10:28 pm
![[User Picture]](https://www.scribbld.com/userpic/105598/10545) [Link] |
Fanfic: Head Games
Title: Head Games
Author: Dark Puck
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Pairing/character: Xin Wan (OC); Ichiro, Yui, and Kouji (OCs); Liu (OC)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Mindbending of children, creeptastic
Notes: Xin Wan, Liu, and most other Dai Li OCs belong to Bex and is used with her permission and assistance. Also, this is a continuation of Doll under a new title. Doll is now the title of that chapter, the fic itself is now dubbed Head Games.
Summary: A refugee child in Ba Sing Se is found somewhere she shouldn't be by a Dai Li agent. This proves disastrous for her and her brothers, as they have a secret: they're all from the Fire Nation...
Tin Soldier
The man steps out in the moonlight
At the sound of a scream from below.
He thinks he is a warrior
So he picks up his sword and goes.
Yui is in trouble, and she's far away.
The latter fact means nothing to Kouji in the face of the former. It's thanks to Yui that he's alive, rather than a broken husk. If she's in trouble, he's got to rescue her. That's the way things work with them — the only people they have are each other and Ichiro. And Ichiro has to work so they can live in Ba Sing Se, so Kouji can't pester him with this.
Besides, he can rescue his twin sister from almost anything. Nobody knows what he is.
Of course, getting to her will be a chore — she's far enough away to be in the Upper Ring, nearly a full day's walk away. This will require sneaking onto the trains from ring to ring.
The young colonist can't help but smile at the thought. It's been awhile since he's had a good sneak.
Things start to go awry in the higher portions of the Middle Ring, four hours after he sets out. He's down an alleyway, trying to see if this wall will open into the train station, when he hears a footstep behind him and turns.
Behind him is a man in a forest green robe and hat. On the chest is the sigil of the Earth Kingdom, rendered in green and pale gold. On his hands are gloves that look like rock; the robes cover the man's feet.
And then Kouji notes his stance.
He starts to move, but he's too slow— the man in green raises his hands and shoots one of the gloves at him. The rock strikes Kouji in the chest, slamming him back into the wall and stunning him briefly.
He yells in pain, and then the man has him by the shirt and is pulling him off the ground— but Kouji doesn't need to be rooted to earthbend.
He makes a scooping motion with his right hand, then slams it forward; the sand he always carries with him erupts from the pouch on his belt and strikes the man in the eyes. His attacker drops him with a yell, and Kouji scampers past him.
Before the green man can attack again, the boy plunges out of the alley and into a crowd, losing himself before the man can catch him. Something's gone wrong, he realises. He was trying to catch me. Yui, what have you done?
He doesn't run anymore — running is suspicious — but he walks quickly towards the train station. Unfortunately, he seems to have been anticipated: he can see more of the green men milling about, making the other people in the crowd nervous and quiet, and they're all focused on the station.
Kouji's grey eyes narrow; they know he's trying to move on.
Fine. I'll walk. He finds a vendor and buys a conical hat to help cover his face, then moves on towards the wall between Middle and Upper Rings. Kouji has long since mastered the art of looking like he's headed nowhere in particular — being one of two secret benders in his home colony had certainly helped.
Kouji flinches and rubs at his chest through his shirt, turning his thoughts down better paths lest he come apart again. Yui. He has to find Yui.
He takes great care not to stand out, and at one point manages to talk another boy into trading shirts with him to make it harder for the green men to pick him out again. Finally, he reaches the wall between the rings and checks to be sure nobody can see him. Taking a deep breath, he forces open a tunnel and crawls through, then rises on the other side and closes it behind him.
Yui is moving.
Kouji's eyes narrow, and he strikes out quickly at a different angle to her. Something is wrong; it will be better for him to lie low and get his bearings — and to keep moving. Sooner or later, she'll stop moving again, and he'll be able to save her.
"So glad you could make it
We had everything arranged.
So glad you saw fit to pay a call."
It's night-time by the time Kouji finds the park his sister is waiting in. Perhaps she's already got out of trouble, he thinks, and is waiting for him to catch up so they can go home.
Ichiro is going to have a fit, he thinks with a small smile as he rounds the corner.
There's Yui—
—in different clothes than what she was wearing this morning. Her hair is styled differently as well, with headgear she certainly did not have at home. She looks… almost shy now.
Kouji frowns, but she's alone, and he can't see anyone around, not even in the trees. Okay. We're safe. He runs to his sister and takes her hand. "Yui, come on—"
She blinks at him, looking confused. "—you look like me. Who are you?"
Kouji freezes. "What?"
"So good of you to join us, Kouji."
The voice is new and male, adult and calm and soothing.
Kouji whirls toward it, pulling his sister behind him unthinkingly. His eyes fly wide as he sees another of the green men, smiling pleasantly at him. He also stands in such a way that for Kouji to escape, he'll have to pass closer to the green man than he is now. His mind runs through the possibilities but he has to discard everything — there's too many unknown variables, all stemming from that green man.
And then Yui darts out from behind him and runs to the green man.
"Yui, no!" he cries, reaching for her and missing. To his utter surprise, she hugs the strange man and smiles up at him.
"Oh, Lei-darling," he says, petting her hair and sending a chill up Kouji's spine. "I hope you're not upset with me."
"Why would I be upset with you, cousin?" she asks curiously, rocking Kouji to his very core.
Cousin!?
"What have you done to her!?" he demands of the smiling green man.
"I'll explain everything later, Lei-darling," the man says to Yui, ignoring Kouji. "But I need you to run along home while I take care of some Dai Li business."
"Yes, cousin," she replies, also ignoring her twin.
"Yui!" Kouji cries, trying to get her attention. What's wrong, why doesn't she respond to him?
Again Yui ignores him, instead hugging the smiling green man again and then vanishing into the night-dark city, leaving Kouji alone with the man and trying to cope with his sister abandoning him.
The smiling man turns to him now. "She's a sweet little doll, isn't she?" he asks the boy conversationally.
Hot rage sweeps over Kouji, and the dirt under his feet starts to shake and come apart from the rest. "She is not a doll," he snarls at the smiling green man.
"Do you love your sister?" the smiling green man asks, ignoring him.
What kind of idiot question is that? "Of course I do!" Kouji yells.
"Then come with me, and I will take you to her, and you two will be happy together."
Part of Kouji is tempted.
But that part is overridden by the rest of him, who remembers that Yui is not Yui anymore, and who thinks that this man had something to do with her change.
"What did you do to her!?" he demands again.
"Is that a 'no' then?" the smiling green man asks.
In reply, Kouji snarls and bends the sand out of his bag, lashing it out into a whip straight for the man's eyes. Rock spikes up from the ground, disrupting the sand, and then a crevasse forms between Kouji and the smiling green man; Kouji leaps away from the forming hole but lands on pitching earth. He yelps and windmills his arms, trying to stay balanced.
The smiling green man gestures, and the earthquake increases its intensity; Kouji falls with another yelp. Instantly the dirt springs around his legs, trying to pull him down; the boy strains against them, then desperately forms a pillar beneath him, kicking himself up into the air. He twists and manages to land lightly on a tree branch.
This doesn't save him long; the smiling green man sends up a thin slice of rock that slices through the branch like nothing; Kouji leaps as his perch begins to fall, trying to make it to another one.
The smiling green man is faster than Kouji. A pillar of stone slams into him just hard enough to knock him off course; the boy crashes heavily to the ground, knocking the wind out of him. Before he can react, the dirt has wrapped around him again, binding him strongly from shoulders to ankles.
Kouji struggles against these bindings as the smiling green man moves closer. "Aren't you a steadfast little soldier," he says, sounding pleased. Kouji growls in reply and struggles harder, trying to get enough purchase to bend himself free.
"I am going to have to fix Lei over what happened here," the smiling green man says, "but you make it so worthwhile, tin soldier." He makes a gesture, and another green man melts out of the shadows and approaches the bound child.
As Kouji is lifted off the ground, the smiling green man orders, "Take him to the closer one."
So he went inside there
To take on what he found
But he never escaped them,
For who can escape what he desires?
Xi Zu awakens with a gasp, panting hard. Why does he continuously have dreams of that night, of the firebender who tried to kill him? They're so different from what he remembers. With a sigh, the boy glances down at his sister and smiles slightly — she's gravitated to his bed again. Careful not to disturb Lei, Xi Zu gets up and pads over to the closet to take out his clothes for the day.
—his heart is pounding in remembered fear. Xi Zu frowns; that night he hadn't been afraid, he had been angry. His life had been ruined by the Fire Nation since his conception; everywhere he and Lei went back home, people would stare and point at the pair of them, the proof that their mother hadn't been strong enough to fight off the Fire soldier who had found her attractive.
He had gone out to fight, to prove that he was strong enough to stand against his father's people. He had almost managed it, too. If only he'd had more training, rather than having to learn by imitating what he saw other earthbenders do.
Maybe cousin Xin Wan would train him.
—so why, when he dreams it, is his dream-self terrified? What is that word he screams?
And who is the firebender who saves him?
Perhaps the Spirit of Illusion is playing with him. He should ask Xin Wan about that.
But later, when he and Lei are more settled in. He doesn't want to trouble their cousin now.
Xi Zu dresses and settles down in a chair, leaving his shirt tied loose so everyone can see his scar and know that his bloodline hasn't tainted him at all. —only they're not allowed to talk of the war here, are they? It's supposed to be secret, to keep the people from panicking. With a scowl, Xi Zu reties his shirt to cover his hard-won scar, then he glances over at his sister.
Lei is beautiful, or she will be when she grows up. Even her Fire-eyes look right on her, shameful as they are. He'll have to take care to make sure she's strong enough not to follow the same path as their mother.
But before that… earthbending.
Xi Zu smiles slightly, then slips out of the room in search of their cousin.
He finds Xin Wan in the kitchen, drinking tea. "Hello, cousin," Xi Zu says, bowing.
"Good morning, Xi Zu," the older man replies.
Xi Zu tilts his head, looking at the tea. "Didn't sleep?"
"I stayed up all night making something new…" Xin Wan trails off and smiles. Alarm bells go off in Xi Zu's head, but he can't figure out why.
"Something for Lei?"
Xin Wan's smile widens. "Yes."
Xi Zu sighs and takes a seat at the table. "I thought grown-ups knew when to stop making things and go to bed." Not that Lei doesn't deserve things. She deserves the world.
"The nice thing about being an adult," Xin Wan informs him, "is there's no one to tell me when to go to bed."
The boy cracks a small smile. "Yes, I suppose so." He traces his finger idly over the table in an infinity loop.
"I hope you slept well," Xin Wan says with a smile.
Xi Zu smiles back. "I did."
"Good. Is there anything you would like to do today?" his cousin asks him.
Xi Zu considers the question a moment, the infinity loop changing into some equation or another. "Well, if you're not too busy today," he begins, glancing at Xin Wan.
"I doubt I will be," Xin Wan replies with a more secretive smile.
The boy brightens a bit, and his hand stills. "I was… hoping maybe you could teach me better earthbending?"
"I could!" his cousin exclaims with a happier smile. "But we'll have to get Lei-darling situated so she isn't bored."
"Yeah, she doesn't really like watching me practise," Xi Zu agreed.
…but that wasn't true. Was it?
"We could take her to meet Mi-Cha," Xin Wan says thoughtfully. "She's the daughter of one of my fellow Dai Li. Sweet little girl."
"That could work," Xi Zu agrees. "Lei… didn't have the chance to play with other girls back home, really." He sighs in vexation. Idiots, all of them, thinking their precious angels could catch Fire blood…
"Xi Zu?"
The boy quickly turns his frown into a smile and turns to face his sister. "Hey," he says, getting up and going to hug her. She's changed into a pretty pale green kimono; in one hand is a brush.
She always did like having other people brush her hair for her.
"Good morning, Lei-darling," Xin Wan says.
"Good morning, cousin," she replies, smiling back at him and worming free of Xi Zu.
"Did you sleep well?" their cousin asks her as Xi Zu resumes his seat.
She nods. "Yes, cousin, very well," she says, pushing some of her long hair from her face.
"Do you need help with your hair, Lei-darling?"
Lei brightens. "Yes, cousin, I do," she says, and Xi Zu smiles. You came here hoping he would offer, sister.
He gestures for her to sit in front of him and takes the brush from her hand, gently running it through her hair. After a few moments, he comments, "I'm thinking of making a new music box. What sort of song do you think would sound nice in one?"
Lei pauses, then, after a moment, she begins to hum one Xi Zu recognises, about a firefly.
Xin Wan listens to her, carefully twisting her hair into a braid, then says, "I don't recognise that one. Could you sing it for me?"
"All right," she replies, then closes her eyes and begins to sing.
"Come, firefly, come!
There the water is bitter
Here the water is sweet…"
Next Chapter
Current Location: my bed
Current Mood:  weirded out
Current Music: Bayformers
Tags: character: kouji, character: xin wan, fandom: avatar, story: head games
|