The Sato Legacy

Chapter 20 - The Finale

Ice hammered the earth shield that Riko had erected in an instant. Hakan grunted and stepped forward. Riko gasped as she pushed away the earth.

"What? Already tired? This should be easy then." The waterbender commented.

Riko caught her breath, realizing she was fatigued from the fight with Kenji. She was at a disadvantage. Had this whole thing really been that planned out from the start?

She rolled to dodge more icicles. Hakan was starting to get giddy with joy and haphazardly threw ice at her. She growled and carefully scooped some earth in her hands as she rolled and shot it at the man. He gasped as he was hit in the shoulder and the onslaught paused. Riko jumped up, gasping for air, and pulled the road from the ground. She groaned at the weight of the pavement and moved her hands to slam the earth into the man. He regained his senses just in time to backflip away.

Both of them continued firing earth and water at each other, trying to knock down the other. Riko huffed with anger and fired swift bullets of dirt at him. He bobbed and weaved to dodge the attack and responded with his own arrows of ice. Riko dove away and bended earth to cover her hands.

The two of them gazed at each other, both catching their breaths and preparing their next attacks.

"Has it all been worth it?" Riko asked.

The waterbender quirked an eye at her.

"The crimes, the killing, the ransacking. Has it been worth it? Has it made you feel better about yourself?" Riko continued.

Hakan huffed a quiet laugh. "It has made me feel better, actually, but I'll feel fulfilled when you and the Avatar are dead."

Riko shook her head. "You know there will always been an Avatar, right? Killing him now will only bring another Avatar somewhere else."

"That's exactly the idea. Your family is too powerful. There have been two consecutive Avatars in your family. It has to stop." Hakan explained.

Riko sighed. Even as popular as her family was, young people were forgetting more and more about how their family came to be. "You know we're all adopted, right? None of us are related by blood."

The waterbender stood there momentarily... "Yeah, I know." He spoke solemnly.

"And you still want to do this?" Riko asked.

Hakan nodded. "Yes, I don't care how you came to be the Sato family. I care about how you all represent yourselves and Republic City. You are not doing this city justice and it only made things worse with the next Avatar continuing in your family."

"I guess that's how it going to be then." Riko replied, almost sad.

The waterbender look at her curiously. Riko quickly stomped the ground and earth spikes rose up around Hakan. He gasped in surprised and flailed around. He stopped when he realized that he hadn't been injured, just contained.

He chuckled. "So what's the plan now?! Arrest me? Kill me?! You can't kill me, you're a cop, and to handcuff me you'll have to release these spears."

Riko just stared at him. This fight had gone on long enough. Both of them were injured and bleeding.

"You know, the Avatar can take away people's bending abilities?"

Hakan's face dropped. "You wouldn't... You're gonna take away my bending?! How is that fair?!"

Riko turned her back to him. She didn't know if Tadashi could do it now, but she didn't trust her own strength to be able to contain the waterbender enough to actually arrest him. So she would leave him here until she found reinforcements.