” Zuko asked.
“I did,” Ed said, his voice cold. “And I will do it again.”
Zuko seemed happy with that announcement. “Okay, so... how do we
fight them?”
Day Forty-Three, East of Omashu
Hemmy reared again, his head bucking back and forth. Ed gave a
squack of surprise and clung to the saddle for dear life. The
mountain trails around here had some steep dropoffs. I clucked my
tongue and moved Rappy forward, taking the reins and quieting the
beast with some soothing pats to its neck.
“Ugh. That's the third time today,” Ed growled. “What is with
this worthless chimera?”
“Maybe he's tired of you calling him a chimera,” I said, then
winced and clutched my stomach.
Ed looked at me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I've just been...” I trailed off. “I've kind of felt
bad all day.” I smiled reassuringly. “Since last night some time
actually. Didn't get much sleep.”
Ed leaned forward. “Maybe you should get some rest today?”
“I'll be fine.” I moved away from him and towards Zuko, who was
leading out little procession.
He, too, was struggling with his as-yet-unnamed ostrich-horse,
though he was handling it better than Ed. “What's going on back
there?” he asked.
“Nothing.” I winced and clutched my stomach again. “Damnit...”
I groaned.
“You look pale.”
“It's just cramps,” I said.
“Cramps?” he asked.
“You know when...” My mouth stopped working. Wait. Cramps? But
the one benefit of this body was a lack of such things. “Actually,
maybe it is something.” I looked around. “How long to the nearest
town?”
“The nearest town is Omashu,” Zuko said. He pointed through a
nearby pass. “About thirty minutes hard ride in that direction. But
its probably crawling with Fire Nation troops.” He looked up and
down the trail. “Frankly, I'm surprised that we haven't encountered
any since we moved up into the mountains.”
“Well, it was either this or be caught by the patrols on the
plains,” I said. “I swear, they were swarming like-” I cut off.
“Hey, did you two hear that?”
“Hear what?” Zuko asked, tilting his head and looking around for
trouble once again.
“It's like...” I couldn't answer what it was like. But it was
strangely familiar. Not in a comforting way either. In fact, my skin
was breaking out in goosebumps and the hairs on the back of my neck
were standing up. “You... you seriously can't hear it?” I asked.
Ed rode up, frowning. “I can not hear anything,” he said, his
dialect much improved from his nightly talks with Zuko where they
strategized ways of taking down the various homonculi Ed was familiar
with. Too bad Zuko seemed unwilling to reveal anything else about his
past or his motives.
“How can you not hear it?” I asked, my voice growing shrill.
“That sound, it's...” I turned in the direction of Omashu.
“It's... voices... so many voices and they're all screaming.”
Then, as if to punctuate my sentence a pillar of light erupted from
the other side of the mountains. The screams rose to a crescendo and
it took me a few seconds to realize that I was screaming with them. I
lost all control of my body, toppling from the suddenly wild and
bucking mount.
Instead of colliding with the ground I felt strong arms snatch me
out of the air. Zuko peered into my line of sight. He was trying to
talk but I couldn't hear him over the screaming, my screaming. I
clutching onto his tunic and pulled him closer. He forced my mouth
closed with one hand. “Nin! What's wrong with you?” He turned his
face up to Ed. “What is wrong with him?” he demanded.
Except Ed wasn't looking at me. He was looking across the mountains.
His face had drained of all colour, leaving only his gold eyes
shining in a sea of milk. His hands clutching the reins of his mount
so tightly it wasn't moving, despite it obviously wanting to. “No...
oh no... it can't be!”
“What's going on?” Zuko roared.
“Stay here!” Ed shouted, “YA!” He snapped his reins and his
mount burst forward so fast it left a trail of dust in its wake. Ed
leaned over its neck, urging it on until it vanished from sight.
Zuko cursed under his breath and was about to rise in pursuit but I
clutched on to him tighter. “Puh-puh-please! Don't!” I pleaded,
unable to stand. “Oh God, the screaming!” I stared into his eyes.
“Can't you hear the screaming!”
He shook his head slowly back and forth, then looked up the trail
where Ed had vanished. Mercifully, at this point I think I passed
out.
*
When I regained consciousness I was drapped across the front of
Zuko's ostrich-horse as he rode hard down the path. Rappy followed
him shortly. “Wha-what's happening?” I moaned out.
“Are you better now?” Zuko asked, his voice just a tad bitter.
“I...” I took a quick mental stock. There was no more screaming
noise, and my body didn't feel like someone had just turned all the
systems to 'overload'. “I think I'm better.” I glanced around.
“Where are we?”
“Heading towards Omashu, after Ed.” He stared down at me. “I
don't want to slow down, we already lost enough time with me getting
you up into he saddle.
My face started burning as I recognized that I was spread partially
across his lap. Composing myself as much as possible I gave a sharp
whistle and Rappy ran up next to him. I reached out with one hand,
grabbed the reins and pulled myself off Zuko's mount with a sharp
tug. Zuko made a noise of shock. My feet hit the ground, bounced and
then i vaulted easily into the saddle.
“How did you do that?”
“Momentum,” I said with a shrug. “I wasn't really certain
either.”
A few seconds later we came around the final turn in the trail and
onto a plateau overlooking the city of Omashu. Or at least, what was
left of it.
“There... there was a city here,” Zuko said, his voice
breathless.
“It's gone now,” I replied.
In fact, it looked hardly as if a city had ever been there. I had
heard tales of Omashu from various natives, a city built on the top
of a mountain with the only access being stone bridges that stretched
over steep valleys, giving the earthbenders besieged inside complete
control over access to the city. Now there was no hint of much
construction except the massive metal bridges that had been laid
across the gorges on all sides to allow the Fire Nation access. Even
those bridges looked twisted and partially melted where they pressed
against the inner peak.
Looking closer I could see bits and pieces of what looked like they
had once buildings. The entire peak of the mountain was scoured
clean, like someone had taken a knife and shaved off the sides of it.
Strange swirling marks spiralled all the way up the sides to the
peak, which looked like it had been chopped clean off.
“How many... how many people lived in Omashu?” I forced out.
“Thousands,” Zuko answered hollowly. “Where are the Fire
Nation troops?”
I blinked and looked down again. “Is that them?” I pointed at
distant figures moving about on the far sides of the various bridges.
“That can't possibly be all of them?” Zuko more asked than
insisted. “It would take hundreds of firebenders, an entire
division of normal troops to control a city that size. Not to mention
governers and magistrates and support staff...” As he spoke his
voice grew more and more quiet until he finally trailed off. “What
did this?” he finally repeated.
“I don't know.” I glanced around. “Do you see Ed?” I asked.
He looked around himself. “No but... wait.” He peered to the
horizon. “The Avatar!” He shouted, pointing in excitement.
“What?” I followed his finger, but all I saw was a small cloud
moving away from us. “Where?”
“There, on the flying bison.”
I gave him a long look. This wasn't the first time he'd referred to
the Avatar's magical flying bison, after all. Ed openly scoffed at
the idea. Given everything I had seen, I was sceptical but not
dismissive. “How can you tell?”
“It's moving against the wind,” he said. He meet my eyes. “Trust
me, I'm familiar enough with that thing to know what it looks like
when its running away from m- er, when its running away.”
“Do you think he could have done this?” I asked. “After what
happened at the North Pole?”
“I... no... why would he?” Zuko looked caught. “I mean, maybe
he would have to the Fire Nation, but all the people captured
inside?” His face firmed up. “Either way, he has to know what
happened here.”
“What makes you say that?”
“He always has a way of turning up when trouble is happening. Come
on, we have to get after him before he gets out of sight.”
“Wait, what about Ed? What about figuring out what happened here?”
“We don't have time, if we let him go now, we may never see him
again.”
“What, through the soldiers?” I asked, not certain if he was
serious. “They're between us and his trail.”
“If needs be,” he said.
[ ]”No, we have to go down there and look for Ed, and render
assistance to any survivors.”
[ ]”You're right. Ed can catch up to us. After that Avatar!”
[ ]”There are too many Fire Nation soldiers down there, and more
coming with the size of that lightshow. Hide and wait, learn more
before acting.”
[ ]”Those soldiers look disorganized. If we attack them now we
could beat them, and question them about what happened.”
--------------
Epsilon
Day Thirty Three, Earth Continent Wilderness
“Before you wander off again, there are some things you need to
know.”
Zuko stared over his shoulder at me. I was sitting in front of a
circle of earth that Ed and I had cleared out for practice when we
had stopped for the night. Zuko had been more than willing to sit
back and stare at our practice, as if watching intently enough would
reveal the secrets of alchemy to him. When I passed that little
thought on to Ed he almost fell out of his saddle laughing.
But after two days of careful reflection it was time to offer the
first olive branch. Zuko hadn't even slept at the same camp as us
since we had set out, prefering to wander off and practice out of our
line of sight at night and then presumably sleep out there as well.
“Well, do you want to sit down?”
“What is this about?”
“The monsters that may have killed your father.”
Zuko considered this for a moment and then dropped his bags. “Okay.”
He sat on the other side of the practice circle.
“Hmmm. First off, I have to tell you that I can't tell you
everything about them.” I gestured to Ed. “Ed is the one who ran
into them before, so he knows the most. However when we encountered
one of the homonculi on this continent she apparently didn't look the
same.”
“So, these monster are from the same place you are?” Zuko asked.
I paused and then nodded. “That's a simple version, but
essentially correct.” I placed my hand on the ground and seven
symbols appeared, etched into the earth with blue light. “Ed
encountered seven homonculi.” I pointed at each symbol in turn.
“Wrath. Sloth. Pride. Envy. Gluttony. Greed. Lust.” I continued
holding my hand over Lust's symbol. “Some of them look like normal
humans and could pass as one.” I pointed at the symbols for Sloth
and Gluttony. “Others could barely pass as human at all.” I
pointed at the symbol for Envy. “At least one could look like
anything he wanted.”
“Anything?” Zuko's good eye narrowed.
“Ed said that the Envy homonculi could change shape at will. It's
true form is a massive grotesque monster, but it can look like a
child if it wants to.”
“Shapeshifting...” Zuko's scowl deepened.
“The other seven homonculi have different powers.” I gestured to
them in turn again. “Lust has the ability to form her fingers into
ba long claws that can cut through metal as easily as air. Gluttony
could eat anything. Greed could change his skin into impenetrable
armour. Sloth had super-speed and endurance. Wrath could see
everything with his Ultimate Eye, even through other objects and
maybe a bit into a future as well. Pride could animate his shadow,
think of it as shadowbending, where he can use the shadows to strike
anything in his range.”
“But none of them could bend the regular elements?” Zuko asked.
“No, not as far as I know.” I shrugged. “None of them could
use traditional alchemy either. But don't underestimate them.” I
waved my hand over the whole circle. “Unlike humans, they don't die
when they are killed.” Zuko raised his good eyebrow at that. “I
mean, even fatal wounds aren't enough to stop them. One of them came
back from being burned to ash.” I paused, wondering if I should
reveal this next bit but pushed ahead anyway, “The reason is that
each homonculi literally has dozens, maybe hundreds of lives inside
of them. They are created when many human souls are forged into a
homonculus. To kill them you have to work through all those souls.”
I sighed. “And you have to do it all at once. If they escape they
can... they can eat more people to regain their lost powers.”
Zuko's face went pale. “You're joking,” he pleaded.
I looked at Ed and Ed nodded solemnly. “I see it,” he said.
“Homonculi eat people. Eat each other, even, if desperate. Very
bad.”
Zuko shook himself out of his shock and turned to me. “So that's
it. You just kill them enough and they're done?”
Except Lust was still alive, even after she had been destroyed in
Amestris. But I didn't point that out. “There is a bit more, but
yeah, that's basically it.”
Zuko looked down at his fists. “I can do that.” He looked back
up at me. “How do you know so much about these things anyway?”
“Like I said, Ed knows more than me. He fought them once.” I
stood up. “Understand that these homonculi are dangerous beyond
belief. Back on Ed's continent they destroyed an entire nation,
hundreds of thousands of people, for the sake of power and would have
done the same to Ed's homeland.”
“What stopped them?” Zuko asked.
“I did,” Ed said, his voice cold. “And I will do it again.”
Zuko seemed happy with that announcement. “Okay, so... how do we
fight them?”
Day Forty-Three, East of Omashu
Hemmy reared again, his head bucking back and forth. Ed gave a
squack of surprise and clung to the saddle for dear life. The
mountain trails around here had some steep dropoffs. I clucked my
tongue and moved Rappy forward, taking the reins and quieting the
beast with some soothing pats to its neck.
“Ugh. That's the third time today,” Ed growled. “What is with
this worthless chimera?”
“Maybe he's tired of you calling him a chimera,” I said, then
winced and clutched my stomach.
Ed looked at me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I've just been...” I trailed off. “I've kind of felt
bad all day.” I smiled reassuringly. “Since last night some time
actually. Didn't get much sleep.”
Ed leaned forward. “Maybe you should get some rest today?”
“I'll be fine.” I moved away from him and towards Zuko, who was
leading out little procession.
He, too, was struggling with his as-yet-unnamed ostrich-horse,
though he was handling it better than Ed. “What's going on back
there?” he asked.
“Nothing.” I winced and clutched my stomach again. “Damnit...”
I groaned.
“You look pale.”
“It's just cramps,” I said.
“Cramps?” he asked.
“You know when...” My mouth stopped working. Wait. Cramps? But
the one benefit of this body was a lack of such things. “Actually,
maybe it is something.” I looked around. “How long to the nearest
town?”
“The nearest town is Omashu,” Zuko said. He pointed through a
nearby pass. “About thirty minutes hard ride in that direction. But
its probably crawling with Fire Nation troops.” He looked up and
down the trail. “Frankly, I'm surprised that we haven't encountered
any since we moved up into the mountains.”
“Well, it was either this or be caught by the patrols on the
plains,” I said. “I swear, they were swarming like-” I cut off.
“Hey, did you two hear that?”
“Hear what?” Zuko asked, tilting his head and looking around for
trouble once again.
“It's like...” I couldn't answer what it was like. But it was
strangely familiar. Not in a comforting way either. In fact, my skin
was breaking out in goosebumps and the hairs on the back of my neck
were standing up. “You... you seriously can't hear it?” I asked.
Ed rode up, frowning. “I can not hear anything,” he said, his
dialect much improved from his nightly talks with Zuko where they
strategized ways of taking down the various homonculi Ed was familiar
with. Too bad Zuko seemed unwilling to reveal anything else about his
past or his motives.
“How can you not hear it?” I asked, my voice growing shrill.
“That sound, it's...” I turned in the direction of Omashu.
“It's... voices... so many voices and they're all screaming.”
Then, as if to punctuate my sentence a pillar of light erupted from
the other side of the mountains. The screams rose to a crescendo and
it took me a few seconds to realize that I was screaming with them. I
lost all control of my body, toppling from the suddenly wild and
bucking mount.
Instead of colliding with the ground I felt strong arms snatch me
out of the air. Zuko peered into my line of sight. He was trying to
talk but I couldn't hear him over the screaming, my screaming. I
clutching onto his tunic and pulled him closer. He forced my mouth
closed with one hand. “Nin! What's wrong with you?” He turned his
face up to Ed. “What is wrong with him?” he demanded.
Except Ed wasn't looking at me. He was looking across the mountains.
His face had drained of all colour, leaving only his gold eyes
shining in a sea of milk. His hands clutching the reins of his mount
so tightly it wasn't moving, despite it obviously wanting to. “No...
oh no... it can't be!”
“What's going on?” Zuko roared.
“Stay here!” Ed shouted, “YA!” He snapped his reins and his
mount burst forward so fast it left a trail of dust in its wake. Ed
leaned over its neck, urging it on until it vanished from sight.
Zuko cursed under his breath and was about to rise in pursuit but I
clutched on to him tighter. “Puh-puh-please! Don't!” I pleaded,
unable to stand. “Oh God, the screaming!” I stared into his eyes.
“Can't you hear the screaming!”
He shook his head slowly back and forth, then looked up the trail
where Ed had vanished. Mercifully, at this point I think I passed
out.
*
When I regained consciousness I was drapped across the front of
Zuko's ostrich-horse as he rode hard down the path. Rappy followed
him shortly. “Wha-what's happening?” I moaned out.
“Are you better now?” Zuko asked, his voice just a tad bitter.
“I...” I took a quick mental stock. There was no more screaming
noise, and my body didn't feel like someone had just turned all the
systems to 'overload'. “I think I'm better.” I glanced around.
“Where are we?”
“Heading towards Omashu, after Ed.” He stared down at me. “I
don't want to slow down, we already lost enough time with me getting
you up into he saddle.
My face started burning as I recognized that I was spread partially
across his lap. Composing myself as much as possible I gave a sharp
whistle and Rappy ran up next to him. I reached out with one hand,
grabbed the reins and pulled myself off Zuko's mount with a sharp
tug. Zuko made a noise of shock. My feet hit the ground, bounced and
then i vaulted easily into the saddle.
“How did you do that?”
“Momentum,” I said with a shrug. “I wasn't really certain
either.”
A few seconds later we came around the final turn in the trail and
onto a plateau overlooking the city of Omashu. Or at least, what was
left of it.
“There... there was a city here,” Zuko said, his voice
breathless.
“It's gone now,” I replied.
In fact, it looked hardly as if a city had ever been there. I had
heard tales of Omashu from various natives, a city built on the top
of a mountain with the only access being stone bridges that stretched
over steep valleys, giving the earthbenders besieged inside complete
control over access to the city. Now there was no hint of much
construction except the massive metal bridges that had been laid
across the gorges on all sides to allow the Fire Nation access. Even
those bridges looked twisted and partially melted where they pressed
against the inner peak.
Looking closer I could see bits and pieces of what looked like they
had once buildings. The entire peak of the mountain was scoured
clean, like someone had taken a knife and shaved off the sides of it.
Strange swirling marks spiralled all the way up the sides to the
peak, which looked like it had been chopped clean off.
“How many... how many people lived in Omashu?” I forced out.
“Thousands,” Zuko answered hollowly. “Where are the Fire
Nation troops?”
I blinked and looked down again. “Is that them?” I pointed at
distant figures moving about on the far sides of the various bridges.
“That can't possibly be all of them?” Zuko more asked than
insisted. “It would take hundreds of firebenders, an entire
division of normal troops to control a city that size. Not to mention
governers and magistrates and support staff...” As he spoke his
voice grew more and more quiet until he finally trailed off. “What
did this?” he finally repeated.
“I don't know.” I glanced around. “Do you see Ed?” I asked.
He looked around himself. “No but... wait.” He peered to the
horizon. “The Avatar!” He shouted, pointing in excitement.
“What?” I followed his finger, but all I saw was a small cloud
moving away from us. “Where?”
“There, on the flying bison.”
I gave him a long look. This wasn't the first time he'd referred to
the Avatar's magical flying bison, after all. Ed openly scoffed at
the idea. Given everything I had seen, I was sceptical but not
dismissive. “How can you tell?”
“It's moving against the wind,” he said. He meet my eyes. “Trust
me, I'm familiar enough with that thing to know what it looks like
when its running away from m- er, when its running away.”
“Do you think he could have done this?” I asked. “After what
happened at the North Pole?”
“I... no... why would he?” Zuko looked caught. “I mean, maybe
he would have to the Fire Nation, but all the people captured
inside?” His face firmed up. “Either way, he has to know what
happened here.”
“What makes you say that?”
“He always has a way of turning up when trouble is happening. Come
on, we have to get after him before he gets out of sight.”
“Wait, what about Ed? What about figuring out what happened here?”
“We don't have time, if we let him go now, we may never see him
again.”
“What, through the soldiers?” I asked, not certain if he was
serious. “They're between us and his trail.”
“If needs be,” he said.
[ ]”No, we have to go down there and look for Ed, and render
assistance to any survivors.”
[ ]”You're right. Ed can catch up to us. After that Avatar!”
[ ]”There are too many Fire Nation soldiers down there, and more
coming with the size of that lightshow. Hide and wait, learn more
before acting.”
[ ]”Those soldiers look disorganized. If we attack them now we
could beat them, and question them about what happened.”
--------------
Epsilon