Avatar: The Last Airbender Created By: Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko
Avatar: The Last Airbender Owned By: Nickelodeon, a subsidiary of Viacom
All original content and characters © Acastus


Chapter XXII – How To Save A Life

Nikon crested the ridge amidst the deafening impacts of falling stone. Bright arcs of liquid fire streamed across the rapidly darkening sky. Dimly he could make out the black shapes, darker than night, of the steel leviathans that anchored the Army of the Great Divide's final defense against the united armies of the Earth Kingdom and Northern Water Tribe.

"Oh, thank the Elements!" exclaimed the pretty young gunner, tears welling unbidden in her dark eyes.

"We're not out of this yet, girl," Jin replied ominously.

"Shut up, Jin!" she retorted miserably, "You're just a nasty..."

The crown prince's friend, filthy and ragged, absently waved off their bickering with a single curt command, "Enough."

The makeshift platoon streamed into the clearing behind the nearest tank train. Two sentries charged them out of the gloom only to stop short, recognizing another group of Fire Nation stragglers. The ground about them was littered with impact craters and hundreds of green feathered arrows protruded from the broken earth.

"Name! Rank!" barked the closest, his fists raised and his legs spread wide in a classic fire bending stance. The other gripped the hilt of a dagger hung from his belt.

"Nikon Orlando, once Commander of the Fifth Armored Brigade," Nikon replied quietly. A boulder impacted nearby, showering him and the sentries with a shower of pulverized rock. The sentries flinched. Iroh's friend did not.

Hesitating only a moment longer, the sentry dropped his stance and saluted smartly. His companion instantly followed suit.

"Hail, Commander!"

"What is the situation? Is General Xian alive? Which tank train is this?" the former brigade leader asked in rapid fire.

"Not good, Commander," the firebender sentry replied, obviously exhausted, "We're trapped up here. We've got some of the archers and cavalry, but most of the armors' gone and a lot of the tank trains…," then grimacing as he continued, "The men are calling this place Cemetery Ridge."

Another impact interrupted them, this one right behind the sentries.

"Prince Xian?" Nikon prompted after the ejecta settled.

"He's alive, sir, on the Little Round Top – that hill over there," he said, pointing to the northeast, "though you can't really see it now."

"I see," then gritting his teeth he continued, "…and… Chieng?"

The sentry smiled in reply, pride swelling his chest, "Magnificent, Commander. That's the Corona behind us. We'd be gone for certain by now if it weren't for her. With all due respect, sir, I think she's the toughest soldier in the whole Fire Nation."

Nikon paused before making a reply. Briefly he allowed himself to wonder at the man's obvious devotion to the foul-mouthed engineer. He had misjudged her after all.

"You are probably right, soldier. She's earned my respect. I must call on your Commander now. Take these survivors," he ordered with a gesture to his makeshift platoon behind him, "to the camp commander and deploy them as he sees fit."

The sentries saluted at the instruction.

"You," Nikon said, indicating the sentry who had not spoken, "Hand me your dagger, please."

The sentry saluted again and complied. Nikon hung the dagger from his belt and began to turn away.

"Commander," Jin protested, "Permission to remain with…"

"No, Jin," the defeated brigade leader replied tonelessly, "I am no longer your Commander. You have fought with honor, all of you," he said to the larger group as the dusk finally turned to night, "and I release you to serve those who are better suited to lead than I who have failed you so badly."

Shocked, his soldiers remained silent.

"That is all."

Nikon saluted stiffly and turned away without another word.

The Corona loomed ever larger, a sinister shadow in the smoke filled night. The great siphons, discharging bright jets of flaming naptha on their antagonists, had gone silent only moments before. Nikon stopped short in the sweltering darkness as his companions were herded away. Moments later only the sounds of bombardment could be heard, the clearing temporarily deserted.

"Move," Nikon ordered himself.

As if in a nightmare his legs responded sluggishly, the space between him and the entrance to the Corona seeming to grow longer even as he approached. Finally he mounted the steps leading up to the hatch, his footsteps ringing audibly against the bare metal. Nikon opened the door and stepped inside.

Hot, stale, reeking air blasted Nikon's senses as he entered, but he barely noticed. Neither did he register the wounded lying about on the deck, many crying softly in pain, nor the unhurt crewmen working their controls in soiled undergarments. No one acknowledged his entrance beyond a few strained glances.

Clear as a bell he heard the voice of the woman he sought ringing from the control deck above him. He looked over to where the spiral staircase ascended to an open hatch in the ceiling. Nikon climbed as her voice died away.

Chieng stood erect, her back to Nikon as he emerged, frozen in a defiant pose with her hands on her hips. Her body was neatly silhouetted against the large observation port through which she studied the battlefield. In the distance several streaks of brilliant orange arced through the sky, framing her head in a wreath of luminescent gold beads. Grim and silent, she could have been the Fire Lord himself. Nikon thought in a distant part of his mind that he had never seen a more beautiful woman. Devoid as it was of desire, the sentiment felt alien and cold, but possessed of the certainty of truth, as though he had been first to discover a law of nature.

Nikon turned slightly to see the source of the jets. Two tank trains, small in the distance, lay broadside on two nearby hills. Their mighty siphons poured beautiful streams of liquid fire on ranks of rapidly retreating assailants, their green uniforms reduced to black or grey in the darkness. The siphons winked out as the attackers completed their withdrawal. The tactical situation became instantly clear.

The observation port went dark. Chieng remained motionless.

"You were right," he began without preamble.

She did not respond.

"You were right…," he repeated, "…and Tien Shin was right."

"About what?" she queried softly without turning.

"Cam'ron."

"You blame yourself for this situation then," she stated simply.

Nikon lowered his gaze to the floor and replied, "I hear they're calling this place Cemetery Ridge. They haven't seen the rest of the battlefield then. Every hill within ten miles is a cemetery – stinking heaps of wreckage and the broken bodies of our men."

The silence hung between them for a few moments before Nikon pressed on.

"You saw how they did it now, don't you?"

"Yes, yes I see now. The belly armor," she replied dully.

"He sacrificed his men at Cam'ron to learn our weaknesses. I gave him what he wanted."

Chieng did not reply. Another streak of orange illuminated the night sky and then vanished, leaving a trail of glowing red cinders that wafted slowly down in its wake.

Iroh's friend took a deep breath and concluded, "Yes, I blame myself."

She turned to him then, her face impassive. She noticed briefly how his hand rested on the hilt of the dagger at his belt. His countenance was devastated. Only the angularity of his face and the regularity of his features showed him to be the same young rake she'd first met months ago on the observation deck of the Sulaco.

"I understand that if there is any chance at all for survival it's because of you. You saved Iroh at Nomura, you saved me at Cam'ron. I never thanked you as I should have. For what it's worth, I wanted to thank you now for doing what I couldn't in this… this god awful place."

"And what is that?"

"For turning death into a fighting chance for life. Thank you."

After a moment's pause Nikon abruptly saluted, turned and left the way he came.


She watched him descend the stairs, gathering speed as he went. Moments later she heard the exit hatch clang shut beneath her. She turned quickly to the observation port. Wisps of reeking smoke rose from the hills, many of which still burned, but the battle had subsided for the moment. Only the occasional impact of Earth Kingdom artillery broke the silence. She read the chronometer on the scope control panel; a little over an hour still until the planned counterattack.

Her decision made, Chieng activated the intercom under the observation port and called for the Chief Boiler Operator.

"Yes, Commander?"

"I'm going to see Xian! Take command until I return!"

"Yes, sir!"

Graceful as a dancer Chieng bounded over to the staircase and slid down the curved handrail all the way to the bottom. Seconds later she exited the stifling interior of her leviathan and into the clearing, now illuminated by a waxing moon that cast the landscape in a ghostly pallor. Somewhere close she could hear the camp commander issuing orders to troops on the front line. Of Nikon there was no trace. The trampled paths leading out of the clearing were empty.

Two sentries came round the farther end of the Corona. Both saluted and stood to attention when they recognized their Commander.

Chieng returned the salute with steely eyes.

"Why weren't you at your posts?" she burst out menacingly.

"We were ordered by Commander Nikon to take the stragglers he brought with him to the Camp Commander, sir!"

"That is a one person job, Sergeant, and having both sentries retire from their posts without proper relief is a violation of your fifth general order!"

The sentry looked aghast, for of course she was correct. Both dropped to their knees and bowed their heads in shame.

"Yes, Commander, we beg your forgiveness."

"I don't have time for this!" she exclaimed with an angry wave, "I will deal with you later. Right now I need to know where Nikon went! He just left Corona – did you see him?"

The sentries looked at each other quickly before the Sergeant replied, pointing to backside of the ridge, "We're not sure, Commander, but we saw someone going that direction –"

Chieng ran westward, leaving her men to gape at their Commander's sudden and urgent departure.


She stopped the dagger in mid sweep as it plunged downward to Nikon's chest.

"No! No! You will not!" she screamed into Nikon's ear.

With one hand Chieng twisted the dagger out of Nikon's grip and with the other she slapped him hard across the face. With a cry of anguish she spun and slammed the hilt of the dagger into his chest, knocking him to the ground.

Stunned, Nikon blinked up at her. One moment he was alone, prepared to atone for the loss of his men's lives with his own, the next he was doubled over on the ground facing the full fury of Liu Shiung's daughter.

"WHAT do you think you think you're doing, you jackass!?" she cried in frustration, her chest heaving with the exertion.

Nikon could only clutch his throbbing chest in response.

Her eyes brimmed as she watched his struggle to breathe and finally spilled over, tears cascading down her cheeks.

"Do you really think you are the only one responsible for this!? I swear you are the first man I've ever met who excelled me in arrogance! It was a trap – right from the start! Just as you and Gan said it was! You aren't responsible for stripping off the belly armor – that… that was my decision. So now I ask myself, if I've saved anyone, was it only to give them up here on the bloody shores of Lake Myojin?"

"No!" she answered herself resolutely, "No! I'm not committing suicide now and neither are you! No matter how much we might want to! Not yet! Not while our people still have the will to fight! Not while Xian and Iroh need us! Yes, Nikon, Xian and Iroh – are you really so stupid to think that they are better off with you dead!?"

Nikon hesitated to reply, shame, guilt and shock retarding his response.

"Answer me!" she thundered.

"I failed them… my brigade is gone… why…" he began lamely.

Chieng bent down on one knee, put the palm of her hand on his shoulder and said, "Agni help me, but you're the best they've got! And so am I! Get over Cam'ron! Xian and Iroh need you! They need us! Our soldiers need us! Our nation needs us! They need us to put forth all our skill, all our effort, and all our power to help turn this around - now!"

"We're going to go on, Nikon," the curt engineer vowed, her golden eyes aflame, "no matter how much it shames us! I don't know yet how, but before we are through with this life we are going to redeem ourselves with the blood of the Army of the Granite Mountains!"

Nikon stared at her in wonder, finally understanding the devotion of the soldiers to the tank train commander.

"You are amazing, Chieng," he confessed quietly with open admiration, "the Spirit of the Sun burns brighter in you than any firebender I've ever known."

Chieng blinked in surprise at the genuine praise, though her expression lost none of its ferocity.

"All right," he finally replied with a small smile, "how are we going to do that?

"I said I don't know yet, dumbass!" she retorted impatiently, ignoring his compliment, "But right now we're going to see Xian. I promised Iroh I'd keep you alive – and since you obviously need a keeper that means we go to Xian, because I'm sure as hell not babysitting you! Now move!"

Against his will Nikon broke into a broad grin. Her fiery exhortation and display of willpower had reawakened in him the desire to fight; he'd see it through to the end, but it was clear she wouldn't take his word for it.

Nikon rose and followed Chieng into the darkness.