Age 14

"I'm afraid…" the healer hesitated, casting an apprehensive glance between Tarrlok and his mother, "he's not going to make it." There was no sudden outburst of tears from His Mother as she merely sunk into her seat, gazing at her hands in her lap while Tarrlok felt the final supports inside him fall.

His Father was dying.

"It won't be much longer and he requested that he see both of you before he goes." The healer said, revealing what should have been a given. "One at a time." Tarrlok raised an eyebrow at that and tried to form a question but fell short. For years his Father had been a secret terror he and Noatak would tip toe around to avoid setting off when their monthly "hunting trips" came round and during their training he would become a ruthless driller. But after Noatak's disappearance he had just… broken, becoming distant and listless, waking later and later each day. Until it had cumulated in this, a case of some hacking cough that had robbed him of what energy he had left.

"You go on ahead Tarrlok." His Mother said with a strained smile and a weak hand on his shoulder. Her hair had grayed considerably in the years since Noatak had disappeared despite her just entering her forties and her smile showed wrinkles that had not been there years ago.

Tarrlok nodded and got up on shaky legs and walked to the opposite side of the healers hut, placing his hand on the door for a moment before pushing it open and slipping inside. "Ah, Tarrlok." His Father said from his bed, his skin pale and voice weak. "Sit dow-" He instructed only for a wave of coughing to overtake him but Tarrlok did as instructed and sat down in the chair next to his Father and waited. Eventually the former bloodbender and crime lord of Republic City ceased coughing and settled to a wheeze instead. "Did I ever tell you or your brother the story of when I discovered our family's bloodbending gift?"

"No sir." Tarrlok answered. His Father's stories of his life in Republic City never touched upon his pre glory days or his escape from the U.R.N. to the North Pole.

"I was your age." He began his wheeze rescinding and his breathing deepening. "Some boys from the local triad, Zhao's Revenge if I remember correctly, targeted Water Tribe citizens mostly, came into the North Pole borough and started harassing people in the street. Me and some of my friends decided that we weren't going to take." He reminisced. "They were extorting money from a shopkeeper when we found them. My friends were all scared away when they flashed some fire and earthbending at us but I stood my ground. They easily kicked my ass." He Father laughed and fell into another coughing fit. "When they turned to walk away and leave me bleeding in the street and felt something inside me swell and I reached out. Next thing I knew they were floating in the air, screaming in pain. Soon I had organized the kids on my street to our own gang and in a few years we took our whole borough with our own triad, protecting it from those who wished it harm from Zhao's Revenge to the C.B.C.C." He turned and looked Tarrlok straight in the eye and asked. "Do you believe me? That I started my path with good intentions and could be redeemed?"

Was… was he asking for forgiveness?! After all that he had done? Pushing them so far, forcing them to lie to their mother for years, treating them like pawns, and driving Noatak away?!

"No." Tarrlok answered, the firmness in the decision surprising him in how quickly it came to him. He expected his Father to become sullen or even angered at having his redemption turned away but instead he smiled.

"Good, because I was lying." His Father revealed. "I found out I was a bloodbender one night when my friends and I were drinking and trying to bloodbend rats during a full moon, trying to find out if any of us were good enough. Really it was just to rip and joke around with each other and try to impress the girls we brought with us." He chuckled at the memory and closed his eyes in remembrance. "I was the last to go, always the runt of the group. When I walked up to the rat cage everyone laughed and jeered." He smiled softly. "When I lifted every single rat inside the cage they all fell silent and the next day when I tested it and found that I could do it whenever I pleased I walked down to the local gang and demanded to see their leader. Two minutes later I had him begging for mercy as I nearly broke his spine with my bloodbending." He sunk into his bed in sighed. "First thing I did as the new boss was buy the fanciest dinner I ever had with their money, got drunk on the finest alcohol I ever tasted which at 14 wasn't saying much, and lost my virginity to the finest whore they had in their employ."

"Why are you telling me this?" Tarrlok demanded disgusted by the story so far. Even at such a young age his Father had been cruel.

"Because you're my son." His Father answered turning to look at him again. "You're a bloodbender. In the U.R.N. and the Northern Water Tribe that gets you a minimum sentence of 20 years, in the Southern Water Tribe you get lobotomized and sent back to your family, and in the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom it's a death sentence." His hand shot out of the bed and gripped Tarrlok's shoulder. "You will commit evil to survive, to just keep your secret. You will not be safe or free until you're at the top where no one can touch you."

"Like how The Avatar couldn't touch you?" Tarrlok shot back, talking back to his Father for the first time in years.

"Avatar Aang is an asshole." His Father said as if that explained everything. "For someone who supposedly sought balance in the world he sure was blind to the shit he caused or let happen in Republic City. The C.B.C.C., the sterilization of criminals, which you being here shows how equally that's working, for being evil, and don't get me started how he fumbled that Grey Death outbreak in 123. Fucking had to burn whole borough's down while I moved the refugees around and get the aid to them." He listed ending on an administrative complaint. "I swear that Waters of Yue aid organization that's starting up? Gonna save lives." He let loose another sudden wave of hacking coughs that racked his body. "He was also pretentiously insulting."

"How so?" Tarrlok asked. If there was one thing that he had learned from his Father's stories of his time in Republic City it was even when making threats and blackmailing be respectful and professional. His Father said it was one of the things that had turned the roving and wild bands of Triads that eventually became his criminal empire into a respectable organization and he demanded it on all levels.

"Before I was to be sent off to jail he showed up and tried to "redeem" me." He said with disgust and a sneer. "Said that my protecting citizens from the C.B.C.C., keeping the criminal underworld in line, and my help during the Grey Death outbreak showed I had "good in me". Fucker."

"He offers you redemption and you call it insulting?" Tarrlok asked, somehow still shocked at the evil his Father existed on.

"It's insulting because he didn't care about me; he just wanted to know that he showed me the path." His Father explained. "He could acknowledge that sometimes evil actions were necessary, he wasn't a child after all. But he couldn't see that good acts were sometimes for selfish reasons. I didn't protect the citizens out of the goodness of my heart but because dead people don't pay protection money, gamble in my dens, fuck my prostitutes, or buy my drugs and smuggled goods. I had to be secretly good." He let go of Tarrlok's shoulder and fell back into his bed. "He wanted to know that the person that had managed his fuck up and earned the love of the people wasn't just some monstrous criminal with abilities that gave people nightmares." He looked his son in the eye one last time. "I wasn't going to lie about what I was to get time off and ease his ego. Never give up who you are, don't try to throw it away and become someone you're not to be accepted like those immigrants in Republic City who think that they can assimilate and everything will be easier. They were the saddest sacks of shit I'd ever seen." He turned away from his son, closed his eyes, and smiled. "So I spat on his face and told him to go fuck himself."

Age 16

"Hey Tarrlok! Wake up!" A foot struck his side and Tarrlok jolted awake, nearly falling on his side.

"What!? What!?" He cried as he pushed his helmet up and looked at his fire teammate Ublureak, the thirty something year old warrior staring down at him with his rifle slung over his shoulder.

"Boss mans' about to explain why the hell we're here so get up." Ublureak ordered and Tarrlok heaved himself off of the ground and wiped the snow off of the back and seat of his pants. "How the hell did you fall asleep against a rock anyway?"

"Well it's not like we're gonna be setting up the tents anytime soon so I had to rest somewhere." Tarrlok answered truthfully, the only tent up being that for the command of this little 23 strong band of warriors and 3 healers in the middle of nowhere. Ublureak muttered something as they walked together to the command tent where everybody else had gathered with the exception of the healers who stood off to the side waiting until the men finished meeting and they could coax what the war plan was out of them. "Ladies." Tarrlok greeted as he and Ublureak walked past flashing his most winning smile. This would probably be the last time he'd see them for a while that they wouldn't be treating injured so he'd have to get any flirting done now. The older and married pair just rolled their eyes at him but Buniq, the youngest of the three, smiled back and winked at him.

"Keep moving kid." Ublureak ordered, shoving Tarrlok towards the command tent.

"Now that we're all here we can begin." The lead warrior, his name escaped Tarrlok given he had only showed up yesterday and marched them out here, started when he saw Tarrlok and Ublureak enter the crowd around the tent. "Due west of here is Salluit Village which was some little fishing burg until Saomik's boys got a hold of it a year ago. Now it's got this new refinery that's supplying materials to his factories on the coast south of here and stinking up the sky with noxious smoke so it's got to go." It wasn't surprising that the contending and traitorous Chief Saomik would begin building industrial sites in his territories or that Chief Nuktuk, rightfully chosen Chief by the late Chief Arnook, would want it destroyed for the ecological damage it could cause. Which meant that this was likely a mission sent down by either the Chief or his son Unalaq, general Tonraq would have made an attempt to capture the site and turn it towards their own ends. "Saomik's boys pulled out weeks ago to help reinforce their little last stand to the south but we believe that they helped train a local militia to guard it."

"Fucking hate fighting militias." Aglakti, his other fire teammate, muttered emerging from the crowd to stand next to Tarrlok and Ublureak with his shotgun cradled, coming up a head shorter than both of them. Tarrlok glanced at him as he readjusted the mask that concealed the lower half of his face, made to be like a wendigos for "psychological warfare". Aglakti rarely talked and never when it would draw attention to him, preferring to stay silent and near the back of groups away from others. This was probably due to Aglakti actually being a woman in disguise who could never keep the deep masculine voice she crafted going for long.

"Why? There never that hard to deal with." Ublureak asked quietly as lead warrior began going into detail about the attack plan.

"We usually have support. Artillery or something but that's all been moved south. We're going to be fighting in the streets as well." Her eyes scrunched up at the thought. "I hate fighting in streets."

"You have a shotgun." Tarrlok countered gesturing to her weapon of choice. "Where else is it going to help you? Besides it's just a little fishing village like my home town. I wouldn't call a few igloos urban combat."

Tarrlok took a peek around the corner of the market stall he was hiding behind and snapped his head back when the fire erupted from the window of the top floor of the motel down the street, the shots from a rifle slamming into the snowy street next to him. "Just a few igloos huh?" Aglakti asked sarcastically from behind him.

"In retrospect it does make sense that they'd build a refinery in a town with a more advanced infrastructure." He admitted. Steeling himself Tarrlok gathered the snow off of the street with is waterbending and bent it to ice, making it as thick and tall as possible as he extended it across the street. The militia fired upon the ice as it stretched across the street as if that could slow its process.

"Go!" Ublureak ordered and Tarrlok bolted forward, crouching against the ice as the rest of his squad followed. The militia quickly learned that firing at them was useless as the ice was too thick to break by gun fire so instead they withdrew back into their building before a grenade came sailing out of the window and bouncing down the street. It exploded nowhere near the icy cover of course but it did send a jolt through Tarrloks system as he ducked into the alleyway they had raced to.

An explosion ripped through the village and north of them a trio of black plumes of smoke were snuffed out and replaced with a single large one. "Well it's about damn time." Ublureak said as the other soldiers cheered at the destruction of the target they'd been playing decoy for. This meant they just had to deal with the militia, who for all that they knew could have been lying in wait in the buildings that lined this alleyway, waiting until they all got into a kill zone. "Ok," Ublureak said as he turned around to look at Aglakti and Tarrlok as gunfire erupted somewhere off in the distance, "they're going to go take that motel while we get to hang back and hold the rear."

'Thank Tui and La for that.' Tarrlok thought hugging the alleyway wall as they moved down it, the other two fire teams rounding the corner and racing towards the target. He didn't hear any gunfire and when he reached the corner, Aglakti ducking past him to take the corner opposite him as Ublureak stayed behind to watch the street; they weren't dying so it seemed that the militia didn't react fast enough or hadn't planned on an alleyway assault. That seemed… like really poor planning.

They waited with baited breath for the gunfire to start but it never came and soon a runner from the other squads came back. "They're gone."

"What!" Ublureak shouted as he held his position. "They were in there literally a minute ago!"

"Well there gone now, we're checking every room and have only found shell casings so now we're looking for some secret tunnel or something." He said and gestured for them to come with him as more gunfire erupted in the distance. Well at least they weren't near the core of the fighting, helped their chances. Moving down the alleyway they edged around the side of the motel briefly exposing themselves to the street before they ducked into the lobby of the motel where another warrior was waiting, rifle pointed down the street towards the village dock.

"You guys see him run?" He asked given that they'd have the perfect position to see his escape.

"We didn't see anything." Tarrlok answered as he gazed out of the window as his fellow warriors emerged from the rooms one by one and moved into others always remaining wary of the buildings on the street.

"If we had we'd have shot at them." Ublureak responded as if he was insulted by the question.

"Well they sure as hell aren't here anymore and there aren't any trapdoors around here." Another warrior said as he walked in, the rest taking defensive positions outside. "We'll have to continue with the plan and keep moving towards the dock."

"You sure? It sounds like they could use some help over there." Ublureak asked turning his head towards the gunfire as Tarrlok went through his own internal debate.

'I can find out if they're really gone.' He thought to himself. I'd be easy to just reach out with his bloodbending and find every living thing within the building but he hadn't bloodbent since Noatak disappeared. Could he reach out without having to take control? Just passively feel it? Could he even do it without arising suspicion? Noatak had been able to master Psychic Bloodbending but he always required some movement to get it to work. And he knew what it felt like to have your body twisted from the inside. 'Either I risk harming everyone by accidentally bloodbending them which will end in them trying to capture or kill me, I find nothing, I can't do anything, or I possibly let some militia member slip past us…'

With a sigh Tarrlok threw his hands behind his head and leaned against the wall, using the relaxed movement to cover his bloodbending. The familiar sensation of pumping blood filled his senses easier than he remembered, first from those inside the room and the rest of the warriors outside, he reigned in the need to take control and tried to narrow the different beats down. He closed off the other five warriors outside and the motel rooms leaving him with the five hearts beats in the lobby, not counting his own of course.

Except there was only four other people in the room, Ublureak, Aglakti, and the other two warriors.

His heart racing Tarrlok tried his best to focus on the other, his eyes scanning the room in barely contained panic. His eyes flicked around the room looking for anything big enough to hold a person finding nothing each time until he settled into the space between a chair and the checkout desk. It took Tarrlok a moment staring at the wall to realize that the missing militia man was indeed hiding inside.

'…Alright. How do I deal with that?' Tarrlok thought as he released his bloodbending and the heart beats ceased. 'I can maybe throw it out there like a joke.' He wondered. 'Or I can move over there and pretend I hear them inside. That could definitely work.' He thought as he got off of the wall and made his way around the checkout counter, ignoring the argument of whether or not to continue on to the dock or go and reinforce the other squads. It was times like this that he wished they had more defined military roles like the other nations. If he was going to be press ganged into an army he'd want it to be a well-organized one.

"What the hell are you doing?" Aglakti asked as he moved the wall and made a show of looking around the counter drawers. "This isn't the time to start looting. I doubt this place has got anything good anyway." She said as he closed the drawer and prepared himself.

"Yeah but you never know," he started to turn towards the wall, "what you can fi-" a fist shot out of the thin walls and socked Tarrlok right in his mouth sending him stumbling back to the floor. Fighting the stars from his vision Tarrlok watched as the wall exploded and a figure duck behind the counter near him as the wall he previously inhabited was slammed with a storm of bullets. Taking a knife out of its boot the figure leaped over the edge of the counter in the few moments it took for Tarrloks comrades to pull the bolts back on their rifles and load another round. There were cries of pain and another wave of gunfire as Tarrlok struggled to his feet and heaved himself up, snapped the cover of his water flask off and gathering the water into his hands.

Ublureak and one of the other warriors were lying on the ground with their throats slit as Aglakti leaned against the wall moaning and holding her stomach as blood seeped out from in between her fingers. The man, judging by height and build although his lower face was hidden by a dark mask, held the other warrior as a shield to the warriors that had been standing guard outside, a knife held to the captive warriors' neck. With a roar Tarrlok made to throw the warrior at their attacker, he was far too good to be a mere militia soldier, only for him to suddenly turn and fling the knife at Tarrlok, impaling him in deep the right shoulder forcing the water to drop useless onto the counter. As Tarrlok cried out in pain he caught a glimpse of the attackers eyes that stopped his thoughts in their tracks.

In his right eye was a strange red sigil, like a bird taking flight.

With some supernatural instinct the man turned around fast enough to use his human shield to take the shots that the outside warriors took when his back was turned. Dropping the now dead warrior the attacker bolted towards the other warriors quickly grabbling with the nearest one and wrenching his weapon away as Tarrlok fell back to the floor. 'What the fuck was that!' He thought as he took a deep breath and grapped the handle of the knife as more gunshots and screams came from outside. With a scream of pain he pulled it out and immediately slammed a hand over the wound, gasping as he worked his bloodbending to force it to keep flowing and ignore the stab wound.

Getting back to his feet Tarrlok found the attacker standing amongst the rest of the warriors, five seasoned Northern Water Tribe warriors dead at his feet and a smoking rifle in his hands. Panic gripping Tarrlok reached out and seized the attacker with bloodbending, the attacker ceasing movement as his limps suddenly began to twist in different directions and he was lifted off the ground. With a savage twist of his hand he snapped the attackers neck, the red sigil disappearing from his panicked eyes as his body fell to the ground. With a sigh of relief Tarrlok stumbled back against the checkout counter, arms shaking and heart still racing. "Holy shit. Holy shit." He said to himself as he looked at the dead bodies of his comrades all around him and outside, a mixture of slit throats, gunshot wounds, and it look like a caved in skull for one of the outside warriors. Distantly remembering that Aglakti looked alive last time he saw her Tarrlok turned to see if he wasn't the only survivor of the entire squad.

He found Aglakti quiet alive given that she was pointing her shotgun at him. "Bloodbender." She hissed at him, her hands shaky and mask darkening with what he assumed was blood.

"Wai-" Tarrlok started to say only for Aglakti to cut him off with a shot that tore his stomach apart. Clutching what was left of his gut Tarrlok collapsed to the ground again as a pain tore through him unlike anything he felt before. His mind blank with pain Tarrlok moaned like a dying animal trying his best to control his bleeding with his hands and what bloodbending he had control of. Unknown to him Aglakti struggled to load another shell in only for it to slip from in between her fingers as consciousness left her, death following a minute later.

Tarrlok's life flashed before his eyes as he bled on the lobby floor, his happy childhood with his family, his training as a bloodbender by his Father, Noatak running away, the death of his Father, and finally when he had been pressed ganged into joining the final Unification Campaign under Chief Nuktuk nearly a year ago. His mother had wailed as they dragged him and the other suitable boys away from the village.

The thought of his mother drew some of the pain away and allowed him to think clearer. She would be heartbroken if he were to die here after losing Noatak and Father although he didn't know if she ever found out the truth about him or that she had sired the new generation of bloodbenders. Perhaps that was better, saved her more heartache at the betrayal and let her pretend her husband and sons had been good men. But who would take care of her? She had been feeling sick last time he had seen her.

With this thought Tarrlok pulled himself back and focused all his efforts onto keeping himself from bleeding out, ignoring the pain of the buried pellets. He managed to remain conscious for a few minutes, drifting off and coming back with thoughts of his mother and plans for the future.

'I'm not going to be taking anyone's orders anymore.' He decided with a pained snarl. 'I'm going to be free; I'm going to be on top. I'm going to be safe.' It would be another half an hour before a fleeing civilian came upon him and dragged him away, bandaging his wounds and narrowly saving his life.

Age 34

Tarrlok smiled as he emerged from his talks with Chief Unalaq feeling successful in the past hour of political maneuvering and discussion. The Chief had called upon him to discuss the current state of the Holy City's internal security forces policies and tactics, which Tarrlok had publically declared horrible outdated in the face of a growing criminal element in the capital of Northern Water Tribe. It was nice to know that the Chief valued his opinion enough to seek it but what he was particularly proud about was when the conversation turned to foreign politics.

With the current Council position for the Northern Water Tribe open in the U.R.N. this was clearly a sign of Unalaq testing Tarrlok to see if he was capable of speaking for him on the council. And it didn't take mind reading to know that Unalaq had been happy with his answers concerning the Fire Nations decades long economic crisis, it had been horrible for the global market and a possible revolution in the Fire Nation would only spell trouble, to the U.R.N.'s growing Trust Territories, worrying to say the least, and finally on the Southern Water Tribe, their declaration of independence during the Unification Campaign had been an outrage but their spiritual collapse was to be pitied as they sold themselves out. Madlernartok City their capital was a prime example, a place where everything was legal given the full consent of all parties. About the only thing you couldn't buy there were slaves. Indentured servants were different matter though, regardless where they came from.

Tarrlok emerged from the palace and descended the steps to main courtyard where nobles met and talked about this and that, planning meetings to discuss deals that couldn't be done publicly. Normally Tarrlok would have been right with them trading secrets and making moves, it was the only way a back water commoner like him had risen as high as he did. Making his way down to the water way where a gondola waited he relaxed as he was taken through the streets of the capital until he came upon his home, and rather large manor that had come with his position as an advisor to the Chief.

"Welcome home sir." A servant greeted when he arrived, taking his coat and hanging it up for him.

"Thank you, where is my Mother?" Tarrlok asked.

"I believe she is on the main balcony sir." She answered.

"Thank you; inform the rest of the staff that I'm not to be disturbed for the rest of the day." Tarrlok ordered and the servant nodded and bowed out of his presence, leaving him to make his way up the grand staircase to the second level. Soon he made his way outside again stepping out onto his balcony that overlooked much of the city, His Mother sitting in her wheel chair at her spot at the table with an ever present nurse waiting nearby. "Good evening Mother." She jolted at his voice when he sat down next to her.

"Oh Tarrlok! You startled me!" She placed a wrinkled and shaking hand on her chest to calm her heart.

"I'm sorry Mother." He apologized. "How are you feeling today?" He asked casting a glance to her nurse, making a note to ask her later.

"Oh I'm feeling much better today dear." She reassured with a wrinkled smile. "How was your meeting with Chief Unalaq?"

"Very productive. I believe if I play my cards right I may be given the open position on The Council." He smiled and His Mother beamed with pride that her son could be given such an important position.

"I'm so proud of you Tarrlok." She said placing a skinny hand across the table to rest on his arm. "Your Father used to talk about taking you and Noatak to see it when you grew older." Tarrlok smiled despite knowing the real reason His Father wanted to bring him and Noatak to Republic City. He spent the next half hour talking with His Mother, discussing local gossip and news. Soon he had to depart though to his office where work was waiting for him, promising His Mother that he'd see her at dinner.

Making his way through his home Tarrlok arrived to find his office door slightly open. He frowned as he pushed the door open, expecting to find a servant cleaning. Instead he found an older woman with clear Fire Nation features in a dark suit lingering around his bookcase, browsing his collection. "Evening Advisor Tarrlok." She greeted with a low moroseness, turning to meet him. His eyes snapped to the back of her left hand which was tattooed with a red sigil, like a bird taking flight. An annoying prick at the back of his head occurred when he saw it but he shook it off as he spoke.

"Who are you?" He asked cautiously, closing the door behind him wondering how she had managed to get into his home and past all of his servants.

"My name is not important." She answered cryptically. "I've come to offer you a deal on behalf of my benefactors. You wish to become the next Northern Water Tribe Councilman in the U.R.N. correct?" She asked as if she already knew his answer. "We can give it and Republic City to you." She offered as if control of the capital of the U.R.N. was a paltry gift.

"Really?" He asked skeptically. "And how are you going to do that?" He moved to set down at his desk, using the movement to bloodbend, feeling her heart beat fill his senses.

"We'll whisper in some ears. They will listen." She answered cryptically as he frowned at this mysterious bullmooseshit.

"And what do I have to do in return?" He asked.

"Just keep in the city in order and occasionally fulfill requests. How you do this will be entirely up to you." She answered. "We also offer a gift."

"And what is tha-" Tarrlok started to ask before his office door opened and a figure walked, covered entirely in black robes from head to toe. It wore a broken and burned Blue Spirit mask, lacking a lower jaw but still unmistakable, that somehow managed to hide the figures eyes. The menace he figured the cloaked figure was probably meant to bring was reduced do to the sheer oddness and by estimation the figure was less than five feet tall. "…And who is this?" He asked as the figure approached and he once against sent out his bloodbending to take ahold of this person to with an exaggerated pointing towards them.

He found nothing.

Hiding his panic he sent his bloodbending farther, feeling the beats of his servants and the familiar weak beat of His Mother. Still nothing came from this dark figure as it approached him silently.

"The outfit is for everyone's benefit trust me." His mysterious guest smiled. The dark figure darted forward and placed a gloved hand on his face, leaving him disturbed for a moment before the world flashed white and he let out a startled gasp as he suddenly found the world around him shift and change. He floated through the air above what looked like Jupiter, strings of energy trailing off of his body out into space.

"Do you wish for power?" A voice asked him, distant, monotone, and almost mechanical.

"What?!" He cried out as the world changed around him again, this time sending him above some strange metal temple with dizzying heights and angles.

"Accept my contract and you will have the power to make all of your desires come true. I will give you Geass." The voice offered as men and women began to emerge from the temple and look up at him.

"Yes! I accept I accept!" He cried. "Just get me out of here!" The world came screeching back and suddenly he was back in his office, falling out his chair and scrambling to his feet. "What the fuck was that!" He shouted, switching his gaze between the two of them.

"Use your Geass." The original mysterious guest instructed. "I'm told it's as easy and instinctual as breathing." Tarrlok didn't know what the hell she was talking about but something clicked inside him and reached out to him. He reached out to it and soon his ears were filled with faint voices from all directions. "Good. I wonder what he has? No matter." The mysterious stranger said but after the first comment her mouth didn't move.

'Were… were those her thoughts?' He wondered, tossing the ludicrous idea around as he looked out his window and saw the faint reflection of his face, a burning red sigil in his left eye. He could hear other voices distantly, recognizing them as members of his staff thinking about family, work, or stealing some of his silverware. He didn't hear anything from the figure in black though.

"Now then, do we have a deal?" She asked with a smile as her thoughts turned to the sniper she had posted across the street from the window he was currently standing at. Insurance in case rejected the offer after they gave him his gift.

"Yes." Tarrlok answered firmly as he easily extinguished his Geass, his path clear to him. "Yes we do."

I like these side stories. I don't have to worry about meeting my 10,000 word minimum per chapter. And this only took two days! After nearly three months of sitting on my ass. How about that Book 3 though? Suddenly Anguta being an Airbender isn't so special or the Earth Kingdom people rebelling against their rulers. Still got the tyrannical and imperialist U.R.N. thing though. Also guns and a bunch of other shit coming. And does anyone think I should bother to change the map to fit the actual U.R.N. territory now that we actually know what it is? It's going to require a minor rewriting because it puts Senlin Village in U.R.N. territory and it would be odd for the U.R.N. military (or was it?!) to destroy their own village. Still evil but very odd.

Now let's move on before someone starts wondering why a Geass bearing agent decided the best course of action was to hide in a wall. That scene went through some (many) changes, at one point Tarrlok was fighting wolves and polar bear dogs the militia had starved and let loose on them. At some point I had to accept the ridiculous.

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