Chaos Bender

A Ranma ½ and Avatar: The Last Air Bender Crossover

Written by: Konsaki

A contented sigh filled the air as the cool feeling of the grass beneath the lone teen seeped through his clothing as he lay back looking at the vast blue sky. The airborne breath was quickly blown away by the slight breeze, causing his black bangs to flicker into his sight even as he stared out into the blue expanse above. His lips were tweaked up into a peaceful grin as the white clouds drifted along the horizon, floating a lazy dance in the heavens as he watched from below on the green grass of the earth. 'This is nice...'

With that in mind, he lay there on the plains with a grin as the world did its thing around him. Every once in a while, he would pull a hand from behind his head and scratch at his nose where the breeze tickled it but, other than that, he found himself wanting nothing but just to lay there for the rest of the day. It was this way only until the sounds of someone nearing drew his attention. Just as he turned his head to the side to view the approach, a woman's voice spoke into the air, "Hello, Ryoga."

As his brown eyes fell on the dark haired girl his lips quirked from a grin to a true smile. She wore a friendly smile just the same as she ran a hand along her head, tucking some of her hair behind an ear. The breeze playing through it; flicking it back loose after a moment, while making her yellow sun dress flutter around her knees at the same time. "Hello, Akane", he replied, a tone just as friendly as the one he received a moment before.

"Mind if I sit down?"

The question... no, the fact that she even felt the need to ask it seemed absurd to his ears. "No, not at all..."

Nodding, she took a spot to his side, close enough that one could see they knew each other but not so much to make one think they were a couple. As she smoothed her skirt as she sat, she looked up at the sky above them, much like Ryoga himself was doing before she intruded. "It's a nice day out, isn't it?"

"Yeah, yeah it is", he replied back as he turned his sight skyward once more and resumed his cloud watching. The silence that fell between them was comfortable, letting the pair of them enjoy the day for the serene event that it was. Neither wished to break it; treating it like one would a fine crafted crystal figurine...

The feeling of the scene changed instantly, sky shifting to tones of red and orange while the lush green grass turned brown and brittle, as third voice broke into the air, "Ryoga..."

--

"What's on your mind?"

It took a moment to filter into the boy's mind, though the thoughts and musings processing through it like a chaotic marching symphony in a typhoon. When the turmoil finally broke with the interruption, the long haired teen twisted his body, turning his head from the perch it held on his hand which connected to the railing via his elbow. His sight panned around the blue sky, white clouds blocking most of the sight below making it a sea of white interrupted with patches of green, to fall upon the originator of the words. "Huh", the intelligent reply broke out; his mind failing to fully recognize exactly what words were truly said a moment prior.

Sokka just snorted in slight amusement as a slight grin appeared on his face. "Ranma, you ok, man? You looked out of it", he replied back to the other male. "I was wondering what you were thinkin' about", he continued a second later, pulling the attention of his sister who sat next to him.

A low grunt was all Ranma replied back with for a second, flicking his eyes back out to view the horizon which reached almost forever. A second later, he finally spoke up in a tone which bordered on wistful and frustrated at the same time, "I'm just thinking about home..."

A few seconds passed after the siblings heard the one line response. During that, they saw the older martial artist's eyes glaze over as he stared off into nothing, his mouth dancing between a twitch of a grin and the same in the form of a scowl. It settled down after a bit into a neutral thinking visage, which is when Sokka's sister asked, "What's your home like, Ranma?"

Taking a breath, the blue clad fighter turned his body fully towards the younger siblings, repositioning himself so his back was against the railings of the platform they sat upon. The slight swaying and vertical rhythm bothered him none as he did so, almost instantly getting used to the feeling of true flight not long after Appa had taken off hours ago. "You really want to know?", he started, taking a glance between Katara and her brother. At seeing their slight nods, he continued with sigh, "It's pure chaos, plain and simple."

"Um... what do you mean", Katara asked in response, her uneasiness showing slightly in her voice.

Ranma let out a chuckle, which held little mirth, at hearing her question. "It's kinda a long story and sorta hard to explain", he said, looking into her blue eyes.

Her brother drew his gaze a moment later when he said, "Well, we're not doing anything right now, right?"

Ranma didn't know exactly why he said his next question, but in retrospect, he decided it was to give the pair one last chance out of this conversation. "Are you sure you want to hear about the crazy world that's my life?"

Sokka and Katara looked from the only other blue clad individual on the flying mammal to each other. In that moment that they glanced at each other, it seemed like a conversation took place, which caused him to sigh though his nose as Ranma saw Sokka turn back and reply, "Sure... I mean, how bad can it be?"

The look he gave the younger male would have made Nabiki proud as he deadpanned, "I have a curse that changes me into a girl with just a splash of cold water... and that's just scratching the surface..."

"Come on, Ranma", Katara replied, her voice betraying an unsure voice, "It can't be that bad..." Seeing the look directed at her now, she continued in a lower voice, "Can it?"

Seeing the look on Katara's face, Ranma took a deep breath. Letting it out slowly, he relaxed his shoulders, only then knowing how tense they were in the first place. The siblings saw him lean against the railing once more and sit there a moment, staring off into the blue above them. When he finally spoke up again, his eyes never left the heavens, "I guess if I do start, I'd have to talk about the fiancées..."

"Fiancées? As in more than one", Katara's disbelieving voice broke in.

A chuckle escaped the long haired fighter, this time containing more mirth than the last, "Try three..." Ranma's voice trailed off quickly as his face turned contemplative and a frown formed, "At least, those are the main ones. I still haven't figured out how many others there are... I doubt I'll ever, really..."

His words had barely drifted away, though the winds caused by Appa's flight, when the girl leaned forwards and begged to know, "How the hell did that happen?! Three fiancées!?"

"Yeah, three", Ranma reiterated and affirmed with a nod; bringing his eyes down to look at Katara. The girl saw them harden as he spoke the next words, "As for how... I have my bastard of a father to thank for that mess..." He let out a growl and muttered something that neither sibling could hear clearly before continuing a moment later, "You're probably wondering why or how my pop could do something as stupid as engaging me to three... an unknown amount of girls... and a couple guys too..." Sokka could swear Ranma muttered, "Fucking panda", under his breath before continuing his explanation like the pause didn't happen, "Short answer is my pop is a greedy idiot of monumental proportion. For example, he once sold me off for a bowl of rice, a fish and two pickles."

"You're kidding", came the twin responses, though Sokka went on saying, "You have to be making this up."

"I wish I was...", Ranma replied with a wistfulness in his voice that rang the words as true to the waterbender and her brother. "Don't get me wrong", he said, talking with a hand a bit, "Pop's a good fighter, but outside of that, he's not worth the air he breaths most of the time." With that, Ranma shook his head violently, trying to shake himself out of the negative funk he worked himself into. Taking a deep breath, he tried to find something else to talk about. While casting about with his eyes, he finally found something, causing his brow to crease, "Uh... why are we going down?"

"Wha... What are you talking about", Katara questioned back, her mind not comprehending the sudden jerk in the conversation topic. Her brother was somehow quicker on the uptake, though, as he glanced around and noticed Ranma was right. It was only a moment later that Sokka was standing and shouting up at the head of the large mammal, "Aang, why are we going down?"

When the young Avatar failed to respond, Sokka shouted again, this time eliciting a shudder from the youth, "Huh? What?"

"We're going down, what's up with that? There's just forest and swamp below us", Ranma called forward, looking towards the wash of green below them as they continued their decent.

Aang just shook his head slightly while placing a hand to the side of it, "I don't know... I feel something... calling me..."

Raising an eyebrow, Ranma glanced forward at the back of the yellow clad youth's bald head before returning his gaze downward. On impulse, the martial artist started scanning the treetops for anything which might indicate a village or hut or anything. This continued while the two siblings and the avatar conversed in the background, his mind drowning out their voices to unintelligible background noise. All at once though, his concentration snapped and rebounded into a combat mode as he jerked his vision to the rear of the flying bison. "Uh... guys..."

The blue eyed martial artist knew he had gathered the other's attention when pure silence fell over the area. Silence that was broken only by the growing sounds of a roaring cyclone of dirt and gale force winds gaining on the flying bison and its crew.

"Quick, get us out of here", Sokka yelled even as Aang yanked on the reins attached to Appa's horns. The entire platform lurched and tilted to the side a moment later, causing Sokka and Katara to grip the railing nearby. Appa righted himself quickly after adjusting to his new heading, which should have pulled the team out of the path of destruction.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me...", Ranma said under his breath as all four of their faces fell when they noticed the twister seemingly follow the flying bison as if it were playing a perverse game of tag. Another jerk of the reins and another new heading, none of them missed the yell of, "Gods damnit", coming from the ponytailed fighter.

The next thing the original trio knew, their attention was split between the nearing threat to their health, and the activities of their newest companions. Mainly, the fact that Ryoga was still asleep, a thing that caused Sokka to raise an eyebrow; followed by the means of which Ranma woke his sleeping friend... that of a well placed kick driven into the bandana clad fighter's side while yelling, "Ryoga, wake up!"

Instantly, the fighter, who was sleeping through all the commotion, jerked his body around and performed a leg sweep and followed through with an arcing kick when Ranma hopped over the sweep. Ranma grimaced as he blocked and absorbed the roundhouse, having no room to dodge on the small moving platform. While this was happening, the previously sleeping warrior was yelling, "Ranma!? What the hell!?"

Ryoga got no farther than that as his words were followed by a quick exclamation of surprise when Ranma did something unexpected; reaching down and forcibly hauling Ryoga to his feet to stand face to face. "Not now, Hibiki", the blue eyed one warned as he thrust his free arm towards the aft of the platform. The fanged martial artist blinked twice at hearing Ranma use his family name, knowing something was up, and looked towards the direction the arm was pointing. Once he saw the swirling vertical tube of carnage closing in, Ryoga's face fell as he muttered one word:

"Shit..."

As if the roaring winds were waiting for that one word as a final 'go/no go' signal, Appa and the crew riding on it were enveloped by the tornado. Four humans looked in awe as the smallest of the five jumped from the head of the beast to the middle of the platform at the last moment and put up a valiant effort to forestall the inevitable; throwing up a sphere of counter flowing winds as a form of bubble shielding. One cannot stop the inevitable, no matter how much one tries though, and after a few seconds the shield fell...

--

"Uhng... Stupid tomboy and her mallet...", Ranma reactively muttered as she placed a hand to her throbbing head. She winced as a wave of dizziness washed over her as she sat up and opened her eyes fully.

There were two reasons for her wincing: first off was the fact that her brain felt like two jackhammers were fighting a match of 'Martial Arts Tap-dancing' in her skull; the other was the fact that when she opened her eyes, Ranma saw the gouge in the ground that led from the waterline nearby to where she currently lay. Combining those two facts, she realized just how much of an unhappy landing she had after the tornado thrown her from the flying bison.

'Thrown from Appa', she yelled in her mind and jerked her head around to quickly take in her surroundings. That action resulted in another loud groan and the other hand coming to the other side of her head, trying to keep it from spinning off her neck... or so it felt like. "Uhng... note to self: don't do that...", Ranma groaned out as the feeling slowly ebbed away.

After a few minutes of resting where she sat, the redhead felt the throbbing die away enough for her to stand up and slowly look around at her surroundings. What she saw was mainly an overall darkness caused by the thick foliage provided by the abundance of trees which grew in the swamp. Bands of light broke through in the few areas between branches, providing enough light to see by, but not enough to allow clear sight past a certain distance.

A vast majority of what she could see with the available light was a slightly green tinted water; broken only by patches of hard ground, like the one she stood on, the trees which grew all around and the roots of which stuck up out of the water and earth both. The redhead could see the stillness in the waters, though the low sounds of the natural wildlife buzzed in the background causing the fighter to recognize that at least there wasn't anything majorly wrong with the swampy forest.

Though, the lack of general noise in the area made it easy for the girl to recognize the quiet splashing sounds of something moving through the waters nearby. Turning her head slowly, Ranma tried to narrow down the direction it was coming from, but the close proximity of the trees made the sounds echo off each other, distorting it and making it hard to determine. Giving a shrug, the busty martial artist leaned back against a nearby tree and let out a sigh. 'Might as well wait a bit and see what happens', she thought as she stood there, crossing her arms under her breasts.

Some time passed, with Ranma listening to the sounds of splashing water, noting that every once in a while the noise stopped for a bit before starting back up. They were also gaining in volume, so she knew it, whatever it was, was coming closer to her position. Eventually, she was able to pinpoint the direction it was coming from and turned her head in that direction while kicking off from the tree slightly, just in case she needed to move quickly. Ranma's muscles relaxed a few moments later when she finally saw a familiar girl slowly making her way through the swamp ahead of her.

"Hey, Katara", Ranma called out, giving a quick wave towards the wayward waterbender when she turned towards the noise.

The brown haired girl turned almost immediately and, upon seeing the waving redhead, made her way towards the patch of dirt, yelling, "Ranma!" After a few moments, Ranma found herself with the younger girl's arms around her while Katara said in relief, "Thank the Moon Spirit... I thought I'd never find someone..."

For a moment, Ranma just stood stalk still as the other girl hugged her, but after a moment the redhead put her own arms around the waterbender, saying, "Don't worry, you found me, right? We'll find the rest soon enough."

After a few moments, she felt Katara pull back and she released the girl and took a step back to see the waterbender wiping her eyes a bit with one hand. After a moment, Katara smiled sheepishly, "I know... I was just a little scared after finding myself alone after..."

Her lips twitched into a reassuring smile, Ranma put a hand on the brunette's shoulder and said, "Don't worry, we'll find them..." When Katara dropped the hand from her face and both sets of blue eyes met each other, Ranma's smile turned into a confident grin, "After all, you've got me with you."

The waterbender couldn't help but giggle a bit at that with a small smile showing through...

--

"So we were just flying around and then a giant tornado appears out of nowhere to smash us out of the sky..."

"Yeah, pretty much", Sokka replied as he climbed over a root that lay across his path. "Aang tried to veer out of its path but it tracked us like it was alive of something...", he continued, giving a shrug, "It doesn't make any sense..."

"You're telling me...", the jade haired teen replied as she hopped over the same root a moment later. "One moment I'm napping and the next I'm kicked awake before thrown down towards the ground at breakneck speed..." Ryoga let out a chuckle which caused Sokka to raise an eyebrow, "I swear that it's like a god out there has made a hobby of toying with me..."

Forgetting to continue his forward momentum, the swordsman watched the tall girl wade into the water in the same direction they were going. Hearing her call back, "You coming", he shook himself out of his stupor and surged forward.

"Um, yeah, sorry...", he told her, feeling a little unsure, "You... You've got to be joking about that whole 'god toying with me' thing, right?" The blue eyed boy let out a slight grin, "I mean, I've said the same thing a couple of times, but really, I highly doubt that some higher power is going to waste their time on me..."

The older teen just let out a sigh and put her face in a hand as Sokka caught up to her, "You're probably right, I'm just venting. Still, a lot of crazy stuff has happened in my life which I'm pretty sure not many other people have to deal with."

"Yeah? Like whahhh", the boy tried to ask before he fell below the water in a spray of water. A moment later he resurfaced, sputtering and wiping his eyes while Ryoga halted her movements to watch. With a last spit of swamp water, Sokka wryly asked, "Stuff like that?"

Ryoga let out a giggle at the sight, putting a hand to her mouth, before fading into silence and looking at the hand before her. A frown twitched down one side of her mouth while she furrowed her brow. Letting out a snort, she continued moving forward as the male ran a hand through his tied hair and did the same. "If I only had small things like that, I'd like to think I'd be better off", Ryoga replied after a moment.

Sensing something off in Ryoga's voice, Sokka decided to forestall any more conversation and the pair fell into silence. The only sounds were that of them wading through the swamp, water falling off them when they made it to dry land or the grunts of climbing or hopping over roots. Throughout this, Ryoga was in thought... It was like this for a good while, until Sokka finally spoke up again, asking, "What's on your mind?"

Ryoga blinked her jade colored eyes a few times before looking over at the younger fighter, "What?"

Letting out a grunt while he hopped over a waist high root, the dark haired male said, "You looked like something was troubling you." After saying that, his feet rooted to the ground as a look passed over his face, "I mean... what're you thinking about?"

"You really want to know", she asked before hopping the same root. Sokka raised an eyebrow but responded, "Sure... if you don't mind, I mean."

The green haired girl just let out a sigh and continued forward, "That right there is one of the things on my mind..."'

Keeping pace, Sokka looked a little confused, "What do you mean 'that right there'?"

"The way you're treating me! You're treating me like a girl", Ryoga explained in an annoyed tone.

"Oh...", he replied before a second looking a little more confused, "but aren't you a girl right now?

Letting out a sigh, Ryoga thought, 'Gods... is this what Saotome has to go through?' Turning her gaze towards the swordsman she replied, "Physically, right now I'm a girl... Mentally, I'm still a guy..." Silently, she added, 'At least that's what I've been telling myself since I got my first curse... I'm still human... now it's, I'm still a guy...'

"So people treat you a little differently? I don't see how that's too much of a problem...", Sokka countered.

Another sigh escaped the girl, "Yeah, that in itself hasn't been too much of a problem unless someone sees the change... It's... The real issue is harder to explain than that..." Seeing the expression on her companion's face, she continued, "Here's an example, 'Do guys giggle?'"

"Ah... no?"

Ryoga shook her head at the way Sokka's voice portrayed his thought about her question being a trick question. "Yeah, they don't... but what do you think I just did a little while ago without even thinking about it...", she asked, "I didn't even realize I was doing it until after I was done..."

The watertribesman scratched the side of his head at that, "Ok... I guess I can see why you'd be thinking about that, but how does that work into huge issue?"

Green eyes looked over at the blue eyed boy for a few seconds in silence before the girl let out a growl of frustration, "Just forget it... you probably wouldn't understand anyways..."

Sokka jerked his head back at that and blinked a few times, "What? What's that about?"

"Just forget it, ok", the martial artist snapped back with a wave of her hand, surging forward in a leap that put a good twenty meters between the pair. She didn't even look behind her when the boy yelled, "Hey, wait up!"

--

Meanwhile in another part of the swamp, a redhead shivered as she let out a disgusted groan, stopping stock still in the middle of splashing through the ever present greenish water. After a moment, she closed her eyes and stated, "I don't even want to know what I just stepped on...", before continuing her trek almost as if it never had happened. Katara just looked at the elder girl from the corner of her eye, a small grin on her face, though she herself shivered a bit in empathy.

A few moments of silence later, the waterbender tried to start their conversation back up to break the silence and get Ranma's mind off whatever she just stepped in. "So, you were saying you had three main fiancées... Ukyo, Akane and...", Katara started, stumbling over the last one.

"Xian Pu", the redhead supplied back, half looking to the side where the other blue clad girl kept pace. A slight grin broke out as she continued, "Probably have an easier time saying Shampoo, though. Took me a while to really figure out how to say her name right."

"Ok", the brunette replied in acceptance, "So, how long have you been engaged to them?"

Ranma's face turned thoughtful for a second before replying, "Well, from what my pop says, I've been engaged to a Tendo girl since before I was born. The problem is that Tendo Soun had three daughters and Akane's just the one that got thrown on me around a year or so ago. So you could say I've been engaged to her for either seventeen years or just over one."

"Ukyo's an easier answer", she continued with a slight grin. "Pop got me engaged to her when we were six, so I guess it's been just over ten years with her", Ranma supplied, though her grin shifted to a full frown for the coming statement, "That's also when the damned panda stole her families yatai and ditched her on the side of the road..."

"That's... that's horrible", Katara cried out, fully turning towards the elder female with a wave of a hand. "Why would someone do that to a young girl!?"

"Cause pop's a no-good greedy bastard of a panda", Ranma said with a shrug, though her voice showed her own displeasure. "Now I'm stuck with trying to clean up the messes he made...", she finished off her explanation with a disgusted look on her face and a foul taste in her mouth.

Silence reined over the pair for a bit after that as they made their way up and out of the water. Giving a quick look around, both sets of blue eyes recognized the coming nightfall, which was more pronounced as the light was already filtered greatly through the thick canopy. "I guess we should settle down for the night...", Katara admitted, looking over to her company.

Nodding, Ranma agreed, "Yeah, you're probably right. It's not like we'll be able to see anyone else in the dark, hell, we're more likely to lose ourselves if it gets any darker than this." Taking another quick look around, the redhead observed, "This place seems good..."

With a silent nod, the brunette moved over to a large tree root and sat back against it. Watching her companion in the darkening light, she saw Ranma gathering up fall wood that was scattered around the area. After fishing out a rather large fallen limb out of the water, she dragged it back up near the impromptu camp. Then, pulling a ribbon from somewhere on her person and snapping it straight and rigid, Ranma sliced up the limb into pieces small enough for a small campfire.

It was only a little while later there was a small fire going, providing enough light for Katara to see Ranma start pulling off her pants. "What are you doing that for", she asked with a quizzical look on her face as Ranma pulled the last leg out.

After a bit of grumbling and making a face, the redhead reached down on one of her legs and pulled off something, "I finally got tired of having leeches on me..."

Katara blinked a few times as she saw the pant-less female flick the thing in her hand back into the water nearby, with a soft plunk sounding out, before reaching back to her leg and pulling off another little black object. Slowly, the waterbender's blue eyes drifted to her own legs and she let out a disgusted shiver before ripping off her own pants. "Eww... Gross...", she complained as she pulled off a couple of her own swamp borne friends.

Her hands stopped and her head shot up as Ranma's voice broke out in laughter a moment later. Katara could feel her face heat up even as she cried out, "What?!"

Mastering her laughter, Ranma waved a hand dismissively, "Nothing... just the look on your face and your reaction. I mean, come on, these bastards are always found in swamps..."

Hearing that, the waterbender huffed a bit, "Well sorry, Ms Know-it-all... We don't have leeches where I'm from and I haven't had to wallow through swamps on this trip before now..."

Seeing Katara cross her arms and turn away slightly, the redhead deflated some, "Geez... sorry..." Rubbing the back of her neck, she went on, "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings any... I just... sorry."

An uncomfortable silence fell between the pair which was only filled by the sounds of the popping fire and that of Ranma wringing out her pants and pulling them back on. A bit later, the younger girl let out a large sigh and started pulling her own pants back on while saying, "Ranma... I'm sorry... I shouldn't have snapped at you."

The redhead let out one of her own sighs before replying, "It's ok..." She looked over at Katara, developing a grin though, as she asked, "So... did you get all the bastards off ya?"

"By the Moon, I hope so", the longer haired girl exclaimed in response, making a face that set both girls off in laughter. After a while, it boiled down to smiles as they watched the fire burn before them. When Ranma idly tossed another chunk of wood onto the fire, Katara asked up, "So... you've told me about Akane and Ukyo... What about Shampoo?"

"What about her", Ranma countered in a strained, even voice.

Katara picked up on the vibes the redhead was giving off but decided to continue on, though with a slight uneasiness in her voice, "Um... well, how exactly did you get engaged to her..." After a moment, she added, "and what happened to cause..."

"Me not to like her", the martial artist finished off with a raised eyebrow. Seeing the slight nod from the waterbender, Ranma let out a breath through her nose and looked into the fire for a few seconds, as if collecting her thoughts. "If you want to know that, you need to know about how screwed up the some of the Amazon's laws are..."

While Ranma explained about the 'Outsider' laws, along with a general overview of the Amazonian way of life, Katara listened in rapture as the darkness encroached around them. The redhead kept the fire fed, fending off the darkness with a flickering orange light which danced off the girl's faces. Eventually, Ranma took a breath and finished up, "...and because her own damned pride was hurt, she decided to give me that freaking 'Kiss of Death'. Kuh Lon told me later, after Jusendo, that Xian Pu didn't even have to give me that damn kiss..."

"Because of that, I had to constantly watch my back and fight her off as me and pops tried to escape China and get back to Japan", she explained with a bitter tone in her voice. "Almost two full months of that shit", she practically yelled out into the growing night. "Then, once I do make it back to Japan, she follows me there and tries to continue hunting me down... only after she finds out about my curse does she do a one eighty and gives me the 'Kiss of Marriage'." Katara watches in silence as the other girl takes a deep breath to calm herself before continuing, "She then treats it like the whole time she was trying to kill me never happened..."

"You're kidding...", Katara whispered before raising her voice up to normal levels, "How can she do something that drastic? I mean, from killing to... kissing?" Her face showed she was guessing at the end, but her voice still held the major part of pure disbelief.

"That's exactly what happened", the redhead replied. "Though, if that was all that happened, I'd have been a lucky man. No, it moved on from there to her trying to fight my other fiancées along with poisonings, potions, spells, blackmail, trickery... You get the idea, right?" Seeing the mute nod from the brunette, Ranma continued on, "It was really trying at times, I'll admit, but I was able to handle things... up until the wedding..."

"The wedding?" came the confused reply, as if someone had started talking about fish and moved to Firebending techniques.

Ranma waved it off while letting out a breath, "Sorry... I guess I should tell you that at Jusendo I practically had Akane die in my own two hands..." There was a gasp but Ranma went on, "Thankfully, by some miracle, she started breathing again and I didn't lose her that day... Me and Akane were so messed up from that and our fathers are total dipshits who decided, that since I killed a god to save her, that I loved her enough to marry her." A bout of wry laughter escaped the redhead before she said, "You know, the funny thing is, that if the wedding hadn't been completely trashed by my other fiancées and their suitors, I'd have said yes..."

Katara didn't know exactly what to say to the ranting redhead on the other side of the fire and stared in wonder as she saw Ranma's face show pure anger and clench her fists so tightly she thought she'd start seeing blood drip from them. "Oh, no... It wasn't the fact that she destroyed the wedding, along with everyone else; I could brush that off since, after the fact, I realized I would have been making a bad mistake if I said yes." Ranma's blue eyes narrowed and she dragged her stormy orbs to look into the wide blues across from her, "No... it was the fact that she promised me afterwards that she'd stop all that shit; along with Koh Lon, who talked me into becoming an ally to the tribe, removing me and any descendants from the 'Outsider Laws'. Then, then the purple headed bitch goes and tries to give Akane and Ukyo the 'Kiss of Death' since she can't go against me personally. Luckily, I was able to stop her in time..."

The sounds of heavy breathing permeated the air for a while until Ranma took a deep breath before letting out a cynical chuckle as she stared into the fire, "In all reality, she's not a fiancée anymore, but after so long and the way she keeps coming after me anyways, it's hard to tell the difference. I mean, the last time I saw her was the incident I just told you about and that was only two days before me and Ryoga were sent here..." Finishing up, she looked back at her silent companion and cringed, "Er... sorry, Katara... I guess I went a little off there... I didn't mean to freak out on you."

A few moments passed before the girl responded in a voice that was disjointed to the look on her face, "No... No, it's ok, Ranma... Now, if you don't mind, I think I'll call it a night..."

Seeing the brunette push off the root enough to lay down, facing away from the fire and the fiery headed girl, Ranma let out a low sigh and threw another couple chunks of wood on the fire. Then, settling in herself, she spoke out into the night, "'Night, Katara..."

--

'Gods... I never knew how good I had it being able to piss standing up...', Ryoga complained in her head as she finished with the early morning nature call. Pulling up her loincloth and black pants, she tightened her belt once more and stepped away, back into the morning mists. 'At least I can piss without getting it all over myself now...'

At the end of that thought, the jade haired fighter stopped walking and winced, 'I can't believe I just took pride in the fact that I can now piss as a girl...' Letting out a groan, she started moving her feet once more, trying to make her way back to the place she and Sokka had camped out for the night.

The swampy forest gave off a slightly spooky atmosphere this morning, not that it affected the hardened warrior walking through it... much. Still, it left her uneasy, the way the fog seemed to give off a light blue-green glow in the dim morning light, along with the way it seemed to encroach on her and fade back as if it had a will of its own. Hell, the fact that she could barely see five meters in front of her was bad enough in her own mind, but add in the feeling of something watching her and even Ryoga was put on edge.

Choosing to play it safe versus hurting herself in her near blindness, the emerald eyed girl slowly made her way back to camp, cursing her earlier decision to go farther away to do her business, just in case Sokka woke up and heard her. Still, her shyness about it had caused her to move farther out and she was paying for it now by having to work her way back at a slower pace as the fog thickened after she had made her way out. 'At least I don't have that blasted directional curse anymore...', Ryoga consoled herself.

With that in mind, it was only a matter of time before she reached the camp her and Sokka had shared the night before. A quick look around had her blinking a few times as she looked and failed to find the blue clad fighter where he was sleeping not too long ago. Crossing her arms, Ryoga looked the camp over with another eye and noticed the spot where the fire had been was still smoldering which meant the boy probably planned on coming back. There was also a lack of scuffle marks in the dirt, which meant that he left of his own free will, though she couldn't really find any tracks either, making it hard to tell where the younger fighter had gone either...

Letting out a sigh, the green haired teen sat back against the tree they had made camp under. 'I guess he's probably off doing the same I was...', she thought, a slight flush appearing unbidden but also unnoticed. 'Oh well...', she gave with a mental shrug, 'He can handle himself and it's not like we found anything other than ourselves yesterday while wandering around.' For some reason, Sokka's reaction to her walking up while he was performing business entered her mind, causing her to laugh out loud. 'That would be hilarious, but I'd hate to have it done to me...', she thought in guilty mirth afterwards.'

Ryoga shook her head a moment later, causing her jade hair to swing a bit, 'No... I'd probably faint from embarrassment, like any other time a girl and I got in an embarrassing situation...' Blinking a bit at her thought and cocking her head to the side, Ryoga pondered on that, 'Hmm... I wonder...' Placing a hand to her chin in thought, she continued, 'Ranma's had this curse for over a year now and every time I've seen him with a girl, he never passes out... well, due to embarrassment at least.' She grinned at the images of mallets, giant spatulas and bonbori smashing up side her rival's head.

'Heh, serves him right', he thought with a wider grin before looking contemplative once more, 'but still, he has a get up on me with girls...' Ryoga halted and blinked once more, 'Wait, what if the whole reason he doesn't pass out is because of his curse?' Looking into the smoldering chunks of ass, Ryoga pondered on that before a smile grew on her lips, 'and since I have the same curse now... That means I won't pass out anymore!' A moment later a small cry of, "Yatta!" echoed into the mists.

'With that taken care of, there's nothing that can hold me down! Hell, I've even got the family curse cured, too!', Ryoga exclaimed in her mind, a giant fanged smile plastered on her face. After a few long moments though, that smile gave way as her shoulders drooped and her head dropped towards her chest, 'The family curse...'

The thud of a fist hitting dirt followed by soft sniffs from a teenage female filled the air as a memory came unbidden to the forefront of Ryoga's mind.

It wasn't until a good while later before the fanged warrior came out of the funk she was under. When she did though, Ryoga looked around and wondered what was taking Sokka. 'It shouldn't have taken this long...', she thought as she stood up and brushed off the back of her pants absently. "Well, this is just great...", she muttered under her breath. "He's probably lost in the fog..."

Taking a quick look to where she had slept and the direction she went when nature called her, she guessed the direction Sokka might have gone based off the spot he was sleeping at. Giving off a quick shrug, Ryoga muttered into the still morning air, "Guess it's better than nothing..."

With that, the once lost youth found herself walking into the blue-green mists in what might be a futile attempt to find Sokka. Futile it might have seemed, but green eyes kept a look out through the low visibility for any sign of movement as she trudged into the cool waters of the swamp once again. The sounds of her legs moving forward caused the splashes to echo off nearby unseen trees as Ryoga made her way.

Every once in a while, while moving through the water, Ryoga would stop and let the echoes fade away. She'd then listen for any other sounds of movement nearby, but each and every time she only heard silence under the normal sounds of the swamp wildlife. Sometimes she would let out an annoyed growl but, every time, she would just start her trek back up at that slow and steady pace. That is, until she saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye...

With a jerk of her head, Ryoga's emerald eyes locked onto what looked like a human looking shadow in the fog. It was just barely visible as an outline through the swirling mists and at this point, she would take it for what she thought it was; one of her friends. "Oi! Hold up", the martial artist called out, waving a hand in a wide arc above her as she thrust herself in the direction of the person.

As she strove to close the distance, the figure seemed to move away at nearly the same speed, though. With a frustrated growl, Ryoga surged forward, intent on catching up with whoever it was she was chasing. Whoever it was, they had to know where her friends were, at least that's what she thought right before the figure disappeared before her. A moment later, Ryoga burst through a small wall of drooping tree limbs, brushing the leaves and twigs out of her face with a wave of her hands to clear her sight. As soon as she could see clearly again, the martial artist stopped dead in her tracks before whispering one word: "Akari..."

There in the small clearing Ryoga had stumbled upon sat one person she knew couldn't have been... but there she was sitting on a fallen log, bathed in the soft glow of the morning mists. In those few sweet seconds of hearing the girls name bouncing off the surrounding trees, Ryoga soaked in Akari's bright azure eyes while relishing in the sight of the girl's long cerulean tresses as they waivered in Ryoga's gaze. Even the cloths Akari wore were the same as the last time Ryoga had seen her at the Unryu ranch; brown overalls over a light blue long sleeved shirt and boots made to muck around in the mud.

A silent tear slipped out of a watery green eye and slid down Ryoga's cheek unnoticed as the once eternal wanderer stood and looked on at the person before her. Enraptured as she was, Ryoga could do nothing but drink in the sight... until the girl spoke out, her softly whispered words echoing her sadness and regret into the clearing as loudly as a thunderclap, "Why weren't you there?"

With those words, Ryoga's legs gave way and she fell to her knees, though her mind registered nothing of this. All she could do was keep her eyes locked on the girl before her through an increasingly watery vision, as she reached out unconsciously with a reaching imploring hand while her mouth tried to form words her throat wouldn't create. Eventually, her sight became too blurry and Ryoga blinked away the tears from her eyes, letting them run out of her reddening eyes and down her cheeks. In an instant, the flash of darkness it took her eyelids to cover her jade irises and clear her eyes, the girl before the martial artist vanished, as if she was never even there...

For a moment, Ryoga just knelt there, looking at the empty space Akari Unryu once held. The next, she was franticly jerking her eyes around to find some trace of the girl who shouldn't have been there... She found none. She knew why, too, as the memories from before resurged into her conscious thought.

The memories played, even though she didn't want to see them, and Ryoga hugged herself and shivered. Tears continued to roll down her face through closed eyes as she let out a sobbing torrent. A few moments later, the sobbing transformed into a near silent shuddering that gained in volume as the seconds ticked passed.

Then, all at once, a primal scream of despair escaped the distraught warrior as she threw her head back and locked her hands into her hair. The mass of energy that escaped with that scream shot straight upwards, vaporizing the canopy as it continued in a column of vivid greenish-blue radiance.

--

Elsewhere in the sea of trees and water, a pair of wizened eyes narrowed, as the owner let out a low hum of thought. Taking note of where the column of light came from, the figure grabbed hold of a nearby vine and took flight into the swamp...

--

Pushing limb and leaf away from his face, Sokka continued his search for his lost companions, trying to find the source of the scream he had heard echoing from the mists. Thankfully, shortly after that, the blue-green haze had lightened off, as if burning away under the morning sun, which greatly relaxed the young warrior. He tensed right back up, though, as he entered a clearing to find one of his companions kneeling under a hole in the canopy, which let a beam of sunlight around twenty meters wide through.

"Hey...", he started to say to get her attention, but his voice cracked and failed before he could get farther than that monosyllabic word. Swallowing, he took a few steps out of the branches and towards the downed tan colored fighter before trying again, "Hey, Ryoga... You ok?"

Ryoga just seemed to ignore the question, as if she never even registered it being said in the first place. It wasn't until the brown haired male crossed the last couple dozen meters that he saw the look on the older fighter's face and the stain of tears that ran down her upturned face. The green eyes were reddened as they looked up into the blue morning sky through the giant hole above her, though if they really saw anything, Sokka couldn't tell...

Placing a hand, almost nervously, on the kneeling fighter's shoulder, he called to her again in a soft voice, "Ryoga... are you ok?"

The feeling of minor warmth and slight pressure on her shoulder seemed to eke out a bit of life from Ryoga, as she turned her head slightly and brought her eyes to bear on the boy. Sokka tried to contain a slight shiver at the voice she replied with, one of a person who had given up all hope of being sane, "I don't know... "

Swallowing again, Sokka looked directly at the other fighter and asked, "What happened?"

"I saw her... Akari... but I couldn't of...", she replied in the same tone, "it's... it's impossible!"

Placing his other hand on the girl's empty shoulder, he had to ask, "How is seeing her impossible..."

Ryoga took her own turn swallowing as another set of tears escaped her already puffy eyes. When she did speak, it was barely above the whisper but, even so, her voice was as loud as an explosion next to Sokka's head, "Because she's dead..."

--

"She died when I was eight...", Katara explained in a low saddened tone as she walked slowly next to the redhead.

Ranma looked at her through eyes that could empathize with that pain. "I'm sorry... How exactly..."

Katara let out a sigh and looked up at the thick canopy, which let beams of light through at random spots, "She was killed during a Fire Nation raid on the Southern Watertribe..."

"I'm sorry", the elder of the pair repeated. There was a moment of silence before Ranma offered up, "I know what it's like to grow up without a mother. I lost mine when I was six."

The brunette let out a sigh in understanding upon hearing that. "How did yours..."

A wry grin tweaked at the redhead's mouth as she replied, "She's not dead, if that's what you're asking... I just... lost her."

Blue eyes blinked in confusion while Katara put a finger to her chin as she tried to interpret Ranma's words and drew a blank, "How exactly do you lose your mother?"

"Oh, it's pretty easy", Ranma replied in a mirthless voice, "First you have your father trick you when you're a toddler into signing a seppuku contract to become a 'man among men', whatever that means. Then, you have him take you on a ten year training trip across the world, leaving your mother behind with just the contract and a honor sword. After that, you have your father curse you into the exact opposite of manliness, like a girl for example. Finally, you find out your mother will really go through with the seppuku contract if she ever found out about the curse..."

The waterbender walking beside her looked completely taken aback, "That's horrible! Did she really try to make you kill yourself?!"

"No, thankfully", Ranma replied with a slight snort, "It only took me jumping off a cliff to catch her to prove my 'manliness' though... and even after that she still holds the contract over my head, so it's like walking on rice paper around her..." Finishing that, she let out a labored sigh, "That is what it takes to 'lose' your mother when she's still alive and around to interact with you..."

Silence reined between the pair for a while before Katara asked, "So... you only had your father, the one who sold you and set up the fiancées, since you were six?"

"Unfortunately", was the quick reply with a shrug added in.

"Wow...", she continued, amazed at what she could only guess at Ranma's life was like. "At least I had Gran-Gran and Sokka, along with the rest of the tribe..."

Ranma cocked her head to the side at that, "What about your dad? Don't tell me he..."

A hand quickly waved the second question off, "No, no... Dad's still alive... I hope... He and the rest of the warriors from our tribe left earlier this year to help fight off the Fire Nation." She looked up into the branches above her once more, but not really looking at them, "I miss him..."

"I'm sorry..."

--

"It's alright... I'm to blame anyways..."

Sokka's brow twisted in confusion, "Why do you say that?"

The green haired girl kneeling on the soft marshy ground held her hands before her, looking at them as she replied, "I wasn't there... When she needed me, I wasn't there..."

"Sorry... I don't understand...", was all Sokka could say, taking a seat on the ground before the elder teen.

Ryoga just let out a haggard breath and let her hands drop to her knees. "Akari felt bad one day... I thought she just had a normal fever or a cold", Ryoga started to explain. "I told her I'd go and get her some medicine. I even took a map with me and everything." A couple of tears escaped her green eyes as her breath became ragged, "It only took me an hour to get to the store and buy the medicine... but damn it, the store was in Nagasaki!"

"Nagasaki?" The name meant nothing to the watertribesman and he was still confused...

Whether noticing Sokka's confusion or not, the girl yelled out, "It's three hundred kilometers from Tokyo, where I started! My fucking family curse struck again, getting me lost! 'At least it was only a fever', I told myself as I tried to make my way back to the farm."

Sokka stayed quiet as he knew the girl was ranting but needed Ryoga needed to get it off her chest. The fighter was clenching and releasing her hands into fists whether she knew it or not as she continued, "It took me two weeks... two damn weeks, which I wandered all over Japan... Trying to find my way back and when I do, her grandfather throws me out of the house as soon as I step into it..." Sokka hears the fighter take a deep breath, "He told me how he came home to find her alone and ill... She told him I'd be back with medicine... It wasn't a cold..."

As she broke down before him, Sokka just continued to silently listen to the words between sobs, "They tried... tried everything they... they said there was n-nothing th-they could do! H-he told m-me... th-he last thi-ing she said w-was, 'He'll b-be he-he-here!'" At that point, the sobs wracked her entire frame and things stayed that way for a bit before she shocked her listener into jumping a few inches off the ground when she slammed a fist elbow deep into the mossy soil. "SHE DIED FOUR DAYS BEFORE I GOT THERE! I NEVER MADE IT BACK", she screamed out.

The minutes passed in silence before she finally pulled her arm out of the ground, as if it was an afterthought. The swordsman before her just felt a shiver run up and down his spine before he finally allowed his voice to break the silence, "I'm sorry... I know how you feel..." This caused the girl to raise her emerald colored eyes to look into his azure, before blinking. "I fell in love with a girl name Yue who was the princess of the Northern Watertribe... During an attack, I wasn't able to defend the moon spirit, Tui, and because of that we almost lost the battle." Running a hand through his hair, Sokka looked to the side and took a breath. "Because Yue was saved as a child by Tui, she alone had the power to save the moon spirit. I could only stand and watch as she gave her life so Tui could continue on living..."

Sokka turned his gaze skyward and let out a deep breath, "Now, every time I look at the moon, I just think about how I lost the girl I love..."

Each of the fighters looked on into the forest, their eyes not seeing the reality before them in favor of times past, which existed only in the reaches of their own minds. Time dragged on for what seemed like forever, until the blue eyed youth broke it by asking, "What was she like?"

--

"I don't know what to say... she was my mom...", Katara said, giving a slight shrug as she touched a finger to her chin. "Gran-Gran says I look a lot like her, which I like", she mused with a smile on her lips, "but what I really remember was how she used to tell me and Sokka stories."

A soft sigh born of happy memories escaped the waterbender as she gained a 'far away' look in her eyes. "She'd tell us stories, both fictional and those of lore, and we would both sit and listen while she did other things while weaving the tale", she explained before letting out a small giggle, "Mom seemed to tell the best stories while she was cooking. I didn't think about it at the time, but I think she saved the best for those times just to keep Sokka and me calm while waiting for the food to finish cooking."

Ranma smiled slightly, hearing the bit of humor in Katara's voice, "She sounds like a great mom."

"Yeah, she was...", the brunette agreed, her smile turned bittersweet, "All three of us took it really hard when we found out..." A deep breath later and the smile was gone, "It hit the entire tribe hard, really... We still don't know why they singled her out in the attack that day..."

Katara's stormy azure eyes hardened as she clenched her hands into fists while twisting her face into one of pure confidence, "If I ever find out who killed her, I'll... I'll..."

The unfinished promise of pain hung in the air as the brown haired teen held her strong visage for a long while as the pair continued moving. Eventually, though, she released her hands and let them drop to her sides. Seeing this, Ranma looked ahead and nodded to herself before saying, "Hey, let's take a quick break once we reach that tree over there... We've been moving half the day already and, I don't know about you, but I could some grub."

A thoughtful 'Hmm' was all that escaped the waterbender as they waded out of the swampy water. After a moment for Ranma to shake her legs to get some of the water out of her pants, while Katara just bended hers dry, they sat against the base of the large tree. It was while the fiery haired girl was reaching into her hidden pocket space what her current traveling companion spoke up again, "You know, I'm glad you told me about tying the bottom of your pants legs closed to keep those leeches out..."

Ranma just grinned a bit as she pulled a small wrapped bundle from inside her shirt and witnessed the other girl shudder out of the corner of her eye. "Yeah, same here. I'm just annoyed that I didn't remember before the first night..." Making a face, she admitted, "I can still feel 'em on me... Eww..."

Amused a bit at the antics of the redhead, Katara relaxed some and let out a small smile. She watched as a smile formed on Ranma's face as well, as the martial artist started to unwrap the bundle saying, "Me and Ryoga found some trail rations while we were still in..."

Her words were cut short as a scream broke out into the air, causing both girls to jerk their heads up in high alert. In an instant, both of them were on their feet, looking around for anything and everything. The package that was in the hands of the redhead was rewrapped and hidden almost as fast, to be replaced by a blue ribbon in her hands. Almost as fast, her previously unbound hair was braided and tied into the known pigtail, though it hung down almost past her shoulder blades.

"What the hell was that?"

Shifting her eyes around the area slowly, Ranma replied in a low voice, "Don't know, but it's nearby..." Listening into the now silent forest, both of them could make out the din of combat somewhere nearby, but the rebounding sounds made pinpointing it almost impossible.

"Any idea where...", Katara started only to bite off any other words that she might of asked as a beam of energy shot out of the darkness. It flew well far away from the pair, but still caused them to blink in surprise. "Oookay...", she said after a second, "I guess we know where it's coming from now..."

She glanced over just after to see a quick grin forming on the redhead's face, which grew until it almost reached from ear to ear. Ranma knew as soon as she felt the chi wave just who was fighting nearby and after a second, she let out a whoop of joy. "Hell yeah! Found Ryoga AND a fight! Come on", Ranma cried out right before going from standstill to top speed in a running jump that rocketed her almost forty meters from the shocked waterbender before Katara shook herself out of it and sprinted after her.

--

"What the hell is this thing?!"

"I don't know, but these vines keep trying to grab me", Sokka yelled back as he brought his right arm down to chop at said vines once more, hacking off another bunch. It didn't seem to matter much to the plants as the ends just slid closer to try and ensnare the watertribesman once more.

"I've never seen anything like this before", a younger voice admitted before the sound of air exploding against something sounded out. Aang wiped an arm across his forehead, ridding it of the sweat that the high powered Airbending caused. He'd flung a few high volume blasts already, but it seemed to do nothing to his target but knock it back a few steps.

As it was, the giant swamp vine monster was still on its feet and slowly advancing on the trio. About the only thing that seemed to work so far was either a cutting weapon or Ryoga's 'Shi Shi Hokodan', which happened to burn off one of the creature's arms. The problem was the fact that the arm just grew right back a moment later and acted like the attack had never hit it in the first place. Once bitten though, the monster tried avoiding the blasts and once seeing this Ryoga held back on firing them off indiscriminately.

"Great...", the green haired fighter dryly voiced, holding her belt in her right hand like one would a sword. A moment later, she was diving to the side to avoid a hulking arm as it swung down on her position.

The next moment, she rolled to her feet and charged in at the beast, trying to get inside where it would have a harder time hitting her. Out of her peripheral vision, she saw the arm rear back, prepared to drive back at the moving martial artist. As it just as she was preparing to make another evasive dive, a blast of wind flew around her as she saw the creature stagger under the blow of another of Aang's attacks.

Grinning like a wolf, Ryoga sprinted the last distance between her and the giant's leg. Reaching it, she span around and sliced into it with her 'Iron Cloth' belt, expecting it to slide right through, like a hot knife would through butter. With that in mind, when her arm jerked to a halt halfway though, she blinked a few time and just stood there for a second.

A cry from Sokka was all the warning she got, allowing the fanged fighter to halt the flow of chi into the improvised weapon, causing it to go limp in her hands. The next thing she knew, pain had flared across her entire left side, which was followed by the feeling of forced flight; both caused by a sweeping tangle of vines which made up one of the giant's arms. The airborne fighter crashed back into the water, sending twin walls of water up into the air in her wake as she slid to a stop.

Aang watched her trip long enough to see a flash of green break the surface along with a gasp of air before turning his attention back to the beast. 'How are we going to stop this thing', he asked himself as he fired off a weak blast of air to grab its attention away from the recovering Ryoga. Once the writhing mass of vines had turned around though, the bald boy looked lost as to what to do next.

A moment later, he was thanking the spirits when slight distortions in the air flew from his left towards the monster, cutting into one of its arms causing it to fall off in three huge chunks. An instant later, a line of water shot passed him on his right, like a paper thin wave, to slice off the creature's other arm from underneath almost at the shoulder.

Looking over his shoulder, Aang could see two figures in blue charging towards him, causing him to smile. He heard one call his name while the other smirked and yelled, "Hey, need some help?"

The tattooed boy smiled quickly, calling back, "Katara, Ranma!" The smile dropped just as fast, though, as they ran up and he looked back towards their aggressor. "We can't stop this thing, it just keeps attacking..."

Even as they looked upon it, the thing's arms were regenerating, negating the damage they had just done to it. Their observations were distracted, though, when a cry of accomplishment broke out from the side and they saw Sokka run over towards them. "Finally broke free of those damn things...", he muttered before blinking at the two girls who stood beside Aang. Smiling, he called out a quick, "Hey", in greeting before he looked at the creature with the rest of them.

"So... any ideas", Aang asked up to anyone who would supply an answer.

Ranma just shrugged, "Beat it down until it doesn't move anymore?"

"Tried that", a certain fanged fighter growled as she shook her head as if to shake the cobwebs out. "Thing just heals and comes back, like this", she explained, pointing to the nearly fully complete monster.

"Hmm...", Sokka let out in thought, narrowing his eyes as he examined the mass of moving vines. "It's taking longer for it to heal this time...", he muttered to himself before looking over at the others. "Okay, Katara cut the left arm off, Aang has the right... Ranma, you do whatever you did on the head while Ryoga and I rush in. If we do enough damage at once, maybe it won't be able to grow back!"

With a plan, any plan, in place, they nodded and with a yell burst into action. Katara and Aang made circles with their arms or staff, respectively, until they flung an arm and staff straight up, causing twin lines of water to shoot towards the creature. Ranma, on the other hand, flashed out with her arms making multiple grabbing motions into the air, causing small waves of shimmering air to fly towards her intended target area. True to form, Sokka and Ryoga charged forward, each giving their own battle cry to increase the effect of adrenalin in their veins.

Ryoga's land speed, having grown up on the go since a young age, was considerably greater than the other weapon user, her reactions also much sharper due to a life of constant fighting. That said, the tan clothed fighter noticed the signs of the monster dodging the attacks and adjusted for it, though she knew it was too late and just smirked as an arm, its head and most of its right side were sliced off. The smirk changed to a scowl and narrowed eyes a moment later, as she adjusted her plans once more once she reached the creature and thrust her legs under her, throwing herself into a leaping charge.

Sokka was just about to reach the other side when he noticed Ryoga leap at the injured being. A moment later, he slid to a stop, sloshing water in a blinding wave, as two people burst through the vines on his side. The flying figures barely missed clipping the startled weapon user, who numbly followed their short flight which led to the two tumbling into the water nearby. As Sokka watched the two pick themselves up out of the disturbed muddy swamp, the other three were running up on their position. With a quick shake of her head, Ryoga flung water out of the jade hair topping it along with clearing out her eyes enough to glare at what looked to be the man she knocked out of the vine beast.

The elder man performed almost the same thing as Ryoga, shaking the water from his hair and eyes before looking over the group that had gathered. The stark difference between them and he was the fact that while they wore clothing, he wore little more than a large loincloth of vegetation. Ranma and Ryoga quickly saw the same build as Genma Saotome in him and subconsciously wondered if he was of the same mindset as the aged sometimes-panda.

"Why did you attack us? Did you call me here just to kill us", the youngest of the group demanded through a heavy glare.

The brow of the man creased as he looked down upon the boy. "I didn't call you here", he said in a slight drawl, "and I didn't come here to kill you. I just came to stop you from destroying the forest!"

Quite a few eyebrows were quirked from the grouped teens as Ranma replied, "Uh... we aren't destroying anything..." She flicked her eyes around the area as she said this, reaching up and rubbing the back of her neck, "Er... well, except for this area and that was your fault for attacking us..."

An eyebrow twitched slightly at Ranma's last words, but instead pointed at the one with green hair in their midst. "Right... I know I saw a column of... something... shred the treetops earlier. It had the same color of the attacks she used on me!"

Ryoga blinked a few times and looked thoughtful before flinching, "Er... Sorry... I didn't mean to do that, I just sorta... lost it..."

The man seemed to look over the teen for a few seconds, as if his observations could pierce through any lie she might be telling. "I'll let it go this time, since the damage to the forest was minimal", he drawled before giving a sigh and placing a hand to his forehead, "Alright then, who are you kids and why are you in this forest, anyways?"

"Well, we're here cause Aang felt something calling to him, telling him to land", Sokka explained. Seeing the confused curl of the older male's eyebrows, he added in a dry voice, "He's the Avatar... stuff like this just happens..."

The man's dark green eyes blinked before he looked over towards the younger male was pointing and found a boy with a blue arrow tattooed on his bald head. "The Avatar...", he half muttered to himself before letting out a hum that one might expect from a wizened sage but not from a mostly naked man in a swamp. "If this is the Avatar, then we need to talk. Come, follow me", he directed to the group before turning around and walking away.

"Should we trust him", Katara asked, eyeing the retreating man warily.

Aang just shook his head at the situation before walking after the man, "I don't know, but he's the first person we've found here. He might know what was calling me and where Appa and Momo are..." It didn't take anything more than that before the rest of the group gave a collective shrug and followed. They figured that they had beaten the man once, so it wasn't like he was going to start something up again... they hoped.

--

The group didn't have to follow the man long until they found themselves climbing a tree that put all the other's they'd seen to shame. It was at least five times as tall and it's limbs seemed impossibly spread out. When the man started climbing what looked like a path in the giant roots at the base of the trunk, Katara called up to him, "So, who are you?"

The man smiled as he looked around at the forest top that they could see at their height, "I protect the swamp from folks who want to hurt it." A moment later, a vine slid out of the way of the group as he waved his hands onward. "Like this fellow, with his big knife and the lass with the light show", he added, a wry grin on his face.

Sokka just shrugged it off, saying, "See, completely reasonable explanation..., while sheathing his bone sword. "It's just a guy defending his home... No crazy monsters, no weird voices... There's nothing mystical about it."

As they neared the point where the roots became the full vertical trunk of the giant tree, the man gave a off a deep chuckle, "That's where you're wrong, lad. The swamp is a mystical place, alright. It's sacred..." As he reached a spot known only to him, he turned and sat down crossing his legs before him, "In fact, I reached enlightenment at this very spot beneath the Banyon Grove tree", he said, waving a hand to indicate the tree he sat upon. "I heard it calling to me, just like you did", he explained, looking pointedly at the young Avatar.

"Sure you did, old man", the redhead of the group said, but still gave the tree an intense gaze.

Said 'old man' gave a slight chuckle as he viewed the redhead looking at the tree behind him, "You see, this whole swamp is really just one tree spread out over kilometers. Branches spread, sink and then take root... then, spread some more." As he spread his arms apart, a smile grew on his face, "It's all one big living organism, just like the entire world..."

Aang looked from the area around him back to the old man as he finished talking. "I get how the tree is one big thing, but... the whole world", he asked, giving a disbelieving look.

If anything, the smile grew on the sage's face grew even wider, "Sure! Do you think you're any different than me, or your friends, or this tree?" He waved a hand out into the distance, "If you listen hard enough, you can hear every living thing breathing together. You can feel everything growing. We're all living together, even if most folk don't act like it." He brought the hand back to himself, and continued, "We all have the same roots and we're all branches of the same tree."

"Okay", Katara replied as she sat down with the rest following, "but I saw... a vision out there. Was that the tree trying to talk to me and if it was, what did it mean?"

The sage nodded solemnly to the waterbender, "To my understanding, it's one of the ways the swamp talks to people. You see, in the swamp we see visions of people we've lost... people we've loved... folks we think are gone..." Hearing this each youth took a different look upon themselves as he kept going in a reassuring voice, "but the swamp tells us that they're not. We're still connected to them. Time is an illusion and so is death..."

Ranma looked over to the swamp sage with a confused look, "But what about if you've never seen the person before until the vision?"

The young Avatar nodded, "Yeah, my vision was someone I'd never met."

A sly grin formed on the old man's face while he squinted an eye at the boy, "You're the Avatar... you tell me."

The boy shot the sage a disgruntled look before dropping his head and pondering on it for a second. The sage could hear Aang mumble under his breath, "Time is an illusion..." The tattooed male quirked his head to the side in thought before raising it with realization in his mind, "So... it's someone I will meet!" Hearing that, the sage grinned broadly and silently nodded.

Sokka drew attention to himself once more, a moment later, by jumping to his feet and stretching while saying, "As great as this all is, we still need to find Appa and Momo..."

Ranma shifted her gaze to the smaller male when Aang replied, "I think I know how to find them." She watched him place a hand on the tree he sat upon and take a deep breath before saying, "Everything is connected..."

Her blue eyes narrowed a split second later when she felt something shoot away from the Avatar, but couldn't see what it was. The next thing she knew, Aang jumped to his feet and cried, "I've found them! We need to hurry!"

--

"Can you believe those guys? They wanted to eat Appa!"

"They did say they were sorry...", Aang replied to Sokka's loud complaint as he sat on the head of the flying bison, giving it a pat through its thick fur.

"And they gave us food", Ranma piped in happily, causing a groan from Ryoga. "You and your stomach", she muttered to the redhead, who ignored it.

Katara just smiled while shaking her head, "I'm more interested in the fact that there are waterbenders outside of the Northern and Southern Watertribes! I wonder when they found the swamp and why they settled there."

Her brother just shrugged and replied, "I'm more interested in where we're headed next."

"Well", Aang started to respond, putting a hand to his chin, "the vision I had in the swamp was of a girl around my age with a flying boar... I don't know what the boar means, but it has to mean something..." He shook his head quickly before stating, "I guess we'll have to look around until we can find something to help figure it out."

"Wait a minute...", Sokka spoke out again, "When we were talking to that old guy, Hue, about the visions, Ranma was the first to speak up about not knowing who the vision was..." All eyes turned from the blue clad boy to towards the redhead at that statement, causing the martial artist to cringe back a bit against the railing she leaned against. "So, what did you see?"

"I don't wanna...", she replied, crossing her arms before her and looking away, out towards the passing landscape.

"Come on, Ranma! Tell us what you saw", Ryoga prodded, using a voice that would annoy the girl into submission. It was supported with a few prodding voices from the other three teens as well.

They weren't prepared for it, though, when the Ranma jerked her head back around to give a piercing glare to them all while screaming, "I don't want to talk about it! Quit buggin' me!" She held the glare for a few more seconds before turning her head back out over the railing, before saying in a low voice, "Just leave it alone..."

--

End of Chapter 8

--

Author's notes:

So, I guess a lot of you are wondering what happened to the chapter numbers and why you guys got a notice that I posted a new chapter about two to three weeks ago... Well, the first one is easy to explain; I joined chapters one and two into the new chapter one. This means the first chapter is around 5.5k words instead of having a piddling 2.5k words. Small change, but thought I'd explain it just so you guys don't think you're crazy. –grin-

And on to why you guys got a 'new chapter posted' notice, but probably couldn't find the chapter... Yeah, that's my bad. –rubs the back of neck-

I wrote out a chapter covering the same story period as this one did, but it was only 6.5k words long and when I reread it, I saw nothing but pure crap... So I took it down with full intentions of rewriting it into the work you have just read, but ran headlong into a writer's wall. Couldn't write jack shit since then, but now I'm out of my funk and here we are. –wide smile-

Anyhow... I'm pretty sure some of you are asking why some of the characters are turning into whiny bitches... well... I'm not gonna tell ya, but it's planned and no not because I'm going to be writing tear jerker chapters from now on. At least not unless the story calls for it... –sly look-

Just to warn you, it might be a bit before I produce the next chapter though, cause I need to iron out a few things before I write it out. But once I do, it's going to be BIG with a capital 'Oh shit!'... –rubs hands together and cackles maniacally-