Author's Note: I promise most of my chapters won't be this long; in retrospect, I could've split this into two chapters, but I'm going to gamble that the contents of this chapter will make it worth the weight. If need be, read in stints.
Anywho, Read, Revel (or Regurgitate), and Review. ^_^
Chapter 1: Enemy of the State
"…I swear…I hate being a fugitive," Zhàn groaned, trudging through the thick undergrowth that polluted the ground of Ember Woods.
His mind floated from navigation to pondering. Pondering how freaking hot and horribly humid the air was. Pondering how tired his legs were. Pondering how it felt like sand had been poured down his throat when he breathed. He swallowed what little saliva he could retrieve to relieve the pain, but instead the itch worsened, as if there were ants crawling in his esophagus. He felt a cough coming on and hitched his breath. Now his mind was at war with whether to deal with the searing heat to his throat the cough would bring, or allow himself to be vulnerable to capture due to unconsciousness. Before he could come to a decision, his lungs chose for him. He threw an arm to his mouth as the coughing began.
Zhàn wanted to laugh at this, but with his burning throat, he'd be lucky if he could even gargle out a whisper. Still, it was funny how something as mundane as the cordial mandates of covering his mouth when he coughed survived three years of war, let alone two weeks as a fugitive. Even so, he desperately longed for the cooling relief the river would bring. If only he could find it...
When the coughing stopped, he moved his hand from his mouth to his forehead, brushing aside the tangled mess of hair from his eyes. He frowned at the brown streak that stained his pale skin. It was then that he felt an irritating itch wrap his entire body like a scratchy blanket, reminding him of the need for sanitation as well as hydration.
He forced his mind to refocus on the task of navigation, just in time for a tree root to materialize underfoot. Aching muscles and a tired mind tried to react and soften the fall, but to no avail. His kiss with the ground was intimate indeed. His nose left the Earthbending Goddess a token blood offering for its blessings of gravity.
Zhàn groaned, pushing himself upright with shaky arms, and stared at the small puddle of blood beneath him.
"Well, this is nice. Perhaps a migrant gopher-bear will sniff me out."
Rising himself up on weary legs, all the while bracing himself on the tree that the root was helping to sustain, he actually began to consider this.
"Hmm... Who knows, maybe a gopher-bear would make good company. I'd have a little travel companion, he could help me hunt down food." Zhàn glanced down, eyes latching onto the black dots and scars that littered his armor. "Heck, I'd even have some extra muscle to deal with the soldiers."
It took Zhàn a few minutes to realize just how stupid the proposition was. Ignoring the fact that gopher-bears neither were indigenous to nor migrated through the Fire Nation, such a creature would be about as reliable an ally as a money-strapped civilian.
Zhàn's pace slowed. He couldn't ignore how heavy his legs felt anymore. It was like they were laden with metal braces. It wasn't long before they committed exhausted insubordination, giving out as Zhàn fell onto another tree. The soldier kept enough control of his movements to shift his weight on the tree from his shoulder to his back, and slid down. He knew he couldn't afford to stop. The river wasn't that far away, and he couldn't take the risk of falling asleep again, it was too soon. But his body wouldn't listen to reason.
He pushed his palms into the lids that shielded his twitching eyes, forcing back sleep before he looked back up. Staring at the foliage before him, and the little rabbit that'd decided to hop out in front of him, he let his face fall back into his hands. There were no tears to shed, no screams to bellow, no distracting laughs to hoarsely shove out.
Only a frustrating resignation to a frightening fact.
"I am in way over my head..."
The rabbit, of course, only stared at the strange boy. Upon realizing that the biped giant before him was neither a threat nor amusing, the rabbit hopped away to its own devices. Zhàn only shook his head at this and thought back to the start of his trials,wondering what he'd wondered a hundred times before.
Had he made a huge mistake?
It all began in the woods north of the Fire Nation Capital Plaza. A handful of Earth Kingdom soldiers had managed to escape capture after the failed Black Sun Invasion. It had only taken a couple days for the fugitives to be rounded up by patrols. Being stubborn and unyielding like their element, most of the earthbenders put up a futile fight. Zhàn's troop, however, had a different experience.
At midday, Brigade 144 found one of the earthbenders a few miles north of Caldera. Being outnumbered twelve-to-one, the soldier swiftly surrendered. After placing the man in shackles, the Fire Nation troops searched the surrounding area for any remaining combatants. Zhàn volunteered to stand guard over the prisoner while the others were gone.
Guard duty, while important, was usually a light job, so Zhàn used this time to observe his foe's features. His bodily countenance was nothing abnormal. Tall, broad, muscular, plenty of scars that he seemed to wear like precious medals. His face was weathered, hair gray and beginning to thin. The soldier was certainly older than would be expected.
What was far less expected of the soldier was his attitude. In fact, it was downright foreign. He had an air of peace about himself that simply made no sense. Zhàn had participated in captures before and the prisoners were usually angry, spiteful, some were even depressed and with good reason. Fire Nation prisons were well known for neither their comfort nor their food. Yet this man was calm despite his current state of captivity.
The young soldier couldn't help but find him positively bizarre, and by extension, intriguing. Having grown tired of simply staring, Zhàn decided he wanted to learn more about him.
"So, why did you wuss out of the fight?"
"…You're talking to me?"
The soldier's voice was gruff yet strong, not at all weary or shaky as Zhàn had expected.
"Well, unless there's another earthbender about to crush me with a boulder, I'm pretty sure that I am." The boy chuckled. "So again, why the wuss-out?"
The earthbender, sitting on the ground with his hands and ankles in chains, looked up to the firebender's face. The old man looked annoyed. Zhàn simply smiled, letting him know that he was not going to let up. Eventually, he sighed.
"I suppose when you've been fighting as long as I have, you know which battles aren't worth fighting."
The boy nodded. "You certainly seem seasoned enough," he responded with a playful smirk, leaning against a tree and crossing his arms. "If you don't mind my asking… how long have you been fighting in this war?"
"Do you mind my asking why it matters?" the old man spat. He was certainly justified in his aggression. It's not often that enemy soldiers try to strike up a casual conversation.
"I guess it's not really that important, but the other members of my troop won't be back for at least another twenty minutes, and I personally like to try and converse with my prisoners. Besides, you're shackled up and I have no reason to attack you." Zhàn paused and waited. There was no reply. "It wouldn't hurt to answer my questions – I mean it's not like I'm asking for secret information about the Earth Kingdom or anything. If you feel inclined to spill some info on that, though, go ahead. I'm all ears," Zhàn finished, flashing a playful smirk. The older grunt frowned at this.
"And if I refuse to answer your questions?"
"Then I'll just keep asking you until you talk," Zhán replied, still smirking.
The man sighed in defeat.
"Fine… I'm 72 now, so including this year… I've been serving for 44 years."
The boy's eyes flew open and his jaw practically hit the dirt.
"You're 72 years old?!"
"Yes, I am. Didn't know there was an age limit for soldiers." The man was scowling now.
Jeez, I usually manage to go longer before I piss people off.
"I meant no disrespect." Zhán chuckled as he continued. "It's just, I've never seen a soldier so old on either side of this conflict before. I've seen generals and admirals around your age, but not common grunts."
"Hmm." The soldier's demeanor started to soften, mirroring the young man's earlier smirk. "Well you seem a bit young to be serving. Surely you're at least eighteen?"
"I'm actually two years below that, and I'm on to your tricks, buddy. Don't try to switch roles on me."
Zhàn bit back the want to laugh at how odd the situation was. Here he was, a Fire Nation grunt, having a semi-casual conversation with an old earthbender fugitive. He could only imagine what the other soldiers in his unit would think if they saw this.
"Well, if I'm going to be chatting with a prisoner like this, it's only proper that I know your name. Would you mind sharing?"
"My name is Chén Zhuó," he said bluntly. "Yours?"
"Zhàn Shì." Out of habit, Zhàn bowed to Chén with the Fire Nation hand greeting as he provided the man his name. The man simply sat and stared.
"So, you're sixteen years old and you're serving in the military. Why have I never encountered soldiers this young before?" Chén asked with one brow cocked.
"Actually, there are soldiers as young as thirteen years," Zhán pointed out. "Anyway, it mainly depends on their station. A few soldiers around my age are sent abroad, but most teenage troops are left in the mainland for domestic purposes. Some of us serve as security in prisons and some in local towns in the island chain. A lot of us were called to Caldera not long before the invasion."
"Caldera?"
"The name of our capital. Anywho, I was one of the few teen soldiers to be sent overseas - sort-of an experiment by the high-brass to see how effective we can be theater operations - and my platoon has been fighting in the Earth Kingdom up until this month. Since then, our unit's been a part of Capital Defense… hence why you're in our custody."
The small smile melted away like hot wax. In its place was a stone-flinted stare. Zhàn worked to strengthen his smile, hoping to keep things friendly.
"I'm guessing most of your fighting has occurred in the Earth Kingdom up until the other day, right?"
The earthbender nodded in reply.
"I've spent most of my time in service helping to liberate subjugated Earth Kingdom towns."
"Can't say that's surprising," Zhàn said simply. "I hope I don't sound insensitive in my asking this but...it's hard work trying to clear those out, right?"
"And what makes you think that?" spat the old man
"Well you have to admit, our military is superior to yours in nearly every sense," Zhàn stated matter-of-factly. "For one, we've got a superior means of communication with our messenger hawks; we can relay information in mere hours where your ostrich- horse mounted troops could take days. Our soldiers use armored vehicles where y'all have never had them, at least until yesterday, and we have ironclad ships far superior to any other nation's. Not to mention we have air power now. We can coordinate better than your nation can, and our soldiers all follow one man and one banner. I've lost count of how many jurisdictions and principalities there are in the Earth Kingdom. It's no wonder you all have never-"
"We didn't have the Avatar before to help rally us!" There was that Earth Kingdom indignance that Zhàn was used to. "We may have been divided in the past, but now we now have a banner to march under, a light of hope to guide us!"
Zhàn's eyes sank into the dirt. "Sorry, went farther than I planned on that point..." He looked back to Chén's face. "But still, you have to admit, inspirational figure or not, the Avatar came too late. Had he returned even 25 years ago, we probably would have had a lot more problems than we do now. But as is?" The boy shook his head in honest befuddled empathy. "You'd have an easier time getting a hippo-cow to sit neatly in a clay pot than you would recovering from the Avatar's absence."
Zhàn sighed as the man wordlessly glared at him, his jaw in a painful looking clench. He clearly didn't phrase that well.
"Sorry... I guess what I'm trying to get at is just that..." He sighed again. Cozying into the point wasn't working. "...Who was your commander?"
Chén stared at him, taken aback. "What?"
"I want to know who your commander was. Who did you and your troop take orders from?"
Rivers could be made with how deep the rivets of Chén's skin dug into his forehead.
"You're asking me who my commander is after you tried to fail my morale? After you insulted my country?!"
"I didn't mean to do that," Zhàn protested, suddenly aware of the heat of the afternoon, "I'm just trying to learn about you."
"You're a Fire Nation soldier! What the hell do you want to 'learn about me' for?"
"Because you have something I've been trying to find for the last year," Zhàn proclaimed, his voice rising. Another pause, another sigh. "You and your people just keep fighting. You keep fighting despite the fact that your resistance is completely vain." With every word out of Zhàn's mouth, he could see Chén's face becoming more and more livid, veins began to pop at his temples, and he could almost swear the man's eyes were changing color. Yet the words did not stop. "You keep fighting even when we have Ba Sing Se under our boot and a failed invasion at our backs. Your people are imprisoned, subjugated, and plundered, your land used to fuel our military machine, and yet you still fight on like you have a chance. Why?"
"For our families, you son of a bitch! Our sons and daughters!" Zhàn's throat hitched when he saw the tears starting to well in the veteran's eyes. "We fight because of the nightmares you monsters have inflicted on us! We fight for the families you've destroyed, and the ones that have a glimmer of a chance! We fight for the hope that our children and their children won't have to suffer the terrors that we had to endure!"
Zhàn fell silent at this declaration. He could see the wrenching hurt on Chén's face. His wrinkles were becoming more apparent as his face folded into a hate-filled scowl. The man writhed against his bonds, and Zhàn knew his hands were hungry for his neck. The boy had hit more than just a nerve...
"This isn't just principle. This is personal for you..."
Chén's eyes widened as he stared at Zhàn. Perhaps he'd noticed the puckering of the boy's brows? Perhaps he could see the sympathy the boy had for him? Or maybe he'd just realized how to break his bonds and squish the boy between two hard columns. Whatever he'd noticed, the young soldier had to admit that he was feeling much more vulnerable than he'd bargained for. They both were.
"I'm sorry," he said as he cast his eyes to the dirt at his feet, his voice soft. "I shouldn't have said anything..."
"He was only twelve."
Zhàn looked up to see the tears flowing now.
"My wife and I... We lived in a village near the Shíjiǔ Yin quarry . It's one of the sources for the silver the Earth Kingdom used for our weapons. The quarry and the village were both small. We figured it'd be a safe place to raise a family."
Zhàn stared at Chén, both in earnest interest in the story being told, and in pondering. Shíjiǔ Yin... Where had he heard of that before?
A shuddered sigh hissed from the old man's lips before he continued.
"I never wanted to join the military. All I wanted was for the war to stay away from my family. But the boy... He wanted to be a hero. That boy always daydreamed about how he would save the whole Earth Kingdom from the Fire Nation. Jade actually went through the trouble of finding a seamstress that could make an Earth Kingdom uniform in Niu's size. Imagine the irony when I was drafted into the Earth Kingdom army."
Cracks began to form in Chén's voice.
"The day I was to be shipped out for training, Niu had the proudest grin. 'I know you'll do us proud, Dad,' he said. Just went on and on about how awesome it was to have a dad that was a soldier. He even promised that as soon as he reached the age for it, he'd join the military. Wanted the chance to fight alongside me. Loved his mother, but never cared for the mines..."
The man's voice began to break, finally resembling the stereotype of his old age.
"I don't think we were a mile away from home when we were ambushed. Fire Nation troops killed most of the recruits in the caravan. I managed to get away and ran home to get help..."
Chén had to stop for a moment. He dragged out another long, weathered sigh before he resumed.
"They were fighting off those troops as best as they could. Nui and Jade learned some defensive maneuvers to use in case of cave-ins or other disasters in the mines. Right on the spot, they'd developed this tactic where Nui would put up a wall to shield themselves from fire blasts, then Jade would punch pieces of the wall at the incoming soldiers." Chén barked a chuckle. "By the time I got into the village good, Jade and Nui were gliding on the dirt with one of those shields, Nui punching rocks into soldiers' heads all the while. Boy's aim always amazed me."
Zhàn's eyes bulged slightly. It clicked then, why he remembered this town and the mine. They'd taken out most of the regiment. Reports on the event had said it was a failed ambush on the troops that had led to those casualties... To learn that it'd really been a miner's wife and son...
"I tried to help them, but...if that firebender hadn't stopped me..."
His voice finally trailed off as the hurt flowed out of him like a rushing torrent of water. Tears slid down Chén's face as he fought back sobs.
Zhàn sat there, eyes tearing and throat clamping onto his windpipe. The conversation was venturing far too close to personal territory for him, having long crossed the point of no return for Chén. The boy tried to find words to share his empathy, but only one phrase would come to mind. The most useless phrase one can say to someone who'd lost someone closer to their heart than their ribs.
"I'm sorry for your loss, Chén..."
Of all the phrases he'd ever heard in his life, he hated that one the most. It was a phrase that most people couldn't hope to put weight behind. Most people said it awkwardly, as if one said they'd lost a sick pet rather than a human being. And yet even with his own eyes flooding with tears, Zhàn still felt like he was just like those soulless people, because while Chén was mourning his loss, all he could think about was his own, and how good it felt that someone could somehow relate to him. And it was because of this foolish sense of community between two opposing soldiers that the dumbest thing he ever could have said passed stupidly from his lips.
"So we've both lost someone."
The man was on his feet faster than the boy could blink.
"You little bastard, how dare you try to play down the devastation of the Earth Kingdom! The effects of this war is completely one sided! It was your Fire Lord Sozin who killed off the Air Nomads! It was your Fire Lord Azulon who robbed us of our resources and families of their fathers! It was your Princess Azula who'd slain the Avatar! Don't you dare try to trivialize my loss; you Fire Nation dogs haven't felt anything close to the pain we've endured!"
Further Zhàn tumbled down the hill of selfishness as he shot to his feet to defend his statement, rather than apologize for the indiscretion he knew he'd committed.
"You honestly don't think the Fire Nation has suffered its share of losses?"
"What losses? You've never had your entire civilization exterminated! You've never seen your home, your village, burned to the ground! You've never lost your family! You've never lost anyone!"
"We have all lost people in this war!"
"Like what?!"
"Like Li-" He stopped, his jaw snapping shut. He had promised to never bring her up again. Not to him, not to anyone. But he couldn't - wouldn't - allow that man to believe his previous words to be a lie. He had a name, a face, to use in place of hers. One that brought forth just as much heartbreak.
"Like my dad."
He may have deflected his thoughts, but his emotions had not abated. His heart yet hammered with anger and his lungs were still weighted with despair. Only now did the tears break through the dam, streaming down his face, the image of the Earth Kingdom soldier before him blending with the foliage around him. His fists were balled now, but his voice was lost of aggression. Now, it was pummeled by sorrow.
"He was a general, one of the few that still believed in getting his hands dirty and fighting alongside his troops. He died about a year ago, killed during a failed raid on an Earth Kingdom base in the southwestern region of the continent."
"You mean the assault on Nán Lóu?"
Zhán blinked furiously, looking Chén straight in the eyes. He'd recovered quickly from his release, his expression now stoic.
"How do-"
"It's one of our most praised victories."
Zhán stared at him, looking for some sort of emotion- elation, cruelty, boasting, anything. But Chén showed nothing but rough, jagged rock.
"Continue."
The boy yet stared, still looking something cruelly human. When nothing came, he could only utter one word. "…What?"
"You aren't finished. Continue."
"Continue…with what? What could I possibly tell you?" The aggression returned to the boy's voice in full force. "That the Fire Lord sent him to attack that fortress with an anemic force? That dad was refused any further support when he informed the top brass that his forces weren't enough to lay siege to the base, let alone take it? That Ozai deemed him a disgrace for not being able to take the base with the troops given him? That nobody in the upper brass bothered to even pen a condolence letter to my mother or me? That nobody in my troop even cares?!"
All Zhàn could do was huff as he stared at the man. Again, he looked for an emotion, anything that would make sense coming from a soldier from the country he was raised to hate. Yet, again, there was nothing but solid, craggy rock. The boy was bewildered. How in the world could he even begin to be so calm, so emotionless, after his earlier explosion of rage and his sharing what happened to his family? Nobody from a country that stubborn and prideful could possibly-
That's when it hit him. Chén's hurt, his drive, his resolve and his pride. They all stemmed from the same source. Strange as Zhàn found it, he couldn't help yielding a small smile to this as his anger again fell.
"You may hate me, sir, and I totally understand that. But you know what? Right now, I freaking admire you. I admire you because you have the legacy of your son and wife's courage. What's more, people know about it! The Defiants of Shíjiǔ Yin!" Chén kept himself guarded beneath his scowl, but Zhàn couldn't help smiling, no matter how much it hurt. "People all over the Earth Kingdom may not know who your kid and wife were, but they know of their courage and sacrifice! Even people in the Fire Nation know about it. The official report may not mention the opposing force being a woman and kid, but they did log nearly twenty casualties. I don't know how, but they almost wiped out that regiment. That is what you have, sir, and I know you are nothing short of proud."
The smile fell now.
"That's an honor I don't think I'll ever have. The aristocrats, the high-command... My own platoon... They think Dad's past successes mean nothing because of that failed raid. My family's name is supposedly marred because of him." Tears streamed again as his throat tightened. But he smiled again, and this time it was just a bit easier to hold. "I can't say it doesn't bother me anymore. It'll still be hard to live with what happened and the aftermath of it. But like you know of your family's courage, I know of my father's. I know he did his best to make the situation work, and he did his damnedest to protect his soldiers. The rest of my troop and country might not know what kind of man my father was, but I do. And I can take comfort in that small bit of knowledge."
He saw Chén stand up again, addressing the boy fully as he squared his shoulders to him. Zhàn waited and watched, his face neutral.
Chén's eyes started to soften, but they were far from a cloud's cushion. Rather, they'd smoothened from spiky crags to rounded pillars.
And then, unexpectedly, the earthbender actually smirked.
"I suppose you were right."
The boy couldn't help but smirk in reply.
"No need to rub it in," Zhàn said with a sniffling chuckle.
"Well, you know my life story," Chén started, not missing a beat. "So what was your motivation when you first joined the military?"
Zhàn barked a chuckle. "My joining would be Dad's fault. I was really of him, always have been. Having been retired, he had a lot of stories to share about his exploits. After a while, he actually would quiz me on them - on the strategies and tactics he used to get the job done. Thing he took pride in most was his low casualty rate. He had a saying. 'The sweet tart of victory can only be enjoyed when you have your men to share it with.'"
"'Sweet Tart of Victory?'"
"Dad liked sweets." The boy smiled with the warmth a smile has when snuggled in the warm security of a parent's bossom. "I gained my love for fighting from my constant sparring with him. When he got called back into service, I ended up missing him so much, I joined the army, on the sliver of hope of joining one of the platoons he had command over. In case you're wondering, I wasn't so lucky." A smirk played on his features. "Or maybe I was."
"So basically, you wanted to be the perfect soldier."
"I guess... I just wanted to know I did my father proud."
"Huh. And what went towards that?"
Zhàn's smile dropped as he crossed his arms, his head bowed as he kept his eyes leveled at Chén. "Brigade 144, the group I'm in, played a supporting role in campaign operations. We served under Brigade General Xan Li. Our jobs primarily consisted of disrupting reinforcements, crippling the logistics of superior Earth Kingdom forces, and helping to relieve heavily stressed companies."
Chén simply lifted a brow. "Admirable. And it's been about a year since your father's death?"
Zhàn frowned, nodding hesitantly.
"Then I can't help but wonder... Why are you still here?"
The answer was automatic.
"Because I'm a child of fire. My purpose is to serve my Lord and my country."
Chén snorted. "That sort of crap what they brainwashed you to believe in school? I want the real reason. Why are you so dead on serving a man you hate?"
Zhàn frowned.
"That is the real reason, Chén. I'm a soldier. I joined the military and regardless of my thoughts towards it, I plan to complete my tour of duty."
"I suppose the Fire Nation and higher ups aren't really that big a deal to you then, huh?" Chén asked with a condescending tiit of the head. Zhàn responded in kind as he gave his retort.
"I don't know how things work in the Earth Kingdom, sir, but in the Fire Nation, one doesn't simply storm off and leave the military because they have to serve under someone they don't like. Case in point, your drill instructor from training. Did you ever like him?"
"You really like digging into peoples' lives, don't you? Of course not."
"So then you know where I'm going with this?"
"I'm pretty sure that taking shit from your training officer is leagues below your country's ruler sacrificing men and a brigade general for a failed objective, boy."
"And yet the requirement is the same!" Zhàn barked with frustrated enunciation. "We are soldiers, we serve our leaders! Our captains, our commanders, our generals, our lords! What we think of the mission is of no importance, we just do our jobs! If we die, it's our fault, our responsibility!"
Chén glared at the boy.
"How many times do you have to spout that crap before you go to sleep each night?"
Zhàn scoffed and averted his eyes to a caterpillar climbing on Chén's tree.
Chén shook his head and, for the first time, his expression shifted to something besides nonchalance, anger, hatred, or even snarkiness. The old man still frowned, but it was shallow compared to the earlier valleys that carved his face.
"Kid, you're clearly smart. So why are you acting like any of what you just said holds any weight?"
Zhàn sighed. "I assume you're going to explain the flaw in my thinking?"
"The flaw, boy-"
"Must you call me that?" Zhàn growled.
"Yes, boy." His face flattened again. "The flaw is that it doesn't line up with what you just said two minutes ago. I get playing the part of the perfect soldier. Your father was in the military, you want to do him proud. You think that your doubts and worries aren't valid. But I guarantee you're far from the last soldier to deal with your sacrifice-happy Fire Lord. So why not leave?"
"How many times are you going to ask me that question?!"
"Until you tell me the truth. Who are you trying to protect? Your mother? Siblings?"
"What are you getting at?"
"Family is a natural sacrifice in war, boy. I'm living proof of that."
Zhàn frowned. "I know you have more decency than to suggest-"
"Why not?" The seething hatred, the tart bitterness, it all returned in force to the old man's voice. "I lost my family. My wife and child. Who's to say you can't handle losing the rest of your kin for the sake of your ideals?"
"I am! Perhaps you're some sort of freak who loves that sort of pain, but I am not willing to sacrifice my mother for anything! I will not sacrifice her because of my hatred of the Fire Lord!"
"Then you're a coward."
"The man that surrendered at the drop of a leaf is calling me a coward?!"
The living flint scoffed. "I only surrendered because I knew my luck had run out. But I at least fought for my ideals. You, on the other hand, rant on about how you hate the Fire Lord and his treatment of his soldiers, but you've done a whole lot of nothing about it."
"You want me to leave so badly, why don't you tell me how to do it?!" Zhàn shouted, a deep scowl eating away at his face.
"You get up and walk away," Chén said simply.
"And what about my mother, huh?! What do I do with her, just waltz home and say, 'Hi mom, I just deserted the military! Wanna take a trip to the colonies?' Do you actually understand what you're asking of me?!"
"I'm asking you to do what you know full well is right. If you were as adamant about fulfilling your sacred duty as you've been leading on, you wouldn't have entertained the idea of desertion just now."
"Well, the Earth Kingdom swine has a point, don't he?" a baritone voice proclaimed.
The young soldier's heart leapt straight into his throat and his stomach sank into the dirt. A startled Zhàn jumped to his feet and spun around to see one of his platoon members behind him, tossing glares between he and their captive. At a height of six-feet four-inches, he was a very intimidating presence. His muscles bulged with such volume that Zhàn would constantly tease he could down a tree just by brushing up against it. Zhàn wasn't much for teasing now, of course, as he stared the enraged giant.
"Jián, I… How long have you-" Zhàn stuttered.
"Long enough."
He grabbed Zhán by his throat and pulled the young soldier's face up to his own. Zhàn tried to loosen his neck from the man's choking grip, but it was as pointless as trying to free a mouse from the bone-crushing maw of a snake. With his free hand, fire pouring from it like burning kindling wood, Jián readied for a strike against Zhàn's face. His eyes clamped shut, his breath hitched, ready to suffer the blazing blow, when a voice called out. A voice that Zhàn knew so well. A voice that, for the first time in his career, brought him dread instead of security.
"Stand down, soldier."
The voice was that of his troop captain, Pão Yín. Zhàn tried to turn his head to see his captain, to try and read his face, but Jián's grip kept his neck from rotating.
"Captain," Jián cried in challenge to their superior's command, "this punk has committed treason against the Fire Nation! Surely you aren't-"
"Jián, take the earthbender and go ahead. You'll rendezvous with the remainder of the troop shortly," Captain Pão interrupted, pointing at the earthbender who hadn't moved an inch or made a sound since Jián's entrance. "I will handle the boy. Understand?"
"But captain!" Jián protested.
Captain Pão glared at the man.
"Go. Now."
Yielding to the captain's command, Jián threw Zhán to the ground and roughly grabbed Chén, forcing the man to his feet. He then shoved the fugitive forward as they headed towards the remainder of the troop. Zhàn stared after Chén, desperation weakening the influence of his rationale as he sought the earthbender for help. Instead, Zhàn only received a dull glare. Start to finish, the man was like a rock. Uncaring and unfeeling.
Zhán set his eyes on his captain, seeing him flanked by two of the group's spearmen. The man, already tall, towered over Zhàn as the teen lay paralyzed. His muscular arms were crossed with disappointment.
"Of all people, I would have never expected such treachery from you."
The captain kept his voice level, but his eyes were livid with anger. Zhàn felt like he was being scolded by his father as he stumbled to his feet. There was a heat rising in him, a knot trying again to form in his throat. His entire body itched with heat and sweat.
"Captain, I- I can explain-"
"I don't see what needs explaining," The captain said cooly. "You clearly don't like the policies of our military."
"Captain Pão, I don't- I mean, it's not...let me-"
"By showing opposition to the Fire Nation military, you are turning your back on your country; I remind you that this is an act of treason," the captain said with disturbing ease. "According to military law, I should arrest you on the spot. However, you're so young, and the pride of my unit, so I'll be lenient. Convince me that your faith in the Fire Nation and the Fire Lord is absolute, and this incident will have never happened."
Logic was quick to make its voice known. Of course, take the deal that Pão was offering. It was so simple. Just say that he wasn't thinking straight, that he was delirious from lack of sleep. There was no error in the Fire Nation's goals. The Fire Lord was forever faultless. It was so simple. He just had to say it.
Zhàn sighed in resignation, readying himself to fulfill his captain's demands.
But then his father's face flashed on his eyes. Then Lin's. Other members of his troop that had been lost.
Try as he always did to simply fall in line and follow orders like a good soldier, Zhàn couldn't shake the belief that the Upper Brass didn't see the war like grunts did, its realities, its consequences. For them, the war was simply a particularly stimulating game of Pai Sho, with his father, his friends, his compatriots and captain, he himself, all just pieces on the board.
With shaking legs and a hammering heart, he looked his captain square in the eye. His hope was futile and feeble, but his chance at redemption according to the Captain's terms were already forfeit. All that mattered to Zhàn now was that his mind was still starving for that simple answer.
"How do you do it, Captain?"
The man's only reply was a perked brow and an inquisitive stare.
"Supporting our cause, our superiors, when we know full well that they don't give a damn about us?"
Pão sighed. "We have been over this, boy-"
"I know we have, sir!" Zhàn blurted, his desperation spilling over his captain like hot tea onto an old weathered table. "But I still, for the life of me, cannot understand why we follow the orders of people who cast us away to our deaths like broken dolls!"
"The Fire Lord requires of us our lives to help assure our nation's prosperity," the captain said with grim finality. "Anything less is treason. Something you have yet to convince me you are not guilty of."
Zhàn could only stare at the captain with pleading eyes as he slowly, shakily, slid into a painful defensive stance.
"Sir, please don't do this..."
"This is your own doing." He whipped up his head and shouted the two words that caused the Zhàn's world to crumble like the walls of Ba Sing Se.
"Arrest him."
The soldier sighed. As usual, he felt no more assured of his decision than he did the day he escaped Captain Pão's clutches. The only thing he could think of now was his mother. He loved her so dearly. She was the woman he leaned on for support during those first few months his father was back fighting in the war. The woman that told jokes about their exploits while she and his father dated, the woman who sang him to bed each night.
His father treated her like a gem when he was still around, especially when she found herself knee-deep in propaganda poster drafts. While the man couldn't draw well enough to outclass a three-year-old, he still had an eye for what would appeal to the public, and thus the upper brass who payed her. Unfortunately, it would often take burying the house in parchment before they could agree on a design. Yet jokes and jolly laughter always rode on the paper waves. Many nights, Zhàn would fix the duo tea before he turned in, walking into her mother's study to find the two snuggled on the couch, staring sleepily into each other's eyes. Always such a happy and symbiotic couple, they were. He loved them so much.
Zhàn shook his head, loosening the vice grip of his grief. Picking himself up, he continued his journey through the woods. Rubbing at his red scratchy eyes, he grabbed the map he stole from his captain, gladly shifting his thoughts to pressing matters.
That waterfall should be coming up soon.
The waterfall wasn't Zhán's end objective. In reality, he wanted to reach Heathrow Harbor, the journey to it taking Zhàn to the very northern tip of the Fire Nation. It was fortunate that Agni's Throne was nearby, but it still was out-of-the-way, forcing him to detour to the west of his planned route. It would be an easy task to simply stop by the river, fill his canteen, and get back on his way. The only problem was that his canteen had a hole in it; any water he got at the river would be all he'd have for at least two more days.
He wasn't without his options, of course. He could probably find a way to construct another canteen; perhaps by hollowing out a section of tree or fastening some leaves together nice and tight. Except he sucked at knitting. And as for the tree trunk canteen idea, he'd have to be able to down a tree with a flaming blade, preferably without burning a swath of the forest this time, and even then he'd still need something to carve the hollow compartment with. The knife he did once have was probably still sticking out of that one soldier's neck from the last patrol he'd encountered...
Hmm. A more efficient option would be to ambush a soldier on patrol. If he got lucky and they had a straggler, it'd be an easy kill and an easier score. He'd simply have to be quiet during execution...
Zhan shook his head. Needless details. Right now, he just needed some water in his gullet. Canteen acquisition would have to wait.
Agni's Falls fed the river he was traveling to. It'd been over three years since he'd last seen the falls. Yet as he stumbled forward, he could see it as clear as day. More specifically, as clear as evening. His last memory of the falls was sitting around a campfire as the sun's waning light turned the clear waters to a dazzling golden blaze. It was the last time he took a trip with his mother to the falls before Zhàn was set to be shipped out for training. Perhaps more importantly, it was the first and only time he'd brought his best friend along. Tears welled in Zhàn's eyes as the air pierced with laughter, recalling a ridiculous and theatrical story he'd invented of a faceless dragon, an old firebending midget, and magical spear.
Forcing himself out of his rivere, Zhàn sighed. Where that story had ended with a happy ending in which the midget and dragon joined forces to slay Po, the Destroyer of Squirrels, his story was far too real, and his destiny still uncertain.
Despite his coming back to reality, an image of a cave behind the falls jumped onto Zhàn's vision. It was then that his eyes began to twitch, causing a burst of black to obscure his sight. He quickly jammed his palms into his eyes, as if to push the sleep back into the rear of his mind. When the trees reappeared, Zhàn sighed again. In any other circumstance, that cave would be nothing short of province for him. A place where he could finally rest up, have time to plan out his route to Heathrow; gather up some food to eat and regain his strength.
But in any other case, he wouldn't be petrified of the thought of laying his head down into the crook of his arms.
He could find sleep when he reached Yu Dao.
Zhán staggered on for another half-hour when he finally heard a faint sound. A sound that he still recognized so many years later. In an instant, Zhàn was stumbling in a drunken stagger through the bushes and trees that stood between him and the first drops of water that he'd had in days. Soon, his stumbling gained a level of coherence and he was running, the sluggishness of his limbs melting away beneath the heat of his joy. Wearing the biggest, most ridiculous grin that he'd worn in months, he positively sprinted for the river. Soon, the heavy shadows of the dense forest started to give way to a bright light.
"Thirst quenching goodness! Come to-"
He burst through the line thick line of foliage, practically ready to dive into the torrent of water, when another sight made him stop like he'd hit a metal wall.
"...Papa?"
Not quite his father, though to be fair that would probably bring about the same dumbfounded reaction. Instead, it was another obstacle that fate had decided to slap him with.
Four Fire Nation soldiers were lining the river, and all eyes were on the bedraggled fugitive that'd just rushed in right at them.
Staring at the armor-clad people that looked none-too-happy to see him, Zhàn wanted to bellow very unkind and profanic rantings at the universe for being such a prick. Instead, he opted to simply mutter, "For flame's sake..."
"I knew I'd catch up with you eventually, Zhán."
The young fugitive turned his head to see a familiar sight strolling in from the middle of the clearing.
"Captain Pão, what a pleasure to see you again," Zhán weakly replied with a forced grin. "How have you been since I went on leave?"
Zhán's former superior smirked, joining his group. "I'm doing better than you, obviously. You look like you haven't slept in days."
Zhán crossed his arms as he managed to maintain his grin. "Sleep is for the weak."
So is sanity, he could hear Lin chiding in his head.
Insanity leads to brilliance, my dear, Zhán thought as his grin strengthened briefly.
Zhán studied the soldiers as they approached. One of the soldiers seemed slightly skinnier than Zhán, and the bulges in the chestplate suggested the soldier was female. The long brown hair that draped her shoulders also supplied a hint. Zhàn hated to think stereotypically, but until he saw otherwise, he'd suspect nimbility to be more her preferred tactic over brute strength. Lots of fireballs and quick jabs.
The two guys that flanked her were closer to Zhàn's build and potentially more rounded in their bending skills. Staring at them for a couple seconds, Zhàn realized they were twins. If he wanted to take them out, he'd have to do so at the same time; he couldn't count how many times people went berserk when family members went down.
The fourth soldier could be spotted for miles, even through tired, scratchy eyes. Zhán smirked. Great to see the hippo-cow again.
Realizing he'd just assumed that the three wildcards were firebenders without proper precedence, he eyed them for weapons. Spying none, he assumed his assumption correct.
"You mind introducing me to your new friends? I don't think I know most of these people."
"I suppose I have a few minutes. This here is Cho," Pão pointed towards the female soldier. She was so much shorter than the other men; looked around Lin's age... Not nearly as beautiful, though. "Those are Ran and Shu," he continued, pointing to the two regular looking soldiers. "And of course you remember Jían," finished the captain as he pointed to the muscular fortress of a man.
"Hard to forget an ugly face like that, isn't it? Nice to meet you men…and Jían," Zhán responded tauntingly. He received a bone chilling growl from the large grunt and a furious glare from the girl.
"I take it you'll surrender? I'm sure that even you would agree that you can't fight off – let alone beat – all four of these grunts," suggested the captain.
"I see we're on that again," Zhán retorted with a scoff. With anyone else, this could be interpreted as either a passive suggestion or even a challenge. Yet with Captain Pão, Zhàn knew this was an honest, earnest request. One that the captain should have known he'd never agree to. "You're aware of what happens the second I'm turned in, right?"
"It's not too late, Zhàn. This whole thing can still be fixed," the captain said, wearing a smile that aimed at reassurance. "All you've done so far is desert the army; you haven't hurt anyone yet. We can still explain this away. Your nerves got to you. The earthbender we'd captured somehow played mind games with you. You suffered a bout of insanity."
"That won't work and you know it," Zhàn countered pointedly. "The Fire Lord wouldn't want to keep me on with any of those excuses. Wartime stress is inexcusable. A weak will is unforgivable. Insanity is untreatable. I don't care how you try to spin it, I'm spoiled goods to Ozai, nothing but a broken doll."
The man was quick to drop that ball, only to immediately pick up the next one.
"I know you're worried about your mother, but she's valuable to the Fire Lord. There's still a chance to keep her safe. Just surrender, and I'll make sure nothing happens to her."
"Humor isn't your strong suit, captain," Zhàn replied without even a wiggling smirk. "She assists with wartime propaganda; she makes posters. There are plenty that can perform her job, she's not special or worth saving. And besides that, what would the Fire Lord care about the word of a captain?"
"I have more clout than you do, boy," Captain Pão responded, his tone growing more weathered and impatient. "What do you hope to accomplish with this suicide venture of yours? Some sort of freedom?"
"Anything's better than being a sacrifice to some so-called lord with a limp ego," the boy growled.
"The Fire Lord won't have to bother when I'm done-"
"Jian!" Pão shouted, eyes still locked on Zhàn. The giant fell silent.
"You might not care about your life anymore, but I do," Pão said, his belting voice adopting far too paternal a tone for Zhàn to stand.
"I respect you, sir, but do not act as if you can replace my father."
"I might as well be a second father with the shit I've dealt with from you!" The captain was seething now as he stormed towards Zhàn. "I worked my ass off to make you into the ideal soldier." The veins starting to pop in his face were easy to see with them mere inches from Zhàn's eyes. The boy had to squint his eyes to shield them from the spittle raining on him as he words from his captain pelted him like stones. "With all the wrinkles I've had to crease along the way, you were an experiment on the road to success, a trooper that would have done your father proud! Yet here you've gone and thrown that away! I was right at the doorstep of commander when you ran off!"
A hard pulse went off in Zhàn's throat.
"Well then. Good to know that Lin and I were nothing but an opportunity for your own career advancement." Zhàn didn't know if that was a slip or a deliberate acknowledgement, but it hurt all the same.
Pão's voice grew louder as his anger burned brighter. "You disgraced my name and the name of your family!"
"I no longer have a family to disgrace!"
"And who's fault is that?!"
Zhàn's breath halted in his lungs and his eyes began to wetten. The captain did not relent as more knives shot from his mouth, stabbing Zhàn again and again in the chest.
"You act as if you give a damn about your family, as if you're in mourning for your father's death or that you're concerned for your mother's safety. Yet you decide to desert your country." The captain showed no signs of stopping as Zhàn's face began to crumple. "You are nothing but a disgrace, a selfish ingrate. Don't you dare act like you care about your parents. You tarnished your father's memory and you put your mother on the death pyre the moment you went AWOL!"
Zhàn bowed his head, no longer able to look at his captain as the pressure in his throat crushed his voice.
"You're right. You have no family left. Your father died because of you and your mother died the same. I'm the only thing you have left, boy. I suggest you try to keep what little you can salvage, because once our line is cut, you plummet like a stone into the Boiling Rock."
With tears still streaming, he glared as hard as his quivering face would allow at the captain. His captain. One of the few men for whom he held untellable respect. His father figure when his own had been ripped from him.
He swallowed the lump down his throat. He wanted there to be no doubt in his words.
"Then I guess we're done, Captain." Zhàn said. He forced his face into a flint, all the while another cord was being ripped from his heart. "Do what you must; kill me if you have to. But I will not go with you to the Capitol. Not willingly, and if I can help it, not breathing."
The captain simply stood there, staring with anger set strong in his eyes. And then his expression changed. Zhàn knew the captain had finally given up when he saw the forlorn in his eyes. At the same time, however, he realized where the captain's priorities lie. The small flame of hope that true mercy would be bestowed was put out when the captain turned about-face to his troops and walked away.
"Take him."
"Finally."
If a smile could be both jovial and evil, Jían found a way to pull it off. Zhàn swiped away his tears as his mental switch toggled. His life troubles no longer existed in his mind. The only thing that existed was the giant man charging at him with an emblazoned fist, ready to punch a burnt hole into the boy's face.
If he had time, Zhàn would have scoffed. He ducked down below the blow, following up with a burning punch of his own to Jián's abdominals. He knew it wouldn't do much; his muscle was like wood surrounded by a thin layer of sponge. The blow did what he needed, though, startling Jián and making him stumble back, just in time for a flash of orange to glint in Zhàn's peripheral. Whipping to his right, he quickly deflected the flame to its origins and bounded to his left towards Shu.
The soldier shot two flaming barrages at Zhán to try and slow him down. Evasion of the shots were easy. Swift fists discarded the first batch before Zhàn leaped away from the second. The landing, however, yielded a jolt of pain in his legs and he faltered, sliding and collapsing prostrate on the grass. Zhàn glared at Shu who wisely decided to press the advantage.
"Not that easy," Zhàn growled. The soldier set himself into a spin, the world bending into a blur as fire burned from his heels to increase the speed of the rotation. When he felt like his arms were about to buckle beneath him, he dug his fingers into the grass and flung the fire from his heels towards his assailant.
Shu lept over the band of fire, but Zhàn had anticipated this. He surged to his feet as his opponent went airborne and, with a smirk and a leap, he slammed his knee into Shu's jaw as he came back down. Sending him back into the air by several feet, Zhàn jumped up again, fire pouring from his soles to aid his ascension. He went into a flip as he went airborne and brought his foe back to Earth with a heavy heel to the face.
No sooner had the two landed did Zhán hear footfalls from his right. He looked to see Cho charging in. Zhàn's mind shouted for him to jump back and avoid the girl, but his muscles were burning and slow to obey. He tried to turn towards her and brace, but it was no use. With flaming daggers in her hands, she slammed into Zhàn with crossed arms, the air being shoved from his chest. Zhàn frowned as he saw her smirk on the way down, and grunted from the jolting impact of his back slamming the ground.
"I thought you'd actually be a challenge, the way the Captain talked you up," Cho sneered, her eyes mere inches from his as she pushed her arms onto his throat. Were Zhàn any less of a gentleman, he'd incinerate her pretty face with a shout.
"You shouldn't wrestle with people outside of your weight-class," Zhàn choked in reply.
He managed enough strength to push the girl back, just enough to shove a knee into her stomach. He winced as her face turned from snarky to sickly, the blades held at his neck going out.
"Don't even," he said as he rolled Cho off of him in time for the dry heaving to start.
Zhán shoved himself to his feet and started to back towards the foliage, only to notice Jían and Ran approaching rapidly. His lungs were heaving air in and out so hard he couldn't even scoff at this.
A glint of brightness caught his eye and he glanced to his left. Zhàn nearly went numb seeing its source.
A giant fireball was hurtling straight at him, riding the ground like an basilisk along a lake.
Zhán jumped back, stumbling as the man-sized fireball barely cleared his nose.
A trail of scorched grass bordered by a lane of flames, guided his eyes to the fireball's source. Zhàn blanched.
There stood Shu, shoulders heaving, blood spilling from his nose, and pure hatred glowing in his yellow eyes like a lantern held by a frenzied killer. His legs, however, had yet to move; producing flames that large usually did take a lot out of a person.
Despite the spots on his eyes, he knew that mobile sun was speeding towards the behemoth and the uninjured twin still charging at him. He smirked at this, awaiting the impact. To Zhàn's slight dismay, Ran managed to jump out of the way in time, but Zhàn's smirk yet remained as he dipped into stance again. There was no way that lumbering behemoth was going to dodge that.
The blaze hit.
And then the smirk dropped.
Instead of the ball of fire eating him alive like a sacrifice for Agni, the fire bounced away from him and back towards its origins, deciding that Zhàn would be the one to burn on the alter.
Zhàn's eyes rolled up for only an instant.
The boy quickly hit the dirt as the flame whizzed just inches above his head. He patted out the stray flames in his hair as he staggered to his feet, hissed curses streaming from his mouth as he saw Cho up now, joining the others as they stalked towards him. He shivered, barely standing as he sank again into defensive posture. He glared at the soldiers as they closed in, and glared harder past them to the green of the forest that lie at their backs. He could almost swear he heard the trees mocking him as a stray breeze rustled the leaves.
He was in a very bad position. He was soundly surrounded by soldiers he couldn't pin down. His legs and arms were melting, his chest was exploding, and wait...there were ten of them, now? He had to shake his head to merge the blurs together. All this, and the adrenaline that had kicked in earlier still refused to return.
He could hear Lin's signature condescending snark ringing in his ears.
You know, if you're partial to living, retreat is an option.
Zhàn rolled his eyes. He had to admit, the last time he tried to push an advantage that he didn't have, it, for lack of a more appropriate word, cost him. Dearly. They boy relented.
The entire brigade all went into a full-on charge. His mind refused to provide options, so instinct took over. Zhán punched several fireballs to try and slow their advance, but the wave of black-and-red armor deflected the shots with ease.
They were only fifty feet away, would be on him in seconds; Zhàn needed to even the odds. Now.
His chance came when Ran and Shu, located at the fringes of the band, lept into the air to slam Zhàn into the river that teased at his heels. The soldier saw their pouncing intentions and jumped into a forward roll. He latched his eyes on the remaining two as a splash entered his ears, followed by shouts of panic as the river pulled the soldiers away.
The boy still had to evade Jían and Cho. Without a thought, Zhàn barreled towards Jián. The behemoth grabbed for Zhàn when he was in range, but the fugitive slipped beneath Jián's legs in a slide along the grass.
"Too slow, girly!" Zhàn shouted as he ran for the trees.
Unfortunately, Zhàn forgot to factor in the one person who had the most to gain from claiming him as a bounty.
Just as he was about to escape from the clearing, there was a sudden heat that bit into his ankle. His forward momentum was suddenly, jerkily, disrupted and he fell to the ground with a startled yelp. The force of the fall was largely suffered by a forearm, the pain spreading to his hand and shoulder like wildfire.
Knowing he'd been caught up in some sort of trap, Zhàn yanked at his bindings. His fingers dug into the dirt and his eyes slammed shut, the pain in his ankle worsening as he clawed his way closer to the green foliage. But his captor would have none of that, yanking him back towards the river. He cried out as the pain flared even worse, then yelped again as he was kicked in the ribs by a large boot. Rolling over from the blow, Zhàn's haggard breath died when he saw a flaming whip wrapped around his ankle, and who was on the other end of that snake of fire.
Captain Pão.
"You are frustratingly stubborn," he said with a hateful scowl.
With a flick of the wrist, Pão recalled the whip to his side as Jían and Cho held the fugitive's arms and ankles. The teen growled in pain as Cho roughly gripped his burnt ankle, but this growl turned to a howling scream as the whip crashed down on his abdomen. The intense, searing sensation that came from the whip's impact immediately overtook the pain in the boy's ankle as it radiated from his abdomen throughout his body. He instinctually tried to move his arms to shield himself from another lashing, but the soldier above him kept his arms well restrained. The second strike yielded another cry of anguish as the whip broke through the thin layer of leather that covered his stomach.
A breeze passed over the patch of pasture, and Zhàn's spine froze as the cool air passed over his stomach.
His skin was exposed now.
Agni, please...
A third crack of the whip not only singed his skin, but also drew some blood. The captain cracked the whip down again and again, causing Zhán's screams to grow louder and louder. Soon, the pain was so bad that he was shaking. He could hardly even hear his own screams above the deafening ringing in his ears.
"Surrender and I'll stop," the captain shouted above Zhan's panting.
"S-sh-sh-shut…u-uu-up!" Zhán violently shuddered as his body started to convulse wildly.
Captain Pão growled as he brought the whip down upon Zhán again, the slashing flame digging deeper into his skin. Black burst onto his sight as he screamed again, and his mind began to scramble. He had to stay awake, no matter how bad the pain was! The sleep wasn't worth it; there was no escape or relief in rest!
He thought he heard Pão say something; if he did, he had no clue what it was. All he could do was lay there, writhing as the blows kept coming. Then the darkness approached him, engulfing the river before him, the forest behind, and devouring the grass that lay beneath. Only one chant kept sleep from throwing its veil over Zhàn's eyes.
"No... No, no, no, nooo..." Zhàn murmured as his head pressed into the ground.
The captain spoke again, and this time, Zhàn heard him.
"Very well."
Like an asp rearing up, the whip crawled up above Pão's shoulder. But before it could dive back down to dig its fangs into his flesh again, the whip exploded in a puff of smoke. It was then that everything stopped. The captain stood frozen. Neither Cho nor Jián spoke or shifted. The only movement was Zhàn's violent shivering as the pain continued to eat him alive.
Zhàn strained to try and read his former superior's face, trying to figure out why he'd suddenly stopped attacking. He could barely make out the expression on the man's face, but when it clicked, ice surged up his spine again. He looked like he was staring at a spire of earth that was flying at his head. His eyes bulged in fear, as if he were unable to dodge the shank that would pierce his entire face. For a few seconds, the man stood in frozen hypnosis. Finally, he fell to the ground, revealing a new person behind him.
The sudden wild card was small, petite even. The person was young, if the cloudy silhouette could be of any reliance. Zhàn was barely able to make out colors. The center of the blur was dark, reddish, with light pale skin marking the edges. The black and red had to be troop armor.
Zhàn blinked wildly as he tried to think. Normally soldiers branded some sort of weapon, but the girl didn't seem to have any in her possession. He would've expected firebending then, but he hadn't heard any blasts… But it wasn't out of the question. There were firebenders who specialized in surgical strikes. Most firebending assassins would use a flaming dagger to silently slit or decapitate their targets.
Could they have gone so far as to sic an assassin on him? ...No, that couldn't be it, he had no political or military value, he was just a grunt. A bounty hunter, then? It was possible... But defections were very rare in the Fire Nation, especially in the mainland; it'd make no sense for one to operate there. Besides, he wasn't worth anything. There were more frugal targets-
A surf of pain crashed broke through his distracting thoughts, followed by Jían's voice.
"Did that kid just-"
"I did," a petite voice, a girl's, came from the black-and-red blob. "If you don't want the same thing, you'll let him go!"
Zhàn could've groaned. He would have honestly enjoyed becoming the primary prey of wolf-bats over this.
At least the girl prompted a predictable reaction out of Jián. The behemoth pushed away his grasp of Zhàn's arms and charged at the girl, the way a starved liger might lunge at a rabbit. And like a rabbit, she leapt out of the way of the blood-thirsty strike. Jián went to strike again with an ear-shattering roar, yet the girl, calm and decisive, spun away from the blow and, like a puff of smoke, popped up behind the monster of a man. There was a shocked cry from him as she landed a series of blows on his arm, and Zhàn couldn't help wondering what the deal was. The punches didn't look like they could do anything…
And then Jián's right arm went slack. And were it not secured in a agonized grimace, Zhàn's jaw would have followed suit.
That rabbit...had the fangs of a giant blood-sucking leech...
Another bellow and Jián was charging her again, this time throwing out his good hand to grab her face, flame pouring from his palm. With the slightest leap back, she narrowly avoided the blow, only to retaliate with a series of punches trailing up his arm. Just as it went slack as well, Jián responding with a bewildered stream of curses, the girl slid behind the man, jumped up, and slammed an elbow into the back of his big meaty neck.
Then the giant redwood of a man toppled and fell. All Zhàn could do was stare, the earth rumbling as he hit the ground. And behind him she stood, fists poised and ready to strike again.
"There is no way... A child couldn't have-"
The hands that held Zhàn's legs began to shake and he looked down to see Cho staring at her fallen comrade. He could only see part of her face, but he could still spot the tension, the sneering curl of her lips, the deep dent in her brow.
The shaking stopped and Cho rose to her feet, staring at the girl for the briefest moment before following Jián's lead and charging at her.
Expecting only more of the same, Zhàn contemplated his options again while folding in like a burning piece of parchment. Between Captain Pão and Jián, he wasn't sure if a full two minutes had passed. With the kid as skilled as she was, Cho would be down in mere seconds. If he tried to run, he wouldn't get far. Even if he could get to his feet, he couldn't hope to run away. And as much blood as he was losing, he was likely to faint any minute. Not to mention wherever he went, there was an easy trail to follow.
Once again, his only option was retaliation.
Zhàn rolled onto his side and, with the speed of a wounded turtle, raised himself onto his elbows.
So he was about to be killed by either another soldier, or a blood-sucking rabbit-leech assassin wrapped in human skin. Well, if he had a choice, he'd definately go with the rabbit-leech. Especially if turned out to be an actual rabbit-leech. Then his death would be cool. Painful, frightening, even more crap-inducing than his current predicament, but cool.
There was a series of grunts and Zhàn's eyes jerked towards the sound.
You could've lasted a minute, woman…
There was another grunt. But it was then that Zhàn realized something… He'd heard Cho grunt from hits a few times in the span of their skirmish. The voice was too high in pitch to be her...
He held his breath, trying to force himself to see what was going on. He could only last a second before his breath was forced back out by the pain bursting from his belly. Yet he still tried to stabilize his breathing, air barely reaching his lungs as he strangled his throat. Soon, as he stayed his eyes on the figures ahead of him, the blur started to focus into tangible shapes.
...You're kidding me...
Before him, the girls were in the midst of a dangerous dance. Fire blazed from Cho's fists as the other girl constantly tried to jump, dive, duck, twirl and weave to avoid her attacks. Her attempts at retaliation seemed ineffective. After a failed burst of punches, the girl tried to duck behind Cho to strike her back, but with an intercepting sweep of her foot, the child slammed to the ground, though she quickly jumped up when the soldier punched a fireball at her face.
Zhàn was dumbstruck. Where she'd knocked out the Captain and Jián with such ridiculous ease, Cho countered her strikes like a drill sergeant putting a fresh unruly trainee in his place.
Zhàn frowned, clutching his fingers into the grass as a wave of pain swept on him.
"Screw this."
And the soldier, with all the fire that poured from his stomach, geared back an arm and threw it forward, launching a fireball at the girls. Cho jumped back from the flame's approach, and strangely, perhaps in panic or trying to force an advantage, the girl followed her. Zhàn watched the fireball hopelessly fly towards nothing but open air.
Wonder if a second shot would have better-
Zhàn's thoughts were halted when he saw one of the girls kick the other back toward the flame. There was an agonized shout as the fire collided with the person, and not a second later, another flash of orange materialized in the distance, blasting from the girl who was upright down onto the girl splayed on the grass. The girl jumped up, but another scream yet pierced the air.
Zhàn gawked, his pain forgotten for the briefest time as he realized...
The bounty hunter. He had hit the bounty hunter. That quickly, with one seemingly futile punch, he'd shifted the tide of the battle….
In any other circumstance, he'd be happy.
The girl was struggling now. While her right fist thrust forward like a hungry serpent, she barely used her left, keeping her left arm pinned to her side. Her movements appeared wearisome and desperate.
The firebender ruthlessly pushed her advantage, keeping the girl at close-quarters distance. The girl, quickly deciding she was done, jumped back to retreat, but as she came back down, Cho launched yet another ball of fire at her. The girl shrieked and twisted to avoid the blow, only to cry again as Cho charged and slammed an elbow into her ribs. The girl twisted and skid, struggling not to fall from the hit, then responded with a shrill cry as she leapt at Cho in return, a savage left-handed blow aimed at her neck. Cho easily countered, dodging and grabbing the girl's arm as it flew past her head. There was a very audible pop and an anguished scream as Cho forced the girl's left arm behind her back, and then a whimpered gasp when she saw the fire dagger poised at her neck.
"Got ya, you little roach."
Zhàn closed his eyes, ruefully awaiting the inevitable take-down as his mind began to panic. He had no idea what he was going to do. He finally subjected to the fact that'd been dangling in front of his face ever since the flogging started. He'd descended into a lose-lose situation. Had he helped the wild card, of course, he would only have quickened his capture. But now that the wild card was in Cho's death grip, what would keep the woman from subsequently capturing him?
Zhàn sighed. There was no way he'd allow himself to be captured. Yet even he was above the cowardly act of suicide. As usual, he only had one option.
"I might as well have some fun in my last moments."
Another scream pierced the air and Zhàn sighed, expecting to open his eyes to the sight of a victorious Cho tossing aside the body of a meddlesome child.
What Zhàn saw threatened to put him in shock.
Cho was stumbling to keep balance as the girl in her clutches writhed like mad to get loose. When the writhing didn't seem to work, the girl hiked up a leg and slammed a heel square into Cho's knee. The soldier shrieked as she shifted to her good leg, but the girl didn't let up, slamming the back of her head into Cho's face. Again and again, then a third and fourth time, she slammed her hair-padded skull into Cho's nose, earning a pained shout and more blood with each hit. The girl then dug her heels into the ground as she forced her opponent back, and when Cho put pressure on that weak leg, she and the girl went down like a toppled pagoda.
The girl burst out of Cho's grip as they hit the ground, scrambled to her feet and, without any sort of hesitance, slammed the toe of her boot into the side of Cho's head.
One shout, one kick, and that was it. She'd won.
If he were in a better condition and mood, he'd congradulate her.
After all that, there were three unconscious bodies on the ground, one huffing child, and an injured, writhing soldier.
Zhàn glared as the girl made her approach.
"This'll be fun."
With agony still gnawing into his center and limbs trying to fail him, Zhàn forced himself up. An old cripple would laugh at his state. Crawling on all fours just to orient himself towards the girl, pushing himself up with his hands to stretch his back straight. Nearly having to lift up his legs with his hands just to make them move. The fire in his belly was sapping him of what little strength he had left and the humiliation planted its seed of insanity, making him want to faint.
By the time he was finally up, he wanted to collapse again. He spread his legs, slowly shifting into a wobbly stance.
Everything in him was screaming that what was doing was absolutely stupid. He wouldn't deny this. But Agni be damned if he died a coward.
"Alright Princess," he said, his voice shuddering instead of shouting like he wanted, "Let's dance."
He glared at his opponent, waiting for her to barrel into a run and take him down. He shivered as the fire in his stomach worsened. Soon, the sensation changed. From agony to...
Oh no...
Zhàn fell again to his knees as his stomach caved in on itself. His mouth acquired a horrible taste of acid as regurgitation spewed from between his lips. The heaves came again and again, each one producing more acid that tore at his throat and rotted his mouth. By the time he finally stopped, his head was swimming.
He growled.
"Anything else you want to hit me with..."
And like an act of vengeance for the constant mockery, Agni called forth the army of literal darkness, rushing in from the fringes of his sight like swarms of bees on a fool that'd smashed their hive. Zhàn's mind thrashed, a thousand thoughts and a thousand curses bellowing in the ethereal air as it tried to keep itself above the choppy waves. A heat arose in his arms, and he could barely smell the scent of something burning, but this did not ward off the encroaching darkness. As the shroud of night enveloped Zhàn completely, he only could hear a cry before all went silent.
Author's Note: Wow. First of all, congratulations to all who have read through these first 13.8K+ words. Second of all, to any and all who recognize the story title and are scratching their heads, I've decided to scrap the old story and start over from scratch. I haven't slept all night, so I'll keep it short. Simply put, after four years of slowly improving my writing skills I've gotten to the point where I can't stand to look over the handling of each chapter any further (I'm sure most people who endeaver to improve reach such a point. lol) To make things more annoying, the cause of my four-year hiatus basically was a combination of horrible writer's block and a growing disinterest in writing as a whole. However, I'm starting to get my muse back, and that combined with my drive to want to complete this story, has led to my decision to reboot the whole thing.
Sorry if this is getting redundant; again, I am really tired and I haven't slept all night; hard to do so when you have a goddamned bedbug infestation.
...TMO...
Anyway, I've gone over this chapter editing, re-editing, and re-reading, and hating my existence and wanting to hire a team of angels and demons to partake in a battle royale in the middle of the Roman Colosseum. Then sent it to my Beta Reader, and rinsed and repeated this for nine months before I finally started on Chapter 2 (took me until about three weeks ago to get a start of the chapter that had a decent flow that I liked...)
But really, I suppose none of that is terribly important. Most important thing is that the story is being written and my muse is back. I hope you all enjoyed this start, and I promise, the chapters won't be quite this long regularly. The second chapter should cap out at around 7K words at most.
But anyway, that's it for now. My appreciation to my beta JesusFreak-And-Proud-Of-It for putting up with me all these years, and to everyone who has taken the time to read my story, in the past and in the current. The only thing left to ask is that if you liked this, or even if you hated it, please take the time to toss a review my way. And I don't mean kiss my ass and make me feel special, tell me what you really freaking think about the story so far. Give me critique, no matter how harsh you think it might sound; I've developed a fairly tough skin, I can take your suggestions and criticism (even trolling and hate, though I'd prefer not having to deal with those).
Anywho, thank you all, thosae who have read through this. More to come soon.
Grace and Peace, and Happy Writing. ^_^