Avatar: Two Brothers

Infiltrate

Deep within her sleep, Sonoor began sweating profusely. Noticing her condition was a bit off, Ruvnia shook her awake. Sonoor suddenly burst out of her sleep in a panic, catching her younger sister off guard. After seeing Ruvnia’s expression in front of her, she realized she overreacted and apologized for startling her.

Ruvnia asked her older sister what was bothering her but Sonoor elected not to tell her. She experienced a nightmare where she was unable to save her sister. The nightmare felt real to her but after waking from her slumber, she decided not to worry her younger sister about it.

“Fine, keep it to yourself, but we have a situation right now.” Ruvnia reported. Sonoor asked her sister to explain, “One of the air benders has returned with a hostage and he’s bringing him to see Laghima.”

“Who is this hostage?” Sonoor inquired.

Ruvnia took a moment before saying the name, “Ruthar.”

Ruthar had his hands tied behind his back as Armaan was escorting him through the temple of Zuan Shi to see Laghima. As he walked through the area, he received praise from his fellow air benders who didn’t think he would amount to much.

“Way to go Armaan!”

“Wow, you really did it? Sorry we ever doubted you!”

“Armaan, that's my man! See I knew he could do it all along!”

After being mocked and doubted for so long by his peers, Armaan felt good as he received some recognition. However, he didn’t let the praise get to his head, he remained focused to ensure he would get the hostage delivered to Laghima. Finally, after walking through the long corridor, they arrived into the main room in the temple with two giant doors.

As the doors opened, Armaan and Ruthar entered the large temple room filled with giant statues. Armaan had never been inside this room before and the sight of the statues put him in awe. But his attention was shifted once he heard the sound of someone clapping.

“Well done Armaan, you brought my brother to me.” Laghima praised him. Armaan was completely silent as the mere presence of Laghima frightened him. Ruthar on the other hand, stood there with his hands bound, waiting for Laghima’s next move. Before Laghima did anything else, Sonoor and Ruvnia appeared in the room.

Sonoor alerted Laghima that this was a trap. She suspected Armaan to be working alongside Ruthar and they were planning to ambush him. Once Sonoor finished saying what she needed, Laghima looked up and smiled, letting everyone know he was well aware of what his brother was up to.

“What? Master if you knew then why would you let the enemy enter into our stronghold?!” Sonoor asked in confusion.

“I appreciate your concern Sonoor, however, at the end of the day, Ruthar is family to me. Now, if you don’t mind, I kindly ask that you all leave us alone. We have plenty of catching up to do.”

Sonoor and Ruvnia complied with his wishes and along with Armaan. That meant, Armaan was all alone with the two Revenant Sisters. They were both ready to attack Armaan when suddenly, they heard an explosion coming from near the entrance of the temple.

Sonoor knew that she couldn’t leave the matter unattended so she told Ruvnia to stay behind to watch Armaan and to respond to Laghima if he ever called. Ruvnia was disappointed, as she wanted to head to where all the action was but she agreed and obeyed her sister’s orders. Sonoor then made her way towards the explosion.

A few moments before Armaan had guided Ruthar to Laghima, someone else arrived at the entrance of the temple. The two air benders on guard duty held up their hand to stop the visitor from advancing.

“Halt, state what business you have here.” One of the guards asked.

“Hello sir, my name is Manveer, owner of the Cabbage Cart Corporation. Someone here ordered a giant batch of cabbages and I’m here to deliver them!”

Both the air benders looked at each other but neither made the order. “Sorry we don’t know who made the order and we aren’t just going to take a giant cart filled with cabbages.”

“Hey, listen here! My cabbages are the best in the world! Plus, do you have any idea what I had to go through to get this amount of cabbages here?!”

The guards were beginning to feel uneasy with the situation but thankfully another one of the air benders came in. “Oh hey! That’s all the cabbages I ordered! Sorry I forgot to tell you both.” After the air bender explained everything, the two guards allowed Manveer to enter with his giant cart full of cabbages.

The cart was placed in the dining area where all the air benders gathered to eat. After Manveer had left, the air benders were ready to dig in, but as one of them opened the cart, someone jumped out of the cart and landed in the middle of the dining area. It was the former fire lord Risensa standing before them.

Immediately, all the air benders were on high alert but Risensa used her fire bending to create a massive explosion out of the cabbage cart, knocking out a majority of air benders. From afar, Manveer could see cabbages burning in the air and he began to cry, “MY CABBAGES!”

As the explosion was happening, the air bender that allowed the cabbage cart to enter the temple went back to the entrance to unlock the gates. Once the gates were open, Da-Wei, Isabelle, Dilraj, and Rice entered. The air bender threw away her disguise and revealed herself as Chloe.

“I got to say Chloe, using your earth bending technique to dig underground and ambush one of the air benders and take their uniform as a disguise. That was quite an impressive idea.” Rice complimented her.

“Well you know, I just can’t contain all that genius to myself sometimes.” She bragged. Da-Wei couldn’t help but laugh a little but he instantly received a death glare from Chloe.

As they entered the temple, more air benders began to flood the entrance, attempting to surround the intruders. The four benders were ready to fight but Rice stepped in front of them. “Leave the small fry to me, save your energy for the battle ahead.” They did not argue with him, instead, they thanked him for all his help and proceeded further into the temple.

When Laghima’s army of air benders saw their opponent, they couldn’t help but laugh.

“What are you all laughing about? Did I say something funny?”

“Hey look, this man thinks he can take us all on by himself! He isn’t even a bender!” One of the air benders shouted and what followed was a mass of laughter.

Rice decided to remain silent and he provoked the air benders to attack him all at once. The air benders felt mocked by his taunt and they all immediately rushed towards him ready to silence him for good. As he saw the mass of air benders raining towards him, Rice calmly reached for something that was hidden in the basket backup he was carrying.

As the army of air benders continued to charge, Rice held out a baby in his hands. “Ha! You think we will stop because we air benders are afraid to hit a baby?!” They continued their assault but before they could lay a finger on either the baby or Rice, a beacon of light shot out from the baby and into the sky.

Even in the infant stage, when the avatar is threatened, the avatar state would activate as the last line of defense to protect him/herself. The air benders realized their mistake in attacking the baby and in seconds, the avatar easily casted them all aside.

The air benders were all lying on the ground, extremely injured but very much alive. After using all that energy, the avatar returned back to its infant state and began crying. Rice held the avatar in his arms to soothe the baby. As the avatar slowly calmed down and fell asleep, Rice looked towards the temple saying out loud, “The rest is all up to the four of you.”