Earth Bender for the Red Sands Rabaroos.
Words: 1417
Prompts:
Pawn - Thought of as one of the most unimportant pieces in the game, however, if this piece gets across the board, it can upgrade itself to a more valuable piece. Task: Write about someone or something that appears to be unimportant or expendable who proves to be more important than they or other people realize.
Fire Nation Capital
AU Bending
Checkmate
Prologue:
Inferior.
Useless.
A true shame.
Those were the words that Fire Lord Ozai had decided to use most often in his rhetoric against non-benders, and those benders who were anything other than fire benders.
The people with mixed blood had it the worst of all. Their lineages muddled Fire Nation roots and mixed the destined superior and inferior gene pools together, ruining them for eternity.
The Hundred Year War ushered in an era of prosperity within the Fire Nation and its new colonies, but for other nations and villages, the sick outnumbered the poor and their numbers dwindled, their wealth disappeared and their homes became easier targets for the Fire Nation to conquer.
The Fire Nation would continue to expand until they controlled the world.
The Earth Kingdom would have none of that.
Present:
Azula longed for a time she had only vaguely remembered, a time when she was treated with respect. A time when she could play chess with her father, where she would often test her strategic wit. Her favorite piece was the pawn, the most underestimated piece on the board.
But somehow, no matter how many times she put him in check, he always would come back and leave her in a checkmate.
For a while, he cultivated that part of her. Her strategic mind, even at such a young age, was unmatched. She was born for strategy, raised in it.
And it was all gone in an instant.
The day she discovered her bending, she didn't know what to do. She had heard stories of mixed blood individuals, but never considered she might be one of them.
Oh, how she wished things were different.
Having been cast off as soon as she was discovered to be an earth bender, thus not pure Fire Nation lineage like her brother, she worked twice as hard as any bender to overcome her "deficiency."
She supposed she should count herself lucky she wasn't outright killed, and allowed to continue to live in exile, but with strict instructions of Fire Nation officials to not reveal her birthright so that the fragile new Nation did not know their supposedly deceased Fire Nation princess was a living, breathing earth bender.
It was a pity her own father didn't even think it necessary to be the one to tell her the living arrangements.
Rumors had started as soon as she arrived at the Earth Kingdom colony. Her unwavering eyes and dark smile had people on edge from the start, and fuelled more rumors about her being eerily similar to the Fire Nation princess. But these "peasants," as her father had called them, did not actually know what the child had looked like, and the most they could do was speculate that this new stranger could be the supposedly dead princess.
But they weren't peasants. Because they were just like her: cast-offs.
When she was approached by the Earth Kingdom Army, she wasn't surprised. She had learned around town that the Earth Kingdom was mounting an attack against her father's palace with the assistance of the Avatar in exactly one year. On that day, the Day of Black Sun, the Fire Nation would be at its weakest.
She was more than eager to participate in his destruction.
She had been preparing for this day. Years and years of exile had allowed her not only to become an incredible bender with her natural prowess, but had given her time to develop military strategy. Reading constantly, she studied the ways wars were waged, what had worked, and what hadn't. She trained herself to become superior to any seasoned general.
Her intimate knowledge of the capital made her an invaluable asset.
And her anger at her father made her the deadliest weapon.
Every day, she met with the generals of the Earth Kingdom Army, recalling the details she could remember about the guard rotations, the palace interior, absolutely anything that would be useful for the Army in order to bring her a halt to her father's reign.
She knew that her father wasn't one to change his routine, even with such a liability living in exile. He saw it as a challenge, and honestly he probably thought it a challenge for her.
Oh, how he'd laugh if she still was unable to bring him down, even having known so much about him and the palace.
The day before the attack, they moved within striking distance of the Fire Nation Capital.
She decided to gather intelligence, since she still looked Fire Nation, and after years of exile, no one would recognize her anyway.
Blending in was easy, and she found herself wandering the surrounding area just as she had remembered it.
Tomorrow was going to be a big day.
Father is going to see how much his little girl has grown up.
It didn't take long for the troops to gain a strong footing and infiltrate the walls of the palace. They moved with ease, following tunnels and secret entrances that she had memorized as a child.
Before she realized it, they were within her old chambers.
Her bedroom hadn't changed much, although it seemed now to be a guest bedroom, with most of her personal touches strangely absent.
Wandering through the palace seemed like a distant dream, or a terrible case of déjà vu.
She entered her father's war room alone, where he sat behind a wall of fire.
For years she planned what she would say to him, but as she locked eyes, she momentarily faltered. He didn't look any different, and somehow her anger wasn't as strong as the hurt she was feeling.
She breathed in, remembering her training, both as a young supposed fire bender, and as an actual earth bender. Some routines never change. Azula stared into her father's eyes, calm and unmoving like the earth she bent.
"The time is now, father, I challenge you to an Agni Kai."
"An Agni Kai? Ha, you can't even bend fire; Agni would never…"
She attacked without warning, hurling a piece of earth at the throne where he sat. Quickly dodging, he sent columns of fire towards the young girl he had once called his daughter.
"Not even letting the ritual begin? Classic earth peasant…" He cackled, taunting her.
They fought in an elegant dance. For every attack Ozai threw, Azula dodged, and vice versa. They were fairly equally matched in their elements, and the fight continued to drag on and Azula sent more and more pieces of earth towards the Fire Lord.
He finally hit her from behind, sending her hurling forwards, feeling the blisters forming already over her skin from the massive amount of heat. She stood quickly, bending dirt onto the wound, before continuing her own barrage.
Both benders were getting worn; the battle raged on for many hours, and Azula was beginning to feel the fatigue that only constant exertion would bring.
She continued to fight through his fury. Ozai had always been one of the most exceptional fire benders she had ever witnessed. He had to be in order to have a strong hold within his kingdom. But it still took a toll. He had begun to fly, bending fire beneath his feet to create another dynamic to his extraordinary ability. But, he had limits, and often had to push off from different surfaces to maintain his flurry of attacks. She had an idea, watching him bounce surface to surface, and saw an opening within his stance where she could trap his feet within earth.
Ozai fell. He actually fell flat on his face, where Azula trapped one of his hands. She sauntered over to him, pretending to be bored, but in reality felt extraordinarily nervous for what she was about to do. She cocked her head, looking down at him, while bending a sizeable piece of earth beside her and moving it towards his head.
For the first time, he looked scared as he looked up at her with a boulder above him, seconds from dropping it. He pleaded, "Azula?"
She thought for a second, and relaxed. He saw this as an opportunity, and moved away in an attempt to attack her. She was prepared for this, though, and had him encapsulated within rock within seconds. He struggled, but knew it was too late. He had lost, and in his anger, breathed fire from his nostrils.
She stood tall, and slowly leaned into his ear to whisper, "Checkmate, Father."