Chapter 20: The Trap

The rebels crept quietly through the forests, toward the supply convoy that was heading for Long Du Shi. Chaiy led the group- her father was considered too important to risk on a mission like this one- and she seemed quite in her element, bow slung over her back and a look of intense concentration on her face. Tong followed close behind, along with about twenty other resistance fighters. It wasn't a huge number, but Chaiy had explained that due to the Fire Empire's arrogance, the supply convoys weren't usually heavily guarded, and in any event they would have the advantages of surprise and earthbending. Most of the rebels carried bows, but a few, like Tong, went unarmed- at least to the naked eye. These were the team's strongest earthbenders.

Chaiy stopped at the base of a tree, and then waved to the others behind her. Silently they spread out- Tong following the lead of the warriors around him- and began to climb up into the branches. Perched up high, they could see that the road was nearby, cutting through the forest. At the moment, it was empty. Chaiy settled herself on the branch that held her and fixed the road with a hard stare. "Now, we wait," she said in a voice so soft it could barely be heard.

They did not have to wait long. As the sun had fallen below the horizon Tong had no way to tell time, but he guessed that less than half an hour had passed before the sounds of something large coming down the road from the north could be heard. Soon a line of large wagons came into view, pulled by the Fire Empire's fearsome war rhinos- apparently this shipment wasn't important enough for the steam-driven vehicles Tong knew the Empire possessed. Several red-armored soldiers marched alongside each wagon, along with a handful that rode on the backs of the rhinos and wore the skull-masks of elite firebenders. Chaiy had been right- the convoy was small and under protected. From what he'd seen of the rebels so far, he doubted they'd have trouble with it.

Something about that made him uneasy. Glancing over at Chaiy, he saw that her brow was furrowed as well, as though she was trying to put a finger on something that hovered just out of reach. Finally, though, she held out one arm and made a swift chopping motion.

Arrows shot from the treetops, striking down into the convoy with deadly force. Some struck the rhinos and bounced off their thick hides, serving little purpose but to enrage the volatile beasts. Others lodged in the soldiers' armor, doing little serious damage. Some, however, found their marks, striking the soldiers in their unprotected neck or underarms. Five of them collapsed, dead or dying.

Chaiy motioned again, and the earthbenders leapt from the trees and landed lightly on the ground, Tong following them. The Imperial soldiers pulled up, drawing their weapons or falling into bending stances, looking warily between the earthbenders on the ground and the archers in the trees. Then Chaiy herself leapt from her perch and landed in between the two sides, holding herself with an air of casual cockiness that reminded Tong somehow of the portrait of Toph Bei Fong he'd seen in Shu's quarters.

"As you can see," she said, "you're in a bit of a bad situation. You've just been attacked, several of your men are dead, and if you make one threatening move towards me, my men will make sure you're starting a new career as a pincushion. You can easily get up and walk away from this- but you've got to give me something first." Her eyes hardened. "Specifically, whatever you've got in those wagons."

"I don't negotiate with bandits!" one of the soldiers- apparently the leader- snapped. Chaiy shook her head disapprovingly.

"See, first of all, we're rebels, not bandits." She spread her legs apart slowly, centering herself over the earth. "And second of all, you're not in a position to negotiate. I'm just offering you the chance to live through this. You can do it the easy way," she tensed, and the ground rumbled beneath her feet. Several men stumbled back, and one of the rhinos snorted and reared. "Or the hard way."

"Earthbender," the commander muttered. "You know my superiors will pay handsomely for your head after I tell them about this."

"Oh, I quiver," Chaiy said, shaking the earth again for emphasis. The soldiers looked fearfully at each other, and then began to slowly back away from the caravan. "Good men. All right, people, let's do this." She motioned with one arm, and the rebels moved forward to loot the wagons. The Imperial commander looked mutinous, but said nothing.

Tong hung back, shifting nervously. There was something off here, and now that he was down on the ground again the feeling was stronger. It was too easy- and more than that, there was something about those wagons. He concentrated on them with his earthbending, and with difficulty was able to feel the vibrations they made in the ground. Admittedly he'd never had much experience with military supply wagons, but something still felt wrong about these- as if something was shifting inside…

He walked up to Chaiy and leaned into her ear. "There's something wrong here," he said. "We should leave."

"Something's bothering me, too," she admitted, "but I can't see anything definite that's wrong, and we always need more supplies and weapons. Still-"

She never had the chance to finish her thought. Ahead, one of the rebels had just peeked inside some of the supply wagons, and then stumbled back, cursing loudly. He fell into an earthbending stance, but before he could attack a blast of fire shot from inside the wagon, spinning him off his feet and sending him burning to the ground. More fireblasts followed, striking the trees where the archers waited before they had time to react, and then the soldiers poured from their hiding places.

There were dozens of them- they must have been packed incredibly tightly inside the wagons. These men all wore the armor of elite firebenders, and they pushed forward as one disciplined unit, burning the rebels and forcing them back up the road. The archers leaped from their burning trees and landed on the road, firing off their arrows, but while a few struck home, most were burned from the air by sheets of flame. Most individual firebenders may have lacked the skill to strike a single arrow from the sky, but working together they could produce enough flame to serve as a sort of blanket shield.

"It's a trap!" Chaiy shouted, rather unnecessarily. "We can still win this, people. Earthbenders, to the front! Let's give those Imperials something else to worry about." Tong and his companions hurried forward, then knelt and pulled. This was a basic earthbending maneuver, and one that every slave knew by heart- make a wall. Now, however, it served the purpose of protecting the rebels from the firebenders, rather than serving as a base for a new building. The fireblasts impacted on it, some of them cracking the wall, but the earthbenders worked to reinforce it. The archers raised their bows and fired over the wall, their arrows less accurate because they had lost direct line of sight with their targets, but even going by sound alone they still struck some of the enemy.

"All right," Chaiy said, "time to strike back at them." Dropping into a crouch herself, she joined her earthbenders and pushed on the wall with all she had. It shot forward, tearing up the ground in front of it and striking the firebenders. Some of them managed to duck out of the way, but most were caught by the onrush of dirt and stone and were slammed backwards, along with their wagons and rhinos. They lay beneath the rubble, groaning feebly.

The rebels cheered, and several of them shouted taunts along the lines of "that's right, scum, see what free earthbenders can do!" Chaiy, however, hung back, still wary, while Tong paused in his shout as he felt something stir behind him. He spun and knocked Chaiy to the ground, ensuring that the fireblast that would have struck her unprotected back soared harmlessly overhead. Pulling themselves apart, both rebels looked up to see another group of soldiers advancing along the road from the north, where apparently they'd been lying in wait.

"I'd say I owe you for saving my life," Chaiy said softly, "but it looks like I'm going to get to repay you any time now."

"If we make it that long," Tong replied. "Look!" he pointed along the southbound road, towards the city, where another group of firebenders was marching out of hiding. Both groups of newcomers, along with those who'd been in the wagons and were now pulling themselves from beneath the rubble, came to surround the rebels, who bunched together, archers in the middle and earthbenders in front.

The soldiers who had come from the north parted, and a man stepped out from between them whose armor, while red and black, wasn't in the same style as the formal uniforms. He was middle aged, and his face- which might have once been handsome if it hadn't been heavily beaten and scarred- was vaguely familiar to Tong, though he couldn't place it. The man smiled triumphantly at his opponents.

"You're a slippery bunch, you Lake Laogai rebels," he said in his rough voice. "But you couldn't run forever. Be sure you take some alive, men- we need someone to let us in to their lair. The girl, if you can- she looks like she's in charge." His eyes scanned the rebels, finally settling, to Tong's surprise, on himself. "And that one. He matches the description of a slave who killed his overseer and ran a little while back. He'll be wanted for an example." The man's tone made Tong shiver- he didn't seem to relish the idea of pain, like some overseers he'd known, but neither did he shy away from it. This was a man to whom nothing was too horrible, so long as it served a purpose, and that was if anything more disturbing than simple cruelty. The rebels' lives meant nothing more to this man than numbers on a page.

"I don't know who you are or why you work for the Empire," Chaiy said defiantly, "but you're a fool if you think I'll break. I'll die before I help you, and the same goes for everyone here with me. You have no hold on us anymore- we're not afraid."

The man pulled his lips back in what might have been a smile. "We'll see about that, girl. But know that I am Gian, mercenary and bounty hunter, and I've seen ones with more spirit than you break. Still, that's not my concern. My concern is capturing you and your young friend there, and I've never failed a job before now."

Gian. Now Tong knew where he'd seen this man before- all the slaves at Long Du Shi knew Gian. A mercenary who often worked as a bounty hunter, he was often the one who brought slaves back when they ran, and then stood by emotionlessly as they were brutally killed as an example for the others. Hate blossomed in Tong's chest, stronger than fear- how he wished for a chance to hurt that man, who along with the overseers embodied the Fire Empire's oppression.

Gian stepped back and motioned to his men. They dropped into crouches and released their fireblasts, with Tong and his fellow earthbenders barely getting their rocky shields up in time. Again and again the soldiers fired, cracking the earthen barriers and giving the rebels no time to strike back. Some of the archers tried, but between the rocks and the fire their arrows were almost completely unable to find their targets.

The shields began to crack, flames slipping through. Occasionally now one would break completely and the earthbender who created it would fall back, burning and screaming. Tong poured all of his concentration into his shield, making absolutely certain that it would not break, until he heard a familiar voice scream behind him. Chaiy had been with the archers, trying to hit the soldiers with her arrows, when a fireblast got through and struck her side. She collapsed, in obvious pain.

The sight of the girl who was both his trainer and his only true friend among the rebels fallen caused something to snap within Tong. He felt his will harden to crystalline sharpness, and he felt the whole area beneath his feet vibrate with unusual subtlety and intensity. Snarling viciously, he pulled himself to his feet and shouted at the top of his lungs, forcing all of his strength into the ground.

Waves of earth shot out in rhythms from beneath his feet, growing stronger as they moved farther from him. They crashed into the ring of firebenders and knocked them off their feet, upsetting their aim and sending fireblasts careening off at wild angles. Some struck other soldiers, while others struck the trees and set them ablaze. Some of the soldiers tried to stand, but they were kept off-balance by the shaking earth. Some began to crawl away towards the city.

"Get back here!" Gian shouted, steadying himself by holding on to a tree. "You can take him- he's only one man, and he can't do this forever." Clearly he wasn't a firebender himself, a fact for which that part of Tong that was still rational was secretly glad. If he had been, he at least would have been able to keep his head and his aim amidst the chaos- of that Tong had no doubt.

Behind Tong, Chaiy pulled herself to her feet, using her own bending to steady the ground under her. Drawing her bow back, a pained expression on her face, she took careful aim and let her arrow fly. Gian saw it coming and he lunged away from it, but he wasn't quite fast enough. The arrow struck his cheek, digging into it and leaving a wound that would surely result in another scar before continuing its flight. He collapsed, cursing in rage and pain.

As he fell, Tong felt his rage and clarity seep away, replaced by sheer exhaustion. The earth stilled and he began to collapse to the ground, only to be caught by Chaiy's arms. She was still weak and in pain from her own injury, but together they supported each other. The rebels gathered their wounded and retreated towards the forest as fast as they were able, the firebenders too dazed to stop them.

/

Gian hadn't lain on the shaking ground long, but it was enough to leave him bruised and battered all along his body, on top of the arrow-wound that was bleeding profusely from his cheek. He could only imagine what the other men who'd been on the ground far longer felt- he wasn't about to drive them after the rebels in their current state. Hunting with men who weren't up to the job, he'd found out long ago, was a path to disaster.

Clearly he'd underestimated the rebels- particularly that girl and the runaway slave. Gian wasn't used to losing- his boast about having never failed a job wasn't entirely true, but it was close enough- and the fact that he had now was deeply rankling. That it had been a couple of teenagers who'd bested him, and managed to leave a new scar on him, no less, was even more infuriating. But he wasn't completely defeated yet- far from it- and now this was personal.

"You'll regret this night, rebels," he muttered under his breath. "It was a mistake to let me live, because I never forget a job or an insult, and I will finish what I have started." As he pulled himself back to his feet and began checking his body for serious damage, he even allowed himself a tight smile. "Besides- I know where you live."

/

Well, this is the first time since Tong was rescued that we've really seen the rebels in action, and this time it was a premeditated action. Chaiy's threats were fun to write, and she was very much in her element here. In many ways, Chaiy is as much Jet as she is Toph, though she's not completely fallen off the slippery slope the way he did. That said, there's definitely something dark in Chaiy that enjoys taking the fight to the Fire Empire, and she's not someone I'd want to cross.

Tong is definitely the most powerful earthbender in this group, and probably the most powerful in the entire rebellion (though, it should be noted, "power" is not the same thing as "skill"). He may not have a whole lot of fancy techniques at this point, but when he has the opportunity to cut loose with as much power as he can- like he does here- there's not a whole lot that can stand up to him head on.

Of course, Gian is not exactly a graceful loser, and his hate runs cold rather than hot (like Yuan's does) which makes him particularly dangerous- Gian uses his anger, not the other way around. Now he has a personal grudge against both of our main Earth Kingdom characters, and he's not exactly going to be the type who pulls his punches when it comes to revenge. Also note that Gian is not a firebender, and keep it in mind- foreshadowing!

-MasterGhandalf