We hadn't even made it into Ba Sing Se yet, and already we were facing a huge problem. Aang had nervously explained to us the problem that he had encountered; a huge drill that was moving towards the city's outer wall, looking to penetrate it. This could only be the fire nation, and we all knew it. We all quickly made our way to the outer wall, rucksacks hoisted on our backs. Once me made it outside the wall, Toph bent a ledge of earth that raised us to the top of the wall. Upon Aang informing an earth kingdom soldier that he was the Avatar, we were quickly escorted to the man in charge of defending the outer wall. And so, we stood on top of the great outer wall, in front of a small desk where a hunched man with a green cape and pointy moustache sat.
"It is an honour to welcome you to the outer wall, young Avatar," General Sung greeted us. "But your help is not needed,"
"Not needed?" Aang asked him in disbelief.
"Not needed," the man confirmed. "I have the situation under control. I assure you, the fire nation cannot penetrate this wall," he boasted confidently, though I wasn't so sure. He quickly escorted us outside of his office, where we could see the huge drill looming in the distance. "Many have tried to break through it, but none have succeeded,"
"What about General Iroh?" I claimed with a raised eyebrow, and I saw Sung start to become nervous. "He got through,"
"Well, technically, yes. But he was quickly expunged," he told us, though hesitantly. "Nevertheless, that's why the city is named Ba Sing Se. It's the impenetrable city. They don't call it Na Sing Se! That means penetrable city,"
"Yeah, thanks for the tour," Toph said sarcastically with a frown. "But we still got the drill problem,".
"Not for long!" Sung exclaimed with a great confidence. "To stop it, I've sent an elite platoon of earthbenders called the Terra Team,". While Sokka marvelled over the group's name, the rest of us watched the enormous drill travel towards the wall. We watched as many earthbenders, whom presumably were the Terra Team, made attempts to stop the drill. But no matter how much earth they bent, the drill always powered through the attacks, rendering them useless. A moment later the team was attacked by two individuals, though from afar I couldn't see exactly who they were. But whoever they were, they were clearly very skilled fighters, as they managed to take down the entire defence team. Eventually, all of the Terra Team could barely be seen laying on the ground in defeat. General Sung, who had been watching the whole ordeal through a telescope, threw his arms up in defeat.
"We're doomed!" he panicked loudly, though a smack from Sokka quickly quietened him.
"Get a hold of yourself, man!" Sokka told him with frustration.
"Maybe you'd like the Avatar's help now?" Toph said with attitude, and the general defeatedly slid his way over towards Aang.
"Yes please," he muttered in a high-pitched and defeated voice.
"So the question is, how are we going to stop that thing?" Aang asked a few moments later as we all watched the drill travel closer to the outer wall from afar. Instinctively, we all glanced at Sokka. He was usually the person who came up with our plans.
"Why are you all looking at me?" he asked us quizzically.
"You're the idea guy," Aang told him.
"So I'm the only one who could ever come up with a plan?" he complained with an annoyed expression on his face. "That's a lot of pressure,"
"And also the complaining guy," Katara added.
"That part I don't mind," Sokka accepted.
"Well first of all, we need to find out who's behind this attack," I piped up. I figured that if Sokka was going to be unhelpful, then I would have to step up with a plan. "It could be Zhao, Azula, Zuko, or even the fire lord himself who's behind this," I explained, gesturing to the mechanical monster that was in view below.
"Clearly whoever it is, they're skilled fighters," Katara said worriedly. "They managed to take down the entire Terra Team,"
"We should ask the victims at the nearest medical bay," I planned. "They'll have gotten a good look at who attacked them,".
"Hey, I thought I was the idea guy?" Sokka moaned, and I shot him a quick side-eye glance.
And so, we asked General Sung where the nearest medical bay was, and he promptly led us there. It was a large room that was hidden within the outer wall. It was made of sandstone, and had many square windows that let in a great amount of light. There were green hospital beds laid out on the floor, and I noticed that most of them were occupied. We all walked over to a random victim, who lay shirtless on the bed, clearly in discomfort. What was strange, though, was that he looked physically fine. There were no cuts or bruises on his muscular upper body, yet he lay bed-ridden.
"What's wrong with him? He doesn't look injured," General Sung observed while Katara used a stream of water to make a diagnosis. She moved the water over the victim's arm.
"His chi is blocked," she diagnosed. I didn't know a whole lot about chi, but I knew that it was a form of energy that flowed through us, and it was what enabled bending to occur. I had never heard of someone's chi becoming blocked though. "Who did this to you?" Katara interrogated the victim, who groaned in discomfort.
"Two girls ambushed us. One of them hit me with a bunch of quick jabs, and suddenly I couldn't earthbend, and I could barely move. And then she cartwheeled away," he explained regretfully, and instantly the description rang a bell in my mind. Somebody who could take away bending with a few quick jabs, and was good at acrobatics? There was only one person who that could be.
"Ty Lee," I muttered under my breath, and I saw Katara nod. The memory of Ty Lee taking my bending away at that river was still fresh in my mind. 'That must have been chi-blocking' I concluded in my mind.
"She doesn't look dangerous, but she knows the human body and it's weak points," Katara described. "It's like she takes you down from the inside,". All of a sudden, Sokka started randomly exclaiming.
"That's how we're going to take down the drill!" he called out excitedly. "The same way Ty Lee took down all these big earthbenders,"
"By hitting its pressure points!" Toph concluded as the Sokka's plan began to click in our minds.
"We'll take it down from the inside," Aang stated more seriously as he peered out of a nearby window, staring at the drill that was getting closer and closer to the wall with every minute.
"We need to be careful," I told the team wisely. "If Ty Lee is in that drill, the chances are that Azula is, too," I hypothesised. "We're going to need a plan to get inside the drill,"
However, we had little time to come up with our plan. Every minute the drill was getting closer to making contact with the outer wall. The best we could come up with was a plan to get inside of the drill, and hopefully make something up from there. Toph was going to create a large cloud of dust, so that whoever was inside the drill wouldn't be able to see us enter. Once we were inside, we would have to find a way to hit all of the drill's pressure points, hopefully destroying it. Katara suggested that I stay behind, as I was still rehabbing my injured left arm, and wasn't supposed to bend. Luckily, I managed to convince her otherwise, promising that I wouldn't waterbend, which I knew was most likely a lie. Only ten minutes later we were positioned on the ground in front of the drill, a crater shielding us from its view. From within the crater, we could feel the vibrations of the drill moving within the earth around.
"Once I whip up some cover, you're not going to be able to see, so stay close to me," Toph ordered before she jumped out of the crater and got into an earthbending stance. Instantly, the earth around her began to shake, and a huge dust cloud formed on the ground. It was big enough to cover our entire team, so all five of us began running through the dust towards the huge machine. Toph made a hole in the earth, and instructed us to jump in it, which we all did. She then covered it up so that we were underground. As a result, though, we couldn't see a thing. It was pitch black, but we could still feel the vibrations of the drill above us coursing through the earth.
"It's so dark down here, I can't see a thing!" Sokka complained.
"Oh no, what a nightmare!" Toph sarcastically remarked, which shut him up. Then, knowing that we were on limited time, Toph moved the earth around us, before opening up the hole. We all quickly climbed out, and realised that we were now positioned underneath the drill. We could see its metal underbelly and it's many wheels around us. Immediately, Sokka pointed out a section of the drill that was open, allowing us to enter. Aang swiftly jumped into the drill and began giving all of us a hand up so that we all entered the drill. Toph seemed hesitant to enter, though.
"Toph, come on!" Sokka shouted at her impatiently.
"No way am I going into that metal monster. I can't bend in there," Toph refused. "I'll try to slow it down out here,"
"Okay, good luck," Sokka told her, before we all began walking through the thin metal corridors inside of the drill. There were pipes and valves everywhere, but as to where the drill's pressure points were, we had no clue. "I need a plan of this machine. Some schematics that show what the inside looks like. Then we can find it's weak points," Sokka explained.
"Where are we going to get something like that?" Aang asked him curiously, and Sokka immediately drew a short sword and began slicing it against some nearby pipes. Steam began spraying out of the broken pipes, making us all jump back. "What are you doing? Someone's going to hear us!" Aang exclaimed in shock, though Sokka didn't look surprised.
"That's the point!" Sokka explained. "I figure a machine this big needs engineers to run it. And when something breaks-"
"They come to fix it!" Katara finished as Sokka's plan finally made sense. And with that determined, we all hid behind a network of pipes, hidden from view, waiting for an engineer to come. It took a few minutes, but eventually we heard heavy footsteps approaching in the distance. A muscular man with a work belt and a mask came into view, clutching a rolled up sheet in his hand. That must be the blueprint of the drill! Katara quickly left the safety of the pipes were we hiding in, and froze the steam around the engineer, causing him to be trapped in ice and unable to move.
"This'll work, thanks!" Sokka said as he yanked the sheet from the helpless engineers' hand before leading us to a different room. He unrolled the paper, revealing it to indeed be a blueprint of the drill. To me it just looked like a bunch of lines and shapes, but to Sokka it apparently made sense. "It looks like the drill is made up of two main structures. There's the inner mechanism, where we are now, and the outer shell. The inner part and the outer part are connected by these braces. If we cut through them, the entire thing will collapse," he detailed, pointing at the blueprint as he did so.
"Okay, that doesn't seem so bad," I said optimistically.
"The only problem is that the room which has the braces in is sealed behind a locked door," Sokka then added with his hand on his chin as he strategized. "One of us is going to have to go to the control room and open the door,".
"I'll do it," I volunteered as I raised my hand. "I'm not supposed to be waterbending anyway, so it's not like I'll be useful in cutting through the braces,".
"Okay, we'll wait for you to open the door, and then we'll cut through the braces," Sokka planned with a grin.
"Sounds like a plan," I told him with a smirk, before I realised I had no clue where the control room was. "Uhh, how am I going to find the control room, though?" I asked Sokka, who looked at the drill's blueprint once again.
"It's near the front of the drill," he informed me. "Just go that way and you'll find it,".
"Okay, good luck," I told the three of them, before I started sneaking my way towards the front of the drill. It was very difficult not to run into any of the drill's workers in the tight corridors, but somehow I managed not to get caught. Eventually the corridors of the drill started to become wider, and less pipes were noticeable, likely meaning that I was getting closer to the front of the drill. I heard footsteps approaching down the corridor that I was walking in, and I began to panic. Luckily, there was a large, empty wooden crate nearby, likely for storing tools, which I was just small enough to fit inside of. Safely hidden, I stayed motionless while the footsteps began to pass me. But accompanying the sound of the footsteps was also some familiar voices.
"Why haven't we made contact with the wall yet?" I heard a stern, annoyed voice strictly question, and immediately my blood turned ice cold. It was the voice of Princess Azula. I was right, she was inside the drill. That certainly wasn't good news for us. I covered my mouth to mask the sound of my now heavy breathing, and I prayed that she couldn't somehow feel my thumping heartbeat through the crate.
"Maybe there was a design flaw," I heard the bored tone of Mai say to Azula.
"This drill was designed by the best engineers in the fire nation." Azula snapped back. "And it's construction was overlooked with my own eyes. There are no design flaws."
"Maybe we just need to stay patient," I then overheard the bubbly Ty Lee theorise. "They say good things come to those who wait, you know,"
Luckily for me, the three girls must have then turned a corner inside the drill's walls, as they began to go out of earshot. Praying that it was now safe to exit, I gently pushed the top of crate up a slight bit so that I could see the corridor. I breathed a sigh of relief when I noticed that the hallway was clear, and finally left my hiding place in hopes of finding the control room. The drill was built like a labyrinth to those like myself who didn't know the design of its interior. It didn't help that the occasional worker would be lurking in the hallways, causing me to have to hide. I felt like I was running past the same formation of pipes every other minute, but eventually I found a door that had the word 'control' written on it. Figuring that this must be the room I was looking for, I carefully cracked the door open a tiny bit so I could see if the coast was clear. It was not clear. From what I could see, there was at least half a dozen fire nation workers sat at desks, with panels of buttons and switches ahead of them. I cursed under my breath as I realised that my task had now become fundamentally more difficult. I tried my best to formulate a plan in my head, and ultimately decided that I would have to waterbend, even if Katara had strictly instructed me not to. 'Oh well, it's not like she'll find out,' I thought to myself.
I opened the door to the control room slowly and silently so that I could now see the whole room. It was a black, dimly-lit room with many panels spread across the front of the room. Workers sat at desks in front of screens which had diagrams and colours on them, likely to inform them if there was a technical fault within the drill. Fortunately, all of the worker's had their backs to the door, so I was able to quietly enter undetected, gradually closing the door behind me. In a stroke of genius, I bent all of the water in my waterbending pouch so that it flared around in a sort of octopus-tentacle form. Then, carefully using only my right arm, I accurately flung the water so that it hooked around all of the worker's necks. I electrified the water using my firebending abilities, so that it shocked all of the unsuspecting workers. They all spasmed and tried to shout, but the water roped around their necks stopped any noise from escaping. I held the water around all of their necks until they all collapsed onto the floor, unconscious from the electricity that had been sent through their bodies. But they were alive; I didn't want to kill anybody.
Now it was only me who stood conscious in the room, and I hastily looked at all the screens, hoping that I could find out which one would open the required doors. To my demise, the diagrams that were on the screen made absolutely no sense to me, and it was impossible for me to deduce which switch or button would the door that would let the rest of the squad get into the room with the braces so that they could cut through them. The only progress I managed to make was to narrow down the panels to just one that was conveniently labelled 'doors'. But, even then, I was clueless to which button or switch corresponded to the correct door. In a panic, I did the only thing I could think of: hitting every single button and switch. There must have been at least five hundred different buttons and levers, but I hastily pushed all that I could, praying that it would hopefully open up the correct door. However, in my haste, I forgot to acknowledge that pressing every button would definitely alert workers into the control room, as random doors within the drill would now be opening at shutting. Additionally, in my panic, I didn't even hear the sound of the door to the control room opening. It was only when I heard a voice that I froze in shock.
"Hey," a familiar voice spoke from behind me. But, strangely, it wasn't a demanding sort of 'hey', but more of a greeting. I swivelled around instantly, and found myself looking at Ty Lee. Evidently, my random button-pressing had alerted her to the control room, likely on Azula's command. Ty Lee stood in the middle of the control room, a few metres away from me, with a smile on her face.
"Uhh hello," I said to her hesitantly as I gave her an awkward slight wave of my hand.
"What are you doing here?" she asked me, still with a smile on her face. I wasn't sure if she was stupid or just being polite, but assumed it to be the latter as she definitely knew that I was inside the drill so that I could destroy it. Still, it was strange to be polite to your enemy. Nonetheless, I played along while I tried to think of a plan to escape this room. 'Surely I've mashed enough buttons and switches to open the required door' I told myself.
"Umm, I work here now," I told Ty Lee, hoping that perhaps I could fool the girl, as she did seem rather naïve at times. She laughed at my comment, evidently not falling for my obvious lie.
"You're funny," she giggled at me.
"Thanks?" I said, though it came out as more of a question. Her constant friendliness was off-putting considering she was supposed to be my enemy. I tried to bluff my way out of the room so that I could find Sokka, Aang and Katara. "Anyway, I should probably be going. There's, uhh, a fault in the control room," I lied to Ty Lee, saying the first thing that came to mind. She just stood there with a big grin on her face.
"We're in the control room," she informed me with a laugh.
"Right! I meant there's a fault in the, umm... drill room?" I desperately came up with on the spot, though rather unconvincingly. I began to take a step to the left of Ty Lee, hoping to walk around her, though she took a step in that direction, blocking my path.
"Actually, Azula sent me here to stop you," she stated casually with a smile as she got into a fighting position, ready to attack me.
"So you didn't come here just to talk to me? I'm heartbroken," I sarcastically retorted as I also got into a waterbending stance, ready to defend myself. Still, Ty Lee's smile never faltered, and she even winked at me as she responded.
"Are you flirting with me?" she asked with a smirk. Although she clearly said it as a joke, it did concern me that perhaps I was accidentally flirting again. 'I really need to learn how to talk to women' I told myself. Still, I had now stalled for enough time to come up with a plan.
"No, I'm just distracting you," I revealed as I instantly bent some water from my pouch, sending a water whip that roped around her leg. I then tugged on the water whip, causing her to tumble to the ground with a yelp. My injured left arm stung throughout the whole ordeal, but I tried my best to ignore it. Not wanting to miss my opportunity, I started sprinting out of the room so I could finally escape. I knew that Ty Lee was athletic and so would be back on her feet in no time, so I had to act fast. "Thanks for the chat!" I mocked her as I rapidly exited the room.
With little time to spare, I began to run through the walls of the drill, hoping to find a way out. I had done my part, and now I just had to wait for Katara, Sokka and Aang to destroy the drill's braces, causing it to hopefully collapse. But, I knew that Ty Lee would only be a few second behind me, so I had to run through the hallways at top speed. Occasionally I knocked over a worker as I ran past, though they offered little resistance to stop me.
It felt like I was running through the drill's many corridors for a century. Luckily for me, my stamina is very good due to hours of training a day when I was at the Northern Water Tribe. As I ran, I heard an announcement ring throughout the drill, stating that it had made contact with the outer wall of Ba Sing Se. That meant that we didn't have much time to destroy the drill, so I sped up. Eventually, I ran into somebody at full speed, knocking us both to the floor.
"What the hell," I heard the person shout, and I quickly realised it was Sokka! "(Y/N)! It's you!" he exclaimed as we saw each other. I quickly got up and helped him to his feet. I noticed that Katara was stood behind him, but Aang wasn't here.
"I'm being followed, we need to get out of here," I rushed as I gestured towards a hallways. I started running down it, with Katara and Sokka by my side.
"We're being followed as well," Katara told me.
"Don't worry, I saw on the blueprint that there's a slurry pipeline somewhere," Sokka explained as he began to guide us through the drill's halls, likely towards the pipeline.
"A slurry pipeline?" I questioned Sokka with a raised eyebrow as we ran. "Gross," I added.
"It's either that or we get chi-blocked and ambushed with throwing knives," Sokka gave me the ultimatum.
"Yeah, I think I prefer the slurry pipeline," I admitted defeatedly. "Also, where's Aang?" I asked both of them, having noticed that Aang wasn't present.
"There were too many braces to cut through, and they were all too thick," Katara tried to describe to me as we sprinted through the hallways, with Sokka leading the way. "But we've weakened them, so Aang is going to deliver a final blow to the drill,".
At this point we had reached a long, straight corridor that looked to end with a wall. At first glance I began to worry, thinking it was a dead end, but as we travelled down the hallway I saw a large pipe at the end of the corridor. The pipe was covered by a large turning wheel, and there was a sign above it saying 'slurry pipeline'. We had found our way out! Immediately Sokka began trying to crank the running wheel to open the pipe, but it seemed resistant to budge. I helped Sokka with trying to twist the wheel, and with both of our strength, eventually we managed to open the hatch. I peered into the pipe, and saw a river of yellowish water, with chunks of rock floating in it. It looked disgusting, but it wasn't like we had any other choice. However, I began to hear footsteps rapidly running down the hallway, and I glanced down the corridor to see Mai and Ty Lee quickly approaching us. Upon seeing this, I practically pushed Sokka and Katara into the pipeline, hearing them yell and splash below as they hit the murky water. I then also threw myself into the pipe with little hesitation, and I sensed multiple throwing knives barely miss my head as I plummeted into the slurry. Hoping that Mai and Ty Lee wouldn't follow us into the disgusting river of mixed rock and water, I let the current of fluid take me where it was headed, which was hopefully outside of the drill.
The river of slurry took us all throughout the mechanic insides of the drill, but eventually I saw light in the distance, which meant that we were surely about to exit the drill! The river swept down a small chute at the back of the drill, throwing me onto the ground outside. I saw Sokka and Katara already on the ground within a pool of slurry. I felt relief as my backside hit the hard ground; we had finally escaped the drill! But as we looked back up at the waves of slurry being chucked out the back of the drill, I realised that there was little time for celebration, as it appeared that we were still being followed. I saw the familiar pink attire of Ty Lee being thrown out of the back of the drill, though Mai didn't seem to be present anymore. Still covered in a mix of rocky water, I saw Katara bend the river of slurry that had Ty Lee in it, and sent it back up the chute so it was held at the exit of the drill. The river of slurry was held in a ball with force at the exit while Ty Lee desperately struggled to get out.
"Why don't you try blocking my chi now, circus freak?" Katara insulted the trapped girl, who still unsuccessfully tried to escape the ball of slurry.
"Katara keep that up! The pressure will build up in the drill," Sokka began to explain. "Then, when Aang delivers the final blow, it'll be ready to pop!". Sokka was absolutely correct; we had to keep building up the pressure in the drill. But it quickly became apparent that Katara was struggling to hold the large volume of water in the drill. Not only was it a large amount of liquid, but it wasn't pure water, either. The bits of rock and earth inside it made it more difficult to bend, and although Katara was a skilled waterbender, she still didn't have the pure strength that years of training had developed in me.
"It's not pure water," she exclaimed, sweat forming on her forehead from her effort. "(Y/N), I'm going to need you to help me,"
"I thought I was supposed to be healing my arm?" I asked smugly, though Katara didn't seem to be in the mood for jokes. The ball of rocky water that she held up began to slip down the chute once more as Katara battled against gravity to keep it up inside the large machine. If we couldn't keep the water inside the drill, then no pressure would build up, plus we would have to fight Ty Lee.
"You can heal your arm when we get into Ba Sing Se!" she shouted at me, evidently frustrated as she struggled to waterbend. "Now help me!". I gladly got into a waterbending stance and used my right arm to help push the water back inside the drill. With the strength of two waterbenders, even though I was only using one arm, the ball of water easily stayed in place at the exit of the drill. There was no doubt that pressure was once more building up inside the drill. Both myself and Katara stayed put for a few minutes, continuing to hold the water in place while Sokka did his best to encourage us.
"You guys need some help?" we heard Toph say from behind us. Evidently amongst all the commotion, she had turned up. Although, I wasn't exactly sure she could help us as she wasn't a waterbender. Unless...
"Toph, this slurry is a mix of water and earth," explained to her. "See if you can bend it and help us push it into the drill,". Toph followed my instructions and got into an earthbending stance, before pushing her arms towards the drill. My theory was correct; she was able to bend the rocky mixture. Now with three strong benders pushing the slurry, we were able to force it fully within the drill so that the slurry, and Ty Lee with it, was sent back into the pipe system.
"Great! This should add a lot more pressure!" Sokka shouted at us as he stood, mostly uselessly, to our sides. "We just need to wait for Aang to make the final blow!"
Aang, though, was evidently taking a while to deal the final blow. I wasn't sure what was taking so long, but we were holding the slurry within the drill for a whole quarter of an hour. We could feel the vibrations of the drill as it undoubtedly continued to penetrate Ba Sing Se's outer wall. Eventually, though, something happened. There was a loud crashing noise from towards the front of the drill, and the whole machine began to rumble. 'This must be it' I thought to myself. There were loud smashing noises from the front of the drill, which became louder as the drill was destroyed from front to back.
"Here it comes!" Toph shouted, likely being able to feel the full extent of the drill's demise through her feet. The crashing noises got louder as the back of the drill began to implode, and I could see gallons upon gallons of slurry pouring out from the sides of the drill. Luckily, Toph raised a cylinder of earth from beneath us, so that we were positioned metres from the ground, safe from the tsunami of slurry that came pouring out of the back of the drill. I stopped waterbending as I watched poor Ty Lee, who had been stuck in the slurry for a while now, come flying out of the drill and into the flood of slurry. Steam began to flow out of the drill and, a few moments later, the constant vibrations of the machine's drilling stopped. We had done it! The drill had powered down!
Soon after a team of earthbenders came to escort us into the city. They thanked and congratulated us before bringing us into the outer wall. I wanted to mention how Azula, Mai and Ty Lee were likely still somewhere near the drill. But we were all tired, and we wanted to finally get safely into Ba Sing Se, so I didn't mention anything. We were taken to the top of the outer wall, and we all watched the sunset as daytime ended.
"I just wanted to say, good effort out there today, team Avatar!" Sokka enthusiastically said as we watched the sun disappear behind the rock formations in the distance.
"Enough with the team Avatar stuff," Katara scolded him. "No matter how many times you say it, it's not going to catch on,"
"How about 'the boomerang squad'!" Sokka yelled, pulling out his small blue boomerang. "See, it's good because it's got 'Aang' in it. Boomer-Aang!"
"I kind of like that one," Aang kindly told Sokka.
"I prefer Team Avatar," I honestly said to them both.
"Let's talk about this on our way into the city," Katara demanded as we turned away from the sunset and began walking across the outer wall, towards the city. This didn't stop Sokka from coming up with a number of new, different team names. We mostly ignored him, though. We were all tired, but happy to finally have made it to Ba Sing Se all in one piece. Well, mostly in one piece; my left arm still hurt. But we were alive, and that's all that mattered.
Word Count: 5669
(A/N: Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! If you hadn't noticed, the chapters are getting quite a bit longer, which means that they do take a bit more time to write. But I've gotten over my writer's block, so I've been super motivated to write this story recently. The plan is to release a new chapter every 7 to 9 days roughly, but most of them will be longer chapters about 5000 words. Anyways, all this yapping just to say, the next chapter will be released on Wednesday of next week, so I hope to see you all there! I hope life is treating you all well! -JetDragon09)