Weeeeelllll Hellooooooooo, and welcome to another chapter of this fic that is now on it's 13th episode, and still has more content for all of you! And thanks to StormflyVN and luckyalips for joining to this adventure, hopefully you enjoy it reading as I enjoy it writing and drawing it
To "Guest": Hopefully you receive this message xD, well speaking about Suki… read chapters 9 and 8, that's all that I have to say for now
And that's it for now, remember to follow me on my Pixiv and on Twitter AND if you want to talk with me about anything, you can find me on Discord as Legend355#5444
Enjoy chapter 13!
…..
Chapter 13: The Stalemate
The trip was not that long fortunately, Appa made its arrival to Agni on a reasonable time, ready to arrive to the fire palace to rest, but once on the entrance, one of the guards intercepted them
"Sorry for interrupting you, avatar Aang and mistress Katara, but the fire lord wants to talk with you on the war chamber room."
Once there, they noticed that the 5 generals who composed the war chamber, and also Sokka and Toph were there and, as Aang looked at his friend, while still serious, he didn't look angry, Aang and Katara took seat and had to wait just little time until Zuko appeared to take seat on his position
"First of all, thank you everyone for coming here, second, thanks to the war chamber for its patience with Sokka and Toph, and of course to the two for being on charge of the nation while I was absent." Everyone made a reverence after hearing that "The situation is the following, after I came back from Omashu, I received a letter coming from the war chamber from Ba Sing Se, their attempt to set Chin's town free was unsuccessful."
Hearing that was hearth-breaking, it had to happen while Aang and Katara were traveling, otherwise they could have helped
"How that something like that happen? The earth kingdom has more than enough soldiers to crush the raiders" Toph said
"That's the problem, both my father and the evil avatar knows that, they won on river's town due to specific circumstances but this time, as they were losing, the raiders played cheap on the soldiers and got captive a group of innocent people before the town was free, due to that a surprise attack came, and the soldiers were defeated on that town."
"What a bunch of cowards" one the generals said after hearing about that desperate measure "People like this have no honor at all"
Zuko continued"Of course they don't, the information finished that the menace continues, if they see anyone coming from any of the water tribes or the fire nation, they will immediately start a genocide on the cities they already conquered."
"But Kuei and Bumi know this and probably the other towns, including Omashu and Ba Sing Se must be fortified by now, am I right?" Toph asked
"Yes, that's the situation, the raiders cannot invade the other towns so easily now."
Once Zuko said that, Katara asked "So, are we on a stalemate?" Zuko nodded "For how long?"
"Until the raiders decide to invade Omashu, apparently King Bumi has a strategy to stop them there, but he didn't tell me which was the strategy."
Another general added "But miss Jin is on Omashu, aren't you worried about her life?"
"I am, again, Bumi promised me that she will be fine."
"That's useless" finally a rebel general appeared "If you ask me, in order to finish this off as soon as possible, we must go alongside the water tribes at the same time, and crush them as the cockroaches they are."
Aang had to interfere in order to calm the situation "But Zuko is considering the casualties on a plan like that"
"Exactly, trust me when I tell you that I really wish to follow your plan general, but I don't want to lose any other life, we already lost a lot."
Something that caught everyone off guard, but then Sokka added "Probably they want to extend their dominion over the entire planet."
"What?" everyone asked
The warrior started to analyze "Just think about it, city that they conquer, city whose soldiers somehow are now on their side, and we didn't even know why, Kyoshi's island was conquered, and now the Kyoshi warriors are helping the evil avatar and Ozai, just imagine what can happen if this occurs on the rest of the earth kingdom, the water tribes and later on the fire nation."
It was true, like a brainwashing, the evil avatar was turning their friends against them, but as the leader that he has to be, Zuko was having some ideas "Generals, reinforce the defenses on the frontiers as soon as possible."
"It will be done, fire lord" the 5 generals left the place
"I need also to give alert to the water tribe on the north pole."
Surprising everyone, Sokka stood up "I'm going"
And Zuko nodded "Thank you friend."
Toph was looking at him on absolute silence, it was his decision after all, but she had another idea "While this happens, Aang, you will have time to continue your training, now on metal bending."
"Great but…"Hearing about that made the avatar to remember the situation of his friend "What about your powers?"
"Idiot, my knowledge was not gone…" Then she smiled "Nah I'm kidding, look at this "Toph removed a piece of the floor with her earth bending
Looking at her made both Katara and Aang to go and hug her friend as they were really happy for her
"That's amazing Toph!" Aang said
"You just defied everyone expectations, as you always do!" Katara added
Top corresponded the gesture with a big smile, while Sokka was just watching "My powers are coming back exponentially, so is just a matter of time until my old me comes back"
As Sokka was still watching, he decided to say something "Well… for that you have to be blind again…"
Silence and then, all the 5 friends burst in laughs, and while laughing, Zuko had an idea of what to ask -Jeje, by the way Aang, how was your training with my sister?
That broke the entire happiness from the avatar "Well, we were doing fine, in fact I can shot lightning with Katara's help now but…"
Looking that her boyfriend was having difficulties to say it, Katara had to do it"Azula lost her fire bending."
What she said took Zuko off guard "What, how?"
"I guess that even someone like her has a little glimpse of hope well, even with what the dragons said about her" Aang said
"As the dragons said that she was unworthy of fire bending, we decided that if she wants to take her powers back, the best thing to do is to learn how to be humble."
"Really Katara, and how?"
….
"Ok, now you know what to do Azula, and do it with a smile start now!"
Lena closed the door of the kitchen on her face, as Azula was cursing her own destiny
"How I ended up on something like this? Me, Azula, the princess of the fire nation…"
"Waitress, we are waiting for our orders!"
As she heard that scream, she sighed, on those moments if that was the way in which her powers could return, no other thing she could do
"On a moment sir, Azula is here to help you on whatever you want!"
Faking a smile was already a difficult task for her, let alone to give service to anyone, taking orders, giving it to the chef, and serving the dishes to the clients, as it was the first day, mistakes were happening a lot, like confusing the dishes
"Puagh, this cake has nuts, I'm allergic!"
"I asked for a banana split, not a banana splitted in half!"
"Why is my sandwich burnt?!"
And to top it all, an old man trying to flirt with her "Hey beauty, my house is not far from here, if you want to spend a good time with a gentleman."
That was a gross idea to say the least, but before Azula could say something, Lena was behind her, looking at the man with a really pissed off face, and with her giant hammer on one side
"We don't admit idiots like you here…"
A hammer swing was enough to send the poor idiot flying out of the building
Once the job for that day was done, Azula went back to her new room while being watched by Lena
"So, how do you think was your first day?" No answer given "Remember that tomorrow we still have work to do."
…
-My sister as a waitress" The fire lord had to analyze the entire situation, as Azula was already powerless, maybe this wasn't really bad "You know, normally I would be against the idea of getting her out of jail, but this is just so much better" Everyone laughed at that idea "Now I wonder how Jin is making alongside Bumi."
Toph remembered what the situation was on that moment with her fellow student "Right, hopefully she doesn't think that he is a better teacher than me."
…..
As that, more than one week has passed on Omashu, one in which Jin was getting used to fighting simulations and started to manipulate bigger rocks, and Bumi was always there on the battle arena of the castle in order to help her as much as possibe
"You're doing fine young one."
"I'm giving my all, master!"
But Bumi had an idea "Look behind you!"
"What?!"
Little she knew that the attack was coming in front of her, once she turned her head back, Bumi destroyed the stone on her face, causing Jin to cough the dust
"Cof, cof, cof" That was not fair."
"Trust your senses more that you trust on the words of others."
"Understood…"
…
On Agni the meeting was over so everyone had the rest of the day free, everyone aside of Sokka who was preparing everything for his turn to travel to the north pole for later on the night, packing everything on a huge bag
"Returning to the north pole, it will give me such memories…"
"How long are you going to stay there?"
Behind him, Toph appeared "Well, as long as necessary, preparing the strongest defenses possible in order to contain an attack will take me some time"
"Maybe you should go with some company."
Sokka smiled "So, you want to come with me?"
"I would like to, trust me, but I have to help Twinkle Toes in order for him to learn metal bending, maybe Katara should go with you."
But he denied that "No, all of you must convince her to teach Aang the blood bending, I think that while is an evil sub art, against this enemy it is totally necessary" but Sokka noticed how Toph was feeling a little depressed "Hey, Don't worry for me, I will be fine, like you, I can take care of myself."
After saying that, he received a hug from the earth bender, as she was starting to cy a little
"It is just that, after you helped me to start recovering my powers… I will miss you Sokka."
"I will miss you too, Toph." And he corresponded the hug
"Please, promise me that you will come back safe."
"I will"
As the two were looking to the eyes for some seconds…
"Sorry for interrupting Sokka, Toph" It was Zuko
2nd time that it happened to the water tribe warrior "Ah dude… sorry, I know that I have to go."
Then Zuko realized his mistake "Right but, if you need a little more of time well…"
"He will go, don't worry Zuko" as the boys were leaving, Toph just sighed "That was my romantic moment…"
Moments later, the group was dismissing Sokka on his new mission, as the group were on the shipyard near to Azulon's gates, Zuko was talking on that moment
"We have to maintain contact if anything happens."
"Of course," Sokka said, then he received a hug coming from Katara "I will miss you, sis."
"I will miss you too, if something, please send greetings to all the people on the northern water tribe."
"For sure, and Aang…"
Surprised that Sokka mentioned him, Aang answered "Yes, my friend?"
"Train hard, please don't doubt for the next time, and get ready to kick that fake avatar's ass." Even if serious, he extended a friendly punch to Aang
And he corresponded "That's a fact."
Minutes later, a group of ships was leaving the shipyard, looking to his friends, Sokka the put his attention to the horizon, specifically to the sky, a half moon was on there
"Yue… we will meet once more…"
But at the shipyard, Aang had a question "Why you didn't say goodbye to Sokka?"
"Ask Zuko about that."
"Yeah… it's pretty weird to say the least, sorry Toph" as an answer he received a punch on one of his arms "Ouch."
Neither Katara or Aang knew what was wrong
…
2 weeks have passed since Aang left Ba Sing Se after cutting his lightning bending training due to Azula losing her powers, but of course, that didn't mean that the Blue Fire Raiders were doing nothing, as because of them being assaulted by earth kingdom troops, they had to menace them to cause a genocide if they continued interfering, due to that, they earned time to rest and train, and that was what Ozai and Shaina were doing, especially the "Phoenix King" as he was trying to attack Shaina with thunder whips, but she defended herself pretty nice using her owns, the two had a public watching them clashing and paying attention, then after some minutes of sparring, Shaina stopped
"Well, enough for today, good job Ozai."
He just sighed "Well, the lightning whips surely are a good addition to my sleeve, you were right after all."
"And despite that we have to continue training, not only you, but everyone here in our territory, we still need to conquer the swamp if we want to get a full connection between our territories."
"When are we going to invade?"
"Hopefully soon, once conquered we can finally try to go for Omashu, now you can go home Ozai, I also need to rest."
River Town turned into their main headquarters, while the Kyoshi's Island, and Chin's town were being controlled by the Kyoshi warriors and some of the Blue Fire riders respectively, even with that, something on that town gave Shaina a little of calmness, to walk, even without her scary black armor
As the things were calmed on that town, even some dared guys approached to her on some situations, in fact, she would live one of those right now with one strange guy
"Uuuhhhh excuse me, miss avatar…"
"Let me guess, do you want a date with me?" the poor guy just nodded "You're like the 10th guy that dared to do that, and I rejected the other 9, why would you be somehow different?"
"Well… I'm going to be honest, is a bet with some of those who you rejected, miss avatar."
"So a bet… Ok, because of that I accept."
"Really?"
"Why not? If it is to make someone angry" the guy was starting to jump as he was happy "Just remember, if you want to do any questions, do it with care, I won't answer whatever you want."
"It… it's ok, miss avatar, thank you."
As he was leaving, the lady told him "My name is Shaina… Ugh, peasants."
As she arrived again to Ty Lee and Milly's temporary home, she took seat on one of the old furnitures
"Ty Lee or Milly, come here" Milly came as fast as she could "Where is the other?"
"Checking a message that came from Kyoshi's island, the earth kingdom just cut all market lines to there and Chin's town, if that happened, maybe on this town too."
Hearing that made Shaina to get a little angry "Those assholes, fishing will not do all the job to maintain the supplies on our territories, guess that we have to prepare as soon as possible to conquer the swamp."
"Well is not going to be easy, the water benders there know their territory really well."
Hearing that girl being so prepared with the information made Shaina feel better "You're doing a great job Milly, I wonder why?"
"Because my loyalty is with the Blue Fire Riders, and while I miss Azula, our best days came with you, avatar Shaina."
The little one was being sincere on her word, something that Shaina really appreciated "I believe that I can trust on you even more than Ozai."
"Thanks…" but then Milly decided to ask something "So, can I ask you about you?"
"What exactly?"
Milly didn't hesitate "Well, is obvious that your armor technology cannot be found on any part of the world, not even on the fire nation, so…"
Shaina had nothing to lose by explaining, so she accepted "Yeah you're right, I come from the future, 200 years on the future to be exact."
Milly was looking surprised "Whoa, the future, how are things on there?"
"A bullshit" Something that caught Milly off guard "If I tell you, you will know why I had to travel so long."
"If it is so difficult to tell, it is no necessary to do it."
-You asked, so you want to know…"
As she started to remember her past, or the future of this world, things were coming to her mind
"150 years in the future, a volcano between the air nomads wester temple and the north water tribe erupted, offering a new big island for people to live, of course the 5 nations of that time, including the new Metal State, wanted to get control of that island, but an emerging group went in the middle of the dispute, the Lightning Benders…"
A group of people wearing white, yellow and blue appeared on her visions
"They wanted to get independence from the fire nation, but of course the fire lord from that time didn't want to lose control of part of its lands, that's why the appearance of this new island came at handy to solve this problems, after 5 years of disputes, a 6th nation was born, and after 5 more years, the first cities started to appear…"
Then an image of a baby being born on Agni
"While I was born on Agni, capital city from the fire nation, I was not necessarily emotionally attached to that country, instead, after my 16th birthday, when I was told that I was the chosen avatar, I decided to move and of course, the land that I loved the most was the new Country of Raion, up to that point, that nation was 40 years old and it started to become a technological utopia."
Images of her, flying on the city while smiling, totally different as how she was now appeared
"Since there was no war on that time, I guessed that my destiny as an avatar was to help the emerging countries to earn their place on the world, even the Metal State on the middle of Earth Kingdom… such an idiot I was, the Fire Nation, once again attacked."
Milly replied with a little angriness on her tone "It is their destiny to be the evil ones of the stories?"
"But this time they were not alone, the Air Nation was alongside them."
Both fire and air benders were fighting together, taking down the defenses of the country
"We were able to contain both of them due to our technology, but as we didn't receive any other help from the other countries, we were fighting alone, it was just a matter of time until Raion would fall, so we had to use a desperate resource, time travelling."
The portal was being constructed
"Alongside my technological armor suit, the country put all their hopes in an avatar born on the fire nation, but with her heart on this new country, I would never allow them to fall, the original idea was to travel 300 years on the past to stop who was known as the last air bender, Aang, from escaping, thus restoring the original timeline, but we didn't had enough time, the defenses of the country were falling down, and the portal was not fully prepared…"
On the laboratory, Shaina and some scientific on a laboratory were witnessing in horror how the invaders were entering their city
"Realizing that stopping Aang from escaping won't get for sure that our destiny would be different, and with the technology not fully prepared, we decided that I had to go only on the time that the machine would allow, 200 years in the past to stop both Aang and the current Fire Lord on this time."
Then she stopped her memories, Milly then asked
"Well, if that was the problem, why not just to tell them that? Both the avatar and the fire lord are known from being nice people."
"Little girl, they look good I know that, but their descendants showed the absolute opposite, I considered your option but it would not get for sure the peace on Raion, it is preferable to stop them both here on the present."
Ty Lee was approaching, but then she decided to stay quiet and hide near a wall, so not even Shaina or Milly would notice her, Shaina continued
"So that's the story, hopefully you understand it."
"Kind of... but wait, the current avatar is the last air bender, and as you are an avatar from the fire nation, what would happen next? There will be no air nomads to assume the role of the avatar."
Little she cared about that "Yeah, probably the cycle would be broken for good."
Then Milly yelled "But that's terrible, Shaina, you're not only killing people, you're destroying the balance of the world itself!"
Still, Shaina was not amused "For the best, look at this Milly, all the time people expect someone else to solve their own problems, making those people to become lazy and hopeless, the awakening of the avatar just gave them a reason to be the worst version of themselves, as now one all mighty hero is here to rescue them… If I succeed, when I'm gone of this world and if the avatar cycle gets destroyed, hopefully people would realize that leaving their hopes on a savior is the worst thing they could ever do."
"I see…"
"Unfortunately the spirits don't agree with me, since 5 years I'm unable to enter into avatar state due to my own decisions and my animal comrade left me… it was such a beautiful phoenix, and no avatar from the past came to my help in order to give me any advice or anything… like I would care, I dominate the 4 elements, and 3 sub arts, I'm that powerful so who cares about the avatar state?"
As Ty Lee heard that, she noticed it "So Shaina can be beaten…"
Milly had one final question "And you use your powers and your words to convince the people?"
"Fortunately, the Blue Fire Riders didn't have the need to apply that technique, I didn't want to but I had to start with the Kyoshi warriors… guess that sometimes things are not so easy as one would want…"
Then images came to Ty Lee's head, and it hurt her
"You will obey me, like it or not…"
Then thunders to the kyoshi warriors heads, making them to move really violently, specially their "Now" leader
"The pain… all the pain…"
But then it was gone, the fresh air came to her body and then, the light
"It is not your destiny dear Ty Lee…"
"Then why not to tell me?"
"I will, when the moment comes…"
So confusing it was, but then she decided to come to the living room, faking out that she just arrived
"Sorry Milly, Shaina."
"How are things going, Ty Lee?" Shaina asked
"Well, the Kyoshi warriors managed to obtain resources by stealing on a market line, but it won't last for more than 3 more weeks."
"So on 2 weeks we must have Omashu conquered, we cannot rely on the genocide menace against the Earth Kingdom anymore, we have to move as soon as possible."
Milly then said "Wait, but if we do, Ba Sing Se would send all their troops to crush us."
Then an idea came to Shaina's mind thanks to the young soldier -Some how you're right, and because of that we must be faster than them, get ready ladies, tomorrow we will invade the swamp, once done, Omashu is next and then, Ba Sing Se.
"We are going to finally rescue Azula from that jail" Milly smiled
That reminded Ty Lee that she offered herself on doing that rescue process "Right, that she is there" and again she felt uncomfortable
"Exactly, hopefully she is not angry with us."
After what the avatar said, Ty Lee started to be doubtful, why would Azula be angry with the Blue Fire Raiders?