Chapter seventeen The Assassin
He saw her, Katara hovering over him, healing him from his wounds, then he flashed back. He lay on the ground exhausted and confused at what had happened. He recalled the events, Aang pulling him into the avatar state, Azula shooting him with lightning, the darkness beginning to envelop him and then Katara healing him. Then it hit him, he realized that not only had he been struck by lightning, he had been struck by lightning in the avatar state. He realized that Katara must have saved not only Aang's life but his life as well.
He sat up, swiftly regaining his energy. He had mastered all four elements and the blade. He had become the warrior he had hoped to be. He realized know he could go make a difference in the war. He walked over to his bag and pulled out his uniform that Suki had made for him. He realized that now, now he was ready to not only be a warrior, but an assassin. He slipped the cloak on. It was a black cloak, Nazca knew from before, and it covered all his arms and went down to his knees, parting at his front, back and sides. It had a hood then when he wore concealed his upper brow and eyes. It was truly an assassins uniform.
Time to go, he thought smiling, and he headed for the fire nation.
General Tso headed to bed, dressed in his pajamas. He yawned while heading over to his bed. He laid down in bed and dismissed his servant, telling him to extinguish the lights. As the room darkened he sighed, it had been a long and cumbersome day, so many orders about capturing Ba Sing Se. Their job had been extremely simplified from the coup d'état that the princess Azula had caused but there still remained the problem of maintaining control and they had to move as many troops as they could. He lay back allow his mind to rest and prepare for the next day. He was lying there for a minute when he heard it, a light thump. Tso sat up immediately, he become paranoid lately as he had been recently promoted and was afraid someone was out to get him. He questioned lightly, "Kan?" pronouncing his servants name slowly hoping the lights would turn on after he uttered the last syllable. He heard a rustling approach his bed. He scrambled to his bedpost sweat beading around his brow, his heart rushing franticly. He looked around his room trying to make something out, but in the darkness there seemed to be a shape everywhere, his imagination out to kill him. Then he felt cold steel upon his neck. He inhaled sharply squirming under the touch.
"Shh," he heard the voice of the man behind him, then "I have heard rumors of the fall of Ba Sing Se. Can you clarify this."
"Uh…Um…Ah," Tso blubbered.
"Take your time," the voice said soothingly, "If you tell me I might make it quicker."
Tso cleared his thoughts, "Yes, Princess Azula lead a coup d'état and Ba Sing Se fell."
Nazca sighed, "You probably should have lied, this news displeases me."
He pulled the blade back, Tso collapsing with a slight gurgling noise. Nazca walked over to the window and prepared to leave. He turned around and called, "Guards, help!"
He felt a sudden rushing and then the door bust open, "Is everything okay…"
The guard reeled back as he saw the mess of blood illuminated by the lamp behind him. He then looked up to see a cloaked figure clad in black., "Wha…Who…" the guard stammered.
"I am the Assassin," Nazca said with a smile, "Welcome to the war."
Admiral Lee walked with four men on each side to the war meeting. He wasn't paranoid, it was just safer to take a few precautions with all these rumors of an assassin on the run. He didn't believe the rumors about the blind assassin who could teleport and control people, but he did believe there was a highly skilled assassin terrorizing the western fire nation. The meeting was with another admiral and a couple of generals discussing the best way to suppress each kingdom rebellions and it was to be quick and conclusive.
As he entered the meeting room he left his guards at the door along with the others. They would be inside upon a moment's notice and that was all he needed, a moment and this meeting was over with. As he entered he gave a slight bow to his fellow admiral saying, "Admiral Fahn," and then gestured to the other generals indicating a greeting.
"Are all present."
"Yes," the calligrapher said.
"Then let us begin,"
They began their discussion, mostly agreeing on everything, then the world fell apart.
The general across from Lee fell face down on the table, a knife in his back and at the same time, an arrow punctured Fahn's heart. He saw a flash as three other generals collapsed, holding there chest. Lee saw the general collapse as a knife flashed by his neck. Then there was a blade pointed at his throat. Lee looked up into the eyes of the blind assassin, "It's true," he sputtered.
The boy looked at him quizzically then lowered his sword and pushed it through his heart. As Lee fell he called for the guards. The guards immediately rushed inside only to see a room full of dead men and on the wall, written in blood, was the water tribe symbol, the symbol of the Assassin.
Nazca sat perched on top of a tower overlooking the city. He could feel everything around him and by using a slight variation of the avatar state he could solely draw the power of vision from his past lives. It wasn't truly the avatar state and he had made sure not to bring Aang into it. He could see the tops of the buildings surrounding him, watching the small fire nation city as the sun set upon it. He felt parents putting their children to sleep, men and women resting from the day and preparing for the next one. He had recently learned that not all citizens of the fire nation were evil and in fact it was mostly the government officials, the soldiers and those of the upper class. The middle and lower class actually treated him as a hero, protesting with the water tribe symbol, the symbol he had adopted to represent change and how change was coming.
He pulled out his bow setting an arrow. It had been quick to master archery. He had picked up a bow and some arrows and used his precise sense of sight to perfect his shooting. He lit one his arrows and aimed up above the city towards the fountain. He launched the arrow, symbolizing the end of the day. It landed in the fountain and was extinguished. He knew that tomorrow more soldiers would be put on patrol but he had to leave. He was not here to protect a city but rather to protect the world. He had to stop the fire nation at its heart, he thought as he scaled down from the tower. He would have to do something huge, something they would notice, he would have to create chaos. He smiled to himself, he knew exactly what to do. He was going to destroy a factory, but not just any factory, the largest factory in the fire nation. The factory of Siwang. The factory of Death.
He sprinted as fast as he could. He only had a couple minutes before the new set of guards finally settled at their posts. He ran across the field approaching the nearest wall. He hit the wall just as the new guards arrived. They began to walk towards him nonchalantly, unaware of the situation. Nazca metalbended the wall, stepped through and sealed the wall behind him. He expanded his mind and encountered all the metal machinery. He searched for support structures, scanning the nearest part of the building for as many as he could. Then he smiled, he could do worse. He inhaled deeply, preparing himself. He then began sprinting using airbending to push himself faster. As he ran he used all of his strength to pull all nearby metal near him, tearing down the ceiling and nearby wall. He sprinted all the way down and turned around. He sighed as he realized it would take forever to do the same thing to the entire building. Then it hit him. He didn't have to destroy it but rather disable it. He earthbended a hole in the ground and jumped in. He breathed in as deeply as he could then used all of his strength to push forward with earthbending. He pushed the earth under the building out of the way slowly, creating a basement level with no support. He dug the entire thing twenty feet deep leaving supports to keep it up while he was under it. As he finished, removing all the earth aside from his supports he ran to the side away from the building, spraying fire everywhere as he ran. He then turned around as he reached the edge and with one last giant push of air he knocked all his supports down. He sprinted away hearing the building groan under the weight but it didn't collapse as it was connected to the earth around it. It sagged in the middle but that was it. He yelled frustrated and exhausted from the work he had done. He then completely out of anger, entered the avatar state.
Aang lay down, exhausted from running all day. The mysterious assassin whom Sokka had dubbed combustion man had been chasing them all and he was exhausted from the experience. He lay down ready for sleep. He slowly drifted off to sleep. Then he awoke. He felt himself rise, using airbending to create a sphere and lift himself into the air. He felt himself turn and face the factory. He yelled, breathing white fire out of his mouth, hands and feet. Then he pulled at the earth. He felt it channeling up, pushing aside and eating any rock that got in the way. He pulled the lava out of the earth. Raising tons of it into the air. He pushed it forward on top of the factory and then dropped it, he pulled more lava out of the ground where the factory was, completely engulfing it in the molten rock. Then Aang sat up in bed, panting and exhausted.
"What is it twinkle toes?" He heard Toph ask using her pet name for him.
"Nothing," he said, "Just a bad dream. Go back to sleep."
Nazca sighed, he had just done something really stupid. He had shown the world was the avatar was alive and well, contrary to the belief that crown prince Zuko had killed him in the catacombs of Ba Sing Se. Then he realized that no one knew it was him. He couldn't feel anyone, and as he thought back he realized no one had seen him. The fire nation would pass it off as an unstable place of earth. He couldn't let that happen. He earthbended the lava, Raising it and sculpting it, then when he was done, he brought water and cooled the lava down so that it solidified, he then turned and left, leaving his symbol etched into the remains of the dead factory.
He had returned to his city, returned to save his people. He was ready to fight. He had heard that the Assassin had made a large impact with destroying the factory of Siwang. Rebellions where starting to spring up across the fire nation. Small groups of fire nation citizens fighting to end their cities oppression. However soldiers that patrolled cities had become even more obnoxious bullying citizens even more, especially in his city. He was going to stop that tonight. This evening there was going to be a party for the soldiers and he was going to crash it and remind the soldiers change is here and ready to kick some butt.
He approached the festival grounds wearing his assassins cloak. He wasn't sticking to the shadows, rather walking in plain view straight through the city. As he passed villagers they bowed slightly to him giving thanks. As he neared the place of the party, a field with some tents set up, he felt the soldiers ahead, guarding the entrance. The guards squinted as he approached unsure. They realized too late. Nazca pulled out two knives, cutting their throats as he passed through. A guard saw him and yelled. He parried that guards attacks and stabbed in the heart. Two archers strung their bows but Nazca through his knives at them, killing them. He drew his sword as guards gathered around him. He quickly dispatched those nearby, moving on to others as they fell. Soon however he was surrounded. He smiled then inhaled and bended earth, knocking those around him to the ground. He killed those on the ground around him quickly as more guards gathered. Two guards swung at him while another sent a blast of fire at him. He parried the swords men then turned to the firebender. He was about to send a blast of earth at him when it happened.
The eclipse began.
Unbeknownst to Nazca an eclipse was to happen that day for a duration of eight minutes. The eclipse would strip the firebenders of their ability to firebend and therefore Sokka had decided to plan an invasion that day.
Nazca however never knew about the eclipse and when he lost his ability to firebend he was so confused that he failed to block the firebenders attack. He felt the heat hit him. He was confused out of his mind, no longer able to feel the fire he had no knowledge it was there. Then it spread across his cloths and reached his body, he yelped as he felt the fire spread to his arm. He tried to pat it off but it spread to his hand. Then HE felt it burn through his cloths to his chest. Nazca screamed as he was burned alive.
To the spectators it was a gruesome event. They saw Nazca collapse upon the ground his body slowly being consumed by fire. He writhed in pain trying t escape the heat then as a last ditch effort he sent himself flying into the air with a huge blast of earth. He felt himself fly and then land, splashing into water, extinguishing the fire. He pushed himself with all his strength, waterbending himself as far as he could, he felt himself fly for a while, losing consciousness. Then he slammed into a rock surface. He tried to reach out but with no energy left and in too much pain he fainted.