Avatar:Dues

"What will you do now? [...] Knowing that your every step will have consequences?"

— Kyoshi asks Xu Ping An.

Template:Chapter infobox"Dues" is the twenty-seventh chapter of The Rise of Kyoshi.

Overview

Xu Ping An burns Kyoshi's hands severely with lightning and she falls to the ground. He continues to shoot lightning at her until she enters the Avatar State, killing him before the other daofei run away.

Synopsis

Kyoshi feels intense pain through her spine and her blood stings horribly. Her hands feel numb after the skin was burnt off them. She collapses and her headdress goes tumbling as her jaw hits the lei tai platform. She hears Rangi scream and sees the bewildered horror on the Flying Opera Company members' faces. Xu Ping An walks over to her, blocking her view, as she thinks he lightningbent. Kyoshi has never heard about that skill before, but she considers it the only explanation for what he just did. She tries getting up again but falls back on the ground.

She remembers that, back in Hujiang, Wong said that these fights were over when the winner decided it. Xu shoots another bolt of lightning in her back before he kicks her in the shoulder, saying it does not have to be this way, and he electrocutes her two more times. He continues telling her she had his respect and threw it away for nothing, and that he noticed she looked at him with condemnation since he had been freed, but that men like him are beyond judgment and that he does as he pleases, while the world has to be submissive and grateful. He shoots another bolt at her, but none of his strikes hurt her as much as the first. Kyoshi pretends to be dead as she comes to her senses and thinks that the chainmail in her jacket helped her survive. Xu hits her with a continuous stream of lightning and Rangi cries for him to stop. Kyoshi hears the helplessness in her voice, thinking that Rangi's compassion for her is a weakness.

The Avatar is angered, believing she put that weakness in her and is determined to make the Yellow Neck leader pay for making Rangi suffer. She grabs Xu's ankle and he squeals in pain as the sudden movement makes him accidentally electrocute himself. Kyoshi knocks him down and feels her eyes leaking light, entering the Avatar State. She wants to dash him against the ground or twist him between her hands but decides his men need to see him punished by the elements themselves. She switches her grip to his collar and airbends a tornado that takes them high into the sky, blowing the daofei back. She sets fire to the stalks of rice around the criminals and their clothes catch fire. Xu shields his eyes from her strong inner light and struggles to breathe.

Kyoshi speaks, her voice synchronized with those of previous Avatars, telling him that there is always someone who stands above him in judgment. At first, she thinks she has become a puppet of her past lives, but she has a feeling of powerful control and realizes they can lend her insight but have not taken over. She also acknowledges her past lives disapprove of what she is doing, but she ignores them, asking Xu what he will do now, knowing that all his actions have consequences. The Avatar sees terror in his eyes but also a deep outrage that is even stronger. He breathes fire at her, but she redirects it to the side with a tilt of her head. She determines that he is a firebender and briefly thinks about his ability to generate lightning before she decides to deliver justice to him. Kyoshi thinks that people like Te Sihung and Xu are shortsighted parasites who gnaw at the very structures they exploit for power and survival and that they do not realize they do not exist through their merits, but through the generous gift of life they were given. She opens her hand and lets him fall, killing him.

As she touches down, she notices the flames are gone and the outlaws are scattered as Mok and a few others had dragged off Xu's body. Wai stares at Kyoshi reverently and she tells him to go. He salutes her with the specific daofei gesture and bows deeply, before leaving along with the remaining men, mostly members of the Kang Shen sect. Rangi and the members of the Flying Opera Company rise into view from a shelter Wong has bent for them below the surface. Kyoshi tells them that she had been fully aware while entering the Avatar State and killing Xu. Her friends stay stiff and hesitant before her. She asks them not to do this, but she feels her knees buckle. Kyoshi tries to stay awake as Rangi sees her hands, horrified. Kyoshi holds her hands in front of her face and notices they have been riddled with burns from where the lightning struck her. Kirima shouts they need to get a healer and Kyoshi's vision blurs. Lek comes close to her and tries to hold her up and, after less than two minutes, she passes out from the pain.

Production notes

Series continuity

• Xu Ping An accidently triggers the Avatar State in Kyoshi when he mentally tortures her love interest, Rangi, similar to how General Fong intentionally triggered the Avatar State in Aang during "The Avatar State" by endangering his love interest, Katara.
• Kyoshi's decision to override the wishes of many of her past lives while in the Avatar State and kill her enemy, Xu Ping An, contrasts with Aang's choice in "Sozin's Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang" to override the judgment of many of his past lives while in the Avatar State and spare his enemy, Ozai.

Character revelations

• Despite only triggering it for the third time, Kyoshi is able to exercise a level of awareness and control over the Avatar State typically indicative of mastery.