Reborn In Water || ATLA

Fire It Up

The Northern Air Temple - Fin

"Cause when I fire it up I feel like serenity." - Disturbed

🌊 🌋 🔥 🌪

"You make weapons for the Fire Nation?" Sokka questioned the mechanist, inches from the normally eccentric man's face. The mechanist said nothing, he continued to stare at the ground.

"Explain all this!" Teo demanded. Truthfully he was the angriest of them all, and the most confused. How could his father - the only family Teo had - be making weapons for a dictator? He didn't want to believe it but the proof was staring him right in the eye. "Now!"

"It was about a year after we moved here." The mechanist finally spoke up. "Fire Nation soldiers found our settlement. You were too young to remember this Teo, they were going to destroy everything, burn it all to the ground. I pleaded with them, I begged them to spare us. They asked what I had to offer. I offered my services. You must understand, I did this for you!"

Katara looked on as Teo turned his back on his father. As disturbed as she was, she couldn't say she blamed the mechanist. This world was filled with war, and people were doing whatever they had to just to survive. When Teo said nothing, the mechanist left the group of young teens standing alone in the room filled with weapons of horror.

Aelita needed answers and she couldn't wait any longer. After Teo had calmed down enough she recruited him and Aang both to go with her to confront the mechanist. They found him working on a model balloon in his office with his door cracked open. He looked so defeated that the Akira had to remind herself to try and be understanding.

"When are they coming next?" Aelita asked. She had spent the last hour combing the sanctuary studying the weapons before her. Some were basic; metal scorpions that could send massive bolts flying through the air at deadly speeds with even more deadly accuracy. Others were things she had never seen before nor understood. Those were the items she had been terrified of falling into Ozai's hands. She couldn't let that happen.

"Soon." The mechanist sighed. The candle on his desk popped six times as the wick burned lower. "Very soon."

"You can't give them more weapons," Aang said. Teo nodded in agreeance.

"If I don't give them what they want they will destroy this place!"

"If you do give them what they want they'll destroy the world." Aelita countered.

The balloon model the mechanist had been working on caught fire and fell to the ground. The man quickly began stamping it out, eyes glued to the flames.

"How can I be proud of you when your inventions are being used for murder?" Asked Teo. The question nearly broke his father but no one noticed how much it shook the Akira as well.

She knew Ozai was a horrible, evil man. She knew the Fire Nation had done awful things under the rule of him and his predecessors. But still, it made her heart hurt whenever she heard the word 'murder.' Her people were used like hitmen to carry out heinous acts of cruelty and violence. Her father himself took part in it. There had been a time when she fought against his accusations of treason with gumption but the more she saw how this war affected the rest of the world, the more she was conflicted and confused. Did she secretly hope her father had turned against Ozai? She brushed off her thoughts and turned her attention back to the scene before her.

"I need some time to think." The mechanist said as he ran a hand through his balding hair. Aang moved to argue when a ball in the corner of the office began to ring. The mechanist paled. "You need to leave!" He said pointing towards the door. "Go!"