Avatar: Two Brothers
Chapter 32
Final Plan
After barely surviving another encounter with Laghima, everyone on the ship had to reassess what happened before taking further action.They had to formulate a plan with what resources they had left to mount an attack against Laghima.
General Gursehaj and his two guards, Arsh and Gurshaan would not accompany Da-Wei on his journey to take down Laghima. Instead, they took the other battleship and took the chained up airbenders, to lock them up and prevent them from harming others. The three earth benders parted ways with everyone and wished them all the best in their journey.
Dilraj saw his friend’s body on the ship and still felt a heavy burden after the loss. He was ready to carry the body and prepare it for a proper farewell but that was when Da-Wei, Isabelle, and Chloe appeared before him. “Let us help.” Da-Wei said as he reached out his hand. Dilraj looked away from them with a tear streaming down his eye. “Thank you.”
Together they warped the body up and placed it on one of the safety rafts that they found on the boat. Dilraj, Da-Wei, and Isabelle stood on the shore, as Chloe ran into the water to push the raft out into the open sea. As the raft was moving further away from shore, Da-Wei had in his hand, a violin that he found on the ship and began playing a musical piece to honour Dilraj’s friend. And when the raft was far enough from shore, Isabelle launched a fireball into the air and it landed perfectly onto the body on the raft, completing the ceremony.
The pain of losing a friend still stung and would take time to heal, but after this day, Dilraj’s hardened heart began to heal. He knew after this moment, he could trust the people who stood beside him. And after the ceremony was over, they returned back onto the ship.
Da-Wei turned to face his allies that remained on the ship. He looked at Chloe, Isabelle, Dilraj, Ruthar, and Rice. “I guess this is all of us then?” Suddenly someone blasted up from shore into the air and landed on the ship. “Don’t forget about me!” shouted Risensa.
“Pft, showoff.” Ruthar scoffed. Both Ruthar and Risensa were about to bicker again but Da-Wei stopped them. He needed everyone’s full cooperation for any hope of defeating Laghima. Ruthar and Risensa apologized and asked Da-Wei if he had a plan.
He was out of ideas, but the most important thing they needed now was Laghima’s location. He immediately looked to Ruthar, hoping he might have some insight on his brother’s whereabouts. Unfortunately, Ruthar had no idea where his brother could be hiding. Laghima managed to hide his existence from him for years, so he was at a loss. Without any leads about Laghima’s location, low morale began to strike amongst the group.
As the group was about to walk away defeated, Dilraj suddenly threw an air bender in front of Da-Wei. Everyone stopped and turned their attention to Dilraj.
“Who is this?!” Da-Wei asked.
“I heard a noise coming from inside the ship and found him sneaking around the storage room. I believe he’s one of Laghima’s lackeys that got left behind. We should get rid of him before he causes us more problems.”
“Please listen! I don’t mean any harm!” the air bender pleaded.
Upon hearing his voice, Ruthar recognized it. “Armaan? Is that you? What happened? How did you end up on this ship?”
“It's horrible, Ruthar! They have completely taken over Zuan Shi! I had no choice, if I didn’t listen to them, they were going to hurt more people. Please believe me, I don’t want to become an assassin like the others!”
“So, Zuan Shi is where Laghima’s hiding? Then let’s go there and take him out!” After Dilraj spoke, he looked around to see gloomy faces on Chloe and Da-Wei. Unsure if it was something he said, he asked them while they seemed so distressed. They both revealed that Zuan Shi was their hometown.
As Chloe and Da-Wei had mixed emotions, Dilraj was eager for them to move quickly and strike against Laghima. However, Da-Wei cautioned Dilraj as they could be walking into a trap. His concerns only stirred up an argument between him and Dilraj.
Before things could escalate, Ruthar jumped in to defuse the situation. He explained that everyone was exhausted from all the fighting. He suggested for everyone to get some much needed rest as they slowly made their way towards Zuan Shi. It was thanks to his suggestion that Da-Wei and Dilraj went their separate ways to cool off. And as nightfall approached, everyone found some space to rest on the battleship.
When morning came, Da-Wei got up extra early with much on his mind. He wanted to get perspective from Ruthar, so he went to visit him where he was staying on the ship. When Da-Wei reached the room on the ship, he didn’t find his master there. He went looking for Ruthar throughout the ship but he couldn’t find him anywhere.
After looking everywhere he could think of on the ship, he rushed to Chloe who was with Dilraj and Isabelle. He told them that Ruthar was nowhere to be found and immediately, the other three benders began searching through the ship.
When they came back together after a thorough search, they confirmed that Ruthar was not on the ship. In fact, it wasn’t just Ruthar who was missing but Armaan and Mikayla were both gone as well. They all began to worry and assume the worst until Rice showed up.
“Oh them? Yeah they all left for Zuan Shi.” Rice announced to them.
“What?! Why would they do that without us?” Isabelle asked.
“Ruthar said he felt a huge responsibility for everything that’s happened since Laghima is his brother. He no longer wanted to burden you all with his mistakes. So he went to set things right himself. He took Armaan since he knows exactly where Laghima is hiding.”
“Why didn’t you stop him?!” Da-Wei angrily asked Rice.
“I tried, but he wouldn’t listen to me. He wanted me to stay and watch over you all in case things don’t go well for him.”
Dilraj, Isabelle and Chloe looked to Da-Wei, waiting to see what his response would be. It took him a moment to gather his thoughts, and then he looked more determined than ever.
“We are going to save Ruthar and defeat Laghima!”
“Ha, now you are speaking my language.” Dilraj agreed with his choice.
“Count me in! I didn’t join the team just to run away from things.” Isabelle added.
“You already know my answer!” Chloe says as she slams her first together.
The four benders placed their right hands out to signal a pact that they would work together and fight till the very end. As they had their moment, Risensa finally comes out of her room, as she had just woken up. “Why is it so loud out here? Can’t a fire bender get some rest around here?”
Dilraj and Isabelle couldn’t help but laugh at Risensa’s bed hair. At the same time, Chloe turned to Da-Wei and asked him what his plan was for rescuing Ruthar. “To be honest, I don’t have a plan.” Everyone was shocked to hear as he usually had some idea ready.
Suddenly, Rice jumps in, “Well I can’t have you four blindly jumping into the enemy’s base without a plan. That would go against what Ruthar told me to do!”
“Wait, are you saying you have a plan?” Isabelle questioned.
“Of course I do, I wasn’t going to let Ruthar go against that inflated air head bender by himself.”
“You are more resourceful than you put out to be. I misjudged you.” Said Dilraj.
“So what is this plan of yours?” Chloe asked.
“I will explain along the way but first, we need to take a detour somewhere. There is someone’s help we will require for this plan to succeed.”
“This person sounds really important and ridiculously strong. Just who is this person?” Da-Wei asked.
“Oh that will spoil the surprise.”
Rice never revealed who the person was. They all had to wait until they reached their destination to find out who their new ally would be.