Danev
It was a wonder to me how in the months that we had been within the outer walls of Ba Sing Se, I'd never seen the true breadth of that which defined the city's outer ring.
But I did now.
Farmland that stretched for miles without end, hills and natural formations of a whole world that lay within mountains of human creation, rivers that stretched on near endlessly, villages and small towns for those seeking a life in Ba Sing Se away from the metropolis itself, and tram lines that rose above us, passing along from one wall to the next, transit for those first reaching Ba Sing Se and making their way to the city.
And so I saw too what the war had brought it all too: fields of crops left to wither and die, each natural formation a possible enemy holdout, the river a frontline, towns and villages abandoned upon the mere whisper of our approach, and tram lines that lay severed, destroyed lest they be used as corridors for our army straight into the heart of the city.
And no doubt they would have been.
Now, they stood solitary as though ruins of an ancient civilization that we marched in the shadow of, en route to a new front to help bring said civilization to its knees.
It would have been a somber affair too were it no for those I travelled beside–the 114th, left to the mercy of the Earth Kingdom just 3 weeks ago on the brink of annihilation and, following our miraculous survival, administrative decimation. But an act of good grace and a transfer in responsibility later, the 114th was rebranded, and still lived, now with me at its head.
It still was hard for me to believe, especially as I marched at the head of the mass of men now, looking ahead of me in expectation to find Rulaan there just a few paces ahead only to see nobody, turning back every few moments to ensure my men were still with me only to see they were, they always were, with me, and with one another.
They were soldiers to be sure, but they were more than that. Since its inception within the walls of Citadel and now, they were a family, one that had faced one tragedy after the next but still stood. And I had to keep it that way.
But even as I thought that, it occurred to me always that the burden was not one I alone bore. Nor had it been one that Rulaan had borne. Such was the meaning of being a man of the 114th, survival of the unit did not fall simply to he who bore the rank captain, but to every lieutenant, sergeant, corporal, and private. We knew where our loyalties lay, because before lord and nation, it lay with one another.
And perhaps as much as I would have hesitated to admit it initially, the replacements we had received, Asaih, Demee, Aosore, and the others, they were no different, and it was to them all thanks went for filling the silence of our march, teaching to us the songs of the colonies, one in particular, that had quite quickly become the marching chant on our way eastwards.
The islander's wife was as fair as the sun
Her kisses were warm as summer
But the islander's flame was made of white heat
And its kiss was a loathsome burn.
The islander's wife would sing as she bathed
In a voice that was second to none
But the islander's fire had a song of its own
And a bite sharp and hot as the sun.
As he lay on the ground, with darkness around,
The taste of his blood on his tongue,
His brothers knelt by him and prayed him a prayer,
And he smiled and he laughed and he sung
"Brothers, oh brothers, my days here are done
The islander's taken my life,
But what does it matter 'cause all men must die
And I've tasted the islander's wife.
The 114th arrived at the new encampment of the 91st in the mid afternoon. The rest of the 91st had deployed in advance of us on account of both ensuring a proper continuation in troop presence along the southern distributary of the Taiga that eventually fed into Lake Laogai, as well as allowing those of us in the 114th more time to recover.
Not a man among us wouldn't carry scars from the battle of the Taiga, but as for carrying on to fight, well, we were here, admittedly following more painful news and reorganization. Not all of us who had survived the battle, few though we were, had been in a condition to resume the fight. Among them were Nikan and Rinu, having lost a leg and an arm respectively, in no condition to carry on the Dragon of the West's war. And then there were those who we'd never seen killed, but had no choice to presume dead, trapped on the other side of the Taiga or to its watery depths as it'd flown once again as soon as the Earth Kingdom had decided not to pursue us to the south. Of them was Fahin, a damned shame already as he was one of us, but even more so as he was a firebender. One of the few we still had.
Now, we were only about a hundred men strong, barely half of what we'd been from when we'd left Citadel, but we still had our role to play in ending this; we still had a purpose to serve for the 91st.
In the week that they'd been here, at least from the observation we afforded them upon our arrival, the 91st had done good work in digging in, which was no easy feat considering that one of the first sights we witnessed upon arriving was the latter end of an Earth Kingdom artillery barrage.
Not a man of the Dragon's Host wasn't thankful that the barrage was only made up of munitions from Earth Kingdom catapults and some trebuchets. The majority of blasting jelly cannons field cannons that the Earth Kingdom had managed to salvage from the Fire Nation had long since been lost to the fighting or in grievous enough states of disrepair that to get them up and running was beyond their means.
We arrived at a field encampment that wasn't so much in disarray as much as dealing with a tedium that for them must have become routine in the last few days. Debris was being cleared, the wounded were being carted off, and even the messenger who seemingly had been sent after the 114th, awaiting their arrival, had only reached us by the time we were midway through our own lines.
"Captain!" the voice rang out, once, twice, thrice before I realized it was me he was referring to, needing to attach my actual name to the end of my rank before I actually understood.
It still was strange to me, not sounding quite right to hear the words "Captain Danev" spoken out, especially pertaining to command of the 114th. There was one man who I felt had earned that, and it wasn't me. I only hoped for his own sake that Rulaan was happier now wherever he was, free of the pressure of needing to drop his men into hell at a given moment.
And was I ready for it?
I couldn't quite answer that question, but the least I could do was answer the messenger. "Yeah!" I answered, the relief on the messenger's face palpable upon knowing he'd approached the right man.
"Colonel Lu Ten is awaiting you, sir!"
"Then I best not keep him waiting."
I turned to my left to find Chejuh there, new lieutenant of Dragon Platoon as well as my designated second for the 114th. "Chejuh, you're with me. Choose a man to get the 114th set up. Make sure they choose somewhere that's already got its share of artillery fire."
Chejuh nodded, then proceeded to call out down the line, "Reesu! Get the 114th set up. Hallowed ground!"
"Sir!" was the faded response I heard behind me as I'd already begun following the messenger, Chejuh short on my heels.
For as much as I respected and loved Rulaan, he was not free of mistakes. But one of his mistakes most certainly was not preparing those under him, for whatever situation ended up befalling him, for leadership. Perhaps some might've viewed it as favoritism for the men of Dragon Platoon, but Chejuh, I'd served alongside him and knew who he was–a man I could trust.
The layout of Fire Nation encampments didn't vary much across the division, regardless of the location, small adjustments made only for defensive lines. It at least helped to ensure some continuity of where we were moving, though lacked the same familiarity that our initial trench line had provided for us, the streets of Citadel of our trenches now privately transferred to the different avenues that ran between tent lines and fortifications. The command tent would always, one way or another be the intersection of the different main transit routes, meaning that by merit of the way we approached the command tent now, we were walking along the homeland road, or, in more colloquial terms, the "rich people" road.
How apt, I thought to myself as we were permitted entry by the two tricloptic royal guardsmen who stood before the tent entrance. I wondered if they were the same ones who'd accompanied Lu Ten during the battle and helped to save our skins. Hell, I wonder just how much action they'd seen to land themselves a position here. That, or just how high up the ladder they'd been from birth.
Awaiting me inside on the opposite end of a desk with a map placed atop it, hands clasped behind his back, was the very man I owed my rank, my place here, and even my life–Lu Ten.
He turned upon hearing the flap of his tent open and close, and at the sight of Chejuh and I locked in a crisp salute, he smiled.
"At ease," he said, prompting the two of us to lower our salutes. "I was wondering when you'd show. Now, shall we begin?"
Naturally, Chejuh and I were not about to refuse. He, of course, took a step back to observe while I myself took one forwards to the mapped table. I found myself instinctively looking to my side, expecting to find Rulaan and allow him to do the talking. That role, however, had fallen to me now, and yet I found myself speechless, wondering if there was something I was meant to say to initiate proceedings. Fortunately, however, Lu Ten would take that upon himself, taking a sip of tea before setting it aside to point at the map.
"For the last few weeks while we at the 91st had our hands full, the 163rd had their hands full here keeping the southern distributary of the Taiga under our control. Fighting was minimal for the last weeks they've been holding it but shortly following our own mess with the Taiga, the Earth Kingdom thought they could catch the 163rd unawares and weakened, and struck north."
Lu Ten, with that, moved the small tokens representing the Earth Kingdom across the Taiga, but he wasn't done. "Fortunately, with our arrival last week, the 91st was able to serve as a rearguard while the 163rd launched a counteroffensive, reclaiming the southern Taiga border while also managing to secure some footholds to the north." And with that, our own tokens pushed north, a few select ones being places across the thin painted-blue river on the map.
"Has the Earth Kingdom not been eager to take back those footholds?"
"Seems they more intend to bleed us out," Lu Ten said. "163rd, as you know, got reassigned to the main front." A few tokens left the board. "We took on their positions, but since then, Earth Kingdom's been more than glad to pound us with artillery. Nothing as bad as what we used to be hit by when they had our guns, but still a nuisance I'd like to have out of the way."
"A nuisance I take it I've been called here for?" I asked, flashing Lu Ten a smile.
His grew in kind. "A good guess," he answered. "That'd be right. I want those catapults out of commission, and I think your team's the one for it."
"So what's the plan we're looking at so far?" I asked.
"Well," he said. "We have a good bit of armored units on standby. Using them in a forward attack would be suicide, but I don't intend for that. My thinking is a blitz."
"A lightning strike?" I asked.
"Yes." From there, Lu Ten produced a new token likely representing said armored units, and moved them around the blue splotch that was Lake Laogai. "A late night's darkness and early morning fog from the lake are ideal conditions from which armored could rapidly go around Lake Laogai."
"And from there hit the enemy from behind."
Lu Ten nodded. "Such a strike alone would be suicide, and even with armored hitting them from the rear, we'd still need to contend with Earth Kingdom artillery if we tried to advance from the south across the river. However, such a raid would be the perfect cover for infiltrators such as yourself to sabotage Earth Kingdom artillery."
I smiled at that, the sound of it quite satisfying, and just the kind of job I could see myself doing, the Fire Nation finally seeming to get caught up to speed with how us Citadel boys did things. That did, however, leave one question.
"That does, however, leave one question," Lu Ten said, echoing my thoughts.
"How we get our boys inside Earth Kingdom lines," I said.
"And how we get you back out," Lu Ten added.
I smiled to myself then, something refreshingly surprising about knowing our higher ops did, as a matter of fact, sometimes consider that small tidbit.
"You must've had some ideas bouncing around," I said. "How far did you get?"
"Beyond the ones I've already ruled out?"
"River naval insertion?"
"They're got the northern distributary on lockdown."
"We pose as a returning patrol?"
"They're not sending out patrols."
"Tunnel beneath?"
"They'd pick you up and crush you alive before you make it even within a mile of them."
"Let ourselves be captured?"
"Earth Kingdom hasn't been interested in taking prisoners lately."
I let out an exhale.
"You're beginning to see my dilemma," Lu Ten said with a scoff.
I was. I looked down to face the map, wondering if and when a solution would present itself to me, because thus far, it wasn't. A river to their north, wide open no man's land to the south, a lake to their east, and the rest of the Earth Kingdom's positions to the west. There was nothing I could see here that ranged the reality for any of that unless…
Unless I was looking in the wrong place.
I turned my gaze further south on the map, at our positions beyond the southern Taiga distributary, our most recent gains, and our most contended points of control, if one could even call it that. The man victim of the Earth Kingdom's artillery, desperate to get us back off their turf and take back what was theirs.
Which meant.
"Why don't we pull back?" I asked. "Earth Kingdom wants their positions along the Taiga so badly let's give the north back to them."
Lu Ten looked up at me, no doubt confused by what I was suggesting, the look in his eyes a mix between shock and almost verging on annoyance. "I brought you here to help me come up with ways to advance against the enemy, not retreat."
"Not from every point," I said, turning my attention and his to the 4 tokens we had beyond the river, the central two of which I pulled back. "We give the enemy the center, pull them back as possibly indicative of a wider retreat."
"They'll want to take back what they've lost," Lu Ten observed. "Equipment, fortifications,-"
"Wounded."
He smiled. He understood.
"I'll go get the uniforms," he said.
There was more discussion to be had, to be sure, but we were onto something. We had the formations of a plan, and we had a chance.
Long Feng
My new office was nothing fancy.
Locked in the center of the middle city, there was only so much that it could afford to be. It was, however, discrete, out of sight and as such out of mind, and close enough to the border with the outer city that I could at least have some hope in keeping an eye on what the hell was going on there.
Because even for me, head of the Dai Li, the eyes and ears of the Earth Kingdom, the outer city had become a deadzone. Be them anarchist raider bands, tyrannical warlords, or egalitarian though hopeless communes that'd risen over the last few months, any sense of law and order that the outer city of Ba Sing Se had once known had been grinded to dust, and with that, the old way of doings things.
Magistrates in my pockets? Executed. Locals willing to sell out their neighborhood for a few copper pieces? Hanged. Activists who believed having the ear of the inner city may mean hope for their town? Lost faith in the Earth King and turned traitor.
I was running low on friends in the lower city. But that didn't mean I was out of all of them. One was in the room next to me, Guotun, an old informant of mine I'd recruited from the Flower District years ago. Whether it was magistrates sticking their hands where they didn't belong, agitators riling up the masses, and other such business. When the riots had gotten back and we'd pulled out of the outer city, I'd lost all contact with him, rightfully assumed his own dirty business had been aired to the public and his corpse would be rotting out in the sun in a matter of weeks.
I'd underestimated his resourcefulness, and certainly was surprised by the Dai Li reports indicating that he'd been tracked down.
Arranging his disappearance and reappearance in my office had been simple enough. What was less simple was knowing just who it was I had brought into my office. Sure, he wore the same face, spoke with the same voice, but over half a year had passed since we'd last spoken and I'd heard enough reports of informants turning tail on me to believe anything so good as a man who claimed he'd been building up information on threats in the outer city in preparation for a return to my service could possibly be true.
And so, much as I would have liked to believe myself now capable of doing on my own, Lanuo was also present in the adjacent room. Which meant with the truthseer present as well as the man I was questioning, the only person missing was myself.
Can't put this off forever, I reminded myself, and so stood from my desk, entered through the doorway, shut it behind me, and took my seat at a different one.
Guotun should've been thankful for the delicate matter in which he'd been recovered from the lower city. Safe for a few cuts and scrapes from where the earthen gags had snagged him around his wrists, ankles, and mouth, he was in one piece. Such was the benefit of being somebody the Dai Li had every intention of returning to the street rather than just bringing here for questioning before they became yesterday's fading memory.
"Sorry for the way we pulled you out of there," I said. "We couldn't take any chances with you possibly picking up a tail coming to see us yourself."
"None needed," Guotun said, rubbing at his wrists. "Not a stranger to your methods. But I admit this was a bit…abrupt"
"Yes, well, we've needed to adapt a bit due to recent circumstances."
"Circumstances, hopefully, I can help resolve."
My focus shifted from Guotun to Lanuo who stood behind him, the pupils of my eyes not moving but for the sublest shift to see the finger motion that indicated he was telling the truth.
Off to a good start.
"I received the report of the claims that you made to my agents when they established primary contact with you. You reported that over the last few months since losing reliable contact with me and the Dai Li, you've been compiling information that would be of use to me about the threats in the lower city."
"I have," he said.
Lanuo's fingers. 'Lie.'
What?
"You have?" I asked, hoping perhaps for some clarification that may possibly remove a potential miscommunication.
"Yes," he said again. "Nothing physical, I admit, so perhaps 'compiling' is the wrong word. Nothing is permanent in the outer city these days so keeping such things on paper is a good way of getting myself killed. A lot of it's in my head, but, I assure you, it's reliable."
'Truth.'
That's more like it, I thought with a sense of relief.
"Still," I said. "You have to admit that a lot of it sounds too good to be true. There's no way you haven't developed some sympathy for them in the time you've been completely cut off from us."
"I've always borne sympathy for them," he said. "It's why I started working with you. I understood the significance of the Dai Li's influence in the lower city, and just what it meant. And now, with how things have turned out since the king abandoned it and they rose in open revolt, I understand it better than ever before. My allegiance is to the people, and that's why I'm here."
Lanuo?
'Truth.'
Thank the spirits.
I smiled. "Then I'm glad to see that our visions are aligned. Now, you've been talking up this information you've had for me for quite some time now. I think we've delayed long enough. Can I get you a cup of tea while we begin?"
And so we did over a cup of jasmine and a fluid transition to my own office rather than a room that'd been retrofitted for a potential violent interrogation. Whether it was royal guardsmen who had turned their back on their king and were acting as security for one commune, warlord, or another, or magistrates who had begun putting their resources towards organizing as much as opposition governments unified against the Earth King. So too within there were even whispers of collaboration with the Fire Nation, talks of relief aid secretly being sent through Fire Nation channels to gain sympathy and set the stage for a complete takeover of the city itself as soon as the outer ring fell. It made my skin crawl, and much as I would have liked to believe otherwise, even reaching out with my own abilities to try and gauge their authenticity, it was true.
I wasn't sure what to feel. Relief in knowing that I had somebody I could trust on the inside, somebody who may prove to be a vital piece in protecting this city, or complete and utter despair of learning the true extent of the threat we faced. Danger from within, danger from without, and inside the whole of the lower city, a single informant.
Have to start somewhere, I told myself.
We had extracted Guotun before the sun had even risen. I could see it setting from my office window by the time we had finished talking.
He was back in the adjacent room now, knowing full well that his trip back to the outer ring was likely not to be a comfortable one. We had old tricks for such a thing: disguises, tunnels, smuggling in a laundry basket, sometimes even hidden in a fertilizer shipment. I was working out other possibilities when Lanuo reappeared, having finished disposing of the tea and snack tray we'd had placed between us.
"Well, Lanuo," I said, satisfied with the day as I began compiling the notes that'd been taken over its duration. "How much of that we think is immediately actionable?"
"Likely not much," he answered.
To be expected as an answer. He always was more the pragmatic type with how he responded. Sure, steps would need to be taken to ensure a proper response, but he knew full well what I meant. Still, I would play his game.
"Sure, some more groundwork needs to be laid, of course, but with some operatives in place soon enough, I imagine we can begin getting some targets, gathering intelligence,-"
"A waste of time."
What?
I looked at Lanuo now, perplexed. He heard the same things I did, right?
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I mean that he was lying."
"About?"
"Everything."
No. I shook my head. That couldn't in the slightest have been possible. I was feeling it out too. There was truth in there. More than the lies, if even there were any, as far as I could tell. "Not everything," I said, still aghast.
"An exaggeration," he said. That was unlike him. "Truths intermixed with lies, but the purpose of his being here, not what we hoped for."
"We spoke to him before. Our vision was aligned."
"He spoke of being here to help the people of the outer districts. How he intended to do so, he never said."
I thought back on what was said, and he was right. But, no, it still didn't seem likely. I still couldn't see it. "But come all this way-"
"To have a chance at manipulating you from within? A risk worth taking. He was good too, possibly even prepared for this. His lies nearly escaped me as well."
"So how-?"
"He spoke in half-truths and half-lies, I suspect. He gave you real threats, but gave you false names. Where he gave real names, he gave wrong intentions and motives. He wants us to rush into action unprepared, waste our time, delay ourselves while the real threat grows ever-closer."
"I-" I started, still unsure how to continue. "Could he have just been wrong about some things?" Even as I asked that, I knew how ridiculous that was. Truthseeing did not work that way. He knew that I knew this much, and so Lanuo felt no need to answer.
"So now,..." I started.
"That's up to you," Lanuo answered.
I sighed, and felt out with the earth one last time.
Lanuo was telling the truth.
Which meant I still had a lot to learn.
I closed my eyes. "If he was here to deceive us, then it's likely others knew of his intentions. Interrogating him will earn us nothing. We should continue as planned, return him to the streets, and ignore his intel." I considered if perhaps trying to dig the truth out of his lies would have been worth our time, but ultimately, even that would be a victory for Guotun. A wasted day was bad enough already.
"That would be wise," Lanuo said.
"Yes," I agreed. "Speak to Heli for me. See that it's done."
"Of course."
And with that, Lanuo left my office, and I was back at square one, not an ally in the lower districts, and a constant darkness growing closer to our city minute by minute. A darkness that saw nothing past those walls than a prize to be won, no matter how much blood they needed to shed to reach it. That's what this was about. It wasn't control, it wasn't power, it was security. And the Dai Li, we would do whatever was in our power to protect Ba Sing Se, just as our enemies would do whatever was in their to destroy it.
Aegis
Boss had been called to a meeting tonight. Orders were coming in. Sooner than expected too.
Not that I was complaining, of course. Sitting around the 91st's new encampment for the last couple of weeks had started to get on my nerves, as had Zek, who I was beginning to suspect only knew the same few jokes that he told on loop with the smallest of variations. Perhaps after a month or two, it'd evolve into a new joke, but in that time, I was stuck hearing the same one about the merchant and fisherman travelling through the desert.
As for the others, well, I was getting a sense of just how anal retentive Hizo could be when it came to Shanzi's wellbeing, which ended up resulting in more maintenance duties being passed down to Zek and me. Gordez and his repair support company had had their hands full lately with the tanks that'd taken heavier beatings in the last few days and so had his hands full to a point he couldn't baby the Shanzi as much as he would've liked. Or as much as the rest of our crew would've liked.
He was quiet. Awkward. I got the impression he was more comfortable around Shanzi than he was with the crew. Maybe with the exception of Boss, but hey, it got results.
Other than that, it'd been lonely. Ever since all that'd happened at the Taiga, there was a lot I hadn't had time for, chief among them being to check up on the 114th. A part of me had almost been scared to, to actually go there myself and see what was left. I had gotten enough to know that Danev had survived, but from there, had been hesitant to go out in search of more.
I'd known they'd been stuck on the wrong side of the Taiga when it'd all began, had barely made it back to ours, and even so had taken a bad hit. No part of me wanted to go through the names of all those from Citadel that I would never see again. That, or to seal in my mind just how final the 114th's fate was.
The casualties they'd taken, the 114th wouldn't have been the same after that day, if even it would exist at all. I knew what their chances were–complete disbandment, reintegration into other units. I was trying not to think about it, but I had to acknowledge that it was an inevitability. Frontline units didn't have a track record for staying intact fully across a service record. It was lucky enough for the soldiers of a unit to make it through alive, much more for the unit itself to persevere.
"Aegis," Hizo's voice rang out from where he was working behind the tank, replacing our fuel tank with one that contained a higher capacity. I poked my head out from the turret hatch where I'd been oiling the gears that kept it spinning fluidly. I may've neglected to mention that I'd finished about half an hour ago as I was hardly eager to see what Hizo or Boss would throw at me next, but it seemed they'd finally caught on.
"Yeah!" I answered.
Now it was Boss who spoke. "Need you to get to logistics, pick up some bolts for the tank."
"Thought we just got a whole box of them?"
"New oil tank wants bolts a size bigger!" Hizo responded. "Idiots back in the mainland could use a lesson in standardization," he sighed.
"Hmph," I scoffed, pushing myself out of the hatch, glad that the errand being asked of me wasn't one that'd have me in the dirt on my back beneath the Shanzi for another hour,
"Anything else while I'm out?" I asked.
"Just see when grub's being served," Boss answered. "Want to know if I'm grabbing a bite before or after the meeting tonight."
I nodded, and so was off.
Over the last near year, I'd grown used to the layout of a Fire Nation war camp. It helped that they maintained a sense of uniformity and standardization across this warfront. At times, there still was a lot left to be desired in the way of efficiency, but at least as far as being understandable to me, I'd grown content enough not to complain.
Logistics was kept closer to the rear, but I had to imagine there was a chance it'd at least moved somewhat. Artillery headed towards us had made its chief effort to target the rear and center of our camp, less interested in targeting our defensive points and more in bleeding us out by hitting the vital arteries of our line.
It hadn't worked. Limited to rudimentary catapults and what few cannons of ours they still possessed, the artillery strikes were more nuisance than danger.
A sign of things to come, I wanted to think. The Earth Kingdom was on the backstep, in spite of the beating they'd given us at Taiga. It'd been an attack that'd sapped all their strength, and now, they needed their time to recover. My only hope was we wouldn't give them that opportunity.
As I neared, I was beginning to suspect that my worry about logistics having been relocated was validated. Rather, however, that hardly meant the trip had been in vain. As in their place was a sight I had not been expecting.
I thought that a few of the faces were too familiar to be coincidence, and thought too for a moment that perhaps I had come across some small remnant of them, a chance encounter with a new unit to which old members of the 114th had been relocated. I'd stopped, and watched, and as curiosity had me do, had approached. And as I did, more and more faces stood out to me as ones I'd recognized.
I had not intended for myself to be seen, but I supposed that slowly stepping forward one step at a time, drawn out over the course of minutes, it was inevitable that I would be.
"No fucking way!" I heard a voice call out.
I recognized it immediately. Tosa.
I turned in time for his hand to smack me on the pauldron of my armor. He wasn't outfitted in his, more content, it seemed, to wander around in his underclothes even when artillery was known to have struck once and likely would strike again than in a suit of armor.
Yeah, I thought. He hasn't changed.
"The prodigal son returns!" he laughed, still clasping me on the shoulder.
"Tosa!" I answered smiling. "Well now I really know something's not right here if your ass is still alive."
"Pfft, barely," he said through a scoff, turning his head aside to welcome an occasional couple other soldiers I recognized. Reesu, Penar. I nodded to them, and they did back to me in kind, the latter in his hand producing a flame for a split moment far greater than what I remembered he used to be capable of back at Jeong Jeong's dojo, ever the show-off. Or, attempt at one at least.
Tosa continued. "Should see the burns I got. I'd show you but I think the commander's finally starting to keep track of my 'indecent exposure.'"
I scoffed. I was surprised Rulaan hadn't gotten to that earlier from the things I'd heard of him from Danev and a few others of the 114th.
"So this one of the places the 114th got broken into?" I asked. "Seeing more of you here than I expected?"
"What?" Tosa asked. "Huh, no. This is it."
I narrowed my eyes at Tosa, silently bidding him to continue. He took to my cue, thankfully enough, and did, clarifying, "Nah man, we're it."
But not clarity enough. There were two things that could have meant, one far worse than the others, and so I asked, carefully, almost bidding it not to be true. "You mean, it's just the few of you. Nobody else from the 114th made it?"
Tosa smiled, even wider than before. "I guess you could put it that way. But nah, this is them you see. 114th's still kicking, kid. Takes more than that to knock us out of the game."
And so I looked again, and saw what my eyes and mind had refused to see before, almost believing it not possible.
There was hardly a face I didn't recognize.
Be it Suze kicking around a ball with Raza, Zora snacking around with Amorok, or Nokoh reading a book under the corpse of a tree that still at least offered some shade, there was hardly a face I didn't recognize but for the potential odd replacement here and there who I'd not yet been introduced too, but not nearly enough to convince me otherwise. This was them. This was the 114th.
But how?
"But the way you were hit," I said. "I was told you took at least half casualties."
"Pretty much did," Tosa admitted, prodding me forward into the camp with his hand so I could be further acquainted with the reincarnated ghost of a unit I'd thought gone for good.
"So…," I started. "How-?"
"Think that's something you better talk to the commander about. He'd explain it to you better than anyone. Probably wants to know too that you're around."
"Why'd Rulaan want to speak to me?"
And now another look I couldn't quite decipher from Tosa. Instead, a mere further prodding deeper into a camp, towards what appeared to me from the outside an armory tent.
"Hey captain!" Tosa yelled, entering through the flaps and urging me in alongside him.
Confused though I was, I obliged and entered, allowing Tosa to further yelling on to say, "Have somebody here to see you!"
I knew immediately the voice that answered.
"If it's Asaih," Danev's voice returned as Tosa slowly shuffled out of the way enough to reveal my old friend. "Tell him that no, I still haven't got the new rifles in, and he's not getting them 'til-"
And there he was cut off, having noticed me too, standing still in the center of an armor empty but for me, him, and a Tosa who now silent;y excused himself from the scene, his job as far as he was concerned done.
I should have figured, I thought for a moment, almost scolding myself. Of course he meant his own commander, that of Dragon Platoon. Not Rulaan.
But even with that, something seemed off.
Light re-entered the armor for a moment as the tent flap opened upon Tosa's escape, and it was in the same passing moment that the light shone across a still Danev's armor and it was impossible not to see its reflection across the highlights of his armor–silver.
Calling him captain. New armor. What the hell?
"Mind explaining what I'm missing?" I asked.
"Fluke," Danev started.
"Yes," I chuckled. "Me. Gonna stand there gawking at the superior Citadel soldier?"
Danev chuckled, taking a seat on an available bench, tapping beside himself for me to sit. "You haven't changed a bit."
"Yeah well that makes one of us," I said, not sitting just yet before I had a better sense of what was happening. I never liked not knowing where I stood in an encounter, and the ambiguity of just what the hell was going on at this moment, it unsettled me. "Tosa calling you 'captain,' fancy new set of armor. I didn't know any better I'd say you-"
"Got promoted," he finished for me.
I paused.
"Yeah," I said, crossing my arms, now suddenly feeling as though things might be starting to add up. What the hell am I thinking. No it's not!
"Rulaan?" I asked. "Did he-?"
Danev shook his head. "No. He's alive."
"So why's it you I'm speaking to when I was told the commander wanted to see me?"
"You disappointed?"
"You dodging the question?"
Another smile from Danev. After all these years of hiding the truth from me, I would've figured his techniques in doing so might've evolved over time. He must have realized the futility in his efforts too. I saw the defeat in his eyes as he closed them and opened them again.
"He made a choice not many others would make."
"And what's that?"
"Do I need to spell it out?"
He didn't.
I took Danev up on his invitation to sit. I needed it. Between the number of things changing seemingly all at once, I was grateful for the chance to perhaps let my mind start working it out without also needing to worry about keeping my balance.
"Why?" I asked, finally.
"I don't know."
"You know enough."
Danev sighed, and paused, perhaps processing an answer before resuming again. "I know he always did what he thought was best for the 114th."
"Leaving them," I corrected.
"In better hands."
"Yours."
"No!"
"You're the one wearing his armor," I observed.
"Is there a problem here?" Danev asked, standing, now leaving me the only one who was sitting.
Was there? I wondered, thinking. This wasn't just a response to shock, not seeing Rulaan here at the head. It was something else…seeing Danev as the one to be instead. It felt…it felt like something I hadn't been anticipating. Not from him at least. I remembered enough about him as we left Taisho. Enough to know that he was a leader, but…to actually become one this way, in the eyes of the Fire Nation? And is that a bad thing? Also no, I realized.
So what the hell is my problem?
I didn't know.
I shook my head.
"No," I said. "I…sorry, I just," I scoffed. "I never thought you'd actually fit into one of those fancy gilded uniforms."
It was one step at least in defusing the atmosphere. Not a significant one, but it did at least have Danev lower the guard I'd forced him to put up. At least somewhat.
"Yeah, well, helps that they had it tailored."
"No kidding," I said with a scoff. "So what? Rulaan leave you with a letter of recommendation to take to command as you applied for leadership?"
"Who the hell said I applied?" Danev asked, finally sitting again.
"Really gonna try to have me believe you're just so desired that they come flocking to you like the ladies in Taisho?"
"Should've seen me before that business with the Rats. I was unstoppable."
"Well?" I asked, trying to return Danev from the alleged glory days to the topic at hand.
He smiled softly. "It wasn't exactly my choice."
"So what happened?"
"Lu Ten did."
"What do you mean?" I asked, that statement now having earned a new wave of interest from me. I knew that the two of them had worked together before, more closely than was ordinarily befitting a random sergeant of a run-of-the-mill infantry company and the grandson of the Fire Lord. Hell, he'd also taken an interest in me before too so I'd just assumed that perhaps he had a thing for the 'common folk' of Taisho. But his was a name that seemed to keep popping up when Danev was concerned, and the way Danev had lightly brought him up before, he seemed just about the only damn superior officer in the military Danev didn't have a scorching hatred for save his own Captain and the Dragon of the West.
"He came to me after the battle, and, well, gave me an order to take command of the 114th."
"Gave you an order?"
"He didn't take Rulaan's resignation all too well."
"So he went to you."
Danev shrugged.
"And you accepted."
"It was an order."
"Because we know how much you love following orders."
"For spirits' sake, Fluke."
Was I overreacting, I asked myself. I hardly believed I was. Between the new title, the new uniform, the sudden bond to perhaps the 3rd most powerful person in the Fire Nation, it was hard not to feel like I was speaking to a complete different Danev than the one who'd left Taisho, and so I had to pursue it.
"When we left Citadel," I started, "you wanted nothing to do with the Fire Nation. It was a way out of the city, nothing more. You scoffed at their ranks, their titles, their authority."
"And I remember you were eager enough to play along. You almost seemed to believe you owed them."
"They took me off the streets and I agreed to kill for them" I agreed. "Still got people left to kill too. Different from getting on my knees and sucking their cock. You thought the same. Your loyalty wasn't to them, it was to the Taisho boys, above all else."
"My loyalty still is to them."
"And to Lu Ten?"
"Those two aren't exclusive. I can look out for my men and work with-"
"Are you loyal to Lu Ten?" I asked again.
Danev's face tightened, as did mine.
What the hell was I feeling? Jealousy? It almost felt like that. I was confused more than anything. Outside of the 114th, there was only one person Danev cared about, and it was the idiot who'd decided he'd see more action in armored than his own unit, who didn't want those feelings to get in the way of getting the job done. But now this. This wasn't him. This wasn't the Danev. At least not the one I'd known.
"He's not like others in the Fire Nation."
"Oh, spirits," I sighed.
"He cares about the people here. He doesn't inherently view himself as superior to us."
"He's the coming prince of the Fire Nation, he is superior to us. We're fucking orphans from Taisho."
"Orphans he's saved."
"Orphans who saved themselves. Who saved each other."
"Not at the Taiga," Danev said. "Not time and time again before that where me and the rest of the 114th would be dead if it wasn't for him. Not orphans he looks down on, not orphans who are his toys to play with. Soldiers. One of whom now serves directly beneath him."
"That orphan being you?" I scoffed.
Danev narrowed his eyes. "How many times with the Hornets did you tell me I'd make a better leader than Riu."
"You were a better leader than Riu."
"Then how is this any different? I'm here, I'm with the 114th, with our people. There's somebody, spirits be thanked, in a position of power in the Fire Nation that doesn't believe we're cannon fodder and I'm not turning that opportunity down. You told me before that maybe the Fire Nation would recognize what we've done and we'd have a future outside of Taisho after this is over. Maybe all you can think about right now is the war and the next battle, but I'm trying to think about what comes after. It could be years, months, weeks, hell, maybe days, but soon the Fire Nation is going to rule this world, and I don't want our people to go back to being overlooked slumdogs when it does. Rulaan stepped down on a promise that I could help our people, and damnit, that's what I'm going to do. If I can have help on the inside to do it, then I'll use it.
"And for fuck's sake, it's working. There's a war meeting tonight. Company commanders and tank squad leaders, yours, probably, included. I'm to give part of the briefing. Maybe you think this is all bullshit, but I'm fighting here, Fluke. The same way you're fighting, and more on top of that too. If you don't see that, I'm sorry, but maybe you will when you run out of people to kill."
And so he sighed again. "I'm sorry, but I need to go. Battalion's serving chow and there won't be time to eat after. You should grab some too. If all you still care about is the next battle and a chance to kill earthbenders, you'll be getting your wish soon enough."
And so Danev left the armor tent, and I was still there, alone.
Waiting.
He didn't come back. Not after a minute, not after five, not after ten.
What the fuck is your problem?
The question was not for Danev.
I returned to the Shanzi empty-handed. I had forgotten everything about why I'd left until I'd been drilled as to where the bolts where when I returned, the only thing of value on me the information that dinner was being served before the war meeting.
Maybe he'd noticed my head was only processing one of every ten words he was speaking, or perhaps simply just didn't want the same mistake made again and so Boss sent Zek to retrieve the bolts now. Boss turned to Hizo, and I could hear the faint statement that they would head to grab some dinner now, and from there attend the meeting.
It was only there that enough of me was brought back to the present to barely form my next question.
"Boss," I said. "Permission to attend the war meeting as well?"
"There can only be one double," Hizo said matter-of-factly."
"Permission to take Hizo's place, sir?" I corrected myself.
Hizo scoffed, and Boss's response, though more courteously put, hardly seemed one prepared to even acknowledge one as an option as he said, "Hizo's second in command. It's important he attend these meetings to ensure continuity of command in case of-"
"Sir," I interrupted him, my mind still in such a place that I was neither considering just what I was asking or, to a degree, even why. I only knew I had to be there. I had to see things for myself. "Please. A friend of mine is giving the briefing, I…I feel like I should be there."
Hizo was quick to rebuff my plea, simply saying, "Boss, come on, let's-"
"Hizo-"
"Sir?"
"Sit this one out today."
"Boss?"
"Just for the day." He turned to me. "Kid, choice is yours. If you're coming along, you pay attention and you pay attention well. You're our second copy of orders for the day so it's on you if something happens and you're not prepared, clear?"
"Yes sir," I said, only after looking towards Hizo, only then realizing that perhaps what I'd been asking was beyond what ever should be considered. Hizo, however, at the very least, appeared somewhere who could care more, yet didn't.
He merely shrugged. "Fuck it," he said, turning back towards the Shanzi. "Could use the break anyway."
And then back to Boss. His eyes hadn't left me. I'd made a choice, I realized, one for a responsibility I had no idea if I was prepared for, but there were greater things on my mind. There was something I needed. Maybe assurance, maybe clarity, but I needed to be there.
The briefing itself wasn't anything to note.
I did as Boss asked, and I gave it everything of my eyes and ears. Even deep enough in the crowd of company and significant enough squad commanders, at a point where I doubted Boss could find me if even he was looking, I analyzed every detail, every order, every contingency.
I watched as Lu Ten explained our temporary withdrawal as proposed by Danev who stood right beside him. I watched as armored units were instructed on their route around Lake Laogai, and I gave Danev my eyes and ears as it was his turn to continue the briefing. There he explained his own role, left behind on a battlefield disguised as Earth Kingdom soldiers, their role to infiltrate enemy lines and use the distraction of an armored blitz to destroy Earth Kingdom artillery in preparation for an assault from our main force. Whether it was his direction of where each unit would be and when, his repetition of the code phrase and return we would all need to know, "Phoenix" in answer to "Ash to Fire," or his surrender of his speaking role back to Lu Ten for closing, I watched, I listened, and I began to understand.
I saw it in his eyes when he watched Lu Ten, heard it in his voice when he spoke. It was something I hadn't seen in Danev in years, the last time when he had trusted the Fire Nation, when he thought he had saved the Hornets. I saw hope. Not for the operation ahead, not for himself, but for the 114th, for the kids of Citadel thrown into this war to escape the other war, and for me.
I looked at that map closer, the tokens of Fire Nation armored units, and the arrow that pierced straight across the Earth Kingdom line.
That was where we were different. I sighed, and felt myself smile what little I could there.
I'm just a soldier.
That's where we differ.
I looked back at Danev. I meant what I said then, I thought to myself, remembering back to the words I'd said to him time and time again when we wore the badges of Hornets rather than the flame of the Fire Nation. You're a good leader.
You always have been.