65 Distress

[The music i was listening while writing this was Naruto Shippuuden OST: Emergence of Talents, one of my all time favorites, so i totally recommend!]

Holding a bloody severed arm, Madara kept staring at Zhao straight in the eyes, part of him was feeling the thrill of revenge, while the other was incredibly disappointed. The foe of years past is a threat no more…

One of the firebender soldiers recovered faster than the others and charged towards Madara, who didn't even bat an eye and just said;

"Jackie"

From above, a man with long hair tied into a low ponytail appeared, doing an axe kick that instantly hit the back of the neck of the poor soldier, a loud CRACK sound could be heard as the soldier fell on the floor, gone.

He scanned the scared faces of everyone in the vicinity, as a loud sound came from above.

Looking up, everyone saw a large black colored airship hovering dangerously close to the city's buildings, drifting through the air while making the hair and clothes of everyone fly up with the wind that the turbines generated;

Tossing the scythe on the ground, with his long mane flowing wildly with the wind, Madara turned to the nearby living Fire Nation soldier. 

He appeared in front of the poor fella like a ghost and simply pointed the index finger of his free hand against the chest area of the soldier's armor, then spoke softly with an emotionless tone;

"Since you are all here lined up properly… let me test my newest move…."

Lightning crackled around his hand as he took a soft breath and stared deep into the soldier's eyes;

"…Chain Lightning…"

Static instantly built up as the crackling of lightning used the poor soldier to suddenly jump from him towards the next one, then the next one… and then the one after that…

With uncanny and inhuman control, the lightning avoided any 'friendly fire' and targeted only the eight standing soldiers that accompanied Zhao to this place. Madara also made sure to avoid Zhao with this killer move.

Team Avatar and Yue were horrified to see a small team of elite firebenders instantly drop to the ground, spasming, after a single second.

Iroh on the other hand was impressed, he instantly guessed how Madara managed to do such a move, using each target as a lightning rod guiding the lightning through their hearts and then using their own chi to supply the jump to the next target.

In his eyes, Madara's creativity was on par with his own, but instead waterbending as a base to create a technique, Madara decided to employ earthbending instead, turning anyone in the vicinity as a possible lightning generator

What shocked him, though, was the control. It's not humanly possible to see chi or how it moved, so how did Madara do it? He could only guess that it was related to those red eyes. It was called 'Lightning Generation' instead of 'Lightningbending' for a reason, one can't bend lightning, its too wild and dangerous… yet… somehow… Madara did it...

What no one noticed is that every time the lightning moved, the finger touching the first soldier's chest moved by a millimeter, either up, down, sideways or even twisting the angle a little bit… all possible because of the ultimate cheat called Sharingan.

Not long after that another person dropped from above, right before the airship drifted into the air and moved towards the wall.

This time a tall, strong and voluptuous woman with clear Water Tribe traits landed nearby.

Sokka could only let out a loud GULP sound as he stared at Kaliya's…. eyes…. Yeah… 100%....

Yue who was right beside him narrowed her eyes towards the self-proclaimed "Southern Water Tribe Prince" and sneered.

After everyone was downed and Zhao was still clutching his bloody stump, Madara raised the bag in his other hand.

"It seems that you owe me big time now… Tui…" he couldn't help but grin, there was nothing more gratifying than a well thought out and perfectly executed plan, he could feel the fish's movements inside the bag becoming more calm and less chaotic, as if she accepted it… Good…

As the tall hot woman approached Madara, he extended his hand, handing her the bag attached to the severed arm.

"You take care of it Kaliya. Jackie, defend the perimeter around the Oasis. I don't want a single Fire Nation soldier in here. Kaliya, after you are done with Tui, you join me on the streets… We have a battle to win." 

Under the red moonlight, Madara moved his hand in a fast motion, launching a kunai towards his war fan.

And with a single pull, as if by magic, the huge fan "yoinks itself" from the ground and flies towards Madara's stretched hand.

"General Iroh, I wish our meeting would've been during more… fortunate… circumstances…"

Iroh, who was already relieved that someone managed to stop Zhao before he erased the moon, couldn't help but smile. "Ah, such circumstances seem to disagree with my old age. I wonder if we could meet again at your resort for some good tea, to wash away the sourness of this current encounter."

Contrary to his expectations however, Madara frowned a bit, before forcing a smile. "Give us a few weeks…. Let's just say that a lot happened…"

Iroh then remembered the fire storm that happened while they were on their way here and he simply nodded while saying "I see."

"Now…" Said Madara while turning his head towards the amputee Admiral "… I think we have some unfinished business, right… Admiral?"

As he was walking towards his target, the Avatar finally managed to react;

"Wait!" Shouted the boy.

"Hm?" Madara merely glanced at him as he finally stood in front of Zhao. "We shall talk later, Avatar."

Katara, who was the only one not really physically beaten, took initiative to ask;

"Are you friend or enemy?" 

She never in her life saw anyone manipulating lightning, that single 'Chain Lightning' scared her shitless but, not only that, this man was scary… he severed someone's arm without blinking, to someone like her… he was cold-blooded… and those abnormal red eyes only made things worse.

Ignoring the girl, Madara simply grabbed Zhao by his throat, like a chicken, and suddenly jumped several feet in the air while using firebending on his feet to launch himself up.

After Madara left, the Moon slowly went back to normal.

Turning around, the group saw Kaliya gently releasing the white koi fish into the pond. With the red tint of the Moon finally lifted, Team Avatar could finally see the new arrivals properly.

"So… Uh…. Hello?" Said Aang with an awkward smile towards the newcomers. 

His first impressions were mixed. Madara scared him shitless, Kaliya gave him a neutral feeling, and Lei gave him a friendly, welcoming vibe. It was weird for the bald boy.

Lei, staring at the Avatar, couldn't help but raise an eyebrow "Oh! So, you are the Avatar, huh? Well, it's a pleasure to meet you!" He said while giving a respectful bow.

"This little one is the Avatar?" Kaliya, after releasing Tui, approached Lei and the 'gaang'.

"Ahem…" Wasting no time, Sokka took charge "Who are you people? What are you doing here?" he said while moving slightly between them and Yue.

"I wish to know that as well" Added Katara with narrowed eyes, she didn't like being ignored by Madara one bit!

Both Kaliya and Lei stared at one another, each with a raised eyebrow 'What kind of bullshit have these kids been fed until now to believe that they are entitled to demand answers?!'

But before they could tell Team Avatar how far up their rectum they could shove their interrogation, Yue came in clutch;

"Kaliya!" She shouted in excitement, which earned her a smirk from the voluptuous waterbender.

"Look at that… The little Princess grew up fine indeed, the white hair seems to fit ye" Kaliya said as she moved closer to the younger Northerner girl.

"Do you know each other?" Asked Aang, completely clueless, he still hadn't registered everything that happened.

"Wait a minute… you said KALIYA?!" Katara couldn't help herself here.

"Who's Kaliya?" Asked a confused Sokka … Listen... It's been a long trip here with a lot of ups, downs, and downs and more downs… Cut the guy some slack, ok?

"Really? You don't remember? She made the Waterbender Scroll!" Said Katara with an annoyed tone as she stared daggers at her brother, who simply shrugged and ignored the information.

"Yes?" Kaliya raised an eyebrow

"I… I have your Scroll…" Said Katara a bit embarrassed

"Ohhh…. Well, ye are lucky, I guess…" Kaliya simply shrugged, not much differently from Sokka's behavior.

Turning towards Lei, she added "Jackie, ye will stay here with the kids right? Then I'll be going… Gotta remove some Fire Nation stains from me homeland."

After that, she ran towards the water surrounding the oasis, and after turning the water into a small maelstrom, she launched herself up, following Madara's speed.

…

An awkward silence remained

…

"So… uh…. Have you… Ever tried to ride an Otter Penguin?" Aang could only be Aang.

And poor Jackie could only raise an eyebrow as he stared at the weird Avatar boy in front of him "What?"

"No-nothing… forget about it…" 

"Ah, Mr. Lei, it's been a while! How have you been?" An old, but quite happy voice came from the side, but said voice made Team Avatar react, quickly assuming defensive stances, ready for a fight.

"Ah! Mr. Iroh!" Said Lei with a huge smile as he turned towards the old General. "It's been a while… sadly some things happened… but luckily we arrived in time..."

"WAIT! So, you two are on the same side?!" Shouted Sokka, already pulling out his boomerang, ready to fight.

""Sigh"" both Lei and Iroh couldn't help but sigh, and even had the same thought..

'… kids…'

At the same time, on top of the walls of Agna Qel'a, over a hundred feet above the city, overseeing the ice-cold sea of the Northern Pole and enjoying the sight of dozens of Fire Nation warships, two people stood.

One with his arms crossed in front of his crimson armor, while the other on his knees, with an expression of pain as what was left of his right arm kept bleeding.

"… You will regret this… Ghost…" said the kneeling man.

"I disagree" Answered the armored young man with an emotionless tone, till this day he still hadn't recovered from what happened in the resort, he was doing his damn best to not go on a wild slaughter, destroying Agna Qel'a from the map… luckily Pakku was busy somewhere and didn't cross paths with him.

"The Fire Nation… will destroy everything you have… you … you are done!" Said the Admiral with spite and pain.

"Mhm…" Madara said only that, while he kept staring at the warships on the horizon;

"What… What are you staring at? Afraid of our mighty Navy?!" 

"Mhm…" Was all that Madara said, again, with the same neutral and bored tone "… Keep watching…"

"Watching wha-" Before the Admiral could properly ask, he could see the five huge flagships as well as another ten big ships turning around one after the other, slowly retreating from the battlefield, leaving only the small ones behind

Doesn't seem a lot? Well Zhao did lose a lot of ships due to Madara's firestorm several days ago, not only that Aang also did his best to destroy all closest ships with his bending before Madara got here.

"WHAT… WHAT ARE THEY DOING?! THAT'S MY FLAGSHIP!"

As the Admiral kept shouting in anger for minutes on end, his strength leaving him by the second, he could barely see straight as the blood loss started hitting him hard, one would think that he could cauterize the wound with his firebending, but that's no flesh wound, it's a freaking severed limb… not only that, the blood loss was taking its toll.

"Any minute now…" Said Madara.

Zhao didn't even have enough energy to ask anymore, he could only stare as the remaining ships went BOOOOOOOOM.

"You know Zhao… That day that I exploded your ship on the Fire Nation blockade gave me many insights into how… fragile… your ships really are…"

"Y-you…"

"You didn't think you were simply so unlucky that lightning decided to aim straight towards your ship, right? No… It was me… and I've got to say… I have pretty good aim, don't you agree?"

Grabbing Zhao by the collar of his armor, Madara brought him to the edge of the wall, holding him dangling from the edge.

"You almost had me back then, you know? If you hadn't run away like a coward, you could've had me killed… Now it's payback time, and I leave no loose ends… but I appreciate the ships you donated to me, I will take care of them… don't worry… "

Zhao could only watch in horror and resignation as Madara let go of his armor, he could feel the wind blowing against his back as he fell from over a hundred feet towards the frosty Northern sea. 

In his field of vision, he could see both Madara and the edge of the wall getting farther and farther away… yet those inhuman red eyes were always staring at him… like a hawk... no… like a bloodthirsty predator... until the very end…

There was no more pain in his severed arm, there was no more fear of Madara, there was no more respect towards the Fire Lord and there was no more cruelty towards Zuko, during his final moments all that Zhao could feel was… Distress…