“Well, good riddance,” Harlan snorted and Aaron’s eyes flashed crimson.

“Don’t talk about her like that!”

“Calm yourself, Aaron!” Wang barked out. “Remember what we discussed.”

Aaron took a long breath and faced the phantoms. “You’re right Uncle. Would you do the honor of explaining?”

Wang’s disembodied voice explained what had transpired. How their Father had fought them all, how members of the white lotus nearly perished doing so, and how Dopi had bravely sacrificed herself to save the Avatar.

“Where is the Avatar now?” Yara spoke for the first time since the boys arrived, and Ren tensed.

“He’s safe and recovering,” Wang spoke up.

“As are you, it would seem,” Yara observed.

“Ever perceptive, Yara,” Wang drawled. “But you know our father, he’s never pulled his punches, not when he trained us and certainly not now.”

“Don’t bother asking, Wang,” Harlan said, cutting through the small talk. He wasn’t one for dancing around the truth. “We won’t go against him, plain and simple. We already had this conversation before you showed up.”

“Then, you do realize he will be going for Samir or Mark next?” Wang pointed out. “They have far more potential than the Avatar does, and he’ll be facing people who can barely see him much less defend against him.

“I would imagine they’d be unable to stop him even if they knew he was coming,” Harlan shrugged. “Letting him puppet those monsters won’t be the worst thing in the world. After everything they’ve done, spirit knows they deserve it.”

“And what of the very powerful, possibly malevolent assholes that are pulling their strings?” Aaron asked, giving voice to Ren’s main concern. Grandfather himself had cautioned against harming them too badly. He’d intended to leave mutilation and murdering to the travelers themselves.

“Controlling is not quite killing them, now, is it?” Harlan smirked and Aaron snapped.

“Semantics will be the last thing on their minds when they come for us. And you’re missing the point. Grandfather is not thinking clearly. We need to drag him back to the spirit world and end the war ourselves before he puts us in even more danger.”

Harlan’s face twisted. “Mind your tongue. You forget yourself, Aaron. Your Grandfather—”

“Murdered thousands of spirits to accumulate power that he’s hardly used,” Aaron cut him off. “He’s nearly as powerful as the Avatar. Why has he waited until now to descend and take action? If he wanted to, he could’ve put an end to this war a long time ago. The man is only concerned about himself. This war was never about—”

“Enough!” It was Ren who raised his voice this time. “You will show your uncle the respect he deserves. Am I clear!”

Aaron’s mouth snapped close, his eyes burning with a look that did not mask his anger one bit.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

This was the most outspoken Ren had ever seen his son. The death of the spirit must’ve dealt a strong blow to him. He mourned her like he’d known her for years. Yet, they’d only recently met.

“Look,” Wang spoke up. “All we’re saying is that the old man is playing a dangerous game here, and the world is going to suffer for it.”

“Of course, that need not happen, not if Father has his first choice readily available to him,” Yara pointed out.

“What are you suggesting?” Ren asked.

“I think we can all agree that we cannot kill our grandfather,” Yara said. “If he dies, the moon spirit and several others disappear with him, and that is not good for anybody. So, instead of fighting him, why not let him take control of the Avatar and do as he pleases? When he recovers, he’ll be nigh unstoppable anyway.”

Harlan burst out into a wild laugh. “A solid plan if I’ve ever heard one.”

Ren and Wang shared a disturbed look, but it certainly got them thinking.

“We’re not trading the Avatar’s life,” Aaron said. “His life is not ours to barter with. And the consequences for possessing the traveler's body could be just as bad as stealing the Avatar’s body.”

“He’s done it before and the world did not end,” Yara pointed out.

“Yes, but that hardly means something will not change eventually,” Aaron said.

“We’re standing on thin ice here,” Wang said. “And the consequences of failing are too many to list. At the very least, let’s remove the travelers from the board by bringing them for their fated duel or whatever.”

Ren nodded and rubbed his chin, thinking out loud “That seems reasonable. At the very least, they’ll be gone, then we can focus on Father.”

“Yeah, I am not doing that,” Harlan said, his thumb looped around his thick belt. “Everything I’ve heard so far is speculation. Until I have looked him in the eyes and spoken to him, I’m not betraying my own father.”

“You heard everything we said, right,” Aaron stepped forward, frustration clear on his face. “If Grandfather could've meditated into the human world all along, that means he let Samir kill th ocean spirit. He orchestrated the single worst thing since Sozin's comet. He's worse than Sozin ever was!”

“He didn't force that little psychopath, Samir, to kill the fish,” Harlan folded his arms. "Now, you've resorted to plain lies."

“You're ignorant if you think he's not somehow responsible for everything that is happening,” Aaron scoffed. “And you have to make your choice here and now. You can't give him another chance to explain away his crimes.”

“That’s enough out of you," Harlan said. "I'll decide who I listen to and ignore."

“You know he thinks you’re all failures?” Aaron said with a certain wildness in his eyes.

Everyone turned to him.

“What are you yapping on about?” Harlan frowned in confusion.n

“I saw it with my own eyes,” Aaron said. “In his words, you’re not enough, not nearly.” He went on to narrate the memories he’d seen.

They did Ren did not take it especially. "You let an Ancient into your spirit?”

Yara looked like she was ready to murder somebody. “If an ancient spirit wanted to touch his spirit, he would've hardly had a choice in the matter, but it doesn't make any of what he said any less true," she scowled. "That senile old monster. He wants to turn my grandchildren into breeders. I won’t let that happen. Not again.”

“It’s the way of things,” Harlan said with a hint of doubt in his voice. “Dad did it, and so did we. It’s our responsibility to repopulate the Air Nation. You know this.”

“How many sons and daughters do you have, Harlan?” Yara demanded. Harlan avoided her eyes. “Can you even remember their faces, their names? I can. I remember every single son and daughter I gave up to the orphanage because they were not ‘special’ enough.”

Harlan’s voice softened. “Yara. He could be lying.”

“He’s not,” she said. “And you know my family is my life.”

Harlan’s face turned complicated as he regarded every person present. All it took was one revelation, and the balance of power shifted. Aaron racked his brain for something to say to win over Harlan, but nothing came to mind.

“We just want to get him back to where he belongs,” Wang said. “I spoke to him, and I share his fears too, but taking over the Avatar's body is not the only way to protect us."

Harlan took a long steadying breath before he spoke, with his head held high. “The old man has been fighting this war longer than we’ve been alive. The least you could do is look him in the eye when you turn your back on him.