I don't own Avatar: The last airbender

Chapter 37

And so, it began.

Hakoda was with his man, laying in ambush between the skeletal remains of the street. With a loud boom, the walls around the city exploded like the Kyoshi warriors promised. One of the few things that you can count on the fire nation is the reliability of their toys, at least. Hakoda and his men had seen two of the explosives ignite, but they exploded at the same time. He was sure that the other eight did their work as well.

And now, after hearing the prince's speech, all the denizens of Amora were crawling out of whatever dirt patch they were under and swarming the streets like cockroaches. He was pretty sure that by this point, at least some people would have to be seriously injured from the trampling mob.

Personally, Hakoda thought that the speech itself was a bit stale, but thankfully it was short enough. He knew how some generals liked to hear their own voice, from both sides. He also had to give points for the timing, it was perfect. Sure, Zuko probably had some sort of device to tell him exactly when the bombs exploded, but it was still very impressive.

Now how did the prince managed to get his voice heard across the entire city was another matter entirely, but Hakoda decided that now wasn't the time for guessing work. With the mob outside, his men and he were basically useless. On the positive side, he at least didn't expect an enemy to come near a mob this size.

Suddenly, he heard a female voice yell seemingly from the crowd. "The walls! Their open, run through the holes!"

Hakoda didn't know where exactly the voice came from, but he was sure that one of the Kyoshi warriors was responsible. It did fit their résumé, after all. And slowly but surely, the mob did start running towards the hole. It started with the closest and desperate few, but as they cheered at their newfound safety, they attracted more and more people to the holes.

Oh, he was sure that some poor souls were run over on the way, but it was honestly the lesser evil. Better a dozen than a thousand.

In any case, he had to wait now for the furry nightmare and Zuko's literal lap dog, also known as Xing. To say that the dog unnerved Hakoda would be an understatement. He still remembered how close that thing was to killing him, and how easily and willfully it would have done the deed should the prince had not specified that he wanted Hakoda unharmed.

In also came with the realization that Zuko could have (and still can) at any moment of time just order his dog a killing order and there would be little Hakoda could do about it. Oh sure, he knew how to create and utilize repellents against predators, but he didn't think that it would work for an animal as… intelligent as Xing. And even he couldn't mask his scent forever.

Perhaps he should fight fire with fire in this case, he just needs to find the right animal to adopt…

A bark from behind caused him and his men to have a heart attack as they turn around to face the new threat, only to discover the very thing Hakoda thought about. He supposed the saying about talking about spirits was right after all.

What was more concerning was the fact that the dog managed to get around their ambush and surprise them even as they made sure to always check their surroundings. For crying out loud, it was a lion sized mutt with black fur that contrasted with the light color sand!

"Freaking mutt…" one of his men said, and he had to agree.

Putting his frustration aside, he noticed that the dog was sitting still, as if waiting for something.

"Right… Zuko sent you. Do you know why?" It was strange and a little humiliating to talk to an animal as if it were a person, but at Xing's bark and nod he had the feeling that the animal could actually understand him a little.

Hakoda brought his wife's necklace to the hound's nose. "Can you track her, boy?"

Xing sniffed the necklace for a minute, then the air around him for another. The hound then barked and ran in one direction at a human pace, clearly meant for Hakoda and his men to follow.

"Come on men, after the dog!"

The dark tunnels, Amir decided, were very much not his style. The damp and dusty air did not agree with either his skin, or hair. Unfortunately, he was forced by father (and more importantly, mother), to hide like a rat because that no one of a prince that stole his Jasmine decided to actually attack the city.

No, really, was that retard so stupid? You don't attack Amora, especially if you don't want to be made an example of by lord Mi-Sha. Why had this upstart not die already was a mystery to him.

In any case, he sat on a chair as mother and father debated between themselves. He looked at a mirror at the side of the hole they were forced to call room. It was a dreadful thing, a boring rectangular shape with no accessories whatsoever. Nothing like the mirrors he had up there in his room. For spirits sake, he couldn't even see his entire body here!

Oh, how he missed it. He could have looked for hours over his perfect Adonis body, how his beautiful mane of rich raven hair fell on his shoulders and shone in the light. And if he had a lady friend over, then things will get really fun.

Unfortunately, here he was, forced to listen to the boring stuff of old people.

"And you sure that no one will be able to follow our traces, my love?" father asked.

"I'm certain, dear. I left a few of our lesser girls there to be raped, the soldiers would hardly have any reason to search deeper. And before you ask, no, none of the girls know about any tunnel. One will have to be very thoughtful in their search and have the nose of a shirshu to find the tunnel. And Mr. Pickles will take care of any shirshu on the off chance they actually had some."

"Very well dear, I will trust your capable hands in this one." Father concluded. "Now we must discuss what to do with Amir, however."

"What do you mean?!" Both his mother and himself yelled, with mother standing protectively in front of him. as she should.

"Love, think about it. Mi-Sha is ordering every able-bodied man to fight up there, and for all his faults, our son is very well within that category. In fact, it would even be expected from him to lead at some capacity as the son of two of the most influential people in the city."

"But surely you can say something, I won't let my little boy go out there. It's a massacre, and not for our advantage!"

"You think that I hadn't thought about it?" Father answered. "You don't know how short fused lord Mi-Sha is right now, if I tried to even point to something like that he would have just killed Amir and I on the spot! What we need to do right now is sending him somewhere 'fighting' so when lord Mi-Sha asks we'll have an alibi."

"And where do you think to send him?" Mother questioned. "In case you didn't notice, nowhere is safe in the entire city, and you are well past your prime to protect him." Mother nodded towards the big belly of the old man.

"I can bribe someone to take our son, as well as a party of gladiators, to a tunnel that has an opening outside the city. It should be easier now with lord Mi-Sha weakened and the chaos up there, I will handpick the men as I leave."

"And I will tell the girls." Amir said. "I'm sure that they will be happy to get out of this pit."

"Absolutely not!" Father yelled. "Do you think that it's some kind of a game?! You need to be focused and get away as quickly as possible, not to mention that the men must stay sharp as well!"

"What?!" How dare he! "No way, old man! I'll die of boredom!"

"Dear, I'm sure that he can take at least one girl with him." Mother came to his aid, as she should.

"What from what I said just a second ago did you not understand?!"

"Dear…" Mom said in a dangerous tone, after which he knew that dad would comply. And he did.

"Fine… He can take Zia with him, she at least knows her way around sharp objects."

"Argh, but this girl is so uncultured." Mother said unhappily. "Even the lowest of my girls have less profanity than her, can we have someone else instead?"

"No dear, I'm putting my foot down on this one. If our son can't go five minutes without female company, then at least she should be useful in protecting him at least."

"Fine, fine… You can have that animal if you want." Mother fell back. "I'll go see how my little Mr. Pickles is doing, he must be so scared without mommy near."

"Right… Scared…" Amir had to agree with the old man here. One could describe Mr. Pickles in many ways, scared wasn't one of them.

Huh… father coming on top at an argument with mother and he agreed with the old man? it must really be the end of times.

The glory of battle. It was said to be intoxicating, making your blood pump as you make your ancestors proud and truly shows yourself as a man. The thrill of the uncertainty and the sweet taste of triumph are said to be some of the greatest feelings a warrior could have.

Well, Sokka could say in one hundred percent that it was all complete penguin seal dung.

He had the bright idea to join a foot soldier group to get into Amora, so that he could join his dad and together they could rescue mom. And maybe show him on the way what a man he had become. And with his sister too busy with her girl stuff, she wasn't there to stop him from doing something that he now realized was very stupid. Really Katara, shame on you.

And so, he was able to sneak into a breaching force with much more difficulty than one would think. You'd expect that a single common soldier would be basically invisible in a fighting force of approximately three and a half hundred men, but no. The force was made of small groups of seven people, with seven leaders of such groups making a group of lieutenants who have a member of them as the leader of the larger group. And seven of those commanders make the command center with one of them having control of the entire fighting force.

The sheer trust in the delegation meant that one person could command a force that large with relative ease while at the same time making an infiltration very hard as a single question to the lieutenant of the group you disguised yourself as ruining everything, and the actual group that you'd try to bland in was very small and will snuff you up in a second.

He had tried it one time and was then embarrassingly easily found out. He was very lucky that in his quick thinking he said that Zuko sent him to test the infiltration counter measures of the force. He was even more lucky when Zuko was a bro about it and covered him while bailing him out, not that it spared him the dressing down he got from both Zuko and his sister when they were finally in private.

After that failure, Sokka opted to try the easier solution. He took from the inventory a common foot trooper uniform (in hindsight, maybe he should report to Zuko later. He was pretty sure that he wasn't supposed to be able to do it.) and wore it before going with the reserve troops. Once there, the group he was part of was called to the front, and Sokka tasted his first battle.

It was chaos! To Sokka's luck he knew the formations of the fire army very well, so he was relatively safe inside the formation the soldiers built. Even so, he couldn't hide from the screams of dying men and explosions of the artillery. Frankly, in some way it was easier when he had to fight for his life as wave after wave of sand people tried to breach their formation because he had no time to think about everything around him.

He killed his first man ever, it was some sand man with the usual grab bandits like him wore. The man was a head or so taller than Sokka, but died all the same as Sokka pierced his heart with a spear. The man was in the middle of a berserker like charge with a crescent shape sword, yelling praises to whatever spirit he worshipped.

Sokka didn't even have the time to get into shock as a soldier next to him stabbed another bandit that would have cut Sokka's head off. From there, it was a game of constant survival. Stab the bandit, return to formation before you get killed, hold your ground and stab the bandits from behind the shield wall, remise and repeat.

It was a good thing that his opponents, while physically stronger than him, lacked any real training. Most likely, most of their experience could be summed into harassing and bullying those who couldn't fight back. They simply rushed and swung their blades fast and hard, sure that their individual strength was enough to win the fight.

It was a little embarrassing to watch at the many openings they had, mostly because Soka knew that he was probably even worse than them at the beginning. Fighting wise, not personality wise. Most of the sand people at least had their physical strength to try to back them up, Sokka didn't even have that at the beginning.

"Arrows!" Sokka heard a yell and immediately took cover behind one of the shield barriers.

A few of the scariest moments on the battlefield were where Sokka had to hide from the arrow rain. Some of the arrows were useless against a shield, if you took cover under one in time, but others were strong enough to pierce through the metal with force. More than once, one of Sokka's neighbors got the short end of the stick (or the sharp one in this case), Sokka himself had such arrow stuck a few centimeters from his face.

He realizes two things that day. One, he didn't like war. And two, eating before battle was not a good idea, especially if you're going to puke it after you see enough bodies. Luckily the puke actually helped and caused a bandit to fall and be an easy pick, but it was still embarrassing.

The arrows stopped after a while, and Sokka recognized enough signs of Zuko, Mi-Dved and artillery to know what happened. Just as he thought about it, he felt a tremor that he recognized as Mi-Dved's rapturing axes. A falling part of the wall supported his case as it crushed the bandits beneath it and revealed a web-like pattern of cracks.

From there, it was an "easy" repetitive dance of stabbing, defending and falling back. After what felt like hours, the killing finally stopped. Sokka took a deep breath to calm himself down as he finally had time to have a good look around him, he didn't like what he saw.

The field was filled with bodies of the dead and dying, thankfully the ratio was much in favor of the fire nation (Sokka never thought he would say something like that in his life.). The screams of the dying were hunting, the duty attending them even worse.

With the gate and wall breached, and the army having a solid foothold, they were clear now to give their full attention to the wounded. Most would be thankfully fine (again, Sokka never imagined he would say that about fire nation soldiers.), But others had to have a limb cut off.

The worst, however, were those that were far too gone for medical help. There was only one solution for them, if they gave any indication that they wanted it, mercy kill. This duty… this was something that Sokka couldn't do, and thankfully no one asked him.

After being told to take a break, the commanding officer told them to count the dead in their relative group and then go to the new command post at the gates to farther orders. Needless to say, Sokka really regretted recent life choices.

Of course it was this place, Hakoda should have known.

They followed Zuko's blood hound to a very large building that Hakoda recognized as the center of power of the madam, an equally cruel and beautiful woman who worked as a branch of Mi-Sha's empire. She was in charge of everything that fits under human trafficking, from smuggling paying refugees to downright slave trade. All in all, a very dangerous woman that one should avoid at all costs.

To make matters worse, Hakoda heard tales about her pet. A monstrous chimeric abomination as big as the extinct sky bison, named only as a chimera. There were many rumors surrounding the creature, and none of them are good. For example, one rumor has it that the madam will feed her pet the one girl who had the least clients at the month.

And her palace, that doubled as her workplace, was of course the biggest and most sought-after brothel in the city. And it was famous for the quality of the "entertainment" inside for all the rainbow of the paying customers. Hakoda didn't even need to worry about his men wandering in there because the price was so high that they would have to sell their entire village just to pay the entrance fee. If there was one place his wife would have been held, it's there.

They neared the door, gate would be a more fitting view, and greeted the guards. They were allies as far as they knew, after all.

"Halt!" one of the two guards shouted. "What is your business here?"

"Peace, friend." Hakoda answered back. "We received an order from Mi-Sha to bluster the defenses here, according to him the fire nation plans to attack this place very soon."

The two guards looked at each other uncertainly.

"Do you have any proof that it's an order from Mi-Sha?" The second guard asked. "We can't just let anyone in."

"Of course." Hakoda agreed and replied with a smile and an understanding tone. "Here is a copy of the orders, you can bring it to your superior. We'll wait here patiently until you return."

The guard to the left nodded as he took the piece of paper and knocked on the gate at a unique pattern. After a moment, the gate was unlocked and opened just enough to squeeze one man through. The guard started to enter the building as his friend kept Hakoda and his men at a spear length, only to get an arrow to his head.

The other guard turned to his now shot friend to see what happened, Hakoda used this opportunity to slice the man's head off. At the same moment, Xing barged through the opening, pushing aside the now dead guard's body. From the quick muffing of the surprised yelp, took care of the people on the other side of the gate.

As Hakoda opened the gate, he saw another two dead guards. One had his neck snapped with a ferocious bite, and the other had the front half of his neck turned off by sharp claws. Meanwhile, the killer sat and waited for the rest of the party to show up.

Once the men hid the bodies and closed the door, they turned their attention to the dog. Luckily, with the red doors and the red carpet, it was hard to notice the blood. Hakoda wondered if it was intentional or a mere coincidence, but with the degeneracy of this city one could never be sure.

In any case, they continued their stride undisturbed. At least for a while.

In one point of time, Xing stopped and growled. Hakoda and his men quickly knew to expect trouble then and there as they formed a spear wall. And trouble came indeed in the form of two jaguar snakes running at them at full speed.

The animals were quick to cut through the distance, but just as quickly got impaled by the spear wall, caution thrown aside in favor of wild and reckless attack. As the spears pierced both the jaguar body and the snake tail, Hakoda noticed that those animals were too thin. Undoubtedly, they were starved on purpose.

Unfortunately, the noise the jaguar snakes had made also made sure that their presence was uncovered. The sounds of animals growling and people shouting were a clear indication.

"Oh well, we got farther than expected." Bato next to him said.

"True." Hakoda replied. "I thought that we would have been discovered as the gates."

Their advance now was far more interesting. Every few turns, Xing would warn them of the upcoming enemy. They would prepare a spear shield, and let the berserk animals kill themselves on the spear wall and move on.

In the few human encounters they had, Xing jumped above the spear wall and mauled the enemy. It disabled the archers and caused enough chaos for Hakoda's men to deal with the enemy quickly.

There were a few close calls when snapping armadillo turtles were involved. Those creatures were armor given form. They had the head of a snapping turtle, a body that was a combination of turtle armor and armadillo armor, thick scaly hands with ant eater claws, and equally thick-skinned turtle legs. Oh, and to add cherry on top, they could both walk on two and roll like an armored ball.

When first met, the thing rolled at them at full speed. Fortunately, it couldn't control its movements and went in a straight line, so the men evaded it easily enough. Unfortunately, it meant that the thing was now inside their formation. Only Xing's reflexes saved them from having their limbs turned off as the hound danced around the armored beast.

The turtle thing was a bit smaller than a grown man, whereas Xing was already as long as two men. But even then, the armor was too much for Xing to handle. In contrast, the claws and mouth of the turtle were more than enough to seriously wound the dog.

During their dance, Hakoda noticed that while the turtle had bursts of speed and power, it had to rest soon after. Xing noticed it as well, as in waited for the turtle to tire itself before unleashing its own bridge of attacks on the more exposed hands, legs and face. Yet even that did little damage. It was a battle of attrition, and one that Hakoda wasn't sure who was going to win.

Then, Hakoda noticed that the turtle had a soft spot on his neck, in the place right above its chest plates. In the next time it got tired, Hakoda used his spear and pierced that spot with all his might. By the sound, he was pretty sure that he passed through the heart. The creature died soon after.

Their next encounter had three of those things. Xing, however, had enough and fired a blast at the floor. The blast itself wasn't strong enough to shutter it (and thank the spirits for that because they were on a balcony of a high floor) but caused two of the rolling animals to change direction right into the end of the balcony. The beasts fell a dozen or so meters, needless to say that they wouldn't be bothering them.

The last rolling turtle, however, was still getting close to them. Xing, then, bit the leg of a man they killed after their first introduction with the snapping armadillo turtles that it kept with it for whatever reason. The reason was soon revealed when the rolling animal got close, Xing took the body by the leg and used it as a bat to smash the ball out of the balcony and down below.

When Hakoda saw Xing's face, he could swear that the dog was saying "Screw those guys. No, really, screw them." From there, the snapping armadillo turtles weren't giving them too much trouble.

They followed Xing as it reliably led them through the corridors and forewarned them of any would be ambusher. It was amazing how big this building was, Hakoda would have said that they were running in circles if he didn't mark their progress. Then again, knowing Xing, it probably decided to take a longer route to avoid the worst of the ambushes. Which once again showed just how smart the animal was, if the fire nation commanders were half that competent, they all would have worn red a long time ago.

They were stopped, however, when they were about to enter a plaza. Xing growled in a way it had never before.

"What is it, boy?" Hakoda asked. "Another ambush?"

It nodded a little with its head and smacked its tail on the floor many times.

"A big one?"

Another nod with the head.

"Alright men, listen up." Hakoda called. "We're about to face perhaps the most difficult battle of today. Move in with a star formation spears at front and bows at center."

"Sir!"

When they entered, they were inside a huge plaza with balconies and even pools with water plants. At its center, stood a single person wearing an attire not unlike what an animal trainer may wear. He had a coat made of thick brown skin and matching long pants. On the man's left arm was an arm wear made of an even thicker skin, one that is used to train dogs to attack and birds of prey to hunt.

On his hip there was a belt that held a whip and other trinkets within its deep pockets. He also had two necklaces on his neck. One is a thread with a skull of a small animal with small bones around it, and another had a whistle of some kind. If Hakoda had to guess, he would say that it's very effective against animals.

"Hello there-" Whatever the man was about to say was cut off as Xing shot a fire ball towards him. A fire ball that the man simply dissolved using his whip.

"Now that's just rude."

Boom!

Xing knew right away that the imitation before him was dangerous. Xing could smell on it the various smells of other creatures, smells that suggested a master-slave relationship. That imitation knew its way around creatures, and Xing had no illusions what the result of captivity will be.

Therefore, before the imitation had a chance to act, Xing made its move. Xing smelled other men and animals hiding unseen behind the high holes in the wall, it knew that said hidden enemies had to be naturalized as soon as possible to interrupt whatever the slaver had planned.

For that reason, Xing shot a weak and purely cosmetic fire ball to distract the slaver. While the enemy was distracted by the ball, Xing shot explosions to the high holes on the walls to shut them up. In seconds, Xing managed to destroy all the holes above, denying the enemy the higher ground.

It seemed like Xing's window of opportunity had closed, because the slaver made some noises that summoned whatever creatures it could through the holes on the ground level. Xing counted about three times more than the amount of claws Xing had on both front limbs, this is going to be interesting.

"I will hand it to you, chieftain, that was smart." The slaver addressed the leading blue imitation.

"I knew you'd turn traitor." The slaver continued. "But what possessed you to do it now of all times? Don't tell me that you're in cahoots with the fire nation, what would your wife?"

"My wife…" Xing could feel the rage rising in the blue leader. "My wife! Where is she?! Where do you keep her?!"

"Hakoda, really." The slaver said in a bored tone. "I thought that we were behind the accusations."

"We know she was here!" the blue leader pointed at Xing. "I don't have patience for your games, beast master, tell me where she is right now, and you'll get out of here with only broken bones."

"Ha! So the dig is off." the now named beast master said. "Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. Besides, even if I knew where the madam took her, I wouldn't tell you. Kya is too much of a good kisser, as I'm sure you're aware."

"Kill him!"

The followers of the blue thing ran towards the enemy, still in formation, as their spears were held high. Xing attacked also, even if he had no need to take orders from a mare imitation, and jumped to the fray. Xing fell hard on an ape like creature, a bigger variant of Xing's very own first glory kill, and bit off its nape. Ah, that brought back memories.

Immediately after, Xing evaded a claw of a cat-like thing with a snake on the tail, and returned the strike while half blinding the lesser creature in the process. The snake attempted to bite, but Xing saw it coming and was fast enough to step aside and bite the snake right under its head. Then, Xing used it like he used that imitation before with the armored ones, Xing hit two other animals that came to his side and then threw it at the beast master who was fighting the blue leader.

Unfortunately, the beast master narrowly evaded the projectile, even though the hesitation did give the blue leader an advantage to exploit. Xing jumped in the fray to assist the blue leader and shot a stream of flames at the beast master, forcing the later to retreat farther.

"I have to admit, it's one hell of a dog you got there." The beast master said between avoiding flames and spear tips and using his whip. "I'll take a very good care of it once I'll kill you."

"Not mine." The blue leader said as he blocked the whip strike and threw a boomerang. "And you're not leaving alive."

"Oh ho ho! Then this must be the infamous Xing then!" the beast master said as he stepped aside from the boomerang. "My mistake then, for a moment I thought that you actually managed to do something right. In that case, I must have it. An exotic specimen like this is too much to let go, it could be just as valuable as the madam's Little Pickles. I trained it for her, you know."

Before Xing could act, the beast master took the whistle on his neck and blew it. The noise that came out was deafening and painful, so much so that Xing had to bring his head to the ground and cover the ears. Xing didn't know what was happening, but when the sound stopped Xing heard a pained groan from the beast master with the blue leader striking with the boomerang that was once again it his hands like a sword.

If Xing had to guess, the boomerang hit the beast master from behind. In any case, it seemed like the imitations were immune to the whistle, so the blue leader could cover for Xing. Xing didn't want to think what would happen if it was a one-on-one battle against the beast master. On the other hand, it raised a concern for later. The blues now knew a way to counter Xing easily, counter measures must be made. Xing humiliated the master enough.

And to make matters worse, Xing felt the ground shake a little. It was a far cry from what Xing felt when facing the thing from down below, but worrisome none the less. From the entrance the beast master summoned his minions, rolled a ball not unlike the armored ones. This one, however, was far larger than any armored ball Xing faced.

The ball rolled until it was near the beast master and then revealed itself to the largest armored one Xing so, by far. It stood three times taller than the regular armored ones Xing faced and screeched as it showed its massive maw, sharp and strong enough to cut Xing's limbs off.

"Say hello to Mrs. Nancy." the beast master gloated. "This old girl right here is the alpha of the peck, so to say. Two meters, one and a half tons of armor and muscle, and decades of experience at the arena. This sweetheart should be more than enough to put you, unwanted guests, to rest. At them, Nancy!"

Xing had to push the blue leader away to save them both from being gored by the huge claws of this Nancy, Xing then continued to give ground as it tried to avoid the onslaught of the alpha armored one. To Xing's dismay, when Xing and the blue leader tried the same strategy they used on the previous armored ones, they discovered that this one's armor and skin were so thick that the spear broke when the blue leader tried to pierce through the weak point.

This one also had much more stamina than the usual armored ones and Xing was actually starting to get tired after a few minutes, the imitation at his side had it even worse as he breathed hardly. To make matters worse, the beast master didn't stay idle. When the alpha had to rest, the beast master harassed them with his long whips and closed on their escape when they evaded the claws and bite of Nancy. Xing had to take a few whips to avoid the greater evil.

"We can't keep this up" the blue imitation said. "Together they're too well coordinated. I can beat beast master in a one on one, you think that you can keep old Nancy busy for a while?"

"Bark!"

With an explosion to the face, Xing blinded and deafened Nancy momentarily. This allowed the blue leader to get his one-on-one fight as Xing kept a stream of fire on Nancy's face while the blue leader pushed the beast master farther and farther away.

After the stream Xing pouched on the armored one, but after a brief struggle was thrown away. Apparently, Nancy was also physically stronger. Good to know. But that left Xing with little options. Xing couldn't penetrate the hard armor or skin, they weren't on a high ground where Xing could push the armored one from, and his fire and explosions seem to do little damage.

After jumping away from an armor roll, Xing thought to himself what to do. Xing couldn't defeat the armor (something that irked Xing to no end), but what about the thing inside? Armored ones were tired after an assault, and this one was no different. The situation reminded Xing of a time where the master had to deal with lesser imitations that got a heatstroke, which gave Xing an idea.

Nancy was too armored to deal with, so Xing will just have to bypass the armor. As the big armored one gathers their breath and cools down, Xing will shoot a stream of flames to keep Nancy at high temperature. Eventually, the heavily armored beast will succumb to the heat as it will have no way of releasing it, and Xing will cook the animal alive once unconsciousness takes over.

With a new plan in mind, Xing shot a jet of flames to the now unballed armored one. It yelled with annoyance as it tried to get close to hit, but if Xing had one advantage, it was mobility. Xing kept running rings around Nancy as the armored beast began breathing harder and harder, its attempts to escape only quickened the process.

From his side, Xing noticed the beast master trying to interfere, but the blue leader had kept him well at bay. There was one time when the beast master tried to use the whistle, which would have been ruinous for the dangerous dance Xing had with Nancy, but was quickly bashed. The constant stream of fire also meant that any orders the beast master gave to his slave were either deafened by the flames or met with too much exhaustion.

And after what felt like forever, the time had finally come. With one last tired screech, the great armored one fell on the waste hole. Limbs fell numb and head fell back with a soundless scream of pain and desperation as the snapping beast lost for the first time in decades.

"NO!" the beast master yelled, however he was soon silenced as the blue leader used the opportunity to execute his foe with one strong slash that cut off the head. The rolling head of the dead beast master sent the lesser creatures he commanded to chaos. Their organized attacks were no more as some tried to escape while others fought among themselves for the alpha position.

With the greatest threat naturalized, and not sensing any approaching enemy, Xing joined the fray while leaving behind the burning body of Nancy.

Suki regrouped with the rest of the Kyoshi warriors once the bulk of the people were out of the city. It took some good hours, and a lot of work behind the scenes, but they finally managed to complete one objective from their list. And now, they were ready to work on the main thing.

"Alright girls, listen up!" Lyn said. "Now started the moment we were waiting for. With Hakoda's help, we were able to pinpoint the location where our sisters are most likely. From now on, however, we're about to face the worst this waste hole has to offer, so prepare yourself."

"I also don't need to remind you the cost of failure should anyone fall here, death will be the best outcome in this case. I wouldn't lie to you, this will be the most dangerous mission we have ever taken. But after this, we will finally bring an end to this sad story."

None of the girls raised a voice, they all knew what was going on.

"We go with the same groups as before. Once we arrive at the place, we all go inside together and then split into groups. Scout the area and return in half an hour, once we get a better understanding of what we're up against we'll act accordingly. Clear?"

"Yes, Ma'am !" the girls called in unity.

It didn't take long for the girls to reach their mark, even when hiding from view as they were. They had reached a large building that was covered with marble and had red, gold and pink coloring. It also had large golden statues that together with the images on the big door told exactly what kind of establishment it was. In any other situation, the girls may have stopped a moment either blushing or appreciate the view, but it was not the case now.

"Yep, it sure looks like we're in the right place." Suki said to her leader. "How would you like to get in?"

"The window up there to the left." Lyn pointed at a colored window about twenty feet from the ground. "Far enough from the main entrance for yet close enough for us to get through. I'll scout the room and you'll get in when I give the signal."

Lyn then threw a grappling hook at some stone figure about said window that depicted a female figure with wings on her back. The hook hit true, and Lyn quickly got into the position of the window. It was closed, and probably locked from the inside, but that wasn't a problem for a Kyoshi warrior. With the sharp end of her fan, the leader of the Kyoshi warriors cut a perfect circle big enough for a grown woman to go through.

Then, she used both her hands to hold the circle from falling to either side, all the while she held the rope with her legs. Once she had a good grip on the circle of colored glass, she threw it like a frisbee as far away as she could. An upside in this entire situation was that there were noises of things breaking here and there the entire time, so the noise of the broken glass was entirely masked.

Lyn got through and after a minute Suki and the girls saw her hand giving a signal that everything was clear. One by one, the girls got through the window, with Suki the last of them.

The room they found themselves in was most likely a bedroom chamber of sorts for the less wealthy patrons, which still was much richer than all of her village combined. It had a very big and cautioned bed with some very nice pillows, as well as sofas and other things for entertainment.

The girls stood at attention as Lyn prepared herself to scout the corridor after she unlocked the door. With Suki guarding the door in case of an ambush, her leader went outside. After a minute of silence, Suki heard a series of knocks on the door and let Lyn inside.

"Very well girls, I've got some good news and some bad ones." Lyn said. "Good news is that the corridor is empty. Bad news, we're not alone. The hall the corridor leads to is littered with bodies, both human and animal, so stay sharp girls."

They followed suit and soon saw what Lyn was talking about. The hall they entered was filled with bodies and signs of battle. There were bodies of men who most likely were here to lay ambush for the invading force, not that it helped much. Together with them there were bodies of different types of animals, a jaguar with a snake as a tail, a hybrid of an armadillo and a snapping turtle Suki's height as well as a few other creatures.

Most of the animal bodies had signed of starvation, most likely a few of the animals they were debriefed about. Most of the bodies were speared, but around a quarter were either burned or looked like another animal molested them. A very particular sight caught Suki's attention, a charred corpse of an armadillo turtle big enough to look eye to eye with Mi-Dved. The massive creature must have weighed a ton, if not more, and its skin and armor were basically impenetrable, but it looked like the creature was cooked alive. Its gaze was as agonized as its features allowed.

"Dear Kyoshi, who could have done something so brutal? Do you think it's someone we know?" One of the girls asked, clearly addressing the obvious fire bending that was used against the dead turtle thing.

"I mean, can you blame them?" Another said. "I, for one, would do anything I can if something like that was after me."

She had a point, Suki supposed.

"Questions for later, girls." Lyn said. "Now break into groups and spread out!"

"Yes ma'am!"

AN

And here we have the first chapter in the attack on Amora itself. next chapter will be more focused on the fighting itself and less on the no less important covert operations.

Now for the reviews:

First I must confess that I had no idea that the leaves thing with Iroh will be so liked. I added it as an afterthought, but I glad I did. Thank you all for the warm reviews!

02cjdgmail:

In this case it's both. Zuko absolutely believes that he's the righteous hand of Agni here, although the propaganda is a bonus. He's already treating morals differently that he had before, Sai made sure of that. the killing, the deceptions, the fact that he outright committing treason from a certain point of view by naturing Katara (a water bender) and Sokka ("heir" to the chief).

Right now Zuko is still in his pre-reformed mindset. As in, he's trying to be a perfect son for his father. everything he does here is still mostly to get his father's approval, with a little gaslighting from Sai. Things will DRASTICLY change at the birthday arc, and I'll leave it at that.

By this point of time Zuko looks like he would have been after book one, as in the haircut (phenix tail like he previously has does not go well with a helmet). Besides that his scar is much weaker, meaning that the mark is half-way to be completely dissolved. His scared eye is also back in use and the eyelash grew back. Zuko is also a five or so centimeters taller than he would have been thanks to Sai messing with the body.

For the part of Sai. The later, absolutely. the former, one can always try.

Engineer1869:

Thank you!

Poor Zuko, the guy can never catch a break, be it from beating or not. He really must make Mi-Sha's execution phenomenal now.

I tried to make the evacuation as realistic as possible. A bit sad that there were causalities at the evacuation itself, but in real life things like that happen all the time with a mass of people. There are actually cases were people were trampled to death during a black Friday sale, true story. Also, I hope that I answered about Sokka. We'll see more of him later.

When I learned about Kori, I knew that I must use that character. A fire nation perspective story is just not full without addressing the situation this character raises. Also, Mi-Sha is for many a role model, especially those in the vulnerable and influenced situation Kori found herself in. As we go on to Zuko's tour in the first colony, we'll see just how much of an effect that seemingly insignificant act of taking Mi-Dved and Jasmine in has.

Politics and self interest are the bane of armies everywhere, nowhere is more true than in the real world. as for the flood, mysterious are the ways of spirits and we'll leave it at that.

FicReader:

Thank you, I really appreciate it.

And I completely agree with you about many of the Zuko centered fics, part of the reason I started this story was to create an outlet and as realistic as possible (for a fictional world with spirits and not-magic). You are of course right about Sai being an integral part of Zuko's bending. Besides, we need to give Aang a good alternative final boss.

deniswanheda :

Thank you!

And yes, you're mostly right about the gem and Ozai. But there will be a little something more when time comes.

USSRFox:

Poor, poor Zuko. He's just trying to do the right thing and look how it plays out for him. cant even go to a doctor without someone spreading new rumors about him. for shame.

Lord Lelouch:

Thank you, It's very nice to read.

As I said in a previous review answer, I tried to be as original as possible.

We'll see the jewel in action, don't worry. as well as the side effects.

How Ozai sees Zuko... now that is one can of worms right there. Pride (at himself) and delight from the praises and tributes mixed with the growing concern of a rival and the loss of control, combining with the fact that he wasted his time on the wrong child and the fact that Zuko is the best choice for the heir. We'll go through all of that when Zuko is back in the fire nation.

One important thing, the world didn't know Mi-Sha id an air bender. They just knew that he was a vert very strong sand bender, It's Zuko who exposed him. When word reaches Ozai about this, it will make Zuko even more impressive. As well as raising the interest of the fire nation in the Si Wong for any other hidden air benders.

Your spots on about the pairing side of the story. I want to write things as realistic as possible, and that means that pairings will be made and broken as the story goes. as you said, Zuko is only a teenager. Heck, I may even and up with pairings that aren't my favorite, but I'll sure as hell will make them so well laid that there would be as little disappointment as possible.

For me, if you call yourself the crown prince, you must get yourself involved in the politics of your nation. Especially if you're in war with the rest of the world and have a glaring political issue with the colonial territories. It may be just me talking, but I'm surprised that politics aren't more involved in those kinds of fanfics.

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Anyway, I'm more than happy to read all your reviews.