Disclaimer: I own nothing save my OCs and the storyline
Chapter Three
As the torrent of flame splashed upon his guardian slab of rock, Han's mind was running a mile-a-minute,
'Firebenders in Ba Sing Se! They're in the capitol now?!'
Having acquired this intelligence, albeit in a way he wished he hadn't, things were starting to make sense. Deciding that now was not the best time to ponder theories as a second jet of fire threatened to melt his cover, he rolled out from behind the rock and returned fire as his startled troopers moved to do the same.
Shu sent a large chunk of masonry at one of the false-warriors and was amazed to see her jump to a height no human ought be able, allowing the strike to pass harmlessly beneath her. Landing beside him, her fists lashing out, she struck once, twice, three times with lightning speed at precise points on his body. The veteran simply collapsed in a heap, laying there unmoving, save for his disbelieving eyes.
The acrobat's compatriot performed no gravity-defying stunts, her hands instead disappearing into the voluminous folds of her robes, emerging to whip daggers and blades with frightening accuracy to take out another of Jinn's men.
Jinn deftly rolled beneath the acrobat's jab, using his bending to up-heave the floor beneath the knife-thrower, sending her sprawling to the ground and leaving her stunned by the rough fall. Before he could continue his assault however, the Firebender mercilessly pressed her attack against Jinn's two remaining soldiers, drawing his attention.
He took a step in their direction, determined to take out that Firebender before she could do any more damage, but the acrobat was suddenly there in front of him, lashing out with hand and foot. Jinn struggled to utilize his own hand-to-hand skills, but found himself unable to gain an advantage against the girl.
She was young, he subconsciously noted, with long, brown hair done up in a braid, and a delicate figure. At first glance, no one would have suspected her of being any significant threat, but they would most definitely be wrong, as she now proved.
A blow glanced off his armor padding, causing him to stagger back and he barely managed to duck a kick aimed at his head. Instead of fighting gravity, he used it to drop into a squat, swinging his leg in an arc, attempting to sweep her from her feet.
His attempt failed as she agilely leapt backwards to avoid the blow and came back fighting. Showering him with a flurry of jabs and punches, he managed to catch most on his gauntlets, others glancing off his armor and padding as he did his best to respond in kind.
But time was slipping away from him: A quick glance to his right confirmed that his two men were barely holding their own against the firebending imposter and the woman he had sent sprawling was pulling herself to her feet, hands already reaching for more blades. Her hurled metal darts quickly proved a fatal distraction to one of Jinn's escort: As he raised a shield to intercept the lethal metal shards, the Firebender managed to sidestep his partner, attacking instantly and enveloping the private in flame. Jinn's last man, witnessing his comrade's demise, found himself outnumbered two-to-one…and tremendously outmatched.
"NO!" Han roared as he swept out his blade, causing his assailant to jump backwards and out of range, but it was too little, too late: Despite fighting with skill borne of desperation, the last man was out-flanked and fell under a hail of metal and flame.
All three now advancing on him, Jinn knew he couldn't win this fight. Summoning the last of his energy, he sprang over to the fallen Shu, a man he refused to leave behind, dead or alive, and hoisted his paralyzed form onto his back in a fireman's carry before causing the stone beneath his feet to rocket him skyward towards the ceiling. The Firebender and knife-thrower attacked his receding form, firing ineffectually and doing no harm; the acrobat, on the other hand, proved far more dangerous; literally bounding up the wall, almost faster than the eye could follow, she landed easily atop the pillar of stone.
Han realized despairingly that, bearing Shu, he could not defend himself or risk dropping the man. To his abject surprise, however, she just stood there and dropped from her fighting stance, wind from the rising pillar releasing her long hair, as she briefly locked eyes with him. The determined look in her brown eyes softened and she merely nodded to him before stepping backwards off the still-rising pillar to drop lightly to the ground, unharmed.
Confused, but nevertheless thankful, Jinn turned his gaze upwards once more as his elevator passed through the vaulted ceiling, leaving the destroyed Throne Room far below as the gap closed behind him. The grounds below were swarming with Guardsmen now flooding towards the Palace. He used the pandemonium about them to simply stroll through the gate before it sealed, cautiously limping back to his command.
---
Ty Lee dropped easily to the ground, still looking towards the pinprick of light on the ceiling that the rising pillar sped towards, watching it until the light vanished from the opening.
All was deathly silent a moment until Azula rounded on her, temper flaring, "How could you let them escape?!" she demanded, heat radiating from her in waves and washing over her petite friend.
Come to think of it, Ty Lee herself wasn't sure why she'd let them escape; after all, the two fleeing men were helpless against her- she could see it in the last able man's eyes. Was it pity? Sympathy? Something else?
Well, it didn't matter either way: No excuse would please Azula. Still, she had to try something. "They were beaten, Azula," she tried, attempting to placate her friend, "We didn't need to-."
"They know who we are!" Azula bellowed, "If word gets out, the whole plan falls apart! Useless idiot!" She backhanded Ty Lee hard across the face, hard, sending her sprawling heavily to the ground, tears stinging her eyes.
But Azula's rage had not yet abated, lightning wreathing her hand as she spat incomprehensible oaths and utterances…and she was advancing on the fallen girl. Ty Lee had never seen her friend so angry- at least, not at her. It was terrifying.
Seeing Azula's intent, Mai awoke from her initial shock and stepped into Azula's path. "Calm down, Azula," she said, her voice the same dull monotone it always was, but with and almost undetectable edge of urgency, "No one will believe them anyway; not while we're the Earth King's 'honored guests…' at least until the guards burst in here and see you firebending," she added significantly. "Besides, the plan is too far along to stop it now."
Mai's words seem to have the desired effect, the crackling lightning slowly dissipating from around her hands. She took a step back from the prostrate Ty Lee, her voice resuming its usual tone, but with a dangerous edge to it, "You're right, Mai. Two men won't matter much in the greater scheme of things…or they better not, or it will be on your head," she threatened, scowling at Ty Lee, who slowly rose to her feet.
Azula turned to regard the still-smoking bodies with obvious contempt written on her face, but for who the contempt was for, Ty Lee didn't know. "Still, someone will have to dispose of those," she said, gesturing indifferently at the corpses before giving Ty Lee one last, cold, look, "Now, before the guards break in here."
---
Leaving the old sergeant to recuperate from his strange paralysis at the home of a family friend in the Mid-ring, Commander Han Jinn, doing his best to hide his weariness and limp, wove through the city streets toward the encampment. Thankfully, in the confusion left in the wake of their attack, he had managed to avoid being shadowed.
Having dumped his armor in one of the Upper Ring mansion's gardens, now only clad in a tunic and rough traveler's cloak, he easily blended in amongst the masses…save for his injuries, of course. After what seemed an eternity, he crested the ridge that overlooked the camp, swelling with pride as his men disappeared into the brush and crops, squad by squad.
Stumbling down the hill and brushing past the pickets, he practically fell into the command tent, dropping from sheer exhaustion. Captain Chang, the acting commander while Bao took the gate, was at his side in an instant.
Chang had never seen his commanding officer so thoroughly exhausted; he wasn't even speaking coherently, seeming almost in a stupor. "What happened out there, sir?" he asked urgently.
His tired and dazed commandant looked up at him with veiled eyes, "We've failed."
---
Major Liu Bao peered over the battlements of the South Agrarian Gate, their appointed target. Through stealth and no small amount of good fortune, their approach had gone unnoticed by the men manning the position. Attention turned predominantly outward, these guards looked to the attack of an extraneous enemy, not a threat from within.
Grimly, Bao noted the normal dozen men on alert guard had been supplemented by a team of six Dai Li agent, three times the usual number. If Bao had had any doubts that the Dai Li were indeed plotting something, this fact dispelled them.
Bao and his platoon flung themselves over the parapet as one, overwhelming the guards in seconds. The soldiers were taken alive…five of the Dai Li were not so fortunate.
"Quickly men," Bao called in a hoarse whisper, "take their uniforms and lock the guards in the tower!"
The men obeyed without hesitation. After all, after attacking the King's soldiers and killing Dai Li agents, what was locking a few men up in a tower? Bao was glad to see that even the men who had their doubts about what they were doing, and he knew there were some, obeyed his orders without question, willing to trust their officers not to lead them astray.
As the rest of the platoon concealed themselves in the gate's two towers and hospital area, Bao and eleven of his men donned the fallen soldier's uniforms and took up their positions above the gate, not able to help but marvel at the view from such height.
Instead of peering outwards, Liu looked over the region inside the walls. If he looked closely, he could see miniscule clusters of troopers, flashes of dark green, scurrying towards the gate to await further orders.
Yes, it looked like things were going as planned.
---
"We failed," he repeated, so softly Chang had to strain to hear him from mere inches away.
"Failed…?" Chang asked, despair creeping within him, like ice-water running through his veins. "Well then…" he gulped to clear whatever he felt was constricting his throat, "Wh-what do we do, sir?"
Jinn looked up at him, before looking back down again, "I don't know, I don't know. Gotta think…" he muttered over and over again, hands raking through his hair as he wracked his brain for an idea.
Chang, meanwhile, was growing more and more despondent and discomfited by the minute. Unable to think of something himself, he found himself crying out in desperation to his commander, "There has to be something!"
Jinn suddenly slumped, "There isn't," he said softly. "The Dai Li outnumber us and have the city under their thumb. We have no proof and no one to hear it if we did."
Chang was shocked to hear his own terrible realization voiced by his commander. "What do we do now? Give up?" he asked in disbelief.
To Chang's surprise, his question gave Jinn a jolt of energy and he leapt to his feet, weariness seemingly forgotten for the moment. "No Captain," he said, "We may not be able to save the city, but we can at least get our boys out of here to fight another day." When Chang didn't move, he turned back and hauled the kneeling man to his feet, "I need you to focus, Captain. We have to act fast or we won't be able to do any good at all. Now, what is left in the camp?"
Chang blinked twice, Han's personal purpose giving him impetus, "Uh, Second Company and a few platoons of the Fifth along with the medical team. We only moved the essential things that we could carry with us on our backs thus far."
Jinn nodded, "Okay. Now, I want you to break camp and begin moving everything towards the gate. Speed is of the essence, so I don't care who sees you- just get it done."
"Yes, sir," Chang agreed, "What happens if the Dai Li make a move to stop us?"
Already moving, Han made no pause to answer as he began packing his basic equipment and important papers, "Second Company will set up a rear guard up on the ridge and those platoons from the Fifth will escort the wagons and we take out anyone who stands in our way. Make haste, Captain!"
Chang nodded and, all hopelessness forgotten, sprinted from the tent as if it was afire.
---
Staring over the parapet of the Outer Wall, Bao noted a bustle of activity in the camp, eyes following a wave of green sweeping up the low ridge overlooking the camp. Second Company, standards unfurled to the wind and weapons flashing in the afternoon sun, was openly occupying the heights. Below, dozens of men and a small convoy of wagons were hurrying down the road towards the gate. Bao knew then that Han had failed in his mission.
He turned to the men occupying the wall, now clustered around him, "Well, men, better get ready. We'll probably have company up here sooner rather than later." The other men nodded grimly as the wagons continued to clatter down the dirt road towards them.
Not a mile away, two black-robed men slipped back into the shadows and hastened to report to their new master.
---
Azula looked on in satisfaction as a quartet of Dai Li agents led the supplanted Long Feng back to the cell he had so recently been liberated from. Meanwhile, throughout the city, her new private army was swiftly and silently taking control of all key installations as the coup began in earnest.
Things were going well: The Earth King and his over-stuffed teddy bear were already in the Palace Dungeons, the Council of Five were under house arrest, and her troublesome brother locked away in the catacombs of Old Ba Sing Se with that Water Tribe peasant girl. She smirked at the thought of that last image: She wouldn't be surprised if they'd killed each other by now.
Save those meddlesome soldiers, all was going according to plan. She glanced at Ty Lee out of the corner of her eye, the girl standing docilely aside and out of the way as the Dai Li came and went to report to their new master.
Azula pulled her attention away from the girl as the next in the series of Dai Li informants approached her. "Princess Azula," the black-robed man began in a soft and coarse whisper, "One of the battalions encamped within the outer wall has mobilized itself. Their camp is emptying faster than water from a sieve and heading for the South Agrarian Gate. Their movement is unexplained, and a company has taken a rear guard position on the overlooking heights, armed for battle."
Azula scowled viciously before sending a withering look at Ty Lee. "Apparently their escape wasn't so harmless," she spat before wrenching her head back to the reporting agent, "Gather some troops and deal with them. Take no prisoners, show no mercy. To the public, they are traitors to the Earth Kingdom."
The Dai Li officers bowed at the waist, "As you wish, Princess."
"Indeed. Mai, Ty Lee," Azula ordered, turning to her lackeys, "Go with them. I have to tend to my dear brother and the Avatar." They turned to leave and attend her will, but Azula spoke once more, halting their exit, "Oh, and Ty Lee?"
"Yes, Azula?" she asked, somewhat anxiously, not having forgotten the ferocity of Azula's rage.
'Good,' Azula thought. "This is your chance to rectify your mistake. Don't fail me again."
---
Author's Note: And I'll be leaving you there for now. Next chapter, we'll see Jinn and his troops' running fight to escape the city before they're trapped there to become Fire Nation prisoners. Should be fun!
Anyway, I may or may not update next week, as I promised my other readers a spectacular update to one of my other stories that I feel like I'm neglecting a little bit. After that, my first semester of school is over and I will no longer have that tremendously useful study hall to type in, so all updates will be slower, unfortunately. I must say though, I am enjoying this particular story tremendously thus far and hope you are as well.
Furthermore, I'd like to thank my wonderful reviewers, who give me new impetus to update every week. By the way, I want to make sure that all the canon characters we've met so far are in character and my OCs continue to be believable, so if anyone has any opinions on that, let me know!
Thanks for reading,
-The CAG