Rewrite, Rewind

Chapter 34


Iroh traveled through base camp, frowning thoughtfully as he traveled along the dark paths. Commander Zhao was creating a mess, demanding them to remain and continue the fight. 'Casualties are apart of war, it never stopped us before.' Were the man's cold words to Iroh during the war meeting. Thankfully all the other commanders metaphorically jumped at Zhao's throat while Iroh quietly left the meeting. If they burnt down the tent in their argument, or in whooping Zhao's over-confident smug grin right off of his face, Iroh wasn't going to complain. He had already burnt his son's body to ashes and the general who once guarded the outer wall had made him a special urn for Lu Ten.

"No parent should bury their child first," the outer-wall general told him, passing him the carefully carved urn for his son. "I understand your grieve well…" Iroh sighed as he opened the flap to his tent and looked at his desk, his son's urn sitting patently beside the letters, he had yet to send home.

"Oh, General Iroh," he looked towards his table, where his tea set was steaming with the scent of jasmine filling the air. The soldier from the riverside two nights ago, a female soldier named Yu Jing, was standing with a teapot in hand. "I was just making you some tea sir," Yu Jing blushed like a child caught doing something they shouldn't be doing. "I was going to bring it to the meeting tent…"

"It's fine," Iroh sighed and moved to one of the chairs at his table. "I'm pretty sure Zhao is in a fight with the other commanders at the moment. So we may not have a war-meeting tent in the morning." Yu Jing said nothing as she pored him his tea and passed him the carefully carved cup. Iroh stared at the warm murky liquid for a moment before looking up at the young soldier, staring at her dark-gold eyes filled with conflict he could relate with. "What is it, soldier? You've never hesitated like this before."

"…Lady Hai He has awakened," Yu Jing said slowly, it was only her tone of voice that prevented Iroh from jumping to his feet and running to the temporal medical building.

"…What is wrong?" Iroh feared the answer

"…she's on the warpath," Yu Jing answered, cringing with the words. "she entered Ba Sing Se and has started to attack the men we know to be the 'Dai Li'. Sapphire and Lin have followed her to ensure her escape should she faint again."

"Why didn't you stop her?" Iroh asked jumping up from his seat, his candles threatening to rise with his motion and catch his tent on fire.

"Could you?" Yu Jing asked, stopping Iroh from his charge towards the exit. "She wanted La to switch herself and Lu Ten but La ignored her pleas and sent her back. She's lost all hope…"


Every soldier who charged her ended in a mess of bloodstains on cobblestone. Every stone thrown her way was shattered before it reached her. Every blade that threatened her clattered to the soaked ground in pieces. There wasn't a soldier in all of Ba Sing Se that could challenge her. With her grief, her spirit-blessed skills, and the full moon shining high in the perfect clear summer night sky—no one could stand against her.

The Dai Li tried their tricks, stone, and metal chained together, but she blood-bent their hearts to tear apart. The soldiers tried to stop her, tried upheave her feet but their attacks were pointless as she danced through the air. She sped through the air attacks of falling boulders. She slipped through the close combat soldiers, digging her icy-claws into their bellies as deep as she could. With every dead man that tumbled at her feet, another scarlet stripe painted her body. So focused on charging towards the palace that she had forgotten to watch her back.

The child's war cry was his first mistake.

She twisted, fingers spread wide as she lifted him into the air, staring into his frightened green eyes as his weapon clattered to the ground. She recognized a child, a boy trying to prove himself a man. She set him down and froze his feet to the ground, ensuring he would not be able to follow her further. The boy said nothing as she walked away from him, the few attacks aimed from above were diverted, ensuring his safety as she continued forward.

At the palace gates, everything inside of her seemed to change. She brought up the waters buried deep underground and brought down the water from the air surrounding the palace. Great pillars of ice shook apart the grounds, freezing all who dared to venture outside. She called forth the waters, chilling the air and surrounding herself with the haunting mist of dawn on an iceberg. The soldiers of the palace shivered as they tried to attack, their bending weakened with the heavy water in the air and the ice that coated their bare feet.

Her speed increased as she traveled with expert precision across the ice, sliding across the smooth cold surface and dancing between every earthen-attack. She could feel the air around herself pulse as the residents in the palace wakened. She pulled on the spears of ice that ruptured through the palace, tearing them down and a large section of the palace while she was at it. She turned that spike into a wave of water, using it to wrap around herself and propelling herself into the air. She descended onto the palace, observing its layout before decided where to land. She took her wave and created a spike beneath her falling form, aiming it the one room that echoed with the most voices. The golden tiles of the roof crumbled under the weight of the ice; the blue stonework of the room's floor bore no resistance as well.

The throne room was filled with people, many of whom were scrambling to get away from her. She felt the earth benders first, their pull on the earth around herself being the second alert. She moved, the full moon's light surrounding her strengthen her powers even further, the earth benders crumbled to the ground, unable to attack. She stood, observing the people of the palace, and noticed that not all of the earth benders who chose to attack her were guards. She quickly released the children, allowing them to be smothered into their parent's arms. The guards would remain bowed to the ground, gasping for breath as panic seized their hearts.

"Please stop!" she looked at the speaker, an old man was standing before his own throne. "Why are you doing this maiden? What have we done—"

"What you've done?" her voice was hoarse, barely loud enough to interrupt the old man. "Did you forget we're at war? That there's been a war raging for the past ninety-four years?"

"A war?" the old man questioned, "no that's not true. Our advisors would've told us!"

"You're a liar," one of the women whimpered out, hiding in the arms of her husband.

"A liar?" Hai He questioned. "So you've all been here, living your lives peacefully, unaware of the six-hundred-day siege on your city?"

"Six hundred… what?" the old man's voice caught his throat.

"The Fire Nation has been laying siege to Ba Sing Se for the past six-hundred days." Hai He explained, her voice thin with her impatience. "Thousands of people have died. Both Fire Nation and Earth Kingdome. Soldiers and civilians. Hundreds of corpses litter your streets and you're just standing there telling me I'm a liar?" the old man crumbled into his seat, unable to stand tall and proud before the blood-stripped woman who recked his palace.

"Six-hundred-day siege," the king whispered, wrapping his wrinkled hands around his face. "Ninety-four-year-old war?"

"My King!" The old man had no time to respond before chaos erupted in the throne room. Dai Li agents attacked, distracting the blood-painted woman enough to free the earth benders under her blood-bending. The soldiers tried to attack but the woman was faster. Her spike of ice that she once stood on burst into water, she twirled it about before unleashing it into an arctic blast, freezing everyone to the walls and pillars of the room. A few earth benders and Dai Li agents were able to free themselves but not before the blood painted woman was standing before the earth king.

"Enough people have died for you ignorance," her voice was soft but it seemed to echo in the dark frozen throne room.

"Father!" Her icy-claws dug deep into the old man's neck, ignoring the spray of blood that coated her body. She had no time, however, to avoid the blow-darts aimed at her from above. Three thick darts lined themselves along her shoulders before she managed to draw up a protective water shield. She retreated from the earth king, moving back to the moonlight, hoping to restore her strength but she didn't make it. Too many earth benders broke free and they were all attacking her. The worst part was the darts, they were poisoned. Dai Li stuck to the shadows, awaiting the perfect time attack her with metal blades tossed between earthen boulders. It was a hard fight, one that seemed to last too long, but eventually, her strength failed and she laid on the ground.

"Do you like those darts?" some asked, a voice cold and hard, hiding somewhere in the darkness. She breathed, ragged and heavy, trying to concentrate on the feeling of the poison burning down her back. "They're usually used to detain rowdier prisoners but we made an exception with you, Mrs. Water Bender."

Poison, her mind called in a dull disinterested voice, a part of her already given up mixed with the part of cold detachment of reality. Just a pace away from her, the moonlight fell upon a small golden flame. Her lungs burned and her muscles shook as she reached out for that tiny golden flame. A present from the one she loved most. Her fingers encircled the golden flame, and she felt as if everything was okay.

It was okay to give up.

She could let go now and it would be okay…

"The first element may have been fire but it is the combination of fire and water that makes earth and earth merging with water creates plants and plants return the water back to its original form; thus making air." Her mother smiled as she spun, pulling water down from the dark stone ceiling overhead and through the cold damp air of the cave.

"No matter where you are, you are always surrounded by water. Sometimes its miles beneath the earth. Sometimes it's in the plants around you. Sometimes its in the veins of your enemies. And in dire situations when you have no other choice." Her mother revealed one scarlet gleaming wrist, the red line bubbled with her blood before it sealed itself closed the injury disappearing from sight.

"You can use your body's reserve of water but be fair warned, daughter of mine, that using this reserve will come at the price of your life. You should only use it if you have no other choice. Your life-water is best used to heal. To use it as a weapon will end you." The memory was sharp and clear, a reminder of her power, the power she inherited from her mother. It was a technique explained but never shown, said to be forbidden for the sake of the user's life.

She breathed, deep and slow, her body numb on the cold damp floor of the throne room. Her enemies were approaching slowly, wiry of her power, giving her the time she needed to focus on the forbidden technique her mother spoke of.

She could hear the footsteps, enclosing on her person. She felt so weak, she wanted to give up, to leave this wretched war-torn world behind. She looked up through her damp black locks, through the cold mist, through the pale moonlight, to peer at the successor of the Ba Sing Se. the young man was standing close to her, guards watching her carefully.

"History is meant to be our teacher," She spoke, her voice weak sounding even to her ears. "So let me give you one last gift."

"Gift?" the man's voice cracked, "you murdered my father!" he collapsed on the edge of the moonlight, fat ugly tears spilling down his face as he stared at her.

"Fear not prince of earth," She smiled at him, tried to do so in the same manner her mother used to smile at her. "You will have a clean slate to begin anew. Remember this: everyone in this world has something to gain and something to lose. It is the one who has nothing to lose that is the one to fear the most."

She raised a hand, not towards him but towards the moon. In this dark cold room though, no one knew what she was doing until it was too late. Several Dai Li were still hiding above, using their comrade's corpses to their advantage. Together they pulled up great spikes of earth that ripped through Hai He's body. The ice containing the frozen civilians thawed and the defenseless were freed to move on their own. The new king of Ba Sing Se stared at Hai He, the lifeless copper eyes still shedding tears, the weak sad smile, her hand collapsed to the throne room floor. A tiny golden flame slipping through her fingers to tumble across the stonework till it stopped on the edge of the moonlight spilling in from above. The prince reached forward and carefully lifted the tiny golden flame, turning it to look at the back of it. Beneath the tiny loop where red thread was tangled amongst black hair, there was a small barely legible inscription.

Heir of flame

He didn't get the chance to ponder the inscription before he felt hands on his body, ripping him away from the corpse of a water bender. He looked up, through the converging bodies of his soldiers, as two red figures dropped from the hole in the throne room roof.

"Stop! Stop! Release me!" his soldiers were trying to push him out of the room, readying themselves to fight, "ENOUGH!" his soldiers jumped back, wide-eyed and surprised at his bellow. Never before had the prince raised his voice. "Step aside, now," he ordered, shoving two soldiers aside

"My prince, my I advise you not—"

"Long Feng," he turned to the man barely two years older than himself. "you might be father's most trusted adviser but I am not my father." He turned away from the man, glaring hard as he turned to address the soldiers between him and the dead water bender. "Move aside!" his soldiers did so, his generals sweeping in before him defensively. While he was irritated he understood that they were at least trying to protect him as he approached the red figures. Once more at the edge of the moonlight, he stared down on the two figures, seeing long hair pulled into high braids atop their heads and stiff scarlet leather and black metal armor. The two figures were bowing on the cold coble floor, arms extended to lay in the water from the elbow to their fingertips, their foreheads touching the wet floor. It was a bow he'd never seen before, one that looked by far too accepting of their fates should he chose to order their deaths.

"Who are you?" he asked, he tried to ignore the shake to his voice; he'll dwell on it later.

"I am Sapphire," the one with red to her hair spoke

"I am Lin," the one with a bandage wrapped around her brow said.

"We are of the Fire Nation Army," they spoke together in perfect unison.

"What do you want?" apart of him was afraid of the answer, afraid they came to finish what the water bender couldn't.

"Please," Sapphire's voice shook, "Please let us take her home."

"We could not stop her but we can take back her body," Lin explained, her voice sounded as wet as the floor he stood on.

"Please let us take her home."

His fears were unfounded, they only wanted their ally's body.

"Alright," he agreed, "Take her back with you." The women sprang towards their friend, the moonlight highlighted their ages and the tears that fell from their eyes. Their hands shook as they touched their friend, Sapphire was the first to break, soon followed by her elder friend.

"Bring them a stretcher," he commanded, unable to look at the women who held the bloody body of their comrade. His hands tightened at his side as he turned away, ignoring the prick of pain in his hand from the golden flame pinching his palm.


please leave reviews

I love the feedback