Chapter 6: Conscripted
A grinding rumble split the air as six earthbenders raised their arms and each drew up a massive boulder from within the earth. Taking careful aim, one after another they fired them at the targets which stood in the center of the courtyard- each of the designed to resemble a soldier in an Earth Kingdom uniform. Occasionally one of the guards would pause to watch them, but mostly they simply walked around the courtyard's edges, careful to keep away from the direction of the flying rocks. Each guard was clad in red armor and concealed his or her face behind a mask that resembled a stylized skull, and was a continuous reminder that these earthbenders were no longer free. This was the result of Fire Lord Iroh's grand design for unifying the largely conquered Earth Kingdom under Fire Nation rule- rather than trying to wipe out earthbending, a task the sheer scale of which made nearly impossible, Iroh planned to fold them into the Fire Nation war machine. Each of these earthbenders had been conscripted and was being trained to fight against their own people.
The Warden shook his head as he watched the training from his balcony. "Savagery," he muttered. "Why the Fire Lord thinks our Nation requires the services of something so crude is beyond me…"
"Now, Warden," a calm voice said from behind him "surely I didn't just overhear you criticizing our glorious monarch's plans? To say nothing of your obvious disdain for such an ancient and useful art. I might have to report that."
"Our monarch, Agent Shen?" the Warden asked, turning to face the speaker. "I was not aware that you and your… fellows considered yourselves part of the Fire Nation?"
Agent Shen gave a wintry smile and folded his hands within the sleeves of his dark green robes. Their design alone marked him as distinct from both the earthbenders below and their firebending overseers, to say nothing of the broad-brimmed hat that shielded his face and the fact that though he wore a Fire Nation insignia on his chest, it was done in green and gold rather than red. "The Dai Li exist to serve the ruler of Ba Sing Se," he said. "When Ba Sing Se was conquered by Fire Lord Iroh, it merely meant finding a new way to serve." The Dai Li agent glided forward and joined the Warden in looking over the earthbenders, a faint note of pride touching his face- for when they weren't merely drilling, as they were now, he was their primary instructor.
"The Fire Nation does not need to depend on earthbenders for its success," the Warden snapped.
"I understand," Shen said. "You look down there and you see your people being made weak by being forced to associate with barbarians like us. But I see the future." He looked at the Warden. "And the Fire Lord also sees what I see. You had best remember that, my friend."
The Warden bristled, but found himself shivering involuntarily as well. It was just the mention of his Nation's ruler that had gotten to him, he assured himself. He certainly wasn't afraid of some jumped-up earthbender. Certainly not.
In the courtyard below, a row of boulders impacted on their targets once again.
/
Aang sat against Appa's foreleg with his head bowed and arms wrapped around his knees. Hearing footsteps approach, he looked up to see Katara bending down and regarding him with concern; Momo was perched on her shoulder, and the lemur was almost comically imitating the waterbender's expression.
"Are you okay?" she asked. "It's just that ever since Omashu you've been pretty down. If there's anything wrong, I want you to know that you can talk to me about it."
"I know," he said, smiling slightly and holding out his arm. Momo hopped onto it and Aang began to stroke his furry head as he returned his attention to Katara. "I guess that it just doesn't feel right- I mean, I'm supposed to be responsible for keeping the world in balance, but I couldn't do anything to stop Lu Ten and his army, and worse than that, I couldn't do anything to help Bumi. He's my oldest friend, and all I could do was leave him there."
Katara got down on her knees in front of him. "Aang," she said, "Bumi's a king, and he needs to be with his people. I know how frustrated you must be right now, but you'll be able to help him and a lot of other people, I know it- you just need to work on mastering all the elements so you can handle something that big. But I know you can do it."
"Thanks, Katara," Aang said, "that really helps." Hearing someone else approach, he brought himself to his feet with a puff of air and turned to look in the direction they were coming from. "Hey, Sokka!" he called. "Did you get any food?"
"Yeah," the young warrior said, depositing a bag at Aang's feet, "but we need to get out of here. This town's crawling with Fire Nation troops. It was weird, though- I told them I was a refugee and they let me in, but they seemed more concerned with watching the locals. I'd almost have thought they were worried about a revolt, but I saw hardly anyone there who looked like they could be fighters or benders. Honestly, it kinda gave me the creeps."
"Katara," Aang said, turning excitedly, "I think this is it- you said I'd get the chance to help people, and now Sokka's found a town that's in some kind of trouble! I think we should go back, try to figure out what's going on, and see if we can put a stop to it!"
"You know, I wasn't expecting something to come up this soon," Katara began, but Sokka cut her off.
"Yeah," he said, "and I hate to break it to you, Aang, but I don't think that the three of us are going to be able to do a whole lot against a whole force of Fire Nation occupiers."
"Well, at least we might be able to find something out," Aang said. "Sokka, you said yourself that something weird was going on there- I bet the Fire Nation is doing something really important and it'll turn out to be some top-secret project we can stop! That's probably exactly what they're doing!"
Sokka looked dubious, but finally threw up his hands. "The guards are probably just paranoid, but if it's just fact-finding we can do it- but if we get caught by firebenders and shipped off to slave away in some factory, don't blame it on me."
/
Despite the impromptu hat made from cloth wrapped around his head, Aang thought he could feel the eyes of the Fire Nation soldiers burning into him as he made his way through the village. Momo was perched on one shoulder, but Appa was back in the woods- the giant sky bison would attract way too much attention, especially when he was supposed to be extinct- and Katara and Sokka walked on either side. The guards seemed to have believed Sokka's story about needing more supplies, but Aang was getting the same sense that the Water Tribe boy had mentioned from earlier- it was like they were more concerned with the village itself than with outsiders.
Finally, they stopped in front of a large building that looked like a shop of some sort. "This is where I bought my stuff earlier. The lady who runs the place was nice enough- maybe she could tell us something about what's going on here," Sokka said in a low voice.
"Works for me," Katara said; she stepped forward and walked through the door with the other two close behind her. A middle-aged woman in green was sorting through her wares with her back to them; she stood and turned to regard them, her gaze settling on Sokka.
"Back again?" she asked. "I thought I'd already sold you everything you needed. Is there something else?"
"Well, yes," Aang said, "but we're not actually here to buy things. I was wondering if you could tell me something about what's going on in this town?"
The woman's face suddenly went completely still. "I don't know what you're talking about. Now, tell me what you want to buy, and then you can be on your way."
"Look," Katara said, stepping up. "We know that the Fire Nation's here and something strange is going on. But we're not here to cause trouble- we want to help, and I think we can. You see my friend here? He's the Avatar, and if anyone can do anything about the Fire Nation, it's him." She gestured at Aang, who grinned and pulled back his "hat", revealing the tip of his arrow.
The shopkeeper stared at the airbender tattoo intently, then nodded. "Very well," she said, and sighed. "I don't suppose that just telling you what has happened in this village will do any harm.
"The Fire Nation army arrived here several years ago- they said they were looking for resources for Fire Lord Iroh's war effort. At first, we thought they just wanted the local mines, but then it turned out that they were after something far more valuable. Iroh, it seems, is either far more open-minded than his predecessors, or far crueler- we haven't been able to decide which. Instead of simply killing or enslaving earthbenders, he had a new plan- he would conscript them into his army and use them as soldiers to fight against their own people. Apparently he does not share most of his people's contempt for other elements, and thinks that they are a valuable addition to his army."
"That's horrible!" Aang said, shocked. "Why do they go along with that, anyway? Why not try to break free?"
"Because," the shopkeeper said, "the Fire Nation takes hostages to ensure their good behavior. Many earthbenders came from this village, and that is why the soldiers are really here- to use us a leverage to control our relatives." She lowered her voice to a near whisper. "Including my own husband, Tyro, and our son, Haru."
"I'm so sorry," Katara said, putting a hand on the woman's shoulder. "My people know what it's like to lose family to Fire Nation raids, but at least we never had to worry about the Fire Nation taking them alive and forcing them to fight." She brushed her necklace with one hand and shook her head. "It must be horrible."
"It is," the shopkeeper said quietly. "There is a training camp in the mountains not far from here, but there is nothing we can do- if we tried anything, the Fire Nation would punish us, and if our earthbenders did, they'd do the same. We're caught in a vicious trap." She looked up at them. "You see, there is nothing you can do. Now please, leave, for your own protection. Especially you." She shot a meaningful look at Aang.
"Thank you for telling us," Aang said, giving a small bow. "But I will find a way to help you- I promise.
/
"Why do I get the feeling that you're about to suggest something else completely insane?" Sokka asked around the campfire that night. "I mean, you heard the woman- there's nothing we can do without making the situation even worse."
"I don't believe that," Aang said. "She said that one of the training camps was up in the mountains- I think we should fly up there tomorrow and see if we can find out any way to free them without getting the town destroyed."
"You see!" Sokka said, gesturing at the airbender with a half-eaten piece of jerky. "Spying on a whole camp full of firebenders and brainwashed earthbenders? That's not ending well! I say we keep moving and put this place behind us."
"No," Katara said. "These people aren't going through exactly what we did when we lost Mom, but it's close enough. I can't just walk away and leave them without even trying to help. And besides, I know that if the Fire Nation captured me and tried to force me to fight for them, I'd definitely not be loyal to them. There has to be a way to turn them against their overseers."
"Sorry, Sokka," Aang said. "Looks like you're outvoted."
"All right, all right," Sokka grumbled. "But don't say I didn't warn you."
/
"There!" Aang shouted, pointing down from Appa's back. "I think I see it!"
"Where?" Sokka asked, peering over the bison's saddle as he followed the direction the Avatar was pointing. Sure enough, in the woods below, up against the nearby mountains, there was a clearing, in the midst of which stood a structure that was unmistakably Fire Nation. It was roughly oval in shape and consisted mostly of a large metal wall with a row of spikes along the top. In the fortress's back was a tall, bulky tower from which hung a banner that bore the black insignia of a rising flame against a red background, leaving no doubt whatsoever as to who the building belonged to.
"Take us down a little!" Sokka hissed. "We're getting close and they're probably going to see us before long, and that means they'll send troops out after us."
"Got it," Aang said. "Down, Appa!" The bison gave a deep rumble and slowly lowered himself into a relatively clear area of the forest out of the fortress's sight. As soon as he was on the ground, two Water Tribe teenagers, a twelve year-old monk, and a winged lemur slid from his back and onto the forest floor.
"Okay," Sokka said, "that place is locked up tight. I bet they've got firebenders guarding the walls, probably some sort of big, nasty fire-shooting death weapons or something too, and that's on top of the earthbenders who'll fight because they're afraid of what's going to happen to their families. I hope that we all realize now that as bad as this situation is, there's not a whole lot we can do about it."
"I'm still not comfortable with leaving," Katara said. "I just don't think we should turn our backs on these people until we've done absolutely everything we possibly can to try and help them."
"If a direct attack won't work," Aang put in, stroking Momo's head, "then maybe we need to find another way in. A lot of airbending is based on coming at your opponent from a different angle than what they expect. There's got to be a way to apply that here."
"Wait a minute," Katara said excitedly. "Sokka, you said that we shouldn't fly too close to the fortress because then the soldiers would chase us."
"Yeah," he said slowly, "but that was part of my argument against getting involved."
"How sure are you about that?"
He shrugged. "Considering that Prince Angry and Princess Creepy were chasing us all around the south seas- and probably still are – and that guy at Omashu seemed really excited to hand us over to the Fire Lord? Pretty sure."
Katara folded her arms and smiled. "Well then," she said, "if the Avatar's apparently the Fire Nation's number one enemy, don't you think the soldiers at the village would be just as likely to chase Aang as the ones at the fortress?"
"Katara, that's great!" Aang said, leaping to his feet. "If the Fire Nation controls the earthbenders with leverage, we need to take their lever away – and that means freeing the village!"
"You know, assuming there aren't too many warriors in either the fortress or the village, we might be able to make this work," Sokka said, leaning forward. "We'll probably need to split our forces – Aang, you and Appa go to the village and deal with the soldiers there, me and Katara will try and convince the earthbenders here that they should rebel before the soldiers can strike back at the village. Everybody following me so far?"
"I think so," Katara said, "but how are we going to get into that fortress?"
/
Sokka watched the Fire Nation fortress glumly through the trees, wondering how exactly he'd let Aang and Katara talk him into trying to help, which directly lead to his current plan of trying to get inside it.
Especially since he'd determined that the best way to accomplish that was to let the firebenders capture him. Sometimes, he groused to himself, being the Good Guy was a whole lot more trouble than it was worth.
He and Katara had been waiting for some time since Aang had left, desperately hoping that the Fire Nation kept patrols to a tight schedule. Finally, Sokka smiled – two mean-looking guards in bright red armor came marching along the edge of the cleared area, complaining to each other about how utterly boring this duty apparently was.
Slowly, Sokka stepped from his concealment and fell into pace nonchalantly a few yards behind the guards; after a few moments of this, he darted forward and clapped the first one on the shoulder.
"Hey!" the firebender shouted, turning to see Sokka already running away. "Get him!" He and his companion came running after the Water Tribe boy, who lead them to the edge of the forest – where Katara was waiting, perched in the crook of a tree. The siblings' eyes met as they nodded at one another, and then Katara's had shot up and levelled at the nearer guard, directing a sudden burst of water from the pouch at her side. Not a powerful waterbending move, but enough to slam into the Fire Nation soldier and rock him back slightly.
"Waterbender!" the second guard shouted unnecessarily and struck out with one open palm, launching a fireblast that struck the tree. Katara slipped out of it and fell to the ground – Sokka hoped desperately that it didn't look as obviously staged to the guards as it did to him – and raised both her hands in surrender. Looking from one guard to another, Sokka did the same.
The guards stepped forward and grabbed their arms. "The two of you are under arrest for assaulting Fire Nation military personnel," he growled. "We're taking you to the Warden!"
As the soldiers turned and began to march them back towards the fortress, the two Water siblings shared another quiet glance and nod with each other. Everything was going according to plan. Sokka only hoped they knew what they were doing.
/
Aang circled the village on Appa's back, regarding it critically. From this distance, he couldn't see any Fire Nation soldiers, but that didn't mean they weren't there. Of course, it also meant that he wasn't entirely sure of what he was supposed to do in order to get their attention. Landing in the middle of town on a supposedly-extinct sky bison and declaring his identity at the top of his lungs might work, but it somehow seemed just a little, well, silly.
"What do you think, buddy?" he asked, ruffling the fur on Appa's head. "Maybe we could try skywriting? 'The Avatar is here!' in big letters would probably get everyone's attention. I just wish I'd learned some real waterbending first – that'd make it easier to write with the clouds, wouldn't it?"
Appa gave a low rumble that might have been agreement, or might have been gas. Sometimes it was hard to tell.
Suddenly Aang saw movement in the village out of the corner of his eye. Twisting on Appa's back, he looked down and saw men in red who must have been Fire Nation soldiers marching through the streets, occasionally stopping to knock on doors and collect something from terrified looking townsfolk. "I bet they're collecting taxes," the Avatar said. "This may be our chance!"
The group of soldiers stopped outside the store that Aang, Sokka, and Katara had visited yesterday. The shopkeeper was waiting for them outside, and seemed to be involved in a heated argument with their leader. Finally, the Fire Nation officer raised his hands in front of his chest and formed a ball of fire between them.
"This is bad," Aang muttered. "Really bad. I've got to do something!" He got to his feet and turned to look at Momo where the lemur perched on the back of Appa's saddle. "Guys, I'm going in." Grabbing his glider, he extended the wings and dove down towards the village.
The ground rushed towards Aang as he shot through the air, and he saw people –both villagers and Fire Nation soldiers – looking up and pointing at him as he descended. When he was about ten feet off the ground he folded his glider's wings and swung it has he landed, unleashing a great blast of air that hit the officer and the soldiers who stood closest to him and knocked them all back into the wall of the nearest house, which cracked with the force of impact.
Aang winced. "Sorry about that," he said, then spun his staff and slammed it into the ground in front of him. "I'm the Avatar," he said, "and I say that this village is free of the Fire Nation!"
The officer groaned and pulled himself to his feet. "Really?" he asked, smirking. "You may be the Avatar, but you're just one boy against more than a dozen grown men, firebenders all. I like my odds. Men, take him!"
The soldiers began to form a semicircle around Aang and advanced slowly, raising their hands to launch fireblasts. A moment later, three of the burning attacks shot through the air; Aang spun his staff and created a screen of wind that caught all of them, but still shot sparks throughout the village, and the Avatar sucked in a sharp breath as he watched the locals duck for cover. He was endangering them by being here, he realized – he had to take this elsewhere.
Before more fireblasts could strike, Aang spread his glider's wings again and leapt into the air. "Bet you all can't hit me up here!" he shouted down at the soldiers. "And… uh… down with the Fire Lord!"
"After him!" the officer shouted, and sure enough, Aang could see that a number of the firebenders had broken off from the main group and were pursuing him out of the village. He flew until he reached the edge of the forest, landed in the branches of a particularly large and sturdy tree, and then turned to watch his pursuers. The firebenders were spreading out and encircling the tree's base – it looked like they planned to burn him out.
Aang had other ideas. Sweeping out with his staff, he launched a wave of air that struck two of the firebenders head on, knocking them unconscious to the ground. Two of the others spun to regard their fallen comrades – Aang took the opportunity to leap from the tree and land on one's back, knocking him to the ground as well, and then spinning to avoid the other's attack before hitting him in the middle of his mask with the end of the staff. The firebender groaned and slid to the ground.
That left three. All of them were in fighting stances, with their hands raised and their backs pressed against each other. Aang thought he could make that formation work for him. Grabbing his staff firmly in both hands, he began to run circles around the guards at his fastest speed, whipping the winds behind him. Every so often he heard the roaring hiss of a fireblast, but at his speeds, none of them could hit him. Before long, the three firebenders stood at the heart of a small, rapidly spinning tornado that Aang created in his wake, and the force of the winds began to lift them off their feet. The Avatar smiled, and then suddenly ceased his circling, running off in a straight line instead. The tornado flew apart, flinging the soldiers in different directions into the woods. They stumbled to their feet, regarded him warily from behind their masks, then turned and fled.
"Well, that's them," Aang said. "Time for the rest."
It was a matter of moments to fly back to the village, and Aang's heart fell at what he saw there. The firebender officer had the shopkeeper in front of him with one hand tightly on her shoulder; his remaining minions flanked them.
"You'd have been better to stay away, Avatar!" the officer shouted as Aang came in for a landing. "Try to harm me or any of my men, and this woman dies!"
"Let her go!" Aang shouted, panic welling up in him. It couldn't end like this… it couldn't.
"Oh, I'll let her go," the officer said, "if you'll lay down your staff and come with us quietly. I'm sure Prince Lu Ten would be happy to see you."
Aang held his staff out in front of him, but didn't drop it. He and the officer stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, then Aang sighed. "Fine," he said, "I'll go with you. Just don't hurt any of these people."
"Smart boy," the officer said.
"There is something you need to know about first, though."
The officer and several of his men chuckled. "Oh? And what might that be?"
"That!" The officer, bewildered, turned in the direction Aang was pointing – only to have a winged lemur slam into his face, hissing and clawing. The officer lost his grip on the shopkeeper, who stumbled backwards towards her establishment, as he attempted unsuccessfully to pull Momo off his face. The other soldiers regarded each other, uncertain what to do, when suddenly a deep rumble filled the air. Moments later, Appa landed in the center of town and slammed his tail down, releasing a blast of air that sent all of the soldiers flying. The clambered to their feet, then turned and fled.
The officer finally pulled Momo off his face and threw the lemur into the air, where he hovered, chirping angrily, and turned to look at the village. His eyes widened in horror as he realized that he was alone, his garrison fled, and that he was surrounded by a circle of angry townsfolk, an irate ten-ton bison, and the Avatar himself.
Aang smiled. "I think you might be the one who should come quietly," he said.
The officer took one last look around the village, and raised his hands above his head.
"I've got some rope in my store," the shopkeeper said. "Someone get it so we can tie him up." As two of her fellow villagers moved to do exactly that, she turned to Aang. "Thank you, Avatar," she said. "But our friends and family who are earthbenders are still under the Fire Nation's control. You must help them as well."
"Don't worry," Aang told her. "My friends are already there, and I'm going to go help them." He suddenly looked sheepish. "Um… do you mind if I borrow your prisoner?"
/
Sokka and Katara were marched into the Fire Nation fortress, past a currently-empty courtyard that was nonetheless set up to look suspiciously like a training field and into the main tower. The inside halls were metal and blank save for banners hung with Fire Nation insignia; Sokka found himself fighting down the urge to make snippy remarks about his captors' interior decorating skills. Finally, they were shoved into a large room with a window and a desk, beside which stood an older, balding officer with a mustache and a scowl.
"So," the officer spat, "the two of you would be the rabble-rousers my men captured?"
"Who wants to know?" Sokka asked, shrugging.
The Fire Nation officer scowled. "I," he said, "am the Warden of this facility, a facility where you shall remain until you answer to my satisfaction who you are and why you were harassing my soldiers. Well, out with it! Are you working for that madman Bumi? Renegade Earth Kingdom guerillas? Or is harassing the Fire Nation's military simply your idea of fun?"
"Well, it was pretty fun," Sokka admitted, prompting another scowl from the Warden, who raised a hand to strike the young warrior in the face. Before the blow fell, however, another voice, softer and yet somehow more menacing, interrupted.
"Before you damage our guests, Warden," the voice said, "perhaps you should be willing to look at what your eyes are telling you?" The speaker glided into the office, showing himself to be a tall man in dark green robes and a hat who held his hands folded in front of himself. "Look at them – they have tan skin, blue eyes, Water Tribe clothes, and apparently the girl is a waterbender. Logically, they are almost certainly Water Tribe."
"Thank you for your input, Agent Shen," the Warden snapped in a tone that indicated he wasn't thankful in the slightest. "Now, if you would leave me to interrogate my prisoners in peace?"
"If that is what you wish of me, Warden," Agent Shen said, spreading his hands. When he saw them – Sokka gasped; the Agent was wearing what looked like gloves made of flexible stone. Beside him, Katara came to the same conclusion.
"Hey, you're an earthbender!" she said. "How come you're working for the Fire Nation? Are you one of their conscripts?"
"I am not a conscript," the man said in that same quiet voice. "I am an agent of the Dai Li, sworn to serve the city of Ba Sing Se regardless of who rules it."
"So you're a traitor," Sokka said smugly. That bard stung; Agent Shen grabbed the Water Tribe boy's shoulders and leaned in to his face, anger showing for the first time on his features.
"You are in no position to judge me," Shen hissed. "What do you know of Ba Sing Se or the mission of the Dai Li? We are many things, but we are not traitors." With a final glare, he shoved Sokka back against the wall and stalked from the room.
When he was gone, the Warden began to chuckle. "Well, that was amusing," he said. "That's the most emotion anyone here has seen from that man since he arrived. But, he was right- you are probably Water Tribe, and that means you aren't under my jurisdiction. Guards! Take them to the holding cells and leave them until someone else can pick them up for proper… containment."
The guards seized the Water Tribe siblings by the shoulders once again, and marched them from the room.
/
They were thrown into a small cell in the lower levels of the fortress, empty except for a small bowl of water. Katara regarded it critically, then shook her head – with her current level of skill, there wasn't a whole lot she could do with that amount that could get them out of here.
"Well," Sokka said, "this isn't exactly what we had in mind when we were thinking about getting into the fortress, was it?"
"Hey, it was your plan, Mr. Complainer."
"Yeah, but it was your and Aang's idea," Sokka shot back. "Anyway, pointing fingers isn't going to get us anywhere. If we're lucky, Aang's doing better than we are and can come back and break us out somehow. If we're not – then we need to break ourselves out somehow."
As they were talking, a young man in a plain brown shirt and pants came into the corridor outside the cells, sweeping back and forth with a broom. When he heard the siblings talking to each other, he turned to face them. "Hey," he said, "are you guys those waterbenders the guards were talking about?"
"She is," Sokka said, pointing to Katara. "I'm not."
"Who are you?" Katara asked.
"I'm Haru," the boy replied. "I'm one of the earthbenders the Fire Nation keeps locked up in here. They like to have us do menial chores when we're not training, so we don't have much time to talk with each other. Pretty soon, they're going to ship us off to fight somewhere – probably Omashu."
"Making you fight your own people? That's terrible," Katara said. "Surely there's something you can do about it?"
Haru shrugged. "What can we do? They're holding our village hostage for our good behavior – if somebody rebels, they crack down harder, and if we tried anything organized, they'd send a hawk and have our families wiped out. So long as we do what we're told, the Fire Nation will keep them alive. Besides, even if they didn't, what would be the point? The war's all but over, anyway, since Ba Sing Se fell. They'll take Omashu too, before long. There's nothing we can do about it." Despite his words, there was still a spark of defiance, buried deep in his eyes- this earthbender wasn't beaten completely, not yet.
"The Water Tribes are still fighting too – lead by brave men, like our father," Katara said. "But more than that – the Avatar has returned! Sokka and I have been travelling with him. There is still hope, Haru!"
"Maybe," he said, "but I'm not sure I can believe it until I see it."
Suddenly the sound of marching footsteps echoed down the hall, and the Warden came into sight, flanked by four firebenders. "You!" he snapped at Haru, "to the training yard, now. Agent Shen has requested we do emergency drills." He turned to Katara and Sokka. "I have decided that the two of you should watch, so you can see just how these earthbender savages have come to serve the Fire Nation."
The guards unlocked the cell and yanked Katara and Sokka out. The Water Tribe siblings were marched out of the fortress and onto a balcony overlooking the courtyard, where what looked like almost two dozen earthbenders had been assembled. Katara saw Haru as he went to stand beside a bearded older man who was probably his father – she remembered now that the shopkeeper had said that her husband and son had both been conscripted, and that the son's name had been Haru.
The Warden and his guards came to stand beside her. "Now, watch, waterbender girl," he said, "and see your own people's fate!" As he finished speaking, Agent Shen glided smoothly through the rows of earthbenders until he stood at the front, then took a stance. As one, the conscripts mimicked him, and he led them through a series of katas that to Katara's eye seemed mechanically perfect, but also lacking in true spirit. The people followed them only because they were forced to with the eyes of the Dai Li agents and the firebender guards on them.
"This is all wrong," Katara muttered, shaking her head. "It shouldn't be this way."
"No, girl," the Warden said, chuckling again. "This is the way it always should have been – the other elements, bound to serve fire."
"I have had about enough of you," she snarled, wrenching herself free of the guards that held her. "Earthbenders!" she called out in her loudest voice. "You think you have to serve the Fire Nation because they have your families, but you don't! The Avatar has returned, and right now he is freeing your hometown. They don't have any hold on you anymore. You can fight them! You can win!"
The conscripts stared at her, then slowly lowered their heads and turned back to Agent Shen. The Warden laughed again.
"Fool," he said. "Their wills were broken long ago. They have no hope left at all, and your empty words can't give it to them!"
"Sir!" one of the guards suddenly shouted, pointing at the sky, "What's that?"
"What is what, you buffoon?" the Warden asked, looking in the direction the man was pointing – and then his eyes widened in shock. Katara looked in the same direction, and shouted "Appa!" even as Sokka let out a wordless whoop behind her.
The giant sky bison landed with a rumble in the middle of the courtyard. Aang sat on his head, and on the saddle was a man in a Fire Nation uniform, bound hand and foot. Upon seeing him, the Warden's eyes widened in sudden fear, and the conscripts gasped.
"I'm the Avatar!" Aang said, standing. "Here is the man who was in charge of the soldiers occupying your village. Your friends and family are free now. You can fight!"
For a moment that seemed to last an eternity, nothing happened, and the Avatar and the Warden locked gazes. Finally, a tiny rock shot from the courtyard and struck the Warden in the center of his head, knocking him back in a heap. Katara felt her face split into a grin as she realized it had come from Haru.
"The Avatar has returned!" the earthbender boy shouted. "The waterbender was right! We can fight!"
The firebender guards raised their hands to unleash fireblasts, but before they could launch them, the earthbenders, as they had been trained to do, formed into tight groups and hurled boulders and curving pillars of earth at them. Many of the firebenders fell, and the rest found themselves suddenly on the defensive against the captives they had been supposed to be guarding. Many of them threw up their hands in surrender, others turned and fled.
Those who remained backed into tight formations, shooting fireblasts with practiced accuracy, but the earthenders, fueled by months of resentment and oppression, pulled up rock barricades from within the earth to protect themselves and slowly closed in, pinning the guards against the walls. The Warden himself, groaning and rubbing his forehead, rose unsteadily to his feet on the balcony, took the battle in, and then turned and fled back down the corridor.
Agent Shen stood in the center of the chaos, arms folded and expression unreadable.
Katara and Sokka found themselves penned in by the four firebender guards. The siblings stood back to back with hands raised in defense, Katara desperately wishing she had water to bend. Before any of the firebenders could strike, however, a great rumble filled the air as Appa rose to hover behind the balcony. The sky bison snorted and turned, then slammed his tail down, knocking the unprepared guards off their feet. Katara and Sokka scrambled onto the bison's back.
"Thanks for the save, Aang," Sokka said.
"Well, it took more than a little luck, but it looks like we did it!" Katara said, giving Aang a quick hug.
"Wait!" a voice- Haru's – called up from the courtyard. "The Warden's escaping!"
All three on Appa's back looked in the direction he was pointing, and they saw the Warden indeed hurrying across the courtyard, what looked like one of the Fire Nation's messenger hawks perched on his shoulder. "If he gets away, I bet he'll be able to contact his superiors and get another occupying force to move in," Sokka said. "We've got to catch him!"
"On it," Aang said, pulling on the reins and directing Appa towards the fleeing officer. Before the Warden reached the gate, however, he found his path blocked by Agent Shen.
"Don't just stand there, you fool!" the firebender snapped. "Do something!"
"It seems to me that this is your mess, Warden," Agent Shen said, indicating the sky bison and the semicircle of enraged earthbenders that were even now closing around the two of them. "I'm not inclined to get you out of it."
"Treacherous fool," the Warden shouted. "I'll take them all myself, then!" He fell into a stance and raised his fists, but before he could strike, Agent Shen pivoted sharply and punched him square in the face. The Warden fell to the ground, unconscious, and the Dai Li agent seized his hawk and flung it into the air, where it flew off at random with no message to carry.
The man Katara thought was Haru's father stepped out from the crowd of earthbenders and faced Shen. "Well, traitor?" he asked. "Are you going to join us, or stand with the Fire Nation?"
"Neither, Tyro," Agent Shen said in his calm voice. "As I told the girl, I am no traitor – I am Dai Li. We play the Fire Nation's game, but only for now. I serve a great man, and one day the Fire Nation will regret even seizing Ba Sing Se. There is more in this world than any of you suspect."
"What do you mean?" Aang asked.
Agent Shen smiled icily. "You will see, one day." Suddenly he folded his hands in front of himself and pressed down sharply; the ground opened beneath his feet, and then the Dai Li agent and the unconscious Warden vanished into its depths. The ground rumbled once, then closed behind them.
"They're gone," Tyro said, looking around at the other earthbenders. "And we are free." He turned to look back at the bison, and the three who rode him. "And thank you, Avatar, for freeing our village – and to you, waterbender, for reminding us that hope can never die."
"My name's Katara," the waterbender said, "and my brother is Sokka. We're glad we were able to help you."
"What are you going to do now?" Aang asked.
"We're going to return to our home," Tyro said. "The Fire Nation may well be back, but thanks to them, we're better warriors than we were when they first came. If they do return, they'll have a fight on their hands."
"Oh!" Aang said, "that reminds me- I bet you want this guy back too." Grabbing the captive officer, he jumped off of Appa's back and dropped him smoothly in front of Tyro. The officer looked up at the scowling earthbender and smiled weakly.
"Yes, I think the Fire Nation has left us some cells we can put to good use," Tyro said. "Thank you again, Avatar."
"I want to thank you all, too!" Haru called. "For reminding us that we can fight – and we can win."
"Welp, that's my job, bringing people hope," Aang said, shrugging, before he leaped back onto Appa's back. "All right, buddy," he said, "Yip yip!" With a rush of air, Appa took off.
"See, Sokka?" Katara said when they were in the air. "We managed to accomplish something good there."
"Yeah, yeah, and I hope we all learned a valuable lesson about not rushing blindly into situations where we might end up locked up for the rest of our natural lives."
"Don't be such a downer." Katara turned to Aang, who was strangely quiet. "Are you all right?"
"I was just thinking about what the Dai Li guy said," he said. "We sort of blundered right into this one, although everything worked out all right. But I think Agent Shen was right about one thing – there's more going on here than we know about."
As Appa sailed over the countryside, none of the three travelers found themselves able to disagree.