Rise from the Ashes Chapter 3: Sozin's Comet Part 2
"We have stood strong for a hundred years. We will not fall today." Master Pakku yelled to the group of twenty waterbenders gathered around him. Deep down they all knew the words were empty, as did the speaker himself. Yet they should be said nonetheless.
The aged man had mastered waterbending from a young age, had decades of experience, and had taught many students including the Avatar. He was a member of the White Lotus, and the unquestioned bending master of the North Pole. In this time of distress, the defenders of the Northern Water Tribe would be looking to him for support and leadership on the front lines.
He kept up the façade of confidence, he had to. Because he felt something he had not felt in a long time.
He was afraid. He was terrified.
He knew this was the end. His own life would certainly end, but that did not matter so much to him. It was the future of his nation and the world that caused his fear.
When the Avatar was present, the siege of the North Pole was difficult, but manageable. When the Fire Nation Admiral's plan to kill the moon spirit failed, the Fire Nation's invasion force was thrown back into the waters that they had come from.
But that invasion force and fleet back then was insignificant to what Master Pakku saw now.
The wall of ice that defended the city had stood through a hundred years of war.
The Fire Nation, while enhanced with the power of Sozin's comet, had burned it down in a matter of minutes.
Every warrior that had manned the wall was killed almost immediately by the firestorm generated from above on the flying airships.
The massive ice wall melted, displacing the water and flooding the once proud city. For those unable to bend water, they were as likely to drown as they were to be burned.
Master Pakku was well aware of the circumstances around the fall of the air nomads. He had found it odd that an entire group could be destroyed so quickly. Only now, experiencing the same thing first hand, could Pakku understand how so many benders were efficiently eliminated during a single day.
Pakku had traveled the world, but had spent most of his time here at the pole. He had never been so warm as he was now. The heat of the flames was unbearable. Beads of sweat pooled on his forehead and dripped into his eyes. He blinked the moisture away and gathered his strength once again.
The airships were now directly over the city and the soldiers stored inside them descended from the sky.
"Why are they coming at all? Why not continue to burn the city?" One of his students asked between breathless gasps.
She was a girl no older than fourteen. She was gifted, hard-working, and had as much potential as anyone he had ever taught. He would have scoffed at training her only a few short months ago. Now she stood side by side with him while they faced their home's annihilation.
Pakku knew why the Fire Nation was attacking this way now. As a member of the White Lotus he was well connected with the events of the world. Even besides that, rumors had reached as far as the North Pole of the Avatar's death. With Water next in the cycle, it was no mystery to anyone with this knowledge what Fire Lord Ozai intended.
The last time a Fire Lord had pursued a young Avatar, the Avatar's nation had been destroyed. Master Pakku would fight with his last breath to prevent waterbenders from meeting the same fate as the Air Nomads.
Pakku and his students had to exhaust too much of their effort into stopping the rising waters from flooding the residential areas and killing hundreds of civilians. This distraction made it all the more easy to fall prey to a burst of flame.
They overlooked the flooding that would occur, but the fact that they are descending rather than razing everything makes it clear. They want the new Avatar alive to live under their thumb. The Earth Kingdom is vast, it would be much more difficult to locate the Earth Avatar should the Water Avatar die today.
He would not refer to the probably deceased Avatar. He could not afford his students to lose any more of the hope that they may still have.
"Regardless of motive, the Fire Lord has sent his minions to us, and we must face them."
A group of Fire Nation soldiers in full armor descended from the airship. Gathering water around him with the ease and grace of a master, Pakku swiped the stream of water like a whip, sending a dozen soldiers crashing to the ground or into the water to drown.
His students followed his lead, and with all the strength they had, they fought back against impossible odds.
She grinned as she peered down at the collapsing city. It was over before it began, that was clear. There was no defense the savages could possibly fathom that would save them from this onslaught.
Princess Azula fired a blast almost lazily that split a building of ice in two and sent dozens of people scrambling to avoid its collapse.
I am indestructible, invincible, perfect!
"Azula"
She snapped out of her focused gaze so quickly that she nearly backpedaled off the airship and into the city below her.
What was that? A trick of the wind? It must have been. It was nothing.
"Azula"
"Impossible." She breathed between clenched teeth.
"Azula, this is not who you are."
The voice was clear as day. As certain as the Fire Nation's victory today. How many times had she heard it as a child? It had always been coddling Zuko, and degrading her. A thorn in her side. She thought she would never have to hear that voice again.
A fantasy that is all. What is this nonsense? My subconscious fighting back against me? Telling me what I am doing is wrong? I am not some weak-willed simpleton like Zuko!
She snorted. What was she doing? Total victory was at hand. She would not let this figment of her imagination get in her way.
Azula laughed to calm herself. "Well mother, how nice of you to join me. I always did like an audience. You thought me a monster. You were right of course, and now I am going to show you what a monster can do!"
She sent a crack of lightning in the air to herald her arrival, and then leapt off the airship, keeping herself upright through the propulsion of her own flames. She slowly and elegantly descended into the chaos of the city.
Pakku saw him overhead on the airship that made up the center of the formation. Even from the high altitude, the figure stood out clearly with a ridiculous robe that was furiously flapping about in the wind. The flames that came from his hands far exceeded what the other firebenders were capable of, with the exception of whoever was summoning the blue flame earlier.
The Fire Lord
There was no chance of preserving the city, but there was one thing that Master Pakku could do here today.
This was most likely the end for all waterbenders defending the city today, his students who he had trained. But he needed to give them a fighting chance, perhaps some of them could escape somehow. If half of the tales of the Fire Lord's bending prowess was true, drawing the Fire Lord to him would mean certain death for all the waterbenders at his side.
All three of them remaining. The other seventeen had either been separated in the chaos during these last few hours….or they were gone. One moment fighting at his side, the next they were taken away.
"The day is lost." He told his three remaining students. "Defend your families if you can and look for a way to escape."
"We are not leaving you master" It was the fourteen year old girl. Kanna was her name. How fitting that the two female students he had taught was the granddaughter of the woman he had loved, and a girl who shared the same name.
"All waterbenders will be killed. It is over now. Save yourselves, as long as you live, the gift of waterbending from the North lives on. My destiny lies elsewhere."
Kanna had continued to protest, and Pakku had to summon a wall of ice to separate the two of them and prevent the girl from killing herself by facing the Fire Lord.
Master Pakku took a deep breath and cleared his mind. Gathering a massive amount of water around him he hardened it into ice and formed it into four long, sharp spears.
He hurled the the first spear hundreds of meters in the air straight at the Firelord. A burst of flame melted the spear effortlessly, but the other three spears that were thrown simultaneously tore large gashes into the Firelord's airship. Summoning as much water as he could handle from the ocean, Pakku hit the airship with enough force to puncture the hull and sent it off course to crash away from the city.
But as Pakku expected, the Fire Lord was unharmed. Propelled by nothing but the force of his flames, Fire Lord Ozai soared through the air to meet his attacker.
No one could stop Azula as she carved her path in any direction she pleased. Non-benders had no chance whatsoever. Most had to dive off of bridges and ledges into the water to avoid her flames. The resistance was pitiful and the outcome for the city had been decided some time ago. She had not even seen a waterbender yet. These non-bending peasants were not worth her time. She developed a scowl on her face as she paced the city in a predatory fashion looking for a worthy opponent.
The Fire Nation soldiers bowed to her as she passed and even this failed to please her as it normally would have. Now the voice in her head was only getting louder.
"Azula…Azula…I love you"
"Shut up" The princess snapped, confusing the soldiers who had just bowed to her and had not said a word.
She launched herself in the air with the power of her flames and surveyed the city like a hawk. Looking, hoping to locate someone of note. She would never feel the power of the comet again unless she lived to one hundred and fourteen, her assault on the airship no longer sated her. She needed to use her power to accomplish a unique, direct victory. An accomplishment.
And to silence the voice in her head.
Finally she saw it, a move that she recognized from when she fought the water tribe peasant beside the Avatar. A stream of water striking in the air like a whip.
A waterbender, finally!
The Princess rocketed through the sky and sped in the direction of the attack. She landed on the ice elegantly, assumed her battle position…and lost the smile that had found its way on her face.
It was a girl no older than fourteen. Azula's own age. Her clothes were in tatters. She was a savage after all, Azula thought, but the state of her clothes was ridiculous. They were little more than rags at this point, it was clear she had been fighting all morning from the very beginning. The girl was sweating so heavily that it was a small miracle that she did not slip on the pools that she was creating at her feet. If she ever ran out of water, her own perspiration would suffice.
The girl was handling the water through the air with some amount of skill, but it was clear she was exhausted. She would not last much longer under fair circumstances, and she was surrounded by five firebenders empowered by the comet. The soldiers were prepared to end the girl's life.
"Stop! In the name of your princess!" Azula commanded authoritatively.
The firebenders immediately ceased their attack and stood at the ready like trained animals.
The water tribe girl glanced in the direction of the princess and gaped in shock. Azula was dressed in a functional, but very regal outfit. It would be clear she was royalty, even if she had not proclaimed herself as such.
"Well done peasant. I was hoping for a master but I cannot seem to find one. You will have to do." Azula assumed a ready stance and gave the girl a smile.
The girl just stood there petrified.
"Come on now!" Azula snapped. "I thought the savages did not allow girls to fight, so you at the very least intrigue me. We of the fire nation are far more cultured and do not deny anyone their gifts. How many times did you sneak out in the dead of night to practice making water dance in the sky? So come on! Show me what you have peasant! I demand it of you!"
The girl fell to her knees. "Mercy" she said in a faint voice. "Mercy, please. I don't want to die."
Azula was instantly reminded of her brother begging for mercy from her father. She had stood in the audience with a satisfied smirk when her father answered that plea. Should she do the same? It is what her father would have wanted. This girl was nothing, as insignificant as the non-benders that she had tossed aside in the streets. Yet she found herself not wanting to burn the girl on the spot.
"I do not reward weakness, peasant! Fight back!" Azula sent a shot of flame over the girl's head. It was not close enough to harm her, but it kicked the girl's survival instincts into action and Azula got the reaction she was hoping for.
The girl was good, Azula had to admit. The girl must have actually been trained, and by a master more than likely. The attacks were varied and not as weak as would have been expected of a novice. But the girl was tired, and even if she had not been she would not have been a threat to a prodigy like Azula who had been trained since she was old enough to stand.
After a minute Azula got bored and decided to end it. She slapped the Water Tribe girl's attacks aside with ease, and sent a burst of flame that caused the girl to lose her balance and collapse onto the ice. She was completely helpless.
Never grant mercy to the weak. They are not worthy of it. Her father had told her that many times. She should finish this farce. She had struck down the Avatar, this girl was nothing!
The two girls' eyes connected as Azula began to summon lightning on her fingertips. The blue eyes of the water tribe girl widened in fear for an instant before she closed them and resigned herself to her fate.
Azula felt the usual rush as she prepared to release the building energy. She had struck the Avatar without mercy, she should be able to commit cold blooded murder without hesitation.
"Azula" The voice said again. This time it sounded as if it were pleading.
Azula sent the bolt of lightning harmlessly into the air. Empowered by the comet, the lightning lit up the sky for the entire city to see.
"I am proud of you Azula, I love you." The voice said.
"Get up!" Azula said to the girl, trying to wipe the voice out of her head. "Get up or I will have to leave you here and I cannot answer for what will happen to you then. You have proven you aren't completely worthless, so I will let you live. You wanted mercy? Behave and I will let you serve me."
"Princess Azula." One of the soldiers said, who had been standing silently the entire time. "The Fire Lord's orders were that all waterbenders…"
"I know my own father's orders! How dare you question my knowledge! There is no waterbender here, there never was. Do you understand me? I punish those who misunderstand me severely." She said this as pointedly and threatening as possible.
She turned to the four other soldiers. They all had no rank. They were all common grunts of no renown, they would not dare defy her. "Do you all understand me?"
There was a moment's hesitation.
"Yes, Princess"
"We understand, Princess"
They are still afraid….good. They will be silent. Fear is the only reliable way.
The North had fallen. The Fire Nation had eliminated a nation once again during a single day.
I should be elated, as I was when this day began. When I felt the comet's power. My power. Nothing is standing in my way. So why am I suddenly so unhappy? Why did I hesitate? It goes against everything my father ever told me. It was weakness. So why did I hesitate? Why did I protect that peasant? What is wrong with me?
"What is wrong with that child? She had overheard her mother say once when she had thought Azula was out of earshot. That phrase kept replaying in her mind over and over again.
She was barely listening when her father gave a victorious speech to the soldiers about their glorious victory. She barely registered that her father was boasting about slaying a waterbending master during the battle.
She prided herself on being in control and confident. Now that she was a conqueror, she had never felt so unbalanced.
Coming up in the next chapter or two: Zuko attempts to leave the Fire Nation with Mai, and the Gaang arrives at the South Pole during Sozin's Comet