Book 4: Balance

The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it.

Chapter 92: The Great General

Long before Avatar Korra escaped her training, The Earth Kingdom's Council of Five, the highest ranking Generals in its army, kept order in the Avatar's absence, and its newest member was quickly becoming its most famous. A stout, sternly built metalbender, General Giam led an under equipped army against a pirate armada, *personally* destroying their fleet with a rock slide at Serpent's Pass. For his bravery, he lost an arm and an eye, replacing both with metal prosthetics he bent as if they were flesh.

Crowds cheered as he passed through every ring, from commoners to merchants to nobles, and even the honor guard in the Upper Ring. Giam stayed utterly dignified, hands behind his back, chin high, face straight.

As he entered the throne room, the other four Generals stood up. "Giam! Outstanding work!"

"You do the Earth Kingdom proud," another agreed, bowing respectfully.

"I am but a humble servant of our mighty queen, Hou-Ting, and her kingdom," he gratefully bowed back.

"Mmm, yes," Queen Hou-Ting mused. "The rest of the council suggests I bestow the Mark of Kuei."

"I am unworthy of such an honor," Giam humbly protested.

Hou-Ting briefly scowled, but flattened her expression once more. They should be bowing to her... but the Generals would throw a fit without their childish rituals for her father. "I insist," she declared, standing up, dipping a finger in gold-laced paint, and rubbing it across Giam's forehead. "You are now marked as a hero of the Earth Kingdom."

Giam bowed deeply, and the other Generals clapped jubilantly. "Now," the queen continued. "There is a rebellion in the lower ring. Put down those ungrateful peasants, and *then* you may celebrate your victory."

"Of course, Your Majesty. I live to serve."

A Dai Li agent slid up to Hou-Ting after the generals left. "He's quite the hero, isn't he?"

"Indeed," she agreed. "Adored by everyone, it seems."

"Perhaps a little *too* adored, wouldn't you say?"

"Speak plainly," she demanded.

"Well, less popular generals have overthrown the monarchy before. Giam's level of support is... concerning."

Hou-Ting smirked coldly, and tapped her long fingernails together. "Then we will use one threat to eliminate the other."

xXx

By sunset that day, General Giam was standing in a public courtyard, hand held high, his loyal soldiers bending boulders in the air as a crowd nervously looked on. "Ready!?" he called out.

"Please!" One peasant begged. "I have a family!"

"We just wanted to feed them!" another cried.

Giam exhaled gravely, and lowered his hand. Boulders crushed the lined up peasants right in front of the crowd, eliciting screams and cries from the crowd. A few ran forward, digging at rock, desperate to unearth their crushed loved ones.

The General inhaled again, and looked on. This was the one transgression he would always let slide. Loyalty to the Earth Kingdom comes first, but family second, and he would not interfere with a grieving family unless directly ordered. The sight brought him no joy... which is exactly why he had to watch.

xXx

Giam shut the door to his cozy middle ring home, lit with a fire at the end of the hall, and turned around. "Dad!" a boy and girl exclaimed, running up to him.

"Ri! Sochi!" Hey could barely get their names out before they tackled him to a ground in a hug.

"You're back!" Sochi cheered.

"You were gone so long," Ri added. "We missed you."

He squeezed them back, so happy he nearly cried. "I'm sorry, kids. I thought about you every day."

Ri turned serious. "What happened to your arm, dad?"

"Oh, does it come off!?" Sochi excitedly asked.

"Sochi!" her mother scolded, walking into the entryway. "Don't be rude."

Giam smirked a little mischievously, and let arm drop to the floor as he got up. "Oh, lemme see it!" Sochi yelled out, picking it up and waving it around.

"Hey, stop poking me with it!" Ri complained.

"Sochi!" her mother yelled again, as she chased Ri out of the room. Rina just shook her head as she heard something break, and turned to her husband. "Do you *have* to encourage them?"

"I'm sorry, Rina," Giam apologized, taking her hand and rubbing it. "I can't help myself. They're so precious."

"I know." Rina rubbed his hand back, and cupped his cheek. "We missed you, love."

Giam leaned forward, and kissed her, enveloping her in his one big arm, and she kissed him back even harder. But Sochi came running back around, and poked Giam in the butt with his own arm. "Hey!" he playfully chided.

"Tag! You're it!" Sochi yelled, running out of the room again.

"Come back here, you little rascal!" he laughed, giving chase.

xXx

Giam's officers and their family wanted a big night out, but that night, Giam chose to stay with his own family, helping Rina cook a hearty dinner.

"...How is school?" he sternly asked. "Keeping your grades up?"

"Yes, papa," they both answered.

"They're doing great, love," Rina assured. "Their teachers are already talking about a scholarship to Ba Sing Se University."

"I wanna be an engineer!" Ri proudly announced.

"And I'm gonna be a scientist," Sochi countered, sticking her tongue out. "That's way better!"

"Nuh-uh!" Ri argued.

"Yeah huh!"

"Kids, kids!" Giam laughed. "No arguing at the table."

"Yes, papa," they both hesitantly agreed, after sharing a quick glare.

He grabbed both of their hands, beaming with pride. "Technology is the future of the Earth Kingdom. It's going to make us stronger and more prosperous than ever, and I can't wait to see you two leading the way..."

xXx

The next day, Giam's first officer came to his home with an envelope bearing the royal seal. "Fresh orders, General."

"At ease. Thank you, Lieutenant." He stepped aside invited her in, taking the envelope. "What's the word?"

"I have no clue, sir. It must be sensitive."

"I see." He opened it, and read the orders. His face dropped. "I see."

"Is everything alright, sir?"

"Escort duty, for Princess Zara," he explained.

She frowned sympathetically. "Sorry, sir. I know we just got back-"

"Duty to the crown always comes first, Lieutenant," he assured. "Assemble our best. Let's do this right."

"Right away!"

Before following her out, Giam took one look at a picture frame near the entryway. His brother, smiling with him, just before he was lost to a bandit raid. He saved so many people that day... it made Giam proud to be in the same army he was.

xXx

Giam took his absolute best officers and soldiers, but kept the force small enough to avoid drawing attention, and arrived at a peninsula just south of Ba Sing Se. On a little beach nestled in mountains stood a royal retreat. He was greeted by Zara's piercing yellow eyes the moment he opened the door, a reminder of the scandal that brought her into the world... and the defiant spirit Giam knew she had. "Princess," he greeted. "It's an honor."

"Please." She hugged Giam lightly. "We've known each other too long to be so stuck up, wouldn't you agree?"

He smiled back, just a little. "One of these days, you're going to get me in trouble, Princess."

"I would hope so," she joked, leading him out. "I get myself in enough. It's why mother sends me out here every so often, you know."

"I can only imagine, Princess," he agreed, falling into step. The coast was stormy, and it was his duty to escort her to an airship landing pad further inland... not that he and his officers minded the walk. The twisting mountain paths were beautiful, and Zara didn't have a boring bone in her body. "Eye's forward, officer," Zara called out.

He snapped his eyes away from the valley stream he was gaping at, and straightened his stride. "Yes, Princess."

"Attention straying during a royal escort? That's dereliction of duty." Her face turned hard. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I'm... I apologize, Princess."

Zara let him sweat for a bit, then burst out laughing, touching his shoulder. "Relax! I'm not my mother, officer..."

"Lee," he corrected.

"Lee," she agreed. "Always Lee... Are all your officers so gullible, Giam?"

"Only the good ones," he joked back. "But they learn fast."

"That's important," Zara nodded. "Tell me, Lee, what *do* you think of my family."

"Uh, err... I would never presume to judge the royal family, Princess."

"Then speak freely. That's an order," she demanded. "At least tell me, have you ever been somewhere without a monarchy?"

"I have cousins in the Southern Water Tribe, running a shipping startup," he admitted, finally relenting and relaxing. "It's really something there, Princess."

"Exactly!" she exclaimed. "The Southern Water Tribe, the United Republic, even Zaofu. They came from nothing, yet are prospering without the burden of an archaic monarchy. Imagine what Ba Sing Se could become if it wasn't weighed down. It's as if she *tries* to hold us back, just to keep anyone from challenging her."

"But... you wouldn't, princess?" Lee nervously asked.

"I intend to run a very different kind of Earth Kingdom," Zara assured, touching his shoulder again. "And citizens who can even imagine such a world are a priceless asset. So I will remember you, Lee..."

Giam smiled and shook his head. Zara tormented his troops all the time, but he knew she was serious. Her vision, following Zaofu's lead, was so radical... Yet so appealing. Spirits willing, he would be ecstatic to serve her as queen someday. Maybe his children could have a place there.

The landing pad came into view, and so did a line of bandits on a ridge just uphill. They set off a mudslide. Giam's soldiers barely managed to shield Zara as they came sliding down the hill, vastly outnumbering the Earth Kingdom escort. Giam buried plenty of them alive, and his seasoned troops kicked up boulders and sent waves of earth crashing down, with even Zara slinging strikes of wet mud. But the bandits punched a hole, the leader jumped in close, engaging Zara in close combat after lobbing her forward with a slab of earth. She dodged a rock arm punch, and kicked him in the gut, but he quickly recovered and caught another kick, flipping Zara to the ground. "The Earth Queen says hi," he muttered to her face, before lifting a rock spike through her gut.

Madly throwing more bandits out of the way, Giam and his lieutenant threw smashed the Bandit leader aside, and knelt beside Zara. "Mom did this," she coughed, spewing blood.

Zara tried to get more words out, but they wouldn't come, and her grip on Giam's armor loosened as the life left those bright eyes. "Zara," Giam murmured, holding her head.

The bandits were subdued, but half of Giam's troops, his closest friends, were dead. Reinforcements from the landing pad came running up, and found Giam holding Zara's body, with a grim expression on his face.

What would he tell his troops' families? What would he tell the queen? Surely Zara was mistaken... Wasn't she?

She was rarely wrong about anything.

xXx

Meanwhile, that Dai Lee agent met a contact in a Lower Ring sewer. "Did you convince the Earth Queen?"

"Yes," the Dai Li agent confirmed. "She didn't even need any persuasion. The Queen paid for the bandits herself."

"Good," the contact nodded. "Giam was too much of a wildcard. Better for her to hold that power."

"So when she falls, she takes it with her." He stepped closer. "But Giam survived, against all odds. Should we take him out?"

"No need to draw attention to our cause. Giam's done," the contact assured.

He nodded in agreement. "How much longer?"

"Patience," the contact warned. "Remember our purpose."

"I will never forget, Zaheer." The agent clapped Zaheer's hand. "Freedom for all."

"Freedom for all," Zaheer agreed.

This Red Lotus cell knew they were making history, but they had no idea how critical this juncture was. The chain of events they just set off would obliterate the Red Lotus, rescue the Avatar from herself, save the world, transform it... and all but destroy it, more than once, rippling through time forever.

xXx

That very day, Giam and his surviving officers were chained up in a huge courtyard, with onlookers from every ring watching. "General Giam!" Hou-Ting called out. "You have been found guilty of treason, and dereliction of duty!" There was no trial of course, the Queen's word was law. "You failed my daughter! And there is only one punishment suitable for such a crime!"

Giam was ready to pay the price. But to his surprise, civilian men, women, and children were marched out in chains, even little kids bound up. His immediate family, and those of his soldiers, even the ones who died defending Zara were all corralled into a mass, crying as they looked on.

Hou-Ting raised a hand. The rest of the Council of Five looked on grimly as their soldiers lifted a huge boulder of the families. "Let this be a lesson on the cost of failure," she almost dismissively declared, lowering it.

Giam and his fellow soldiers cried out as their families were crushed alive, struggling and writhing against their platinum chains, calling out their names. "Raise the boulder," Hou-Ting ordered.

The soldiers did as they were told, revealing the... remains of the families. "Anyone who goes near them will have more family meet the same fate. Let their stink remind you of your place." She turned to Giam. "You will return to duty first thing tomorrow."

"...Yes, my queen," Giam weakly agreed with a salute. With no acknowledgement, Hou-Ting turned around, and walked away, without the slightest bit of remorse. When she was finally out of earshot, Giam dropped to his knees and cried with his soldiers, watching crows peck at the remains of everything he held dear.

xXx

Giam and his forced were spread through the mountains outside Zaofu, and ordered to shake down and harass any travelers, just spite the gleaming city-state. He was so angry, so bitter, he could barely function. It was the first snow of fall, and a small detachment was shivering, miserable, overlooking a valley that led to a mining outpost associated with Zaofu.

"Princess Zara was right," his lieutenant muttered. "Hou-Ting is a tyrant. Even her own daughter saw it."

That was outright treason. But so what? "May Zara rest in peace," Giam agreed.

"What peace?" the lieutenant scoffed. "She was murdered by her own mother! So were all of our families, like we meant *nothing* to her! Are we supposed to just take that?"

"We have no choice," Giam sadly admitted. "We're soldiers. We serve, or lose even more."

"What would Zara do?" she countered. "She wouldn't take this sitting down."

Giam saw another convoy of scientists enter the town, the last ones of the season before the pass closed. And a light bulb, a desperate one, went off in his head. "She would turn to technology and subterfuge, like she always dreamed of..."

xXx

So that Fall, Giam's forces quietly invaded Bao Shui, a tiny town stuffed with scientists, engineers, miners, forges, everything he needed. Technically, holding it was within the parameters of their orders. Many resisted, and he had to... subdue them, lest they escape or make him appear vulnerable.

Giam solemnly stood over the bodies of two particularly defiant scientists, Ishaani and her husband, with the most brilliant lab he had ever seen built right into their home. Apparently, they lied about not having any children, as they burst right in.

"You MONSTER!" Kylie roared, shaking the room with her metalbending, while her brother, Ren, held her back.

"I wonder what you two know..." he trailed off. They were furious. Yet in their green eyes, through Giam's shattered heart and broken mind, he saw a glimmer of hope.

xXx

While much of his army scoured the countryside for supplies, Giam kept a careful watch over the town. Scientists developed new armor, new tanks, new tools for Giam to use, and even new civilian technology to trade, and built it all out of exotic metals mined in the mountains. Not a single soldier protested, as they were all just as broken as he was, either despondent, or eager for even the slimmest chance to storm the Earth Kingdom palace and exact revenge with these new weapons.

But Giam's attention was focused on two brilliant teenagers. He walked into their meticulously guarded lab, and startled the younger. "Ri, I mean, Ren."

Ren jumped up at his voice, but barely turned his head. "What is it, Giam?"

"Cheer up, Ren!" Giam enthused, clapping his shoulder. "You're doing great work. Can't you see we're going to free the Earth Kingdom?"

Ren muttered something under his breath, and Giam turned to his work, levitating a small orb. "What's this? Something new to take to the testing grounds?"

"Don't even bother." With a wave of his hands, Ren opened the lab's shutters, and tossed the orb out into the cold. With an almost silent "splat" it turned into an expanding, foamy pile of green goo on impact. "It's a 'goo bomb.' It'll trap whoever you chug it at."

"Brilliant! That's perfect for a stealth incursion into the palace!" Giam exclaimed, hugging Ren from the side as if he were his own son. Ren pulled away without a word, but Giam's curiosity was not satisfied. "And this? Any luck with the vines from the Foggy Swamp?"

"They could be a power source, but don't expect much," he grumbled.

"This positive, Ren! I believe in your ingenuity!" Giam encouraged. "You're going to change the world!"

Ren muttered more complaints, something about killing his parents, but they didn't even register. In Giam's warped mind, the spirit of his son was standing right in front of him, and he was going to make him proud.

xXx

"I have a good feeling about this," Giam confidently declared, hands behind his back, as he looked out to the testing range next to Ren, nestled between mountains and sitting in the shadow of the sun. He was always so negative, and Giam couldn't understand why. His designs always exceeded expectations, when they worked.

But this one... this was about to change the world.

The first spirit vine bomb in history, a pure accident, ignited, the ball of electrical fire engulfing the entire testing range in milliseconds. His soldiers that actually survived looked on in awe, and Ren in utter horror, as its arcs tore through the earth. But Giam? He was *ecstatic*. "YES! YES!" He yelled out, happily shaking Ren. "You did it! This is how we defeat the Earth Queen!"

Ren sat there, processing for several seconds. "You can't be serious... That was unspeakable. You want to make another one?"

"No, we are going to make thousands!" he declared, eyes wide. "We will conquer the entire Earth Kingdom, and no one will dare oppose us!"

Ren was in utter shock, but Giam beamed with pride. Now when he looked at Ren, he saw the savior of the Earth Kingdom, the end to Hou-Ting's reign of tyranny. He was so proud.

xXx

Giam and his troops cut masses of spirit vines out of the nearby swamp, the final ingredient he needed to produce them en masse. And the first thing he did coming back was check up on Kylie personally, in a newly built factory near the center of town. She was more trouble than her brother, but he loved her just as much. "Kylie!"

She didn't respond, and instead, one of his soldiers came running up. "Sir! We have a situation. The siblings are gone-"

"Launch a manhunt, immediately!" Giam ordered. "They won't get far in the snow."

"There's something else," he nervously added. He led Giam to the prototype lab, where the biggest bomb so far sat there... blinking.

Giam did the math.

"Clever girl," he muttered, just as the bomb detonated. Arcs of electricity and fire engulfed the entire town, tearing through souls, melting the snowpack, scouring the earth so nothing remained, but so close to the center... something odd happened to Giam. The spiritual energy ripped through his full metal plate, his prosthetic arm and eye, as if it was flowing through his very soul.

Giam's life flashed before his eyes. His triumphs, his loves, his great failure to Zara and his family, and Bao Sui. As brief as it was, it gave his life meaning again, and Ren and Kylie... he was convinced they were Ri and Sochi, reborn, a gift from fate.

When he woke up, Giam was in incredible pain, under a brilliant, ethereal, purple starry sky, with glowing lighting scars carved around his empty eye and shoulder. He was in the Spirit World. And that moment, he *knew* he had been chosen by the spirits to do something great.

xXx

Giam's survival training kicked in, and he quickly adapted to the ways of the Spirit World, exploring it, mapping it, and learning its secrets. In an icy tundra, he found the Tree of Time, surrounded by even more spirit vines popping in and out of the ground than the Foggy Swamp.

The fallen General ripped one out, turned it over in his hand, and smiled. Now he knew why the spirits saved him.

For years in the Spirit World, with their blueprints vivid in his mind, Giam mass-produced spirit vine bombs by hand. He was no Ren or Kylie, but he was a master metalbender, and made due. When Vaatu was released and the Spirit World turned dark, he fought, he stockpiled, he hid... nothing would get in the way of his mission. And when another shockwave turned it clear, sprouting flowers and light everywhere, Giam saw two beams in the direction of the Tree of Time. The Spirit Portals, open once again.

The day had come.

xXx

The Physical World Giam found barely resembled the one he left. The Earth Kingdom was in ruins, with bandits and warlords ruling every corner. Even Zaofu had turned militaristic and oppressive, and Dai Li agents were up to their old tricks. The new Avatar had emerged in his absence, apparently wrathful and ruthless.

This is why the spirits spared him, he realized. The world was falling to tyranny, and it was his sacred duty to stop it.

Every soldier he ran into, whether from his unit or others, was shocked to see Giam alive. Apparently the world believed Bao Shui was dragged into the Spirit World by an angry spirit. It made them all the more ready to believe Giam, their fallen hero, was revived by the spirits to lead them to unity. He recruited from every army across the war stricken continent, turned others into spies, and steadily brought his stash of bombs into the Physical World. In one trip, he met a beautiful butterfly spirit named Aurora near the Spirit Portals. "What are those... things you're hauling around?" she asked.

"Liberation!" he exclaimed, arms wide. "Gifts from a bright mind, and the spirits themselves!"

"Liberation from what?"

"From the forces that took my family," Giam explained. "No one should ever have to suffer such a loss, over such petty whims."

Aurora's lights darkened. "I'm sorry. That must have been terrible."

"It was," he agreed. "Thank you."

The butterfly spirit brightened again. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Just your blessings, dear spirit," Giam assured the beautiful creature.

Aurora didn't know what that meant, so she just nuzzled him on the cheek. "Good luck, mister."

Giam felt genuinely touched as the spirit fluttered off. It was another affirmation that he was on the right path.

xXx

It was night, overcast. Cool and still for summer near Ba Sing Se.

Giam had the positions of every bandit and warlord army across the kingdom mapped out, and troops with rocket launchers positioned near every target... An invention of Kylie, Giam remembered. He harbored no ill will towards the siblings, but simply wondered what became of those amazing kids.

Giam shook his head, and clicked the radio on. "Is everyone in position, lieutenant?" Simple clicks came through as his followers across the Earth Kingdom signaled their readiness. "That's everyone, General. It's time," she confirmed. He nodded to no one, and looked to the sky. In his broken mind, Zara, his family, and his lost friends were all smiling down on him, satisfied by the vengeance he was about to inflict, the misery and chaos he was going to end. The Earth Kingdom would finally be united, unshackled. He would not be its king, its leader, but its *savior*.

The cost... well, that wasn't even registering. He was too numb, too far gone.

The General switched to an open broadcast. "People of the Earth Kingdom, this is General Giam. I see your suffering, your pain... I've felt it myself. But today is the last day you will have to endure the whims of tyrants." He paused, and looked back to the ground. "I demand the unconditional surrender of every warlord, bandit, and oppressor in the Earth Kingdom. Surrender immediately, or this will only be the beginning. I will not ask again."

He clicked off, and switched back to his army's frequency. "May the spirits guide us. Glory to the Earth Kingdom," Giam solemnly declared.

"Glory to the Earth Kingdom," many voices echoed back.

"Launch!" he ordered.

From his perch, on a high mountain in the Agrarian Zone of Ba Sing Se, he could see warlords and bandits fighting in the distance, in every direction, *still* killing each other over the right to hold the crumbling remains of the city. Their suffering was about to end. Simple rockets, like oversized fireworks, arced above the armies, and at their peak, burst into a ball of flickering purple-white light, like miniature suns that engulfed them whole. Then he saw more, in every direction, like a sea of suns turning night into day. Every army in the Earth Kingdom burned in righteous fire that made Sozin's Comet look like a spark. Cities that defiant warlords hid in would follow.

Illuminated by purple light, General Giam beamed with pride.

xXx

Notes:

Just a few chapters left. I'll probably post the last chapters to Ao3 one by one until the story is done, then here in a big bunch, but if anyone wants them sooner, ask in a comment.