War, what is it good for? Well, probably a couple of different things, as long as you're winning it.

I'm glad to see that most of you enjoyed the battle from the last two chapters! This is the first major highlight of the Ba Sing Se arc, but far from the only one! This will be a pretty long arc with lots of very interesting ideas and hype moments, though they won't all be related to fighting, if you catch my drift! That said, being an aftermath chapter, this one is a bit of a wind down from the fierce action of the previous chapters. It's important to take time to acknowledge certain details to keep the story realistic: and besides, anyone who knows anything about writing knows there has to be some 'take it easy' time between big moments. It can't be all hype all the time!

That said, this chapter isn't without its own big moments, though they are of a different variety! I hope you guys enjoy this next installment of what is, undoubtedly, the most popular story I've written.


The end of the Fire Nation's assault on Ba Sing Se's outer wall came swiftly, and with far less trouble than many of the attackers had been expecting. The Earth Kingdom's forces had folded quickly after the wall came down: the troops on the ground that had been resisting Xisheng's advance had all surrendered or fled after witnessing the nigh inconceivable breach of their outermost defense. Sure, the walls of Ba Sing Se had been breached before, but it had taken literal years to achieve, and the Fire Nation had only made a small hole before running away. To see an entire section of their renowned wall crumble to dust in a single moment must have been a massive blow to their morale. At any rate, the Fire Nation rear line had overcome the enemy on the ground with little trouble.

It was just proof that discipline and morale were sometimes the biggest factors to influence victory. The strongest and most skilled soldiers in the world could still lose if they lost the will to fight, or simply no longer believed they could win. Xisheng had no doubt that some of the enemy troops who had fled would come back to fight him later, but a temporary defeat was good enough for him.

As for the enemy that would have been defending the walls, Force Dragon didn't have much to contend with there either. Undoubtedly, the soldiers that had been directly on top of the wall when it crumbled into pieces had all been killed. Xisheng imagined that there were some troops on the adjacent wall sections who could have put up a fight, but the Fire Nation advance went mostly unmolested as they approached the newly made hole in Ba Sing Se's walls. For the life of him, Xisheng could not understand why this was the case: even though a breach in the wall was catastrophic for Ba Sing Se, the best thing to do would be to try and prevent the Fire Nation from entering that breach in force. The hole didn't pose that much of a problem if the enemy couldn't move through it. The defenders of Ba Sing Se that were still in the area should have reformed their defensive positions to deny entry into the breach, but they had not done so.

Had the enemy decided to retreat from the adjacent wall sections because they were worried about its stability? Were they choosing to regroup for a counterattack, aiming to simply push the Fire Nation back out of the hole a little later? Had the commanding officer simply been killed in the blast, leading to disorganization in the ranks? Or was that commanding officer simply a coward who had decided to flee for his own sake instead of focusing on the defense of the now breached walls?

Whatever the reason, Force Dragon had only needed to deal with a few resisting stragglers on their way to the new, gaping hole in Ba Sing Se's outermost wall. This was a most welcome blessing, as Chief Engineer Muzai had been correct when considering the possibility of a giant crater posing an obstacle for the assault force. At the site of the explosion was a huge scar in the earth, certainly thirty meters deep at the very least, and more than a hundred meters in circumference. The rubble from the wall had filled in some of this huge crater, with large chunks of stone architecture piling up in its center, but even so, it was incredibly difficult terrain to traverse. It would have been a very good spot for the defenders of the city to bottleneck Xisheng's troops, and possibly push them back.

But whether it was because most of the defenders in the immediate area were dead or that many of the survivors had fled from the site of destruction, Xisheng's troops had the chance to get around the obstacle without any harassment. The tanks that could find spots to climb over rubble or steep inclines did so immediately, pushing ahead to clear and secure an area to set up a new forward base for the main army. Fire Nation soldiers began searching for places they could climb over as well, or struggled to make their own makeshift paths by moving small pieces of rubble around, but the whole ordeal was made much easier when the Earthbenders from the rear line caught up with the main force. With their help, stone was simply moved, carved, or reshaped as needed to provide easy entry past the crater and all of its rubble. Within thirty minutes of the wall coming down, the majority of Force Dragon was officially inside of Ba Sing Se: something that no Fire Nation military element had ever been able to claim before.

Now, an hour after the wall had come down, Xisheng rushed to consolidate his position and launch his next crucial moves. Force Dragon had created a temporary encampment several hundred meters beyond the wall they had breached, using their vehicles to create an armored perimeter for the regrouping troops to operate within. At this time, the Fire Nation force occupied a field of dirt that was clearly farmland, but had likely been left fallow this year. The plot of land had been plowed, but seemingly nothing had been sown, which made it a good spot to at least temporarily maintain a good view of the land around them.

That land was, as far as the eye could see in most directions, farmland and untouched natural areas, such as forests or lakes. This came as no surprise to Xisheng, since everyone knew that the outermost ring of Ba Sing Se was its agrarian zone, but even so, it was a bit surreal. It felt odd to break into a city, only to find yourself essentially in the wilderness on the other side of the wall. Other than a few farmsteads dotting the landscape, one would not think they were anywhere near the heart of a massive city. Although, considering the massive size of the agrarian zone, perhaps it was accurate to say that the Fire Nation still wasn't that close.

At any rate, Xisheng stood now with his advisors near the center of the roughshod camp, which was pretty much just a ring of armored vehicles and a handful of tents. It would take a little longer than a mere hour to establish a foothold similar to the staging area Force Dragon had actually come from. Having borrowed a crate of munitions that had yet to be opened and distributed to the rearming assault force, Xisheng had a map of Ba Sing Se spread out before himself and his advisors, plotting their immediate followup maneuvers now that they had actually gotten inside of Ba Sing Se.

"The enemy is scattered and ill-prepared to hold off any advance. This is our chance to spread out and raze as much of this farmland as possible!"

This recommendation was made by Major Shairo, who stroked his stately mustache vigorously. It was weird to admit, but the usually serious man was alight with excitement: perhaps he was thrilled to be standing where he was right now. As it stood, he had played a significant role in taking down the most formidable obstacle to Fire Nation victory, sans the Avatar himself. Maybe he was excited to know he stood where very few soldiers of the army had ever stood before.

But this excitement was not universal, or not universally displayed at the very least. Across from the Major in this little ring of officers, Aranai and his peerless topknot and unblemished glasses seemed no different than his usual, calculating self.

"Outright destroying those viable resources deprives our forces of their use as well. We have already been blessed by the fact that our routed enemy didn't destroy or take as much of it as possible during their retreat. We should gather as many resources as we can for ourselves while we have the chance."

Disagreement from Major Shairo was swift. "We have our own supplies already, and will surely receive more once the capital is informed of our victory here. Gathering those supplies for our own use will take much longer: we could exert more influence over a wider area if we simply slashed and burned all that we could reach before the enemy can resist us. Ba Sing Se is a self-sufficient city that cannot sustain itself solely through trade with the few allies it still has. If we can strike a large enough blow to their food reserves, they are guaranteed to fall in time even if we cannot take control of the city by force!"

Aranai may have had a counterpoint, but Xisheng, still scuffed and dirty from the battle, cut in first. "I understand your rationale, Major, but I don't think we'll be able to truly make that much of an impact with a slash and burn advance. The agrarian zone is massive. Even when Force Ember and Blaze regroup with us, we won't be able to cover that much ground around us without stretching ourselves dangerously thin and opening ourselves up to huge losses, which we can ill-afford until reinforcements arrive. With our current available forces, the amount of land we could torch might put a small dent in Ba Sing Se's reserves, but not enough to meaningfully impact the end date of the war. If they have to start rationing food, I've no doubt they'll just cut off the poor they can afford to lose in order to extend their supply lifetime. We can't do enough damage here and now to potentially have them starve out and surrender before Sozin's Comet arrives."

Taking a breath, Xisheng continued on with the second half of his assessment. "Taking that into consideration, we have more to gain from sparing the fields and simply taking what we can from it for ourselves. We'll gain more benefit from scavenging it than we'll do harm to the enemy in destroying it, and our image will avoid unnecessary tarnish: the more we present ourselves as mindless marauders destroying everything we can touch, the more assured the people of Ba Sing Se will become with the idea of resistance. If the people here think we are coming to destroy their homes and livelihoods, they'll fight us even if they take issue with their current government. If we carry ourselves with honor and restraint, we may yet minimize the resistance the civilian population offers."

The young commander honestly thought that Shairo would argue with him, but the aging veteran merely appraised Xisheng curiously for a moment before conceding.

"Very well. I see your point, Commander. I'll defer to your judgment."

Xisheng was stunned to hear such things from the Major, and in a genuinely respectful tone no less. Not that long ago, Xisheng got the feeling that the man really didn't like or trust him that much... perhaps Xisheng had truly earned the old veteran's respect? Well, in all humility, Xisheng felt that he deserved at least that much after succeeding with his ambitious plan to take down the wall.

With his frazzled beard and scraggly hair, Muzai weighed in on the conversation as well. "It might be a little too soon to discuss this, at any rate. We still have to get the rest of our forces through the breach, and ensure we have a secure line of supply and reinforcement. If we head too far into enemy territory, we run the risk of just getting surrounded."

Xisheng nodded in agreement. "Very true. Unfortunately, we now have to face a fine balancing act of pushing our advantage, but not overextending ourselves. We've only just sent word to our allies that we've secured a foothold. Who knows how long it will be before we actually have more troops and supplies at our disposal?"

"Yes, well, while we can't do anything to accelerate that timetable, we can significantly ease the arrival of new reinforcements and supplies when they are available. I'm drawing up a plan to widen the hole we have created and tear down more nearby sections with our Earthbenders: controlled demolition will allow us to make an easier time for our reinforcements when they arrive. Plus, if we do happen to be pushed out, the enemy will have a harder time repairing their walls if we have been consistently deconstructing it. It could buy us enough time to break back in, should the worst case scenario come about."

Xisheng glanced over his shoulder, eyeing the Earthbenders who were still fit enough to work as they toiled away back near the wall breach. For now, they were just moving rubble and filling the crater from the blast so the troops from Force Blaze and Ember could get in more easily. As far as Xisheng could tell right now, both of their companion assault forces were already on the other side of the breach: they just hadn't made their way inside yet.

"Indeed. I'll leave that to your discretion, Muzai. Just be sure to leave some Earthbenders available for other tasks: now that we're in enemy territory, we'll need many Earthbenders on guard against enemy attacks. Especially in the time before we have an actual forward base established here. Attacks from underground could come at any time."

The portly chief engineer nodded, saying nothing further to that. Seeing that there wasn't a whole lot more to discuss right now, Xisheng issued new standing orders for his fellow officers.

"Aranai, begin the process of moving the reserve supplies from our previous base to this location. We'll need the steel from many of those buildings to establish ourselves here. Muzai, go ahead with what we've discussed a moment ago. And Major Shairo, take a contingent of troops and appropriate what we can from the surrounding farms. Approach the homesteads first and offer any residents compensation. If no one is present, leave a note at their door stating that they can be compensated for their loss if they ask for it."

Though he did seem more respectful than before, Shairo raised a sharp eyebrow. "Compensation, Commander? Isn't the whole point of this task to gain supplies for ourselves? What would we even offer in return that a farmer might need?"

"As I said before, we need to appear as reasonable and benevolent as possible to the regular citizenry of this city. A big reason many colonies were established so easily in the past is because the people living there genuinely believed their lives would be better under the Fire Nation than the Earth Kingdom. If we raze their farms, we're marauders, but if we just take anything we want for free, we're just thieves, which is only marginally better. Consult with Aranai about what supplies we could afford to trade: it might not seem like it, but I'm sure our army has many things that a poor farmer would find value in."

"As you wish, Commander..."

Though the Major bowed, Xisheng stopped the man before he could leave to do as he had been instructed. "Oh, and Major Shairo: make doubly sure your men understand that pillaging and looting will not be tolerated. If anyone sullies the honor of our military out there, I will punish them severely."

"As you will."

This time, Xisheng did actually dismiss all of his fellow officers, allowing them to take command of the various areas of operations that the Fire Nation army needed completed. With all of them moving out, Xisheng quickly found himself relatively alone, though only in the sense that the hundreds of troops around him were all busy doing something else: moving supplies to and fro, reorganizing their units, checking the wounded, tallying casualties... though they had achieved a mighty victory today, there was no time to celebrate yet. If they didn't take care to prepare themselves for everything that came next, then breaching the wall would amount to nothing more than lost lives and material.

But of course, whether or not Xisheng felt there was enough time to celebrate didn't mean that no one else was in the mood.

"Xisheng!"

Turning his head to spot Azula approaching him, Xisheng quickly identified her near exuberant expression, which was a bit odd to see on her, in all honesty. Sure, she had gotten passionate and even a little excited about things in the past, but rarely did she seem to be so outwardly joyous. Xisheng had to admit, it was almost uncanny.

At any rate, the young Princess was on him in a mere moment, reminding Xisheng of Ty Lee more than her usual self. "You did it! Xisheng, you did it! Do you understand what this means?! No one has ever achieved such an incredible feat in this war. The wall shattered in an instant, our forces free to waltz right in without a lick of resistance: tales of your exploits will undoubtedly go down in our nation's history for decades, centuries! Forget all of that slop about 'acting commander', I'm promoting you to the actual rank immediately. No, that's not good enough, how about 'Supreme Commander'? Yes, that has the right amount of gravitas, don't you think?"

Honestly amused to see Azula acting in such an unusually giddy manner, Xisheng chuckled as he tried to get a word in edgewise. "Easy there, Princess. People are going to think I'm full of myself if I start going by a title that grand."

The bandaged young girl didn't seem to care about this assessment. "It's not full of yourself to act better than the people you are genuinely superior to. I won't have you being humble about this one, Xisheng. You're the Supreme Commander, now, end of discussion."

Xisheng decided against asking if Azula could just insert an entirely new rank into the Fire Nation military hierarchy like that. Was she even putting any thought into where this rank would fit in? Sure, it sounded like it would be above an ordinary commander, but would it fall below generals and admirals? Well, he wasn't going to try and dampen Azula's spirits with all of those considerations right now. It was rare enough for her to get this spirited in the first place.

"OK, but it's not humility to say that this victory belongs to all of us. As good as my plan may have been, it only succeeded because of the skill, determination, and sacrifice of everyone under my command."

Azula folded her arms. "Yes, well, I do think I played a major part in our success. I'll have to tell you all about the decisions I made on the rear line to maximize our chances of success. So I'll have to claim some of the credit, not that I think you'd really mind."

"I'm sure you were pivotal to our victory, Azula. You see? What I said about finding other ways to help your comrades besides fighting on the front lines really rang true."

To this, Azula fell silent for a moment. Xisheng wasn't sure why her expression suddenly grew sheepish, but he could have sworn that the look in her eyes following the sudden turn was... admiration?

"Yes, well... you've proven to be very wise, Xisheng. Among many other things..."

Azula didn't extrapolate on those many other things, because she was too embarrassed to say them. But in her mind, she admitted her praise for the man before her readily. Reliable. Reassuring. Noble. The type of person that even Azula could see herself following, and that was something that had once been almost inconceivable to her. To actually feel comfortable and confident in following someone else, to actually feel content under their discretion and ability as her peer, was something she had never really experienced before.

It was a bit odd, really. Azula was stronger than Xisheng, as a warrior. But somehow, he still exuded an aura of safety and assurance for her: a sense of unflinching trust that he would never falter and always be there to support her. She felt safe when he was near her, assured that his decisions were wise and trustworthy, and confident that he would never do anything to betray her perception of his merits.

Weirdly enough, Azula understood that he had always been this way. He had always been such a man in the past, too: someone who never fell short of his own merits. He had always been reliable, always been insightful, always been someone Azula could trust, be it as a soldier, a pupil, and a comrade. So why was the Crown Princess only now struck by how immensely desirable she found all of that? How had she not come to the realization earlier that this man was the only one she could even dream of ever calling her partner?

Despite all that she had already known about him, perhaps there was just something enlightening about seeing it all come together on a chaotic battlefield, where fear and uncertainty had gripped Azula in ways she was wholly unfamiliar with. She supposed a beacon of solace and strength could only truly shine when you actually needed it.

All of this was to say that she saw Xisheng in a new light: or rather, a more honest one. There had always been things she had appreciated about him, but Azula had done a great job of convincing herself that such appreciation was simply a matter of professional or platonic admittance. She could do that no longer. Azula hadn't put a great deal of thought into marriage, considering it an aspect of her future that was yet distant. Moreover, the idea of even being married had always seemed ridiculous and demeaning, because she'd never met someone she'd actually be glad to wed. At the most, she'd always seen the concept as little more than a political necessity, something that would have to be done just to secure the bloodline, but not something she'd take actual joy in.

Needless to say, Azula's perception of the idea had shifted very drastically in a short amount of time. Now, she actually quite liked the idea, so long as the hypothetical union was specifically between her and one particular man...

Xisheng likely would have questioned the young girl's odd behavior and sudden silence if he had another moment to do so, but he didn't have the opportunity. In a manner not too dissimilar from literally just a minute ago, there was someone calling out to him again from the direction of the breached wall of Ba Sing Se.

"Gohan!"

The last time this had happened, Xisheng had enough time to visually identify Azula coming towards him. This time, he had barely managed to turn his head in the direction of a familiar voice before Ty Lee crashed into him with an airborne leap, her arms flung around his neck before Xisheng could get his bearings. He had no choice but to instinctively hold up the brunette in his arms, just to make sure her full weight wasn't on his neck.

Similar to her speedy physical approach, Ty Lee was speaking before Xisheng could even address her.

"Oh, Gohan! I'm so glad you're safe! I can't do this again next time, I think the worry shaved ten years off of my life!"

Even now, Xisheng still didn't get a chance to say anything to the girl, because Mai was approaching from a little further back, and only at a moderately slower pace: she was hardly coming full sprint, but it was clear that even her speed had been spurred by worry. Oddly enough, she spoke to Ty Lee first once coming to a stop near all of her friends.

"Ty Lee, get down! You've got no idea if he's hurt."

Despite a total lack of desire to release the man in her grasp, Ty Lee acknowledged Mai's good point and quickly put her own feet back on the ground, taking a step back from Xisheng to anxiously appraise his body.

"A-are you hurt, Gohan?"

With his arms free again, Xisheng spread them wide to expose his lack of major bodily harm.

"Not in any way that's worth worrying about. Azula took a worse hit than I did."

Taking note of the bandage wrapped around Azula's head, Ty Lee turned to her friend to nervously assess the damage. In this moment, in which the brunette and Azula were distracted with one another, Mai subtly spread her arms in front of Xisheng, while glancing sheepishly away from him. The implication of her gesture was easy enough to catch, so Xisheng stepped in for a hug, albeit one that was far more gentle and mindful of his potential aches and pains than Ty Lee's had been. Similarly, Mai's words were much less fervent than her limber friend, but they bore no less relief in their deeper timbre.

"I'm glad you're alright, Gohan."

Xisheng took brief amusement in this situation: honestly, he never would have imagined being able to gently hug this young woman when he had first met her. Back then, it seemed more likely that even suggesting such a thing would get him killed. He could only imagine how flabbergasted his past self would be, if only Xisheng could somehow go back in time and tell him about all of the crazy changes that would happen in his future. Even coming from himself, the young officer doubted that his past self would be able to believe any of it.

At any rate, Xisheng was genuinely pleased to have concern for his well being displayed so openly, even in a place where lots of people could see it happen. He knew that Ty Lee didn't have any sort of qualms with that kind of thing, but Mai probably did, and those misgivings hadn't been enough to stop her from doing it anyway. That was why he couldn't help but smile, even though he was still exhausted from the battle. After finishing their embrace, Mai took a step back from him, glancing around the hastily erected camp they stood in right now, perhaps looking for a way to get around her embarrassment.

"So, it looks like things went well, huh?"

Xisheng glanced around as well. "More or less. It feels wrong to say things went well when we lost a lot of good people, but the mission was a success, and didn't require catastrophic losses. By any reasonable military metric, it went well. Especially considering our odds: the attack failed for both of our sister assault forces. Our victory was probably not statistically likely, all things considered."

"It was kind of hard to really tell what was going on from a watchtower at the base. What happened to ruin things for those other forces?"

"There's no way to know until they regroup with us here. As best as I could tell, one of them was simply routed during their attack. The other did manage to set off their explosives, but they couldn't actually get the wall to come down."

Mai folded her arms as she took an unusual amount of interest in these affairs. What could she say? After all this time, she couldn't actually say that all of this military stuff didn't interest her at least a little bit.

"You think the Avatar had anything to do with it?"

Before Xisheng could actually answer that, Azula reintroduced herself to the conversation, while metaphorically beating off Ty Lee's concern with a stick.

"Well, he certainly wasn't present during our assault, at the least. I suppose he could have been interfering with one of the other assault forces, but didn't we have a special signal for that?"

Since that last question was clearly directed at Xisheng, he took it upon himself to answer. "Yeah, our forces were supposed to put out a signal if they spotted or were engaged by the Avatar. But no one did. Unless everyone in charge of communication was incapacitated at the same time, it seems like the Avatar simply wasn't a factor in this battle."

With Azula clearly growing a little frustrated with Ty Lee's worrying, the brunette finally decided to accept that the princess was alright, and focused on the conversation itself.

"Which seems a little odd, doesn't it? I mean, we were camping outside of the city for a long time, and the battle wasn't super short either. How could he not notice this was all going on?"

Mai chimed in with another good point. "Not to mention that whole business with the drill. The Fire Nation was camped outside the city even before we got here. There's no way the Avatar couldn't notice, right?"

At first glance, Xisheng could see why the girls would think this. From their point of view, the past few weeks had been a massive undertaking on the part of the Fire Nation. Hundreds to thousands of troops, weeks of preparation, a critically important battle... it was hard to imagine that the whole thing could go unnoticed by anyone connected to it.

But there were some factors going unconsidered, and Xisheng had no issue raising them to his friends.

"I know it's hard to imagine, but you have to keep in mind that Ba Sing Se is absolutely gigantic. We call it a city, but it is well and truly its own country, roughly equivalent in size to the Fire Nation, and possibly even larger as far as total landmass is concerned. Even if a huge, important battle took place on the southernmost island of the Fire Nation, none of us would be any wiser to it if we were all living on the northernmost island ourselves. We assumed that the Avatar would come to Ba Sing Se, but we don't actually know if he and his friends are here. They could be somewhere else in the world entirely. And even if they are in Ba Sing Se, they could still be days' worth of travel away from the wall we just breached, even by air. Trust me, the vast majority of the people in Ba Sing Se have no idea what has transpired here. Many of them probably never even knew about the drill, even after all of this time."

Though these were all good points, Mai still seemed unconvinced. "OK, but assuming the Avatar was here, it's not like he'd need to personally learn about the attack by chance. He'd probably be a special guest to the people in charge, and they'd definitely share reports from the wall about our forces being amassed here. Ba Sing Se might be the size of a country, but there's no way the higher-ups in the interior hadn't received some sort of alert from the outer wall about all of this stuff in the past two weeks."

Xisheng merely shrugged. "You'd be surprised at how many obvious assumptions could be wrong. We don't know if the Avatar would be treated as a special guest here or not, even if it seems likely. We also don't know if any strategic military information would be shared with him. Avatar or not, he's a child, and one who was absent from the world for a hundred years. It's not a given that everyone is going to trust him, or even see him as their savior. There could also be other players at large whose goals contradict what the Avatar wants. Even in the Earth Kingdom, there are some people who have benefited from the war, and might not want a return to the way the world was before."

Though she had been the one to continue propagating the conversation, Mai could only fall silent at this point. They were getting beyond the scope of her worldly wisdom... and care, for now. The military strategy was one thing, but politics had always driven her up the wall. Xisheng would probably say that the two entities were too connected to ever separate, but she wasn't going to bother prodding him to say such a thing.

With a moment of silence available to her, Azula cut into the conversation once more. "Well, whatever the reason, the Avatar's absence is a wonderful boon for us. We need to take advantage of it as much as possible."

Xisheng turned his attention on the younger girl. "Agreed. Though there isn't much we can do right now. The Avatar is a great threat, but far from our only adversary. The best thing we can do with the foothold we've achieved today is solidify our grip on it. We need to regroup, take stock of our situation, and fortify ourselves here until reinforcements arrive from elsewhere. With our current forces, there's not much we can actually do to press the attack without stretching ourselves too thin. We can't afford to take risks and lose our limited manpower either. There's no telling when the enemy may launch a counterattack to push us back out of the city."

Azula seemed displeased about this assessment, but didn't say anything against it. Maybe she acknowledged that it was a good idea, or maybe she just trusted Xisheng's judgment. Either way, she asked a different question.

"Does anyone actually know that we need reinforcements, yet?"

"I already had Aranai send a message back to our old base. The communications officer there will notify high command, as well as any major bases that have commanders with leeway on force deployments. If we have to wait solely for high command to get things in order, we might just be sitting here until the Comet comes. There are other high-ranking officers across the theater of war who have the authority to deploy their troops as they see fit, so hopefully they'll be quicker to reinforce us. Though admittedly, I did instruct Aranai to use your name, Azula. I hope you don't mind."

The young princess shrugged nonchalantly. "Not at all. Knowing how some officers drag their feet, we may as well use whatever we can to galvanize the fools. I'll also be writing a priority message to my father: once he knows that we have a real foothold here in Ba Sing Se, he'll undoubtedly force the war council to act at a suitable pace, and with proper decorum."

"I hope so. Realistically, the Fire Nation should now focus all of the manpower it can afford on this city..."

Glancing back towards the breached wall, Xisheng noted that a lot of the rubble had been removed by now, and that troops from Force Blaze and Ember were finally able to move through with ease. At the sight of it, he provided an apologetic smile for the girls.

"Sorry to cut this short, but I need to check on our sister forces and get their after-action reports."

Though they both looked unhappy with this, neither Azula nor Mai said anything to stop him. Ty Lee, on the other hand, was visibly distraught by the notion, even going so far as to grab a hold of Xisheng's forearm before he could walk away.

"Hold on, you just finished fighting a huge battle! Can't you take it easy for at least a little bit?!"

Xisheng took note of the girl's upset visage, but knew he couldn't assuage her. "I wish I could, Ty Lee, but for now, it's my job to assess these things. It's important for me to get the full picture as soon as I can, and without the risk of information being lost in transfer. I'll delegate some of these tasks to other people later, but for now at least, I have to take charge myself."

Needless to say, none of this did anything to appease Ty Lee, which prompted Xisheng to amend his statement a bit more. "I promise I'll be available to eat dinner with you all tonight. Even if I have to fork all of my responsibilities onto someone else to make it happen."

Though this did cheer her up a little bit, Ty Lee still released her grip on Xisheng's arm reluctantly. "Alright..."

With his freedom restored, Xisheng nodded to everyone one more time before making his way towards the regrouping soldiers from Force Ember and Blaze, his tattered shoulder cape still swaying as he walked. He really did manage to cut a noble figure these days, but the acknowledgment didn't really charm Ty Lee as much as it did Azula right now.

She hadn't been lying about about almost worrying herself into a coma while Xisheng and Azula were in battle. At some point, the brunette had actually come to regret not participating in the battle herself. She hated fighting when it came to actual bloodshed, and she certainly had no desire to actually be on a battlefield, but the idea of just sitting around in safety while her friends put themselves in harm's way... well, Ty Lee had come to realize that she hated the feeling and would have rather been at their side, even doing something she detested.

It was something she knew Xisheng wouldn't agree with, and thus something that needed to be talked about, but the young man never had any time for a one-on-one conversation these days. And speaking of things to talk about, Ty Lee was considering whether or not she had the restraint or desire to even hold back on pursuing Xisheng at this point. Sitting at the base, imagining all the horrible things that could have been happening to him during the battle, Ty Lee had considered many unsavory aspects of reality. This had just been one battle, at the very beginning of their campaign to take the wall. There would be many others, and Xisheng would probably fight in a lot of them. Ty Lee would probably fight in a lot of them too, if she had her way from now on.

One of them could die, or at least wind up maimed or comatose or something similar. And if that happened, would Ty Lee be content knowing she had never acted on her feelings, even for the sake of her friends? Not in the slightest. That would be the biggest regret of her life, assuming she wasn't the one whose life was lost. So she had decided to just go along with her own selfish desires at this point. She had already condemned Mai for holding herself back out of fear, which had been super hypocritical of Ty Lee at the time and up until now. She wasn't going to do the same thing any longer. At the very least, she had to do what her own heart demanded: if Xisheng didn't want anything serious with her, or her friends had a problem with it, well, that was something Ty Lee would just have to deal with if and when it arose.

She just needed to get him alone to talk about all of this. A hard thing to do, for sure, but even if he was busy, even if he was tired and needed to turn in for the night, Ty Lee was certain he would spare a few minutes for them to talk in private after dinner tonight. He always made time, if she really asked him to.

Tonight... tonight, she was going to go all in.


A few hours later, Xisheng walked quietly along a rapidly forming Fire Nation military base. Granted, it was nothing impressive right now: the original forward area had been hours away from the wall even by vehicle, and it took time to move supplies and material over that distance. But at the very least, they had a fortified and organized field of tents at their disposal now. With the help of the many Earthbenders available to them, the Fire Nation had cleared out a flat area to situate themselves in, and erected walls and towers of stone to substitute for metal structures at this time. Granted, those fortifications wouldn't have been worth much against enemy Earthbenders, but they were better than nothing. The towers still provided a vantage point for the lookouts, and the walls provided comfort for the troops, even if it was just psychological.

Xisheng had spent the past few hours taking in reports and issuing new standing orders: Force Blaze and Ember had gone through exactly what the young commander had expected, with one of them being driven off by a substantial Earth Kingdom force, and the other failing their objective when their sapping operation failed to take down the wall in their way. Thankfully, the Earth Kingdom had not pursued either force when they retreated, likely thinking there was no reason to do so. Well, Xisheng couldn't blame them: what Earth Kingdom commander would believe the wall could be breached in a single day? They had likely seen no danger in letting their foes regroup. The assurance of their walls had made them complacent.

At any rate, casualties for the Fire Nation hadn't been terrible. Taking all three assault forces into consideration, the Fire Nation had suffered around a hundred and fifty noteworthy casualties, and only about a third of that had been outright fatalities. Another third included troops that would be too injured to continue fighting anytime soon, if ever. The rest of the casualties could recover relatively swiftly and return to action soon. This included a few colonials who had been injured during the sapper operation, but since most of them hadn't been directly involved in the fighting, they hadn't suffered as many losses.

Admittedly, Xisheng found the number of casualties oddly low for such a monumental victory, but he supposed it made sense. The battle had not actually been very long, and a good portion of it had just been a long-range bombardment. Plus, with most of the enemy forces surrendering or fleeing after the wall fell, a lot of extra bloodshed had been avoided. Currently, the prisoners they had taken were being kept within locked and guarded Overlords, since there was nowhere else to keep Earthbenders incarcerated at this time.

Aside from that, things were going well, even though it was a little too early to take things easy. Tents had been erected for everything of import, including an infirmary, a canteen, and a command post. The troops that Major Shairo had dispatched to scavenge the surrounding farms had returned with a decent amount of supplies. Most of the farms had been abandoned, with their owners undoubtedly fleeing in terror at the sight of the wall coming down and the Fire Nation pouring in, but a few stubborn old folks had remained. Some of them actually did willingly trade with the Fire Nation. Others told them to piss off, showing no fear in the face of foreign invaders. According to what he knew so far, none of Xisheng's troops had gotten out of line as a result of such confrontations.

Patrols were keeping an eye on the base surroundings, both above and below ground: now that they were officially in enemy territory, Xisheng had modified the patrols to include several Earthbenders that could potentially detect enemy tunnelers. With the Fire Nation base having no metal structures or flooring in place yet, they were extremely vulnerable to attacks from below, and Xisheng wasn't about to be unprepared for such things when he had just used digging to surprise his foes. He expected a counterattack at some point, and he knew that being prepared was the only way to blunt it.

Though admittedly, Xisheng wondered why they hadn't seen a counterattack already. Sure, the Earth Kingdom had been caught off-guard, but surely they would have known how urgent it was to push the Fire Nation out while they were still setting up for future incursions? The unsteady first few hours of the Fire Nation's advance would have been the best time to strike. Even an incompetent commander could see that.

So why hadn't it happened? Was it simply that the enemy couldn't do it? Admittedly, Xisheng had no idea exactly how long it would take someone to get from the outermost wall back to the main city. It was possible that word of the Fire Nation's breach hadn't even reached Ba Sing Se proper yet. His scouts had informed Xisheng of some sort of rail system made of stone scattered about the countryside, but they didn't know how quickly that mode of transportation actually worked. Or, was it that Ba Sing Se didn't have the actual military means to do so right now? Was the outer wall guard all they had in regards to a standing army? If so, it could take them some time to actually amass troops for a counterattack.

Although, even if the outer wall guard was all they had ready at a moment's notice, that still should have been a large sum of troops... well, presumably. Dwelling on this, Xisheng had to acknowledge that the Fire Nation just really didn't know that much about Ba Sing Se and how it operated. After all, the city had been closed off to the Fire Nation for a century, and no attempt to infiltrate the city and spy on it over the years had made it far enough to provide truly useful information. So Xisheng had no real idea of how Ba Sing Se's military arm functioned: he doubted they had troops guarding literally the entirety of the massive outer wall perimeter. Considering that Fire Nation assaults took time to amass and were easy to see coming, maybe the wall guard wasn't as big as the wall itself would imply, and they simply relocated to the proper positions when a threat made itself known.

The unfortunate reality of all of this was that Xisheng knew next to nothing about the enemy, short of general ideas of how the Earth Kingdom liked to do business. He didn't know their military strength, the quality of their leadership, the robustness of their logistics chain, or the types of tactics and strategies they might employ in a situation such as this one. All of this missing information made it very difficult to appropriately plan and prepare for anything. All he could really do was prepare for everything, but Xisheng didn't actually have the means to do so. Not enough troops, and not enough supplies. Hopefully, they would be reinforced in no less than three days...

With a sigh, the young commander glanced up at the sky, which was now dotted with stars as night began to envelop the world. Only a few splashes of orange and pink remained on the horizon. It was a bit odd, here on the enemy's side of the wall. Outside of the city, the terrain was mostly barren wasteland. And yet, just on the other side of the wall, there was lush land aplenty. Farmland and forests as far as the eye could see. It was the agrarian zone, of course, but it was impressive that Ba Sing Se had managed to cultivate the area so well over the centuries. It just went to show what good they could actually do with Earthbending, if it was turned towards such pursuits.

Before he could dwell on it any further, the distant sound of laughter reached Xisheng's ears, drifting over the wind from the direction of the canteen. Though there were still many soldiers on duty, carrying out vitally important tasks, there were many that were no doubt trying to relax and get a good meal after their grueling day on the battlefield. In the face of death and destruction, one often had to force themselves to put their minds on other things. Besides, though many among them had suffered, the soldiers had achieved victory today: they would surely prefer to celebrate, rather than wallow.

For a reason he couldn't quite put his finger on, Xisheng moved in the direction of the canteen. Maybe he just wanted to appraise the troops' morale. Or perhaps he wanted confirmation that he had done a good job today. It sounded a bit childish, but Xisheng had taken a heavy weight on his shoulders today, especially after getting a report of exactly how many of his men had been wounded or killed. Maybe it was selfish of him, but the young commander wanted, maybe even needed, to see that his actions today had wrought more good for his soldiers than bad.

Considering the relatively small size of the camp, it didn't take long for Xisheng to get near the canteen, which was just a large canvas tent propped up by stakes. Considering how many people needed to be fed around here, it was larger than most of the other tents that had been erected, and was currently surrounded by crates and barrels, some of which had been opened so troopers could take food out of them and prepare actual meals. Xisheng spotted a few baskets of fresh produce, such as cabbages and carrots, and figured they were the results of the farm scavenging from earlier. He felt a little bad about taking such things from the farmers around here, but he had offered them compensation, and that was the best he could do, assuming leaving the farms alone was not an option.

Most people probably wouldn't consider something as banal as fresh vegetables to be worth any excitement, but for soldiers on the warpath, that kind of sustenance was actually pretty rare. Perhaps that was part of why the atmosphere seemed so spirited: with the tent flaps of the canteen wide open, Xisheng could peer in even from afar. A few wooden tables and chairs had been brought from the old base, though there were also people sitting on crates or on earthbent stools. Both homeland soldiers and colonial volunteers were heartily engaged in the most revelry that could be mustered under the circumstances. There was, of course, no alcohol for anyone to enjoy, but following their incredible victory, it seemed that it was a simple matter for everyone to let go of their worries anyway. Homelanders and colonials laughed together, regaled one another with stories from the battle, and just had an overall good time. One seemingly large group was gathered around a middle-aged soldier as he stood atop a barrel, enthralled with some tale that Xisheng arrived in the middle of.

"...the boulder must have been the size of the whole trebuchet! I stood there, gobsmacked as it barreled towards me, not losing momentum even after it knocked over a tank! I thought I was doomed for sure, but then, there was a flash of amber light, and the whole thing turned to dust in a mere second! When I could actually see what was before me again, there stood our Commander, unscathed and unfettered! Looking over his shoulder at me, he said 'stay focused, Tien. I still need you out here'!"

Xisheng was a little surprised to be the focus of the conversation, but one of the aspiring bard's fellows was quick to try and poke holes in the story anyway. "You expect us to believe the Commander even knew your name? How would he? And destroying a giant boulder by himself? Come on."

"W-well, maybe he didn't say my name, but he did say he needed me! And he really was destroying big boulders! Him and the Princess both!"

A different soldier than the naysayer spoke up. "That one is true, guys. The Princess used bolts of lightning to turn them into dust, and the Commander used some weird yellow flame. It was pretty incredible. Of course, Tien here wasn't even saved by something that magnificent. The Commander had to tackle his dumb ass out of the way of a tiny rock."

Recalling such an incident, Xisheng figured that the soldier who had spun this story must have been the artillery crewman he had saved on the field today. Said crewman was clearly flustered since he was getting called out.

"I was busy loading the trebuchet, which was very important! You're missing the point, what matters is that the Commander risked his life to save me and then said he needed me! Me, the loader for a trebuchet! Can you imagine that blowhard Qin ever doing that?"

The original naysayer chimed in once more. "Hell, I can hardly imagine any officer doing that..."

A few other groups in the canteen got a little louder at this point, making it impossible for Xisheng to hear any more. Although, it wasn't like he necessarily needed to hear anything else. He found himself more than pleased to know that his deeds on the battlefield were being shared with others. Not that he had committed those deeds for fame or popularity, but it was a good thing if his soldiers actually learned of his merits from their fellow grunts: the more word of his worthy actions spread among the army, the more they would come to trust him... hopefully.

Satisfied with what he had seen here, Xisheng was about to leave, since he had dinner plans of his own to keep. But before he could make himself scarce, his wandering multicolored gaze passed over a lone figure sitting on a chest outside of the canteen, far off to the side. This individual was sitting alone, separated from everyone else, and they didn't seem to be in the same celebratory mood that the others were. Most importantly of all, Xisheng recognized this individual, which was why he was soon approaching their place of rest.

"Not hungry, Kori?"

Perhaps too tired to even be startled by his sudden appearance, the sitting brunette slowly glanced over her shoulder to identify Xisheng. Now that she was looking at him, Xisheng was able to get a good look at her face and actually notice the heavy bandages that adorned it. They completely covered her right eye and even a big portion of her upper cheek on that side. There were bandages on lots of other places on her body too: her upper arm, her calf, and one her her hands as well. Seeing all of this, Xisheng spoke again before Kori even had time to respond to his first question.

"How badly are you hurt?"

Noting the deep concern on his face, Kori tried to smile, but it wasn't very wide or convincing. "Mostly just scrapes and bruises, sir. Except my face: the medic said I had a pretty big gash there. Also said there was a pretty good chance it might leave a scar..."

This only caused Xisheng's frown to deepen further. "What happened?"

"The ceiling collapsed in the cave I was digging during the assault. I was right under it. Kind of ironic, huh? An Earthbender getting hurt by a bunch of rocks, and not even ones being thrown around by a person."

Xisheng's first instinct was to offer condolences, but he didn't know if that was actually the right thing to say. Not that he wasn't sorry it had happened, but he didn't want to belittle Kori: she had willingly stepped onto the battlefield and knowingly accepted its risks. But Xisheng was the one who had sent her underground, and she had marched onto the battlefield on his orders, so her injuries were his responsibility, in a manner of speaking...

Maybe it was best to not be too pitying about it.

"If it's any consolation, a good scar can go a long way for some people. You could definitely pull it off."

To this, the young brunette before him did grin a little more genuinely. "I wonder if my parents will think that..."

Unfortunately, that smile fell almost immediately as Kori returned her gaze to the base at large. She didn't seem to be looking anywhere in particular. It was obvious to Xisheng that his comrade was not troubled by her injuries. A small part of him debated whether or not he should inquire: Xisheng did have somewhere to be. But the tiny voice was stamped out almost immediately. Kori was a comrade who had risked her life to fight on his behalf. She was a major factor in the colonial volunteers integrating somewhat smoothly into the army, and in preparing them for the battle they had just achieved victory in. The very least Xisheng could do for her was show concern.

"It seems to me like your injuries aren't what's getting you down, Kori. I'm willing to listen, if you want to share."

"Sharp as ever, Commander."

Kori sighed, falling silent for a moment as she kept her now halved gaze on the camp. But she did speak up soon enough. "...I can't find Sneers anywhere."

Xisheng fell silent himself as he pondered what to say to that. First and foremost, he questioned how he should actually take that information. Sneers had participated in the assault with the other non-benders, though mostly in an auxiliary role that included moving ammo and supplies around or carrying the wounded off of the battlefield. Still, that didn't mean he couldn't have been killed. Though there were other possibilities...

Still, best to not damn the man before he knew for certain. Xisheng may have received a report on how many casualties his forces had sustained, but this soon after the battle, the actual names and identities of all the dead and wounded had not been determined yet. It was possible that Sneers was among them. He hated to raise this point to Kori immediately, but surely, she had already checked any likely places for her partner, so there was nothing else for Xisheng to suggest.

"Did you check the infirmary?"

Based on the lack of any notable reaction, Xisheng got his answer quickly, though Kori still verbally responded anyway. "I did. He's not among the injured or the dead. Though the medic at the tent said they weren't done recovering everyone from the battlefield yet, so I suppose he could still be out there..."

Honestly, Xisheng didn't think his comrade sounded too convinced of that. "It's not outside the realm of possibility..."

"Is there any reason a non-bender would be away from the base right now?"

Xisheng pursed his lips, wondering how blunt he should be. For the likes of him, he had already reached an obvious conclusion, but he didn't know if Kori wanted to hear it outright.

"...though I haven't issued any particular orders that would require non-benders to be outside of the base, there's always a chance that he was roped into something by a lower-ranking officer."

The young woman sitting next to Xisheng scoffed. She didn't buy that, clearly. Well, Xisheng had not thought it very convincing either. With a bitter smile, Kori glanced down at the dirt under her feet.

"He's gone, huh?"

Since he saw no reason to give her false hope or assurances, Xisheng simply agreed. "Most likely."

Xisheng expected Kori to express some greater displeasure with this revelation, but ultimately, she just sighed. "Damn, I really thought things might have turned out alright when he was still on the base this morning. Probably just delusion on my part, it seems."

"It's difficult to accept suspicion towards your loved ones. Most people would sooner write it off than actually acknowledge that they can see a betrayal coming. It's easier that way."

"But I did suspect him. That was the whole reason I came to you about it. I just... I don't know, caught onto a glimmer of hope when he was still there this morning, marching off to battle with everyone else. He looked me in the eye, hugged me, told me to be careful, promised to come back alive, told me he loved me... even expecting a betrayal, the fact that he went through with it after all of that..."

Glancing up at the sky once more, Xisheng wondered if he had made a mistake in not incarcerating Sneers prematurely. While there were still some very unlikely explanations as to why Kori couldn't find him anywhere, dead or alive, the most likely explanation was that he had deserted when he saw an opening, after the wall was down. Xisheng hated to admit it, but it had been clever of him. Trying to run when the Fire Nation was maintaining top security, and while expectantly waiting for people to betray them, would have been a bad move.

By actually participating in the battle and waiting until the Fire Nation had breached the wall, Sneers had been presented with a window of opportunity: Xisheng's forces had been focused on a number of more pressing issues, such as establishing their position, fortifying the area, conducting recon and other post-battle operations. In the chaotic bustle of trying to get everything done as quickly as possible, it would be easy for a single combatant to get lost out in the farm fields and forests of the agrarian zone and not be noticed.

The real question was whether or not Xisheng should be worried about it. Technically, they had no way of knowing if Sneers actually planned to run to Ba Sing Se and side with them. He could have just been trying to get away from the obligations of the army. But Xisheng doubted that. The ex-Freedom Fighter clearly had a conviction against the Fire Nation. Even if he could run and save himself, Sneers would likely take the risk to fight against them instead.

But thankfully, Sneers had chosen a very favorable time to run away. The wall was already down. The Fire Nation had already set up a foothold in enemy territory. There was nothing valuable that Sneers could tell the Earth Kingdom other than obvious things that the enemy would figure out anyway, such as the location of the Fire Nation outpost. Xisheng supposed the young man could try and spill information on troop strength or materials, but it was unlikely that Sneers had gotten any sort of reliable count of those things, and even then, the enemy troops who had fled from the battlefield would likely get that information back to their commanders anyway.

All in all, while Sneers had chosen a very good time to extricate himself from the Fire Nation forces, he hadn't left with any damning information that Xisheng actually needed to be worried about. After all, Xisheng didn't even have a solid plan on what to do next other than wait for reinforcements. Even if Sneers had managed to sneak into the very recently erected command post before leaving, he wouldn't have found any valuable letters or battle plans.

Of course, Xisheng wasn't going to say any of this to Kori right now. It wasn't like she would really care about it. Or maybe she would, but Xisheng figured it was better to just play it safe and be a more reassuring figure.

"Sneers may have run away, but that doesn't necessarily mean that all of those things he said and did this morning were lies. Even if he disagreed with you about the war, I'm sure he still cares about you."

Though the girl next to Xisheng offered him an appreciative smile, her next words weren't particularly happy ones. "Not as much as he cared about his own justice, though."

Admittedly, Xisheng couldn't say anything to refute that. After all, it was completely true. But it turned out that he didn't need to say anything anyway. Soon after making that statement, Kori sighed one last time before pushing herself off of the crate she had been resting on and turning to face Xisheng completely, with a sad, but not entirely false smile on her face.

"Don't worry about me, Commander. I accepted already that he and I had stumbled onto an irreconcilable difference when this all started. And it's not like I can blame him for doing what he thinks is right. Ultimately, I chose my own sense of righteousness over him, too. I picked what was most important to me, too... I've got no right to judge him for doing the same."

Though she said all of this with an air of acceptance, Xisheng couldn't help but feel bad about it. "Even so, I feel that I've taken a lot from you in such a short time. Your injuries, your relationship... all of this has been lost due to my strategy. Colonials probably would have never been involved in this battle if not for my request."

Kori held up a hand to the bandaged side of her face. "The fact that you did get colonials involved has offered us something much more valuable than anything I've lost, Commander. You said yourself that this war is a thing that's going to happen no matter what, and that all we can do is choose how we're going to affect it. Don't forget that all of us from Yu Dao are volunteers: I didn't have to come just because I was asked to. I appreciate that you aren't disregarding those who were hurt under your command, but don't feel that you are actually responsible. I don't mind sacrificing for a worthy cause, as long as you ensure it stays worthy."

Honestly, Xisheng couldn't help but appreciate the hardiness of his comrade. For a civilian girl and daughter of a noble at that, she had proven very resilient and reliable in something as harrowing as war, with only a little bit of time to grow accustomed to it. Hell, Xisheng probably hadn't been that resilient even after finishing basic training back in the day. He supposed some people were just borne of sterner stuff than others. At any rate, he was glad to see that Kori would seemingly continue to serve as best she could, without any major psychological hangups. Xisheng was by now used to relying on her as a trusted subordinate.

"I'll do my utmost to ensure that everyone's sacrifice is worth it. I won't disgrace the memory of those who fought for me, no matter what happens."

"Glad to hear it. Anyway, I am feeling a bit famished now that you talked me out of a bad mood, so I'd like to excuse myself, unless you need something from me."

Xisheng took a step aside so Kori could have a straight shot to the canteen. "Not at all. Be sure to rest well tonight, Kori. You've earned it."

With a final nod of acknowledgment, the Earthbender from Yu Dao walked past Xisheng and towards the canteen, leaving the latter in silence as he looked after her. While doing so, he couldn't help but dwell on this talk of sacrifice, and his mind turned towards the other wounded still at the infirmary. He was probably already late to dinner with the girls, but... on the night of their victory, with plenty of troops reveling in their success, Xisheng couldn't help but wonder how the wounded felt in this moment. He didn't want them to feel like their travails would go unnoticed and unappreciated just because the Fire Nation had won, like all that mattered was victory, and not who had to sacrifice to get there.

At the very least, they deserved to know that their commander acknowledged and appreciated what they had done. Surely, the girls would understand if he was just a few more minutes late for a reason such as that. With this in mind, Xisheng headed off towards the infirmary tent, already contemplating what he could say to his wounded soldiers that would sound appropriately concerned for them, but not pitying or insulting.


Because the recently established base was mostly a city of tents at this time, one would think that privacy wasn't something that would be available to anyone on it. But since Earthbenders were available for the Fire Nation at this time, there had been a few actual, basic stone dwellings erected for a handful of people to use. Namely, Azula and her friends. After all, they were young noble women, on a base occupied mostly by male soldiers. Though one would think that nobody would possibly dare to do something unscrupulous to the Princess of the Fire Nation or those she called her friends, it was always better to assume that some people were too stupid or insane to act right.

One might think it was a good idea to have the Earthbenders fashion the entire base out of simple stone structures, but that would have been an overall misuse of their time. With clearing the breach debris, widening the wall gap itself, standing guard, and patrolling, among plenty of other things, there hadn't been enough time to dedicate to building an entire base made of stone. Besides, it all would have been torn down eventually anyway, since they needed a steel base to really protect themselves against enemy Earthbenders. So, in a sea of tents, there was only a handful of basic stone structures erected, to serve very specific purposes. One of those buildings currently housed Azula and her friends.

It was nothing terribly impressive, considering that it had been hastily erected as a temporary place of residence. Four walls, no windows, a hole cut in the top of the ceiling for ventilation, and an incredibly basic 'door' that was really just a thin piece of wood that had to be physically removed from the doorframe and reinserted whenever someone needed to use it. But it was far more private than any mere tent. Of course, with a lack of supplies outside of the necessary, there wasn't much in the way of luxury within this small building: the girls would still be sleeping on what was little more than bedding on the stone floor, and even for dinner, all three of them were essentially sitting around a tablecloth on the floor. It was basically an indoor picnic, and as far as Azula was concerned, far below the type of lifestyle she was used to. It was more spartan than even their time on the Overlord.

But she was in far too good of a mood to even be bothered by that. In fact, she had been regaling Mai and Ty Lee with stories of the battle ever since they had gotten comfortable, and she hardly seemed concerned with the barebones eating arrangement, the quaint candle-lit stone abode, the subpar food, or even the fact that Xisheng was pretty late to their gathering.

The funny thing was, Azula wasn't actually talking about herself much at all. All of her bragging was actually for Xisheng.

"You should have seen him. He actually had the gall to order me around! More than once even. I never actually expected him to have that sort of gumption, honestly."

Despite the words themselves, neither Mai nor Ty Lee could miss that their friend actually sounded proud of this, for some reason. Mai pointed this out while sipping on a cup of water.

"You almost sound happy about that. Finding a new appreciation for submission, Azula?"

In a kneeling position, Azula folded her arms haughtily. "That's not it. There's just a certain... I don't know, charm to a man with that type of confidence."

"Saying you find it charming kind of just reinforces the idea that it's a fetish, doesn't it?"

With an evasive glace, Azula raised her own cup to her lips. "Yes, well... if there was one person I wouldn't mind acting that way with..."

Mai cocked an eyebrow at such a thing, which Azula hadn't muttered quietly enough to be missed. Oddly enough, Ty Lee didn't say anything about it or even react to it very strongly. She had been pretty deep in thought throughout the night. Mai hadn't inquired as to why or bothered to investigate otherwise. Besides, she was pretty sure she already knew what the brunette was thinking about. Ty Lee had been very vocal about her worrying and anxiety when she and Mai were waiting back at the forward base during the battle. She'd even broken down in tears once while fretting over all of the horrible things that could happen.

So she was probably dwelling on that, and the fact that such a situation was likely to occur again. Honestly, Mai couldn't say she hadn't also been thinking about it a lot today too. It wasn't like she hadn't been worrying about Gohan and Azula while they were out there on a battlefield she couldn't actually see or know what was happening on. She'd also imagined all sorts of bad things happening to them while she was just sitting around in safety.

And imagining the worst case scenario had also forced Mai to consider a few other things... Gohan could have died out there. And there were a bunch of other battles in the near future were he'd be at such risk again. Which raised a very difficult question for the young woman. What was worse? Giving into her feelings and admitting them to Gohan, only to run the risk of him dying very shortly afterwards? Or not telling him how she felt, only for him to die, at which point she'd just have to live with the regret indefinitely?

Mai hated doing useless things that resulted in nothing more than her own suffering. She'd gone through a lot of that during her childhood. But she couldn't help remembering what she and Ty Lee had talked about during their boat trip over to Ba Sing Se that day. Exactly how much would Mai be willing to miss out on just to spare herself the potential for pain? How many opportunities would she let slip by just because there was a chance they might not work out? Even if she theoretically never suffered anything that terrible in her life again, would Mai actually be happy, achieving that because she never pursued anything she wanted that included any risk?

She hadn't quite come to a conclusion just yet, but Mai could admit that she was leaning more towards the risk-taking than she was the safety, at this time. At any rate, she didn't get to keep dwelling on things in silence for too long, as Azula was trying to divert things from her own embarrassment by picking up the conversation again.

"Anyway, you should have seen Gohan's bending. I had no idea he had improved his compressed Firebending so much when I wasn't even looking. His flames even changed colors when doing it, which is extremely rare. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen another Firebender produce a color other than the typical orange. To think he improved that much on his own, and so quickly... he's really become quite amazing..."

Though she had been lost in thought, Ty Lee seemingly heard this at least, which prompted her to comment on Azula's words. "It took you so long to figure that out? Gohan's always been pretty amazing, you know..."

Raising her cup to take another drink, Mai added a bit of snark to the conversation. "Geez, you two know he can't even hear all of this brown-nosing, right? You make it sound like you want to marry him..."

Ty Lee blushed deeply upon this insinuation. Azula looked a little embarrassed as well, but ultimately, she smiled confidently. "Well, that's true. I have every intention to."

Mai choked on her water and spat it out on pure reflex, only barely managing to avoid covering her friends with it. Ty Lee's jaw practically hit the floor as she took in what Azula had just said. And coincidentally, someone moved the wooden plank that served as the door to their temporary abode just in time to walk in on the strange sight of the girls in stunned silence.

Xisheng raised an eyebrow as he took in the scene before him, unsure of why Ty Lee looked so stunned, or why Mai was coughing so hard, and why Azula seemed to be the only one unfettered by some mysterious turn of events at this exact moment. Xisheng's sudden arrival prompted all three girls to turn their gazes on him, at which point the young commander was reminded of deerhounds caught by surprise in the woods: wide-eyed, frozen still, unsure of how to react to the unexpected arrival...

Considering all of this, Xisheng could only think of one thing to say.

"Did I interrupt something?"


Calling chapters like this "a little short" feels a bit odd, because in the long run, they usually end up being about the same as all the other regular chapters. I'm sure the feeling gets exacerbated sometimes because, on a technicality, it's not like much "happened" in this chapter, from a timeline and major event point of view.

But thanks to the vocal support of many of you dear readers, it's become obvious to me that most of you are well-aware of the value these types of chapters carry. Sure, nothing as big and grand as taking down the wall of the city is happening, but there are other important things that happen instead: characters make big leaps in their development, worldbuilding gets fleshed out, themes are explored, we establish the new circumstances of our protagonists as the setting around them changes: chapters like this are set up for the next big moment, with details that may not be extremely exciting, but are nevertheless very important to the consistency of the story as it progresses.

Anyway, speaking of chapters, and those that aren't massive plot points, this story will soon be receiving something called 'auxiliary chapters'. These will be fairly brief side chapters not important to the main story, but rather, focusing on extra content requested specifically by readers. They could be about what other characters have been up to during certain points in the story, for instance. But since these chapters aren't plot critical, they won't be getting posted here and complicating the chapter layout and all that. These requested auxiliary chapters will be posted elsewhere. If you're interested in learning more about them, the best way would be to check out the Discord you can find a link to on my profile page.

But allow me to reaffirm that these auxiliary chapters are not critical to the story, and you will not be missing anything vital if you don't read them. It's just a little extra thing for supporters of the story to enjoy, side stories that may be interesting, but nothing of crucial must-read value to continue enjoying the main story posted here. If you'd like to know what's been happening at the North Pole following Fire Nation occupation, or what the Gaang was doing at a certain time, or maybe a more detailed backstory chapter about Xisheng's old army days, you may enjoy these auxiliary chapters. If you just want the main meat of the story, you'll still be able to find that right here, just like always.

Anyway, thank you all for reading! As always, I appreciate that you'd use your precious free time to enjoy something written by yours truly. At the end of the day, your continued interest in this story is the most valuable thing any of you can give.