Grandfather swished his hand forward with a snarl and a bolt of pure spiritual energy speared towards Mark. Luckily, he launched himself to the side, fast enough, alongside his floating metal armor.
“You dare harm me! I will stomp you to dust just like I did the other traveler. Your kind doesn’t belong here.”
“Pot calling the kettle black,” Mark scoffed whilst yanking his arm to the left. Grandfather suddenly pitched sideways, his eyes widening in surprise. Aaron was equally surprised until he noticed the cause of the unnatural control. A metal bit of shrapnel was halfway through Paku’s bicep. Mark wrapped the metal around Paku’s arm and used it to manipulate him.
Unwilling to let the opportunity pass him by, Aaron surged forth and struck his Grandfather in the chest with a wind palm, but instead of using an open hand, he opted for a closed fist, augmenting the technique.
Paku's host spat blood and roared as he tried to retaliate, but Mark yanked him to the side, leaving him open for Aaron to continue attacking.
Aaron followed up with three more wind-enhanced punches and then five more. In between each pause, Mark sent more metal bits stabbing into Paku to limit his movement.
Fed up with being manhandled, Paku let out a fierce roar that dispelled all of the mist with a sudden gust and shook the entire battlefield. Aaron barely held on, digging his fingers into a pillar of stone beside him.
He discharged what was left of his spirit energy in another laser that superheated the metal, searing it straight into Paku’s skin.
The attack put an abrupt end to Paku's outburst, forcing the ancient Phantom to his knees. He had a startled look in his eyes like he didn’t believe they’d managed to injure him this badly.
With his Chi on its last legs, Aaron advanced, even as he fell out of Chi reinforcement, his blade raised high, scream ripping from his throat.
Paku didn’t notice his advance until it was nearly too late. His eyes widened in sudden horror as the blade stopped inches from his throat.
“In the end, you couldn’t do it, could you? You couldn’t kill your own family.”
Aaron growled in frustration, but it was for a different reason than the old man expected. He’d swung intending to take the Old man’s head off. Somebody had just stopped him before the swing connected.
Mark.
He stood inches away, his hand vibrating with effort as he pitched it against everything that Aaron was.
Without the boy needing to say anything, Aaron knew why he’d done it.
‘It always came down to winning with him, didn't it.’
Aaron understood his reason, but he was beyond caring. Paku had killed his father and Uncle. Mark’s wellbeing was the last thing on his mind.
His blade vibrated in place as he pitched all of his strength against the traveler’s mind. Realizing he wasn’t going to win, Aaron abandoned it, sheathing the length of his arm in the wind as he formed a stinger to finish the old man, once and for all.
But a ripple of energy swept forward in every direction, and suddenly Aaron felt a deep indescribable pain. His blood stilled, his muscles spasmed and jerked with unnatural movement, and his bone grated.
“I seemed to have underestimated you,” Paku said with a strained voice. “I thought I could fight you off while I invaded the foreign system, but it seems even the traveler’s body has its limits. I had to devote even more of my attention to you, which means breaking through will only take that much longer,” he breathed. "You've cost me time I cannot get back, but on the bright side, I can now control the blood that runs through your veins.”
Aaron heard Mark whisper behind him, his voice jittery. “Blood bending.”
“With you both gone, I can give this my all. Admittedly, this hasn’t gone how I wanted, but the beauty of it all is that I can start again. Maybe this time with a new family who appreciate how important my work is.”
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With a sudden jerk, both Aaron and Mark came marching forward, their movement gangly and pain-wrought.
With a grunt of effort, Paku pulled one of his arms free of the metal prison Mark had stuck him in and conjured a ball of fire in his palm.
“I really am sorry, Aaron,” he said with a strained voice. “I really wished you could’ve seen things my way.”
As he pointed the ball of Fire at Aaron, a few things happened at once. Aaron's mind panicked, but only for a moment before it went into overdrive, his sub-minds not far behind. Gathering every inch of Chi running through him, he forcefully jerked them into motion, filling every inch of his muscle with energy, as if he was about to activate Chi reinforcement, but instead of doing that, he used it to empower a gust of wind he cast with the force of his three minds. The maneuver allowed him to jerk back control long enough to rapidly close the distance and slam into Grandfather before he could unleash his fire. He latched onto the man’s mind using energy bending.
It was a risky gamble, but it was the only move he had left. Out of Chi and spiritual energy, he needed something to fully occupy his grandfather’s mind to give Mark the chance to land a killing blow, loathe as he was to let the boy get what he wanted.
‘I don’t have to win, I just need to hold his mind back long enough.’
“Is that what you tell yourself,” A voice came from behind him, and suddenly, he and his two sub-minds turned to the source of the voice.
An airbender barely into his teenage years stood before him in his flowing ethereal robes, and beside him stood somebody remarkably similar but far more advanced in age. He looked to be in his mid-twenties.
“You learned parallel processing, haven't you?” Aaron sighed.
The Older of the two tilted his head to the side. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“After all, the memory was ripe for the taking,” the other one completed. “I know most of what you know and everything your uncles and your father did. You might last against me in a battle of the body, but you’re hopelessly outmatched in the arena of the mind. I’ve done this hundreds of times before. Energy bending is based on the principle of understanding oneself. Do you know yourself, Aaron? Because if you don’t, there’s no going back.”
Aaron nervously swallowed. “Then, it’s lucky I have more than one mind, isn’t it?”
“Your funeral,” the Older of the two leaped forward and clashed with the first of Aaron’s two sub-minds.
The sheer pressure from him almost made Aaron crumble entirely, a spiritual gong ringing out as their minds collided.
Aaron muscled back the ancient being's influence as Grandfather’s final words of advice echoed through him like a gong.
‘Do you know yourself?’
To an extent, Aaron did. He was a phantom, sworn to protect the Air Nation, but now that duty had extended to the world, at large. Millions were depending on him, and he could not back down.
His spirit rallied, but it was not nearly powerful enough.
Some parts of him were still missing.
He was a son, now an orphan, someone to carry on the legacy of the brave phantoms who’ve come before him. He was an inheritor!
His will roared, and his spirit ballooned, rebuffing his grandfather’s. Slowly, it dominated it, his blue-white spirit creeping up the body of his grandfather.
He was resolute and certain, but still, it wasn't enough.
He needed to dig deeper.
Finally, he was a student, a teacher, and a friend, finding allies in uncertain places and growing to overcome adversity. Mark was his frenemy and student, and Dopi was his teacher.
And they’d both tell him to win no matter what.
His spirit had reached up to the forearm of his grandfather’s mind when it suddenly grinned, and everything and the roles reversed. Red spirit energy overpowered his and rapidly erased all progress he’d made. Before it overpowered him, however, Aaron linked both of his remaining sub minds, pitching the full weight of all three minds against one of his grandfather’s, and the impossible happened.
Aaron gobbled him up, stunning the second of grandfather’s clones who just stood and stared in observing. The takeover had been so swift he hadn’t had the chance to react.
Aaron continued that theme, pouncing on him even as he let out a surprised yelp. The reaction was the same. Three against one.
Aaron felt a multitude of information rush into his mind, so much his sub minds started to flicker and wane. The first of the two exploded in a multitude of lights, even as Aaron felt his mind soar, reaching new heights.
Yet before it could all collapse, the space they inhabited shuddered, as if the very fabric of reality had become undone and a massive spirit descended from the ether. It was so large; that he’d barely recognized it. Its body was a million splotches of color and energy. In the middle of its chest, Aaron saw the rapidly pixelating body of Samir writhing in utter agony. The rainbow eyes of the entity landed upon him, and every inch of Aaron curdled in fear as a sudden realization struck him.
‘He’s not been taking us seriously this entire time.’
Aaron had thought they'd stood a chance since the beginning, but the unleashed spirit of his grandfather dissuaded him. Aaron let out a blood-curdling scream as a hand reached up from the ether to grab him.
But before that happened, however, it collapsed into a million motes of spirit along with the rest of its body. Belatedly, Aaron recognized the look of pain in its eyes, and he realized that Mark finally made his move. He'd killed Samir, and subsequently his Grandfather.
‘At least he’ll be out of our lives now.’ he would’ve snorted if he wasn’t in so much pain. Aaron felt his entire being collapse as the weight of the unraveling energy slammed into him, and everything exploded in white.
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Functionally, this is the end of volume 1. I've already written some of Volume 2, but I'm still on the fence on whether to post it. I have the Naruto world in mind. If there's enough interest. I might get around to it. Please, point out any corrections you have.