Thanks to Fulcon for telling me about season 3 coming out soon and telling me about the trailer that's out.
On that note: Mike and Bryan are evil teases! Teases I say!
In other news I FINALLY got an actual word processor. No more Word Pad for me! WHEE! Now if I could just get more time to write. :(
Chapter 14: The Day of Black Sun
"Everybody with your fist raised high,
Let me hear your battle cry.
Stand beside or step aside.
We're on the front lines."
From the song "Front line" by Pillar.
General Wen was prepared for another dull day. He had known long ago that he wasn't cut out for the front lines of a war so he had devoted himself to defenses. As such he was sitting comfortable in a fort in the Zen Hong harbor.
The fort rested neatly on a cliff. The only way one could get to the fort was to go through the town below and the general found most lacked the resolve or stomach to burn their way though towns to reach a military installation.
That granted was why he's chosen this particular place as his main post. He would be safe from any threats of war and he could make a tidy sum from the taxing of imports and merchants. Granted he kept that tidbit close to his vest. No reason for the Fire Lord to hear about that, not that he would care with his more pressing concerns anyway. Still it was good to be careful about such things, he had no wish to fight people for at heart General Wen was a coward.
He was happily sipping his morning tea when one of the men from the wall came running in.
"Sir!" He said in, his voice cracking in panic. "There's an armada of ships coming! They're flying...well they're flying a number of colors."
Wen sighed. "If they're not flying Fire Nation colors then ready the trebuchet and blow them out of the water."
"Um Sir that's just it. Some of the ships are Fire Nation and flying our colors."
Wen's tea went spewing out of his mouth as he coughed. "What!?"
The soldier opened his mouth to repeat his comment but Wen was already up and running for the ramparts.
He'd half been expecting the soldier to be lying but true to the man's word there was a large number of ships sitting just out of trebuchet range.
Wen glared angrily at the massive Earth Kingdom ships sitting along side Fire Nation ships with Water Tribe ones dancing merrily with them. He mentally cursed each flag he saw.
"What is that?" One of the soldiers on the rampart said pointing.
Looking up one could see shapes up in the sky. Slowly getting larger.
"Birds maybe?"
said.
Wen narrowed his eyes. "To big to be birds."
"Sir those are...flying people?"
Wen sneered. "Shoot them out of the sky!"
A good number of combatants were already on the wall when Sokka jumped off the glider that was dropping him off. The Mechanist and him had worked on them for weeks to figure out how to transport troops directly to the fort instead of having to go through the village. The other tough point had come from having a place high enough for the gliders to take off from.
The idea of them leaping from a tall enough ship and airbending had been a combined idea of Zuko and Aang's. Ironically enough they had gotten the idea from the first time the monk had escaped.
It was flat topped and long as well as big with a team of airbenders providing some of the lift as people took off. Mari was in charge of the ship and the airbending team.
As Sokka looked about he could see the elements colliding. It had been decided that since the eclipse would render all firebending useless that their own firebenders would stay back to man the ships and tend the wounded. Specially since most of them, like most benders, had not been trained in any other forms of combat aside from their bending.
Shading his eyes Sokka looked up. It was starting to get darker as the moon chipped away at the sun.
With a triumphant grin he gave a shout and ran to join the fray.
Zuko watched the battle from his ship impatiently. He didn't like not being part of the battle, but he really hated was that he couldn't do anything to help in the first place. There was plenty of men to man the artillery and more then enough to handle the hospital. While he'd offered to help Katara hand out bombs to the gliders from the air, Appa had not liked him enough to allow him on the bison's back.
So Zuko did his best to not pace while watching the battle from the ship.
He didn't even turn when his mother came up behind him. "I'm sure your friends will be fine."
"I know they'll be fine." He responded. "I'm trying not to go mad while sitting on my hands doing nothing."
Ursa grinned the slightest bit. "Since you can't firebend I'd assuming you'd want to employ another talent of yours?"
Zuko sighed. "If only I had some broadswords..."
"You mean like these?"
Zuko turned around and could feel himself turning red from embarrassment. His mother was holding up a set of broadswords for him. "How did you..."
"Iroh." Ursa stated. "He was most helpful on filling in parts of your journey that you've seemed to think would shock me." She couldn't help but smile at her son's discomfort but it was an opening for her to discuss something that had troubled her for years.
"We all do things we regret. I regret that I left you behind when I had to flee." Ursa said as tears blurred her vision for a moment. "I thought that I was doing what was best for you. A life on the run is hardly one for a child. If I had taken you with me instead..."
I wouldn't have been in an Agni Kai with Father. I wouldn't have been sent after the Avatar. I wouldn't have had two years of hopeless searching and another year of hopeless chasing.
Although the chain of bitter thoughts ran long Zuko found he wasn't angry about it.
If I had gone with Mother...I would never have met Katara or seen Mari again. I would not have been able to learn more firebending from Uncle Iroh. I would never have seen and done some of the things I have done.
It was strange to him to see his mother as anything but an iron willed wonder. Zuko found that just like himself though; Ursa had regrets, fears, and had probably thought the world had turned it's back on her more then once.
"You have nothing to be sorry for Mother." Zuko said. "You did what you thought best. It might not seem it but it truly was for the best."
Ursa gave a smile. "I'm very proud of you Zuko. You will be a great Fire Lord." She told him as she wrapped his hands around the broadswords. "Now your Uncle should have a boat ready to take you over to Mari. I'm sure you wouldn't want to be any later to the battle then you are."
Zuko gave his mother a deep bow and ran off. Ursa was thankful for his quick departure or she might have taken the swords away and demanded he stay. Like all mothers she wanted to keep her baby safe, but in doing that it would limit the child's ability to fly.
There was a number of curses running through Sokka's mind right that minute. It was fully dark now . He'd gotten lost and cut off from the larger army and now he and a smaller squad of warriors and benders where fighting near another part of the wall that wrapped around.
Sokka's group was getting slowly pushed back against the wall, the Fire warriors thinking to use the decreasing space in a fight that degraded into a stalemate.
When one of the gliders flew overhead Sokka had hoped they would drop a bomb, a nice slime one would've been nice. He was rather shocked when someone jumped off the glider to land in the middle of the soldiers.
It turned out to be what the small band needed. The soldiers became confused and turned to see who had been dropped into their midst. Their attention left the larger threat for just a moment.
"Charge!" Sokka yelled and jumped the nearest soldier who was distracted.
It was almost as if the fight had erupted all over again. Men fought for their lives
At one point as Sokka backed up from an advancing attacker he bumped into someone behind him. Club met sword for a moment before Sokka realized who was at his back.
"What are you doing here?"
"What does it look like. I'm lending a hand."
"You can't bend."
Zuko snorted. "Neither can you. What's your point?"
The boys were fighting back to back. Neither noticed as they subconciously twirled to defended the other. One soldier later referred to them as a walking hurricane of weapon strikes.
"Didn't Iroh said if we got the officer in charge we could end the fighting faster?" Sokka asked. He told himself he could easily outlast Zuko through the battle but he'd started fighting earlier.
"I'm looking, I'm not seeing..."
"Who that, on the ramparts by the cliff?"
Zuko looked to where Sokka was pointing. The rampart had taken a pounding from the artillary. There wasn't anyone on it now aside from a greying man dressed as a general and hauling some large bags. "Well well. General Wen."
Wen was doing his best to escape the rapidly falling fortress. He had every intention of telling a tale of overwelming odds where he and his men had fought valiantly. In actuality he'd been shoving as much money into bags as he could carry during the first strikes. His men could die all they wanted, he was escaping now before things got much worse.
He didn't know who the boy in blue was that stopped him, pointing a primitive looking club at him. He did recognize the one with a nasty looking burn scar.
"Well if it isn't Zuko the Failure. Still the coward?"
Zuko sneered. "Your running away and leaving your men behind yet you call me a coward?"
"I am doing a tactical retreat."
"Can I club him now?" The boy in blue asked.
"Your surrounded Wen. Just surrender and spare everyone any more suffering." Zuko stated. He had to squint a bit from the sunlight getting in his eyes.
Sunlight?
"I think not!" Wen snapped and dropped his bags while dropping into a stance.
The fireball he shot out wasn't the strongest of attacks. In all honesty it was really weak compared to what an average firebender could do, thanks to the sun still being mostly blocked. It served it's purpose though. Sokka jerked to the side to dodge the flames while Zuko deflected it allowing Wen to cut through them.
Zuko turned to chase after Wen but a shriek from Sokka distracted him. The water boy had stepped out of the way of the fire and onto crumbling rampart. Utter panick screamed in his blue eyes as he started falling.
Zuko grabbed Sokka wrist intending to pull him up but gravity had other ideas and Sokka apparently weighed more then Zuko thought. The prince was yanked off his feet and over the edge. Only fast reflexes kept them from plummeting to their deaths as Zuko stabbed his swords into the rock. He thanked every spirit he knew that the swords had stuck.
"Stop moving." Zuko said through clenched teeth. "You need to stop eating so much."
"Says the guy who eats enough to put a saber-tooth-moose-lion to shame." Sokka snapped back.
"Just shut up and think of a way to get us out of this. Before I lose my grip on you or my swords would be preferrable."
Sokka had been pondering that already. "Why did you have to decide to wear armor today..."
"Because I wanted to look pretty." Zuko replied with dripping sarcasim.
"Just makes it hard to get a grip on you."
"Go for the throat and I will drop you..."
"Because killing the one of us with an actual grip on the cliff is such a brilliant idea!"
"Well it would keep me away from your sister." Zuko said clenching his hand on Sokka. He wanted so much to adjust his grip but he would risk dropping Sokka who had already gone white at Zuko's hand clenching.
"Don't drop me and I'll give you my sister." Sokka pleaded.
Zuko couldn't help but grin a bit at the thought. "As amusing as it would be to make you swear to that I'll refrain."
Sokka look panicky. "What do you mean by that? She not good enough for you now?"
"No," Zuko ground out as he started to pull the arm up that had Sokka. "Your gonna have to get on my back, then I can try climbing back up."
Carefully the two manage to get Sokka in a position on Zuko's back where he could still use his arms.
"So why aren't you making me swear to let you date my sister?"
"One, it's not your decision if I date her. Two she'd never forgive me for dropping you. Three that is far from the honorable way to go about that. Now be quiet I need to concentrate."
The way back up was painful for both boys physically but they managed. Ironically their challenging attitudes towards each other played into it. Neither willing to let the other give in and using insults to drive them. It felt like an eternity to them but soon enough Zuko had reached the top enough that Sokka could grab a stable ledge and pull himself up.
"Sokka! Zuko!"
Sokka helped Zuko up the rest of the way before both flopped onto the ground in exhaustion. Neither even moved when Katara came running over to them asking where they were injured.
Zuko smirked a bit as Katara went to get people to carry the boys off. "So...Sokka..."
"No..." Sokka panted not even letting Zuko finish whatever he'd been about to say. He really didn't want to hear any jabs about him offering his sister up to save his life.
He was already having trouble with the thought that Zuko might be a good guy after all.