Chapter 56.2- And so the Dragons Danced

“I’ve got no idea the shade, colour, or shape of your problem, old man. But step off. Before I make you” I said, stepping closer to him and making it clear that I would not be intimidated. Especially not by the piece of shit that lost to a volcano of all things and left the world in the mess I’d found it in.

He scoffed, stepping even closer, and I matched it until our foreheads were practically touching. Avatar Roku must have been a tall man in his generation. It showed in the way his back stooped forward, but all that height meant nothing. He might have towered over me, but I was his better in all the ways that counted. I’d fought the war his inaction had started. I’d won that war as well.

“In my day, I would have laid you flat on your arse” He said. Now, it was my turn to scoff.

“I killed him”, I said pointing to Aang.

“He was ten times the Avatar you’d ever been, and I’ve grown stronger since then” I tightened my fist. I had no doubts regarding what had happened with Aang. I’d taken advantage of his distraction to stab him in the back— and I’d had help throughout. Alone, I would have lost. Not now though. I would give it a 50-50 chance if we fought now.

“Why you—“ the pissed off Avatar began only to be physically pulled away by the first of the line, Wan.

“No fighting, guys. We agreed” He said.

“I don’t see why Roku is so annoyed. If he wanted the boy dead, he should have done a better job of killing him when he possessed Aang here” Kyoshi said, herself stepping out of the circle of Avatars. Roku had been the one to take over Aang’s body? How interesting. Especially since he’d relied on water and air more than I would have expected a fire nation avatar to have.

“Enough Kyoshi. Not the time” Another Avatar said, this time it was the woman with air bending tattoos across her body. Yangchen.

“So ignoring the old man, what you guys are trying to tell me is that when I killed Aang, the Avatar spirit left him and entered my body instead?” I asked.

“Exactly. That was easier to explain than I expected.” Wan breathed a sigh of relief. I scoffed. He hadn’t explained much of anything.

“So why did you call me here?”

“Well, we’ve been trying to reach you but you’ve been closed off from us. Your poisoning made your body weak enough that we could finally pull your spirit from it.”

“And that tells me exactly nothing about why you called me here”

“We called you here to speak to you, to see if you can be reasoned with, to plan” Yangchen was the one that spoke now. Thank the heavens. I was beginning to get the vibe that Wan would reply to a question with everything except the answer to the question. The way he smiled when he did it made me doubt that it was unconscious as well.

“I won’t be giving up what I’ve taken” I said. If they thought they’d defeat the Fire Nation by coopting me to their archaic view of the world, then they had another thing coming.

“I told them that already. I know what you are, Natsu” Kyoshi stepped closer to me now, towering over me as well. If Aang and Wan weren’t here, I might have begun to feel a bit self conscious about myself.