The Soldier, The Spy, and The General

by Caasi

A 17 year old boy from the Fire Nation, Zheng Cao, uncovers a dark secret behind his family's wealth. Determined to be loyal and make change, he enlists in the army, but his life at the front casts many doubts about what his nation has done. At the Siege of Ba Sing Se under the command of Lieutenant General Lu Ten, Cao must make a choice that could change the future of the war.

1. Prologue

I'm using this story to test smaller updates, and a few ideas I've had for a while.

Fate of the Blind

Prologue:

The things we see and the things we don't, I realized there is little to differentiate between either. We, good soldiers, choose in war to close our eyes and shut our hearts but to do so in ignorance is impossible, not when we are the actors of history. We are the bloody ones, which children never study without further instruction after school, and are only revealed to the trusted studious and intellectual man by the State with a deep interest for the atrocities we committed in the name of our homeland, whatever the reason may be.

My name is Zheng Cao, a soldier of the Fire Nation. I am sorry. I cannot apologize for the entire country (and neither I have a right), but such does not impede me from apologizing for myself, for I have done unspeakable things even against my beliefs. I have betrayed myself believing to be on a path of betterment and development and I am sorry for lying to myself.

I grew up in a world where we were convinced of being civilizers, but never explained on why and how. Such methods I learned only in my later years of youth. We killed, we pillaged, we destroyed, and never I saw reconstruction. I know of the colonies, but those are far and few, and certainly away from the front. It has become clear that between our two armies, the land turns scorched and eroded by the common struggle of man to survive, and so it is impossible to find life.

It is the fear of every soldier to see that breathless landscape spread like a disease, and it is what keeps many standing and fighting. To never see the front fall back towards our settlements, and even our islands, no matter how impossible it may seem. Fear is rarely a logical thing.

Lieutenant General Lu Ten taught me that to keep one's logic, an essential part of our spirit, is key to prevail in the battlefield in and outside combat. A good friend in trying times, he made me understand the value of leadership to a cause, and the importance of hope and determination in our acts to reach our ends, even at cost our own beliefs.

It became clear to me, as it was to him, that our nation was in dire need of reform. The glorious war that had been waged for the last 100 years had brought the Earth Kingdom not to greater heights of civilization, but to the deepest ends of its history. There was no glory, no honor, no light. The war had to end.