51 Interlude #3

200 power stones equal an additional chapter

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Additional chapter for power stones

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Azula, a young woman with black hair, stood next to a fountain in the palace courtyard where she lived, entranced by the ripples on the water for the past fifteen minutes.

"Azula, what are you doing here?" asked Ty Lee, the Fire Nation princess's friend.

"Nothing," the princess turned away from the water, looking back at her friend, "just thinking about how father would react if Garo is late."

"Don't worry, Azula, he's strong and won't just disappear!" Ty Lee replied, shaking her head. "Listen, Azula, do you know why there are so many guards and soldiers on the island? Is an attack expected?"

"I asked father before leaving him, and he said an eclipse is approaching and we need to prepare for a possible attack. It's the only day in many years when the Fire Nation's power vanishes, so we need to be ready for anything. And it seems to me that father fears this day - he looked very tense the whole time I was talking to him."

"I see. Hey, Azula, what's your relationship with Garo like?" Ty Lee asked, moving closer to Azula's face with a wide smile, squinting her eyes like a pleased cat.

"Pff... ha-ha-ha..." Azula couldn't help but laugh, causing Ty Lee to step back, trying to understand why she was laughing. "Sorry-sorry," Azula said, barely holding back her laughter, "you just looked so funny and cute just now that I couldn't help it."

Ty Lee thought to herself for a few more seconds but returned to her question.

"I... I like him..." the princess eventually answered, after a brief pause. "I'm very grateful to him for what he's done for me... and... ah, I think I love him."

Azula would hardly have been able to say such a thing to anyone else, but to her friend, whom she had known since childhood and who had always helped her, she managed to confess, even if it took some effort.

"Wow!" Ty Lee exclaimed in surprise.

"Just don't tell anyone, okay!?" Azula quickly said.

"Nobody-nobody, I got it!" Ty Lee immediately responded, continuing to smile joyfully.

The two young women continued to stand in the garden, talking about everything. However, at some point, one of the firebenders entered the garden and informed the girls about a message from a messenger hawk.

*****

Pai Sho was a very smart young man. However, despite his intellect, he wanted to see something more in his life beyond medical school and the hospital, so he decided to stop his studies and join the Fire Nation's soldiers.

Unfortunately, he wasn't born a bender, so he couldn't hold a high position in the army, but he wasn't particularly ambitious about it.

Pai Sho's parents were well-off and, despite not liking his decision, they tried to help their only son and managed to influence his placement. Thus, he ended up as a guard in a prison recently built specifically for a well-known and very powerful waterbender. At that time, he wasn't as famous as he is now, but he was already well-known. Few, however, fully understood his danger.

So when the Fire Nation was shocked by the news of the losses incurred by the soldiers and firebenders in capturing just one waterbender, Pai Sho's parents regretted their decision, but it was too late to change his placement.

However, days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. No troubling news came, and gradually his parents stopped worrying about their son's life.

Pai Sho, although dissatisfied with his posting, philosophically decided that everything happens for the best.

And then he became the overseer of the now-legendary "Blood Monster," which initially scared him. However, after hearing the story of this person, whom they called "Joe," he came to admire him. Pai Sho was smart, but he always admired stories of genius individuals. His first idol was Princess Azula, a genius celebrated among the entire Fire Nation, despite being much younger than him. And after learning Joe's story, he realized that Joe was an even greater genius because, despite everything, Azula had teachers, a lot of teachers who greatly helped her, while the inmate of the cell Pai Sho guarded was self-taught, having no teachers, mentors, or even advisors, and although he was a psychopath and madman, he achieved everything on his own!

Soon, Pai Sho began to miss his family terribly. Not just his parents, but also his wife, daughter, and two sons. He had already felt a desire to return to them, but he had made his decision, and besides, it allowed him to provide well for his loved ones. But lately, his desire to return to them grew so strong that he occasionally thought about just leaving to be with them, to escape. However, reason always prevailed.

And then he spoke to the prisoner again. It seemed they were not just a prisoner and a guard but old acquaintances. Although they had indeed known each other for a long time. Mentioning a birthday and a gift, if you can call a full cup of water a gift.

However, as Pai Sho later recalled, it was that very cup of water that saved his life, that changed his fate. A cup of water that crossed out Pai Sho's death.

Then came that dreadful day.

At first, he didn't understand what he was feeling, some indescribable sensation... and then, in the next moment, his body was paralyzed by an alien will. He couldn't move a muscle, he couldn't even scream. He was simply not allowed to... just like his new partner.

Then Joe emerged from the volcano's mouth, from where the cell was located.

Afterward, he was left alone. He lost consciousness, simply blacked out, but when he came to, he saw that his partner had been reduced to a dried-up mummy, the skin tight and thin over the bones, clad in the armor of the Fire Nation.

Fear took hold of him, and he ran to the others, but upon reaching the kitchen and seeing what remained of the other firebenders and soldiers, he vomited on the spot.

In a panic, he ran down the corridor, stumbling over corpses or their severed parts, hoping to find someone alive, but he saw only blood, bodies cut to pieces, limbs detached from bodies, organs lying separate from their bodies, and so on. Pai Sho felt he was on the verge of madness, but he held on with the last of his strength.

How he survived the few days that passed until the arrival of the supply ship, which took him away from the island that had become a grave for dozens of firebenders and soldiers, he could never say. From that moment on, he could never sleep properly, waking up from nightmares.

When he reunited with his loved ones, they barely recognized him. He was jittery, his eyes darting around, bags under his eyes from lack of sleep, his hair sticking out in all directions, creating, along with everything else, the image of a man gone mad. But gradually, being with his loved ones, he calmed down.

It seemed that everything had passed, and only the nightmares at night indicated that what he had experienced was not a figment of his imagination.

But a long time later, when he returned to his medical studies and, having completed them, was sent to the front as a field medic, Pai Sho realized, the past had returned...

Just one word was enough to destroy the dam of tranquility that had been built over months. It once again turned the life of the young man who had endured so much.

"First" - echoed in his head over and over again, awakening memories of those days, details of which he so desperately wanted to forget forever.

The nickname Pai Sho had given, not knowing Joe's name, now known as the Blood Monster.

A nickname known only to him! After all, no one else had survived! No one knew they had called him that!

Sliding slowly down the metal, trying to gather his thoughts, Pai Sho tried to understand the connection between the Blood Monster and Mr. Garo.

What linked them? Were they acquainted?

No, he didn't just remember the nickname; he *recalled* the First. But that was impossible! Garo wasn't Joe! Pai Sho could swear on it, but he was sure he was seeing a different person.

Moreover, Joe had mastered waterbending, while Garo wielded firebending. These are different and opposite elements. He couldn't be the Avatar! The description of the Avatar was known to every firebender and soldier, so Pai Sho was certain of this!

Days passed, and news reached Pai Sho about the ongoing battles, how Princess Azula and her team, including the renowned among soldiers and firebenders, Garo, distinguished themselves. However, the young field medic became increasingly consumed by doubts, and then a firm belief formed that Garo and Joe were somehow connected. How? He couldn't say, but he was absolutely sure of it.

Nightmares haunted him increasingly with each night, in dreams he was visited by all those who had served as guards in that prison, where they met their deaths, and he survived. They told him to do the right thing...

And so...

One day before the final capture of Ba Sing Se, a messenger hawk flew away from Phoenix Island.

Pai Sho decided to do what he believed was right.

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