The Battle for Yu Dao
2
Siege weapons lacked stealth as they progressed through a forest. Their wheels occasionally got stuck in unstable grounds, causing numerous delays and resulting in the slowing of their forces on their way to the city of Yu Dao, one of the last bastions the Fire Nation held as a colony in the Earth Kingdom continent.
Even so, the Gladiator Army had arrived. The white wall that lined the city gleamed in the distance, and Anorak gazed at it with narrow eyes: Jeong Jeong believed that none other than Princess Azula led the enemy forces, based on nothing but the sudden strategic prowess of the typically mediocre Fire Nation soldiers from Pohuai Stronghold. Deep down, Anorak hoped he was wrong: on one hand, he didn't want to imagine how the Princess's direct involvement in the war, on her father's side, would affect their faction's leader. Sokka had made every choice, taken every step forward, under the belief that the woman he loved would welcome him and stand by his side once he reached her anew. She might not be his sole motivation, but regardless of what any skeptics might want to think, she was the strongest of them all. Nothing moved the Gladiator as urgently as Azula did.
But on the other hand, he dreaded Princess Azula's involvement too since, just as Jeong Jeong anticipated, she could be resourceful and capable of holding a city against a force that overwhelmed hers at a ratio of ten-to-one. The notion might have seemed unthinkable –for others, like Unnuaq, it was utterly laughable –, but Anorak had witnessed Sokka's astounding strategic prowess in Omashu. As much as he wanted to give his friend all the credit he deserved, Anorak remembered the way the Blue Wolf spoke about his sponsor, the reverence with which he never failed to praise the woman he firmly believed was far more special than he ever could be. A man like Sokka would not speak in such a way of someone untested, someone who hadn't proven herself to him time after time. If she had enraptured him so profoundly, surely it had happened because she was every bit as extraordinary as him.
Thus, Anorak trembled as he glared at Yu Dao from the very last straggler trees they reached in the valley. As commanded by Jeong Jeong, the army spread out, occupying as much space as they could to further daunt the enemy once they saw what might appear to be an endless force, prowling out of the foliage, pouring down the hills. Unlike in Ba Sing Se, this time the cavalry group, comprised by ostrich-horse riders from Ba Sing Se, were to hold back until the city's walls had collapsed under the weight of their siege: without the element of surprise, and the strongest earthbenders that had accompanied them in the kingdom's capital, any riders that charged at those walls would simply perish in a heartbeat, especially when there were Yu-Yan archers manning the enemy's defenses.
"Slow," Jeong Jeong said, and the order was translated to the music squad: the drum's new, paused beat saw the army organizing itself, taking proper threatening stances, while still marching down the valley at a less intensive pace.
A large expanse of flatter terrain spread ahead, between the valley's hills and the city itself. Beyond Yu Dao, a sterile stretch of land separated the city from the port, visible from their current altitude. Jeong Jeong breathed deeply, sparks bursting from his nostrils as his determination surged: a journey of months led to this battle, the one where they would fully liberate the Earth Kingdom from the Fire Nation. There was Garsai too, certainly, but the smaller city's defenses would never hold up. They would likely surrender as soon as they received news of Yu Dao's fall.
The silhouettes of the White Lotus forces were visible among the trees, but their threat on the Fire Nation was clearer still once their army moved past the green and into the sunlight: the soldiers by the walls remained tense, nervous, as the Princess studied the landscape with a spyglass. The first siege weapons peeked out of the hills… could those catapults launch payloads powerful enough to cross the large distance between their current position and the city's walls? As much as Azula had some experience in warfare, none of it had included experience in handling siege weapons. She lacked the knowledge and expertise to predict how much power there could be in a catapult of that magnitude.
"The enemy is here," whispered one of Azula's Imperial Guards, shivering beside her. "Should we… do something yet, Princess?"
"Patience," Azula urged him. "Stand your ground. We hold the defensible position at the moment. As urgent as the situation appears, it will be worse still if we begin attacking them recklessly."
"Of course, Princess," the guard said, bowing his head and backing down as the Princess continued to scan the enemy ranks with her spyglass.
Most enemies didn't wear anything close to a uniform. The shade of trees obscured the banners among their ranks, but she could make out something resembling the White Lotus in one… while there was a four-pronged spiral in another. Part of her had anticipated a wolf, instead.
"Almost disappointing," she mumbled to herself, unamused.
Even so, most of them wore armor, if light and made of leather. The dominant color among them appeared to be dark blue. Was that, perhaps, the homage they paid to their actual leader? Even now, apprehension seized Azula's heart as she wondered if Sokka was truly the leader of the White Lotus, at this point. Did they truly offer him the respect he deserved? Had they understood his true worth? She wasn't sure they had… though, after one more scan of the enemy forces, she found the much more dreaded foe she had been anticipating, the very person who put her previous thoughts into question: the man who was least likely to yield power to anyone like Sokka.
"If the latest wanted posters are accurate… then that man is the Deserter," Azula said, lowering her spyglass and scowling: everyone around her seemed to tense up after she announced his presence. "Not in the frontlines… but close enough to boss everyone around, I assume."
"Should tell a Yu-Yan to nab him right away," Chan suggested.
"Our arrows will lose power across this distance," the nearest Yu-Yan said, and Chan pouted. "He will be able to get out of the way on time to avoid a killer blow."
"Can you, perhaps, anticipate the reach of those siege weapons' projectiles, from this distance?" Azula asked the same archer. The man flinched upon being addressed by Azula, bowing his head respectfully towards her.
"I don't believe they will reach the city from there," he said. "They… they will have to move closer. The high ground is not as much of an advantage when your enemy is too far away to be affected by it."
"I see," Azula said, breathing deeply. "Then we truly have no need to do anything hasty. Stand your ground, keep your weapons at the ready: with any luck, our defenses should deter this assault before any of us needs to move a finger."
The minefield the rebel army remained unaware of would serve its purpose: the flat lands between their mountains and the city itself had been laced with over two hundred explosives of varying degrees of power, as per the Mad Alchemist's inconsistencies. The unstable intensity of the explosions might just fuel the enemy's fear of their defensive preparations.
Those defenses were more extensive than the minefield: the earthbenders underground awaited any attempts by the enemy to assault the city from below, in the maze they had crafted throughout the past month. Other earthbenders were above ground, waiting behind the walls along with the rest of the infantry forces, particularly those who hadn't learned how to use any ranged weaponry before the battle began. The walls were fully manned, however, the crenelations providing their archers and the bombardment brigade – comprised by the hand-cannoneers, as well as the younger recruits of the armed forces, tasked with lighting the weapons' fuses and reloading the barrels – all the advantages to face the enemy once they came within range of their weapons.
How would they go about it? What would Jeong Jeong's choice be? Azula stood in place, fists tight, waiting for the enemy to make his move. He would want stable grounds where to set down those catapults: once the walls were breached, his forces would seek to pour inside the city, raiding it, perhaps, or maybe targeting the military only. The main thing that stood between him and the victory he wished to claim was their wall… or so he would believe.
Across the seemingly empty expanse of flat lands, Jeong Jeong, too, had a spyglass. He raised it carefully to his unscarred eye, hoping to confirm his suspicions… though the wall's crenelations didn't help him do so. A reckless part of him wanted to command the hot-air balloons to scout and confirm the Princess's presence… but not yet. Their aerial vehicles would be better off withheld until the enemy's ranged attackers were out of the way. Should they have more ballistae like the one that had taken down the airship, their army would lose even more valuable vehicles intended to carry them to the heart of the Fire Nation.
The troops descending from the forests carried on, trudging constantly towards the flat land. The hearts of the Fire Nation troops manning the walls raced, as the enemy approached: Jeong Jeong gave out one more command to his troops, and without further ado, the deafening sound of tsungi horns, in unison seemed to announce that the battle would commence.
The siege weapons remained around the middle of the enemy's formation: a handful of divisions among those troops suggested organization, at first, that dissolved once a group of roaring, enemy earthbenders began serving as human catapults, working together to launch massive boulders in the city's direction.
"Incoming!" exclaimed one of the sentries.
"Earthbenders!" Azula cried out, her heart in her throat: the earthbenders positioned in the walls took aim at the boulder, destroying it with smaller but still effective rocks that saw the projectile crumbling near the city's ditch. "Archers, begin firing now!"
While still distant, the earthbenders weren't quite so far that the Yu-Yan archers risked missing their mark: the sturdy, rigid katas they needed to resort to were terrible weaknesses the archers exploited at once, pelting the first few enemies with sufficient arrows to remove them from the battlefield.
But while they took down two earthbenders, the rest of the infantry poured in too, perhaps expecting that the Yu-Yan archers would not be able to slay them all: the tsungi horns continued to sing in the distance, encouraging their troops to charge onwards. The first catapults, it seemed, were about to lock in place at a more level area of the plains, and a large, flaming boulder was being loaded onto one of its baskets…
Azula snarled: they were in range by now. Curses, if the Mad Alchemist's promising bombs failed, this would be the end of Yu Dao. The enemy earthbenders continued to hurl rocks as best they could, even shifting the land slightly – would that hinder the effectiveness of the mines? Could it prevent the bombs from going off?
The Fire Nation archers continued to fire, and the firebenders prepared to do the same, should the enemy reach their range. Chan, standing by Azula, snarled and cocked his cannon in place, on the crenelation before them.
"They're not going off," he said. Azula gritted her teeth.
"Not yet. But… they have to. They will," she said, with faith she hardly felt. Chan gritted his teeth, lining his charged weapon towards the rushing enemies…
A rebel stepped on a slightly protruding chunk of earth as he made towards the walls.
The blast of the explosion wasn't all that large on its own… but the chain reaction it started certainly was.
Bombs planted farther in the flat grounds had shifted slightly due to the earthbending of Jeong Jeong's forces, as they shifted the land to gather earth for their attacks: the shockwave of that first explosion caused some of the already loose bombs to trigger in the middle of the rebel army's frontlines.
Jeong Jeong's small eyes widened: a small explosion escalated into a larger one within moments. Suddenly, a second explosion burst massively near him, so much so that the ground's debris – or at least, he hoped that was all it was – was flung in his direction even as he shielded himself with an arm.
More forces marched onwards, though the formation broke in many places: more explosions, whether to the left or the right, even a few more when a group walked too far forward…
"It's working," Chan gasped: he had been moments away from shooting his cannon's projectile when the first explosion had happened. "It's working!"
Successive blasts, some larger than the others, continued to build a temporary ring of fire that protected the city: new orders by Jeong Jeong saw the tsungi horns ringing a tune that hadn't been heard often by the Gladiator Army: they were to back down, at once.
Jeong Jeong stepped back carefully, glaring across the expanse of the terrain, hoping to find signs that gave away the location of these strange mines: it was difficult to see them with so many soldiers before him, blocking his view, but he nonetheless recognized a sign of danger he had ignored so far.
"Earth… earthbending," he snarled: the entirety of the flatlands before him bore traces of earthbending all across them, easily noticed by the lack of long-lasting vegetation nearby and the smooth strokes, as that of a painting, in unnatural directions across the land.
"Master! What do we do, Master?!" Unnuaq asked, eyes wide with panic, glancing about himself for his leader.
"Stop! Stop marching, now!" Jeong Jeong, having fallen behind in the assaulting group, shouted the command anew: the tsungi horns relayed the urgent message, and after a few more moments of tension, the army finally obeyed in full.
Jeong Jeong scowled, urging one of the nearest earthbenders to help him get a better view of the battlefield: the earthbender raised the White Lotus leader on a pillar, sufficiently to provide him with the necessary understanding of what kind of menace they were facing.
The expanse between where they stood and the city itself had to be less than a full mile apart. But where it had looked like ripe territory to race through on their way to the city walls, now it appeared to be a catastrophe waiting to happen.
His chest heaved as he glared at the wall anew: it wouldn't be hard to confirm her presence now.
"Call for earthbenders," Jeong Jeong said, turning towards Anorak, who nodded in his direction. "We will offer them cover, a distraction. They will attack the city from below ground and pave the way for us to access Yu Dao."
"As you command," Anorak said: together with his waterbending comrades, the Deserter's second-in-command dashed through the ranks of their army, sharing the new orders.
Jeong Jeong hadn't wished to resort to Sokka's techniques… but he could think of no better alternative for the time being: pride lost its importance in a battle as vital as this one.
As focused as he was on fulfilling his orders and remaining level-headed on the battlefield, Anorak's stomach clenched over what had happened just now: the enemy had laced the ground, the battlefield, with deadly mines, bombs… how? Sokka had been the first to use those kinds of incendiary bombs and weapons, but the Mechanist, safe in Ba Sing Se, wasn't providing the Fire Lord with those resources and solutions anymore. How had the Fire Nation developed a defense as effective as this one, powerful enough to daunt the Gladiator Army into holding back its impending assault?
It was their first true setback dealt by the Fire Nation. The first time they had no choice but to rethink their strategies, backing down from their original intent, forced to reshape it into something else.
And as much as Anorak might struggle to accept the truth behind this unsettling development, Jeong Jeong certainly felt no such internal conflict.
From the height of his earthbending dais, amid the rumor of noise by his forces, Jeong Jeong could nonetheless speak plain and clearly enough to be heard by the enemies up in the walls.
"City of Yu Dao!" he roared, startling his fellow rebels with the volume of his voice. "The Gladiator Army is here to set you free!"
His voice grated against Azula's relief right away: she had never heard his voice before, but she knew immediately that it belonged to Jeong Jeong… and that he was up to something. She couldn't drop her guard after the grand success by their minefield defenses. Jeong Jeong wasn't the type who gave up as easily as that.
"The Earth Kingdom has been restored!" Jeong Jeong continued. "And the Fire Lord's reign is at an end! Fight alongside your brethren, turn against those who hold your chains! On this day, your city will no longer fly the bloodied banners of the Fire Nation! On this day, you will remember the pride of belonging to your people! Resist against the Fire Nation army and aid us in reclaiming your city!"
His speech was mainly meant to land on the earthbenders and Yu Dao locals serving in the military, for the civilians within the city would be too far away to hear him: still, he knew that Yu Dao was the least likely location where a speech of that sort would pay off in the Earth Kingdom.
Azula breathed deeply, heart clenched, fury burning with its every beat. Jeong Jeong had to be up to something more than just offering a desperate plea to clinch a victory he now knew would be difficult to seize. If the price of whatever he was looking for became far too steep, there was a chance that he would back down… but that wasn't bound to be his reasoning right now.
"Kori," Azula turned away from the wall, glancing inside the city: the Morishita family waited by one of the infantry groups, and Kori stood by a gap in the ground through which she was to communicate with the earthbenders underground. "Alert your earthbenders: the enemy may be headed their way now."
"Yes, Princess!" Kori nodded.
She didn't jump into the hole right away, watching as Azula turned to watch the battlefield anew: the sight of the Princess, among the flames that still rose from the burst bombs, the smoke that floated towards the sky, brought back a sudden, shocking memory for Kori Morishita. The memory of a dream… or more than that.
She had seen Azula like this, once before. Sokka had been absent. Her family had been there… Sneers had been there, too: Kori had wondered why the swamp would show her such a strange sight… the question certainly had been answered now. There had been no more information to gleam from her swamp dream, though: she didn't know whether they'd win or lose. But whether they lived or died that day, she had a job to do, and she endeavored to fulfill it, jumping into the gap in the ground, to inform her earthbenders of the Princess's warning.
By the wall, Azula breathed deeply as she made up her mind over what to do next: if Jeong Jeong wished to have a battle of wills, a strategic showdown where they'd constantly keep each other on their toes, she would indulge him for a second time.
She stepped forward, closer to the crenelations: Chan eyed her warily, for she didn't hide behind the taller portions of the wall… no, she exposed herself, in her regal, golden armor, to the eyes of an army that might not have expected to see her at all…
Jeong Jeong snarled once the sunlight shone upon that golden armor, brightening it so much it was almost blinding. He knew exactly who that apparel belonged to… and he confirmed, too, that his every suspicion about the dangerous enemy he was facing had been correct.
"Fickle as your personal loyalties may be, Deserter, the Fire Nation people stand with their own!" Azula exclaimed: beside her, Chan hooted in support of her claim.
While that could have deflated Azula's rebuff, and she initially feared it had, suddenly, the Fire Nation soldiers on the walls joined Chan with war cries, even with a rhythmic chant that supported the Princess's words. Azula blinked blankly, glancing at the brigade captain beside her with confusion, and he offered her a proud grin.
Jeong Jeon scoffed: the Gladiator Army began chanting as well, spurred on by their music squad, but he felt no more enthusiastic about the prospect of this battle than he did before. While his intent hadn't solely related to stealing away members of Yu Dao's defenses, it seemed that sudden betrayals within the Fire Nation's forces were not bound to happen in a city as deeply indoctrinated as this one…
Let alone when the most charismatic leader of the Fire Nation stood at those walls, ready to defy him openly.
Anorak had already conveyed the message to the troops, urging the earthbenders to dig an imperceptible tunnel through which they could attack the city from within. If all went well, the White Lotus forces might be able to slip through that crack, dealing as much damage as possible to the Fire Nation before they knew it…
That was when that female voice rang in the distance, and when the noise began.
This time, there was no question about what he was seeing. It didn't matter if he had never lain eyes upon her before, his heart jolted and clenched at once at the sight of that regal, golden woman standing among the Fire Nation's forces.
Jeong Jeong's intuition had been correct: Princess Azula was in Yu Dao, and she was fighting on the Fire Nation's side of the war.
The noise quieted down gradually, once neither side made a move for too long. Jeong Jeong hadn't climbed off his dais yet, scowling heavily as the Princess didn't back down, either.
"Should we stand by, Princess?" the Yu-Yan archer nearest to her asked. Azula breathed deeply.
"Keep your arrows at the ready. Do not take aim yet… but be prepared in case you must do it quickly," she said. The man nodded, spreading the word to the rest of the archers on the walls.
No movements from the White Lotus yet. None from the Fire Nation, either.
"You know nothing of true loyalty!" Jeong Jeong rebuffed, perhaps so late that the words would fall flat solely due to how weak a comeback it seemed to be, solely over timing. Azula couldn't help but smirk derisively at his claim. "You serve the Fire Lord blindly, no matter what disgraces he has inflicted upon you! It is but fear that guides you! Fear of the new world that must be built, and in which Fire Lord Ozai shall never have a place! He uses you as a tool to cling to power, and you allow him to do so! You disgrace yourself, Princess Azula!"
His loud claim of her title shook those who had yet to make the connection among his forces… just as it unsettled the ones who had begun suspecting it already. The rumor of voices in the group wasn't that of the unanimous, confident cries from before… were they scared of her? Were they worried of the consequences they might face, should they continue to fight back? Which consequences, however: those dealt by Azula herself… or those dealt by Sokka, once he reunited with the bulk of his forces?
The Princess frowned at that thought. Could Sokka truly be holding his army to intense, insurmountably strict standards and rules? That seemed unlikely, considering Sokka's character, but if he daunted them so deeply, that might just be the case…
"I serve the Fire Nation people!" Azula exclaimed, her voice ringing with determination. "I stand here today to defend a city from an incursion by a hostile force! No less and no more than anyone is expected to do for the country they belong to! Not that I expect you to understand, though… considering you betrayed your people, your nation, without ever looking back!"
"Oh, but I have looked back! And what I saw was devastation, destruction, cruelty and death!" Jeong Jeong bellowed. "No different from what you've achieved now…!"
"And how is that different from what you hoped to achieve, yourself?" Azula responded. "An army does not bring siege weaponry and thousands of soldiers to a city they intend to conquer without force!"
"It would be unnecessary to use force if you surrendered!" Jeong Jeong shouted. Azula smiled, shaking her head. "He would expect you to do so! If your people's wellbeing were what guided you, you would step down at once, open the city gates and allow us to set this world free from a hundred years of tyranny!"
"Is that so?" Azula asked. "Care tell, at what point did you intend to make this generous offer to me and this city, if the bombs had not stalled you when they did? The last I saw, you and your forces were rushing down towards us, armed and ready, launching projectiles in our direction… but suddenly, you are pacifists who never meant for matters to escalate into violence? At the very least, try to feed me a believable story, Deserter! I'm sure your so-called gifted mind was capable of far better in the past!"
Jeong Jeong snarled: arguing with the woman was, perhaps, worse than doing it with the Gladiator. Confirming they had much in common certainly proved unnerving.
"Perhaps I simply predicted that you would not listen to reason!" Jeong Jeong hissed. "Your bombs provide us with an opportunity to stand down! Both our side and yours, Princess Azula…!"
"I'm afraid I don't see the sense in that, Deserter," Azula said, fists tight as she glared down at him fiercely. "You got the better of me once before: I swore I would destroy you then, should I lay eyes upon you at all… and this is a glorious chance to see my determination fulfilled!"
Jeong Jeong's eyes widened: she was not joking. It suited her to vow to destroy him, but… was that her true intent? Was she leading these forces against him out of need for revenge? The man he had nearly killed on that day was his ally now. Her arguments were senseless, for Sokka wouldn't want him dead…
Or would he?
A shiver rushed down Jeong Jeong's spine as he remembered his last exchanges with the man. The distrust, the distance, the anger… were he here, would the Gladiator side with him at all? Would he prioritize the war's end above his relationship with that deadly woman? An unfathomable thought flourished in his mind, one where the Princess might have set off no bombs and allied herself with Sokka, adding her forces to his… if only he stood here now, instead of Jeong Jeong. A scenario where the questionable element wouldn't be the Princess, but Jeong Jeong himself…
She was making him second-guess himself. The wretched Princess… without even trying, without even flinching, she had cast a cruel spell upon Jeong Jeong's mind, making him fear he did not belong at the head of an army he had been a quintessential element of. He felt too exposed, suddenly, too visible… and it didn't seem as though the Princess would stop short there, either.
"Is it, perhaps, that your great forces are not aware of the fact that you, personally, tried to murder their true leader?!" Azula bellowed. "Did you hide that from them, by any chance, out of shame or fear? How many of your current allies stood by that day, watching you wash your hands clean off the attempted murder of the man to whom you swear your empty allegiances to now?! How many times have you meant to betray him throughout this campaign, Deserter? How many knives have you driven into his back, so much so that he isn't here now to save you from me?!"
Thousands of soldiers followed Jeong Jeong on that day. Many of them would fail to hear the Princess's words, so distant as they were from the frontlines… but those who could, including Anorak, shivered in place as they pondered how many of her words might be lies, and how many weren't.
Anorak returned to the Deserter's side uneasily: the earthbenders had gone underground by then, but even though no more lives had been lost since their army had stopped marching into the minefield, it appeared that they continued to hold the losing hand, even beyond what related to the bombs underground.
"Master…" Anorak said. Jeong Jeong snarled.
"Is it done?" he asked. Anorak nodded.
"We may need more time for it to work, but… yes," he said, almost reluctantly. Jeong Jeong sighed, glaring forward once more: the Princess did not stand down, awaiting a response… one that Jeong Jeong scarcely knew how to elaborate.
"Not so talkative now, are we?" Azula added, a hand upon the wall. Jeong Jeong snarled.
"Were he here… you would seek further excuses to fight this battle, regardless!" Jeong Jeong exclaimed. "Use him as a shield now, if you care to… I answer to General Sokka, as this army has known since its conception!"
Bile rose in Azula's gut, fists trembling upon hearing that term, that title, from the lips of a man who did not deserve to so much as utter her lover's name. Her eyes blazed with rage, but she contained her most visceral reaction regardless.
"Were he here, to threaten my people as you do?" Azula said. "He would know exactly what to expect from me! I will not compromise the safety, the integrity, the strength of the Fire Nation for any one person's sake! I will not bow down and break under the weight of your threats and your deceptions! I am not blind, Deserter, to the potential of your forces, or to their commitment to your cause, just as I am not blind to the true intent behind your speeches! If my life needs to be on the line to preserve the Fire Nation and ensure its survival, then I shall give it as willingly as I ever have! It is not I who should stand down, Deserter: take your forces with you, abandon this futile cause and you may live a longer life than you would otherwise! Fail to surrender and the consequences will be beyond anything your grand army has ever faced!"
The words might have sounded empty – the greater threat they had to worry about had already been annulled in virtue of the army not walking into it blindly, after all. Yet Jeong Jeong, injured pride notwithstanding, had picked up on the deeper meaning of her proclamations: she had accused him of deception. She knew he was stalling for time. While he would have accepted her surrender if she had given it, he had meant to charge onwards if she failed to offer it, if she meant to continue battling until Yu Dao's defenses collapsed…
She was prepared to face the next of Jeong Jeong's plans: she hadn't been distracted in the least.
Underground, the White Lotus earthbenders guided themselves through seismic sense, if not as effective as that of the Blind Bandit: their hands touched sturdy rocks at times, at others, they found nothing but empty space without having bent anything to create said space at all. They had to be below the minefield right now, they had progressed steadily in the city's direction after creating their tunnel… but they had emerged into another tunnel, one they couldn't quite make sense of.
It became a lot easier to understand it when a sudden tremor, not caused by any of their forces, shook under their feet.
"Careful! There's…!" started the earthbending leader, attempting to warn his soldiers, but he found himself breathless when he received a boulder to the ribs.
A battle based on who had better seismic sense might have resulted in a more even match. Here, however, the contest proved one-sided: the Fire Nation troops had been the ones to build the underground maze their foes were barely beginning to make sense of, and they knew it thoroughly.
"Tear down the tunnels!" exclaimed one of the White Lotus earthbenders. "Trap the enemy underground!"
His command wasn't obeyed, not only due to the nonsensical nature of the order, but because his allies were mostly otherwise engaged: the battlefield trembled as earthen movements caused the land to feel unstable for a moment, its impact most powerful at the city's outskirts…
Despite the Fire Nation's troops best efforts, the enemy earthbenders outnumbered them vastly: in a matter of moments, the wounded and fallen had been replaced by new, fresh and healthy earthbenders who unraveled the layout of the cavernous tunnels, little by little. Thus, the situation would start growing dire on their side: the enemy earthbenders were sorting through the maze, coming closer and closer to the exit inside Yu Dao itself…
"Lady Morishita…!" exclaimed one of the earthbenders underground: Kori, sensing the chaos within, knew their next choice was inevitable.
"Okay, we're doing it now! Everyone out, now! Get ready to build the thick wall, as we trained!"
Her command was followed dutifully: little by little, the earthbenders slipped out of the dark tunnels and into the cave where the outside light still poured through the hole in the surface.
Yu Dao's earthbending squad, comprised by men and women, soldiers and civilians, army and Enforcers, gathered their strength to craft a sturdy, earthen wall, akin to the one that guarded the city. There was but one gap in it… a gap through which Kori launched two of their supplied incendiary bombs before closing the opening abruptly with her bending.
They held their position, stances firm, sturdy, steady…
On the other side of the wall there was nothing but darkness… until there was light.
A potent blinding flash was the last thing the earthbenders underground could see before a shocking explosion blew up the maze: the mines directly above the collapsing ground were set off by the explosion too, setting the landscape on fire even more violently than before.
Jeong Jeong's army reeled back instinctively: this time, the curtain of fire that bloomed between the city and its would-be liberators was abundant and large enough to reach the heights of the tall wall where that Princess still stood, undeterred and unafraid in a field of flames.
"Pull back!" Jeong Jeong roared again: the flames soared and burned dangerously, even though the most violent explosions had seemingly eased up by now. "Pull back! Further back!"
Azula's heart raced as more mines were blown by the underground explosion than she had thought they would. The fire brought back unpleasant memories… for its behavior was no different from the flames that had consumed the Grand Royal Dome. Nonetheless, she didn't show any weaknesses: she continued to stand by the crenelations of their wall, unafraid, glaring fiercely at the fire… as she realized the shapes in the distance were actually shrinking. Through the curtain of flames, she could see them running for the hills beyond them: Jeong Jeong had pulled back, even if he hadn't likely retreated in full just yet.
"Fuck, that was wild," Chan gasped, beside her. Her guards, so antsy before, now appeared to await her every word reverently, no doubt impressed by the magnitude of her planning, as well as by the effectiveness of her strategies against a foe like Jeong Jeong. "I hope the earthbenders are okay. Is it over?"
"No," Azula responded, without a shred of a doubt. Chan winced. "A man like Jeong Jeong doesn't give up quite so easily. That's a lesson I learned a long time ago."
"You… you faced him before," Chan said.
"And he could've killed me. The only reason why he didn't was… because he didn't care to. I'm sure he wishes he had, by now," Azula said, her tone deadly serious as she glared in the distance, among the dwindling fire and the surging smoke. "We're not lowering our guard. We've lost a considerable number of mines now… though we still should have enough left to keep them away from our walls, I hope. They might not attack anew for the time being… but they will soon."
"Could they take advantage of the terrains where the bombs went off already?" asked the nearest guard. Azula shrugged.
"If they have competent earthbenders to help them navigate the unstable ground, it's possible… but I don't know if they'll risk that, there might be more bombs left," she said. "Keep an eye on the skies: the hot-air balloons might be among their last gambles. We need to tear those down as soon as they show up."
"And… do you think the Avatar won't be here?" asked the guard. "If he hasn't showed up yet…"
"The Avatar is most likely still in the North Pole," Azula said, with a heavy frown. "Jeong Jeong might mean to take Yu Dao by himself, as some way to convey that he's no lesser a leader than S-… than the Blue Wolf. If his brains outdo his pride? He'll withhold his next attack, he'll send for aid, and he'll bring reinforcements such as those two in the hopes that they might help him change their luck. Otherwise, he'll seek to win at any and all costs. Our job is to ensure that no cost he's willing to pay suffices to ensure his success."
The guards, the archers and the soldiers who heard her nodded firmly. Azula breathed in, backing away from the crenelation and turning to glance inside the city: the infantry soldiers, those who couldn't fight at the walls, watched her with awe and hope alike. She felt her throat tighten, her muddled heart troubled by the implications behind their gazes… she was some manner of savior to them. She was their best chance at victory. She was the one who would keep their homes, their lives, as safe as they could possibly be. She represented the strength of the Fire Nation they had always believed in…
She wasn't that, though. Even now, as adrenaline coursed her bloodstream, as she felt an unnerving but genuine pride over her ability to read through Jeong Jeong and his resources so far, a part of her heart knew acutely that she fought for the right reasons, on the wrong side of the war. The Fire Nation would lose one day…
But maybe it wouldn't lose today. Maybe, despite it all, she could stop one threat over the integrity of the Fire Nation on its tracks.
"The enemy has not been defeated yet!" Azula announced, and the troops listened to her words reverently. "We stand ready to defend Yu Dao still! Their forces will seek different means to attack this city, and we will endeavor to undo each one until this city's safety is assured!"
The soldiers within the city echoed a sentiment of support, chanting at the rhythm the soldiers had started, earlier. Azula breathed deeply, chest tight as pride and despair seemed to stake their claim upon her heart at the same time. She was doing right by the Fire Nation, by her people… and she was doing wrong by the world, just as well.
Even so, she couldn't stop now. Her crimes piled on and on – how many dead as the result of these explosions? How many more lives had her choices cost today? –, and holding off Jeong Jeong didn't change that, once the time came, she would have to be ready to pay the ultimate price for the worst of her sins. There was no way out of this for her… no brighter future, no matter if those who loved her clung to that notion desperately. But she could gift them the best future her sacrifices and choices could build. She could continue to protect them as best as she was able… she would continue to fight for the Fire Nation, for the people who looked to her with admiration and hope: she was here to defend their home, and she would continue to do so until her final defenses crumbled… or until Jeong Jeong surrendered.
The withdrawal wasn't absolute: the Gladiator Army slowed by the forest anew, with the siege weapons still far more exposed than they should have been. Jeong Jeong shuddered as he glared at the city with unrepentant contempt: even from afar, he could still see the gleam of the sunlight on her accursed armor.
"We've… we've been outsmarted," said Anorak, his voice vacant as he stepped up to Jeong Jeong. Other leaders within their group did the same. "Master, what are we…?"
"A moment, Anorak. Just… let me think," Jeong Jeong said, his voice harsh at first, softening more as he brought a hand to his hair.
Anorak shuddered in place: was this the way the Fire Nation had felt so far, whenever Sokka launched his unexpected attacks on their cities? Was this deep fear the very same thing they had experienced as their walls crumbled, as their defenders were defeated, as their leaders were toppled?
For in their case, the source of that fear was the exact opposite thing: the belief that nothing would defeat Princess Azula.
For a mere moment, for as long as that strange exchange between her and Jeong Jeong had lasted, Anorak had gotten to know the woman who had been nothing but a myth or a mystery for him until now. Numerous members of the army felt the same way, too: she had been the Gladiator's downfall and rise, the hope of the Fire Nation, the most promising leader to be born to her family in ages. But now they saw her for who she was… and most those stories felt true in the most terrifying of ways. Sokka loved her, Anorak had no doubt that he always would… but a man had to be truly bold and daring to love a woman as daunting as her.
"Master…" said a soldier, approaching the silent firebender. "Master, Colonel Mengyao is…"
Jeong Jeong snarled, a spark of fire blooming in her fist.
"Did he… survive?" he asked.
The soldier shook his head. Jeong Jeong huffed: his sole remaining earthbending commanding officer had been underground, among the forces that were to infiltrate the city… and now he was dead.
"How many?" Jeong Jeong asked.
"We lost… forty-three earthbenders."
Anorak gasped: it wasn't the full extent of the earthbenders available for their forces, but it was a sizable portion they should have never allowed themselves to lose. The remaining earthbenders might still help pave the way forward in this mission…
But at what cost?
"We can't send more earthbenders underground," Anorak said, knowing he was stating the obvious, but feeling the need to do so, regardless.
"No, we most certainly cannot," Jeong Jeong hissed, glowering at the city: the flames were only dwindling now, the smoke still rising dangerously where that last explosion had happened. "Moving our siege weaponry across that expanse would be suicidal. We would lose them long before they so much as reach the city."
"Then maybe we could attack the walls from where we stood last," Unnuaq suggested. "Catapult attacks from that distance could…!"
"No: the catapults will be used to set off the bombs, especially whichever they planted closest to the city walls," Jeong Jeong determined, startling the others. "We will set them to fire within range of the area of those explosives… and we will detonate them safely, from a distance, that way. She will be forced to make another move… but perhaps, in trying to counter what cannot be countered, we should be… should be doing two moves, rather than one."
As stressed out and anguished as he was, Jeong Jeong's mind appeared to be racing at full speed. That, at least, relieved Anorak.
"We could hurl rocks at them, too. With our remaining earthbenders," Anorak suggested. Jeong Jeong nodded.
"Once the way is clear, we will push onwards with the battering rams," Jeong Jeong said: the last of the siege weapons they had crafted waited still to be used at all. "But not a moment sooner."
"Would it be wise…? What if we miss any mines?" Anorak asked, frowning. "If a battering ram rolls over any of these bombs…"
"And what would you have us do otherwise?" Jeong Jeong hissed: he sounded angry, and perhaps he was… but more than anything, he might have wanted to hear other options, consider possibilities that were escaping him right now. Anorak swallowed hard and frowned.
"I think… we could begin attacking from a distance with the hot-air balloons," he said. "If the remaining earthbenders can help, they can deviate any ballista bolts shot in the direction of the hot-air balloons. If the ground is too dangerous, then we should rise above it. We have the means to try, at least…"
"The means a mere ten soldiers or so would infiltrate the city?" Jeong Jeong scoffed. "That worked for the Gladiator when the enemy was none the wiser: it won't work here."
Anorak scowled but fell silent. Jeong Jeong hissed as he glared in Azula's direction anew.
"The miserable witch…" he hissed. "She has laced much of the land with these explosives. The Fire Nation must have found a new provider… inspired, no doubt, by the explosive bombs that saved the Gladiator's life. But now… now they are poised to destroy us."
"Couldn't we attack from the sides?" asked Unnuaq. Anorak frowned at him. "If we tried to go through the city's flanks… even if it wouldn't be easy, perhaps there would be some areas that aren't as well protected…"
"And risk the lives of more of our soldiers in testing whether or not the entire land is volatile?" Anorak asked.
"If it's what it takes, yes," Unnuaq responded, firmly. "It's hardly the first time someone needs to make sacrifices for the sake of winning this war. If we choose a different angle through which to strike…"
"Sacrifices are only so when they're successful. Failing at your goals when you made sacrifices to achieve them only amounts to stupidity," Jeong Jeong cut him off, pacing in place, a hand rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"I understand that, Master, but if this is the only way to reach those walls, we surely should take it," Unnuaq said, impassionedly. "The enemy won't back down, but they are not so powerful that they could overcome us completely. We have earthbenders still, all our waterbenders, firebenders, non-benders…!"
"You needn't recite to me what I already know," Jeong Jeong hissed. "But short of finding an entrance into the city that isn't laced with bombs…!"
He spoke the words and frowned afterwards: the path to Yu Dao from the east had been laced with explosives… but perhaps the paths west had not. Would the Princess truly invest in planting those mines surrounding the city in its entirety? How would the citizens of Yu Dao ever expect to leave the city in the future, or do commerce? Surely, the known roads that led travelers out of Yu Dao and to Garsai weren't damaged. The path to the port…
The port itself.
"This city… is connected to the sea by that port," Jeong Jeong said, pointing in its general direction. "Right now, the only potential commerce they might engage in, while their terrains remain unstable and laden with bombs… would be through the sea."
"What… what are you thinking?" Anorak asked, eyes wide. Jeong Jeong stiffened.
"The Princess couldn't have laced the sea with bombs, could she?" he asked. Anorak gasped, and Unnuaq grinned wildly.
"Master! This… this is the solution!" he exclaimed. "I could take the waterbenders, our whole group could head south, then west, away from any lands where they could've planted those mines! Then, if we attack the port by sea…"
"The Princess's vessel will be there," said Jeong Jeong. "Potentially, hopefully, unprotected."
"Seizing the port will mean they will be distracted by the chaos we might stir up there," said Unnuaq. "It would give the land troops the opportunity to fight back while the ashmakers are none the wiser!"
"Wait… how do we know she hasn't planned for that, too?" Anorak asked, stopping the two men from jumping into this course of action immediately. "I understand your eagerness to see this done, but you have to think it through. If all our waterbending troops head there, it could end in a disaster as dangerous as the one that just happened underground…!"
"Could the Princess truly anticipate anything like that?" Unnuaq asked, skeptical.
"She may already know that we want ships to reach the Fire Nation," Anorak said, fists tight. "With an enemy like this? You can't ever take for granted that she doesn't know things! We have to assume that she sees through our every single choice and…"
"And what do you think we should do if she does? You want us to give up?" Unnuaq asked. "Why? That doesn't sound like you, Colonel Anorak…"
"I didn't say give up, but…!" Anorak started… though he frowned at his own words: he hadn't said it… but he certainly had thought it, if not in the strict terms of surrender. "But, come to think of it, that… that might not be a bad idea."
"What?!"
Most the people nearby stared at Anorak as though he had lost his senses entirely. He tensed up, feeling flustered… but most of all, apprehensive. Fear gripped his heart, and he didn't know how to persuade himself to set aside his overwhelming caution.
"The Earth Kingdom is already mostly free," Anorak explained. "If… if we take this as our only loss? We can move on south, find ships elsewhere, and carry forward to the Fire Nation. Once Fire Lord Ozai's rule has ended…"
"His wretched bitch of a daughter will still hold this city!" Unnuaq finished for him, a snarl across his face. "What makes you think she'd surrender it? She'll hold the entire population hostage if she wants to keep claiming herself a queen…!"
"I don't… don't know if it would be like that," Anorak said, but Jeong Jeong intervened now.
"Even after this… you hesitate? You doubt my word and my certainty regarding the foe we face?" Jeong Jeong scowled. Anorak winced. "What on earth has gotten into you, Anorak?"
"I…! I'm simply…!" Anorak said, shivering: he couldn't do it. He couldn't stand up to Jeong Jeong and tell him the truth, point-blank… or could he?
If he didn't, more members of their army would die next. If he didn't tell him what he truly thought about these plans, or lack thereof… there would be nothing left within a few hours, if the Princess was as devastating and dangerous as she appeared to be.
"I've seen… seen other ways to handle conflicts like these," Anorak said, firmly. Jeong Jeong's irritation increased. "I've learned there's other ways to fight battles! Sacrificing hundreds for the good of thousands is still costly! We can't afford to send our people, our army's numbers, to a pointless death if she knows more than she's letting on!"
"Do you believe the Gladiator took no risks in any of the missions he underwent so far?" Jeong Jeong said. "He had the confidence, madman that he is, that he could see everything done to full success. You may have helped whenever you did, but even if you didn't, he would have found a way forward…!"
"And that's what I'm trying to do now!" Anorak said, firmly. "We just saw our allies burning to their deaths, trapped in a landslide underground: sending our people through the city's flanks will result in nothing different if the Princess had enough resources to lace the land with as many bombs as she cared to! And if the port is not as defenseless as Unnuaq assumes it is? Then the waterbenders will be at risk, just as the earthbenders were! There's forty-six of us: if as many of us were to die as the earthbenders did just now, we'd only have three waterbenders left! Is that a risk you'd be willing to take? How many of us will survive long enough to dethrone the Fire Lord, if we do this? If things went wrong? If…!"
"Anorak…" Jeong Jeong snapped, and as much as he wished to stand up for himself, Anorak still fell silent upon hearing the dark, warning tone in the man's voice. "Is this how you truly feel about my leadership? Are you… challenging me for it, by any chance? Do you expect you could do better than I have, so far?"
"N-no! But I… I expect you to listen to my advice," Anorak said, earnestly. "To decide for yourself if it's worth it or not, because… if we keep talking about this, if we keep trying to think about what to do, all we'll achieve is giving them time to prepare their own attacks on us…!"
"They are in the safety of a walled base. They would never waste that advantage solely to strike against us," Jeong Jeong said.
"Then, what, we stay at a standstill forever?" Anorak asked, looking at Jeong Jeong in despair. "The only way to cut our losses is… is to stop here and now. I'm not saying this because I fear the consequences or because, I don't know, I think Sokka would be upset if we defeated her, I'm sure he'd be thrilled if we could capture her and send her to him…!"
"I wouldn't be so certain of that," Unnuaq scoffed, eyes shifting away from Anorak, though the better waterbender still interpreted the man's words correctly when he whispered: "Not like she's bound to return to him in one piece, anyway."
"What… what the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Anorak snapped. Unnuaq ignored him.
"You are… too close," Jeong Jeong determined: he disregarded Unnuaq's questionable words, whether over not hearing them correctly, or out of lack of concern for their meaning. "Your opinions, your choices… you are swayed by your loyalty to that man, and it's blinding your judgment."
"It's not about him!" Anorak exclaimed. "We just saw all those explosions, we don't know what else they could be hiding! Betting on our success simply because we have superior numbers would be as wrong as Omashu's governor assuming eight people could never take control of his city, because that's exactly what it took for him to lose it! Please, just listen to me! We can outnumber them and still be outmatched! She is not a threat we can take lightly! If Sokka were here…!"
"If he were… she would be just as keen on destroying him," Jeong Jeong hissed. "She said so herself."
"And he'd be much more likely to know exactly what to do to prevent that," Anorak rebuffed, startling his leader. "He knows her just as well as she knows him: their minds work dangerously similarly, judging by what her defense of this city has looked like so far! She anticipated underground attacks, prepared countermeasures for our airship, for our land troops, for everything! Why would you assume she hasn't thought of building protections from waterbending enemies?"
"I do not assume she hasn't: I assume, instead, that you and your fellow waterbenders will be competent enough to defeat her, should it come to that," Jeong Jeong said. Anorak snarled.
"I would like to think so too… but I don't know what she's capable of," Anorak said. "I don't want to underestimate her… and neither should you."
"I haven't underestimated her in the slightest," Jeong Jeong hissed. "From the moment everything began, I knew she would never turn her back on the Fire Lord! It is everyone else who filled their minds with delusions that she would join us, that she would fight alongside us, should the situation allow it! I have endured the Gladiator's mad fantasies about returning to the very monster who is directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of our soldiers, as well as thousands of your people, if you factor in the Northern Water Tribe's tragedy as well! I have overlooked it, brushed past it, because there was so much more at stake than his damnable hopes of finding his way back to being her lapdog! But not for a second have I done those things by believing there is anything but a power-hungry, greedy, amoral destroyer where everyone may just see a young, beautiful Princess. So do not lecture me, Anorak, on not underestimating my foes: I am the sole member of the council who has not been blinded by talk of her victimhood and misery at the hands of the father who has groomed her to be his heir! She… she could have never been the change the Fire Nation required! She could never bring back balance, no matter how deeply General Sokka deceived himself into believing it so!"
"So… what the hell are you saying?" asked Anorak, frowning. "You really want… you want us to fight on and… and kill her?"
"The Fire Nation Royal Family is no stranger to tragedies. This would barely qualify as one."
Anorak gasped. Unnuaq, however, smiled smugly and nodded in agreement.
"I second that statement. We must defeat her at all costs," he said. "That's why… I do believe the flanking attacks could be worthwhile, Master. And, if I may, I volunteer to lead the waterbending incursion to the port: we can commandeer all the ships in the location easily, I wager. The environment will offer us an advantage if we make our plays correctly, Master. It would be my honor to serve the cause in this manner."
Anorak's stomach sank and twisted: this couldn't be happening. A mission to capture the city couldn't be shifting in nature into something quite as messed up as… as an assassination attempt on Princess Azula.
It wasn't only his personal apprehension at the notion, stronger still on Sokka's behalf… but the knowledge that a mad quest of this nature would eventually destroy the Gladiator Army irremediably. Sokka would kill Jeong Jeong with his bare hands if the firebender's orders were ever responsible for Azula's death. There was no way Sokka would simply move on calmly to fulfill whatever was left of his plan to change the world if Azula died…
She couldn't be killed. Captured, at most, but killed? It didn't matter how big a threat she might represent to their army right now, Anorak couldn't sit back and allow her to die.
"If that's so… then perhaps I should grant you command indeed: Unnuaq, you are hereby the acting commanding officer of the waterbending forces," Jeong Jeong said: Anorak gasped, returning to reality just in time to register the latest choice his leader could have made. "Anorak… you report to Unnuaq now."
"W-what? No! Master…!"
"Not all the waterbenders will join you in this endeavor, Unnuaq, but ensure to bring Anorak with you," Jeong Jeong told Unnuaq spitefully. Anorak's stomach dropped, twisting painfully at the prospect of being under Unnuaq's authority. "See for yourself that he remembers how to follow orders and do as he's told. Am I clear, Colonel Anorak?"
"Please. I'm only trying to…!" Anorak exclaimed, but Jeong Jeong raised a tightly shut fist, silencing Anorak at once.
"I… have had enough," he said. "Unnuaq, move out at once. We will begin to implement strategies to put a stop to this charade shortly. Take off now. It will take you some time to reach the port, and the sooner you reach it…"
"Yes, Master," Unnuaq said. His smug smile gave away that he had coveted nothing in his life quite as badly as his current position: the role as Jeong Jeong's second-in-command. "Waterbenders! To me!"
Anorak remained frozen in place, unable to utter a single word: he had spoken his mind… and the consequences had been atrocious. Jeong Jeong continued to glare down at him, as though challenging him to defy him, to insult him in any way, one more time…
"Do not make the wrong choice, Anorak," Jeong Jeong warned him, firmly. "Remember your purpose already. You are no ignorant youth with no understanding of what's at stake. Your friend's feelings are the least of my concerns when we are attempting to liberate a city from over a hundred years of corruption, oppression and tyranny. That woman… that Princess? She has expressed her willingness to die for her nation. If you would prefer to let this army fall against her stratagems, rather than defending the people of the Earth Kingdom, or the rebels who seek to right the wrongs of a hundred years of war? Then… then perhaps you never did belong in the White Lotus after all."
"I didn't… t-that's not what I… Master, I do believe in what all of us believe!" Anorak pleaded.
"Then prove it," Jeong Jeong hissed. Anorak snarled. "You have one chance. Do right by your fellow waterbenders… and you will have a second chance in the battles yet to come."
"And if… if I fail?" Anorak asked, unsure of why he'd dared bring up that question. Jeong Jeong scoffed.
"I would much rather not think of what I might need to do if you failed. So don't," Jeong Jeong snapped: by then, Unnuaq had gathered around twenty waterbenders by now, many of whom had overheard the discussion between Jeong Jeong and Anorak. "Move out, Anorak. At once."
The waterbender shivered in place: this couldn't be happening. It couldn't be real. He wasn't facing an ultimatum by the organization he had devoted most his life to…
But for once, he would join the waterbending group as a follower, rather than a leader. He bowed his head, approaching them almost unwillingly. Some tried to speak with him, whether reassuringly or soothingly, and he failed to hear them: he couldn't fail at this mission, it seemed, even though he was certain it was doomed well before it began.
But such was Jeong Jeong's choice. He was not sound of mind: the Princess's streak of successes at defending Yu Dao unsettled the man so profoundly that he was making erratic, wrong choices… and he refused to listen to reason. Even if he fought in the right side of the war, the way he went about doing so would only result in the meaningless deaths of thousands of soldiers, and Anorak couldn't do anything to stop it.
Would it even be possible to find hostages worth holding somewhere in the port? Would the Princess ever care to sacrifice anything just to protect that hostage, whoever it might be? That was the only way to prevent a massacre waiting to happen, to prevent yet another violent confrontation between both sides in which there might not be a winner at all, if Jeong Jeong's plans for victory were solely comprised by further attacks, further prodding at the enemy's defenses until they were slightly weaker than before. The lives he would waste by doing so didn't concern him in the slightest: he wanted results, and he would obtain them no matter the cost. That had always been the Grand Lotus's philosophy.
Fury took dangerous roots in Jeong Jeong's mind. The way the Princess had undermined him, responded to his words, even boldly revealing him as the artificer of Sokka's near-death experience… it wasn't a lie, and yet she had no reason to proclaim it publicly as she had. Wasn't she afraid of what her people would think of her connection to the Gladiator? Wasn't she bothered by how they would react if it sounded like she was defending him from Jeong Jeong?
But then again… those people had cheered her on without fear. Public announcements had been made, wanted posters spread: the people knew who the Gladiator was, and more than enough rumors abounded regarding the true nature of his connection to the Princess. But as far as Jeong Jeong was concerned… she was using the Gladiator to unsettle him. To rattle his nerves, to push him into making mistakes he wouldn't have, otherwise.
He had to calm down: a proper idea of how to contest the bombs had already come to mind, and it was only a matter of implementing it. Doing it from this distance should suffice, too. But he needed to keep his head level. He needed to ensure he wouldn't drown in the face of the Princess's ability to plan ahead, to anticipate his choices, to prepare counters for everything he might have brought with him to Yu Dao…
For, if he failed here, there was no telling what the consequences would be. All those who respected and believed in him would be likely to change their minds, only following the Gladiator instead.
"Prepare the catapults," he said, turning towards one of his firebending officers, Colonel Jingyi. The middle-aged woman tensed up.
"Here? They won't range the walls if…"
"They don't need to. That is not what their purpose shall be," Jeong Jeong said, firmly. "Set them up now, Colonel. We will clear our path to that city, no matter the cost. Colonel Tatsuo: send brigades to the city's flanks. Task them with testing the presence of mines on the grounds of the area."
"Right away, General," said Colonel Tatsuo, the leader of Jeong Jeong's non-bending soldiers.
"And send word to the hot-air balloons, too," he said, sternly. "They had best prepare to join the battlefield shortly as well."
His multiple orders perplexed the soldiers near him: Jeong Jeong seemed to burn through their resources, intent on overwhelming the opponent to secure a victory that might still just slip through his fingers. But even if the Princess succeeded at countering everything done by the aerial and land troops, he wanted to believe that nothing would prepare her for the assault by sea: over twenty skilled waterbenders marched on their way to Yu Dao's harbor, and Anorak's hesitation notwithstanding, they were certain to be unstoppable.
A brief respite from the escalating battle allowed Azula to check on the earthbending group that had been working underground: Kori informed her that there were a few wounds after the scuffle in the dark against Jeong Jeong's forces, but so far, she reported no casualties whatsoever. The Princess's genuine relief failed to be overcome by her dread over what was to come, as well as her guilt over what she had done so far…
"I can't believe that… that it was real all along, though," Kori said, glancing at Azula in amazement after she was finished briefing the Princess.
"What, the threat of war?" she asked. Kori smiled a little and shook her head.
"My dream… or nightmare. The vision I had by the swamp," Kori explained.
Azula's eyes widened: she recalled it distantly, but upon hearing Kori bring it up, her memory seemed to sharpen. In Kori's dream, Azula had stood in defense of Yu Dao… without Sokka. She had thought it absurd back then, upon hearing the girl's explanations, and her certainty that her gladiator hadn't been there…
"It was just like what happened earlier," Kori said. "You stood by that wall as the bombs went off, before I went underground to check how everything was going… w-why do you think I saw that, though? Do you think…?"
"Did you see anything else?" Azula asked, frowning. "I remember you told me, but… was that the end of your vision, Kori? Was that…?"
Kori bit her lip, giving away that she remembered nothing more: had there been anything else to hint at the resolution of this conflict? Anything that might encourage them further, helping them unravel what they had to brace themselves for?
"Sokka saved my life from the threat he saw in that vision," Azula explained, startling Kori. "He saw me… dead. But I didn't die, thanks to him, so… if there's anything else Kori, any parts of that vision that you might not have given much importance to, anything you can remember…"
A horn up in the walls ended their conversation, standing by the temporary healing ward that had been erected inside one of the city's inns.
"Oh, shit. Princess?" Chan, standing by Azula, nudged her arm with a fingertip. "We gotta…"
"Go!" Azula finished for him, sprinting fast towards the wall, a concerned scowl on her face.
Chan followed her, this time accompanied by Kori: the soldiers in the way cleared a path for Azula to climb up to the wall's heights just in time for a large explosion to go off in the minefield.
Azula snarled: more dead. Jeong Jeong, the bastard, he had immolated more of his soldiers while knowing the threat of…
"Another! Take cover!"
A heavy sound of pulleys and gears, shifting and turning noisily, preceded that of a whistling projectile: Azula's eyes widened, and her heart seemed moments away from bursting out of her chest as the heavy load of a catapult coursed through the sky… crashing chaotically into the ground and setting off at the very least five mines in one go.
Everyone by the walls took cover: the rock collided against the solid ground, the explosion spreading back towards Yu Dao, orienting the blast towards the city.
Well, that was a setback. A rather unpleasant one, at that.
Azula snarled, relieved to a fault to find that Jeong Jeong wasn't actually sacrificing lives as though they were meaningless… but he was wearing their defenses down, triggering the explosions in what, to him, served as a controlled fashion, for it represented no risk for his troops. Four catapults stood in the valley, and more were being prepared alongside them too, ready to launch their payloads into the minefield that had assured Yu Dao's safety for the time being…
"What do we do, Princess?" Chan asked, anxious, beside her. "What do we do?!"
Azula gritted her teeth, glaring at those catapults in the distance: even now, she could see the shaggy, pale hair among the smoke, dust and debris raised by every explosion.
Jeong Jeong was figuring out ways to fight back. He wanted to level the playing field, and it seemed his catapults might just be the way to do so: if he kept going, he would turn the tables on this battlefield and clear the way for his forces to rush the city. It would be costly for him, regardless… but Jeong Jeong wasn't above sacrificing anyone for his benefit.
Azula snarled: he was forcing her hand… and Azula wasn't one to stand idly by the sidelines when it came to protecting the Fire Nation from anything that might threaten it.
It seemed she would be joining the battle directly, and far sooner than she had anticipated she would have to.
A/N:
Battle's heating up! Hope you guys have enjoyed the latest chapters!
I'm writing this note to let you all know that I've officialy started taking art commissions for the first time in quite a while. My personal circumstances aren't the finest at the moment, so anyone who wishes to contribute but can't do it through P / A / T / R / E / O / N , feel free to check out my Tumblr pinned post to see the details of my commissions nowadays. Any small contribution helps to keep me up and running and releasing chapters on a regular basis. I know I've been pretty scarce in PMs for a while but I'll do my best to keep up this time.
Thanks in advance to anyone who reaches out, and of couse, if anyone else would like to join my P / A / T / R / E / O / N page, I'd be very grateful for that too. Enjoy your weekend and I hope you look forward to what's to come in Gladiator!