A New Addition (Private)

Chapter One: A New Addition.

Part 1

Such a dry, crusty feeling within his hand as he gently closed his fingers on the dry leaf that settled itself in his palm. The crunch and cracks of it quietly humming in his ear.
He opened his gloved hand and let the pieces that the leaf became lightly fall towards the ground.
From this vantage point he was able to watch the remains fall to the ground from the tree branch that he sat on. The branch with it's moss covered surface provided quite a nice cushion. This forest was more like a jungle. It's tree's were tall, with some being bent and crocked as they tried to maneuver themselves to reach the little bit of sun they could get that squeezed through the umbrella of branches and tree's that demanded the sun for themselves. Many animal's scavenged the area, looking for food or running from those trying to obtain it.

Jack Carver...

As he sat there, he recalled his own memories of when he was in a similar situation like this.
The fear, the uncertainty, the confusion, all the images and idea's you run through your head. You contemplate all the possibility's, trying to figure out what could go wrong, what you can do right, but most all, what you should do. However sadly what most think about is all the things that can go wrong.

After finally finishing their mission, the squad was finally able to enjoy this very brief rest. Although the same couldn't be said for Kye, the man who would be feeling all the things Carver was thinking of.
Carver's light blue eye's stared off into the distance, he felt he could see his boy from here even though all that was in front of him was another tree and the ground it rose from.
Although that was all that was there, he in fact saw his boy.
Laguna was his name, a name that he and his wife Terra agreed on back when they were much happier together. Back when the site of each other came with a smile.

Laguna...He's laughing, his feet pushing down into the sand as he ran across the beach, going straight for the water like it was an ocean of gold. It was as if it was the first he had seen of water, and instead of seeing it as a large beast, he treated it like it was one of those teddy bears he enjoyed as he ran towards the incoming current with his arms wide open as though he was issuing a challenge to the ocean itself.
So fearless he always was, always laughing, and in constant joy no matter what lay in front of him. If anyone else were to take life with such an attitude you would find many jealous parties that only wished life could be lived without such stress.

Such fond memories weren't they?

Yet as he watched, he slowly remembered the truth.

The ocean slowly began to turn red, and the sand slowly vanishing. Underneath it instead was hardwood flooring. The red ocean let out a small splash towards Laguna that hit him in the chest. The impact caused the boy to lose his footing and stumble to the ground on his back.
Carver felt a wave of nausea come from his chest, he turned his eye's away from the site, only to catch a glimpse of his right hand, which tightly held his own knife. The tip and base was covered with blood. This site followed up with a powerful strained feeling on his right arm, as though he was trying to pull his knife back, or away from something, even though he was arm was actually just resting on his knee.

He looked back up to where he saw Laguna last, and he saw the living room of his house. A man with a dark purple hood stood in the center with a big smile on his face. Beside his leg was a boy that was covered with his own blood that was laying lifeless on the ground while being slightly covered by the darkness that the house was under.

"Carver..." The man said quietly in a deep and unsettling voice that felt like it was trying to bore it's way into Carver's brain.
Carver's eye's were fixed on the boy's body.
He felt a deep hole settle itself in the pit of his stomach, and a chill across his arms.
"Caaaarver" He called out again.
Carver felt his hand grip his bloody knife tighter. A ringing began to grow in his ears. He could here the hooded man say his name again yet it was drowned out by the ringing.

"Hey Carver! You okay?" A woman's voice called out from underneath him.
Carver's shook his head and suddenly saw the tree he was looking at again as though he just snapped out of a vision.
Still feeling a small sense of panic he looked at his hand, yet he was not holding his knife anymore. He reached behind and felt it in it's holster.
He turned his head back to the tree, staring off into space again.
"Yeah...Yeah I'm fine!" He called out after his long pause. He looked around the tree he was sitting in for a moment before he grabbed one of the branches to pull himself up on his feet. He jumped down from the tree, his one hand grabbing one of the branch's to catch himself from falling to fast. He used the momentum that caused his legs to go upward to let go of the branch and perform a back flip before landing on the ground and not too far from the woman who called him.
He landed on one knee so once he stood up he saw her approaching him.
"Hey Eva" He said as he took a step forward.
"Kye wants to talk to you" She told him while motioned her hand behind her.

Eva Shepard
The medic of the squad, she let her long black hair flow freely this time. No doubt that she was the medic, in fact she basically brought Carver back to life after being clinically dead for a couple minutes. She also is great with psychology and in helping with the squads mental health. She must have just been talking with Kye about this current situation.
"He doing alright?"
"He's hiding it, but he nervous, I'm worried about him" She told Carver as she folding one arm across her chest and hand on on her chin.
Carver looked over to where the rest of the squad was for a moment.
"I'm not really sure what I could do to help, I mean know what he's going through but..." He paused as he wasn't really sure what to say. He never was too good with words or feelings.
Eva smiled slightly at his reaction.
"Just go over there, you'll be fine" She told him before lightly touching his shoulder with her hand.
Carver looked away from her for a moment, remembering Laguna again.
"Yeah..."
He looked back up at her as she looked up at him. Her purple eye's bringing a comforting gaze with them. They were enough to tell Carver to go already and talk to Kye.
"Okay I'm going" He said with a short sigh before beginning to walk over to where the squad.
Eva nodded her head to him as he began walking away.
She followed shortly after to join the rest of the squad as they waited.

(Part 1 end, Part two coming up next)

Part 2

As Carver walked through up a small hill to a wider expanse of the forest on a flatter ground where the rest of the squad was.

"Luna need to learn to be quicker!" A deep, booming voice called out with a smile.

Kuabara Volgin, the 8 ft 3 behemoth of a man with the flaming red hair. A fire bender who's clothes were reminiscent of a roman centurion mixed with fire bender armor.
Holding a smaller girl by the wrist he held up off the ground.
"Put me down you over grown gorrilla!" She demanded as she squirmed around, trying to break the giants grip over her thin wrist.
Luna Valentine was the young, aspiring student of the group, learning a little something from everyone. Her tenacity was always inspiring to the rest of the group.
"Hahahaha!! I put you down then you try again" He told her before opening his hand and letting her down to the ground on her feet. Once landing, she put her fists back, as Kuabara took his massive hands that were more like paws and stood like a boxer.

Continuing to walk past them, Carver saw Roth a little farther away from Kuabara and Luna.

Roth Larsen, sword in hand in and a stern look of focus. The swordsmen of the group, a fire bender with a love for blades and a family he holds close. He continued to swing his sword downwards as he waited, however upon seeing Carver walking past him to get to Kye, he turned his eye's to the squad leader.
"Carver" He said to get the man's attention before walking up to him.
Carver turned his head to Roth, his eye's opening up slightly as he turned his attention to the swordsmen.
"Huh?"
"We'll be seeing our new addition soon?"
"Yeah I just gotta have a word with Kye about it"
"Think you can handle it?" Roth asked with a small tone of concern, he was Carver's closed friend. While the squad as a whole shared a bond, Roth was the first man to be added to Carver's group and serve as second in command. For this, Carver and Roth have been through a lot together, and naturally they knew each other rather well.
All Roth had to see was the look on Carver's face, it was enough to tell him that the leader was unsure of how to handle this.
"The man wants to talk, I can't really let him down" He replied.
Roth took one hand off his sword and made a fist to lightly hit the side of Carver's big shoulder.
"You'll be fine" He said before turning his head away from Carver and going back to his sword practice.
"Thanks" He replied with an unsure expression followed by a nod of his head.

Continuing to walk forward, he had to walk up a small hill in the forest before he found an all black figure in a hood that was sitting on what looked like an abandoned and wrecked rock structure that may have once stood tall as a rock cave which was likely earth bended some time ago. The structure itself was about 10 feet high an inside was a dome with an old table and a chair inside, followed by a section where it looked like a bed used to be.
The black figure sat on the roof with one leg hanging down the edge and the other with his knee up and resting his arm on it. He looked to the rest of the forest, appearing to be deep in thought.

Kye Jensen was his name, the man that was the cause for the groups current position in this forest, and why they weren't moving.
Carver looked up and saw him. He turned his head around for a moment to look at the rest of the group where he saw Eva watching him from the distance.
He nodded his head to her before turning to look back at Kye.
Carver was really unsure of himself here. As the Captain he knew had to do something, this was a part of his duty after all. Yet if Eva wasn't able to help him, then Carver wasn't really sure how to go about this. He was never really too good with this kinda stuff.
However he knew better, so with the help of his air bending his bent his knees down and took a mighty leap up, soaring high up into the air and landing on the roof top lightly with his black boots.
Carver uncomfortably shifting the straps attached to his shoulders followed by the bow that was over his shoulder as well. He really felt out of his element here, all the emotional stuff was something he was never good at. It was something his wife had always tried to help with, properly expressing himself. Despite that though, he took this task like it was a mission, and spoke.

"Hey..." Carver said as softly as he could.
Kye turned his head slightly, yet from underneath his hood it was barely noticeable.
He turned his head back and looked down however, lifting up one of his arms to look his hand.
He didn't say anything for a couples seconds. His gloved hand making a tight fist.
"I never asked for this..." He finally said in a quiet, yet lost tone, as though he was confused.
"All the people I've killed, all people I've had to take away from their families, the training, the experiences...The deaths..." Kye explained quietly, keeping his sunglasses on and his gaze hidden from Carver, who just stood and listened.
"I'm not proud of them, but it's what I asked for, it's what I was prepared for. Now though I just...I don't know..." He finished before stopping and looking down.
Carver wasn't really sure what to say, he didn't want to say the wrong thing. Yet he couldn't just say nothing.
"Man...Heh...Lotsa shit happens that we don't ask for. I think we've all learned that the hard way." He remarked, saying it in a very straight forward manner.
"Yeah..." Kye said quietly to himself...
"You know I'm a lot of things...I'm a soldier, a killer, an assassin, but a father? I mean it's not something I don't think I can do" Kye told him, thinking deeply about the child, and running images through his head of him holding the boy in his arms, trying to play with him.
Carver placed two fingers on his eye's and rubbed them, followed by making a quiet sigh.
"Your whatever the hell you wanna be. Sure ya done bad but that doesn't mean you'll do bad at this." Carver commented firmly.
He took a few steps closer to Kye.
"Being a father can be a pain in the ass at times but it ain't that hard. All you gotta do is be there for the kid, and be a good example."
"Is that what you did?"
"No...You already know what I did"
"Yeah I know..."
"It doesn't mean you gotta do the same thing though, being a soldier doesn't mean being a bad father" Carver said a little more passionately.
Kye how remained silent.
Carver smiled and laughed for a second.
"Ahehe...Look man, I know it's tough, I really do, but you just gotta get up and get over there. That why we're all here right? You could talk about this shit all day, or you just go over there, see the kid, then figure it out. Cause you ain't gonna know till you see that kids eye's, then you'll know what to do" Carver explained with a slightly harsh tone.
Kye nodded his head, looking out at the forest for a moment beforescooting back to stand up on his feet.
He got up to his feet, took off his hood then turned around to face Carver.
He walked up to him but then turned slightly to walk around him.
"Your not very good at this" Kye told him, referencing Carver's advice.
"But thank you" He finished with before walking back towards the squad.
"Lets go to Ba Sing Sae, I'm tired of sitting around"
Kye walked back towards the squad.
Eva, who stood right beside him as he walked past her gave him a concerned look.
Kye just turned his head to and nodded his head to her, letting her know that he's fine.
She gave out a small smile as his response. The squad knew each other well enough to express themselves without having to say a word.

Carver turned around and followed him.
"Alright you all heard the man!" Carver announced to his squad.
Roth, Kuabara and Luna stopped their training and turned to look at Carver.
"Lets move out!"

They squad began getting their things together, Kye however had everything so he leaned against a near by tree and waited.
Luna made a quick little trot over to Kye. The girl had a big smile on her face with bright blue eye's.
She looked up at Kye.
"So does your kid have a name yet?" She asked gently, very curious as about the answer.
"Enoch"

(Exit)