Chapter 22: The Torment of Turning Tides

Hide blew a loose strand of hair that had fallen out of his topknot and scowled. He could not wait for the school day to end. The past few weeks had been the most miserable in his life. The whole natural order of his world had been turned on its head, and Hide for the life of him could not understand how it had happened so quickly. First, that smart mouthed, smug little colony loser Kuzon had come to town and instantly challenged Hide's influence over the student body. Then, he'd humiliated Hide in front of the whole school by leaping around like a moronic monkey and refusing to fight like a man. After that, On Ji had completely betrayed him by helping Kuzon and the other kids escape the dance party that he rightfully informed the authorities was taking place. Then, she and that weirdly quiet gym teacher had vanished into thin air after knocking Hide out! But none of that was the worst of it. The worst of it was how the other kids were treating him now.

None of Hide's friends would talk to him; no one would, for that matter. If he tried to sit with them at lunch, they'd all frown and pick up their rations and move somewhere else. Even his fellow Sparkers only interacted with him when absolutely necessary during training. He was beginning to feel paranoid at school, always feeling like people were laughing and pointing at him. He, the student most lauded by his teachers for obeying the rules and being a proper citizen, was now a social pariah. Since when were obedience, discipline, and honorable conduct qualities to be jeered within his peer group? The answer was obvious. Since Kuzon came to town and made being a rebellious little shit the hottest thing since paprika flavored Fire Flakes, he and On Ji were town heroes and Hide was a 'rat' who had gotten the 'hot' kids in trouble. It made him seethe. Everything was Kuzon's fault. Hide had lost his friends, his girl, and his reputation.

If only Dad would come home. Dad, who had taught him that bowing lower than his peers was the way to get ahead. Dad, who had fought tooth and nail with rigorous study and physical discipline to overcome his low status birth as the son of a fisherman to get accepted into the top Fire Navy platoon with flawless grades and glowing references from his Spark Corps instructors praising his ruthlessness and commitment. Dad, who had trained personally under legendary General Jeong-Jeong (before his disgraceful desertion, obviously) to become a far better firebender than the average Fire Nation soldier. Dad, who had risen from the depths of the boiler room on a small domestic patrol boat to become a prominent Admiral commanding hundreds of empire class Fire Navy battleships. Dad would understand. Dad would reassure him that his peers were being foolish and short sighted and that loneliness now was a small price to pay for the greatness that awaited him.

Hide would have given anything to hear from his father. Yet for months and months now, there had not been one letter, one word, one whisper of his father's whereabouts. Of course he had heard the rumors about the Siege of the North, but that was just wild gossip. The stories he'd heard were far too unbelievable to give any merit whatsoever. Who had come up with such nonsense: the sky and moon turning blood red, a blue creature dozens of stories tall emerging from the water, hundreds of battleships being destroyed in a matter of minutes…? Such a devastating defeat was impossible for the Fire Nation. The Fire Nation was by far the best civilization in history- unparalleled in sophistication and power. There was no way a group of water loving savages living in ice blocks could have beaten a massive naval invasion, Avatar or no Avatar.

The ringing of the bell outside the classroom door startled Hide from his thoughts. At last, this never ending lecture surrounded by kids who wouldn't even look at him was over. As he packed his parchments and books into his satchel, he watched Shoji out of the corner of his eye as 4 or 5 kids surrounded him. That was another piece of this whole mess that really got Hide's goat. Before Kuzon's arrival, Hide had never really paid Shoji much attention. The kid was shy, awkward, and couldn't even firebend. Normally, he only hung around with his bucktoothed cousin and that fat lard Urdu. But now, kids were always coming over and talking to him all the time, waving to him in the halls, and running up to whisper things in his ears. More than that, Shoji himself seemed different. He always had dark circles under his eyes like he never got enough sleep, but there was a confident air about him that he'd never had before. It just wasn't fair. Why was a weak little loser like Shoji suddenly Mr. Popular?

Shoji was smiling at the girls who were talking to him in hushed voices. Hide couldn't make out what they were saying, but he saw Shoji reach into his bag and give each of them a bag of Fire Flakes. What was up with that? Was that how come Shoji suddenly had so many new friends? Was he bribing them with snacks?

For a moment, Hide thought about going over and asking for a bag too. He was a little hungry, after all, and who didn't like Fire Flakes? But then, he straightened his shoulders. He was going crazy if he was thinking about begging for a handout from a kid he could've beaten up openly back when everything made sense. His pride was all he had left.

Hide kept an expression of smug superiority on his face as he walked home. There was hardly anyone out on the streets but soldiers now, everyone suspicious of their neighbors and being falsely accused for the strange incidents that had been happening all over town ever since the dance party. About a week and a half ago, the town had woken up to the sight of Fire Lord Ozai's statue in the center of town defaced. Someone had taken a long tablecloth and climbed to the top of the statue to wrap it around the Fire Lord's forehead like a headband. Several of the school guards' uniforms had been stolen and discovered burning out on the beach. The newspapers were reporting an increase in petty theft of food from local markets. And suddenly, it seemed like everywhere he went someone was playing pai sho, which wasn't quite as strange but still odd since normally only elderly folks with little to do would bother with such a long, slow moving game. It made Hide feel sick to his stomach, watching the town he'd lived in his whole life change for the worse around him when there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Unfortunately for Hide, the worst of these changes was waiting for him on his front door step. And this time, he couldn't even blame Kuzon.

His mother was standing outside on the steps with his grandmother, tears running down their cheeks in rather uncharacteristic displays of emotion. There was another person on the steps: a man in a Fire Navy uniform whom Hide had never met before. The man turned to look at Hide. His face was sickly and his eyes bespoke horrors that could not be expressed in words.

"Young man, are you Hide Zhao?"

Hide wordlessly nodded. Something cold and panicky was starting to creep up his chest like gunky oil dripping out of a rusty old engine. It was obvious that this soldier was not the bearer of good news.

The man bowed respectfully before him. His mother and grandmother just stared at him, saying nothing. Finally, the man spoke again.

"I greatly regret to inform you that your father, Admiral Tunshi Zhao, was killed in battle at the Siege of the North four months ago."

Hide didn't even realize his knees had given out until he hit the ground hard and cried out in pain. He was numb. His vision was swimming in front of him. Impossible… impossible…

"How?"

That was the first word Hide could force past his throat, which seemed to have closed up as his world closed up around him. Dad… all those rumors… all that time without letters… and yet he'd still believed, still held on to hope… and yet it was all for nothing. Dad wasn't coming home.

"How did he… what happened to him?"

The soldier moved towards Hide and crouched down, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Young man, I was a lieutenant on Admiral Zhao's lead ship and I survived the Siege of the North. I came all this way to tell you what happened in person out of respect for your father. The truth is, I don't know how he died. No one does. At first, we thought he might have been taken prisoner by the Water Tribe, but surely if they'd captured him, they would have let us know by now and tried to strike some kind of deal. The invasion started off so well. We waited for daybreak and started hammering them with fireballs. A couple of ships got sacked by waterbenders and the Avatar dive bombing from the sky, but we were winning handily. Then that night, everything went wrong. The moon went all dark and the waterbenders lost their bending. We advanced forward, convinced that victory was in sight. But then, this great lizard of water rose up above us.

The Avatar was inside it, eyes glowing like a demon. I'd never been so scared in all my life. I ran. Call me a coward, but the ones who tried to fight that thing? None of them came back. That lizard waved its arms and water sliced through battleships like a sword slicing bamboo. It was so dark, and all I could hear was screaming and the roaring watery terror all around me. Hundreds of good men died that night. And your father? I lost track of him. Last time, I saw him, he said something about going fishing. We… never found his body. It's not like we could go back in and search. Not with less than 10 ships in good working order at the end of it all. But I wanted you to know that your father died fighting for his country. There is no higher honor."

By the time the man was done speaking, Hide was in tears, unable to curb his own weakness. His mother tentatively reached out a hand towards him, speaking in a tight monotone, having regained her composure. "Is there anything I can do to help you, my son?" Hide recoiled, scrambling away.

"No! Just leave me alone!"

Hide fled down the street as fast as he could towards the beach, not noticing a very familiar pair of girlish brown eyes watching him from the shadows in shock and surprised sympathy.

A/N: Admiral Zhao's first name Tūnshì (吞噬)means "engulfed, swallowed, gobbled up" in Mandarin Chinese. I figured the moniker was appropriate, given the way he passed into the Spirit World.