"I'm your brother," he says slowly, lisped words winding themselves out of his mouth with the voice of a child in the disconcerting manner of an adult, "And I was born with another set of memories."
Silence.
...
Mai sits down on the ground where she stands. Haruto and Gorou, still by the fireplace a few feet away are watching with open interest.
The water continues to lap against the shoreline.
Mai turns her head to look up at me. "You too?" she asks, voice hoarse and bleak.
In answer, I shrug. There is little point in denying it now. However, I won't voluntarily give out much more information about my circumstances. Not in regards to this reincarnation business.
"But it's a foreign language you spoke," she murmurs, thinking out loud. "How long ago have you lived?"
It seems that Mai has seized the vague explanation with both hands and is going to ride the wave of belief to the end.
Once more, I shrug. "Can't say."
"You don't know? How can you not know? You know all these other, secret things… is this how you know about the comet? And plannets," she pronounces the word funnily, "And the White Lotus? You know these things because you've lived before and now… Free Education and all the other things you said you wanted-" she cuts herself off, shaking her head slowly.
"Some things I learned in this life. Many things, actually. I've never really thought about why I retained my memories, but I did wonder about how. I never reached a satisfying conclusion. What I do know is that in this life, to make a difference is my goal. To give Aang a better chance at saving millions of lives comes first. Freedom and everything it entails next. It's a work of many lifetimes, I'm sure, but I don't mind being part of that. It gives my life meaning," I smile somewhat ironically, "I don't know about your brother, though."
She looks at Peter almost as though she were only working on auto-pilot any longer.
"Making a difference sounds nice," he says, smiling. "Worthwhile."
So then, an ally, after all, I think, wistful all of a sudden.
"Freedom?" Gorou asks from the fireplace, voice sceptical. "You really think it's possible?"
"Why not?" I smile.
He begins to laugh.
"How?" Haruto ignores the sinister man with a scowl, showing close interest.
"Provocation of thought," I reply, and feel like a bit of a lecturer. "Once people begin to question why they slave under others and hear that there is others like them who are creating such a free world where equality no longer matters, they'll want part of it. Education is a large part of this. Changing the way people think isn't done over night. But for the individual it can happen in an instant."
Gorou has stopped laughing. "You'll never manage to get greedy people to change their minds."
"Greedy like you, pirate?" Haruto spits and stands to march off.
Gorou snatches his wrist and yanks him close. "We all make our way," he hisses loud enough for me to hear, "In this world as best we can. And you, little boy, have never truly suffered. What I have seen and done in the name of greed is nothing compared to what I've done in the name of my freedom!"
He releases Haruto's wrist almost violently and stands to turn to face me fully. "Freedom for the oppressed is what you want. What of the oppressors?"
A calm smile tugs at my mouth. So much smiling today. "I can take a man's head off with a thought if I feel he deserves it. But it takes much for me to feel that it is deserved. So you see, all of us here are still alive, and once we were each other's captives. Can we claim to have all relinquished those titles of oppressors?"
A slow smile spreads over his face. "When you begin that revolution of yours, I want to be there."
Oh. Oh dear.
"Actively?"
"Oh yes," his smile turns bloodthirsty. It seems Gorou has a few people in mind for beheading.
Thoughts racing, I nod once and stand. "Okidoki."
After a moment's hesitation I hold out a hand for Mai to pull herself to her feet with. She stares at it, half with disbelief, half with disbelief that borders on disgust.
Then, she takes it. How odd. It seems to me that the world has begun to spin at another speed and my motions are easy as I pull her to her feet. I'm sure this will be a moment I think back on often.
...
I hum under my breath as we walk back to the camp. Something good came of this evening, after all.
Certainty in regards to the brat. Peter. I should begin calling him Peter.
But Gorou…
The man is terrifying. It isn't the way he walks. That's not it.
It's what he doesn't say.
All this time, he's been watching, assessing and with my last declaration he reached a conclusion that drove him to action. So suddenly, all I could do was to take in his smile. His mouth, always wide, then wider with slightly yellowed teeth showing their irregularity. His light brown eyes shone with something akin to conviction and-
Spirits. Conviction in what? What have I unwittingly convinced him of? My behaviour has never been the most consistent, or even according to a single morality. My conscience will allow me one thing and condemn the next while my mind scrambles to get a hold of itself – myself. What I do has no bearing on what I do next.
Truly, Gorou scares me.
None of this I allowed to the surface. And still, I won't.
I'll need some time to think on what this means. For me, for Peter, Haruto…
What about Gorou's minions? I'd rather they weren't permanent additions to Gorou's presence. He's headache enough on his own when he smiles like that. I realise it's the latent violence that shines through then more distinct than usual. He's seen too much of it for it not to have seeped into his very being. Much, like I imagine I seem at times.
The camp is lit brightly upon our return, and almost everyone is drunk. I don't know why I'm surprised. These are watertibe people.
...
The next morning, leaving behind the mercy of the shade the tent provides, I squint at the glittering, gentle waves lapping at the beach.
How deceptive.
Buniq is crouching before a steaming pot. The smell wafts over and I barely dare get my hopes up. Yugoda's special brew?
Please let it be true.
She turns to look at me, sensing the approach of another person. Good. She hasn't forgotten that lesson. "Tea?"
"Please," I say, and crouch beside her. "I haven't had it in so long."
"Who am I to deny you this?" she laughs. I must have sounded more desperate than I thought.
"Who indeed," I reply as I take the cup she gives me, inhaling the scent.
This is how Mai finds us, crouching before the fireplace and sipping steaming hot tea.
Buniq takes one look at Mai's face and makes herself scarce. Coward.
"We must leave immediately," Mai insists. And yet, before her determined and commanding aura I feel no compulsion to do as she demands. The tea is far more compelling. Even without it, I wouldn't listen to her. I've work to do, and I don't mind spening more time in the company of sister-tribesmen. They tell grand stories and understand life in the cold. None of the warmth here is taken for granted, even after years of the same weather. More, the nostalgia for snowy landscapes has set in.
"Why must we?" I blink at her slowly.
She scrutinises my face, then turns and stalks off in Gorou's tent's direction. Well. Let's see if I'll still have a ship in a few days. Perhaps I should not have shaken up the foundation much of her identity is built upon. After all, Fire Nation propagates to their children from a very early age. It will be as much a part of her identity as her personality is.
Then again, I felt it was necessary she heard these things. To at the very least understand how violently opposed the rest of the world is to this doctrine. And why that is.
I may have done atrocious things that night of the invasion, but they were done with the understanding that we were defending our homes and our families and friends. Everything we hold dear. And so I don't feel guilt over the deaths of the enemy that I caused. Ultimately, everyone must be responsible for themselves. To deny the ability of humans to choose for themselves is to make them slaves.
The only thing I am guilty of is underestimating the enemy and relying on half-knowledge.
...
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