Here it is, finally, the long awaited Battle! I hope you like it, seeing as it took me ages to write it^^


Release of Fire

I cannot remember how long we had been in the sewers, just guided by the little flame in my hand and Chen's sense of orientation. I doubt not that I would have been lost without him underneath the Earth, or would have despaired and awaited my end in some lonely corner. But his presence, so stout and fearless, also gave me strength.

At some point my steps faltered and I had to lean against the wet wall next to me, for I felt a surge of power wash across my being. It felt as if the blood in my veins had been exchanged with liquid fire, as if one of the mighty dragons of old had posessed my body and lent me his strength. I felt Chen come closer, rather than I saw it, for in the sudden feeling my concentration faltered and the flame in my palm had gone out. So now, we were concealed in a darkness so impregnable that I still find it hard to put it in words.

"Kyona?" his whisper was loud in the darkness around us, and I could hear his concern for my well-being.

"The comet has arrived. Sozin's Comet is upon us now. I can feel it." I answered hushed, not daring to speak any louder.

"Then I suggest we hurry. General Iroh said the Order would be attacking as soon as the comet arrived." he answered, but couldn't hide his emotion fully. Secretly he was as concerned as I was.

"Yes. Lead the way. I'm fine." I said and bent a flame into my palm again, though this time I could feel it was brighter, more powerful and burned hotter. The warm orange shine of it gave way to a vibrant yellow, almost a white and we could see further ahead then before.

While General Iroh and his men were on the foremost front and prepared to battle the Soldiers of the Fire Lord, Chen and myself crawled out of the sewers. Thankfully we didn't strike anything too gross or grimy, so we still were kind of clean. Even though the smell still lingered in my nose. Before us towered the old guard house, were they also kept the prisoners in a vault beneath ground level. I never had been here, so I needed to rely on Chen's memory of this place. Outside of the huge building no one was seen, probably they all had been called off to fight and the prisoners couldn't escape by themselves. As we entered I heard Chen whisper in front of me.

"They probably keep the prisoners were we kept them. Cells made of metal, so none could escape, not even an Earthbender. I suppose even though there is battle outside, that they keep some guards here. Probably dowstairs. Do you really think this is a good idea?" he asked and turned to me, while we crouched behind a corner.

"Yes, the more we get to fight the better. Besides, it could still be that the soldiers are ordered to kill those former guards and rebels. General Iroh suspected something like that and if you ask me, you should always listen to him. He's seen more of war than any of those I know." I answered and peered around the corner. Nothing was moving in the dim shadows cast by lamps filled with fireflies to provide a nonflammable lightsource. I had to hand it to anyone who built this place, it looked pretty secure. I doubted that anyone could break out of this and even if they could get out of the cell, they wouldn't get very far. There were many corners and all was lit, it was near impossible to sneak out quietly.

Without further word, Chen took point again and led me through the deep corridors and down many stairs, until we finally reached the prison block. And there, as anticipated, some Firebenders stood guard by a door. Down here, the clamour of weapons and fire wasn't heard and an almost eerie silence lay around like a heavy curtain. Glancing to my friend and comrade I nodded silently and crept forward. I heard Chen behind me standing up and felt the familiar faint rumble of the earth undernath me, faint but it was there. That meant he had taken a bending stance and was ready to attack them. I peered around again and silently counted the heads of our offenders. Six men in arms, typical for the Fire Nation. Even if our surprise attack worked, it would be a hard fight to get past them.

Feeling the raw power of the comet in my veins, I steeled myself mentally and glanced backwards once more. I saw Chen nod without moving an inch, his muscles tensed and ready. And then I sped around the corner, directly charging the six men. Behind me I heard earth rumble, but I didn't dare to look back. The soldiers were startled, for they didn't react right away. Three were knocked down by a sheer avalanche of earth and while I shot a bright spark to the foremosts eyes, I heard the other two yelling and upon ducking a firefist sent to burn my head off, knocked his feet down, making him crash into the ground very ungraceful. Yet before I could turn around again, the last soldier was pinned to the wall by several shards of rock. In a matter of moments Chen was next to me and with a powerful thrust of his fists forward knocked the door down leading into the block. Dust swirled ahead and rocks flew inwards, Chen followed suit after them with me behind. But there were no more guards and the entire cellblock was rid of Fire Nation.

"Only six? Thats pathetic." mumbled Chen and I could only grin over this. He was right, it was pretty pathetic to only let six guards protect the doors which held so many Earthbenders and rebels. Yet before I could answer, I heard a voice coming through the thick bars of the cell to my right.

"Chen, is that you? Have you come to get us out of here?" it asked and I perceived that the voice belonged to a man.

"Captain Fong! Wait a moment, I'll get you out. Move away from the door." Chen said and I also gave him space. With a swing of his right hand he smashed the largest rock directly to the hinges of the cell, causing it to slam inwards. Out came a man both tall and stern. I wanted to greet him, believing that this was Chens former Captain of the guard, but before I could say anything I heard a shout outside the metal door, that now lay in smithereens in dust.

"There they are!" and at the very least fifteen soldiers stormed towards us.

"Chen, get the others out, I'll hold them off!" I shouted and ran to meet them head-on. I couldn't see what happened behind me, I was busy enough fighting the Firebenders.

With my left foot pointed towards them, I raised a wall of flame between us. I had seen Master Jong-Jong make that move when he had showed it to someone whose name I couldn't find out. And it worked. The Fire roared up to the ceiling above me and separated me from the soldiers. Shifting my weight to my right foot and breathing in the blazing air around me, I thrust my hands forward, breathing out as I did so. That caused the wall of flame before me to slam into the soldiers and many screamed in pain. Those who couldn't react fast enough to make a shield of fire to protect them. Or maybe they had a couple of nonbenders with them. When the fire dispersed there were hardly five men left standing. I knew the comet granted me a great power, but not even I had expected I could cause that much mayhem. Behind me I dimly heard a lot of footsteps approaching and before I could even blink there came a rain of rocks flying from behind me, slamming the rest down, crashing their bodies with brute force. Startled by the sudden attack coming from behind me, I turned and saw three men standing in broad hose stances, one of them was Chen.

"You're a Firebender?" asked the Captain and I just nodded, fully aware of the possibility that they could simply knock me down with some rocks.

"I never thought the day would come that a Firebender would attack his own people." he said and looked me directly in the eye.

"Yes, well, I'm different. But you may see some other firebenders like me today. There is battle in the city and we need to help the resistance. Will you come with us?" I asked and noticed Chen coming over to me, wearing a rather amusing expression caught between both fascination and watchfulness seeing the wreckage around us. Captain Fong looked behind himself for a moment, and seemed to count the heads of those that were fit to fight. A good two dozen, as far as I could see. Then he looked ahead again and set his gaze directly into my eyes.

"Why should we let you two have all the fun?" he announced and nodded vigourously. Flashing him a brief smile I turned and spared a quick glance to Chen, followed him out of ths maze, escaping the reek of burnt flesh and halfdead persons. To this day I blame myself for not having stayed and help them, but we were kind of in a hurry. While we had been underground, it could very well happen that General Iroh needed reinforcements, though I highly doubted that. He was a powerful bender even without a comet to give him extra might, I thought that not many would stand and fight him directly.

When we came out I could already see that the battle moved ever more upwards the city. Most of the fire and the rumble of fights now came from within the second wall. Without a second thought or even a glance backwards, I took off running towards the Order. However, as many injured and dead soldiers we passed, I believed there were a whole lot more here. The Fire Nation had had about three months to gather troops in Ba Sing Se, there had to be many of them.

When I had passed the second wall, I could see a small group of soldiers facing me, already lowering their spears to spike me. I stopped running abruptly and slid a bit on the dusted ground, making a light jump and when my feet touched the ground again, sent a fireball towards them. The fast ones jumped out of the way, while the slower ones were engulfed in flames. I doubt that I will ever be able to forget their screams as they died. I forgot everything, my mind just blanked and I attacked and redirected, dissolved fire and sent my own, feeling the energy surge through my veins with a might so powerful that I was afraid I would burn from the inside out. More and more soldiers came on and still we fought them back, but slowly our numbers dwindled. Earthbenders weren't made to fight Firebenders on days like these. Empowered by the roaring comet above, they stood no chance. In the corner of my eyes I could see earthbenders fall, screaming in agony, some of them burnt to blackened and disfigured beings.

It was then that I realised my error. I don't know how long we had been fighting, but a soldier had crept up behind me, while I was preoccupied with taking out his comrades. Even to this day I don't know how he could elude my vision, but he did. Listening to my gut instinct I turned around and saw him striking his fist towards me already ablaze with bright orange flames speeding towards me. Time seemed to slow down and I realized I wouldn't have enough time to turn and dissolve his attack. I realized within the span of a moment, that I really would die, that I would fall like the others and heave my last breath in the dust of this grand city.

Then, suddenly I felt a strong hand push my shoulder violently and I tumbled to the ground in a narrow lane. Shocked I looked to my left, had just barely enough time to recognize Chen, before I crashed to the ground. And as I hit the earth, I could dimly hear a sharp snap in my shoulder, I cried out, both in pain and in the realisation what he had done. His scream mingled with mine and for a moment, a slight piece of time, I saw his blackened body fall. A moment or two I was unable to move or even think, staring at my dying friend. And then the rage took hold of me, a wrath so fully that all other emotions were washed away, even the pain. I felt the flame within my heart blaze brighter than it had all day long or ever before and with an angered scream I sprang up again. Blinded with anger and rage I stepped onto the street again, my crying eyes on the man who had killed Chen. White fire erupted from my hands, encircling me with a pale flickering light and I took a bending stance. I didn't care that there were many other soldiers around me, in that one terrible moment I wanted to kill them all. If they wanted to play with fire, I would give them a show they wouldn't forget for the next moments, the last thing they would ever see would be my flames and the last thing they would hear would be the roar of the fire. I placed my weight on my left foot, drawing my right in a circle around me, my arms mimicking the movements fluidly. With a powerful thrust forwards I gathered the flames together and sent them in a long serpent-like form towards my offender. I heard his terrified shriek and amidst my anger I smirked cruelly. I had never really performed the Serpent-form, I had only practised the moves when I was younger. It is a special technique in Firebending, where the fire takes the shape of a great serpent and can be controlled by the bender and set to any offending force. Dimly my mind informed me that this had been the vision I had. The serpent was sent by me in revenge of Chen's death. Everything fell in place and happened as fate intended it to happen.

As the serpent swirled ahead, each one of its movements mimicking mine, and the roaring of the fire through the air took hold of me; embracing me in a melody of anger and death, as I heard the screams of the soldiers around me while they realized they had just killed the wrong person, I poured all my wrath in one final blow. I let the serpent twist in a curve around me and let it go, producing a searing pathway that devoured everything in its path. The circle of fire sped outwards and slowly the screams died down until I could barely hear a whimper from my enemies. I knew without looking that they were dead, they couldn't have survived this blow. I had taken down at least twenty soldiers with one blow, but I heeded it not. I wasn't proud of it, I only felt the weariness creep closer into my mind. I never thought that I ever could pour this much force in one stroke, but I had.

Trembling I staggered back to my fallen comrade and dear friend. He was still breathing, but his wounds were too severe, his breathing too raspy and laboured. I knew he wouldn't make it through.

Sobbing I collapsed next to him, wanting to touch him once more, but knew that touch would only make the pain worse. Never before had I been this close to someone who was dying and yet could do nothing to hinder it. Yes, Yon had died from my hands and I had killed many soldiers of the Fire Nation, but they all had meant nothing to me. But with Chen, things were different. He was a good person and now he would die because of the mess I had dragged him into. Tears stained my pale and dirty cheeks and despite the warmth around me I felt cold and lifeless. I think I whispered his name, but I cannot be certain about it. I could only sit there and stare into the bright green of his eyes and watch the light within them die slowly. I will never forget the sight of his eyes on that night. As much as it hurt me, he was glad that I was at least not hurt by the flames. He was happy to die for me.

His breathing gradually evened out and as the last spark in his eyes faded, his heart stopped also and he died.

Sobbing helplessly I broke down, leaning over his burnt and silent chest, crying and screaming in agony over his loss. If I were to be a hundred years old, I will never forget the sight of his dead eyes, staring into the crimson skies above, illuminated by the comets ghostly glow.

After what felt like hours, but couldn't have been more than mere minutes, I felt the cold within my heart increase and banish the rest of my emotions along with the fire within me. I didn't care anymore, Chen had died because he wanted to save my life, spare it from the fire of rage, but I couldn't care less if I lived or died. Trembling I breathed a kiss to his burnt cheek and stood up. I knew the light within my eyes was also extinguished, I felt like I was dreaming. In a way, I even wished I was dreaming, for it would mean that this wasn't real. I wished to be taken away, far away from all this sorrow and death surrounding me. Staggering I grabbed my sword (I couldn't even remember having used it), pulling it weakly out of the dirt on the road and dimly I could see the crusted blood on its now blackened sharp edge. But even though I wanted to fight or had to fight, I didn't know if I still possessed the strength of body or mind to do so. My vision was blurred by tears and grief, I could hardly see anything despite Chen on the ground.

As I saw dark shapes come towards me, I weakly raised the sword in a desperate attempt to fight them off. I wouldn't permit battle to roll over my fallen friend, I wouldn't let his body being burnt to ashes by some cruel soldier taking pleasure in hewing the dead.

Yet even as I made a shaking step forwards I felt an excrutiating pain come over me, spreading from my chest and raging trough my entire body. Instictively I dropped the sword and grabbed my chest. I had never before felt such an agony and somewhere within my mind a tiny voice cried that something happened to Zuko. I was experiencing his pain, may the spirits know why exactly.

I cried out, a terrible shrieking cry, while I felt my limbs twitching and numbing, loosing all feeling in them.

As I fell to the ground I heard an evil chuckle; a woman laughing maniacally, before the darkness claimed my mind and I knew no more.


As I emerged back from the void, I immidiately felt that the comet was gone again. I hadn't opened my eyes yet, but I could feel that this cosmic power that had surged through my body was gone again. Dimly I heard people talk, but was too exhausted to respond in any way. I could only lie there, weak and shattered, like a precious porcelain doll thrown away by a spoiled child.

I had no idea how long it had been since I had lost myself in the darkness and if I was honest to myself, I didn't want to know anyway. I had done my part in this war, however small it had been and now I wished for nothing more than to rest in silence. And while I thought of the battle for Ba Sing Se, I felt my tense muscles relaxing, as if a heavy load had been lifted off my shoulders. A weight that had been there since the day I was born, now it was gone and I almost felt like floating. Somewhere within me a voice cried that the war was over now and that the Avatar had restored peace to the world and my vision had come true. I didn't know if it really was the truth, but I hoped it was. If so, then at the very least Chen's death wouldn't be in vain. And with the cruel image of his dead eyes, whom I knew would haunt me forever, I finally escaped the darkness of my own mind and emerged into the light of another day; though I had no idea how long it had been since my mind blacked out.

I was lying in a splendid and huge room, on a comfortable bed with beautiful tapestries on the walls, covered by a light blanket. My golden eyes took everything in, while the feeling returned to my limbs again.

Presently I heard a kind voice close to me and turned my head to find General Iroh sitting at a table not far away, holding a teacup.

"Don't move too much. You have been unconscious for two days." he said, his grave and concerned gaze resting on my features.

"Two days?" I asked bewildered, trying despite his advise to lever myself up into a sitting position. Since I had been on my own, I always had to be strong, now wasn't much different.

I groaned weakly as pain surged through my chest and shoulder, I remembered the snap I heard when I fell and looked down on myself. I was bandaged, my left arm in a plain white sling and I couldn't move it fully. Guessing that the bone had been broken by the impact I took, I tried not to apply additional pressure to it. It seemed that my muscles cried out in agony over the overuse they had received in the past few weeks. Forcing myself to breathe calmly and concentrate on the simple task of sitting up, I managed it eventually. My now blurred gaze returned to the retired General, sitting at the table, now pouring a second cup of tea and handing it to me. Shakily I took the cup and drank the hot liquid slowly.

"Yes, two days. We were all worried. A member of the Order saw you do the serpent form and gathered some more to help you. But when they reached you, he said you collapsed and were twitching. He brought you to the healers right away." The eyes of the old General were grave and I knew he must have heard of Chen's death. Again remembering the disfigured and burnt body of my friend I couldn't keep the tears at bay any longer. Silently they fell, while I tried my hardest not to slip into despair. But it was a hard struggle. Though I should have been joyful and celebrating this day of freedom, I could only feel the dull ache of a life that had been lost between the wheels of fortune. I stared straight ahead, for some reason I didn't want General Iroh to see me like this. My plan didn't work, for I heard him come over and sit down on the edge of the grand bed.

"I am grieved over the loss of your friend. He was a good man." he said quietly, while he just looked at me. Slowly I gathered the strength to meet his gaze.

"I know. He wanted to save me. He pushed me out of the way and died in my stead. It should have been me, he had done nothing wrong. I paid no attention, it should have been me getting punished for it, not him." I whispered brokenly and looked away again, shamed by the tears in my eyes.

After a few minutes of silence, which I took to regain control over my emotions, I heard the General speak again.

"And if you had died, he would be sitting here, saying the same. He was an honorable man and died with honour. I'm sure he wouldn't want you to say such things. He sacrificed his life for yours, he wouldn't want you to throw it away in grief."

There was so much sense in what he said. Once more I felt the reason why Zuko loved his uncle so much and slowly I felt the grief within me subside enough for my mind to think clearly again.

"Where is he now?" I asked and surpressed a shudder.

"We have buried him in the traditional Earth Kingdom rites. His grave is among the other fallen ones, regardless from what nation they came." Iroh answered and I could see his own grief over the losses in his eyes.

"How many?"

"Fifteen of the resistance and over a hundred of the soldiers. Chen lies with his comrades of the guard." he answered and I promised myself I would go to their graves as soon as I could move again.

As I drew a deep breath I felt a dull pain in my chest and directed my questioning glance back to the General.

"What happened to me? I remember a terrible pain and then nothing. What happened to me and how is Zuko and the others?" I asked worriedly.

"What happened exactly to you I don't know. But the Avatar and his friends as well as Zuko are fine. I received a messenger hawk yesterday from Katara. She said that Aang has defeated the Fire Lord and Zuko has now been crowned. Its a shame I couldn't have been there. But she also wrote that Azula had shot Zuko with a lightning bolt. It was aimed at Katara, but Zuko jumped between and saved her life. Katara took Azula down, but I believe that the pain you felt was the pain Zuko experienced when he was hit by his sister. Only because of Katara his life was spared." he explained and I felt my eyes getting bigger in wonder over this tale.

I had never before felt Zukos pain like this. Sure, I had felt horrible when his father had scarred him, but not like this. Silently I wondered what would have happened if he had died from the lightning. Would that have meant my death also? The thought chased themselves around my my mind and I couldn't help but wonder.

"But he's fine, isn't he? And Katara? She took Azula out? Is she injured? And what of the others?" I had so many questions piling up in my head that I couldn't bring them in order. Yet General Iroh only smiled and tried to fill me in on everything that had happened as far as he knew it.

After an hour or so, as I grew weary again, he left me and advised me to get some sleep. And I slept, a sleep so wholesome I couldn't believe it. No visions, no dreams, only a warm dark space surrounded me and I felt calm and secure. I slept the rest of the day and the night away and didn't heed the healers coming in and doing their best to help my condition.


Yeah, I know, I'm a bad bad girl for doing this, but it just happened while I wrote and it seemed fitting^^ Sorry to all who liked Chen! (Me included) It was just necessary for him to die, I don't know what else to say on this subject...