Aang slammed his palm against the stone table. He glared down at his hand, the arrows bright blue against his light complexion, for betraying his feelings. He hadn't meant to show his frustration to the Earth King, but King Kuei was being completely irrational.
Aang had thought that once the king had gone out on his own and experienced the world for himself he would gain some common sense. That was how he, Katara and Sokka grew up so fast. But the awkward, bespectacled young man seemed immune to maturity and logic, and he reclaimed his crown a more ridiculous and sillier adult. His bear, Basco, was more sensible than Kuei was.
It had been a year since the Fire Lord had been defeated, and since that time the wreck that used to be known as the great, impenetrable city of Ba Sing Se had yet to regain any stability, much less improve over the old system. Aang, Katara and Sokka had been busy with peace negotiations between the Northern Water Tribe and the Fire Nation, but Toph insisted that Aang come to Ba Sing Se immediately because of an emergency. And it was.
"Your people are still living in poverty, some are even starving to death and still trying to raise money to rebuild their homes after the war," Aang said stiffly.
The king avoided Aang's gaze, and instead studied the room around them. Aang and his friends, Toph, Katara and Sokka, had requested a private room, opposed to the open air throne room so they could have some semblance of privacy. The king looked uncomfortable in this new atmosphere, and he showed it by squirming in his plain chair and studying the unadorned walls.
"Yeah," Toph, a blind young girl sitting on Aang's left side added. Despite her youth and small size, she was well known as a great earthbending master. "You're not even helping supply or fund them. And now you want to throw a huge parade for the weird nothing-bear's birthday?"
Kuei frowned. "Now, that's not true. His name is Basco. And I am supplying and rebuilding my army. If they wanted to help rebuild the city and make money, they should join my military. Besides, that's what Long Feng used to do, didn't he? He just gave away homes and food to refugees, and then Ba Sing Se fell to the Fire Nation."
Aang took a deep meditation breath. "Okay, I see where you're going with this. But there's this thing called… oh, what's it called?" He turned to the beautiful sixteen year old Water Tribe girl sitting on his other side.
"Moderation?" Katara supplied. Sokka, her brother and the final and fifth person in the meeting room apart from the king's guards, nodded eagerly, as if he himself had come up with the word.
"Moderation, that's it. There's this thing called moderation."
"Moderation?" The king looked baffled.
"You know," Sokka said, and leaned his tan forearms on his thighs comfortably. "Don't put all your seaprunes in one pot?" The king still looked confused. "Spread your dogwhale blubber evenly over the entire biscuit?"
"To get to the point, your majesty," Katara cut in. "There are rumors in the city that the people are going to start an uprising. You need to fix things before those rumors become a reality."
"An uprising!" The king looked at Basco for guidance, and the echo of Sokka's slap against his forehead resonated throughout the stone chamber. 'How do you know this? You just arrived!"
Katara pursed her lips. Aang wasn't the only one who was having trouble keeping his anger in check. "Toph has been acting as your intelligence in the city, remember? People are unhappy with what's going on."
"Unhappy isn't even the start of it, Sweetness." Toph turned her pale green eyes back towards the king and felt satisfied when the king trembled beneath her blind stare. Unnerving people was one of her favorite tricks. "People, well, two people in particular, are calling for a new government. A Republic. And you know what that means, highness." She grinned like a cat. "You're going to get sacked."
"Toph," Katara scolded.
"It's the truth."
Katara rolled her blue eyes. "Aang?"
"You have to cancel the parade and put that money towards rebuilding and feeding your people," Aang summed up. "If you don't, they're not going to like it."
The king looked troubled. "I'm afraid it's too late."
"What?" all four of them cried.
"The parade's already been paid for. I can't take back the money." He frowned and petted his pet bear. "But the people will be encouraged by a celebration, right?" He didn't seem to notice the disbelieving and devastated young faces before him.
"This can't be happening," Aang whispered to Katara.
"Kind of makes you miss brain-washing, controlling Long Feng, doesn't it?" Sokka muttered.
"I think we're all done here today," Kuei said. "I have some last minute changes to make to the parade tomorrow." He stood up and padded away, the bear at his heels.
Aang stood up and turned towards his friends. "What am I supposed to do?" He rubbed a line along the arrow running from his forehead to the back of his neck. "This isn't like Ozai, I just can't fight him."
"You could." Sokka stood up and adjusted his oversized green Earth Kingdom robes. "Just do that glow-glow pow-pow Avatar thing you do so well. Who wouldn't listen to you after that?"
"That's not the best way to go about it, Sokka," Katara said crossly.
"I'm just throwing ideas out there, which is more than you're doing," Sokka retorted.
"Oh, like your idea was – "
"Could we not fight, please?" Aang interrupted. He tiredly rubbed his head again.
"Well," Toph said. "You could just support the rebels."
"What?"
"I'm serious. They're not bad guys. They just want a voice for the people, and you know they can't be worse than what they have now."
"You're telling me that the guys who want to overthrow the government and become traitors to their country are not bad guys?" Aang could not believe what he was hearing.
Toph focused her energy on a small ball of stone she had been morphing into animals under the table during the meeting. It shifted into a turtleduck, then a dogwhale, and finally morphed into a plain nothing-bear. "Listen, you should hear them talk sometime. They just want what's best for the Earth Kingdom. Their names are Cheng and Chenlu, brother and sister twins."
"Maybe that's a good idea, Aang," Katara suggested. "Maybe we should talk to– "
A giant explosion rocked the palace. Sokka fell on Toph, and Aang grabbed Katara's arm to steady himself. "What was that?"
"Avatar Aang!" A panicked-looking guard appeared the door. "Avatar Aang, you must come quickly. Rebel forces are attacking the palace."
Aang turned wide gray eyes to his friends. Without a word, he gestured for them to follow as he raced to the throne room.
"Why would they be attacking today?" Katara cried as they raced around the bend towards the throne room.
"Don't you see, Sweetness?" Toph said as she dashed expertly around corners. "Because they're expecting an attack during the parade tomorrow in the city. The rebels must know that the guards and military are busy preparing the city for security and not worrying about the palace today."
They found the king cowering at his throne and hugging his bear close to him. A dozen guards and some official looking men in the green military jackets were conferring together in the corner.
"What do we do?" the king asked.
If there was one thing Aang sadly knew how to do, it was fight. "Sokka? What do you think?"
Sokka's normally tanned skin turned white. "Uh." He blanched further when Katara stared at him. "What? I've never actually planned defense before! Much less on the spot like this!"
"Okay then." Aang looked around the room. "I'm going to fly around the palace and figure out what's going on. Sokka, uh, think of a plan while I'm gone."
"Right." The color returned back to his face, and he turned to the generals and began interrogating them about troop numbers.
Aang knocked his staff against the ground, freeing the wings. Without one glance around the throne room, he ran out on to the balcony and took to the skies.
A good three minutes later, Aang swooped back onto the balcony. "There are two main groups attacking the palace. One on the east side and the other on the north side. They've set up a burning trench to block the military out in the city, and it seems to be working. We only have the guards to protect us, and the force on the east side looks like it already got into the palace."
"That's worse than I thought," General Rongji admitted.
"All right," Sokka muttered as he studied a palace map. "First of all we need to get the king out of here."
"No."
Startled, the gaang and the officers looked up at the king. He stood up, firm and straight, and studied the group with a lofty expression. "I am not leaving. I will not be chased from my rightful throne a second time. I am staying here."
"Um, your majesty?" Sokka said carefully. "That's noble of you and all, but I don't think they're going to want to sit down for a cup of tea and a chat when they get here."
"I'm with Sokka on this one, you need to get out of here," Aang agreed.
But despite everyone's firm conviction, the king refused to budge.
"Fine," Katara finally snapped. "We're wasting time."
"All right then, plan B. Katara and Aang, you stay here and guard the king. While you're here, I want you to try and destroy the plumbing. See, if we can crack the pipes here and here," Sokka pointed at the map in front of him, "then you two can build up the pressure with your waterbending. Toph and I will go down here to redirect the plumbing to the burning blockade right here." He gestured to where the piping ended near the two gates. "General Rongji, take as many guards as you can find who aren't already there to the east and north gate and try to stop their progress. Any questions?"
"Wait, how are we supposed to guard the king and destroy the plumbing at the same time?" Katara demanded.
"Take him with you."
"I told you, Sokka, I'm not leaving. This is my rightful place," the king insisted.
Sokka crumpled the map in his hand. He turned to his sister. "Can you build the pressure from this room?"
Katara paused and reached out for the water source. "I think I can."
"Fine. Then Aang, go break the plumbing, and Toph and I will head up to the front lines. We're wasting time."
Katara ran up to Aang and flung herself into his arms. "Be careful out there, okay?" she told him before kissing him firmly.
"Of course I will." Aang bit his lip. He didn't like the idea of Katara facing an entire force by herself if they managed to break past the guards. "Listen, I want you to heat up the pipes when they reach the throne room. I'll be paying attention, so I'll come back and help you."
Katara nodded. He kissed her once more, a quick one for luck, and then followed Toph and Sokka down the servant stairwells towards the underground piping.
Aang wasn't expecting the rebel forces to be so successful so quickly. He was in the process of slicing the ten foot in diameter pipe when suddenly the metal began to steam. "Katara."
"Aang! Where are you going?" Sokka demanded when the Avatar jumped onto his glider and flew out of the underground caverns.
When he arrived, Katara was surrounded by a water octopus, trying desperately to keep the twelve people back while the king stood behind her and threw knives. He was surprisingly successful, and managed to take down two fighters before running out of knives and cowering behind his grand throne.
A man, pale and thin but with dark, intense eyes, was the first one to notice Aang's entrance as Aang rocketed three rebels out of the room with a single earthbending stomp. The man signaled something to his people, and they swarmed forward over Katara and king. Katara yelled, and several fell back and two froze solid, but the force overwhelmed her. "Let me go!"
The man, who couldn't have been more than twenty years old, now had the king and a master waterbender captive. One of his largest and strongest looking fighters had Katara, trapping her still so she couldn't waterbend, and the first man pulled the king against him as a living shield. His knife, a wickedly jagged piece of metal, pressed menacingly against Kuei's neck, and Kuei's glasses hung askew off one of his ears.
"Hello," the man said, as if they had passed on the street instead of meeting during a rebel siege. He was wearing poor quality street clothes, with a misshapen leather breastplate hanging loosely around his gaunt frame. The other fighters shared the same gaunt and hungry look. "My name is Cheng. I can only assume that you're the Avatar."
"I am," Aang answered. His eyes narrowed; he wasn't sure what game Cheng was playing. "And as Avatar, I'm asking you to let go of my friends."
Cheng smiled. "I would, if I knew exactly what was going to happen to us and my people." A look of wild desperation crossed his face. "I can't allow for this man to return to his throne. We have all lost too much while this man sits on his throne and fattens his bear while our families are homeless and starving to death!"
Aang put up his hands in a sign of peace. "I understand you," Aang said quietly. "I wish you could have come to me first, and we could have figured out a solution without violence. I'm on your side."
Cheng and his group of fighters laughed bitterly. "Our side?" Cheng said once the laughter had quieted down. "You will never be on our side, Avatar. We are not like you. We cannot bend the elements."
"That doesn't –"
Cheng ignores him. "I've heard many stories about you," he continued. "And your reputation for not killing. It's quite… admirable. Unfortunately, we do not hold such high morals as you." His hold on the king tightened, and the knife drew a drop of blood. "And yet, we do hold you in high esteem. So we're going to let you leave today, alive. And we'll even let you bring someone along with you. But only one." Cheng's eyes bore into Aang's gray ones. "So, who's it to be? The little waterbender or the king?"
Aang raised his arms to bend at them, but Cheng jerked his head and the large man hold Katara began to squeeze her throat, choking off her air.
"Don't you dare try anything, Avatar, or we'll kill them both. Make your choice," he said breathlessly. "Either the girl or the king. If you don't make the choice, I'll kill both."
Noises of a conflict echoed in the hallway. Aang and Cheng did not blink, just stared each other down. The doors splintered open and cracked the twin dog guardian statues. Hunched in the wooden deluge was Chenlu, Cheng's sister.
Against Cheng's lurid skin and mousy coloring, Chenlu was radiant and glowing with triumph. Her dark hair was cut at a slant to emphasize her lively dark and slanted eyes and full dark lips. She straightened once the dust had cleared. A red-stained handkerchief was tied around her arm and a cut on her lip was bleeding freely, but she blazed into throne room like a queen. Her victory faded when she saw Cheng and the Avatar facing-off over a choking girl and a king with a knife at his neck.
"Cheng," Chenlu said. Her weapon clattered on the ground by her feet. "What are you doing?" She took a step towards her brother, but something in his expression stopped her. Clenching her teeth together, she hissed, "Let the waterbender go. Our fight is not with the Avatar or his friends."
Cheng laughed. "You still don't understand, do you, Chenlu? The Avatar has refused to let us take power peacefully. He has sided with the king. This is the only way for us to put our home back together again. We must kill the king and his supporters."
Furiously, Aang took a step forward. Cheng cocked his head again, and the large beefy man squeezed Katara harder. She struggled fruitlessly to reclaim air as unconsciousness slowly slithered over her.
"You're killing her, Avatar." His voice was soft and cold. Katara twisted to get free, but the fight oozed out of her. "What's your choice?"
Aang's control on the Avatar State ripped free. The tattoos running over his body glowed blue, and his eyes brightened into a soft light as Aang gripped the last strings of control. "Release them now," he ordered. "Trust me when I say you do not want to deal with the Avatar State."
The twins shuddered at the dissonance of a thousand voices speaking as one through the Avatar.
Chenlu rushed forward and placed herself between the Avatar and her brother. "Please, we seek no harm."
"Your naivety does not impress him, Chenlu. We do seek harm. We seek the fall of the cowardly king. And you have waited too long to announce your choice."
With a swift stab of Cheng's blade, the king of the Earth Kingdom fell. Bright blood gushed out of his throat and streamed out over two pairs of hands: those of the dying king and the betrayer who ran to him and held him as he died, Chenlu.
Blasts of wind spun the throne room into mayhem. In the corner of his mind that was still Aang, he saw Katara's body dropped to the floor as her captor escaped. Her eyes were extinguished into darkness. The fighters abandoned their leader and escaped out the door come. Aang had lost himself to the Avatar State.
Cheng, despite the screams of warning from his sister, ignored the obvious peril and did not run. The Avatar lifted Cheng out of the air. In his Avatar State, Aang seemed only aware of two things: the two bodies lying dead on the floor, the bodies of those he swore to protect. With a mindless intensity, the Avatar sliced, burned, and crushed him with all four elements until nothing remained of Cheng.
For the first time, Aang had purposefully taken the life of another.
The knowledge of that shook him out of the Avatar State. He let himself fall to the marble floors in a heap. Cheng's body bled out and soaked his clothes from the peaceful yellow to a blood red. The smell of charred flesh filled his nostrils, and his eyes drifted to the decimated body next to him.
Chenlu, still blood-drenched from holding the late king as he died, crawled over to where he lay. She sat next to him, wordlessly staring at her brother's corpse.
"Avatar Aang." She touched his arm when he did not stir. "Avatar Aang, listen to me. You must get out of here."
"I killed him." It didn't sound like his voice. It didn't sound like him.
"Avatar, my people are coming. If they find you here they might kill you." Chenlu gripped Aang's face and turned it away from Cheng. Katara's limp body came into view.
Katara," Aang gasped. He dropped his face in his hands. "Katara."
Chenlu moved away from him and bent over Katara's body. She pushed the other girl onto her back and placed two fingers against Katara's wrist.
"Get away from her!" Aang shoved Chenlu out of the way and knelt over Katara's body protectively. He knew he must have looked as primal and wild as an animal at that moment, but he didn't care. "Don't touch her!"
"I'm just trying to help! Her heart's still beating, and I can help her. Trust me when I say killing was never part of the plan." Chenlu snapped. She glanced down at her stained hands, and her body began to tremble. "He wouldn't listen to us. He was letting us die on the streets and wouldn't listen to us. But I never wanted this." The same desperation that held Cheng shadowed Chenlu's expression.
And Aang trusted her. He moved out of the way, and Chenlu knelt next to Katara's head and put her ear against Katara's lips. Frowning, Chenlu turned her head, and to Aang's surprise, kissed his girlfriend. Only, it wasn't a kiss. Chenlu blew into Katara's mouth, and pressed hard against her ribs. She repeated this multiple times, and then placed her ear against Katara's mouth again.
"Okay, she's breathing on her own now." She pressed her fingers against Katara's wrist again. "Her pulse is still weak though. You need to get her out of here and get a healer. The people are rebelling all over the city against the king's troops, and you and she are not seen as friends in Ba Sing Se. You have to leave." Chenlu's gaze drifted to where her brother lay. She bit back a sob. "Please. Please, go."
Aang stared at Chenlu, numb. "Why are you doing this?"
Aang cringed back when he saw the passion in Chenlu's dark eyes. "Because I want my people to have a voice. This country is going to become a Republic. And that's what I'll call this city, the place where it all started. Republic City."