(General P.O.V)
The streets outside the EUC building were crowded with Rioters. About a hundred thousand, holding up boards with words such as, 'Down with Tyranny.' 'Life is sacred' and 'False gods Die!'
The rioting had happened right after the clip showing the battle royale among the villains in an arena, was played. What was meant to be a symbol for solidarity quickly changed. There were multiple deaths and only a fraction of Villains managed to survive.
The rioters opposed the blatant blood shedding and hoped to prove a point by boycotting the EUC building. On the highest floor of the EUC building, a meeting was happening. Luthor, Tarlock, Zhu Li and a few more high ranking officials were in a heated debate on what to do.
The meeting was interrupted by a sudden flash of light. They all turned their eyes to stare at the thrones placed above the stage.
Luthor stood up.
"Your excellencies."
He nodded towards the new arrivals. Vaatu and Raava. Vaatu had an impassive look on his face as he walked down the stairs, followed closely by Raava who was staring at Terror, standing dutifully behind Luthor. She had on a curious look on her beautiful face.
"Gaea sent us here saying something needed our attention."
Tarlock snorted at Vaatu's opening words.
"Just humanity being humanity."
Luthor and the others looked at him with various expressions on their faces.
"I see."
Vaatu replied.
"Is it something you can handle by yourselves?"
He asked about to leave.
Luthor blinked his eyes, as an easy smile appeared on his face.
"But of course. We were just discussing a few measures."
He said it in a way meant to wave away their concerns.
"Wait."
Raava spoke up, placing a palm on Vaatu's shoulder.
Her brother looked at her with his bored expression. It had been long since he had seen Demeter and it was messing with his mind. Raava told herself to remember to ask Gaea if they could release Vaatu into the Otherworld.
"I'm curious about everything. Gaea would not send us here if it wasn't important."
Luthor's face smoothed out as he adopted a blank expression.
"Of course milady."
He nodded in acceptance.
Vaatu sighed and turned to face the rest.
"Fine. What's the issue."
After telling the both of them what was going on, an overpowered aura erupted out of Vaatu. An aura that dominated everyone present with the exception of Raava.
"How dare you?"
Vaatu asked coldly.
"You humans are ungrateful creatures."
Raava's own aura burst out, counteracting the effects of Vaatu's rage on the officials in the meeting room.
"Vaatu! Brother, calm down!"
Her words went unheeded as Vaatu threw everything away with a shockwave and begun to float towards the wall of the EUC building.
The concrete and stone making up the wall were pulled away by a purple energy that washed out of Vaatu. He floated out of the building and proceeded to take steps in the air.
The rioters shouting and yelling at the base of the building fell silent as the sky above started to rapidly change. Dark ominous clouds had taken over. A cold biting wind begun to blow and their spirits and souls shook with the emergence of a purple light from the sky.
"Hey what's that?"
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One of them asked, pointing a finger at the sky. The purple light pulsed and with each resonance, the very air buzzed with some unseen force.
"Humans, you stand so brazenly with your backs to my Master's inviolable statue."
The voice that spoke was audible and clear, sending the whole courtyard full of people into a silent state.
"With sticks and boards made from the realm, you seek to question your savior, to impose your meager influence upon a force of nature who favored you enough to allow you to live. For that transgression, DIE."
Vaatu finished and raised a hand.
It didn't matter that Death had no influence here, Vaatu was determined to send them all into their soul states, consequences be damned.
The rioting group realized that something bad was about to happen. Something that they couldn't stop. Cue the screams as over a hundred thousand people started shoving and bumping into each other to run away. Many were trampled under foot and the panicked sounds could be heard over miles away.
The purple sphere forming above Vaatu's hands grew bigger and bigger before finally, he cast it down with a soft statement he thought fitting.
"Judgement."
A new sun bloomed behind the rioters. Holly who had been invited to the riot by a friend she had made in the festival a few days ago, could not believe that this was happening. She had only come here to see if she could find traces of her sister. And now...now she was going to die.
Her shadow grew larger and larger as the purple sun from behind neared them. Then a blast of white power appeared in the path of the purple sphere attack. Cracks appeared on the ground as everyone closest to the collision between Raava and Vaatu was bodily thrown away.
Raava exerted a little strength and sent the ball flying away into space. The sphere exploded, pushing away the ominous clouds and dying the sky in a purple color.
"Enough Vaatu."
'That voice.'
Holly pulled herself off the destroyed street and the throngs of moaning people to stare up at their savior. She had on fully white hair now when a few days ago, there were only steaks of white in her red hair. She wore a beautiful pale blue dress that was unique, seeming to reflect light like a mirror. A white light.
"Dove."
Holly muttered in disbelief.
Her sister was alive!
"Dove!"
She screamed out, frantically running towards Raava.
Raava turned upon hearing her previous name. She blinked in surprise upon seeing the person calling her. Guilt and a multitude of other emotions hit her.
"Holly..."
The two sisters looked at each other without speaking for a few long seconds.
Then Raava turned to look towards Vaatu who was flying away, leaving behind a sonic boom. Raava breathed out heavily. Yeah she needed to talk to Gaea and see if Vaatu could be allowed to leave for a short time. But first...
"I'll...come find you. We have a lot to talk about."
She said and then flew away as well, leaving behind a stunned Holly.
(The White Shadow's P.O.V)
I had mastered the basic forms to a high degree. Now I could dance or rather move through the sets without overly upsetting the ice sheet below me.
It had yet to break even after 16 continuous hours of synching my actions to those of the rocking waves and tides below me. After that, I went on to a staple water bending exercise that was not contained in the basic forms but provided a deeper connection with the element.
The concept of push and pull. It was the bedrock of all other motion. A concept that was higher that what I termed as True Harmony. The concept of Flow.
Standing on the same sheet of ice, I exhaled and tried to push the water out with the exhalation of my breath. I sensed no change. The water was still as rowdy and aimless as before. I COULD force it but that would be going against True Harmony. And I felt that using that connection to direct it's movements was better than trying to force it.
I inhaled and imagined the pull. Then exhaled, push. Inhale, pull. Exhale, push. Inhale, pull. Exhale...
I continued with the exercise, focused entirely on succeeding. At the 6th hour, I felt Aqua come to check up on me. She was everything so the only thing I could sense was an influence surrounding the golden clouds and the water around. She watched me as I pulled and pushed, using my hands to mimick the gestures. She left soon after.
Had there been a sun here, it would have already risen, set and risen again. 24 hours later, I was still pulling and pushing. Aqua came to watch me again. This time lingering for far longer.
3 days later, I was still pulling and pushing. It begun with a tentative if curious pull. Then naturally there was a push to compensate for the pull. Then the pull came again and a few minutes later, I almost burst out in laughter at seeing a prompt appear in my vision.
::---------------------::
(Water) Practitioner
-Ice
-
::---------------------::
I was at the rank of a practitioner. I fell out of the cycle of push and pull allowing the towering wave of water formed by my pull to flow back into it's bouyant state smoothly. Water sprayed on my body, wetting my hair slightly.
Despite that, nothing could hide the look of happiness on my face. I breathed in and waved a hand. The water followed my action, roiling to the left in a swirling motion around me. The ice sheet begun to spin with me on top.
I raised my right hand and the water under the ice sheet suddenly rose up throwing the sheet to the sky. I spun in the air and kicked out. The sheet of ice broke apart into sharp spikes that pelted a nearby icecap.
But then I was left suspended in the air about 50 feet up. Another arm motion and a tower of water rose up to receive me. My body plunged into it's depths easily. I kept a small rotation around me while allowing myself to be pulled under, my last view being of the tiny holes I had created with my ice attack on the ice chunk nearby.
Then using the concept of push, the rotation around me instantly changed and I was propelled up to the surface. I broke through the water like a dolphin, a laugh escaping me. This was fun.
And for my grand finale, I focused on my unlocked Subskill, hot air escaping my mouth and fogging. The air around me grew colder as I fell towards the water once more.
When I landed, my foot did not land on water. Cracks spread out on the ice floor owing to the fact that I had lowered the temperature of the water before landing. It spread out with a cold pressure blast. Mist heralding the change of water into ice.
I stood up and surveyed the scene.
"Now we're talking."
Over more than a thousand feet of ice covered my surroundings. I walked around testing the strength by stomping on it. It held up.
A confident smile appeared on my face. Time to handle the next Subskill.