Chapter 17: Legacies
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO
The journey to Republic City was an oddly quiet affair. Kalden usually had a great deal to say whenever he was alone with his brother. Lectures, stories to tell, advice to give –he rarely let Sarin sit in silence. This long ride was a marked exception.
Kalden stared in silence at the black shadow that flitted about his feet. The Hssk was a strange and terrifying creature. The elder Energybender had no illusions about its nature. The Mind-Eater was not helping Kalden because it agreed with his cause. The dark spirit had some ulterior motive.
Yet Kalden could not refuse the offer of power it gave. He sighed loudly and turned to Sarin.
"Leadership is a regrettable privilege, brother," Kalden said. "It is easy to lead a group to mediocrity, to accomplish nothing. To push them to greatness is much harder."
Kalden meant to end the chaotic nature of the world forever. It was one of the loftiest efforts that had ever been attempted, and Kalden had few resources to achieve it with. To that end he had been forced to make many regrettable choices.
"You are often called to make sacrifices you do not wish to make," Kalden explained. "Ones that seem to run contrary to your goals."
Kalden turned his aged, weary face to Sarin and shook his head slightly.
"You will often be called to walk through darkness, little brother," Kalden warned. "You must not forget that your goal is the light."
Sarin nodded stiffly, and the silence returned.
The roaring engine of the motorcycle made conversation near impossible. Hanjo had attempted to ask questions a few times on their ride, but Sen hadn't been able to hear. As they proceeded through the dusty terrain and rocky cliffs of the Earth Kingdom's barren southern reaches, the engine quieted slightly and Hanjo's voice could be heard.
"Are we almost there?"
"Almost," Sen assured him.
The duo had been summoned to a location deep inside Hua-Long province. A mysterious invitation had summoned them, promising leads on Hua-Long himself, and perhaps through him a link to Sarin. In order to evade detection by Hua-Long's border guards, Sen had eschewed a large troop movement in favor of taking himself and Hanjo through the countryside on motorcycle. Any detection could lead to Sarin retreating, leaving them with nothing but another dead end.
Their course brought them to a complete halt as a cliff-face stretched out before them. Sen stopped the motorcycle quickly and took a break to double-check his map.
Hanjo had many points of conversation he had considered raising, but figured Sen had already thought about them all. Sen would certainly be prepared if it was a trap, and unsurprised to see it be a dead end. Sen was a genius through and through. He would have all his bases covered, without any need for Hanjo's input.
Except, apparently, with the map. They were quite thoroughly lost.
"They really should have given us better directions," Hanjo said. "Though you can't expect much from mysterious letter-sending individuals."
"They said we should meet them under the shadow of Mount Andal," Sen said. He pointed at a peculiarly shaped mountain peak. "That's Mount Andal-"
"-And its shadow."
"Yes, Hanjo, and its shadow," Sen said awkwardly. "But I don't see or feel anyone."
"Maybe it's the time of day," Hanjo theorized. "Shadows change over time. They could just be on the other side of the mountain."
"Worth investigating," Sen said curtly. He stepped forward towards the cliff face and called out a ledge. Hanjo rolled their motorcycle forward as Sen began to slowly lower their ledge down the cliff. It was a long way down, which gave Hanjo some time to get his thoughts out of his system.
"So, say it's not a trap and there's actually somebody helpful over here," Hanjo said. "Why would they want to help us at all?"
"Lots of reasons," Sen said. "Could just be a person who wants to do the right thing. Could be a defector looking to earn himself a pardon by selling out his comrades. Doesn't matter to me very much."
Sen still had his eyes locked on Mount Andal, with his usual intensity. Hanjo rolled his eyes . That was one of the few acts of resentment that Sen couldn't notice with all his fancy extra-sensory abilities. Hanjo had been making liberal use of that fact as Sen became increasingly fixated on finding Sarin.
They reached the bottom of the cliff, and Sen immediately mounted their motorcycle once more. Hanjo barely had time to sit down and grab on before Sen sped off again, kicking up a cloud of dust beneath their wheels. The ground here was dry and rocky, stripped bare of any life other than the occasional scrub brush or desert beast.
The duo cut a speeding line across the dusty terrain, heading for the jagged peak ahead of them. Sen led them across the rugged terrain towards the shadow of the mountain. The sun was still low in the sky, and the shadow of Mount Andal stretched wide across the land. It could be a long search.
Once they were in the midst of the darkened patch of land, Sen stopped the motorcycle and dismounted once again. He took a quick look around the area.
"Still looks like nothing," Hanjo said.
"Could still be the time of day, like you mentioned," Sen added. "Maybe they'll come to meet us later."
"Guess we wait," Hanjo said. Sen was in agreement. He sat down, leaning against their motorcycle for support, and relaxed for a moment. He slightly resented being forced to waste time waiting, but even in his current state he knew that patience was a virtue. He was willing to wait- for now. Their mysterious contact only had so much time.
Rummaging through their supply bags for a moment, Hanjo found a small amount of food and water. He offered the canteen to Sen, who gladly took it, and helped himself to some of the food.
"So, read any good books lately?"
Hanjo and Sen hadn't had a long conversation in some time, and they likely had a few hours to kill. It was as good a time as any to get caught up.
"Not in the real sense, but I've been browsing some old Fire Nation military texts," Sen said. "He may have been a destructive lunatic, But Admiral Zhao had some good ideas about naval troop movements."
"You're joking, right?"
"What would make you think that?"
"You're reading Admiral Zhao's stuff while invading the Earth Kingdom."
"Okay first of all we're not invading the Earth Kingdom, we're attacking people who happen to be in the Earth Kingdom. Secondly, it's purely scholarly interest," Sen corrected. "If I show any signs of wanting to kill airbenders you can go ahead and stop me any time."
"Please, as if we could stop you," Hanjo said.
"The six of you could take me down if you really put your minds to it," Sen assured him.
"And by 'six' you really mean Miyani plus five accessories, right?"
"Eh, me and Miyani one on one could go my way. She'd need you guys for backup to take me out for sure."
"There's a chance she could beat you on her own, though, right?"
"A chance," Sen said. "Under the right circumstances. Miyani's one of very few people who's an actual threat to me."
"Very few, huh? One of them's probably Sarin-"
Sen took on a very sour look, and Hanjo quickly moved on to avoid Sen getting caught up on thoughts of his nemesis.
"Who are the other ones?"
"Suda, maybe, if he really put his mind to it," Sen said. "I'd have to hurt Yoki or Ada to get him serious enough, though."
Hanjo nodded solemnly. Suda's preoccupation with protecting the people he cared about was one of his weaknesses, but also a source of incredible strength.
"There are probably a few people in the White Lotus, too. Master Yakkul would certainly be a challenge. Fire Lord Goto and Moldun, pretty much anyone with lightning –especially the Harrier, the Energybender lieutenant I fought back on Hayao's island."
"Yeah, speaking of powerful, how strong do you think that Hayao guy is?"
"Not at all," Sen said. "He sits on a rock."
"What if he's hiding something?"
"He's hiding a lot of things, but superpowers are not one of them," Sen said. "He's just a wise man on a rock."
"If you say so," Hanjo said. He paused for a moment to eat some of his food. Sen took another sip from the canteen and then placed his hand on the ground. Another of his travelling companions apparently had something to say.
Gun, as always, had tailed his two favorite people across the nation. He always lurked underfoot, tunneling out of sight. He spent most of his time searching for food, but he was always there in a moment whenever Sen needed him.
"Hmm. Gun thinks he found something."
"Well?" Hanjo asked expectantly. "Elaborate. I can't talk to him the way you can."
"Right, sorry. He says there's a lot of tunnels around here. Badgermole sized, but no signs of badgermoles. Just human footprints."
Hanjo chomped down one last bite of food and put it back in the pouch.
"I take it you're thinking what I'm thinking?" Sen asked.
"Yeah," Hanjo said. "When that letter said meet us under the shadow of Mount Andal-"
"-It actually meant under the shadow," Sen concluded.
Sen put his canteen back and slammed his foot down. Gun appeared in a burst of earth and dirt, pausing on the surface slightly to shake off some dust that clung to his brown fur. He soon nodded his broad head towards the open tunnel he had emerged from, which lead a short distance down. Sen jumped into the center of the open pit, using airbending to slow his fall to a gentle landing. Hanjo slid down the edge of the tunnel, kicking up quite a bit of dirt, and making an awkward landing as the slope came to a sudden halt, dropping him gracelessly on the floor.
A spark of fire in Sen's hands provided illumination in the depths of the earth. The tunnel was certainly badgermole-sized, although signs of wear and age showed the tunnel had not been used by the massive creatures in quite some time. The only recent occupants of the underground passage were, as the footprints in the soft earth showed, humans.
"Good work, buddy," Hanjo said. He rubbed the badgermoles cheek slightly as a gesture of appreciation. Gun, for his part, pretended not to enjoy the petting. Sen focused his attention on the tunnel ahead.
"Guess we follow the trail," he said. Hanjo and Gun followed behind as Sen led the way down the tunnel.
Along the way Sen observed deep rivets in the cavern walls. A less intelligent sort might have taken the marks for the badgermole claw marks they were meant to mimic, but Sen could see past the deception. They were too shallow, too evenly spaced, and they were regularly placed along the walls. They were some kind of messaging system, and Sen quickly decoded their meaning.
"We're heading in the right direction," He told Hanjo. The downward claw marks pointed the way towards some kind of center of activity. Whoever they were looking for would no doubt be found there.
Signs of human activity became more and more evident as they got closer to the center. Sen could feel increasingly intense vibrations, and smell the smoke of fires carried through the stale air of the tunnels. He slowed the pace of his group as they cautiously approached. Gun managed to be surprisingly stealthy. Being in the tunnels of his own kind let him move much more gracefully than he could on the surface.
Sen crept forward slowly, getting closer the center. He could hear the vague mumblings of human voices now. He wanted to try and overhear their conversations before he showed himself.
"I don't think they can be right or left-handed," One man said. "They're animals, they walk on all fours."
"Right, but they use their claws for digging kind of like hands, yeah? Do they prefer their right or left paws for that?"
"I think it's more both of them, like this," The other man said. Sen could sense seismic vibrations that told him the man was waving his hands oddly.
"Heck if I know," His partner said with a shrug. "We should ask Old Lady Jinju."
Sen didn't know exactly what kind of conclusion he was supposed to draw from that. He stared blankly at the wall across from him. Clearly eavesdropping was not going to work. It was time to try the direct approach.
Sen turned the corner towards the fire and conversation, his hands clearly displayed so they would know he was not a threat. Gun and Hanjo rushed to catch up as the strangers in the tunnels rushed to take up arms.
"Who are you?"
"I'm a guest, I believe someone here summoned me," Sen said. "Did you all send an invitation recently?"
"I don't know anything about any invitation," One of the men said. He had grabbed a mining implement that he wielded as a makeshift weapon. Every man around him quickly did the same. Sen noticed two things about the motley crew, first being that there were no earthbenders, and second being there were no women or children.
Hanjo was first around the corner, and the armed force ahead tensed up noticeably when he approached. Sen was briefly worried they were about to attack, but then Gun likewise turned a corner. Some raised their weapons in fear, others lowered theirs in reverence.
"That's a badgermole!"
"It's got to be a trick, some decoy from the quarry."
"But look, there's no chains on it," Someone pointed out. "No scars either."
The group stopped paying attention to Sen entirely and started focusing purely on Gun. Sen and Hanjo looked between the poorly-armed militia and the badgermole. Gun did not seem bothered by the additional attention. In fact, he seemed oddly welcoming of the group ahead of him. He was usually hostile to strangers, but the crowd did not bother him in the slightest.
The aimless conversation of the militia came to a halt as someone cut through the crowd from behind. The men parted ways as someone walked through them towards the front of the crowd, towards Gun.
Much to Hanjo's surprise, an old woman stepped forward, dressed in the ragged remains of a once-fine dress. She stepped out of the crowd and looked up to Gun with an awestruck expression of wonder and melancholy on her face. She stepped forward slowly, he hands folded together.
"Oh my," She said in a feeble voice. "I never thought I'd see anyone quite as magnificent as you again."
Gun seemed to enjoy the compliment. The old woman turned to Sen respectfully.
"May I?" She asked, indicating towards Gun.
"Be careful, he can be a bit feisty," Sen said. These people, whoever they were, seemed to have a deep respect for badgermoles. Sen figured it couldn't hurt to indulge the old woman.
"I know, I've seen quite a few in my time," the old woman said knowingly. She stepped forward and held out her hands. Gun was surprisingly receptive to her touch as the old woman ran her fingers through his fur and stroked his massive jaws.
"Yes, I remember your kind," She said reverently. "Warriors, massive and strong, to protect your pack from any threats. My memories not what it used to be, but I think you might just be the biggest I've ever seen."
"Warrior, is that right," Hanjo said. "Definitely sounds like Gun."
"Gun, hmm? That's a fine name."
Gun's long, serpentine tail swayed idly as the old woman brushed his fur. Sen waited for a moment longer and then stepped forward. The gathered militia had lowered their weapons completely, so now was the time to introduce himself.
"Pardon me, ma'am, but someone from your group sent me an invitation," Sen began. The woman nodded in affirmation, though she didn't take her eyes off Gun.
"Yes, they've been arguing about it all week," The woman said. "You can follow me, Avatar."
Those among the crowd who had relaxed tensed up again. For a moment Sen thought he might have fallen into a trap after all, but they went no further than anger. They clenched their makeshift weapons tightly as Sen began to walk past them. A rare few tried to calm their brothers. Sen noticed it was mostly the younger among the group that seemed to support his presence here.
"My name is Jinju," The old woman said as she led them through the tunnels. "The two of you must be Sen and Hanjo. It's an honor to meet you both. We've heard so much."
"Not all of it good, apparently," Hanjo said. He looked briefly towards the scowling faces of the militia around them.
"Don't mind them," Jinju scoffed. "They just have a hard time separating one person from another."
Sen assumed he'd be getting an explanation for that later. At the moment, they were quickly approaching the center of the underground camp. Sen still found no earthbenders in the area, and very few women, most of them elderly or infirm. There were no children as well, of either gender.
The tunnels expanded into a massive, cavernous structure, a nexus of activity in the ancient badgermole tunnels. The expansive cave had been filled with shoddily built homes and barely-used storerooms. Racks of poorly maintained weaponry sat on the shelves all around, though it seemed there were far more weapons than those willing to use them.
Sen walked past one particular rack and took a moment to pause. The rusted helmets sitting on the shelf brought out a pang of memory from a previous life. A solid grey helmet, rusted slightly around the edges, from the uniform of Kuvira's Earth Empire. His eyes turned back to the center of the room.
On a raised platform, three men stood, of varying ages. The youngest, on the left, was an oddity: he was an earthbender. In the middle stood a stern-looking middle aged man, his hair grey around the temples, but otherwise in good shape. The man on the right was the oldest and harshest looking. He reminded Sen of Goto in the hard angles and cruel scowl on his face, and the effect was only enhanced by a broad scar covering his face. The old man's scowl only grew deeper as he saw Sen. The young man, on the other hand, smiled brightly.
"I told you he'd come," the youngest man said.
"Seven decades too late," The oldest man said.
"We've had enough of this argument," The middle man said. "Let's see what the Avatar has to say."
"I'm not entirely sure," Sen said with a shrug. "My invitation was rather vague."
"I sent it," The young man said. "We need your help."
"We needed help a long time ago, and the Avatar was nowhere to be found."
"Would you get over yourself, old man?" The younger said.
"What did I just say?" The middle man demanded harshly. The other two fell silent. The man in the middle stepped forward.
"Let me explain the situation calmly," He said. "I'll start at the beginning."
He sat down in a shoddy chair behind him. The other two followed suit. The middleman introduced himself and then the other two, pointing to each in turn.
"My name is Oren," He said. "The elder man is my father, Dalen, and this is my son, Tien. We lead the group of rebels here in the fight against the Hua-Long family's rule."
Sen nodded. It seemed he had some legitimate allies after all. Depending on Dalen's attitude, of course. The old man seemed to hold a grudge against Korra.
"We've been fighting for a long time," Oren said.
"More than a hundred years now," Dalen said bitterly. "It all started when that snake Hou-Ting came into power."
"The Hua-Long family were her closest allies," Oren continued. "With her on the throne, they started to get away with far more than they ever could under Kuei's reign. They started enslaving us, abducting all our earthbenders and enslaving the native badgermoles to strip mine the land, all our food and resources sold off to line the Hua-Long's pockets."
"Our ancestors tried to rebel, but they never had any success," Tien said guiltily. They were crushed, and the oppression only got worse."
"It was decades of suffering," Dalen said. "Until Kuvira came."
He could still remember the day. It had seemed so bright and hopeful. After years of fighting with picks and rakes, Kuvira came with armor, tanks, zeppelins, and trained metalbenders.
"Kuvira gave us the chance to finally reclaim our lives. We took it," Dalen said. "And then, just a few months later, your Coalition took it away."
"Seeing as the Hua-Longs were the enemies of Kuvira, General Iroh followed the old adage 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'," Oren said. "The Hua-Longs were put back in power, and the rebellion was crushed again."
"I led my wife and a handful of men to the old badgermole caves, and we've tried to survive ever since, freeing the slaves from Hua-Long when we can," Dalen said bitterly. "Hoping that someday we can take back what's ours. Again."
Sen could feel the all-too familiar pang of guilt that echoed across lifetimes. Korra knew they were telling the truth. The Avatar felt a pull from his spiritual side, a desire to speak. He ignored it. Maybe Korra was partially to blame for what happened here, or maybe the rebels just wanted a scapegoat. It hardly mattered to Sen. he was here to find Sarin, not dwell on the problems of the past.
"And that's where you come in," Tien said optimistically. "You were already going to fight Minister Hua-Long. You can help us, and we can finally be free."
Sen put a hand on his chin and smiled. It should have been a positive thing, but Hanjo saw that slight edge of bitter hatred to his smile. This wasn't about freeing the people for Sen. It was about getting to Hua-Long, and one step closer to Sarin.
"I don't see any reason to waste time," Sen said. "When do you want to start?"
"As soon as you can get your armies, we can-"
"I didn't bring an army," Sen said. "And going through couriers like Tien did could take weeks. We'll make do with what we have."
"What we have is a few dozen men and a badgermole," Dalen said, nodding at Gun. "It's a fools errand."
"So we'll get more," Sen said. "You said Minister Hua-Long was abducting your earthbenders and enslaving the badgermoles. So we go to one of his quarries, free them all, and then we have an army."
"We've only ever been able to free one or two at a time," Oren said hesitantly.
"You didn't have an Avatar on your side," Sen said. "Just tell me where to go."
Oren and Dalen looked at each other. Dalen seemed to have reservations about the idea, but they were mostly connected to a distrust of the Avatar. Oren shrugged his shoulders.
"We'll need information," He said awkwardly. "Time to plan. Something on this scale…We'd never even considered it."
"I understand perfectly," Sen said stiffly. "Planning is important. Take your time."
Hanjo could tell he didn't really mean that.
"We'll take care of everything," Oren said. "We already have the scouts in place. We should have everything planned out by tomorrow morning. In the meantime, please make yourselves comfortable."
Oren took a long look at Sen, a clear look of discomfort on his face.
"It's not much, but we do have some medicine, Avatar, it could help-"
"I'm fine," Sen insisted. He was still visibly injured from the many battles he'd fought recently, but he ignored all of his wounds without a care. "Let's just get to work."
Oren and Dalen went off to coordinate their revolution. Sen clenched his fist tightly. He had better things to do than wait on people. Hanjo looked at Sen's frustration worriedly. He'd been acting like this more often lately. Every delay was cause for more and more anger.
Hanjo just hoped they wouldn't delay too long.
Sen had found himself a peaceful corner of the tunnels to meditate and rest until the rebels were ready to move. Gun, as he had been for the past few hours, was surrounded by locals, some of whom were seeing a badgermole for the first time in their lives. That left a somewhat bored Hanjo to wander about the tunnels, though not too far for fear of getting lost. He'd already retrieved their supplies from the motorcycle, and now he was out of ideas for ways to entertain himself.
Oren had offered his hospitality to his guests, but Hanjo was hesitant to take it. He took one look at the supplies they had on hand and realized the rebellion had almost nothing in the way of food. There was no way he could feel comfortable taking from those who had so little.
"It's alright, help yourself," Someone behind him said. Hanjo pretended that hadn't caught him off guard and looked over his shoulder. Tien was standing around, his hands folded behind his back awkwardly.
"I know we don't have a lot right now, but you and the Avatar are here now," Tien said. "We shouldn't have to worry about food much longer."
"You're surprisingly confident in us," Hanjo said. "Not that you're wrong, mind you, but it's surprising given the way your grandpa talks."
"Oh, he's just being especially rude because the Avatar's actually here," Tien said dismissively. "He's usually more calm about it. He knows the Coalition was trying to do the right thing, they just messed up."
"Real bad. And we're going to fix it."
"I sure hope so, otherwise I'm going to have to do it," Tien said. It was meant to be a joke, but his nervousness was still apparent.
"You're not really kidding about that, are you?"
"Sort of…" Tien said, trailing off hesitantly. "I mean, my dad and grandpa and the other rebels would do a lot of work, of course. But my granddad keeps telling me that I've got to be an inspiration for people, because I'm the only free earthbender."
Hanjo nodded. That was a lot of pressure to put on one person. Being shoved into a destiny he didn't ask for could drive any young man crazy.
"I wouldn't mind it so much, you know, I really do want to help save my people," Tien said sadly. "I just – I'm no good at earthbending! Everyone I know can't bend, so they don't really help, no matter how hard they try, and I'm not good at experimenting…It's really stressful."
Hanjo looked over at Tien. Tien was deliberately not making eye contact. Hanjo allowed that to continue for a minute, seeing how Tien would let the situation play out. A long moment of awkward silence ensued as Hanjo gradually realized Tien wasn't going to make the first move.
"Okay, so, first lesson in this earthbending training you clearly want to ask for-"
"I wasn't!"
"-Be direct," Hanjo commanded. "You're an earthbender. You take the world head-on. Now, be direct."
After a deep breath and just one more moment of mental preparation, Tien planted his feet.
"Hanjo, I want you to teach me earthbending," He asked.
"Good, first step already out of the way," Hanjo said. He straightened his back and tried to act authoritative. He wasn't entirely sure how to train someone, but he wasn't going to disappoint Tien.
"Alright, a big part of any good bending style is having the right mindset," Hanjo said. "Complete amateurs can be great earthbenders because they have the right mentality. That's how me and Sen got started."
"Okay, yes," Tien said. He was excited to get underway. "What's the right mentality?"
"Well, a lot of people will say that Earthbending is about not moving. About being stubborn and motionless, not letting anything move you."
"Yeah, my grandpa says that," Tien said with a nod.
"Your grandpa's wrong," Hanjo said. Tien seemed a little shocked by that statement. Hanjo squared his shoulders and walked in a circle around Tien. His shoulders dropped slightly as he realized he was about to contradict himself.
"Well, half wrong," he said awkwardly. "Earthbending is about doing what you want. If you want to stay, stay, if you want to move, move. Shape the battlefield the way you want."
"Right, okay, how do I practice that?"
"How do you feel about bacon?"
"What's a bacon?"
Hanjo was quick to demonstrate. He and Sen had packed a great deal of food among their supplies for the journey here, among them a decent supply of breakfast foods. After getting a fire going, Tien was introduced to the wonders of a well-cooked and thoroughly greasy slice of bacon.
"There's a lot more meat in the world than I thought," Tien said.
"That's only the beginning," Hanjo said. "There's a lot of weird stuff out there. I should know. Some of my friends like to try…let's call it, esoteric stuff."
Miyani and Sen's experience with iguanadile meat had given Miyani an enterprising spirit when it came to meat. She was ever eager to find new and exotic animals and then eat them. Sen shared that same desire to an extent, but his obsession with finding and defeating Sarin often precluded any culinary curiosity.
"I'd give almost anything a try at this point," Tien said. His meat supply consisted mostly of small subterranean mammals. Not nearly as satisfying as bacon, for obvious reasons. With that in mind, he reached out for another piece.
The ground underneath Tien pulled him backwards, away from the bacon. Hanjo enjoyed another piece as Tien stared on and attempted to crawl forwards for more. The ground shifted ever further away as Tien came closer, making his efforts futile.
"You want it," Hanjo taunted. "Come get it."
Now that he understood the nature of the challenge, Tien tried that much harder. He got to his feet and dashed forward towards the delicious food. His forward charge was brought to a swift halt by a stone wall which he slammed into and bounced off of. After falling into the dirt gracelessly, Tien righted himself, shook off the dust, and looked at the wall.
"Come get it," Hanjo taunted again. He and the bacon were both hidden behind the stone wall.
Tien took another running start and jumped on top of the wall, attempting to climb over. The wall tilted and pushed Tien back to the ground.
"Not thinking like an earthbender," Hanjo said. "Airbenders go around their problems, not us."
Tien nodded and righted himself again. This time he charged directly at the wall, slamming his shoulder into it firmly. All he accomplished was hurting his shoulder. He struggled and pushed against the wall for a while, trying with all his might to move the stone aside.
"I could use a little more pep-talking," Tien grunted.
"Just focus on moving forward," Hanjo said. "It's not entirely about destroying what's in front of you. It's about you, focus on your own strength and use it to keep yourself going."
Tien stepped backwards and tried again, slamming into the wall once more. It had just as little effect as it had before, which is to say none at all. His hands clenched at the soil. He was not completely incompetent at earthbending, yet he still found himself unable to breach this wall. Hanjo was holding it together from the other side.
"You're not exactly making this easy," Tien shouted.
"Life isn't easy," Hanjo shouted back. "You learn to get through it anyway."
Tien struggled and experimented from the far side of the wall, trying new ways to go about tearing the wall down. Hanjo admired his spirit, if not his effectiveness.
"Think about your grandpa," Hanjo advised. "Think about how long he's lived, how much he's fought, and what he puts up with. Not enough food, not enough men, his only hope one little earthbending kid. But he keeps going."
Hanjo could hear Tien pause for a moment.
"It's never easy. But you survive. Hit the wall, and keep going."
The silence continued for a moment, and then Hanjo heard running footsteps from the other side of the wall. Hanjo nodded approvingly.
The wall broke open in a cloud of dust and shower of rubble. Tien shook off the dust and looked around, bewildered, as if he were actually surprised he had made it. Once he had realized what he'd done, he was actually quite excited.
"Good job, kid," Hanjo said. TIen shouted in triumph and then slumped down in exhaustion.
"Thanks," He said. "Can I have more bacon now?"
"No. You got dirt all over it."
Hanjo held up a pan of bacon that had been absolutely covered in dust from Tien's explosive entry.
"Admittedly I did not think this through," Hanjo said.
The bleak and rocky terrain of Hua-Long province was broken by the open maw of the quarry. Several guard towers surveyed the deep pit and the terrain around it. Dalen and Oren's occasional liberation of slaves had not gone unnoticed. The guards were especially vigilant now, and especially around this quarry. According to the rebels, it was both the closest to the capital, and held the largest body of earthbenders.
The bleak and rocky terrain was briefly broken up by the appearance of two heads popping out of the dirt. A grey haired head twisted slightly from side to side before vanishing. The slightly less grey head took a longer look around before disappearing into the earth.
"You know, I always thought my wife was a little too crazy about you animals, but you're pretty useful," Dalen said to Gun. The badgermole did not respond in the slightest.
Thanks to Gun, they had been able to breach the quarries perimeter with absolute ease. That had eliminated one of the major hazards of the assault plan. Now they would maintain the element of surprise.
"I'm going to tunnel around and find out how many slaves and guards are in the quarry," Sen said. "Oren, fill the rest of them in on the plan."
Oren nodded and firmly and turned to his men as Sen and Gun began to tunnel away.
"Alright men, this is going to have to be a lightning-quick operation," Oren said. "As most of you know, some distance outside the quarry there's a camp holding women and children –the families of those working in the quarry."
Hua-Long's guards made sure to keep the innocent bystanders close at hand in the event that the slaves revolted. It was part of the reason Dalen's rebellion had such a hard time finding recruits –they could only ever liberate slaves that had no friends or family. All others were unwilling to risk the safety of their loved ones for their own freedom.
"We're going to have to break out our men in the quarry and make a rush for the holding camps before any harm comes to the civilians," Oren explained. "Our top priority is freeing the slaves. The more men we have on our side, the faster we'll be able to get this done. Every second we waste puts people at risk, so keep that in mind."
The gathered rebels nodded firmly and gripped their weapons tightly. Most of them were entirely unprepared for this situation. For many years the rebellion had been a band of scattered people held together by desperation. The Avatar had turned it into an actual military movement literally overnight.
The other wall of the tunnel broke open, kicking up a small cloud of dust as Sen and Gun returned. He was quick to make his report.
"There's roughly two-hundred civilians in there, most of them earthbenders," Sen said. "Roughly ninety guards spread throughout. I couldn't get a good read on the ones in the towers, but I wouldn't estimate more than one or two soldiers to each of the ten towers. We're looking at between one-hundred to one-hundred and twenty."
"But there's only fifty of us," A nervous rebel shouted.
"Me, Hanjo, and Gun could take all of this on our own if we needed to," Sen said. Dalen gave him a bit of a dirty look.
"Mostly him, though," Hanjo said. Sen nodded.
"You can let us focus on the fighting, and you can take care of freeing the prisoners," Sen advised. "Now, if everyone's ready?"
"I think we could stand to learn a little more," Oren said. "But if you think we're ready-"
"I do. Let's go."
Without giving anyone any time for objections, Sen broke open the earth standing between them and the quarry and dove into the open sky. Hanjo and Tien followed behind him without hesitation. Dalen had enough time to give a grunt of indignation before jumping into the fray, while Oren paused to organize his troops before diving into action.
The moment Sen exited the tunnel, the quarry was thrown into chaos. The guards surged to arms and the prisoners, used to hiding at the first sign of trouble, put their heads down and waited for the chaos to end. They had seen escape attempts before, and it always ended in trouble.
Some heads raised as the sound of piercing screams split the sky, just before armed guards slammed into quarry walls and then rolled down to the ground. Two prisoners looked to one another as an unconscious guard landed between them.
Hanjo stuck to Tien's side as he eagerly joined the fray. He was slightly overconfident, given his one night of training, but with the element of surprise and a rampaging Avatar on his side, Tien would no doubt make it through this fight.
Excited to finally prove himself as a symbol of the revolution, Tien launched a small stone towards the helmet of the nearest guard. It was not a strong impact, but it was enough to knock the guard off his feet and to the ground. Tien pumped his fist in excitement as he saw his first target fall.
Just behind the falling guard, Sen went to work on the others. In a single sweeping blow he sent three of the guards flying. Some attempted to retaliate, and Sen avoided their attacks by leaping upwards onto a nearby stone wall. From there he sprang forward to land in the middle of a group of guards, sending six of them flying with a burst of airbending. Tien froze slightly as his first feat of violence was reduced to a miniscule effort in comparison to the Avatar's rampage.
"Yeah, you get used to it," Hanjo assured him. Nobody could really compare to the Avatar. It was better to just take pride in whatever (comparatively small) accomplishments one could manage.
Though they were taking down one or two compared to Sen's dozens at a time, it was still progress. Every guard they engaged was a guard not fighting the other rebels, or threatening the prisoners that Dalen and Oren were freeing.
The two older men were grabbing whatever they could get their hands on and breaking whatever chains they saw. A very small chunk of the prisoners were willing to fight right off the bat. A token few took up weapons, but most froze in confusion, and some outright cowered in fear.
"This isn't going as well as I expected," Oren admitted. They had been expecting the earthbender slaves to be more willing to fight. They were still vastly outnumbered.
"Maybe we should try giving a rousing speech," Dalen suggested.
"This is no time for sarcasm, dad," Oren shouted back.
"I was serious," Dalen protested. "These people need inspiration."
"Well then get started."
"I'm a cranky old man, I don't inspire anything but-"
Dalen's rant was interrupted by a rumble in the ground. Sen's fight paused briefly. He well recognized that kind of movement.
The ground burst open at the center of the quarry. From the newly formed hole swarmed a small army of badgermoles, their hides scarred and their limbs chained. At the center of the heavily abused pack stood a single human taskmaster, driving them forward with blows from a whip and tugs on their chains.
With a bit more painful goading from their beastmaster, the badgermoles spread outwards across the quarry. Their destruction was indiscriminate as they collapsed walls and shattered scaffolding. Guards and prisoners alike were consumed by their sudden burst of destruction.
A collapse under Orens feet knocked him to the ground, and he was swiftly pulled back to his feet by Dalen. The two steadied each other on the shifting ground, unable to find proper footing. Their attempt at balance was further complicated by the fact that one of the broken badgermoles was coming right at them.
The charge of the abused beast as interrupted by a shoulder check from an animal both more wild and more tame. Gun's broad shoulder slammed into the charging badgermole and pushed it off course, knocking it into a quarry wall.
Gun roared loudly and planted his claws firmly in the ground. The quarry shook as if suffering an earthquake as Gun spoke to his own kind. The rampage of the badgermoles ceased and they turned their blind-eyed heads towards Gun. For a moment, everything paused, but only for a moment. Sen was not here to waste time watching his badgermole shake the ground. He quickly resumed attacking the guards.
As Sen's attacks broke the moment of tension, the beastmaster cracked his whip once again, striking it against the hide of a nearby badgermole. Gun growled loudly and vanished into the earth briefly. He reappeared at the beastmaster's side, and the next time the soldier cracked his whip, Gun caught the leather cord in his jaws. He shook his prey slightly for a moment before tossing whip and wielder both into the air, slamming them hard into the ground.
The soldiers of Hua-Long province had put a great deal of work into "taming" the local badgermoles, but they had long underestimated the spirit of the beasts. These badgermoles had been raised from birth to fear the whip and obey the pull of chains, but it only took one example of defiance to set them over the edge. The earth trembled, and the beastmaster and his whip both vanished beneath the ground into the darkness of the tunnels below.
Under Gun's direction the horde of imprisoned badgermoles turned against their masters, the quarry exploding into clouds of dust and broken stone as badgermoles dove in and out of the earth. As the rampage went on, the terrified prisoners gradually realized that the army of badgermoles was now on their side. That rallied the frightened men to show a little bit of courage.
"Hate to say it, son, but I think that badgermole is more inspiring than you," Dalen said with a nod towards Gun.
"Whatever gets the job done," Oren said stiffly.
The vicious badgermoles carried on their work in the quarry. Sen finally allowed himself a moment to stop fighting and assess the situation. The bestial rampage would probably take care of the action in the quarry. Sen headed for Oren and Dalen.
"No time to waste," Sen said. "We should go free the civilians."
"Right," Dalen said firmly. "Come on boys! The women and children need our help!"
There was a resounding shout of support. Even the slaves that had hesitated to free themselves were eager to free their loved ones.
"We can use the shipping trucks," one helpful former slave pointed out. The newly roused militia marched towards a shed outlying the quarry. Several trucks laden with ore waited in the large shed. They were quickly emptied and repurposed into troop transports for the militia.
A swift sense of camaraderie had been built up between the rebels and the freed slaves. It was almost certainly the initial surge of adrenaline and freedom that filled them with such bravado, but for now what had once been meek slaves were ready to charge headlong into battle. The ironclad convoy rolled down the quarry hillside towards the nearby village, only slightly impeded by the fact that most of the drivers had no idea how to actually drive. For most this was the first time they'd been behind the wheel of a vehicle in their lives.
The stumbling convoy eventually reached their destination. They paused on the border of the town. The roads between buildings weren't wide enough for vehicles anyway. This was an old village, built long before satomobiles had been invented, and never allowed to adapt thanks to the Hua-Long families oppressive control.
Sen was not the first to leave his vehicle and head towards the village, but he was the first to notice something was wrong. He paused and pressed his hand against the ground.
"We're too late," He said to Oren. "There's nobody in these buildings."
"But it's only been a few minutes," Oren said worriedly.
"They can't have gone anywhere, we'd have seen them leaving," Sen said. "No time to wipe out a whole village either. If I had to guess I'd say they're waiting for us at the center of the village."
Oren nodded and signaled the rest of their impromptu army to follow as they proceeded through the empty streets of the village. Hanjo looked around at the squalid surroundings. Most of these buildings were held together with rusty nails and prayers. This was no way for people to live.
The former slaves looked around at empty homes nervously, fearing for their families safety. As they approached the center of the village, Sen made a point of reassuring them. A terrified army was useless.
"I feel a lot of heartbeats," Sen said. "They're gathered in the village square."
Sen's assurances proved true as they reached the center of the dilapidated village. A veritable horde of women and young children huddled fearfully near a long-broken fountain, watched over by a few dozen guards. Oren held his hand out to halt the march of the rebel army. The apparent leader of the Hua-Long guards stared Oren and Dalen down.
"I thought you two learned your lesson when the Captain took the old man's eye," The guard leader taunted. Dalen's one good eye narrowed angrily.
"You can wound a body, but not a spirit," Oren threatened. "Let the hostages go."
The guard, as expected, did not obey. Sen put his hand against the dirt again, feeling out the area around him, seeing where every guard and every civilian was.
"You all get back in your chains," the guard leader ordered. "Then we'll let the hostages go."
"You're outnumbered," Oren retorted. "The only way you get out of this is if you let the hostages go right now!"
Sen closed his eyes and ignored the negotiations. The guards were sporadically placed, aiming to threaten as many of the women and children as possible. That made this more difficult. Luckily they were tense, standing still and unmoving. Motionless targets were easier.
"You all stand down now," The guard said. He looked to a nearby young woman and grabbed her by the wrist. "Or this little lady gets-"
Sen stood up sharply and stepped forward, throwing the guard leader off his cadence slightly. Sen did not have the light of the Avatar in his eyes now, and the guard had no way of knowing just who Sen was, but he paused all the same. Even without the Avatar State, Sen had a naturally powerful figure that demanded both respect and fear.
"You," Sen said, pointing at the guardsman clutching the young woman. "What's your name?"
The guard leader hesitated slightly and looked to his hostage.
"My name is-"
"Is it Amon?" Sen asked. The guard was slightly confused now. Sen continued.
"Is it Ozai? Is your name Kuvira, or Zaheer? Or is it Sarin?"
Sen took a few steps forward. The guard grew visibly more nervous.
"Can you fly? Can you bloodbend? Are you a combustion bender?"
Now Sen let the light in his eyes shine. The scouring light caused the guard to flinch, releasing the girl, who likewise collapsed in fear of the Avatar's sudden show of power.
"Because all those monsters, with all their power, still couldn't beat me," Sen thundered. "If you aren't them, what chance to do you think you have?"
Sen continued to walk forward until he was nearly face to face with the offending guard. He withered quickly under the Avatar's burning gaze.
"Drop your weapons. Surrender."
For several years after this incident there would be a persistent rumor that the Avatar was capable of mind-control, because every guard in the square simultaneously dropped their weapons and fell to their knees.
The light in Sen's eyes flickered slightly before fading entirely. Sen rubbed his temples as if he had a headache. As the guards surrendered unanimously, long-separated families rushed to reunite, crying tears of joy and clinging together so tightly one might think they would never let go.
"Good work, Avatar," Oren said.
"You need to practice negotiating," Sen said harshly. "Tense situations make people act on fear, not common sense. Appeal to emotion, not logic."
"I…see," Oren said hesitantly. Hanjo shook his head from the sidelines.
"Dalen, get the people organized, find out who's willing to head to the capital," Sen demanded.
"The capitals a long way off, Avatar," Dalen retorted.
"Actually it's about a day and a half of driving. We could be there tomorrow if we wanted."
"You can't seriously mean to make a straight run for the capital?" Oren said incredulously.
"Well, that depends," Sen said. He suddenly turned to one of the surrendering guards. "You!"
The guard jumped visibly as Sen called for his attention.
"When does the next shipment go to the capital?"
"In three days!"
Sen nodded and turned back to Oren and Dalen.
"Then we'll go in three days."
"That's still quite fast," Oren said.
"We took the quarry in less than an hour," Sen said. "With three days to prepare we can liberate at least two more camps of slaves and get them decently trained to fight. It'll work."
"I might have thought you were an idiot, yesterday," Dalen said. "But not today. Let's give it a shot, son."
Oren looked around at the reunited families, at the Avatar, and then west towards the capital. He shook his head.
"I think we should be focused on liberating the people first," Oren said. "Defeating Hua-Long can come once we've assured the safety of our people."
"It's a waste of time," Sen retorted. "Hua-Long's the sole authority in this province, he has no heirs and a miniscule chain of command. Take him out, and all his tyranny falls apart.
"The Avatar is right," Tien added. "We'll only have the element of surprise for a few days. If we liberate people quarry by quarry eventually they'll catch on and start defending the slaves more heavily. If we take out Hua-Long now we'll put his forces in chaos."
"I'm leaning more towards the young 'n's," Dalen said. "Hua-Long city controls the supply lines and the media. We control those, our revolution's going to have a much easier time."
"I suppose you're all right," Oren said with a sigh. "We'll start planning for an attack on the capital."
The group nodded in affirmation and parted ways. Oren began to interrogate guards for info on the capital, Dalen left to oversee their new recruits, and Tien followed behind as Hanjo strolled around the village. The Avatar made a beeline for a surprisingly well put together building among the shoddy village. Hanjo watched him walk through the door.
"I was thinking I could use another earthbending lesson," Tien said. "Now that I'm not the only free earthbender, I should probably be the best, right?"
"Not right now," Hanjo said absentmindedly. "I have to talk to the Avatar for a minute."
Hanjo walked off and followed Sen into the darkened building. The rows of weapons and armor on the shelves showed it was some kind of guard barracks. The rebellion could use this kind of hardware, but it was untouched. Hanjo followed the sound of shuffling papers deeper into the building.
He found Sen sitting at a desk, digging through various documents. He had a look of intensity on his face that could only mean one thing.
"You're looking for Sarin, aren't you?"
"Hua-Long is his main source of money and supplies," Sen said. He did not look up from his papers. "There should be some kind of trail to find here. Metal shipments to his helicopter factory, financial records leading to certain bases, something."
Hanjo stepped forward and slammed a hand down on the desk, interrupting Sen's search.
"Do you even care about these people at all?"
Sen paused slightly and looked at the papers Hanjo had pinned under his hand, and then up at Hanjo himself.
"Of course I care," Sen said unconvincingly. "I just care much more about finding Sarin."
Sen put his handful of papers down and stood up to look Hanjo in the eyes. There had been a time when the two of them were practically mirror images, but that was long gone. Sen towered over Hanjo now, standing taller and stronger. The lenses of Sen's glasses caught the light and the reflection obscured his eyes as he stared Hanjo down.
"In case you've forgotten, Sarin's the one who kidnapped you and held you prisoner for two years," Sen said.
"I remember."
"He's the one who destroyed Shen's Post just because I stopped there for three hours. Who sent assassins to kill me in the Fire Nation and Spirit World. Sarin's the man who unleashed an army of bloodbenders on the world, the one who attacked Zaofu unprovoked, the one who tried to kill Ada!"
"I know!"
"Then why do you act like I'm the villain for trying to stop him?" Sen demanded. "Everything I do, I do to stop Sarin! Of course sometimes that means ignoring other problems."
"Does it mean ignoring every problem?" Hanjo retaliated. "You said it yourself, Sen. Everything you do, you do to stop Sarin. Everything. It's not about saving anyone, it's not about bringing balance, it's about how much you hate Sarin!"
Sen crossed his arms and stepped back.
"Defeating Sarin will save lives, and it will bring balance," He said defensively. "Any anger I feel is because of how he threatens the world. And the people I care about."
The two stared at each other in silence. Hanjo was the first to break eye contact, shaking his head in disgust. Sen looked at the desk full of papers.
"It's not as if I was going to leave if I found a trail to Sarin," Sen said apologetically. "We will see this through. We're just going to do it as efficiently as possible."
"I get it," Hanjo said stiffly. The greater good wasn't a numbers game. But if Sen could liberate Hua-Long province, and do it quickly, Hanjo supposed that was alright. Freedom was still freedom for the enslaved people. They wouldn't care much if their liberator moved on to other problems right away.
"I'm going outside," Hanjo said. Sen nodded and Hanjo left without another word. He needed to find someone, and he did so quickly.
"Ready for a lesson, Tien?"
The young earthbender jumped to his feet, eager to learn. In his current state, Sen might bring these people freedom, but he certainly wasn't going to give them hope. Hanjo would have to make that himself.
Three days later, a caravan of trucks pulled up to the western gate of Hua-Long provinces capital city. As home to Hua-Long and all of his wealthy cronies, the large city was spectacularly opulent. In a dark mirror of Ba Sing Se, the city had a broad wall surrounding it. This wall was no defense, however; the barred gates and spiked palisades marked it clearly as a prison wall, meant to control and contain those within and without. The trucks approached the wall in a slow procession.
Suspiciously large piles of rubble sat in the bed of every truck. The guards driving the vehicles eyed the stones behind them nervously. The Avatar had given these guards a chance at mercy if they played a role in his plans. In a classic gambit, the rebel army laid in wait under a layer of stones, ready to jump out as soon as they were past the city gates.
Classic gambits relied on classic circumstances, however, and the radio had not been around when this ploy had first been invented. A secret radio message to the waiting city guard had clued the capital guard into the entire scheme. A massive host of guards, nearly half the cities standing roster, waited behind the gate.
A tall, skinny man with a narrow moustache waited inside the gates. The trucks paused in a large unloading area, under the watchful eye of hundreds of guards. Those driving the trucks exited the vehicles and quickly put a large amount of distance between themselves and the trucks.
"Is everything in place?"
"Yes sir," The truck driver said. Then he took cover.
A large mining explosive was ignited and launched into the center of the formation of trucks. Hua-Long guards dove behind walls as the device detonated, filling the air with fire.
After a suitably long wait to allow the ash to settle, the guards stepped out to examine the carnage. As servants of Hua-Long they had often been witness to, or participants in, acts of extreme violence, but what they saw here was a surprise even to them. Because what they saw was absolutely nothing.
"Weren't there supposed to be people hiding in those rocks?" The mustachioed guard asked.
"There were," The driver said, clearly confused. "It was their whole plan, they told us everything."
A watchman from a nearby radio tower slammed open the door at that moment.
"Badgermoles at the palace," The guard said in a panic. "They tunneled under the walls!"
The driver swore under his breath. They'd been duped.
While the guards had been baited into gathering miles away at the wall, the rebellion had taken its badgermoles directly under the city and to the palace itself. The courtyard burst into dozens of tunnels as former slaves, human and badgermole alike, rushed out of the ground in a swarm.
Chaos reigned in the palace until Oren found his way to the top of a large pillar, waving his weapon and shouting to rally the horde.
"Control the gates," He shouted. "If we don't control the walls we'll be surrounded!"
Once more mirroring Ba Sing Se, Hua-Long private palace had a large wall around it. If the rebels seized control of the gates in the wall, they would have a fighting chance at defeating Hua-Long and his personal guard. Failing to control that wall, however, would lead to them being surrounded.
At his call, the rebels rushed to seize control over all the gates. The side gates were contested fairly easily, but the main gate presented a problem in the form of the Captain of the Guard.
"I should have taken both your eyes, old man," The heavily armored guardsman shouted. He swung a massive metal axe threateningly. The Captain and his metalbender guard, Hua-Long's most elite soldiers, controlled the main gate.
"Being blind wouldn't stop me," Dalen shouted back. "Doesn't seem to bother them much!"
At Dalen's cue the badgermoles began to charge the Main Gate. Some of the metalbender guard fell, but the Captain stood strong. He swung his axe into the side of a badgermole, knocking it away and frightening the beasts into a temporary retreat.
"Come on, Hanjo," Sen beckoned. "We're going after Hua-Long."
"But the gates," Hanjo said. The rebellion still ran the risk of being boxed in.
"I can move faster than the city guard can," Sen said. "We'll have Hua-Long captured before anyone gets hurt."
A sharp scream punctuated the fact that someone had already gotten hurt. The Captain had gone on the offensive. His vicious axe was seeking its foes with deadly precision.
Sen disregarded the violence around them and headed for the palace interior. Hanjo looked back and forth between the chaos and Sen for a moment, unable to make up his mind. Helping the rebels was supposed to be the obvious choice, but he had the uncanny feeling Sen was going to do something he shouldn't.
Mentally flipping a coin, Hanjo decided to help the rebels. Sen might do something stupid, but not harmful. The Captain was a more lethal and immediate concern.
As Hanjo arrived the battle seemed to have found itself in a stalemate. The Captain was circling, flaring his axe threateningly. Tien stood his ground, fists aimed straight at the Captain, ready to strike. A few rebel earthbenders stood ready to back him up. With only a few days combat training, they were hardly prepared to take on a metalbending master.
Hanjo made up the difference with a swift boulder aimed for the head. Cranial trauma had a way of weakening even the best benders. To Hanjo's surprise, however, the Captain ducked and retaliated in kind. Hanjo avoided the blow from an airborne blade of metal, but the Captain was quick to rearm and ready himself for another strike.
"I thought you'd be with the Avatar," Tien said. He launched a quick volley of stones at the Captain and took a step back.
"You needed my help more," Hanjo said.
"Much appreciated, but-" Tien paused slightly to sidestep the Captain's retaliation. "We've got to take this part on our own."
"Not really," Hanjo said.
"We do, Hanjo," Tien continued. "This rebellion doesn't mean anything if you and the Avatar hand us every victory. We've got to fight and win on our own."
Hanjo bit his lip. That explained his feeling of unease about Sen. The Avatar was going to waltz into the palace and claim a victory that people like Dalen had been working towards for decades. It may still leave them with a free province, but it was an important ideological victory. Having an ideological victory, was however, slightly less important than making sure they were all alive to see.
"Tien, you've got a few hours of training under your belt," Hanjo said. "You can't take this guy on alone."
To emphasize his point, the Captain swung his axe again, crushing the earth below it and nearly bisecting a frightened rebel.
"You said great earthbenders just have the right mentality," Tien said. "Well my mentality is that I can beat him, so I can. Just trust me."
Tien looked to Hanjo for a second and gave him a confident nod. There was a courageous spark in Tien's eyes that made Hanjo believe every word he said. Hanjo nodded back and gave Tien a solid pat on the back.
"Remember your training," Hanjo said. With that last piece of advice, Hanjo ran off after the Avatar. Tien looked back at the massive Captain and was filled with a very small sense of regret. It was a very big axe, after all.
Big axe or small axe, Tien knew he had to defeat the Captain. His whole life had been leading up to a moment like this.
With thoughts of his family, his people, and his entire province filling his head, Tien charged forward. The Captain raised his axe high, and TIen prepared to dodge. As the mighty weapon fell, Tien stepped aside and readied a weapon of his own. A large stone was a far less terrifying weapon than a giant axe, but it could get the job done.
The stone crashed against the Captains armor and knocked him aside, but only slightly. He held his ground and raised his axe again. Tien did not have much in the way of schooling, but he knew that something that heavy held so high could put its wielder off balance. Tien quickly raised another stone and launched it at the Captains ankles.
Like a true earthbender, though, the Captain would not be so easily moved. The axe wobbled unsteadily, but still fell. Tien moved away, but this rather than pulling the blade back up for another heavy strike, the captain swung it to the side, smacking the flat edge against Tien's arm. Tien was bounced backwards by the heavy blow, landing awkwardly on the ground.
The Captain moved to close the distance between himself and his prey, but a blow from behind gave him pause. Dalen stood behind his old enemy, wielding a heavy club.
"Don't you lay a hand on my grandson," Dalen shouted. He raised the club again, only to have the Captain swat it aside. The mighty axe rose once more, this time swinging for Dalen, but never found its mark. A swift-flying boulder knocked it off course.
"Don't you lay a hand on my grandpa," Tien echoed. Dalen chuckled and swung his club into the Captain's gut, but the armor absorbed most of the blow. The Captain kicked out, sending Dalen flying back. He was saved from a dangerous landing by Oren, who caught him just before he hit the ground. Oren set his father standing upright and then shouldered a large spear he'd snatched from a fallen guard.
"I'm not much of a warrior myself," He said meekly. "But I'll fight against your kind to the end."
"How very saccharine of you all," The Captain taunted. "I shall feel slightly more regret when you're all dead."
His axe swung in a broad arc towards Dalen and Oren, who jumped back. Tien was quick to strike out. His family, bold as they were, were no match for the Captain and his metalbending. Tien was the only one who stood a real chance.
The battle dragged on, Tien barely managing to stay abreast of the Captain's swings as he fought. With every blow that landed to no effect, Tien got more and more frustrated.
Remember your training, he repeated to himself, remember your training. Don't move when you don't want to move, move when you want to move. An earthbender shapes the battlefield the way they want to.
That was an idea. Shape the battlefield.
Tien slammed his foot down. The Captain guarded himself against a strike that never came. Instead, the ground around him rose up in rocky pillars and uneven lumps. As the shifting earth quickly settled, Tien rushed through the new forest of pillars. The captain raised his axe and swung.
The heavy blade caught one of the pillars and though it quickly crushed the pillar, the axe swung that much slower for the impact. Before the blow ever reached him Tien had struck the Captains chest with a boulder and moved out of harms way.
As the duel continued the Captain made sure to only use overhead strikes. They were still potentially lethal, but as Tien now only had to worry about one specific kind of swing, they were that much easier to dodge. Now less concerned about his defense, Tien focused on his offense.
The armor of the Captain was not indestructible, but it was far more durable than anything Tien had fought as of yet. His various strikes bounced off the armor almost completely harmlessly. Tien poked and prodded the armor for weak points or areas of stress, but found none.
"It's not about destroying what's in front of you," he recalled. "It's about you."
Hanjo's words echoed in his ears. It didn't matter how hard the Captain's armor could get hit. It was about how hard TIen could hit it.
He called up a stone and rather than letting it fly immediately, Tien grabbed it in his hands. He held it tight, feeling out every inch of it, feeling the connection he had to it. He closed his eyes and focused on the way his chi naturally flowed into the earth.
The Captain seized on this moment of pause to raise his axe again. Tien opened his eyes and glared at the Captain for but a moment. He then let the stone fly.
The air whistled for a moment as the stone flew like an arrow towards its mark. Though small, it hit with all the force of a massive hammer, striking the Captain's chestplate hard enough to knock him off his feet. The mighty axe fell unsteadily from his grip as he was put off balance and thrown backwards.
Tien planted his feet firmly and called up another stone, letting it fly rapidly towards the Captain. This one struck his gut, knocking him further backwards. The nest stone struck his feet, forcing him to his knees. Then a final climactic blow struck his head, knocking him to the ground.
The fallen axe thudded heavily into the ground as its master fell. The crowd of rebels cheered loudly as he fell to the ground. Tien stopped, breathing heavily, and stared at the Captain's unconscious form. For some reason, all he could think about was bacon.
His reverie on pork products was brought to an end by a firm hand on his shoulder. Dalen gripped his grandson tightly, grinning from ear to ear.
"Now that's the kind of payback that eye-taking twit deserved," Dalen said. "Good work, boy."
"Excellent work, Tien," Oren said. He likewise put a hand on Tien's shoulder. "I always knew you'd grow up to be the hero we needed."
"Ahem, yes, right," Tien said. He was actually somewhat uncomfortable with all this attention. Being a hero was slightly awkward. "We should catch up with the Avatar, see about Hua-Long now."
Hanjo had only barely caught up with the Avatar himself. Though Hanjo possessed no seismic sense to trace the Avatar's footsteps, it was easy enough to follow Sen. He was leaving a trail of unconscious bodies behind him.
Hanjo finally caught up to Sen in a long hallway. Ornate paintings of the Hua-Long dynasties long line of tyrants lined the halls, as did an increasingly long line of brutalized guardsmen. As Hanjo watched, Sen felled the last of them with a hammering blow of a boulder, sending the unfortunate guard crashing into a nearby wall hard enough to splinter the wooden frame he impacted.
Sen took a few steps away before he heard a quiet groan from an injured guard behind him. Swiftly he spun, sending another disc of earth flying through the air at lightning speeds. The stone cracked loudly against the pained soldiers face, silencing him quite decisively. Sen turned back to his mission, but hesitated, clutching his head as if he were in pain. When Hanjo caught up to him, the light of the Avatar State had left his eyes.
"Sen, wait, hold up," Hanjo pleaded. "We should wait on the rebels."
"I hardly think I need reinforcements," Sen grunted. There was a long trail of vanquished enemies that could attest to that.
"It's not about that," Hanjo said. "It's just, Dalen –Oren and Tien, even, all of them, they've been fighting their entire lives for this. I know we –you- have done a lot of the work, but those guys, they deserve to be the ones to take Hua-Long down. It's their war, Sen. It should be their victory."
Sen raised an eyebrow and glanced towards the long walls of Hua-Long tyrants.
"No."
"What?"
"No," Sen repeated. He turned and started walking down the hall again. "It's a good sentiment, Hanjo, but victory is the important part. They'll be free whether they come to Hua-Long or I drag him to them."
"Sen, this is their life's work," Hanjo protested. "Imagine how it will feel for them-"
"I could care less about their feelings," Sen shouted. "I let Ariak put his emotions before his mission, and he let Kida escape! I am not wasting any more time or missing any more opportunities!"
The Avatar stormed down the halls towards the Hua-Long throne room. Hanjo was quick on his heels, arguing all the while, but Sen was not interested in any further debate. After a few frustrating attempts at an argument, Hanjo stopped Sen by grabbing his arm and holding him in place forcibly. Sen whipped his head back to look at Hanjo as if he was deeply offended by the slight touch.
"How would you feel if someone beat you to Sarin?" Hanjo asked. Sen shook his head slightly.
"I wouldn't care," Sen said without hesitation. "It doesn't matter to me how it happens, as long as Sarin-"
Sen paused suddenly as he sensed footsteps not far away. Footsteps in hostile territory usually meant trouble. He pulled his hand out of Hanjo's grip and readied himself for a strike.
He tensed up in a mere moment, and then relaxed as he recognized who was approaching. Tien, Dalen and Oren rounded the corner quickly, clearly exhausted from their attempts to catch up to the Avatar. Hanjo gave Sen a knowing look, and Sen sighed reluctantly and shrugged his shoulders. If they were already here, he might as well let them take the lead.
"Oh, good," Dalen gasped. "We caught you. I was worried you'd have at the fat one without me."
"No," Hanjo said stiffly. He cast an accusatory glare at Sen. "We wouldn't dream of taking your life's work from you."
"Come on," Sen said, ignoring the jab. "He could be escaping for all we know. We shouldn't waste time."
Luckily they were already most of the way to the throne room. Sen led them towards the center of the palace. As they grew closer, his pace quickened, and the other four struggled to keep up.
"I don't feel any heartbeats," Sen growled. The throne room was deathly quiet, apparently empty of life. Sen charged forward and slammed the doors open to see if Hua-Long had escaped.
The corpulent form of the tyrant minister Hua-Long still sat in his throne, unmoving as the door shot open with a thunderous slam. Dalen breathed a sigh of relief to see their target was still awaiting them. Sen's eyes narrowed. He still didn't feel heartbeats.
Oren looked around the room for guards and found none. Hesitantly he stepped forward, at first uncertain, but then he squared his shoulders and pointed an accusing finger at Minister Hua-Long.
"Your tyranny ends now, Hua-Long!"
Dalen nodded approvingly. It was a fine start to a speech. Sen examined the throne room further. It was possible Hua-Long's throne was made of wood that blocked his heartbeat. He looked for further information.
"You've enslaved us, imprisoned us, tortured us, but you have never broken the spirit of the people," Oren continued. He stepped forwards towards Hua-Long, who stared lazily at him. "We've endured, and we've grown strong! Strong enough to overthrow you once and for all!"
While the others stopped to admire Oren's speechcraft, Sen looked into Hua-Long's blankly staring eyes. After just a brief moment of examination, Sen rolled his eyes and sighed quietly.
"Your days of abusing this land and its people are over," Oren threatened. Sen stepped forward. "From now on this province belongs to-"
"I can't believe this," Sen interrupted. He stepped forward further, walking towards Hua-Long while rubbing his temples.
"Sen, seriously?" Hanjo asked. He had completely ruined the moment.
"Yes yes, I know, it was a lovely speech, Oren, very good," Sen said. He was visibly angry now, as he got closer and closer to Hua-Long's throne. "I'm sure our friend here would be terrified, except for one small thing."
Sen stopped by Hua-Long's side and examined him for a second. He then poked Hua-Long in the temple, causing his head to roll lazily onto his opposite shoulder. Sen turned to look at his allies as Hua-Long shifted to the side.
"He's dead."
Tien covered his mouth in shock as Dalen and Oren scowled. A complete and utter lack of motion from Hua-Long's body revealed Sen to be telling the truth. Sen put his hands on his hips and examined the body more closely.
"Has been for about a week, from the looks of things," Sen said. Dalen growled.
"A week? We've spent this entire week rebelling against a dead guy?"
"Now, now, dad, we did seize the capital and free all those slaves," Oren said calmingly.
"Boy am I glad we came here right away," Tien said. "We would've felt really stupid coming here a month from now."
"How'd he go, anyway?" Hanjo asked.
"Can't tell," Sen said. "Guy in his condition, could've been a lot of things. Heart problems, most likely."
Oren paused and looked around the throne room. He nodded to himself.
"Well, regardless of the circumstances, Hua-Long is still out of the picture," Oren said. "I need to go spread the word. This should bring an end to the fighting."
Oren went to spread the news of Hua-Long's defeat while Tien and Hanjo shared a brief moment.
"So, you're alive and you've got all your limbs," Hanj observed. "You must've done a decent job against that Captain guy."
"All because of your training, of course," Tien said.
"Not at all," Hanjo said. "Like I told you, it's all about mentality. The best master can't make anything out of a bad student. You keep it up, Tien, and one day you'll be an amazing earthbender."
"That day is today," Tien said confidently. "You should've seen me in the courtyard, I was incredible!"
Tien started proudly demonstrating some of his incredible moves to a highly amused Hanjo. While those two indulged themselves in their shenanigans, Dalen approached Sen.
"Avatar, listen," Dalen said, almost, but not quite, apologetically. "I'm still convinced this is half your fault, and you don't get a thank you for cleaning up your own mess-"
Sen glared at Dalen quite harshly. Dalen got to the point.
"But we're square," Dalen said, holding out his hand. "You did good work, and I'm grateful for all you did."
"I was glad to help," Sen said. He took Dalen's hand and shook it firmly. The two quickly released one another. There was a certain warmth in Sen's heart he couldn't quite place. Probably Korra, satisfied that her assumed wrongs had been made right. Sen continued on.
"I've got my own war to fight now, and I can't say how long it'll take me," Sen continued. "But when I'm done, I want you to know- whenever you need me, I'll be here. I know the Avatar's failed you in the past, but I'll do what I can to make it right."
"I might take you up on that offer," Dalen said with a smile. He looked sidelong at Hanjo and Tien, and that smile turned to a frown.
"And, uhh, about that war of yours," Dalen said. "Take an old man's advice. Do it quick, and be done with it. Being like me, a whole lifetime at war, is no way to live."
"Oh believe me," Sen growled. "I intend to make it quick."
There was a terrifying echo of rage in Sen's voice that made Dalen quite certain it would be quick indeed. Quick and merciless.
"Hanjo!" Sen shouted. "Come with me. Hua-Long might be a literal dead end, but he has to have some documents that point us in the right direction."
Tien and Hanjo bid each other a hasty goodbye, and a promise to see one another again soon, and then Hanjo quickly fell into step with the Avatar. He tagged along as Sen searched the palace for some kind of office or records room.
"This whole thing with Hua-Long being dead before we got here," Hanjo said idly. "It's kind of weird, isn't it?"
"Definitely," Sen agreed. "Something feels off about this whole place. My ears are ringing."
It was no coincidence that Sen's ears rang. The hall still echoed with the sounds of a harsh howling.
ONE WEEK AGO
"I hope I don't impose, Minister," Sarin said. It was odd for him to be so formal, but Sensheng insisted they keep Minister Hua-Long on their good side. It was a miracle he'd stuck with them for so long, given the circumstances.
"Nonsense," The corpulent minister blubbered. "I'd rather have you show up than one of your filthy errand boys."
"My presence here is a gesture of appreciation for your loyalty," Sarin said. "I worried it might seem rude to ask for more materials without so much as a thank you."
Their Engineer had recently designed an upgrade to their helicopters, and Sarin would need the raw materials from Hua-Long's mines to build the new airships. Sarin had originally planned to merely requisition the needed materials, but Sensheng insisted on formality to keep their alliance strong.
"You'll have as much as you need," Minister Hua-Long said. "Slave labor only gets you so far with money. I am an investor, Sarin, and I have made an investment in you."
The bloated Hua-Long pointed a sausage-like finger at Sarin. He resisted the urge to sneer in disgust at Hua-Long's blubbery appendages. He had always hated Hua-Long, and many others, for their disgusting appearances. Kalden had always taught Sarin that those who could not take care of their bodies could not take care of their souls.
"I intend to see it through to the end," Hua-Long said. "Expecting a return on my investment when all is done, naturally. The new Earth King would be suitable, I think."
"There will be no kings when my work is done," Sarin said flatly. Hua-Long laughed.
"Come, Sarin, you need have no pretenses with me," Hua-Long chided.
"I have a mission, Hua-Long, a destiny," Sarin said. "I will create a world without a need for kings, a world without chaos or order."
"Please, Sarin, I know better," Hua-Long laughed. "Men who want peace do not profit off slaves or sick bloodbenders on their enemies."
Sarins grey-ringed eyes narrowed. Hua-Long continued to laugh, with every chuckle sending a visible ripple through his fattened flesh. His throne trembled unsteadily under the sudden shifts of weight.
"Tell me, is it some vendetta you have against the Avatar personally, or is it for your own power? A man like you could be an emperor of the world."
Hua-Long continued to laugh, and the sound of it grated in Sarin's ears. He growled lightly under his breath.
"I would seek the same if I had your kind of power," Hua-Long continued. "You and I are much the same, Sarin."
Sarin planted his palm firmly on Hua-Long's chest.
"We are nothing alike."
The halls of the capital rang with furious howling.