Every time I think we are only one chapter away from a big battle at Ba Sing Se, it somehow creeps a little further away.
That said, this is going to be a bit of a shorter chapter, so it won't feel like too much of an obstacle to that big battle we are looking forward to. And for those of you who are really just absolutely dying for the siege to start, I get it. I do. This is the absolute last chapter before the battle starts. I promise. And to compensate for the extra long wait, the siege chapter will be extra, extra long. I will reward your patience.
"Currently, it seems like the diagonal cross frame is the best option. At the very least, it has had the best results so far. But who can tell if it will remain so as our tunnels get even deeper?"
Xisheng once again found himself standing out in the fields of barren dirt outside of the Fire Nation forward base. It had been three days since the beginning of the training exercises regarding the tunnel aspects of the upcoming assault on Ba Sing Se. In that time, some things had already changed fairly drastically: the base itself had grown in size, with new buildings being erected near the walls to accommodate the ever-growing number of reinforcements and supplies coming into the base. There had been some suggestion to allow the Earthbenders to simple raise shelter out of the earth a few days prior, but Xisheng had elected against it on a few grounds. One, even though it was probably a fool's errand to keep the presence of Earthbenders a secret from prying eyes at this point, he didn't want to make it any easier for them. Two, he wanted a sense of uniformity among the base: the less lines of division existed between the colonials and the standard soldiers, the better. Even something as small as different living situations could foster feelings of separation as opposed to unity.
This became increasingly more important as colonial volunteers from more places besides Yu Dao showed up. Other colonies were further away, but they had sent volunteers as well: it had just taken them longer to get here. There was even a hefty complement of volunteers from Xisheng's hometown, West Heiatu. He had kind of wondered if he would see anyone he knew among the volunteers, or if someone among them would recognize him, but no such thing had occurred. That made plenty of sense though: on top of not inspecting the volunteers individually, it had been several years since Xisheng had seen anyone from home. They might not be able to recognize each other even if they crossed paths.
But as far as the activities around the base were concerned, nothing much had changed over the past three days. Supplies were still coming in, and they were constantly undergoing inspection to see if they would be up to snuff for the assault. As Aranai had predicted, roughly a fifth of the predicted supply influx was either missing or defective so far. But even so, Xisheng was confident they had enough to complete the mission.
As for the tunneling part of that mission, the exercises had grown more and more harrowing in the past three days. Naturally, the training tunnels had been getting deeper and deeper. And naturally, they had been getting more and more dangerous. There had been a total of four cave-ins at this point, and unfortunately, they had not all gone as well as the first one. Everyone was still alive, but there had been at least one broken arm that had required the removal of a participant from the training. Because things had been growing more dangerous, Xisheng was here, talking to Muzai about the problem and what could be done about it at this point.
"What if the Earthbenders raised a support column in the center of the tunnel to further reinforce the ceiling?"
The older man beside him with the frizzy beard shrugged. "It's certainly an option, but it would greatly increase the difficulty of moving the explosives throughout the tunnel. Unless we make the tunnels wider, of course, but that just changes a variable and renders much of our findings thus far moot. If we do leave the tunnels at their current width and add a center support column, it could have a not insignificant impact on the time needed to set up the explosives."
Xisheng frowned as he contemplated that assessment. Safety versus time... one would think taking all the time you need to achieve maximum safety was preferable, but that wasn't always the case on the battlefield. Every moment the plan was being carried out was another opportunity for the enemy to detect their movements and take action against it. On top of that, a big part of the plan was a diversionary assault that would be endangering the lives of the attackers. The longer that diversion had to go on, the more casualties could theoretically be sustained.
But then, was it worse to have a higher chance of tunnel collapse in favor of speed? The tunnels were the absolute cornerstone of the assault, the most important factor that had to succeed. Though it was callous to say, Xisheng could afford to lose more troops in the diversion if need be. He couldn't afford for the tunnels to fail. One of those would result in a defeat, while the other would not. That was just strategic fact.
The young commander didn't get much more time to dwell on it, as the squeaky voice of Shishi called out to him from some distance away. "Commander, mission complete! This tunnel has reached the specified practice length with no complications! The digging team should be coming up soon."
"Very good, Shishi. How conspicuous was it throughout the exercise?"
The small freckled brunette put a finger to her chin. "Well, I could definitely hear it, but I'm also much closer to the digging. I don't think anyone on top of those huge walls could hear it, especially if a bunch of other racket was going on too."
"I see..."
He didn't get to say more, as a hole opened up in the earth and the digging team lifted themselves out of it with Earthbending. The amalgamation of Earth and Firebenders were caked in dust and and grime, but otherwise unscathed. Xisheng was happy to say that the two sides of that coin had bonded quite well, though that probably shouldn't have surprised him. Even now, the members of both elements genuinely congratulated each other and checked on seeing if everyone was alright. It seemed the shared sweat of the brow really did forge strong bonds. Hopefully the same would be true for the army and the colonials as a whole.
One person who didn't seem particularly excited to succeed, however, was Kori. She was on the digging team more often than not, but over the past few days, Xisheng had noticed some odd behavior from her. Nothing concerning, but she seemed subdued and a little troubled. Thing was, Xisheng had no idea what could be causing that. He didn't know her that well, and it was possible that it was some personal issue. Or maybe it was just that time of month. At any rate, he didn't think it was his place to ask, since it wasn't actually impacting her performance. Until that time came, it was probably best to be respectful of her boundaries. Besides, he didn't have the time to dive into the personal lives of every single soldier under his command.
For now, he just addressed the team as a whole. "Good work, everyone. We're making excellent progress, to be digging a tunnel this deep with no obstacles. I have no doubt that you're well on your way to success on the day of the assault. For now, everyone take a break: you can resume the exercises in an hour."
There was a chorus of affirmatives from the gathered individuals, though they were a tad tired. Well, Xisheng wasn't looking to dock anyone on enthusiasm points. With little else to do here for now, he turned back to Muzai.
"I'll take the written reports we have currently and return to the command center. Be sure to document anything else of value when the exercises resume."
"Of course, Commander."
With a lot of work to do today, Xisheng bid his comrades farewell and began walking back towards the base. With his thoughts preoccupied and his back turned, he didn't notice the eyes of a certain young woman on him as he left.
As the day wore on, Xisheng spent most of his time in the command center, working out different aspects of Wallclimber with his various advisors. Major Shairo still wasn't a very friendly person to work with, but Xisheng sensed that he had earned some modicum of respect from the much older veteran: perhaps it was the obvious level of deep commitment Xisheng had for the mission, or perhaps it was the fact that he actually had good ideas and was taking everything as seriously as possible. Shairo still rarely smiled and didn't really like the Earthbender presence on the base, but he had become somewhat less abrasive when dealing with Xisheng directly.
It was with Shairo's counsel that Xisheng decided on a three-pronged assault on the walls of Ba Sing Se. Though it would demand greater coordination, it was too risky to place all of their bets on one attempt. There was too much that could go wrong, so three separate attempts gave three separate chances for things to go right. But that also meant splitting their assault force into three separate units, which weakened their holding power when the time came to rush the breach. Hopefully, the destruction of the wall would render the defenders unable to mount any good defense, but that was a big gamble to take.
To combat this, there had been a discussion regarding the insertion of small Earthbender strike teams to go further beyond the walls and stir up trouble, or even convince the enemy that the real attack was coming from behind the lines, which would divert defenders away from the walls. That idea had not been totally sold yet, but at this current time, Xisheng couldn't see any reason to not implement it. They had Earthbenders to spare. And sure, it meant more tunnels, but without the need to move explosive materials through them, these extra tunnels could be very small and inconspicuous. Though of course, it was a very dangerous mission to entrust to volunteers with no professional military experience.
As ever, the plan was not without risks, but Xisheng agreed with the Major that it was the best way to increase their odds of success. Much of the rest of the meeting had been going over more specific details: the composition of the assault forces, the distance from the wall to engage from, the followup that would be required to secure any decent foothold after securing the breach, and so on. Hours' worth of planning, and by the time it was all over, Xisheng barely felt like they had made any progress in the grand scheme of things. Honestly, it was no wonder that people like Zhao settled for straightforward plans like 'attack until we win'. People like him probably didn't have the patience for all of this strategizing.
But of course, things were a lot different here than they were at the North Pole. Even though the North Pole had been a location greatly in the favor of the defenders, there were certain advantages the Fire Nation had possessed at the time to even things out. Namely, a huge firepower and range difference. All the Waterbending in the world didn't do the defenders much good in that scenario, because they couldn't get close enough to actually use it. Any boats they sent out to engage would have been targeted and destroyed by the massive Fire Nation fleet with ease, and their walls hadn't been tall enough to force a closer engagement.
The Fire Nation didn't have that kind of advantage this time. The walls of Ba Sing Se were so tall that even the mightiest of Fire Nation siege weapons couldn't lob a projectile over them. At least, not from the ground. Xisheng supposed that, if the siege engines could be elevated to a higher firing position, they might be able to lob things over the walls, but he didn't see the point. Bombarding the opposite side of the wall had worked because the target city had been relatively small and concentrated: the Fire Nation could actually hit important things on the other side of that wall.
Ba Sing Se was such a massive city that there was nothing of value to actually hit directly on the other side of its outermost wall. The middle and inner walls, sure, but the outer wall only shielded things that could not be destroyed by some explosive projectiles landing in a field. The Fire Nation could lob hundreds or thousands of projectiles over the outermost wall and hit nothing of value. No, getting through the wall was the only way to take this city. That has always been true, and it hadn't changed now. Xisheng just hoped his plan would actually manage to accomplish that...
Needless to say, though he had started the strategy meeting relatively early into the afternoon, it was late into the evening before Xisheng was dismissing everyone to go about the rest of their night. And even after that, he stuck around for about an hour afterwards, poring over different reports and theoretical strategies for the upcoming battle. The young commander was certain that his absence would be frowned upon by his friends, who were finding less and less time to speak with him these days, but he told himself that it would only be temporary. The more he got done now, the less he'd have to do later, right?
Well, ignoring the fact that he would still have an entire city to defeat after the walls came down. And relative to that, Xisheng wasn't sure if getting through the outermost wall could be consider the hard or the easy part.
At any rate, it was pretty late when Xisheng left the war room, looking to stretch his legs outside before anything else. He'd been standing in mostly the same spot for hours, so his legs were feeling a little stiff. He got a few salutes from guards as he made his way to the bottom level of the command post, but Xisheng was unmolested for the most part. Soon enough, he was stepping outside into the night air of the base, glancing up at a sea of stars only mildly obscured by a few pillars of smoke. Even at this hour, the forges were still hard at work. With the influx of volunteers from the colonies, there were a lot of people that needed to be armed or armored.
Xisheng took a deep breath, trying to ignore the less desirable smells of the war camp. They had been oddly comforting at first, but had since lost their novelty. He took a moment to think about what he'd do after his short walk, but that line of thought didn't get to go very far, thanks to the voice of someone off to his right.
"Commander...?"
A little surprised, Xisheng glanced back down to earth to eye one Kori Morishita, who had been leaning against the wall of the outpost. She'd cleaned herself up a bit following the tunneling exercises, but definitely still looked tired. Not to mention quite pensive. Though he got the feeling that she had been waiting her specifically for him, Xisheng decided not to jump to conclusions.
"Kori? Enjoying the night sky, or just taking a break on the way to somewhere else?"
Getting up off the wall, perhaps out of fear of appearing rude, Kori's expression grew a little more nervous. "N-no, Commander. I was just... er... wondering if I could..."
She seemed to be having some sort of issue with saying what she wanted, so Xisheng probed lightly to help her along. Besides, he could at least figure out her general purpose for being here easily enough.
"Speak to me about something, perhaps?"
"Y-yes, sir. Though I don't want to be intrusive. I'm sure you're very busy, so please don't feel the need to waste any time on me. It's nothing important..."
Xisheng cocked an eyebrow at her. "So you say, but I bet you've been waiting out here for some time."
Kori fell silent at that, though her sheepish expression was answer enough. Honestly, Xisheng was a little surprised to see her like this. This lack of confidence didn't seem to line up with her behavior since he had met her. Then again, there were things that made everyone nervous. Plus, Xisheng got the feeling that Kori still worried about somehow offending him as the Commander. She probably still thought about how her behavior reflected on her and her comrades. Xisheng was a colonial too, but he was also regular army, and an officer. Not to mention the most important officer on base at the moment.
So, Xisheng could understand her trepidation. But he hoped that he could dispel it. His ideal army operated on camaraderie and trust. It wouldn't do to have people under his command be afraid of him in some capacity.
"It's true that I'm quite busy these days, Kori. But I consider the well-being of those under my command to be one of my top priorities. You've been an integral part of transitioning the volunteers from Yu Dao into the greater strategy, and you've made every effort to be as accommodating as possible, even when members of the regular army have mistreated you and your friends. Lending you my ear if there's something on your mind is the least I can do to thank you for that. Rest assured, I'm happy to hear you out."
Kori looked a little flustered to hear all of that, which ultimately prompted her to bow a little awkwardly. "T-thank you, Commander! It means a lot to hear you speak so well of me. If you're sure, there is... something important I'd like to ask you."
"Is it fair to assume this might be a lengthy conversation?"
"Yes, sir. I apologize..."
"Not at all. Let's find somewhere to sit. I've been standing around too much today as it is."
Gesturing towards the rest of the base, where Xisheng knew some benches existed near the sides of some buildings, the young commander led his companion out to find a relatively private place of rest. Since it was pretty late, that wasn't hard to do. There were a few patrols around, but none of them would encroach on their privacy as long as they picked a good spot to sit. Ultimately, that ended up being a steel bench pressed up against the two mess halls. Xisheng imagined that Kori probably felt a little awkward sitting next to him so casually, but he was hoping to present a trustworthy, approachable figure of authority that subordinates would readily trust and rely on.
He must have been right about Kori feeling a little awkward, because she wasn't quick to speak even though she was the one that had something to talk about. Xisheng didn't mind though: he imagined that he had been a lot like this when first serving under Azula too. There was a gap to bridge between people who felt unimportant and those who held respected positions. It could be difficult to put yourself on their level, because it almost seemed presumptuous to do so. That said, Xisheng had no problem being the one who had to usher things along.
"So, what's on your mind? I noticed that you've been a bit... preoccupied, during training. Is it because of this thing you want to talk about?"
Despite all of his efforts to make her feel comfortable and welcome in this conversation, Xisheng noted the way Kori anxious wrung her hands as she looked pensively at the ground. Well, he was doing everything he could. It was up to her to overcome what she was feeling in that regard.
"Yes, it is. I apologize for not having my mind entirely on the tasks at hand. I know the job you've entrusted to my friends and I is very important for... taking down the walls of Ba Sing Se."
"No one can stop their mind from wandering all the time. What thought distracts you, Kori?"
The young brunette was silent for a moment, perhaps pondering the right way to word what she wanted to ask. After all, it had the potential to be a volatile question, which was why she was so nervous to ask it in the first place. But ultimately, she didn't know how to dress it up and make it seem less than what it was. The best she could do was ask it outright.
"Why... are we doing this?"
To this, Xisheng initially said nothing. He understood now why Kori was so hesitant to speak about this to him. She was not asking about why they were digging the tunnels, or why they had to attack the wall. She wanted to know why they were doing any of this, at all. Why did they have to attack Ba Sing Se in the first place? Why were they warring against the Earth Kingdom? Why did they start the war at all, all those years ago?
It was a question many eventually asked themselves when waging war. Few people fought wars blindly, without wondering why it was happening, and whether or not they were on the right side of the conflict. The answers that people came up with for those questions usually varied: some told themselves whatever they needed to accept it. Others became disillusioned. Some decided that they honestly didn't care. Xisheng had asked all of these questions of himself already, long ago.
But Kori didn't know that. For all she knew, he was a fanatically loyal Fire Nation officer who would consider even the act of questioning their goals as treasonous or seditious. Which wasn't an unreasonable concern: Xisheng knew there were many officers out there who felt such a way. To them, harboring any doubts about the justice of the Fire Nation cause was the same as condemning it.
"You want to know whether or not we are justified in invading this city, right? Whether or not there's some concept of justice or righteousness we can cling to when we inevitably destroy people's homes and lives. Some notion we can use to vindicate our actions and the suffering they'll bring. Am I right?"
Kori's expression was pensive, but seeing as how Xisheng hadn't condemned her just for having the thought, she felt safe in agreeing with his assessment. "Yes. That's exactly what I'm wondering."
Xisheng was silent for a moment as he contemplated the best way to go about answering this very loaded question. He knew what Kori probably wanted to hear. She wanted to fight for her home and her people, but she was also a good person. She wanted to be justified in doing those things. She didn't want 'fighting for her home' to equate to marauding around in the homes of others for no justifiable reason. Xisheng could certainly try to come up with some convoluted explanation about how this was all for the greater good, but he didn't think he could assuage Kori's concerns with some talk about spirits and the Avatar and the sanctity of human will and all that. Those were all very philosophical arguments, and most people weren't able to convince themselves to wage war and kill people for philosophical reasons alone.
So, he was going to have to put a different spin on this. One that was still absolutely true, but a different spin nonetheless. Besides, this was something Xisheng thought about all the time, so he already knew what arguments to make and how to word them.
"As to whether or not there's some moral high ground that justifies the Fire Nation's conquest of this city, or the entirety of the war itself... I'm sorry. There's nothing like that."
Honestly, Xisheng felt kind of bad about the shocked expression that came over Kori's face as he said that. Clearly, she hadn't expected him to say that, at probably not that blatantly. No beating around the bush, no attempt to defend the notion or anything. And to be fair, Xisheng could see why people would not expect this type of response out of him. He was pretty adamant about fighting on the side of his country, after all. So why would he speak ill of it? Well, from his perspective, he wasn't. That was why he kept going.
"Everyone would like to believe that their nation would only wage a war for some objectively moral and justified cause. But the fact of the matter is, countries as a political entity don't engage in something as time and effort-intensive as war for moral reasons. The Fire Nation launched this war a century ago for personal gain. Because doing so would benefit us. That's the only reason any nation goes to war: when the benefit to themselves outweighs the cost. Rarely does the notion of justice or righteousness factor into it, unless it's being used as a catalyst to convince people to fight."
Kori looked flabbergasted to have all of this said to her. More than anyone else, she had expected Xisheng to have some sort of airtight moral argument about why everything they were doing was justified and morally acceptable. To hear him so blatantly say otherwise, to readily admit that this war was just a matter of personal gain for the country, was shocking. She didn't know what to say, though she tried to say something anyway.
"T-then why... why are you here, fighting? How can anyone with a conscience fight for their nation for reasons like that?!"
Kori raised her voice at the end, perhaps feeling betrayed or disappointed with the sad reality Xisheng was speaking to her. But he didn't get upset about that. There was still a lot more to say.
"Well, I hope you'll allow me to extrapolate on this before you deem me a horrible person, Kori."
Perhaps realizing that she had raised her voice unintentionally, Kori relented. "O-of course, sorry. I didn't mean to imply that about you."
"It's alright, I understand where you are coming from. So allow me to continue. What nations fight for is always going to be inherently selfish: it might be a conquest for more territory or resources. It might be a ploy to unify a divided country against a divided enemy. Even if a nation went to war to defend another nation, it would only do so because it somehow benefits itself. All countries must operate by a system of self-interest: their obligation is to the prosperity of their own citizens, not the world at large. Some people have trouble accepting this as a justifiable reason to engage in acts as terrible as war. That's perfectly alright. I can understand why people, or you specifically, might feel that the overall benefit of our nation at the cost of others is not a good enough reason to fight."
Xisheng glanced up at the sky again, reciting thoughts he had pondered time and time again in his years as a soldier.
"However... the reason your nation wages war isn't the same as the reason you wage war. Though the motivation of a country may be mired in self-interest, the reason that individual warriors fight can still be just. And ultimately, when it comes to justifying participating in the act of war, whether or not you have a just cause to fight for matters more than your nation's reasoning."
Kori leveled a confused expression at him. "Forgive me for saying so, Commander, but that... just sounds like willfully ignoring wrongdoing to convince yourself that you've done nothing wrong."
"I suppose some might see it that way. I'm not saying fighting for a truly evil cause can be justified by your own personal reasons. If our goal was to march into Ba Sing Se specifically to murder every single person living there, of course I couldn't justify that by saying that I personally am fighting for a good cause. But as far as ordinary war is concerned, there's a great difference. A difference that is an unfortunate fact of life: there will come times when you must choose whether you care more about something important to you, or something important to a stranger. This reality is something you are already a great example of, if I might say so."
The brunette beside him cocked an eyebrow. "How do you mean...?"
Xisheng turned his gaze onto the young woman beside him. "Kori, how many of the people who came from Yu Dao to fight are your friends?"
"Many... I do not know an exact number, but many of those who came from Yu Dao are people I know and care about."
"And how many of them would have volunteered to be here and fight even if you had not come?"
Kori grew quiet for a moment as she contemplated the answer to that: and started to grasp the point that Xisheng was no doubt building towards. "Almost all of them... though there were a few that were convinced to come because of me, plenty of people from Yu Dao would have come to fight even if I hadn't come. Even if I had spoken against the idea."
Xisheng smiled, glad to see that Kori was catching on to where he was going with this. "Exactly... whether or not you condone or condemn the war or its reasons for being fought, your friends would be here, in harm's way. And this is where your personal sense of justification is what matters. You may not like the idea of nations taking from others to benefit themselves, but will you allow that to stop you from protecting your friends? Is the selfishness of your nation's cause more important than what matters to you? Your friends and comrades from Yu Dao will fight regardless of whether or not you morally agree with the politics of the war. If we somehow lost this conflict with the Earth Kingdom, Yu Dao itself could be taken by the Earth Kingdom, lost in some peace settlement. And I doubt they'd be happy to let anyone tied to the Fire Nation remain in that land after a hundred years of conflict."
Before the girl beside him could say anything to this, Xisheng made sure to extrapolate further. "This is not to say that the notion of defending what matters to you always justifies attacking others. It's possible that, if we just chose not to attack Ba Sing Se, the people of Yu Dao would never be in harm's way, and the Earth Kingdom would not try to get their old territory back if we had to make some sort of peace settlement. But in some ways, why you and I fight is not all that different from why our country fights. If we win here at the wall, with colonial Earthbenders being the cornerstone of the victory, you and your people will benefit greatly: it could be the turning point for you, the exact moment in history that elevates colonials to the same level of respect and dignity as every other person in the Fire Nation for the rest of time. Winning here could benefit not just your people that exist now, but their children, and their children, and even their children after that. It is true that we will hurt people who will not deserve it in attacking Ba Sing Se. But you have a hard choice about harsh reality before you: will you value the livelihoods of strangers from a foreign land over the future of your own kin?"
For a moment, it looked like Kori was coming around to Xisheng's argument. But she wasn't quite there yet.
"But that's assuming that this is the only way any of that could happen. It's true that participating in this battle and winning would mean a lot of good things for colonials everywhere, but it's not like it's the only way to make those good things happen. We don't have to hurt people from other countries to get the respect and acknowledgment we deserve at home."
"That's true. Though it would take more time, I'm sure that there are peaceful ways to achieve those good things for colonials in the Fire Nation. But wishing for a theoretical better alternative doesn't erase the reality of what's actually happening now. I had a friend say something a little similar to this once: 'the war is a thing that's happening, and a thing that will continue to happen regardless of what any of us think'. The fact of the matter is, whether or not you or I condone the war or participate in it at all, it will continue all the same. We cannot make a difference on that front. But we can affect how the war plays out: who dies and who doesn't, who benefits and who does not. Ideally, we'd live in a world where no one has to get hurt at all, where good people would never have to choose between the suffering of a friend or a stranger. But that's not the world we live in."
With a sigh, Xisheng looked up to the sky again, wondering if he was actually helping Kori with her problem or if he was just painting himself as a callous psychopath. He was sure that some people would think him the latter, even as he tried to explain why he thought this was all perfectly reasonable.
"For instance... say that I decide that this war is too unjust for me to participate in. I could resign from command tomorrow, and scrap this entire plan we've been preparing. Will I feel better about myself in doing so? Maybe. But as soon as I am gone, someone else will be put in charge. There will still be an attack on Ba Sing Se. Attacks headed by men like Qin, the one who came before me. Men who see the war as a way to gain fame and fortune for themselves, and care nothing for the lives of those who serve under them. If I chose to resign, and some new commander came in and launched a foolhardy plan that got wave after wave of my comrades-in-arms killed... would their deaths not be my fault? If the new commander does breach the wall, and he allows his troops to maraud across Ba Sing Se, raping and pillaging, would that not be something I could have prevented by remaining in command? By participating in this seemingly unjust war?"
Honestly, Xisheng wondered if any of his actual friends would think poorly of him for such thoughts. Well, Azula probably wouldn't care at all. If anything, she'd think it silly that he was putting so much thought into it. Mai probably wouldn't care just because. Ty Lee... well, Xisheng could only guess. She had seemed to come around to the idea of protecting what she cared about even if other people had to suffer, but to what extent could she actually justify that?
"What I'm saying is, I cannot control whether or not the war happens. Even if I refrained from participating on moral grounds, or outright opposed the conflict, all of the men and women here on this base would still be used to attack Ba Sing Se. What I can control is how that happens. I can control how many of my comrades have to die for this. I can impact how honorably our army behaves when invading the enemy's home. I can control how well we treat our prisoners, how much destruction is wrought in the pursuit of victory. And of course, participating gives me the opportunity to keep the people I care about safe. I can oppose the war on some moral grounds, and change nothing other than how good I feel about myself. Or, I can participate, and actually enact some good in an event that is going to happen with or without me."
Finally, he leveled a serious gaze directly at Kori.
"This war, this battle, is going to happen. Many bad things will occur because of this. You can abstain if you wish, but that will not change who and what it affects. If you feel that your moral obligation is to a higher concept of righteousness, so be it. My sense of moral obligation is to those whose lives are in my hands. If they die because I felt too upset about the reality of warfare, I doubt their families will be reassured because my sense of self-righteousness was upheld. You have to choose what matters to you, Kori: at the end of the day, justification is something that matters only to you. No matter what you choose as a 'valid' reason to act, there will be people who condemn it, and anyone who ends up suffering because of your choices will never care what you reasoning is. That is the best advice I can give you in these trying times."
Kori was silent as she took in the last of Xisheng's words. Undoubtedly, some people would call his perspective a warped notion of right and wrong. It was, somehow, both selfless and selfish as the same time, caring for other people, but only the ones you specifically cared about. But at the same time, there was a certain pragmatism to it. Kori couldn't deny that she would readily pick the lives or well-being of her family over a stranger in any given situation. Surely, any sane person would, right? And as Xisheng had stated, it would be one thing to harm a stranger unnecessarily just to better the lives of your own people, but if a choice was forced upon you, wouldn't almost anyone pick their own over people they didn't know?
The lives of her friends and countrymen would be partially in her hands. If she abstained from the battle or the war as a whole, and they died in a situation where she feasibly could have protected them... what would she tell their families? 'Sorry your son is dead, but at least I feel good about myself?' Even beyond that, would she really be able to live with herself, knowing that she had spared a faceless stranger suffering in exchange for someone she had actually grown up with and lived alongside? She had an obligation to protect her own, to fight for the people who trusted and relied on her... even if it meant other people had to suffer. It would be best if nothing bad had to happen to anyone, but if a choice had to be made, she could find solace in that.
So ultimately, she offered the young commander beside her a smile. "Thank you, Commander. I think I understand your reasoning, and it does give me solace. I do wish something as terrible as war could be avoided, but... if it is upon us no matter what I do, choosing to fight for my people and my home instead of abandoning them to some fate I have no role in seems righteous to me."
Glad to see that Kori had come around to his perspective, Xisheng smiled back. "I'm glad to hear that, Kori. Rest assured, I will do everything in my power to ensure we fight as honorably and humanely as possible in this battle. My aim is to dismantle the Earth Kingdom as a political entity, not destroy its people."
"And I will be more than happy to follow you as long as that remains true. Though I doubt it will ever change: since our acquaintance, you've only struck me as noble and wise. We're all very lucky to be under your care."
"I appreciate you saying so, though you may think too highly of me. I'm glad I managed to state my perspective clearly enough to be understood. I know that many people would disagree with me."
Since she had achieved what she set out to do, Kori rose to her feet, with a bit more energy obvious in her demeanor than before.
"Well, you are very well-spoken, Commander. I'm not sure how many people could convincingly argue the kinds of points you've made, honestly. But they have reassured me nonetheless. Thank you for taking the time to speak to me. I know that you're very busy and have to concern yourself with things far more important than a volunteer's misgivings."
Since it was obvious that Kori was about to excuse herself, Xisheng rose to his feet as well. After all, he did still have other things to do tonight. "This is my first command, and I certainly don't have a lot of experience with having this many people be my responsibility. That said, I'd like to be the type of leader that is trusted and relied on by their subordinates. I may not always be able to make time for each individual, but I don't want anyone to think that's because they are beneath me."
Kori's grateful smile widened even further. "I think that's a very admirable and respectable stance on leadership, sir. And though I can't speak for everyone, I believe many people here on the base can sense your intentions already. The way you handled the dispute at the mess hall, the sense of equality and mutual respect you use to speak to everyone, even colonial volunteers like me... I'm certain that both the regular army troops and us volunteers will be ready to follow you anywhere in no time at all."
"I certainly hope so. I'd be honored to have so many people put their trust in me."
With a bow, Kori finally excused herself. "Count me among those that do, sir. Good night, Commander."
Though he didn't have to, Xisheng lightly bowed back, smiling to himself as he watched Kori turn and head off towards the newly erected barracks for the colonial volunteers. Surprisingly, though he had not done anything to physically tend to his exhaustion, he felt a bit refreshed. Well, he was always excited to talk philosophy, and knowing that he had earned a loyal subordinate in Kori tonight was reassuring. Maybe that was why.
That said, it would probably be best if he didn't dwell on all the stuff that still needed to be worked out regarding the mission. If he did that, Xisheng was certain that this minor high would be squandered quite quickly.
Not terribly far away from the bench where this conversation had taken place, hiding around the corner of one of the many metal boxes that counted as buildings on this base, Ty Lee chewed on her thumbnail as she worked herself up into an anxious frenzy. Some hours ago, she had found herself with little to do as far as entertaining herself was concerned. Azula was busy with official affairs, Mai hadn't felt like leaving her room this evening, and there were way too many soldiers on base for Ty Lee to really get close to any of them like she had with the small crew of the ship they'd sailed on not that long ago.
So, a little dispirited, she had elected to wait for Xisheng to finish with his obligations in the command post for the day, some hours ago. That hadn't been particularly exciting either: in fact, she had almost fallen asleep while waiting around for him, as he seemed to be having a much longer day at work than usual. That was, until, she had spotted a certain someone take up residence next to the entrance to the command post. A young woman with brunette hair and a bun in a red ribbon, wearing a combination of red and green over most of her body except her midriff.
Of course, it wasn't like Ty Lee didn't know exactly who this was. Aside from the fact that Xisheng had described her before, Ty Lee had been present for that conflict in the mess hall that Kori had been involved in, so the acrobat had laid eyes on her and heard her addressed by name. As for why she cared about Kori's presence outside of the command post, well, it was a bit complicated.
Xisheng had really been mentioning Kori a lot lately. Anytime Ty Lee was talking to him about his day, she tended to get mentioned at least once. Not to mention, she was mentioned in ways that made it pretty clear that Xisheng was paying close attention to Ty Lee's fellow brunette. Xisheng often commented on how she was acting, or his perceptions of how she felt or what she was thinking. Though it was silly, knowing that Xisheng was watching Kori regularly bothered Ty Lee. Sure, Xisheng obviously talked to other girls: Mai and Azula were right there. But this just felt different somehow. Her friends were one thing, but a complete stranger? The thought of somehow losing Xisheng's interest to a stranger really rubbed Ty Lee the wrong way.
And of course, she wasn't completely oblivious: Ty Lee knew that this feeling was petty jealousy that didn't even have any real grounds for validation, but just because she knew it was a little silly didn't stop her from troubling herself with it. Plus, the feeling grew even more potent now that she was getting a good look at Kori again, without being distracted by a big problem. She was really attractive. Even worse, she was attractive in a way not that dissimilar from Ty Lee. They were both brunettes with similar heights and slender, athletic frames. Xisheng had even outright stated that Kori reminded him of Ty Lee. The idea of another girl possibly intruding on Ty Lee's relationship with Xisheng was one thing, but the fact that the girl was kind of similar to her aggravated the acrobat even more. That would be way too much to bear.
Sure, it wasn't like Xisheng had made any obvious implications about romantic or even purely theoretical interest in Kori, but that didn't stop Ty Lee from worrying about the possibility. Kori was an Earthbender, which, though obviously not the same as being a Firebender, added some sort of shared experience between her and Xisheng. Plus, she was effectively part of the army now, which would give her other things Xisheng would relate to over time. She was also a patriot just like him, and based on Xisheng's schedule and obligations these days, he was actually spending a lot more time around Kori than he was Ty Lee lately.
The young acrobat wasn't convincing herself that it was guaranteed to happen, just acknowledging that all the cards were right. And though she could acknowledge that it was pretty foolish to allow mere theoretical potential to bother her so much, Ty Lee couldn't help it. Being jealous over all of this was silly and irrational, but damn it, the thought of Xisheng falling for some girl that was 'Ty Lee, but better' drove her nuts. She had to either put her fears to rest or confirm them so she could think of the next step. That was why Ty Lee had decided to figure out what Kori was up to at the command post.
There was no guarantee that her fellow brunette was waiting there for Xisheng, but as more and more people left the command post, none of which were Xisheng, and Kori continued to wait outside of the place, Ty Lee couldn't help but feel that her suspicions were right. As minutes turned to hours, she grew even more troubled: what the heck could Kori need or want from Xisheng that would be worth waiting hours and hours outside of the command post for him? Sure, Ty Lee had been doing that, but she was actually close to him. Kori should have been nothing more than a subordinate, and something like this would have been totally weird for a professional relationship, right?
Ultimately, Ty Lee's concerns had proven true. When Xisheng finally exited the command post late into the evening, Kori had approached him immediately, and the two of them had started talking briefly before Xisheng guided her off somewhere else. Ty Lee, who had been discreetly in shadow at the time, had followed them as quietly as possible to spy. She felt bad about doing that to Xisheng, but at this point, Ty Lee considered it a greater good. She could be selfish every once in awhile.
Unfortunately, there hadn't been any good hiding places near enough the bench that Xisheng led Kori to. Because of that, Ty Lee had been forced to stay somewhat further away: too far away to hear anything. This was bad, because it left her with little to do other than watching the two of them speak from a distance. She couldn't get any sort of read on what that conversation may have been about, but it sure ended with a lot of smiling.
When it was obvious that the conversation between the two was over, Ty Lee hid behind the wall of her building again and started coming up with all sorts of possibilities to explain this strange late night rendezvous. Naturally, all of them were bad. It wasn't like they had kissed or even laughed it up or anything, but wasn't it super suspicious for a young woman to patiently wait hours for a young man to finish his work so they could retreat somewhere in private at night to talk? The late night secret meeting was a cornerstone of romantic stories, wasn't it?
Part of Ty Lee wished Mai was here, if only because her much more levelheaded friend would have probably talked her into acknowledging how ridiculous she was being, and to look at things with more rationality. Then again, there was probably no way that Mai would have wasted so much time spying on some random girl. Unless she was also concerned about the same thing Ty Lee was, but thus far, that didn't seem to be the case...
"Um, excuse me... are you alright?"
Shocked out of her ruminations, Ty Lee glanced up at the person beside her. Lo and behold, one Kori Morishita, glancing down at her curiously as she passed. In hindsight, this was the general direction of the barracks where the colonial volunteers were staying... and Ty Lee happened to be crouched down, gnawing on her thumbnail as she bore a hole in the ground with a furrowed gaze, next to a building on that path. She probably looked like a lunatic to the outside observer. Most people would have wanted nothing to do with that, but apparently Kori felt concern for the crazy woman hiding in an alley. Dammit, she was nice to a fault too. She was even more similar to Ty Lee than the acrobat had initially thought. Which, of course, only bothered her more.
Acknowledging that she should probably stop presenting herself like a nutjob, Ty Lee got to her feet and tried to act like she hadn't been doing anything weird at all.
"O-oh, yeah! Sorry, I just, er... saw an interesting bug! T-that's all..."
Damn, that didn't actually make her seem any less weird, did it? Judging by the confused eyebrow Kori was offering her, it clearly did not.
"Alright... well, forgive my intrusion. Good night."
With that, Kori began to resume her walk back to the barracks. Ty Lee immediately questioned whether or not she should use this opportunity to glean some information about her suspicions. It wasn't like she had too many chances to speak to Kori, and going out of her way to find her during the day would just look off-putting. This was as good of a chance as any, right? Though she didn't really have any idea how to start this conversation in any normal way.
"Oh, um... you were talking to Goh- er, the Commander just now, right?"
Clearly surprised to be asked this out of nowhere by the weird girl that only looked just barely familiar, Kori stopped and glanced over her shoulder with a perplexed look on her face. "Er, yes...?"
Man, Xisheng made talking look so easy sometimes. Ty Lee had no idea what to say here to achieve her goal without being blatantly obvious that she was fishing for private info. But she also couldn't just sit here for a full minute, trying to think about what to say while the person she was talking to had just asked her a question. Well, if the best she could do was to be straightforward...
"Um, what about, if you don't mind my asking?"
At this point, Kori turned around completely to focus all of her attention on Ty Lee. Rather than just confused now, she looked outright suspicious. Well, Ty Lee couldn't exactly blame her for that...
"I'm sorry, but who are you exactly?"
Kori's narrowed gaze made Ty Lee rethink her approach. Heck, at this rate, the Earthbender might think she was just a really bad spy or something. Maybe it was better to be honest to some extent.
"I'm a very close friend of Xisheng's. We've been through a lot together: you know, I was traveling with him for months, helping him fight bad guys and stuff."
It didn't look like Kori was going to take this at face value at first, but as she continued to look at the weird girl in front of her, she recalled why she looked familiar. This was one of the girls that had been accompanying Xisheng when he came to the mess hall to mediate her dispute with the regular soldiers. Granted, that didn't actually tell Kori much about who the brunette was, but it was obvious that she was connected to the commander somehow. He probably had plenty of people in his life that Kori was none the wiser to.
At any rate, Ty Lee's complete lack of subtlety in presenting herself as an important person to Xisheng gave Kori a fair idea of what this may have been about. De to this revelation, the severe expression on Kori's face lessened somewhat, though it was replaced with some degree of bemusement instead.
"I see... if that's true, why not just ask your very close friend what we were talking about?"
It was impossible to miss Kori's emphasis, though why she thought that was amusing, Ty Lee wasn't sure. Either way, she wasn't sure how to respond. She could hardly spill the details of her personal relationship with Xisheng to a stranger. That was private.
"Ah, well... that's a little complicated..."
"Be that as it may, I need to turn in for the night. I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. So if you don't mind..."
Kori shuffled away, clearly trying to politely disengage from the conversation. At this point, Ty Lee acknowledged that she was being very pushy, but she didn't really have a choice. She had no idea how to go about getting the information she wanted other than being direct about it, and this was her best opportunity to do so. That being the case, she just decided to stop beating around the bush and say what was really bugging her so much. Unfortunately, she felt kind of embarrassed in asking this so blatantly, so the question came out a little more forcefully than Ty Lee intended.
"A-are you interested in him?!"
Not surprisingly, this question stopped Kori in her tracks, though mostly because she was just absolutely caught off-guard. Her stunned expression as she whirled around to speak to this stranger once again spoke volumes about that.
"Wha-?! That's quite a question to ask for someone who hasn't even told me their name!"
"I know! I'm sorry, I just... really need to know!"
With a rueful sigh, Kori wasted no time in giving this girl the answer she was looking for. She didn't mind answering, as Kori had already correctly judged the nature of this conversation a few minutes ago. Whatever relationship this brunette had with the commander, she clearly had romantic interest in him and was worried about competition. Well, all Kori could do was be honest...
"No."
Judging by the raising of eyebrows and the evident confusion on her face, Kori's conversational partner had clearly not expected this answer. "No? What do you mean, 'no'?"
"Well for one, I'm already in a relationship with someone else..."
"Not to imply that you're disloyal or anything, but being in a relationship isn't a guarantee that someone doesn't want to jump ship."
"OK, fair enough. But the answer is still no."
Honestly, Ty Lee probably should have just been happy to get that answer and left things alone. But she was having a hard time accepting it as face value. Maybe it was just the paranoia talking, but a simple 'no' without any explanation seemed less like the truth and more like an attempt to hide the truth. Hell, that probably was just the paranoia talking, but even so...
"Why not?"
Kori scoffed as she leveled an incredulous expression at Ty Lee. "Has anyone ever told you that you're really nosy?"
Recalling a few times either Mai or Azula had said that to her in the past, Ty Lee grimaced. "Well... yes. Sorry."
Finding a degree of amusement in all of this, Kori figured she may as well just assuage this girl's fears. After all, it wasn't like it was any sort of problem for her.
"Don't get me wrong, the Commander has my utmost respect. He's kind, noble, and wise. And I'm sure may women would consider him very attractive. But he's just not my type."
To this, Ty Lee didn't say anything. Instead, Kori just identified a completely disbelieving look on her face. Well, maybe that wasn't too surprising: she had just called the commander handsome and a good person, so to say that he wasn't her type made it sound like she didn't actually like those things in a man, which wasn't really what she meant. So, she decided to add a slight bit of clarification.
"What I mean is, I just prefer men who are more... robust. That's all."
Trying to process what that adjective even meant, Ty Lee finally recalled a few more details about that mess hall incident, including that portly guy Xisheng had dressed down at the end of it all. If she was remembering correctly, hadn't that guy insinuated that Kori was his girlfriend? Ty Lee supposed that someone like that could be considered 'robust'. Hearing Kori admit to some sort of preference for that also made that relationship seem a lot less unbelievable.
"Oh, that... that really explains a lot."
Kori's eyes narrowed as she detected a hint of judgment in that. "Why do I feel like I should be insulted?"
Admittedly, Ty Lee knew that she was judging Kori's tastes a little bit. She had wanted her to have no interest in Xisheng, of course, but at the same time, Ty Lee wondered how any young woman could do that. Well, the acrobat would allow this to be a lesson for the future: even an objectively great person was still only subjectively attractive on a person to person basis. What Ty Lee considered the perfect man didn't go for everyone. Though personally, she couldn't wrap her head around Kori's preference. Best to just accept her good fortune.
"N-not at all, it's just one of those things, y'know? Er, how does that saying go? Different strokes, or something...?"
Kori didn't seem convinced that Ty Lee wasn't judging her, but she didn't care to make a scene about it. She was very used to people questioning her relationship with Sneers. And it wasn't like she was oblivious as to why. In all humility, Kori knew she was decently high on the ladder of attractiveness, as far as typical convention was concerned. And Similarly, Sneers was often considered below average by most. So, from a superficial point of view, people often questioned why they were together. It was ignorant, but understandably so. In most cases, people at least had to find someone attractive on the surface before they took a romantic interest in them as a person. So it raised questions when a stranger saw someone they thought was ugly and someone they thought was attractive together.
At any rate, she was used to it, and not particularly bothered. "If you say so. Anyway, there's your answer. The Commander is a great man, and any woman would be lucky to have his affection. But I'm... happy with my own relationship."
The Yu Dao native glanced to the ground while saying that, not looking entirely convinced of her own words. But from Ty Lee's perspective, the issue that was troubling her seemed deeper than something like physical attraction. But she had already been very pushy and demanding with Kori thus far, so she didn't think it was a good idea to pry.
"Well, I'm happy to hear that. I'm really sorry to have bothered you so rudely tonight. I'd hate to take up any more of your time, so..."
Understanding that Ty Lee was awkwardly trying to disengage from the conversation they had been having, Kori shrugged her mutual approval of ending it. "It was no trouble. Good night."
With a swift bow, Ty Lee reciprocated the notion, eager to extricate herself from this after coming across as such a weirdo. "You as well!"
With that, the acrobat scampered off, leaving Kori to cock an eyebrow at her exit. "Even after all of that, she still didn't tell me her name... well, I guess I didn't tell her mine either, so I can't fairly call it rude. Still, is that really the type of girl the Commander is into...?"
Shaking her head of errant thoughts since she really needed to get some rest, Kori finally turned on her heel and headed back for the newly erected barracks for the colonial volunteers. It was a barebones structure that was mostly just small cubicle steel rooms with simple beds, but at least it still gave everyone a tiny bit of privacy, which was more than she had been expecting. Granted, there was little room to do anything in these rooms other than sleep, but that was good enough. Kori was happy enough that they had been given that kind of consideration. The regular army could have just left them to sleep in tents outside, so even a simple prefab steel building was nice to have.
The walk back wasn't particularly interesting: it was late at night, and aside from a few patrolling soldiers, most everyone had already retired in preparation for the next day of work. No one bothered her, and nothing else came up to get in the way of Kori's return to a bed she had claimed for herself only yesterday. So, after only a few minutes, she was standing in front of a roughly trapezoid shaped metal building that was three stories tall. It was a poor excuse for a building: it had no windows to speak of and only one entrance. The inside had to be lit with torches. But it was a building capable of giving hundreds of people a place to sleep, and it had been erected in just a few days. That wasn't bad, all things considered. Especially considering that there were two more identical buildings right next to it, and the Fire Nation engineers had been required to readjust the shape of the base walls just to fit these new structures in place.
Kori walked up to the steel door of the middle building, doing her best to ignore how uncanny it looked from the outside. You didn't realize how off the absence of windows was on a structure until you saw something like that. The inside of the place wasn't much better: the door led directly into a long hall with interspersed wall torches placed between soulless metal doors. After many dozens of meters, the hall reached an intersection that branched off into more halls that looked exactly the same, except the one on the left eventually led to some stairs that would take one to another identical floor above.
It was an ugly, drab building that existed solely to serve a practical purpose. Absolutely no one would want to live in it for long, but if it would just serve as a place to comfortably rest until one went back out into the world the next day, it was good enough for that purpose. Kori wasted no time in walking down the hall and taking the first turn to the right, making her way for a door that led to a simple room with a single bed and a candle for light. It was identical to the room everyone else had, with the exception of one particular addition resting near the door that was hers: normally, Kori would have had to carefully count the doors to come up to the one she had claimed, but tonight, someone was leaning against that very door, removing the need for such a thing.
Naturally, this person was Sneers, who was fiddling with one of his axes. He holstered it as soon as he noticed Kori's approach though, at which point he leveled a concerned expression at his girlfriend even as he placed his hands on her shoulders once they got close.
"Kori, where have you been?! Do you have any idea how late it is?"
With a tired smile, Kori placed a hand on Sneers' shoulder as well. "Yes, I know how late it is, Sneers. The Commander had something to talk with me about, that's all."
This explanation didn't seem to assuage her boyfriend's concerns in any way. "That Ash- I mean, that guy seems to have a lot to talk to you about these days. Every day, it seems."
"Don't get jealous, Sneers. The Commander is putting me to work, not whisking me away to seduce me. I'm just his liaison for us volunteers from Yu Dao, so I have some responsibilities."
Taking a step back from his girlfriend, Sneers folded his arms. "Responsibilities you still won't tell me about, I assume."
Kori refrained from sighing, just because she didn't want to make her exasperation obvious. She didn't want frustration to be the first thing she felt every time she met up with her boyfriend. But he was making it pretty difficult these days.
"We talked about this the first day it happened, Sneers. I can't tell you what we're doing. Neither can Shishi or Hiro or any of the others."
"What, because the 'commander' said so? For someone you only see in a professional light, you sure are quick to do what he says even if it means lying to your boyfriend."
This time, Kori did allow herself to sigh. She knew there were many reasons why Sneers had issues with things going on around this base, but he was constantly finding ways to turn that disgruntlement into attacks against her. She had just to remind herself that he had good reason to be so on edge, and to be patient and understanding... even if that was really difficult.
"It's got nothing to do with that, Sneers. We're part of something bigger now. There are good reasons why some stuff has to be kept secret, and the people the leader trusts with that information have to maintain that trust. I'm sure that was true in the Freedom Fighters too, right?"
Sneers' immediate reaction was to claim that it wasn't the same at all, but he didn't. He wasn't completely oblivious to the fact that Kori was irritated with his stance on things the past few days, so he could at least restrain himself sometimes.
"Yeah, I guess so..."
Honestly just glad that that they were able to move the conversation forward in a way that wasn't hostile, Kori put her hand on the door to her room so she could push it open.
"Come on, why don't we spend some time together not thinking about any of this? We haven't really had much of a chance to relax in private since getting here. So we haven't been able to do anything, y'know, intimate..."
"Er, I'm not complaining, but won't the room be a little cramped? Those beds are pretty small..."
"Small beds can fit two people if one is on top of the other. And I'm always on top, so I don't think it'll be a problem. Come on!"
Ignoring Sneers' flustered protests, Kori shoved the larger man into her room, doing her best to intentionally ignore the more underhanded nature of her insistence here. Not that she didn't enjoy physical intimacy with her partner for its own merits, but... well, Kori was no fool. She knew damn good and well that physical affection could serve as a distraction to Sneers' misgivings. After all, she knew already that she would never be able to convince him to agree with her perspective on the war. Even if she tried to use the Commander's thought-provoking argument that had assuaged her own concerns, she knew that wouldn't work on Sneers. His issue was specifically with helping the Fire Nation. If the tables were turned and this was an Earth Kingdom assault against a domestic Fire Nation city... Kori knew he would have no qualms with that.
Which admittedly, bothered her greatly. Kori's misgivings had been about hurting innocent people for selfish reasons, regardless of who they were or where they were from. Sneer's misgivings seemed more rooted in hatred than an actual concern regarding justice and decency. As the preparations for the assault on Ba Sing Se continued, Kori couldn't help but feel that more and more cracks were beginning to show in her relationship with Sneers: big,alarming cracks that couldn't be ignored, because they were rooted in integral parts of their personalities. These issues weren't some small things that could be worked on or willfully ignored.
On top of that, she knew that Sneers could sense it as well. That there were some aspects of Kori being revealed lately that he just couldn't come around to, and that it would likely drive a wedge of sorts between them. In fact, if Kori told him that she had spoken to the Commander specifically to have her confidence in the mission reaffirmed, and that she was more determined than ever to participate... the young woman was certain it would spell disaster for the two of them.
Which raised some introspective questions about whether or not they should continue to be together at all. If you knew that something important to you was incompatible with your partner, you knew the relationship was doomed to fail. Maybe Kori was just willfully ignoring that. Maybe she just really wanted it to work out: maybe if she just distracted him, the whole thing would blow over and get swept under the rug.
But as she closed the door behind her and prepared to work up a sweat in the privacy of her tiny room, Kori acknowledged that, to some extent, she was the only thing keeping Sneers in check. The fact of the matter was, she didn't trust him to not do something crazy if she weren't holding him back. And while that thought made her incredibly sad, it also meant that Kori had the power to keep both Sneers and her friends safe. All she had to do was get Sneers to value her more than whatever action he could take against the base and its occupants.
These hidden motives made the act of shedding her clothes and climbing into bed with Sneers seem almost twisted, but she was trying her best to balance her love for her partner and her countrymen. Kori couldn't shake the foreboding feeling that the two would soon come into irreconcilable conflict, but for now, she didn't want to think about that.
That tragic moment could wait until the time actually came to choose.
You guys ever get tired of chapters that are literally all talking? Well, if you did, I guess you wouldn't even be here, right? This is nothing new, after all. That said, we're very close to actual combat going down. Your patience on that matter is appreciated. I swear I'm not trying to drag it out for any particular reason, I just want to flesh out the story and its character as much as possible.
At any rate, don't forget that there is a Discord channel you can find on my profile if you want to engage with other Avatar fans and specifically fans of this story. Or if you just want to get some feedback for cool ideas of your own. There will soon be another event where readers can have a tiny impact on the story: several characters like Aranai, Shairo, and Shinji were named by readers, and the next chapter will have a similar opportunity for those who want to leave a mark on the story. If you're interested in that, the Discord is the place to go to find out how to participate.
