Ziggy's Corner: Chapter Nine, three years have past. The Air Nomads have been just about wiped out by Admiral Daeva and Sozen's troops. Sozen now leads his men against Gai for the last time. Things have changed for the Fire Lord. His son has come of age, just around the same age his own father was at the start of the story, and whatever humanity has been kept under lock and key in his soul, is no more. Sozen is now a true villain, a monster. It is the darkest in his reign and for his people. Let's get going.
The Fire Lord watched as not one but numerous villages burned to the ground. The people who lived in those villages had been hauled off by his military, to make new slave labor, to create new warships, and new fortresses. The war was going his way now, that the Air Nomads had been hunted down and nearly exterminated. A few were hold up with the nuns in the Eastern Air Temple, but they were giving ground slowly to Afiko's troops. So successful was the elderly monk, that even away, his troops decimated the enemy. Which left Sozen to send the Air Bender on a special mission.
Hundreds of thousands of years, before anyone had learned the power of bending the elements, there was said to be a very powerful weapon that had devastated their world. A weapon of great fire, which myth said warped the animals, destroyed nearly ninety percent of the population, and split the continents, sinking many of them, destroying islands, eradicating cities that were supposed to be so large that one of them contained the entire population of the Fire Nation! A weapon that could turn the darkest of night to day as it exploded, and which the spirits soon after formed a glowing, massive mushroom. Why they used that energy to create a fungus, he had no idea, but the power to decimate his enemies with once simple device was too great to deny.
Afiko hadn't liked the assignment at first, feeling neglected, and shunned by his new king. But Sozen had made amends by ordering a large force of high ranking Fire Nation officers to listen to the monk, as if he was Sozen himself. A few he made sure to keep an eye on the man, so if he tried to overplay his hand, he'd regret it. Eventually the monk decided to relish the idea that he, not a Fire Bender, would be the one to help win the war, if indeed the weapon could be found, or had even existed in the first place.
But Admiral Daeva, he thought. She had been the key that he needed to unlock the winning strategy. As he suspected, certain air bender had indeed aided his enemies. With them gone, the Earth Kingdom and the Southern Water Tribe was losing more and more ground. His own men hated taking orders from the woman, most thought she was a witch, others felt that she couldn't be trusted, being an air bender herself, but she had such a talent for military skill and progress. Those who dared to speak out against the woman, felt either the sting of the sword, or the flame of Sozen's Fire Bending. His eyes were darker now that she was in his life, his force was growing more anti-human as he fought; the years draining his life, and chiseling him into more of a machine than anything that could be account for a person. Her talents were so great, he recalled her from searching for the avatar, and sent his son to do so, and brought her here to this current expedition.
This latest campaign had seen the loss of one third of his fighting force, and though it should have caused him pain, it hadn't. "General," he muttered. His aide came right over to him. "I want these next two towns raided," he snapped.
The man looked at the paper and nodded. Both of them were mainly populated by women and children, their men were off fighting in the war elsewhere. "I'll alert the troops," the general said, his voice cold and harsh. "They should fall into our hands within the next forty eight hours." He saluted, and rode off, preparing the new invasion.
Sozen smiled, no one dared question his will anymore. There was no need to kill his officers, or make examples of him as he had three years ago. Such was his victory, thus was his power. Its because of her, you know. The disembodied voice now seemed to sound like his younger version, rather than the inhuman creature of years past. Nowadays it was that inhuman thing's voice that came from his throat. "I don't care who its because," he muttered. "The fact is I have the power now, the power to change things." You never meant for it to go this far. Sozen scowled and sent the youth spiraling back into the darkness. True, there were some fears of his men about a witch, an attractive one, but a witch nonetheless, who could control the spirits. He waved off the horror stories of Malu the Ghost Witch, as mere superstition, caused by excessively drinking soldiers who should have kept watch closer.
A few hours later found him in his tent, reading the reports from the field, when Admiral Daeva slinked through and nodded her head. No salute, no knelt knee, just a bow of her head. She was his only officer he allowed to get away with such a 'disgrace'. "What brings you here admiral?"
"There's talk in the prisoner's camp of a resistance," she said, her voice still sending chills in his back even today. The helmet covered her face, engulfed it in clock shadows. Only her dark red eyes were visible.
"What of it?" Sozen growled, knocking a goblet off of the table.
"They're talking about meeting up with your cousin, whose apparently raising an army of great size," she said softly, her voice growing lower. The tent seemed to shrink as they stared at each other, browns and red meshing as night was falling upon them. There was no sound, no motion, only the smell of burnt hay, brick, and flesh in the air. "That's all we know. I request certain measures being taken to find out the rest."
He leaned forward and narrowed his eyes. "You're speaking of torture, I assume." She nodded. He rotated his wrist, staring at his hands for a long time. "Is that the only option?" Her dark red eyes shrank as she stared at him. "Bring those who are talking the most, and those talking the least to me."
"Why so, my lord?" she asked.
"I plan on using both bribery as well as torture, to solve this riddle," he answered with a cruel grin.
"Does it mean anything to you if I were to say that the one speaking the most and least, were both children?" the admiral ask. Sozen's smile grew and he shrugged.
"Children are much easier to deal with than adults," he chuckled. "We might be get more information than we thought possible."
"And of their parents, my lord?" she asked.
"Have them disappear," he answer, his smile telling the tale. "And make sure that the children are not allowed back in the camp, either of them. I don't want them harmed for agreeing to work with us, or to cause a riot because of what they learn of our activities."
She looked at him, her shoulders shaking, as if she were laughing silently. "If that is your will, my lord."
"It is indeed, my will, admiral," he smiled.
"As you wish." She nodded again, and slinked out of the tent so quickly it was as if she had melted into the shadows.
The boy was lead away from the torture room, his body broken, shaking. He had tried to make a brave face, but confronted by such darkness, and considering he was only eleven, he broke quickly. His parents were gone, his friend who had been dragged in there with him, was gone now too, and he didn't know what they were going to do with him now. Numerous teeth were missing, cuts, burns, and bruises adorned his body. Admiral Daeva had not been nice, and the Fire Lord was not about to aide him as he pleaded for mercy. The only option was to let the cruel king know what he wanted, and hoped that his friends would survive his wrath.
The young girl who had been dragged in was a big mouth, but shut it when dragged in for torture and bribery. Her bones were smashed by bricks, her own talents of earth bending used against her. But her greed was her down fall. Promised to have her bones fixed, her parents safe, and enough money to make them nobles, the girl also spilled Gai's plans.
Sozen smiled. His expedition toward the two villages would be underway, and were now sure to lure his cousin into the battle he didn't want. Just to be sure, he brought in many more big mouths, and tortured and bribed information from them, the vast majority of it all matching. Many people died, especially the children. No one said that Daeva was a saint, though it seemed odd to him that she enjoyed herself completely as she pummeled, tore, abused, and degraded her victims, especially when she interrogated the children, it was as if she feed off their fear, and Sozen feed off the energies pouring from the admiral. At one point the admiral had severed a six year old's finger one after another, ignoring her tears, until the girl dropped unconscious. Before that she had taken a pin and put in under the girl's nails, both fingers and toes. After she collapsed from the torture Sozen had her decapitated and her body burned, useless trash that she was.
He prepared his forces, quickly mounting his men and women into the hills surrounding the two villages. Camouflage would cover his other units that would surround the enemies' rear, and flank. There would not be any escape, no option for Gai but to fight either to the bitter end, or to try to hack their way to freedom. Sozen felt his pulse race, the option of a final battle and the surrender of the Earth Kingdom would completely.
It was two weeks, the villages were nearly collapsing in flames, the people stuck in their old homes, as the Fire Nation put on the pressure. For a good long time Sozen had began to feel that he had been duped, either by the prisoner's or by Admiral Daeva. No sign of Gai, or his supposedly mighty army. He began to pace, unsure what he was to do. He could press his force further south, try to take the capital, or Omashu, but then if Gai was out there, he could route him from the side, crushing his army in two.
Kaori had from time to time sent letters, saying that he felt he was close to the avatar this time, or from what he had heard just missed him that time, and even other times complained at the uselessness of the situation, and claiming his father had expelled him from the kingdom in favor of trying to make a new heir, from the bloodline of this air bending admiral of his. The bureaucrats were complaining that there needed to be new taxes, or else throw the war out the window. It was a remake of the doubts and possible civil war that had plagued his early years of reign. All in a matter of just two weeks.
He was about to consider throwing them all out of power, taking it all over as he had done at the beginning of his rule, when during the late afternoon, there came reports from his scouts that an army of close to fifty thousand was heading in their direction, lead by Gai. With nothing to distract them, and should the weather stay good, they would arrived near these two villages within two days.
The Fire Lord made his final plans, re wrote his initial battle techniques, and moved a few units to new positions. The conquests of the two villages were sped up, and the trap was hinged into reverse, which caused them valuable time, but he was positive his cousin would fall for the trap. Gai was so noble, such a puppet of these lesser humans that he would do everything in his power to rush right into the trap, without giving his men time to rest.
And thus is how the Battle of the Two Villages did indeed play out in the early stages of combat. In just five hours of fighting, Gai's forces lost half its strength, while Sozen kept his true strength held back, ready to close the trap, and end the war. Waves, oceans of men fell to the ground, blood oozing from their bodies. Cannons, flames, rocks flew through the air, shattering the silence that had been the siege of these to villages.
Sozen cut down hundreds of men, half the strength he had. His eyes constantly scanned the horizon for Gai, his blades ready to taste his cousin's flesh and drink from his blood. Unfortunately, his cousin was no where to be seen. That absence only made him stronger, and he slashed further in violence and blood. His eyes were wide with anger, his body heaved with energy and surged with the raw power of fire, as he carved through the enemy, but it was not the same. Gai was supposed to be his ultimate enemy. Gai was supposed to be his prize.
An Earth Bender soldier rushed forward with a spike, headed for the Fire Lord's head, but stopped short as Sozen's blade caught him on his neck, and slashed upward, splitting his head in two. The body dropped, and Sozen turned to face his next victim, slicing his way almost all the way to the furthest units of the enemy, his own forces hurrying behind him for fear of him being cut off.
It was nine hours into the battle, when Sozen finally found his hated cousin, preparing his own push into the enemy's right flank. Their eyes met, anger and distain. Losing themselves to their emotions, the two rushed each other, and their blades clashed like lightning, the clash of the titans, of the pseudo gods of their time, one trying to protect his country and world, the other wishing for change.
"This is it, then," Sozen said. "This is where our rivalry ends."
"You seemed to have said that in our first encounter when the war first started," Gai said, dodging flame, and sending fire into his cousin's direction. "That didn't turn out very well, did it?"
"You aren't going to be so lucky now," the Fire Lord growled. "Not without your precious Air Nomads help."
"And you are going to be made to pay for their deaths," Gai snarled. "Avatar or no, you will be defeated. That comet gave me the same strength as any other fire bender."
"And you are a fool to use it to defend our oppressors," Sozen growled, swirling like a dancing Dervish, spinning his blade to connect with his cousin's.
"Open your eyes, the only oppressor I see here is you! What happened to your goals of peace?"
"Probably the same thing that happened to your wife, a year ago," Sozen smirked, slashing his cousin's cheek. Gai growled and threw himself at Sozen, the two turning into living fire balls dashing against the walls and corridors of the battlefield.
"I never changed, it was the world," Sozen continued. "It was stupid not to allow me to save it, it plotted instead to get rid of me."
"Do you realize how foolish you sound? You were never a whiner until that day that your mother died, now be a man and come to grips with what has happened, and end this madness."
"It is not going to go to end, until you are dead, and the Earth Kingdom realizes its need to follow its master," Sozen snarled, kicking Gai into the stomach. His cousin wheeled, and dropped, and punched him in the chin, making Sozen drop his sword. It was also the action that made Gai lose his footing, and slip off a nearby cliff that they had fought to.
He blinked as he watched his cousin dangling for his life and blinked. Somehow the shadows seemed to removed from his being. "Gai?" he asked, frowning as if he had just seen his cousin for the first time since Gai had taken the thrown. "Gai? What is going …,"
The darkness retook hold in his heart, and he blasted his cousin with a flame ball. Gai fell into the abyss, and with him, the Earth Kingdom's chances of victory at this battle. An hour after his death, Gai's men surrendered, and Sozen ordered them to be taken into camp.
"After they're processed," he told Admiral Daeva, "execute everyone last one of them, and then send a declaration to the BaSing Fe for their unconditional surrender." She smiled, her helmet removed, and Sozen looked off into the distance, with his own smile. He knew it in his heart, the war was coming to an end, and he was going to be the master of the first world empire.
Ah, but is he? Is the war coming to an end? We all know the answer to that. So what happens next? Well, now that we've seen him at the darkest, the human side begins to reassert power. Why, you'll just have to read and find out. Also what did you think of me creating a scenario of Aang's world actually being our future? Holy Crap, could you imagine what the Fire Nation would do with a NUCLEAR BOMB!
Anyway, on to chapter 10!