5. When its Time To Move On (1/2)

sorry this took a little longer then usual. classes started up and this chapter ended up being way longer then i planed. so think of this like two chapter, and maybe that will make up for the wait.

enjoy!

"...there will be no earthbending. anyone found bending will be taken away. however, as long as you pay your taxes and follow the rules, your life will stay the same. you will soon find out that living under the fire nation is the only way to live." the well groomed man said, rolling up the scroll he was reading from.

one of the many soldiers had a flame in his hand and was bending it threatenly. it hasn't even been a full day and already they were annexing the city. vidya would have been more impress if it wasn't due to how many times they have done this and if it wasn't her village. as it was, the ten-year-old didn't know what to feel.

there was a lot of kids crying, and parents trying their best to calm them. everyone was forced out of their homes and workplaces to meet in the town square to hear the new rules. vidya was still with hua, who had a hand on her shoulder.

she hasn't seen li-an or cheng, which was worrying.

cheng was out fighting, and lost. vidya didn't see any prisoners, so she has no idea if cheng was even still alive. cheng isn't someone who would give up or surrender, odds are...

vidya quickly cut off that thought. there will be time to mourn later. if it was even needed.

"come on kid, i'll walk you home." hua said, and only then did vidya notice that everyone was leaving.

they didn't talk as they walked out of the main part of town, now looking like a ghost town from the fires that were finally out. it probably wasn't as bad as it could have been. there wasn't a lot of resistance when they came, but that might have been because anyone able to fight, was in the fight.

hopefully this won't last long.

the town is way to passionate to remain under the fire nation rule for long. vidya think once a month or two passed people will be less afread and fight back.

maybe she will even help.

"kid, i know what you are thinking, but please mind yourself." hua said once vidya house was visible, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"don't worry. i can wait." vidya said, not even bothering to deny it.

hua is going to be one of the first people to rebel after all.

"what about your mom? what is she going to do once you get hurt, because you will if you keep going on about this."

"i don't think she would care that much." vidya said without thinking.

"don't say that. you're mom and dad love you." hua said and vidya felt bad.

"i didn't mean to say that. still, thanks. i'll see you tomorrow." vidya said before taking off before hua could say anything else.

li-an probably did love vidya, but it was so different then the motherly love she could remember. it wasn't fair that vidya compare the two, but it was a subconscious thing.

and yet i don't have that problem with dad and my first dad.

vidya shock that thought away from her mind, before giving the door a knock and opeing it.

"i'm back." vidya called out, waiting in the doorway for someone to respond.

for anyone to respond.

the house looked the same, but it was empty. dishes were left to dry, food from their garden was still in the basket, a

oom was lying on the ground. probably fallen from its position by the back door. besides that, the house was completely normal.

a stark contrast to outside.

"hello? anyone here?" vidya asked as she turned away from the living area and down the hall that lead to the bedrooms.

vidya was just hoping that cheng would be with li-an, hugging it out. even when she heard crying coming from her parent's room.

"hey, can i come in?" vidya asked, staring at the door.

the crying continued, and vidya awkwardly shifted from one foot to the other as she debated what to do. vidya isn't one who likes to be comforted when crying, but li-an might be. and shouldn't vidya want to help her mother?

finally, she pushed the door open.

it creaked on its hinges, but still li-an didn't stop. she was on the floor next to the bed and nightstand, hunched over with a picture in her lap. vidya couldn't see it from her position, but she still knew what it was. a family painting they commissioned from one of li-an's friends. li-an wanted them to sit with cheng behind her and vidya standing next to her, but somewhere along the way cheng picked her up and vidya was hanging upside down from his neck like a necklace. li-an got them to stop, but the artist ended up drawing that scene insead.

the picture was been on the nightstand ever since.

"mom?"

li-an looked up, and vidya wished she didn't say anything. her eyes were red and puffy from crying, and vidya knew nothing good was going to be coming out of her lips.

"h-he's gone. they... he's just gone." li-an got out before starting to cry all over again.

vidya just stood there, in the doorway, looking at her mother who was falling apart.

is dad really...

vidya was out of the house before she realized she was running. it was a stupid thing to do, since there would be fire nation soldiers patrolling the village now, but vidya kept running. she ran until she got to the base of the mountain before pausing a moment, and started climbing. there might have been a few time where vidya jumped a little too high, or too far, but it manly looked like she was an extreme climber.

vidya only stopped once she reached the graveyard.

what am i even doing here? it's not like they wouldn't have given us his body back.

still

eathing heavily, vidya walked in. it seems that either the fire nation doesn't care about the graveyard or doesn't know about it because it was the same as it ever was.

the flowers from the last time vidya was where were gone, but that was because they weren't in season. even from this far away, vidya could still see smoke coming from the village, from the soldiers who were making examples of what happens if you disobey.

it's sick.

vidya ended up sitting there until the sun was setting, not even realizing there were tears falling.

time seems to just drag on as people pretended everything was normal.

li-an was quite. when they eat dinner every night, there was less and less small talk until it was just the two eating in silence. vidya had no idea what to do. she wasn't a therapist, she never even graduated high school before dieing! vidya did end up talking to her mother's friends, to let them know li-an wasn't handling the grief that well.

there just wasn't much she could do, and vidya found herself spending less and less time at home.

vidya continued working at the blacksmith, and honestly the only difference was the increase of ship parts they had to make. vidya hardly even saw the soldiers after the first month. she knew they were there, but vidya was still young enough that she didn't have to worry about taxes, and hua refused to have her work with the customers unless they were regulars.

probably for the best. she did take some acting classes, but vidya wasn't sure what she would do if she had to be nice to a soldier.

vidya also tried asking what the plan was, because there had to be one. first resistance happen as soon as people feel a little safe, but restricted. that might even be why there aren't any visible soldiers; they might be waiting for it to happen.

in the end, every time she tried finding out, hua would tell vidya to take a

eak.

it was beyond annoying, but at least vidya made good work on her inventions. some of it needed to wait until vidya can come up with an efficient enough generator for electricity, but she had fun reinventing some of the stuff that was so basic in her old world. one of her biggest inventions is a weird combination of the cotton gin and the combine harvester that uses the wheels to general electricity to help move it. it still needs a ostrich-horse to get it started, but after more than a year of testing, it seems to be working.

besides that vidya has made a lot of little inventions. a wind-up generator that can light a 'light bulb'. then there was the sextant, but vidya was told that was already invented. by the fire nation, which makes a lot of since since they have a big navel presents and their ships are made of iron which means that a normal compass wouldn't work.

"i guess i could try making a gyro compass." vidya mumbled to herself.

that would take a while since it also needed to generate electricity by spinning, and she would have to figure out the rotation of this planet. vidya had no idea if this was a copy of earth or just another planet, and the gyro compass wouldn't work if her math was slightly off.

"vidya, come over here." hua called out, and vidya stood up from the work table that slowly has become hers.

"yes?"

"why are you so interested in joining the resistance?"

"oh, so there is one." vidya said, smiling at the complete 'done' look hua had.

"you're ten. you shouldn't be interesting in this."

"i'm eleven and age is just a number. i live here, so why wouldn't i want to try making things better." vidya said, and she does understand what hua was saying.

if she was a normal kid, vidya would agree. but she isn't, and vidya feel like she needs to do something.

"you aren't going to let this drop are you."

"no, but i can make a compromise. why if i just help with the simply stuff? like organization and passing information?" vidya suggested.

"just carrying notes. no, no notes. just word of mouth, and i need you to be extra careful, one misstep and i'm making sure you move in with that smarty uncle of yours."

"sound good to me!" vidya said with a smile and thumbs up.

there was no way hua would be able to get vidya passage there. if zei who lives there and in the middle ring hasn't, how would a small village blacksmith get it? not to mention vidya wasn't planning on getting caught.

she was going full on assassin creed on this. only with no killing, which was how she played it anyways because she was not very good at the whole countering thing in that game.

"this isn't a joke." hua reminded her, but they both knew that vidya was just putting up a front.

"what do you want me to do?" vidya asked with a mock salute that had hua shaking her head.

but vidya still saw the small smile on her teacher's lips.

"go check the windows, i'll tell you in the back."

vidya slipped out of the house and bolted up the side of the adjacent house without a sound. it was probably the most useful thing vidya realized you could do: use airbending to make your footsteps completely silent. it also helped with her climbing and jumping, but being able to land like a cat really made vidya feel like she was a ninja.

a ninja that was the carrier for a revolution.

they have had a few false starts over the years, and a few more earthbenders have been sent away. everyone either worked the mines or farms, with a lot of the local markets and shops being replaced by rich fire nations who wanted to live by the sea.

more often they were just left there to rot.

it wasn't all bad though. vidya knows that there have been a few family that have been able to get out of the village and meet up with another group of referees. it was no sure thing that they would be safe, but not everyone can hind their bending for the rest of their lives.

vidya makes sure any airbend she does could be passed off as luck or physical ability. at this point, it was second nature. almost as easy as writing or reading, where you don't even notice the effort put into it. however, vidya also knows what she has been doing is very specific. when it comes to fighting, vidya still uses earthbending forms and techniques, only modifying it to fit her needs.

more or less it becomes something like a sonic punch. it looks impressive when vidya goes up to the graveyard to practice, but she hasn't tried it on a human or another animal yet. it very well might just be a way for vidya to distract before she gets the hell out of dough.

moving her bag to the side, vidya leaped to the other roof, not even pausing in her steps.

this time vidya wasn't carrying a love letter or extra rations. it was finally time to start their push back, and hua trusted vidya to be the one to pass out the weapons. this was the third night, and there wasn't a long list of people who could be trusted anymore. it was bound to happen, as times get harder but not for everyone. hope was being lost, and vidya couldn't really blame them.

they were in the middle of fire nation territory which means there is enemies everywhere and no allies. however that has been the case for years according to hua, shen hei has always had to be self-reliant.

when vidya got to the house that was really more like a farm stable, she hanged off the side before dropping. the puff of dust from her landing was the only mark that she arrived.

"miss. yu? xiao xue yu? are you there?" vidya called out as loudly as she dared.

it was completely dark, not even the moon out as it was a new moon. curfew was as sundown, so there was no way vidya would be able to talk herself out if she was found, but this was also the last one.

there is no set time, no one even knows everyone on the list besides hua and vidya (and she wasn't sure if she was the only one passing out the weapons). hua would give word when the moment was right, and everyone had to be ready.

"oh vidya? how are you my dear."

vidya smiled slightly at the old women.