Chapter 47
Zuko looked around the busy army camp they had established eight miles southwest of the Republic City, smiling in satisfaction at all the bustling preparation of his well drilled troops, anticipating the arrival of the Earth Kingdom army. The Dai Li had managed to put together a very impressive fighting force, when it came to the numbers, anyway. The majority of their force was made up by infantry, supported by groups of earthbenders, ostrich horse cavalry and earthbending tanks, outnumbering the land forces of the Fire Nation led army by at least two to one. The Earth Kingdom air force had a comparable number of airships to the Fire Nation, and even if they were far less experienced at aerial combat, Zuko still remained very vigilant of the danger they presented.
The size of the Earth Kingdom's army meant that it had taken a lot of time to put together, then it had needed more time to arrive at the United Republics, and it's movements had been easy to track. This had given Zuko and his command staff plenty of time to predict their approach and choose the field of battle. Going against the advice of some of his generals, Zuko had in the end abandoned the idea of luring the opposing army close to the Republic City where he could then unleash the bombardment of his navy. Instead, upon the advice of Sokka, Zuko had selected a much different location where to engage their foes.
The mountain ranges that surrounded the United Republics meant that any approaching army had a limited choice from several mountain passes to use. Monitoring the movements of the Earth Kingdom army, quickly gave Zuko the indication of the specific mountain pass they intended to use. Together with Sokka and his command staff, they had inspected the nearby terrain and discovered a large swathe of marshlands at the base of the mountain range that the opposing army would be forced to traverse after crossing the mountains.
This presented the perfect opportunity. While the wet and muddy ground would not slow down the earthbending tanks by much, it certainly would slow down the Earth Kingdom's massive infantry, and it would also render the charges of their ostrich horses completely ineffective. Even more so, the lightly forested marshlands were almost like swamp in places, with plenty of wet ground and standing water. This was an absolutely devastating setting for the many waterbenders that Katara had secured from the Water Tribes. Zuko had distributed them evenly across the defensive line that his own infantry and tank divisions were supposed to hold. With all these preparations in place, Zuko had high hopes that they could neutralize the advantage of numbers held by the Earth Kingdom forces.
That left the clash of the air forces of the two nations. Zuko had taken some precautions for that as well. His intelligence had pinpointed the airship which served as the mobile command base for the Dai Li, and they had since made plans to take it out of the battle as soon as possible. Without direction from their commanding officers, Zuko had a good reason to believe that the Earth Kingdom forces would then rout in short order and flee the field of battle.
Of course, reaching the Dai Li command ship would not be easy, and they were still in the middle of making preparations for this operation. Young Toph Beifong was standing a few yards away from Zuko, waiting for her metalbenders to finish loading large coils of metal cables onto one of the Fire Nation airships that had been chosen for the task of taking out the Dai Li flagship. He could see his beloved Katara standing on the deck of their ship, discussing some last minute details with Azula and Suki, the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors listening in on them intently.
Zuko jumped a little as at that moment, he felt someone suddenly appearing at his side, turning his head to spot Aang, having landed with his glider. "They're getting ever closer, I'd say less than half an hour away," he spoke, having returned from yet another scouting mission. "Still feeling confident, Zuko?"
"Yes, I believe we have a good plan, Aang," Zuko nodded with certainty, refusing any doubts from creeping in now at this late stage.
"I think so too," Aang replied. "I am really impressed at how you came up with a plan that makes use of all of our respective talents. Very nice attention to detail, Zuko."
"Thanks, Aang," Zuko smiled briefly at his friend. Aang wasn't wrong, Zuko had spent days pondering how to best use everyone. He had given command of the land forces to his uncle, putting Hakoda and Sokka as his lieutenants. Aang would do what he did best, act like a sort of free agent, zipping around the battlefield and assisting where he was needed the most. While Zuko would have preferred to have Katara with him on his own flagship, in relative safety, she had insisted firmly on joining the dangerous mission to take out the Dai Li command ship, and Zuko had been forced to admit that there was nobody more qualified for the role that Katara would have to play. Going with her on this secret mission were Azula, Toph and her metalbenders, and the entire Kyoshi Warrior elite force.
"I just hope that we can keep the casualties to the minimum," Aang sighed. "I really thought we would never have to fight in a war ever again. If only I had known what would happen when I forced King Kuei to sign the agreement." Zuko felt a little sick to the stomach and the discomfort must have shown in his face, as Aang pointed an accusing finger at him. "Ha, just as I thought! You did know it would happen! Did Katara also know?"
"Yes... I had told her that it was likely to happen," Zuko reluctantly admitted.
"And neither of you felt like telling me that," Aang frowned, shaking his head disapprovingly. "When did you both become so duplicitous?"
"We both agreed strongly that the United Republic of Nations needed to happen," Zuko replied defensively.
"I don't disagree, but it could have been achieved through other means and without starting a war," Aang said. "But you didn't want to make the effort of searching for another path, you just wanted to hammer through your proposal the easy way, and so you used me as a tool."
It was very hard to argue with Aang's logic, and it wasn't something that Zuko felt compelled to do on the eve of the decisive battle. "I'm sorry it went down that way, Aang, I thought I would have to press Kuei myself, but you just took over that meeting in a way I hadn't anticipated. Again, I'm sorry," Zuko said plainly. "If you no longer feel like you can support us in the upcoming battle, I'll understand."
"No, I'll help. I still believe in the United Republic and it needs my protection," Aang insisted, but then his expression turned more somber. "However... know that you and Katara have lost some of my trust and respect."
"Understood, Aang," Zuko nodded, unwilling to argue. "And now, I think I should resume my position on the flagship, with my command staff. Good luck, friend," he said, turning to walk away.
"Good luck, Zuko, and stay safe," Aang replied, jumping on his glider and swiftly airbending away.
Azula felt more alive than she could remember. Her skin prickled pleasantly from the excitement she felt at the upcoming mission. Below them, she could hear that the land forces had already engaged, and the sounds of battle filled her with a renewed surge of energy. She would do her brother and the Fire Nation proud on this day, she was certain of it.
Their ship moved through the air with at times infuriating slowness. It was encased in thick mist, hiding it from sight of the Earth Kingdom air forces. The mist was the result of Katara's waterbending as she stood over a large cauldron of water, the movements of her hands gently evaporating more and more water to surround the airship with impenetrable mist, literally hiding it in a cloud.
Azula quietly admired Katara's efforts, the respect for her brother's chosen only growing. Katara had donned some light armor underneath her waterbender's outfit, rolling up her sleeves. Sweat was slowly accumulating on her brow as she focused hard on her task, aware that a slip of her focus might prematurely reveal their airship, making them all easy targets. She was quite magnificent in her element, Azula had to admit, brave, fierce, competent, and almost as beautiful as Azula herself. She truly could not imagine anyone else she'd rather approve of as her sister-in-law.
It was taking an extremely long time for their airship to execute the maneuver to get close to the Dai Li flagship. If command had been left to her, Azula would have chosen to just ram their ship straight through the enemy lines under their cloud disguise, but the others felt that it was too risky, instead choosing for a very wide flanking move, circling around the entire field of battle in a wide arch and then appearing behind the Dai Li ship. As a result, Katara was now working herself into a state of complete exhaustion, the water in the cauldron had almost evaporated, and Azula was starting to grow more and more impatient.
"Just a little more, Katara, we're almost upon them," Suki called out encouragingly, having noticed that the waterbender was beginning to struggle mightily.
A couple of minutes later, Katara stumbled, no longer able to hold her hands upright, collapsing in boneless exhaustion. "Sorry... can do no more..." she managed before promptly passing out.
"Shit," Suki cursed aloud. "Uh, I hope she's alright?"
"Just exhausted, I think," Ty Lee replied nervously, dropping on her knees next to Katara to check up on her. "Yes, I'm sure she'll be fine."
"You better be sure or else Zuko will have the heads of us all," Suki sighed, as the mist around their airship began to dissipate now that Katara was no longer maintaining it, the wind quickly dispersing their fake cloud cover. Fortunately, Katara had done enough, and the disappearing mist revealed that they were very close to the Dai Li flagship, certainly close enough for the next step of their plan.
"Toph, fire away!" Azula commanded and the young metalbender nodded confidently, relaying the order to her students. Immediately, the thick metal cables shot out and attached themselves firmly to the hull of the Dai Li ship, the metalbenders working efficiently to create a rope bridge between the two ships.
Immediately, all eight Kyoshi Warriors sprang into action, effortlessly crossing the narrow ropes stretching across a drop of over at least eight hundred feet, showing no hesitation or nervousness. Knitting her lips in grim determination, Azula jumped on the thick metal cable, following the Kyoshi girls, crossing the gap between the ships confidently, unwilling to remain second best to anybody.
On the Dai Li ship, some of the Kyoshi Warriors had already engaged the surprised enemy. The earthbenders were rather limited in the tight quarters of the ship, unable to do much else but trying to stop the Kyoshi girls by using their rock gloves to disable their adversaries. Still, the Kyoshi Warriors were extremely adept at dodging their attacks and then chi-blocking their opponents, moving through the ship at frightening speed, and Azula was starting to feel a little frustrated, fearing that she might arrive too late for the party of smashing in some Dai Li faces.
To Azula's relief, when she finally arrived at the Dai Li command center on the airship, the battle there was at its fiercest. A few of the Kyoshi girls had been immobilized and taken out of the fight by the rock gloves, and the remaining three were hard pressed by the core of Dai Li agents. No matter how much Azula was hungering for blood, she still had the presence of mind to remember that she could not firebend and risk setting everyone around them on fire, quite possibly killing them all. But she could certainly use her lightning, as long as she kept it focused and contained its spread.
The first bolt that leapt from her fingers struck one of the agents that was about to launch an attack on the off-balance Suki. The Dai Li agent screamed as the lightning tore through him, falling to the ground with his robes blackened and smoldering. "Do you remember me now?" Azula grinned like a predator as she turned on the remaining Dai Li, some of them facing her with frightened stares. "You should have remained in Ba Sing Se, assholes!" she yelled, letting loose with a slightly wider arc of lightning that zapped an unfortunate group of three agents. They all collapsed with cries of pain, remaining still and lifeless. The last remaining agent took one look at Azula, then at his smoldering companions, then turning to run. Ty Lee caught up to him with an acrobatic leap, chi-blocking him so hard that he collapsed unconscious.
"I'll round things up here with Ty Lee and Azula, the rest of you, find the other girls and start evacuating," Suki barked an abrupt order, knowing that time was of essence. They needed to destroy the airship soon, and they needed to make a big spectacle of it, so that the entire Earth Kingdom army would be aware that their Dai Li command had been taken out. That would surely make their army rout in panic.
"I really don't feel good about crashing the airship with some of these guys onboard alive," Ty Lee said, looking more than a little conflicted about their plan as she watched Suki fiddling with the airship controls, setting the vessel on course to hit the ground where it would crash among the tanks of the Earth Kingdom army.
"You were always too much of a softie, Ty Lee," Azula smiled at the far too compassionate girl. "These guys deserve no mercy."
"Many would say that about you, Azula," Ty Lee snapped back at her.
"You know, I'm still not sure how I feel about you talking back to me like that, Ty Lee..." Azula gave the other girl the sweetest of smiles that forced Ty Lee to back off a little. Too caught up in their argument, neither of them noticed that one of the Dai Li felled by Azula's lightning had not perished. The dying and vengeful agent unleashed his rock gloves at the unsuspecting Ty Lee, the heavy blow striking the girl with such force that it threw her through the nearest opening and with a scream, she feel from the airship's deck.
"TY LEE! NOO!" Suki screamed in rage, launching her fan at the treacherous Dai Li agent with such force that it nearly took his head off, killing him for good.
Azula reacted in a split second. It took her all but two steps to dash out of the command center and throw herself after Ty Lee, falling through the air. She hadn't leapt after the falling acrobat without a plan, of course, and a burst of blue flames sprung around her feet as she propelled herself through the air, trying desperately to narrow the distance between herself and the screaming Ty Lee.
Still, the distance between herself and Ty Lee seemed to shrink too slowly. There were at most two hundred feet left before Ty Lee was smashed by the ground, and there was still a sizable gap between them both. Am I really going to risk my noble blood for this irrelevant, pathetic and soft peasant girl? Azula briefly thought to herself. Yes, I will! She resolved with determination, letting out a fierce roar as a particularly intense flame burst around her feet and she dove right after her once loyal friend.
It could not have been more than thirty feet from the ground, maybe even less, when Azula caught up to Ty Lee and seized the other girl in a firm grip. With a superhuman effort, Azula somehow managed to readjust her position, and another burst of flame shot out, but this time it propelled them horizontally, considerably slowing their fall speed. Still, the force with which they hit the muddy ground was considerable, and Azula heard Ty Lee cry out in pain as she was torn away from her.
Still, I saved her life! Azula thought to herself even as she was thrown across the painfully uneven ground. Zuko is going to be so prou- And then all her thoughts were instantly cut off as Azula's body hit something hard and heavy. The intense pain wracking her body was mercifully short, as she lost consciousness almost instantly.