This is part two of my AU, and unlike the first; this one includes an author's forward! *Fanfare and applause* Right, so uh comment and critique if you want (because I would like you to) I suppose you should suspect more, though I only really have any clue what Zuko and Sokka are doing, but I find this story fun so there shall be more! Also I own nothing, not the language, nor the world/characters (that could have flowed better, but who doesn't like the word "nor", I think it was a fair trade off) right then now the story begins
The patchwork collection of rebels was stalwartly standing their ground. The Fire magistrate still wasn't sure where they'd acquired their weapons or the training in their use, for a while there they had been a thorn in his side. However now there was no chance for their victory, or even escape.
The magistrate reclined on the rich couch he'd had his men bring up for him so that he could watch the battle in comfort from the command tent, and thought himself clever. After all he congratulated himself it had been his ruse that had brought the rebels out into the open like this. Now the long game of cat and mouse had been brought to a satisfactory and predictable end. He signaled for the advance to begin, and picked up his far viewer so that he could get a better view of the terrified faces of the rebels. Served them right for trying to cause trouble in his district.
Suddenly a girl litterarly poped up from out of the ground in front of the army. The magistrate almost choked on his wine and dropped his wine. He scrambled to pick it up and focused it on the girl. She wasn't a very impressive figure, she couldn't have been over 17 and was short even for her age, her clothes were ruffled, her hair unkempt, and she didn't even seem to be wearing shoes. But there was something about her, something about her face. At first the magistrate thought that it was the way she was smirking. But eventually the magistrate settled upon what was really wrong, her eyes. There was something off about them, they looked like they were unfocused, or perhaps the wrong color. That was it they were gray.
This time the magistrate really did choke on his wine. After his coughing had subsided he frantically tried to get his commanders to stop the assault, but was informed that it was too late to turn the advance around without serious loss of life. Not to mention looking weak in front of the rebels. He was assured that one girl could not make that much of a difference is a battle. He was assured that the girl could not be who he thought she was, as she was last sighted much too far away to have gotten to the battle field within the next week much less the last five minutes. The magistrate sank back into his couch and picked up the far viewer, this time in resignation.
As he brought the cylinder of glass and steel to his eyes he saw the girl turn to make a short remark to the rebels who laughed. The magistrate sighed and drank deeply from his wine. The girl closed he eyes, raised her arms fingers out stretched palms down and concentrated. The Fire Nation men were closing fast, perhaps they would be able to close and limit the amount of large scale bending the girl would be able to do. But as the two armies were but fifty feet away, the girl's smirk widened and she clenched her fists and brought them back in towards her body while stomping once on the ground. The effect was immediate and terrifying, the ground shook and a huge amount of dust flew into the air, completely obscuring the magistrate's forces from his view.
Dropping the now useless far viewer the magistrate studied his military advisors. Their expressions ranged from jaw dropping shock in the elder of his staff to unconcealed admiration amongst the younger. To be sure it was a mind blowing display of sheer power, one worthy of both admiration and shock. The magistrate turned back to the dust cloud and saw that the rebel army was still standing where it had been, but the girl was gone. She had entered the smoke alone! What hubris. Surely there was no way that she could defeat all of those men by herself. The magistrate tried desperately to observe the battle. But all that he could see was the near constant flashes of fire in the dust cloud and the occasional bolder that came wizzing out of the dust. While he couldn't see anything he could hear a lot. He could hear the sounds of his men fighting desperately to stave off this monster of a bender, he could hear the order of the army breaking down quickly. But more than that he could feel the earth being reshaped.
The fight was over in short order; the girl had routed or subdued nearly all of his men in under an hour. His royal guards had almost attempted to fight her off as she had come to take him and his council prisoner, but she had swatted them aside in no more than three moves. Now a prisoner of the rebels whose defeat he had left his palace to watch the magistrate looked out over the ruined and broken landscape and wondered if it was he himself who had been caught in a trap. A shadow passed overhead and a man jumped from a flying bison. The man rolled as he hit the ground and strode over to magistrate his hand resting lightly on his sword. A lemur flew down after him and landed lightly on his shoulder.
"I was wondering how the girl even knew that this battle was going to happen, but now that I know you're in charge it all makes sense." The magistrate growled at the man
The man replied with an easy shrug and a smile. "What can I say, everyone helps with the war effort in their own way. The girls do their massive battle winning destruction thing, Zuko does his revolution thing, and I outsmart you guys."
The girl returned from digging huge holding prisons for the magistrate's captured men and greated the man with an insult and a punch. "Took you long enough to get here, you didn't even have time to stand around awkwardly and be useless in the fight."
"Speaking of which, don't you think you over did it a little?" The man said rubbing his arm and gesturing to the wonton destruction that was the battlefield "People have to live here you know. Fix it while I talk to these guys about the terms of their surrender."
"But Sokka!" the girl protested
"No buts, I mean it toph. Put this field back to the way it was. Or at least make it habitable again. Now then" He said turning to the magistrate and his men "I believe we should get to discussing the terms of your surrender, I'm thinking something along the lines of 'Unconditional', but we'll iron out those details in here." He tossed aside the cover flap of the command tent and strode in to recline on the magistrates couch. "Oh, you even brought me a couch, how thoughtful."