Ashes of Devotion [ATLA - Azula x OC]

Time1135 · Aug 17, 2026

Makes you wonder what history books in another 100 or so years will look like if things start to get declassified/people start compiling old war stories.

Rotceh · Aug 17, 2026

Well...it's time for war and massacre.

...Honestly, no matter what anyone says, Ang doesn't need a master who has mastered the practical side of earthbending; he needs someone to guide his mindset. Once he achieves that, his soul will allow him to learn everything. That's why it makes sense.

Lucernello · Aug 17, 2026

Time1135 said:
Makes you wonder what history books in another 100 or so years will look like if things start to get declassified/people start compiling old war stories.

A lot of facts have been revealed decades later, it is very interesting. I don't know why you mention that in regards with the story in particular, but I have been following a series from the Korean War and a lot of things have changed from what was known by the public those days.

Rotceh said:
Honestly, no matter what anyone says, Ang doesn't need a master who has mastered the practical side of earthbending; he needs someone to guide his mindset. Once he achieves that, his soul will allow him to learn everything. That's why it makes sense.

Aang will sadly have to do with what he has, but I agree that he needed his mentality challenged to learn the element

Lucernello · Aug 22, 2026

AN: Hello, it was fun to write this chapter.

Art done by Innocent_Mochi.
It honestly surprised me to have so much fanart made. I love them.

Anyway, enjoy
Luce

99 A.G

Lin realized that, if the battle continued to head in the same direction as it currently was, the Fire Nation would not win it. There was no way around it.

The conclusion came from the numbers in the last reports her officers had compiled. Their advance had reached four kilometers into the agrarian zone, which would have been considered impressive in almost every way; heavily outnumbered and on the offensive.

They had managed to keep moving forward, even if only little by little, against waves and waves of enemy soldiers. None of that changed the fact that the army was already exhausted, and that Ba Sing Se had more men to spend still.

Supplies were holding well enough at least. The supply trains were still bringing ammunition, food, medicine, spare parts, fuel, and replacement equipment from the colonies non-stop. Her engineers had repaired damaged track sections faster than expected, and the earthbenders had prepared the land around the breaches well enough to bring the trains inside the walls.

In theory, everything was going great, but the casualty reports showed the true weakness of their current situation. 7,421 of her soldiers were taken off the front lines wounded, 3,387 were killed. That meant that they had suffered more than 10,000 casualties in twelve days of fighting, and while some of the wounded would return to service eventually, many would not.

Several types of wounds, both physical and mental, were removing his soldiers from active combat. They didn't have enough to replenish her frontline at that pace. The estimates from her strategists placed Earth Kingdom casualties above 130,000 since they had breached the walls.

Dead, wounded, and missing buried in tunnels or liquid fire amounted to that estimate. A twelve to one exchange sounded like victory until it was measured against the huge reserves that Ba Sing Se still had.

If the same pace continued for a month, the Earth Kingdom could still keep feeding soldiers into the battle while the Fire Nation would be forced back simply because there would not be enough men left to hold the line.

Lin stood over the map table inside the forward command tent, listening to the heavy guns outside and the messengers moving through the entrance behind her. The officers around her were tired, but alert enough to know they needed a change of plans.

"Alright, it's time to switch tactics. All attacks are to stop immediately." Lin said.

Colonel Zhou raised his head to look at her in surprise. "All attacks, General?"

"Yes. No more counterattacks for now, we will focus on inflicting as many casualties as we can instead of moving forward. Tighten the defenses, rotate the worst-hit companies where possible, and have the engineers reinforce every position we currently hold confidently. Also, since the front is not going to move forward anymore, it's time to use the railway guns again."

Aiku wrote quickly. "What should I tell them?"

"They will begin firing periodically into no man's land at random intervals and in different sections. It will keep them guessing. I want the enemy to be afraid to gather men there, even when they think our line is resting."

"Is there a reason why we were not doing that already?" General Shinu asked.

"The larger caliber guns have been silent since the advance, General. We held them back because we didn't know when they would attack, as you know, we were using their attacks to prepare a counterattack once we repelled the offensive. The distance between us would make coordinating between our attack and their bombardment difficult and risky." Lin replied.

"Makes sense." he muttered back.

"That means that we currently have plenty of ammunition to use now." Lin replied. "Have them start tonight. Keep them constantly dropping them and making adjustments as soon as the scout gliders spot enemy movement."

Captain Aiku saluted and marked the order. Lin studied their position once more, the one that had been able to keep pushing forward had suffered the most against their night attacks, something they had employed well these last couple of days.

Their commanders had realized that the Fire Nation soldiers were desperate for sleep, and that firebenders were weaker after sunset. They were using darkness, tunnels, and fatigue to keep her army from recovering, and the tactic had worked well enough to inflict casualties.

Lin was confident that they wouldn't attack during the day again today. It was time to break their streak, and force them to reconsider attacking at night.

"Colonel Zhou." Lin said.

"Yes, General?"

"Take Aiku's order to the rear. Besides the railway guns' new objectives, I want Toph to be brought to my line by sunrise tomorrow."

Zhou hesitated for a moment, though not long enough to be disobedient. "Yes, General."

"I know what you are thinking, but don't worry, I won't make her fight. You may go." Lin said.

Zhou departed with his orders.

"Captain Kaida, order the entire riflemen company to rest today. I will need them well rested for tonight. Prepare the central section for another night assault, we will prepare an ambush this time, and I also want you to request spare boards we use for the railway tracks."

Kaida raised an eyebrow at the unusual order. "Boards, ma'am?"

"Yes, I have a plan in mind."

"How many should they bring?"

"As many as can be spared, now that the railway guns are in range again I'm sure we will have some we can use. I also want the last prisoners that have not been executed yet brought with them."

The tent grew more tense around her, but captain Kaida was not fazed at all. Shinu and his officers' faces hardened on the other hand. It was the main reason she had sent the good colonel away, he would oppose the plan.

"Are you planning on using them as a meat shield?" Kaida asked.

"No, although the idea has merit, captain."

Shinu exchanged looks with the other officers warily. "May I ask what the prisoners and railway tracks boards are for, General?"

Lin wondered if explaining her plan would affect the morale of her own troops. If she kept the Red Battalion only aware of what tactics she was going to use, she was sure they wouldn't make a fuss about it. Strategically though, if her plan worked, then it would have to be used in different sections of the front lines anyway.

"We are going to play a bit of psychological warfare." Lin said. "I will use the rumor of being an evil spirit to our advantage."

'It's time to get creative. After all, they don't know what crucifixion is in this world yet.'

Major Ban had finally stopped the enemy advance in the center, although it had cost far more than what he expected. His divisions had been reinforced twice already, and even then he was not certain they could survive another couple of days of this kind of fighting before it would have to be replaced entirely for another ones.

The Fire Nation's weapons were truly terrible. Explosives and death machines had taken out so many of them. On the bright side, the night attacks had helped. Keeping most of the troops underground had helped even more, exactly as Major Lee had said it would.

And although the enemy was using metal to reinforce their defenses and they couldn't just ambush them from below, it had served well to prevent the enemy from using their superior weapons to decimate them.

Nightfall was approaching, and Ban stood inside the central bunker while officers moved around him coordinating his troops. The bunker had been carved deeper underground and connected to several exits that could be opened near the front.

Earthbenders had strengthened the walls throughout the day, widening passages to pull wounded soldiers out quickly while leaving enough room for soldiers to keep reinforcing the attack. They had also marked the walls with raised symbols so the soldiers could navigate them even in darkness.

The attack would begin soon, his soldiers were ready for another gruesome night of close quarters combat. The first groups were already moving toward the exits, waiting for the order to surge out to attack the Fire Nation positions along the front.

Usually the enemy tried to hide as well. They kept flames low, covered lanterns, and only attacked when the Earth Kingdom soldiers came close enough for the fight to become crowded and confused.

That was where Ban wanted them. Fire Nation machines were less useful when the enemy was too close to use them freely, and close quarters favored earthbenders. At least whenever they didn't encounter Agni's Wrath.

Tonight, though, something was different from the very beginning. One of the officers standing near the tunnel entrance pointed ahead.

"Major, there is light coming in from the exits we just opened."

Ban gazed toward where the officer was pointing and indeed, at the far end of one of the connected passages, an orange glow trembled against the walls. It was too bright to be a covered lantern and too steady to be firebenders already ambushing them.

More light could be seen from the other passages that the earthbenders were opening one by one, flickering from beyond what he could see, and only shadows of the soldiers moving to attack could be seen from his position.

"Is the enemy using something to illuminate the battlefield?" Ban asked.

"It appears so, Major."

Well, they would be seen coming then, but Ban didn't think it would be so much different than if they ambushed them at the last possible moment. Still, he was uneasy, they had clearly switched tactics and that could mean anything at this point. Ban sent the attack anyway, they would recollect information regardless.

If he delayed too long, the men already near the exits would lose nerve. He didn't need more reckless soldiers running to their deaths. He was going to wait in the bunker and coordinate with the rest of the Lieutenants using messengers.

But that plan was shattered when instead of running messengers, frightened soldiers came running back from the exit tunnels. They looked terrible and trembling. Major Ban couldn't believe there were already deserters this early in the attack.

He was contemplating what to do with them when more frightened soldiers followed from another tunnel, faces pale and their lips shaky. Their panic spread fast and people around him in the bunker were as perplexed as he was. Ban needed to take control of the situation.

"Stop them!" Ban yelled. "Hold them here!"

Two guards grabbed one soldier by the arms, and Ban stepped in front of him. "Get it together, soldier! Report. What happened?"

The man's mouth opened twice before sound came out. "They are offering soldiers to the evil spirits, I don't want to be next."

Ban stared at him. "What?"

"Death rituals, oh the horror…" another soldier said, shaking badly enough that the words broke apart. "They will put us up there as well. They are calling evil spirits against us."

"Enough." Ban grabbed the first soldier by the front of his armor. "Where are your officers?"

The soldier looked back toward the tunnel with terror in his eyes. "Still there, some are fighting. Please, Major, I don't want to go back. Don't make me go back!"

Ban shoved him toward the guards and took a torch from the nearest wall bracket. Soldiers deserting through the tunnels would abandon the rest of their comrades near the exits, and if the Fire Nation had done something to break the attack before it began, he needed to see it himself before ordering a retreat.

"Hold this bunker." Ban said to the nearest captain. "Do not let panic spread to the other routes."

He entered the western tunnel with six men behind him. The light grew stronger as they advanced, filling the passage with orange and red until the torch in his hand became useless. Heat moved through the tunnel mouth, carrying the smell of burning wood, oil, and something foul and rotten.

When Ban came out of the tunnel, the brightness blinded him for a moment. He raised one arm over his eyes and forced himself forward until the battlefield was clear for him. A huge pyre had been built in the form of a ring across the open ground, bright enough to illuminate the place of attack.

He could hear small explosions going off and it was clear that some were still fighting. At first his mind tried to understand it as a wall of fire, some barrier meant to stop the attack, but then he saw the wooden beams standing upright one after another along the line.

They were huge crosses. Earth Kingdom prisoners had been nailed to them and the base on them had been set on fire.

Some of the prisoners were already dead, hanging blackened and motionless against the burning wood. Others were still screaming, their voices mixed with the roar of the fire, the shouting of soldiers, and the panic spreading across his own men as they stumbled out of the tunnels into the light.

Ban's stomach turned so violently that he bent over and vomited into the dirt. He tried to breathe, but the air was full of smoke and burned flesh, it was suffocating and he began sweating uncontrollably.

For a few moments, Ban could not move properly. His chest tightened, his hands went numb, and the sheer horror of seeing soldiers nailed and burning in mass paralyzed him. It had happened to him before after seeing soldiers with torn limbs from explosions.

A captain shook his shoulder. "Major! Major, orders!"

Ban forced air into his lungs and looked around. The attack had already started to fail. Some of his men were fighting near the exits, trying to form ranks despite the firelight and horror before them.

Others had frozen where they stood, and some were running back into the tunnels. Fire Nation soldiers were waiting beyond the burning ring, firing their death sticks into the confusion while their firebenders sent flames through gaps in the smoke.

Earth Kingdom officers shouted themselves hoarse trying to restore order, but the sight had broken too many men before the battle had even begun. Ban wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and swallowed against the bile in his throat.

"Retreat!" he screamed. "Back through the tunnels! Get them out!"

The order spread unevenly, but it spread. Officers began dragging men away from the battlefield, earthbenders raised barriers to cover the withdrawal, and those who could still think helped pull the wounded back underground.

Ban remained near the entrance long enough to make sure the closest groups were moving, then stumbled back into the tunnel with the others. The screams followed him down to the bunker.

Toph arrived near the central line shortly after nightfall, walking beside Azula with visible irritation on her face. Lin had ordered the forward trench cleared of unnecessary personnel before she arrived. She didn't think that Toph should be seeing the horrors of war yet.

The engineers had already dragged the boards down, and the bodies had been piled and burned to ashes. The attack had failed, and the scare tactics had worked even better than she expected. Now she needed to hurt them even more, and she had a great idea in mind.

Toph stopped near Lin and crossed her arms. "Well, I'm finally here and nothing exciting is happening."

"I think we have enough excitement as it is, Toph." Lin chuckled. "I brought you here for two things, can you find the tunnel exits near this area?"

"Sure, I can do that." Toph tapped one foot against the packed earth, then turned her head toward the field. Her expression changed after a moment, becoming more focused. "There are quite a few of them."

"Oh good, the more the better, how many?"

Toph remained still, probably sensing the entire field around her. "Twenty-four. Some are close and the rest are further back. A few are connected to each other, but most lead deeper underground."

"That's good enough for me, let's walk toward each of them and we will have someone assigned to that tunnel."

Toph moved forward and pointed them out one by one. As she did, Lin gave the task to three firebenders per tunnel to stay close. She was going to need them soon enough. They worked as quickly as they could.

The enemy had prepared for a wide night attack, probably hoping that coming across so many points at once would force the Fire Nation to respond in confusion. If they had launched the attack an hour earlier, it might have caused heavy damage.

Now, the tunnels would become a trap.

"I need you to create a lava pool here," Lin said, pointing to the space between the nearest fire line and the forward trench. "Wide enough for the firebenders to work with."

Toph turned her head toward her. "Lava? You dragged me here to make lava?"

"Yes."

"That better not be for melting people."

"It is for the tunnels."

Toph frowned. "That sounds like melting people with extra steps."

Lin kept her voice even. "Firebenders can bend heat. In this case, we can redirect heated air and smoke from the lava into the tunnel mouths. If the enemy is planning to attack again tonight they would be forced to abandon that plan and retreat back to the other side."

Toph tilted her head. "You can bend smoke?"

"Not the smoke itself. Heat, pressure, and the movement of hot air. It is not difficult for trained firebenders, but it is rarely useful in direct combat. It takes too much focus, moves too slowly, and leaves the bender open to an attack. I had never thought it would actually be useful."

Toph seemed to consider that. She was not foolish, and Lin knew better than to explain too much. If Lin lingered on the wrong details, Toph would ask better questions.

"So I just make the lava and leave?" Toph asked.

"Yes. You create it, then Azula takes you back to a safe distance. The firebenders handle the rest."

"Why can't I stay and watch?"

"While I wouldn't mind that, I'm afraid of them attacking while we are doing this and then you would be forced to fight. I don't want that for you."

Toph stood there for a few more seconds before giving a reluctant nod. "Fine. But you will make it up to me somehow."

"Oh no, what a nightmare." Lin mocked her and Toph just laughed. Azula looked amused, but said nothing.

Toph moved to the marked position with two guards behind her. She planted her feet, raised both hands, and pulled at the earth in a few swift movements. Lin was always impressed with her control, it didn't even look like it was hard for the young earthbender.

The ground cracked open, stone softened, and heat began to rise as the surface folded inward on itself. Within seconds, a pool of molten rock glowed in front of the trench, red and orange light moving across its surface while the soldiers nearby stepped back from the heat.

She continued along the way making it large enough until Lin gave her a nod.

"Well done."

Toph wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. "Yeah, yeah. Don't sound too impressed, Metalsticks."

"I am impressed." Lin replied, honestly.

"Ugh, so corny."

Azula took Toph by the shoulder and guided her back toward the protected trench line. "Come on. We haven't seen each other for a few days, let's catch up."

"Sure princess. Although, you could use a bath. Being blind means my other senses are better and you stink!" Toph complained.

"While you are stepping over the line and I would normally burn you for saying something like that, a bath sounds wonderful right now."

Once they were far enough away, Lin raised one hand and signaled the firebenders forward. The first group began feeding controlled flames into the lava, keeping the heat high and stable. The second group, the ones assigned to each tunnel mouth, put on their cloth masks, and began spreading their stances and moving their arms in careful rhythm as the heated air gathered and was pushed inside the tunnels.

Lin also helped feed flames and heat into the molten rock. Bending its heat away would solidify it quickly. The air became heavy, bitter, and difficult to breathe even at a distance. The fumes rising from the molten earth, as the different components in the rock were freed by the extreme heat and pressure.

What she didn't mention to Toph, was that the fumes were highly toxic. It was better if she believed the enemy would flee the tunnels because of heat and maybe difficulty breathing normally, which was true enough for the purpose of gaining her cooperation.

Depending on how much they breathed before escaping however, many of the soldiers below would die even if no flame touched them. The firebenders worked together, forcing the heated air downward through each opening.

When one group began to tire, another took its place. When Lin herself was replaced to feed more flames into the pool of lava, she moved along the trench with Aiku beside her, checking that the tunnels were tended to and that the earthbenders were ready to seal the exits on command.

They didn't hear anything coming from the tunnels but if she was correct then they would feel the effect soon and the tunnels would become death corridors.

After an hour, Lin gave the order to the earthbenders, who stepped forward and sealed the tunnel mouths one by one. Stone closed over the exits, packed tighter by her request until no open gap remained.

Lin turned to the communication officer waiting behind her. "As we planned, give the order for our artillery to open fire." she said.

"Yes, General."

Scouts had found the bunker's outer exit a few kilometers beyond the front, and if the guns hit that area hard enough, the enemy would have no easy escape. They could try to dig new exits, but in darkness, with smoke and heated air moving through their tunnels, they would have very little time to do it.

The artillery pieces fired, and Lin watched the impacts bloom in the distance. She hoped this new approach would help around. Even if at times the human mind seemed fickle, Lin had seen soldiers eventually adapt to scare tactics and keep fighting.

She hoped they could break the line before that happened. The crucifixions had worked wonderfully, and she knew that executing the prisoners this way would create panic for the enemy soldiers. Although she didn't expect to see them flee just upon seeing it.

She would order other sections to repeat the display over the next few nights, not constantly obviously, it took time to set up and they could attack in the day ruining the preparations, but at least enough to break the pattern of night assaults.

For the first time in days, Lin felt satisfied with the direction of the battle.

Major Lee's morning attack had been repelled, and the retreat through the tunnels was crowded with wounded men, tired officers, and earthbenders sealing the passages behind them. They had tried to strike just before sunrise, hoping the Fire Nation line would still be disorganized after the night assault, but the enemy had been ready.

Their defenses were tighter than before, and every approach had been punished by their machines, and explosions before Lee's soldiers could force a closer fight. When they emerged near the defensive trenches, Lee saw Fire Nation flying machines overhead, lower than usual.

"Down! Everyone down!" he shouted.

Men dropped behind earth barriers or pressed themselves against the trench walls, waiting for bombs to fall. Lee held his breath for a few seconds, expecting the blast to tear through the packed line, but the machines passed over them and he heard no explosions.

He was almost relieved, thinking they were only scouting the tunnels or marking targets for later, until the screams began spreading farther down the trench.

Lee forced his way toward the noise while shouting for the soldiers to keep moving. Another flying machine passed above them, and this time he saw something fall. It struck the side of the trench and rolled through the mud until one soldier stumbled back from it, pale and shaking.

"It's…It's a severed head!" he screamed.

Lee was shocked, the Fire Nation was throwing the heads of fallen Earth Kingdom soldiers from the sky. Some still had broken helmets attached, others were burned or bloodied beyond recognition.

Rage rose in Lee's chest so strongly that for a moment he could barely think. These honorless brutes had taken soldiers who had died defending their home and turned them into weapons of terror. He wanted to order every man forward again, to make the Fire Nation pay immediately, but the men around him were horrified, and many could barely keep moving.

"Keep going!" Lee shouted. "Do not stop here!"

By the time he reached the defensive line, the Fire Nation bombardment had begun again. Explosions struck the earthworks ahead, forcing everyone into cover while earthbenders reinforced the bunkers and reshaped the entrances to protect against the liquid fire the enemy had begun dropping at random.

Lee could see soldiers staring at the sky, some with hatred in their eyes, they would fight harder, others shaking so badly they had to be pulled along by their comrades. He dreaded how many would desert after this, and how many would stay in the trenches but be unable to move when the next order came.

The Fire Nation had clearly switched tactics, and Lee knew with growing hatred that it was working. They just didn't have enough experienced soldiers that could handle this.

'They will pay for this.' he thought bitterly.

lemonfrogs · Aug 23, 2026

Lin is really out there creating new war crimes for the Elemental Nations and I'm pretty sure that's what seduced Azula.

Sharker117 · Aug 23, 2026

Geneva checklist go!

No show of the result from gassing the tunnels yet, that should be plenty horrifying, especially when survivors just drop dead later.

Rotceh · Aug 23, 2026

Ah ah....I wonder if the idea of Heat Bending, now that Azula tries to learn how to use it to gain an advantage over Toph, hahaha I love this

Lucernello · Sep 4, 2026

AN: Hello, two chapters today. Chapter 1 of 2, just in case.

Art by Aurora.
Enjoy, Luce

99 A.G

Day 16 - Ba Sing Se Operations

Fire Nation casualties.

Killed: 3,987
Wounded: 8,521
Missing: 463
Total: 12,971

The army has lost 19% of its fighting force. Our Inventory and supplies are stable, and equipment is being replenished faster than we can use it.

Estimated Earth Kingdom casualties by account of spies.

Killed: ~88,000
Wounded: ~106,000
Missing: ~7,000
Total estimated casualties: ~201,000

40% of their forces have been neutralized, but more reserves are coming in. Our generals warned that we need to break through as soon as possible or our army would be forced to retreat.

Quartermaster's field ledger.

Aang and his friends reached Hew Sin before noon, following the coastline until the houses and docks came into view. The city was larger than the villages they had passed during the last few days.

Many of the windows were closed, and the people in the streets kept their attention on their own work. Even when Appa landed outside the city limits, no one stopped too long to stare at them. A few turned to look at them for a few seconds, especially at their Water Tribe clothing, but no one shouted for guards and they were quick to move away.

Most people treated them like travelers they did not want to deal with. Most just ignored them when they tried to talk to them. Children stared at Appa from behind a fence until their mother pulled them inside and closed the door.

"They are friendly." Sokka muttered.

"Something is wrong here." Katara said.

Haru glanced around the street. "Everyone seems tired."

"Let's try and talk to someone who listens, maybe we can figure out what's going on." Aang said.

The harbor was busier than the rest of the town. Fishing boats moved in and out, workers carried baskets of shellfish, and a few larger ships sat farther from the docks under Fire Nation inspection.

Soldiers were present, but they did not stop everyone who passed. They stood near the road and the warehouses, checking papers, counting crates, and talking among themselves while the town continued working around them.

The first few people they tried to talk to ignored them or moved away. At least one of them gave them information that a storm was likely hitting the town at night by how the wind was blowing, so they best try and find a place to take shelter.

Near the harbor they saw a crowd gathered, reading from an announcement board. Aang and his friends stopped there as well when they heard Ba Sing Se mentioned. There was a man reading to a few others who clearly didn't know how to read.

"The outer wall has been breached." the man said, voice carrying over the dock. "Fire Nation forces under General Lin and Crown Princess Azula have entered the agrarian zone and are battling Earth Kingdom forces. Official reports state that the liberation campaign continues successfully, and that once Ba Sing Se falls, no large organized opposition will remain on the continent."

Katara's face went pale. "They breached the wall?"

Sokka stepped closer to the crowd. "That can't be right. Ba Sing Se's wall is enormous."

The man reading continued, and his tone made it sound like he had already repeated the announcement several times that morning. "General Renshi's forces continue to advance and they have inflicted heavy losses to the enemy. The Crown Princess is said to be fighting alongside the general, bringing honor to the royal family and courage to the soldiers who will end the war."

A few people near the announcement murmured to one another.

"At least it might be over soon." one fisherman said.

"Finally. My brother decided to join the earthbenders in the army." another man replied. "If the city surrenders, maybe he comes home alive."

"If the Fire Nation wins there, then we might be able to sell our fish to the rest of the kingdom." a woman carrying a basket said. "It would bring more coins for us."

Katara turned toward them, horrified. "How can you talk like that? They are invading your people's capital."

The woman scoffed and looked at her with a tired expression. "My people are right here, not hiding behind big walls. Besides… if they fail, the war keeps going."

Katara opened her mouth, but Sokka touched her arm before she answered too quickly. Aang could see she was angry enough to say something that would only make everyone turn against them. It was better not to draw that kind of attention.

Aang looked back at the announcement, where Lin and Azula's names were painted in bold red characters beneath a Fire Nation seal. It was a big dilemma he would have to face eventually. Especially if he wanted to help the world as the Avatar and keep the nations balanced.

Lin had given them food, safe passage, hay for Appa, and the waterbending scroll. She had been helpful to them, almost kind in her own way, but now her army was inside Ba Sing Se, and the poster spoke of her like she was a hero bringing peace by breaking the last great Earth Kingdom city.

He would have to go against her at some point if his duty demanded him to fight the Fire Nation. If they didn't relinquish their conquered territories the world would be out of balance, something the Avatar was meant to correct.

On the other hand, he wanted the war to end too. It was clear that everyone did. The problem was that more and more people seemed willing to accept the Fire Nation ending it their way, as long as it meant they could live their lives normally, without fear.

Aang did not know how to argue with that without sounding like he was asking them to keep suffering until he figured out what to do. Bumi's words returned to him again, once more, they were difficult to ignore.

He gripped his staff and forced himself to breathe. Whatever the Fire Nation did, and whatever people were willing to believe because they were tired, he still had to master the elements. He needed to learn waterbending, earthbending, and firebending as fast as possible.

Even if the world was back in peace and they accepted a Fire Nation victory, being a master of all elements and a strong Avatar could help him when the nations began talking things through. His people had prepared him for diplomacy after all, and he was sure that being the Avatar could give him a voice in peace negotiations.

They moved away from the crowd and continued along the docks, trying to find someone willing to speak to them without acting suspicious, although he could admit he needed to work better himself. After several refusals, they found an old man sitting near a fishing boat, repairing a net with hands that moved carefully despite the deep lines in his fingers.

He glanced up when Sokka approached. "You kids lost?"

"Not lost." Sokka said. "Just looking for a place to rest for a night."

The old man's eyes moved from Sokka to Katara, then to Aang and Haru. "Water Tribe kids this far north, and traveling with an Earth Kingdom boy. That is new."

"We are traveling to the North Pole, to our sister tribe." Katara said, softly.

"Pheew. Certainly a long way yet to go, but you have indeed come far already."

"We know…" Sokka said. "That is why a place to rest would help, some people mentioned there was a storm coming."

The old man gave a dry laugh. "Bah, what do they know about storms…Well, there is only one local inn in the harbor, and it stopped renting out rooms, so you won't have any luck finding a place unless you head deeper into the city."

Aang eyes him carefully. "Why did they stop? Did something happen?"

"Well, it's clear you are outsiders and quite young so you don't know what this harbor has become. Hew Sin and Daxia Harbor are known as a safe haven for criminals the Fire Nation doesn't want, but are either too dangerous to imprison or kill. The inn owner, Nomi, decided she didn't want any trouble."

Katara frowned. "So everyone here is a dangerous criminal?"

Aang was not liking this city at all.

"Well… I assume not everyone, but most of them. Recently some of them left, they received pardons and joined the Fire Nation military once they started accepting earthbenders in their forces." The man said.

"So not only they are horrible people but also traitors." Haru said with venom in his voice.

"Ha! You have spirit, kid." he replied, laughing. "I would be careful to say things like that in the open though. The Fire Nation is still guarding this city and port, even if they ignore criminal activity. They have let you travel so far, I would try and keep it that way if I were you."

"We are not here because the Fire Nation is letting us travel." Sokka said.

The old man stopped moving the net for a moment, then looked at him again. "Boy, there is no way they don't know you are here."

Sokka just stared at him.

"They watch the roads, the docks, the ships, and the markets. They count crates better than tax men ever did. If you arrived with Water Tribe clothes, and a giant animal, someone surely noticed." The old man pointed with his chin toward the soldiers posted close by. "If they have done nothing to stop you, then they don't mind you traveling, or they just decided you are not interesting enough, which in my opinion is a good thing."

Sokka didn't seem to like that, and if he was honest, Aang did not like it either. However, he remembered Lin's sealed document and how easily guards had let them pass when they showed the scroll.

Maybe the old man was right and the Fire Nation had been allowing them to move because Lin wanted them to. It was a terrifying thought though, if she was planning something for them, Aang didn't want to find out what exactly.

The old man tied off a knot in the net and sighed. "I'm going fishing. If a couple of you want to work the boat for the day, I can pay with food and a place to stay until morning. Nothing fancy, but it will save you from getting wet."

Sokka straightened at once. "I can help."

Haru stepped forward too. "Me too."

The old man looked between them and grinned. "Good. Strong backs are always needed and I'm not getting any younger. The rest of you can wait near the house, you cannot miss it, you go straight down that path to the right, follow the wooden planks then up the small hill. You should be able to use the shed where I store my boat for your big friend. Unless he eats fish by the barrel he is welcomed."

Aang glanced toward Appa, who was sniffing at a stack of empty crates.

"He is a vegetarian, he likes hay the most."

"Oh good, then. At least he will give less trouble than some men I've hired. Rude the lot of 'em." the old man said, standing with a pleased grunt. "Come on, boys. Tide won't wait for nobody."

Azula found Lin's exasperation satisfying, especially because she was trying very hard not to show too much of it in front of the other officers. The princess also found that it was an entertaining pastime.

They were gathered around the command table inside one of the forward bunkers the earthbenders had made for them, which was easier to set up than setting up the tent over and over again.

Outside, the battle continued, and the artillery was making dust fall from the ceiling every time they fired, now closer to the front to hit their rear. Messengers moved in and out of the room, bringing updates from the scouts, the tank crews and the frontline officers.

The newest scout report had changed the plan for the day, their gliders had located the enemy headquarters and Lin had quickly called for a meeting with all the lead officers. They had discussed the news to come up with a plan and how best to hit the enemy.

Their headquarters was hidden behind several defensive lines, farther south than expected, connected to trenches and tunnels that allowed the Earth Kingdom commanders to send orders without exposing themselves too often.

Lin had suspected that the enemy was using a central command position instead of separate field posts, because their counterattacks had become too coordinated to be improvised by isolated officers. Now they had confirmation and she was eager to eliminate them and push the lines.

Lin had already prepared a plan of attack even before Azula arrived. The Fire Nation would concentrate tanks, rhinos, infantry, and field guns along the central and southern sections. With a coordinated attack, the tanks would break through the pressured line while the rhinos and infantry followed to widen the gap.

Having taken their headquarters out, their officers wouldn't be able to respond in time to reinforce key positions in the line. After that, the armored units would turn south, circle the enemy position, and destroy half of their line before the Earth Kingdom could reorganize.

If it worked, the rest of their defenses would either collapse or be overwhelmed by the next push. Azula could admit it was a good plan. It was aggressive, efficient, and most of all aimed at destroying their forces instead of just gaining ground.

The problem was that Lin had not included her in the small strike team that would be sent to para-drop from the gliders and attack the headquarters directly. And Azula wanted to be part of it desperately.

"No." Lin said once more.

Azula raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"You leading the strike team is out of the question, princess."

"I said I wanted to be part of it, I don't need to lead it."

"That is the same thing, you outrank anyone in any team."

Azula smiled at her. "It's good you understand it then."

Lin rested both metal hands on the table. "The headquarters is deep behind their lines. We do not know how many guards they have, how many tunnels connect to it, or how quickly their reserves can react. The mission is risky even with experienced soldiers."

"Then it is fortunate that I am not inexperienced."

"You are also the Crown Princess."

"I know."

"That means I am expected to keep you alive."

"And yet, no one here can stop me from going if I decide to go."

The officers around the table were looking everywhere but at them. Azula enjoyed that as well. General Shinu stood across from them with the face of a man who wished he had been ordered somewhere else or to bolt away back to the frontlines.

Lin gave her a tired expression. "Azula, please see reason."

The use of her name instead of her title made something warm pass through her chest, but she kept her face composed. "Lin, I can do this."

"Why do you want to do this so badly?"

"It would be a great boost to our soldiers morale."

"You want to throw yourself at the most dangerous operation yet for a morale boost?"

Azula's smile thinned a little. "Do not insult me. I understand risk better than most of the officers in this room, and I also understand what my presence means. If I strike the enemy command directly while our army breaks their line, every soldier here will hear of it before nightfall. So will every soldier in the city. The Fire Nation's victory would be all but assured if we succeed."

"But we could win either way without endangering our crown princess."

"Probably."

Lin remained silent for a moment, and Azula could see that she had no more arguments. Lin trusted her in battle, trained her, and praised her in combat multiple times. There was no doubt in her mind that she would come around.

"The mission will be prepared with me in mind. I'm going, and that's an order." Azula said at last.

Lin's jaw tightened. "Is there no way you will let us handle it?"

"No."

Shinu stared at Azula, then at Lin, and seemed to regret both choices immediately. Lin held Azula's gaze for several seconds before releasing a slow breath through her nose.

"Fine." Lin said, between her teeth. Azula almost smiled.

"Then I am going with you." Lin continued.

That was even better than what Azula had wanted, although she had enough sense not to say so in front of the entire command staff.

"Oh good, they have no chance then."

"Right." Lin sighed.

She turned toward Major General Shinu, who seemed so stunned by the change in command that for a moment he did not react at all. His mouth opened once before he closed it again. Watching grown officers lose their composure never truly got old.

"General Shinu." Lin said. "You will take command of the main assault while the princess and I eliminate the head of the enemy."

Shinu straightened quickly. "A-are you certain?"

"I would not be handing you command if I was not."

Lin took a folded paper from the table and handed it to him. "These are your orders for the next twenty-four hours. If there are any changes in the schedule of our attack I will send a messenger. There are reports of our reserves, artillery ammunition, tanks' combat readiness, fallback points, and what to do if we are not able to return. Do not improvise unless the situation forces you. If communication is lost, follow the written plan."

Shinu accepted the paper with both hands. "Understood, General."

It was funny to Azula how even if they were both the same rank, Lin could just order Shinu around. A year back maybe that wouldn't have happened, but her reputation had skyrocketed since then. The rumors about her being an evil spirit frightened even a few on their own side.

"You will be in command of both armies, I'm trusting my men to you. Do not waste their lives. Captain Aiku will remain with the forward staff to assist you. Colonel Zhou keeps the central line stable at this moment. If breaking their lines succeeds, you push immediately before the Earth Kingdom can recover."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Azula could see the concern in the room, but no one challenged her. Having the power to order Lin around felt enticing. The princess was also eager to hunt General Sung and the rest of the Earth Kingdom officers. It all made her feel giddy inside.

Lin gathered her things and ordered a corporal to gather the selected soldiers for the strike, giving him a list. Then she glanced at Azula with resignation, Azula finally allowed herself to smirk.

"We will crush them, we'll be fine." Azula said.

"You enjoy making my work difficult, don't you?" Lin sighed.

"Admit it, you admire initiative."

"If only your initiative wouldn't risk your life."

"What's life without a little danger?"

Lin laughed. 'Mission accomplished.'

The storm hit Daxia harbor before Sokka and Haru returned from fishing. At first, Aang tried not to worry. The old fisherman had seemed experienced enough, and Sokka had been excited to prove that Water Tribe people obviously understood boats better than anyone else.

Haru had been less confident, but he had agreed to help anyway, mostly because the old man had promised he could cook great food for all of them if the work went well. Then the rain began falling harder, and the wind from the sea pushed against the harbor hard enough that several people started tying down crates and pulling nets away from the docks.

Katara stood near the old man's house with her arms crossed, her attention fixed on the water.

"Do you think they are alright? Maybe we should check if they are in trouble."

Aang nodded, trying to see through the rain. "I'll go check."

Katara turned toward him at once. "Be careful."

"I will. I'll just look from above."

He climbed onto Appa and guided him toward the harbor before the rain worsened. The waves were already higher than Aang liked, and the boats near the docks were hitting the water hard as their ropes pulled tight. It took him several minutes to find the fishing boat through the rain, and when he finally spotted it, he could see that something was not right.

The boat was still floating, but it was moving poorly. Sokka was trying to control one of the ropes near the front while Haru held onto the side, both of them drenched and shouting over the wind. The old man was down near the center of the boat, unmoving beside the mast.

Aang brought Appa lower. "Sokka!"

Sokka's head snapped up. "Aang! Great timing! The mast hit him and now he is out, and I am starting to think these boats are more complicated than I said!"

"We need to return to land, we don't know how hurt he is!" Haru shouted.

"Right!"

Aang lowered Appa carefully until he could drop onto the boat. The waves made the landing difficult, and he had to use airbending to keep himself from falling over the side. The old man was breathing, which made Aang feel better, but he did not wake when Haru slapped him gently. There was a red mark on the side of his head where part of the mast had struck him.

"We need to find a way to move it to shore then." Aang said.

He tied a rope from the fishing boat to Appa's saddle while Sokka helped secure the old man in place so he would not roll with the movement of the waves. Haru used earthbending on the few stones they had carried as weights, trying to help balance the boat, while Aang climbed back onto Appa and told him to pull.

"Yip yip, come on, buddy!"

Appa groaned and flew forward with effort, dragging the boat through the waves while Aang used airbending to push water away whenever it rose too high. It was messy and frightening, and more than once the rope pulled so hard that Aang thought it might snap, but they finally reached the harbor.

They managed to secure the boat into the wooden docks, when they yelled for help people didn't even look in their direction, each securing their things without caring about the rest of the world. It was a sad sight for Aang.

Still, they needed to take shelter, so they tied it down as best they could and Aang helped Haru and Sokka to carry the old man back. By the time they got the old man back to his house, Katara had already prepared blankets and warm water.

They cleaned his injury and waited until he woke up, while the storm raged outside. Katara also helped the Sokka and Haru dry up. Aang had already used his airbending to do that.

With a grunt the old man finally got up. "How… how did we get to safety?"

"Ah well… you could say teamwork and a bit of luck." Sokka lied, quickly.

"My boat?" he asked, fearful.

"It's safe, we left it safely tucked in the harbor." Haru answered.

He breathed in relief and he laid down again.

"Are you feeling alright, sir?" Aang asked.

"Just a headache, I'll be fine, kid. You both have my thanks for bringing me back, even if we didn't end up bringing fish as I wanted to, you are welcome to stay the night."

"We do have some food prepared, we can share." Katara said softly.

"I think I just want some tea, but thanks for the offer." he said simply.

The next morning, they left after thanking him, and heading northeast instead of flying directly north. The old man had warned them that in that direction they would find Pohuai, a Fire Nation military base and prison, and none of them wanted to fly close to a place like that.

They did not get far before Sokka started coughing and feeling down. At first, he insisted he was fine, and Haru tried to say the same when his own voice became rough. By midday, both of them were shaking under their blankets in Appa's saddle, their faces flushed and sweaty despite the cool air.

Katara checked them again and again, but her worry only grew.

"We need to stop and have them rest." she said.

Aang nodded and he began searching for anywhere to go down. They landed near ruins of what he believed had once been Taku. The city looked like it had been destroyed a long time ago, and even from above, there was not much else than ruins and collapsed stone.

They found a place in the ruins that still had enough roof left to block the wind, and Katara made Sokka and Haru lie down while Aang gathered water and tried to make them comfortable. As the hours passed, they only got worse.

Sokka mumbled nonsense about fishing warriors and giant soup bowls, while Haru kept calling for his father even though he knew his father was not there. Their skin felt too hot, and both of them were sweating through their clothes. Katara tried to stay calm, but Aang could see her hands trembling a bit.

"We need to do something, you are starting with the coughing now, they are not getting better either, even if you said some rest would be all they needed." Aang said.

"Yes, maybe you can go and find some ginger root, it's a medicinal herb and it will help make tea that will help us."

Katara then gave him a description of the plant she needed.

"Alright, I will fly around and see if I can find it."

"I'll look after them." Katara said, weakly.

Aang did not want to leave her, but he knew waiting would not help. He took his glider and searched through the ruins of Taku, flying low over broken streets, and buildings that had been left to rot.

He did not find the herbs Katara had described. What he did find, after landing near a cracked stone noticeboard, was an old map of the city with several important buildings marked on it. One of them was a medical institute.

Aang pulled the map free as carefully as he could and flew back to tell the others. He was already planning the fastest route through the ruins when he landed near the broken house they had chosen for shelter.

The words died in his throat before he could call Katara's name. A huge man was standing near his friends, looking over them. They were all bundled together over Appa who surprisingly hadn't made a move even with the man there. Even Momo was just randomly playing with a crown he no doubt found in the ruins, ignoring him.

He was broad, tall, and intimidating, with a face that did not look friendly at all and metal prosthetics that reminded Aang of Lin's arms and legs. The man turned his head when Aang entered, and Aang tightened his grip on his staff, swallowing hard while failing at not showing how scared he suddenly felt.

Aang was ready to defend himself and move to protect his friends. Katara was the only fully awake one and she was breathing heavily. Aang was not sure he would be able to get to them before the man made a move, he might end up hurting his friends if he moved too fast.

"Stay away from them!" Aang said, trying to sound braver than he felt.

The man turned fully toward him, and Aang raised his staff. But to his surprise the man spoke with gentle words.

"Calm down, young Avatar. I'm here to help you." he said.

"You are?" Aang said, now hopeful.

"Yes, and I should warn you that flying off like you did is careless. You are lucky that most of the zone was abandoned to lend support to Ba Sing Se's invasion. Otherwise you would have angry archers after you already." The man said.

"Er.. sorry?"

"Either way, your friends will be fine. There is a valley nearby with almost freezing water. Inside there are these frozen frogs that will help in this situation."

"How can frozen frogs help?"

"They hibernate that way. That thin layer that freezes has many nutrients that keeps them alive, it can be used to cure this sickness. You just have to let them melt that layer in a cup and have them drink it. You could also suck on them but the taste is horrible, I don't recommend it." the man explained.

"How do you know this?" Aang asked.

"The mother of my child, Zy, runs an apothecary. She has been healing people in Hew Sin for years now. You learn a thing or two."

"Oh…err, great!" he answered, awkwardly.

The man threw a satchel at him and he almost didn't catch it. "Go fetch them, without flying this time. I will be here when you come back to help you prepare the medicine."

"Alright, thanks!" Aang said, bolting toward the valley at full speed, relieved that they had found another friendly face, even in the ruins of a forgotten town.

Once back with the frozen frogs, he handed them to the man who was now sitting down and had started a small fire. He expertly extracted the liquid from the frozen frogs, carefully placing them back in the satchel.

"Once we are done you can take them back, they will just freeze right back in a couple of hours, they won't mind." he said.

Aang nodded. The man prepared the tea and with his help, they carefully helped their friends drink it down. It calmed his heart to see their faces regain normal color and their breathing even out. They relaxed almost straight away.

"It worked!"

"Of course, for what reason would I lie?" the man asked.

"Well… you do look a bit intimidating." Aang said, sheepishly.

"Ah, I can't argue with that." he said neutrally.

"Who- who are you?" Katara asked.

"My name is Raizo."

"Did they ever tell you that you look just like a certain Fire Nation General?" Sokka said, still not fully recovered.

Aang saw the man's face turn sad instantly.

"That would be my sister."

'Oh no…'

Lucernello · Sep 4, 2026

Chapter 2 of 2 today. I have a sidestory that I will post later in the day, it still needs revision.

Enjoy,
Luce

99 A.G

Major Lee returned to headquarters battered, filthy, and so exhausted that it took him a lot of effort to step down into the bunker where they were supposed to meet. The fighting had continued through most of the night, and the morning had brought no victory for his section of the line.

His soldiers had attacked through the tunnels, and broken trenches, as was usual now. They had tried to take advantage of the movements they had seen along the Fire Nation position, but the enemy defenses had held.

Even after they had pulled some troops away from the front Lee was assaulting, the remaining soldiers and firebenders had been enough to stop them from gaining ground at all. It frustrated him to no end.

The only comfort was that the Fire Nation had been forced to move those troops somewhere else. That meant one of the other fronts had done better than his, or that the enemy had been forced to strengthen positions behind their line before they had to retreat.

Either answer meant they were hurting them. The Fire Nation did not have enough soldiers to keep this going forever, no matter how many machines they had brought, and Lee had spent the last few days holding to that belief with renewed energy.

He wiped mud from his face with the back of his sleeve and entered the main chamber of the headquarters bunker. Most of the officers were already there; General Sung stood at the far end of the table, speaking with two messengers while several captains and majors argued over what to do next.

There were strategies being passed around, as well as reports from the different officers assigned to each portion of the frontline. The air inside the bunker was damp and sour from too many men breathing in the same enclosed space for too many hours.

Lanterns hung from beams reinforced by earthbending, casting uneven light over faces scarred by the brutal war that had raged for weeks now. Lee frowned when he noticed the empty space usually occupied by Ban.

"Where is Major Ban?" he asked.

The argument around the table went quiet at once. Several officers glanced toward one another, and Lee knew Ban was as good as dead. A captain from the central line lowered the report he had been holding and swallowed before speaking.

"He is dead, Major."

Lee stared at him for a moment, and he felt every bit of exhaustion he had entered the bunker with.

"What happened?"

The captain rubbed both hands together, leaving dark marks of dirt across his knuckles.

"The counterattack in the center failed. The Fire Nation had prepared something during the night. They used prisoners, fire, and some kind of smoke that moved into the tunnels. The soldiers who escaped said it felt like an evil spirit's aura had filled the passages."

"Did they employ a new weapon?" Lee said, anger rising through the exhaustion. "How many did we lose?"

"We still don't know. The first estimate is nearly ten thousand across the connected tunnels."

Lee had read terrible reports already, and this was the worst news he could receive. Ten thousand men in a single night was a horrible occurrence. If the Fire Nation had a new weapon that could reach every tunnel then they were as good as dead.

'Why haven't they used it before?' he wondered.

It also meant the center line could collapse at any moment, and the only reason why it hadn't yet was because the Fire Nation maybe didn't know how much that hurt them.

The captain continued, voice lower now. "Ban was found alive with his men. They were dug out from one of the blocked passages near dawn. They had no cuts, no burns, no crushed bones that the healers could see, but they could barely breathe. Ban kept trying to speak and could not manage more than a few words before coughing blood. He agonized for hours before he died. The same thing happened to the rest of his men."

Lee couldn't understand how they had managed to procure such terror weapons; men dying with no visible wounds by a smoke they could barely see, it was terrible in any way you looked at it. It was not something they could strike against.

He did not believe the Fire Nation had summoned spirits, but he believed they had found some horrible method to make men die beneath the earth without leaving marks a healer could treat. He hoped it was something they couldn't use all the time and the main reason why they hadn't seen it before.

The general was speaking too loudly again, demanding that the center be reinforced and that the next assault continue before the Fire Nation could recover. He clearly had no idea of how slow that process would be having lost so many men in one night.

Lee then came into a realization that made his knees grow weak. If the Fire Nation knew the damage they had done, then that meant they had not moved troops away from Lee's front to retreat or defend some distant problem.

They had moved them to strike through the center while the Earth Kingdom tried to understand what had happened overnight. If the center broke, then they could surround either the north or the south portion of the line and destroy them. There would not be a comeback after that.

"Send runners to the central reserves, now!" Lee said, turning toward the nearest messenger. "Tell Colonel Ren to move all of the reserve groups toward the center and prepare for a breakthrough attempt."

General Sung turned to him. "What are you doing?"

Lee did not have time for this. "They are not pulling back. They are concentrating for the center."

Sung's face tightened. "You do not know that."

"They killed Ban's force inside the tunnels, and now they are pulling soldiers from the other fronts. That is not retreat. They are concentrating their forces to push us back now that we are weak. We have to move now!"

"We cannot make a hasty decision in the middle of a crisis!" Sung argued while the messenger stayed frozen in place.

"If I'm right the enemy will break through and then we are done for. They could turn either north or south and kill off half of our forces against our own walls, this is no time for caution."

Sung slammed one hand on the table. "You will not countermand my orders because you are frightened by rumors of spirits."

Lee turned to the messengers again, deciding that if Sung wanted to argue, he could do it after the orders were already moving. "Go! Now!"

"Major! Wha-"

The bunker entrance exploded before the runners could take more than a few steps. The blast threw the guards inward and knocked several men off their feet. Dust, broken earth, smoke, and splintered wood filled the chamber at once, and Lee hit the side of the table hard enough that pain ran through his ribs.

For several seconds he could hear almost nothing except ringing and the panicked movement of officers trying to understand where the attack had come from. He forced himself upright, blinking through the dust.

Someone entered through the ruined doorway. Lee recognized her immediately and panic flooded his senses. The demon herself walked into the bunker with her face empty of anger, satisfaction, or fear.

Her metal limbs caught the lantern light as she stepped over one of the fallen guards, and behind her came Fire Nation soldiers in darkened armor with weird compact metal contraptions raised in both hands. What could only be Princess Azula followed close behind, a pleased expression spreading across her face.

General Sung backed away from the table. "You…"

Agni's wrath did not even look at him first. Her eyes moved across the officers, messengers, and the rest of the officers gathered with calmness.

"Kill all of them except the general." she said, simply. "I will handle him."

Fire Nation soldiers fired making him flinch hard. Officers fell around the table, messengers stumbled against the walls without knowing what had hit them. Lee raised his arm to bend a wall to protect himself, but cold burning pain caught him in the chest before he finished the movement.

He fell backward against the floor, unable to draw breath. Princess Azula was the last thing he saw, two of her fingers smoking, and her face lit by blue light and twisted with a grin that looked far too pleased for the slaughter around her.

Lin left the headquarters bunker with General Sung over her shoulder leaving only dead officers behind her.

The strike had gone as well as she could have expected. The explosion at the entrance had stunned most of the command staff, and the first seconds after that had decided the fight before the Earth Kingdom officers understood what was happening.

Azula and the strike team had killed the officers, messengers, guards, and aides who had tried to resist, while Lin had crossed the chamber and taken Sung out before he managed to recover enough sense to bend his way out.

She had chi blocked him and locked his wrists and ankles with metal shackles. The general had then tried threats, insults, and demands that he be released, but Lin ignored most of them while carrying him out of the bunker.

"General, we have placed the booby traps in the bodies." Captain Kaida said.

"Good we are waiting for their response and moving away from here as fast as we can."

The first messengers who rushed back toward headquarters had died in the tunnels before they saw the bodies inside. After that, more soldiers began arriving from nearby reserve positions, confused by the explosion and the sudden silence from their command.

Lin's unit fought through them quickly, firing into the closest groups while Azula burned through the ones who tried to block the passage. The Earth Kingdom soldiers were frightened and disorganized, but there were still too many of them to waste time fighting in place.

"Move left, we move further south." Lin ordered. "Come on, move quickly."

The soldiers obeyed at once. Kaida led three men through a side passage, and Azula followed close behind Lin while Sung twisted uselessly over her shoulder. They arrived at the site where they had para-dropped onto, then quickly did a head count and she was happy that no one was missing.

The general was heavier than he looked, but her prosthetics carried the weight without much issue. What bothered her more was the noise, so she promptly ripped part of the cloth from the parachutes to tie it to his open mouth.

They didn't need more pursuers on their tail just because the general kept insulting them. They lost them after cutting through the remains of an old supply corridor and more trenches that stretched through the land.

One of her own earthbenders collapsed some of them so that they wouldn't find them easily, giving room for the unit to gather their breath and check their weapons. Lin dropped Sung onto the ground.

He hit the earth hard enough to grunt, then glared up at her with hatred that would have been more impressive if he could move. The metal shackles held his limbs in place, and he couldn't say anything with the cloth in his mouth.

"Captain Kaida." Lin said.

Kaida stepped forward at once. She had a messenger hawk strapped carefully to her back inside a leather carrier, the animal restless after the fighting but still alive and alert. Lin was the first to admit the Fire Nation hawks were amazing messengers.

"Unstrap it."

Kaida knelt and loosened the carrier while Lin pulled a prepared strip of paper from inside her coat. She wrote quickly, keeping the message short, so that it was easier to secure to the hawk's leg.

Headquarters neutralized. Send confirmation and report progress of the main assault. No delay.

She tied the order in place herself, checked the knot, then released the bird. They had trained him to know where to go with the same gliders that had surveyed the area beforehand. The bird launched itself out into the air with a beating of wings and disappeared into the sky.

Now they had to wait for the news. While Lin disliked waiting, this looked like the correct place for it at least. Their part of the operation had been completed. Sung had been taken, his headquarters had been gutted, and the Earth Kingdom command structure had been thrown into confusion at the exact moment Shinu was supposed to attack.

If he followed her orders properly, her army would already be pushing through the weakened center, destroying as many enemy formations as possible before they could shore up defenses to repel the attack.

Azula came to stand beside her.

"I didn't know you could chi-block. I only know one other who knows how to, Ty Lee."

"My mother taught me the skill. Although it was hard to accomplish with my metal fingers, I managed. The only difference is that I leave bruises behind while my mother leaves no evidence behind. I'm not as nimble and fast to use it always, I just thought it was the best way to handle him. I could have also punched him hard enough but I didn't want to risk breaking his ribs and causing his death prematurely." Lin explained.

"Ah, makes sense." Azula chuckled.

Lin took one of the smaller maps from Kaida's pack and unfolded it on a flat piece of broken floor. The glider scouts had done good work. The drawn routes were not perfect, but they showed enough of the trenches, ruins, tunnel exits, and supply roads for her to judge their position.

They were a bit deeper in enemy lines than she had expected by their surroundings but it wouldn't matter if they broke through either way. Now depending on the news, they would strike the rear of the southern line and rejoin their own forces as the enemy collapsed.

That would be the best outcome. If general Shinu failed, or if the attack stalled, then they would need to improvise a route back through the weakest section of the line, which was risky.

'We do have something that could help in that situation either way.' she thought looking back at General Sung.

The captured general had gone silent, but his eyes were still moving. He was listening, and looking around in fear.

"I know the perfect thing to pass the time while we wait for the hawk to come back." Lin said.

"Oh? Sounds promising, I'm all ears." Azula said, with a grin on her face.

Lin folded the map halfway and looked down at the general on the ground.

"What do you say we have a little fun with the General here, Azula?"

Lin saw him flinch hard and that brought a smile to her face.

General Shinu was nervous, and he thought any sane man in his position would be. The command tent had been reinforced with earth and timber, but it still trembled whenever the Fire Nation guns fired from behind the line.

Messengers came and went with reports from the tanks, rhino units, infantry companies, and his own Yuyan archers, who were fighting in the frontlines. With this one attack, the Fire Nation could finally break the Earth Kingdom after a century of war, and it all sat on his very shoulders.

He had been given command of both armies for the next twenty-four hours. Shinu had agreed, of course. Refusing would have been cowardice, and he was not a coward, but he had spent the first hour after her departure reading the orders over and over again, afraid that he would miss some important detail.

He began his attack at the time that had been written down. Tanks pushed first through the center, supported by firebenders, riflemen, and earthbenders clearing the broken terrain. The rhinos followed wherever the ground allowed them to pass, carrying men and supplies forward while the infantry widened the gap.

The Yuyan archers moved in selected groups, taking positions along raised sections and their own moving tanks, picking off earthbenders who tried to rally the retreating defenders or ambush them through the trenches.

The Earth Kingdom resisted with everything they still had. Earthbenders raised walls in front of the tanks, opened trenches beneath infantry lines, and tried to crush as many soldiers as they could with their boulders.

Shinu bit at one of his nails while he listened to the reports. The army was leaving waves of bodies behind while it was advancing.

"The third tank group has passed the second line of their defense."

"Mongke's unit is catching up to them soon."

"Enemy reserves are said to be moving from the south."

He has been monitoring the first phase for now, but he was growing anxious. If the headquarters had fallen, he would commit the reserves and push without delay. If the strike failed, he would tighten the advance, secure the center, and avoid overextending into a trap.

A hawk cry cut through the noise outside the tent. Major Han rushed out and returned moments later with the message tied to the bird's leg. Shinu took it with hands that he was relieved to find steady enough. The message was short, written in General Lin's direct style.

Shinu released a long breath. The princess and Agni's blessed general had succeeded, and now the weight of victory had been placed fully in his hands. He could feel the fear still there, but he was not general for nothing.

"Major Han. Send word to the princess that we are pushing through the center. Tell her the attack continues according to General Lin's plan." Shinu said, folding the message.

"Yes, General."

"And send the reserves forward now. All of them assigned to the central assault. No waiting."

Han saluted and ran to carry the orders. Shinu turned to the armor stand beside the table, where his helmet waited with its polished crest. His armor was more ornate than what Lin wore, gold-trimmed and made to be seen, he was a general after all.

He had wondered before if it made him seem vain, but now he thought it might serve a purpose. If the men saw him at the front, they would know their commander had not stayed behind while they fought.

He put on the helmet and stepped out of the tent. A platoon of his best Yuyan archers followed him, their captain giving a quick signal as the men formed around him with bows ready. Lin had trusted him with her men, and he would not waste their lives hiding behind the lines while the battle was being decided.

"Any enemy in sight is to be killed." Shinu ordered. "If they try to rally, you cut down the officer. If an earthbender moves to block us, you take him first. We are not stopping until the center collapses."

The archers answered with disciplined salutes, and Shinu and his group mounted their mongoose lizards and rode toward the front. They passed supply crews, wounded men being carried back, and engineers dragging tools toward the newly opened path.

The closer Shinu came to the fighting, the more he believed they could win. The earth had been torn open by tank tracks and explosions. Smoke moved between broken earthworks, and Fire Nation soldiers were pressing forward.

When Shinu reached the frontline, he saw that the enemy was beginning to fold. The tanks were pushing over the trenches, crushing barriers and men beneath their weight while the crews fired into groups trying to retreat.

Firebenders moved behind them, throwing flames into their backs and forcing earthbenders away from their positions. The rhinos carried infantry into the breach, and the soldiers jumped down almost before the animals had fully stopped, firing fireballs, shouting, and advancing as officers waved them forward.

Shinu felt the fear leave him as he raised his fist into the air.

"Forward!" he roared. "Give no quarter!"

The soldiers around him answered with a cheer that spread faster than he expected. Men who had been moving carefully began pushing harder, and officers repeated his order down the line. Shinu joined the advance himself, sending wide arcs of fire toward enemy groups from atop his mount.

His archers moved with him, loosing arrows at any soldier who came too close and any earthbender who tried to raise cover around the retreat. For the first time since the battle began, Shinu felt powerful, not merely important because of his rank.

He inspired the men forward and they were winning with him at the head of the battle. The center had broken. The Earth Kingdom was retreating in confusion, no doubt waiting for orders that would never arrive.

After what felt like hours of constant movement, Shinu called the closest officers and pointed toward the southern line.

"We turn now. The tanks continue forward enough to keep them running, then bend south. Infantry follows in sections. We trap the rest of their forces from behind and crush them against our line."

One officer blinked sweat from his eyes. "We are already far enough, General?"

"Yes. We close in on them. No time to wait!"

The order passed quickly. Units that had been advancing straight ahead began turning toward the rest of the enemy position, and Shinu could already see Lin's plan giving them their victory. If they moved fast enough, half the Earth Kingdom line would find the Fire Nation in front and behind them before they could escape.

His arms ached, and his throat burned from shouting, so he pulled one of the ration bars from his pouch. The Fourth Army had distributed them before the attack, bitter leaves crushed into hard rectangles and wrapped in paper.

Soldiers from Lin's army had said they helped with fatigue, unpleasant but effective. Shinu bit into it and forced himself to swallow. The taste was awful, dry and bitter enough to make his face twist, but the effect came faster than he expected.

Warmth spread through him, followed by a rush of energy that made his exhaustion feel distant. His heartbeat quickened, his hands steadied, and the battlefield seemed clearer. He raised his fist once again into the air, laughing louder than he meant to.

"Advance!" he roared. "For the Fire Nation!"

The men followed him south, and Shinu drove them toward victory with the strength of ten men burning in his chest.

Long Feng kept his face composed as he listened to his Dai Li agent's report, even as his anger grew with every word. The Earth Kingdom army was in full retreat. The center had broken, and the rest of the line began falling apart faster than his agents had believed possible.

Soldiers were abandoning trenches, reserves would arrive too late, and the commanders who should have restored order were dead or missing. He couldn't believe that things had gone so badly.

He had given the army every advantage he could provide. Refugees had been converted into soldiers, trained enough to hold weapons, and prepared by the Dai Li to march without fear of death.

Ba Sing Se had numbers the Fire Nation could never match, and yet those numbers had been burned away so fast that the army didn't have time to recover. Moreover the weapons employed by the Fire Nation had surprised him and he had no answer to them at all.

General Sung was missing. General How had taken command but he was not in the frontlines yet. The officers in the central headquarters had vanished after the Fire Nation strike, and the Dai Li agents sent to recover Sung had not returned either.

Long Feng accepted the obvious conclusion. They were dead, captured, or useless to him now. He dismissed his agent and focused on what he could still do. He needed to find a way to bring back the population under his control.

They already knew too much; at first, rumors had been contained, but the battle was too close now. People could hear the explosions, see the smoke, and watch wounded men dragged through the gates.

Fear was spreading through the rings, and fear inside a city this large could become more dangerous than the enemy outside the walls. The Earth King had also become a problem. Kuei had wanted to know what was going on, meetings with generals, and the chance to speak to the people.

Long Feng had ended that nonsense by confining him to his chambers under the excuse of security. No one would see the King without Dai Li approval, and no order would leave the palace unless Long Feng allowed it.

The Upper Ring was already secured. Storehouses had been sealed, with rations for the upper district in Dai Li's control, and noble families warned that hoarding would be treated as treason. If necessary, the Middle and Lower Rings would serve as a shield.

The Fire Nation wanted to conquer Ba Sing Se and for that, they would have to go through millions of people before they could capture the upper district. Long Feng knew the Fire Nation didn't have the men to do such a feat.

At the same time, he would lose control of the whole city if his people started dying en masse. Which is why he wanted the shield to be there in the first place. He could go into the negotiating table with clear terms.

The Fire Nation could take the walls and raise their banners wherever they wished, but ruling Ba Sing Se would require hands already inside its throat, and he could offer the surrender of the city while keeping control of it himself. Or they could have the blood of millions in their hands.

"Seal the inner checkpoints from the Upper district." Long Feng ordered. "No movement between rings without Dai Li approval. Any officer coming from the front is to be questioned. Any soldier spreading panic is to be detained."

One agent bowed. "And the refugees?"

"Keep them in the lower districts."

"If the Fire Nation reaches them, they may riot."

"It won't come down to that, I have a plan."

The agent bowed again and left. The generals had failed, the army was collapsing, and the King was a buffoon either way, no one would negotiate with him. But he would try and keep his position, by any means necessary.

LordCommand679 · Sep 4, 2026

Ohoho the brother is here! And from the picture of menacingly Lin I am guessing...she is NOT gonna react well about the Dai Li.

Lucernello · Sep 5, 2026

LordCommand679 said:
Ohoho the brother is here! And from the picture of menacingly Lin I am guessing...she is NOT gonna react well about the Dai Li.

Combustion man joins the gaang. Heh

BxHero · Sep 5, 2026

Wait a min. Azula can't fool me that was just an excuse to go on a date. My god she knows how to play Lin now. Welp they are all fucked now. The world had a good run but the game was rigged from the start.

Rotceh · Sep 5, 2026

Good work I love this fic es

LordCommand679 · Sep 5, 2026

Now I can't help but imagine that beginning scene of Knightfall Part 1 where Azrael brutally killed human traffickers with his fire blades and here it is Lin who goes berserk on the Dai Li once melting the flesh from the skull of a Dai Li and menacingly walk toward Long Feng she snarls "Defiler...evil...your cult of personality must be punished!"

Lucernello · Sep 20, 2026

AN: Hi. Sorry about the delay for a few days. I made a mistake while exhausted with my google drive. I basically deleted my drafts file because my drive was full and I was not paying enough attention. It was not letting me restore it either, mainly because it was full but I didn't realize that for some time.

Anyway, it was dumb and you can call me that if you want, it was silly. Two chapters time! Enjoy,
Luce

Art by Mochi_the_innocent and Aurora:

99 A.G

Lin and Azula had taken over one of the bunkers that had previously belonged to the Earth Kingdom reserves. They luckily didn't have to fight anyone so far, and they only saw a few scattered groups of soldiers retreating as fast as they could, without paying any attention to them.

Lin was happy that they had enough time with General Sung to get everything they needed from him. He was currently tied to a chair near the opposite side of the bunker, exhausted and barely conscious after everything Azula and her had done to him.

They had gotten from him reserve positions, supply locations, and anything else that could help their army finish destroying the remaining defenders. Sung had resisted for some time, while Lin softened him up, but resistance became null once Azula added lightning to the mix.

They had obtained enough useful information and had corresponded with her soldiers via hawk a couple of times. It seemed the attack was a success and they expected to be able to encircle the enemy directly east of their position, and Lin was waiting on that to move on.

What bothered her was the refugee situation. According to Sung, tens of thousands of them had been pulled into the army as emergency reserves, and while it was understandable as Ba Sing Se became more desperate, what did not make sense was their behavior.

Sung had told them that all the people the Dai Li had sent their way, wouldn't retreat in any situation, and that even some of his soldiers feared them as they had a blank expression on their faces, as if they felt nothing at all.

Although refugees were not soldiers, for them to disobey orders unless the orders themselves were to charge the enemy was extremely odd. Even desperate people usually wanted to survive, especially people with families waiting behind them.

They might fight if their only place left to live was in danger, or if they were under threat of punishment, but throwing themselves forward without any concern for their own survival was different. There had to be some explanation that she was missing here.

There was a possibility that the Dai Li were threatening their families. That would make sense, especially if the secret police controlled the records of where refugees had been settled. A man might charge into a hopeless battle if that gave his wife or children a chance to live.

Money was another possibility. The Earth Kingdom could have offered compensation to families for every enemy killed or for the death of the volunteer himself. People who had lost their homes might accept terrible bargains if they believed their deaths could secure food or shelter for the people they loved.

Lin had seen desperate people make worse choices through her short years alive, and knew firsthand how dark it could turn for most people living through a war. The problem was that desperation did not make thousands of individuals behave almost exactly the same way.

Some would have fled, others would have frozen, surely some would have surrendered once officers died or communication broke down. Instead, she had already spotted the same behavior from her time in the front and the reports from her own frontline: No refugees surrendered.

There was an easy way to identify them as well, they were not wearing armor like the rest of the army. With Sung confirming that they were the ones delivering those people to the army, now she knew that the Dai Li were involved somehow. It was concerning.

Lin would have to investigate it once they reached the inner city. If they had found a way to coerce so many people into marching mindlessly against the enemy, getting through the lower rings of the city would be problematic and bloody.

Obviously they could just bombard the city until there was nothing left, but that was not the goal of the campaign.

"What are you thinking about so intensely?" Azula's voice interrupted her thoughts.

Lin turned and found the princess leaning against the wall with a pleased expression. She had rinsed the blood from her hands, though there were still dark stains on her sleeves.

"I'm thinking about the refugee situation." Lin replied. "Their behavior does not make sense."

"Mmm, but they are useless, why would it be a concern?" Azula asked.

"Well… if they have a method to make people charge at us mindlessly, they could use the lower rings of the city to resist us for a long time, depending on how much food they have. Or it could be an absolute bloodbath and we could end up with a dead city in our hands. It goes against our objective here. We want to be able to use the city after we conquer it." Lin replied.

"Peasants do not concern me, but I don't like delays, I can see how it would be problematic." Azula acknowledged.

Lin nodded then glanced toward the tortured general. "You think we have everything out of him?"

"Yes, he sang beautifully." Azula said with a smug smile. "I think that was all he had to say."

"Great, we are done with him then. He is not useful anymore." Lin said, then quickly pulled her knife out of her armor, and swiftly ended his life. Once he went limp, she moved away and packed her tools.

"I would say I performed exceptionally well." Azula said seductively, approaching her gently.

"You did." Lin nodded

Azula's smile widened. "Then I think I deserve a reward."

Lin raised an eyebrow. "What kind of reward do you want from me?"

The confidence on Azula's face remained, although Lin noticed that she took a moment before answering.

"A kiss."

Lin stared at her for a moment, prompting Azula to cross her arms. "What?"

"That was simply not what I expected you to ask for."

"It's been a long time since the last one." Azula stepped closer. "I want more experience with you."

Lin felt her own face warming slightly. The princess looked delighted with herself now, so much so that Lin considered refusing for a moment, though she could not find much reason beyond her own embarrassment.

They had already spoken enough about where their relationship might eventually go, and Azula was clearly asking rather than simply assuming Lin would agree so it was a step in the right direction.

"Fine, you deserve it." Lin said.

Azula's smug expression weakened once Lin actually moved closer. She leaned down and kissed her gently, keeping it brief at first. When Azula relaxed, Lin rested one hand lightly against the side of her neck and kissed her again with more confidence.

When Lin pulled away, Azula remained close, looking considerably less smug than she had a few seconds earlier.

Lin smiled at her reaction. "Satisfied with your reward?"

Azula cleared her throat and recovered some of her composure. "Yes, that felt different than last time, I'm content."

"That's good to hear." Lin said, cheerful.

"For now at least." Azula threatened jokingly.

Lin chuckled and returned her attention to the task at hand, preparing everything to depart soon. Azula remained beside her looking much happier than before. She had successfully stopped her from worrying about anything for a moment.

The messenger hawk returned while Lin was fastening the last pieces of equipment to her armor. Captain Kaida caught it when it landed near the bunker entrance and carefully removed the note tied to its leg before handing it over.

Lin unfolded the paper and immediately smiled, for the attack had succeeded and they could now move back to base. With the collapse of the center and the following operation to encircle the enemy, the Earth Kingdom forces were retreating across most of the front, and the southern push had advanced far enough that their units were beginning to close around what remained of the defenders.

Shinu estimated that they would control the area directly east of Lin's position soon, giving the strike team a safe route back without having to cross enemy territory again. Lin felt herself relax for the first time since they had jumped from the gliders.

"Finally, we can head back. We've won." she announced.

The soldiers around the bunker immediately turned toward her.

"This is it gentlemen, we are going back east of our position, we estimate we will reach friendly forces instead of the enemy."

A few of the soldiers cheered, while Kaida grinned and hit one of the men beside her on the shoulder.

"It was only possible because of us." Azula said proudly. "I'm glad the good general didn't mess things up."

Lin folded the message. "I had a little more faith in him than you apparently did."

"While I had faith in your plan, Shinu was a questionable part."

"I had full confidence in him, sometimes you just have to trust your fellow comrades in arms."

"He succeeded, so now I can pretend I believed in him all along." Azula replied, undeterred.

Lin laughed and motioned for everyone to start moving. They had spent long enough behind enemy lines, and now that their army had opened a route, there was no reason to remain there and risk stumbling into retreating units.

They moved east through trenches and abandoned defensive positions, keeping their weapons ready in case they encountered resistance. Most of what they found suggested the Earth Kingdom had left in a hurry.

Spears, shields, discarded packs, food, and pieces of armor had been abandoned along the path they took. A few wounded soldiers were scattered among the ruins, but none tried to stop them.

After almost two hours of moving carefully, Kaida raised her fist and pointed ahead. Fire Nation banners were visible through the smoke. Lin initially thought they had reached an isolated advance unit, but as they continued forward, she realized there were far too many soldiers for that.

Tanks had already crossed the area, their tracks leaving evidence all over the place, infantry companies were occupying the old Earth Kingdom trenches, and firebenders that clearly had just rotated out of the lines were resting all over the place.

"This was faster than I expected." Lin admitted. "We will need to plan what to do with the amount of prisoners we will take with this maneuver."

"Why would you let them live?" asked Azula.

"The second army is not trained mentally to kill all of them off, just the reports of crucifixion operation was enough for some of them to desert. Besides, earthbenders were very handy to have in our army. It would only be in our best interest if we offered them a way out." Lin replied.

"How generous of you." Azula smirked.

Their group was noticed before reaching the first occupied trench. Someone shouted Lin's rank, then another soldier recognized Azula beside her. Within moments, soldiers were gathering along the sides of the route as the strike team passed. The first cheers were scattered, but they quickly spread through the units nearby.

"General Renshi!"

"Princess Azula!"

Lin raised one hand in acknowledgment while continuing forward. Azula seemed far more pleased by the attention, straightening beside her as the soldiers began chanting both their names.

News of the headquarters strike had clearly traveled quickly, probably exaggerated several times already by the time it reached these units. Lin expected the story to become ridiculous by tomorrow, probably something to do with spirits.

It took them another few hours to return to the main camp. The battle was still continuing in isolated areas, but the situation was controlled and the Fire Nation was now advancing on all fronts.

Officers were reorganizing units rather than preparing desperate defenses, and engineers were already discussing where the railway could be extended next. The Earth Kingdom army would lose most of the agrarian zone.

Reports arriving throughout the evening confirmed that organized resistance in the south part of the front they had split in two had nearly disappeared. Most regular soldiers had fled toward the inner city or surrendered once the encirclement was completed.

The refugees they found in the way had indeed been killed off. Almost none surrendered, and those trapped in the southern pocket continued attacking until they were killed. That only increased Lin's concern about what Sung had told her.

For now, however, the army had room to breathe and reorganize. Their next objective would be securing the entire agrarian zone and surrounding the inner city of Ba Sing Se before deciding how to proceed.

Military police units were already being requested from across the colonies, along with administrators, laborers, engineers, and agricultural workers from both the colonies and the Fire Isles.

Someone would have to guard prisoners, restore roads, repair irrigation systems, and work the enormous fields. Conquering territory was easy compared to using it to their advantage, which is why Lin believed they should move fast.

When Lin reached the center camp, General Shinu was waiting for her outside the main tent. His golden armor was filthy, one side of his helmet was dented, and he looked far too energetic for someone who had apparently spent hours leading an assault personally.

Lin stopped in front of him. "I hear you did well, General. I commend you."

Shinu immediately straightened. "Thank you, General! But without you taking out their commanders I'm sure it would have been very different."

"Each of us have their own task, General. You did excellent work and is appreciated. I was expecting to have to fight our way through the enemy back to our lines."

His expression brightened enough that Lin almost regretted praising him so openly.

"Thank you, General. The men fought magnificently."

"They did. Make sure they know I said so."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Lin glanced briefly toward her team still following her around, especially Azula who looked tired even if she tried her best to hide it. The others looked ready to collapse right there.

"Good. I need you to remain in charge for a little longer. With the southern pocket dealt with, we continue as we planned. Send most prisoners to our facilities far away from here by train. Then I need you to reorganize the units to turn our forces to the north front, it should be collapsing as well. Let's move to secure the agrarian zone and siege the inner city." Lin said

Shinu saluted again. "Understood."

Lin turned toward the strike team.

"You are all dismissed. Eat, wash, sleep, and report tomorrow unless someone is bleeding badly enough to require the hospital first. You earned the rest."

The soldiers saluted before dispersing toward the camp, all except Azula, who remained beside her. Lin looked at her and gestured toward her tent. "Want to come rest with me?"

"Oh, sure." Azula seemed happy enough with that suggestion and followed her without complaint. At the entrance, Lin stopped the two royal guards that were following them from a distance.

"You will guard the door. No one comes inside unless it is General Shinu himself. If anyone else has a problem, they can give it to him."

One guard hesitated. "Only him, General? What about the princess attendants?"

"We don't need them at this moment. Do not let anyone else enter unless it's the general, that's an order."

"Yes ma'am!"

Lin entered the tent with the princess following close behind. She then locked the cloth door, something that made Azula raise her eyebrows at her.

"No one will enter today, the General wouldn't disturb us." She explained "I will take care of you."

Azula was too prideful to show how tired she really was, but with their relationship developing, maybe it was time to see if she could help her relax in her presence at least.

"Oh, that sounds nice." The princess said with a smile on her face.

Lin had never been intimate with another person before. Azula wanting her to kiss her made her realize that, so far, the princess had been the one to initiate any form of affection, and that didn't look fair in her eyes.

For any relationship to work, she believed that both should put in the effort. Besides, her tired mind figured that if the princess was already of age to torture and kill people, she was already an adult in this twisted world.

'Besides, the kiss felt quite good.' She mused.

Azula did not think much of Lin inviting her into the tent to rest. They had spent more hours awake than she cared to count, so she did feel exhausted. Being somewhere private with Lin sounded wonderful after everything they've done.

She expected food, sleep, and perhaps another kiss if she was lucky. What she did not expect was for Lin to return carrying a bucket of warm water, two cloths, soap, and a pair of bowls balanced against one metal arm and for her to start undressing without a care in the world.

"I thought we were resting." Azula said warily, trying to look somewhere else once the heavier parts of her armor came off.

"We are." Lin said slowly. "But we both smell terrible."

Azula frowned. "How romantic."

Lin laughed and began removing the lighter pieces of her armor without any embarrassment. She had already taken off her coat and weapons, and now she worked through the straps holding the remaining clothing around her body as casually as if Azula were not there only a few steps away.

She had seen Lin's naked back but it had only been briefly while getting her a bikini to wear at the beach. It felt so much different in this situation. They were alone now, and there was nowhere to hide.

Lin then removed her prosthetics arms and replaced them with her black ones, leaving the worn ones aside. Lin noticed her watching and raised an eyebrow.

"Are you alright?"

Azula recovered quickly. "Yes, it's just that I usually wait for my servants to help me."

"We can help each other."

Azula stared at her. "You want us to wash together?"

"Yes, it will be faster, and then we can get into the same bedroll to rest."

Lin said it with such complete calmness that Azula almost became offended by how little embarrassment she showed. Azula narrowed her eyes at her but said nothing, while she felt her inner fire hotter than ever. Although the princess tried not to stare at her naked body, she found herself ogling her out from top to bottom.

Lin came closer once the last piece of clothing was folded away, and motioned for her to turn around, reaching toward the straps of her armor.

"Come on, let me help." Lin said.

Azula obeyed, although the first touch of metal fingers against the fastenings near her back immediately made her more aware of how close Lin was standing. The armor came away piece by piece, and Lin placed each section aside with care. Then she undid her under aketon, leaving her skin exposed to the cold air.

Azula turned and found Lin still standing close. She then grabbed a clean cloth and carefully guided her to sit in a small wooden stool. She stared at the walls of the tent as Lin carefully rubbed her back first with the wet cloth, pausing at times to sink the cloth back in the bucket.

She then got closer and rubbed the front of her body from the back, and Azula could hear her beating heart in her ears. Still, it felt nice after the initial awkwardness and slowly felt herself relax after focusing on her breathing.

"Better?" Lin asked after a few minutes.

"Much." Azula admitted, her muscles finally relaxed.

Lin looked her over for a moment, and this time Azula was certain the attention lingered longer than necessary. That helped. If she was going to spend the entire situation embarrassed, she at least wanted Lin to suffer with her.

"Your turn." Azula said.

Lin nodded. "Alright"

She then helped her up and sat in the same stool, letting Azula grab the piece of cloth. Azula took her time cleaning her body, partly because the mechanisms around Lin's prosthetics got in the way and partly because having an excuse to run her fingers along Lin's body was considerably more enjoyable than she wanted to admit.

Lin glanced back at her once. "You are doing a nice job, that feels great, Azula."

"Well duh, I may not have done it before but I am a prodigy, you know."

"Of course."

Azula smiled behind her running her hands through her firm and strong back, feeling her well worked muscles through her fingers. When Lin motioned toward her front, however, Azula's confidence began disappearing again.

Lin seemed amused by her hesitation.

"What?" Azula asked defensively.

"Nothing, amused to see you nervous about this."

"I am not."

"It's okay if you are, I have to admit I am a bit nervous myself."

"Really?"

"Yes." Lin said gently, then turned around grabbed her hands into hers, then gently placed a kiss on her lips.

Azula felt heat rise into her face. "I have never done this with anyone."

"Neither have I, at least not like this."

Azula looked at her more carefully. "That's good to hear, I would hate to hunt down the one you had done this with before."

Lin laughed and shook her head amused. Still, that made Azula feel better. Lin was older and usually seemed to have an answer for everything, so knowing that they were both inexperienced made the situation feel less strange. Knowing there was no one else that had seen her like that as well made her happy.

Lin then let her proceed with washing away soot, dried blood, and dirt accumulated through hours of combat off her body, guiding Azula's hands through her body. For the princess, however, the closeness changed the atmosphere between them regardless of how ordinary Lin tried to make it.

After leaving the cloth behind, Lin then washed her hair gently with a brush while humming a song Azula didn't recognize.

"Now, wait a second in the bedroll while I wash my hair quickly. Using a brush would make it fall and it is not something I want at the moment." Lin explained, once she was done.

The awkwardness and shyness returned for the princess as she still felt exposed sitting there naked. Lin quickly washed her hair while Azula tried to regain a semblance of calmness by breathing deeply and slowly.

She was wondering what Lin had planned now. 'Does she intend for us to sleep together?'

The answer was quick to arrive as Lin came back having put together the cleaning tools. She sat next to her in the bedroll, then gently guided her down onto the bed.

'Oh, spirits! She really does.'

Azula's mind was racing, wondering if Lin would take it further. The princess didn't know what to do exactly, or what was expected of her, and although it hurt her to admit it, she was internally panicking at the unfamiliar situation she found herself in.

Lin then calmly positioned herself behind her, cuddling her. Then she carefully caressed her arm and started humming again, soothing her gently. She could feel Lin's breathing in her neck and she had never felt this warm inside before.

Slowly though, she was able to relax, closing her eyes and enjoying the sensation. Although she couldn't really explain what she was feeling, for the first time in her life, Azula felt that she understood a little better what being loved meant.

For some reason her eyes teared up under her eyelids and they stung but she paid it no mind. It was a testament to how exhausted the princess was that she managed to fall asleep shortly after.

Lucernello · Sep 20, 2026

AN: Chapter 2 of 2 today.

99 A.G

Toph had discovered that teaching earthbending was actually fun. She had expected to hate it at first. Toph had never considered herself particularly patient, and some people could be difficult to work with if they didn't like her methods.

On the bright side, working with earthbenders was not as difficult as she expected. They already understood the most important part of her style, standing your ground and actually facing a rock head on. She was also teaching them how to feel the earth by blindfolding them, and they were learning that ability quickly.

Lava bending had been more complicated. Most earthbenders didn't like the heat at all and having to find it to push it to their earthbending was not something that would come easy to them. Which was why Toph had started making them train beside firebenders.

Feeling how firebenders manipulated heat helped them understand what she was trying to explain, even if the first few attempts usually ended with angry shouting from both sides. Toph just laughed it up.

She had prepared another exercise that morning, dividing the trainees into pairs. One earthbender would try to feel the heat and soften a section of stone while the firebender beside them would melt it with continuous flames, forcing both of them to pay attention to what the other person was doing. Once it turned into liquid the earthbender had to be able to keep control of it.

"Come on, I don't see you sweating!" Toph shouted from where she stood between the groups. "You're supposed to melt the rock, not complain about how hot it is!"

One of the firebending instructors beside her chuckled. "You are really in your zone with this. They are getting better."

"They better be. I don't want to listen to them whine all day."

The instructors Lin had assigned to help her were surprisingly good. They respected Toph despite her age and never treated her like some child playing at being a teacher. Better yet, they actually cared about teaching, and when someone failed, they explained why patiently.

They would correct stances and help keep the firebenders that were training with her earthbenders in line. They also referred to her as instructor Toph, which she really liked. It forced the firebenders to respect her too, which had taken some getting used to.

A few had been skeptical when she first started ordering them around, but that disappeared soon once they saw how every instructor present would treat her. Not that she needed that, she could have thrown them against a wall or something to get the message going without their help, but she was glad she didn't have to in the end.

Training was not the only thing her earthbenders had been doing either. They had spent several days clearing debris from the destroyed wall, opening paths wide enough for the trains and people to go through them easily.

The best news for Toph was when the artillery had moved farther inland with the rest of the army. The constant explosions had been giving her headaches, especially because she felt every impact through the earth. It wasn't like she could turn her earthsense off.

With the larger guns further away, everything around the training camp felt much calmer, and she was actually having a nice time. Teaching, building things, bossing adults around, and eating spicy food whenever she wanted was turning out to be a pretty good arrangement.

Toph was supervising another batch of rookies when she felt familiar footsteps approaching along the train platform. She couldn't help but grin before the person could even reach her.

"Metalsticks!"

Toph didn't give her time to answer and walked forward and bumped her fist against Lin's shoulder. Toph immediately winced, however, and remembered why she shouldn't do that with her friend.

"Ow. Still harder than rock." Toph whined, rubbing her knuckles gently.

"You are the one who decided to hit me." Lin laughed.

"I was saying hello."

"Curious way of doing it. Hello to you too, Toph. How have you been?"

Toph crossed her arms proudly. "Great. These guys aren't terrible students, and apparently I'm really good at teaching."

"I never doubted you would do well, instructor Wenxin had high praise for you."

"Wenxin is a nice friend. But I thought I'd hate it."

Toph turned toward the training field when one of the earthbenders finally managed to finally take control of the now liquid stone beneath his feet and push it forward slightly. The firebender beside him shouted in celebration, and Toph could feel several others gathering around them.

"I like it, to be honest." she admitted. "It's fun when people actually listen, and I get to yell at them when they don't."

"That does sound perfect for you."

Toph grinned. "Exactly."

Lin watched the trainees for a moment. "Maybe after the war we could build you an academy."

Toph turned toward her so quickly that Lin chuckled again.

"My academy…?"

"Yes, all yours. You could teach earthbending properly and lava bending as well to whoever you wanted."

Toph tried not to sound too excited and failed completely. "I could make the rules?"

"Of course, that's the point of it being yours." Lin said, amused.

"And throw people out if they annoy me?"

"Especially if they annoy you."

"That sounds great!"

Lin shook her head, smiling. Toph could already imagine it; a huge training yard, earthbenders from everywhere coming to learn from her. She pictured leading an elite class for lava bending that would be known throughout the entire world.

"That sounds awesome, Lin." Toph said. "We're doing that."

"Then it's settled, I will help you set it up when we can."

Dreaming about the future had to stop at some point though, Toph knew that Lin had not come all the way back to the trains just to ask whether she was enjoying herself.

"So why are you actually here? Or did you just miss me that much?"

"I did miss you." Lin didn't even hesitate to reply.

"Ha! Knew it." Toph said, grinning.

"But I also need your help, and it was a perfect reason to catch up."

"Fair, what do you need?"

"We had our spies report to us that refugees had been seen close to Lake Laogai, and we have traced movement of people toward the body of water itself. We believe the Dai Li have a base somewhere in the lake or close to it, but we haven't been able to find it with our gliders."

"Oh, you are actually taking me on an adventure to find hidden people."

"Adventure…? Actually, that sounds about right. We are moving into the area to sweep it properly, and I was hoping that you could come with us and help us find it, it could be underground which is how we missed it." Lin said.

"Sounds easy enough."

"I was hoping you would say that."

Toph turned toward the instructors. "You guys can survive without me for a day, right?"

One of them sighed. "We will try our best."

"Thank you, Sergeant. See to it that they don't melt themselves." Lin said.

"Yes ma'am!"

"Come on, Lin. Let's go already." Toph said, smiling. Teaching was fun and all, but adventuring with her friends was still better in her eyes.

Lin was relieved that things had not become terribly awkward between her and Azula during the days that followed. She had not expected them to, exactly, but she could admit that she had pushed their relationship forward faster than she had planned, and she could only blame herself.

Falling asleep beside the princess after washing and resting together had felt quite intimate, but waking up with Azula curled against her while both of them were still completely naked had still made Lin pause for several seconds while her tired mind caught up with what had happened.

Azula at least seemed to be happy with what happened. In fact, the following night she had asked if they could sleep together again, and Lin had agreed before thinking too much about it. After that, the situation had somehow become normal between them.

Lin had found that she enjoyed the affection. It was nice, and she was glad she could finally experience them for the first time in both her lives.

The war had not given her much time to think about relationships in either life, and having someone who simply wanted to be close to her made her feel warm and content, even if it was a bit unfamiliar to her.

She was learning to accept it without searching for some hidden reason behind the shows of affection or love. It also helped that the following days had blurred together, with Lin barely needed at the front that week.

The Earth Kingdom had continued retreating toward the inner city, abandoning the agrarian zone piece by piece while the Fire Nation secured what remained behind them. There were still isolated pockets of resistance and scattered groups that refused to surrender, but nothing comparable to the fighting they had endured so far.

Military police had arrived by train, followed by workers, farmers, engineers, administrators, and supplies from across the colonies and the Fire Isles. Roads were being constructed, irrigation channels repaired, fields inspected, and prisoners transported away from the front.

The railway continued advancing, connecting captured territory together. They could also already point their guns toward the inner city. They wouldn't use them obviously but they were ready to bring the inner walls down if necessary. The agrarian zone was effectively theirs.

Lin had sent the news back to the Fire Nation and according to the messages returning from home, celebrations had spread through the Fire Isles almost immediately. Bells had been rung in several cities, soldiers had received public praise, and the newspapers were apparently describing the campaign as the greatest victory of the war so far.

Lin thought that was premature, considering Ba Sing Se itself still stood and there could be anywhere around 3 to 4 million people to go through yet. For now, however, she had another problem to solve.

Lake Laogai stretched ahead of them under the afternoon sun while Lin walked beside Toph along the shore. Azula followed close behind with the rest of their group, accompanied by a platoon of Lin's best soldiers and several Yuyan archers Shinu had lent her for the operation.

The archers had protested very little about being reassigned; since their success at striking at their headquarters, being close to her and Azula was the highest honor one could get according to her troops.

Their spies had traced refugee movements toward the lake several times, and reports from captured officers suggested that the Dai Li maintained facilities most officers didn't know about. If Sung had been telling the truth about the strange behavior of the refugee formations, then Lin wanted to know what was happening to them before approaching the inner city.

Toph stopped abruptly beside her, causing everyone to halt their march.

"There is an underground base, but no entrances here. I think we need to move to the center of the lake, are there any small islands there?"

Lin scanned the surface of the lake and indeed there was.

"Yes there are, but how could the refugees be seen walking out of here if they had to cross the lake?"

"I think the water is quite shallow here actually." Toph said, scanning the area again. "I think they just create a bridge using earthbending each time to cross it."

"Alright, create it for us then, we are moving in. " Lin said.

"Sure, metalsticks. No biggie." Toph said, raising a platform from the water itself, creating a path for them.

They moved further toward the only island in the center of the lake. Once there, Toph found the entrance quickly.

"Are you sure this is it?" Azula asked behind them.

Toph gave her an offended expression. "Of course I am sure."

"Well sorry for being skeptical, it doesn't look like much." The princess scoffed.

"Well done. Let's move in then." Lin said, simply, ignoring both of them and approached the entrance.

"It feels pretty big underneath my feet, but we should be able to move in." Toph commented.

"You will be our guide then." Lin told Toph. "I want everyone else to have their eyes peeled, you will protect her at all costs." She told the rest of them.

"Follow me dunderheads." Toph laughed.

Lin smiled and drew her sidearm. "Be ready for anything."

They entered the tunnel carefully, leaving a couple of soldiers behind to secure the entrance. The passage descended farther, into a series of tunnels. Lanterns along the walls confirmed that the facility was still being used.

Toph walked near the front, with Aiku, Toma and Kaida walking ahead being her shield in case anyone attacked them. Her expression became more serious the deeper they went.

"There are people ahead." she whispered. "Around a dozen of them."

"How far?"

"Past the next turn."

Lin raised her fist, stopping the column. The Yuyan archers moved forward quietly while the firebenders spread themselves along the tunnel. Azula got into a fighting stance, looking almost pleased that the base had not turned out to be abandoned.

Stone scraped against stone ahead of them, followed by echoing rapid footsteps.

"They know we are here, prepare yourselves!" Lin warned.

The first agent came around the corner with both hands already moving. Stone gloves shot toward them, but the nearest Yuyan archer released his arrow before the attack reached them. The agent dropped, and two more immediately appeared behind him.

Lin raised her pistol and fired quickly. "Attack! Push forward!"

The deeper they moved into the base, the more disturbed Lin became by what they were finding. The first section was already unsettling once they reached a long corridor with cells built along both sides, each containing refugees in different conditions.

Some immediately reacted when the Fire Nation soldiers entered. They moved away from the bars, called for help, or just shook in their place. Most looked malnourished and exhausted, with dirty clothing and signs that they had been imprisoned for weeks, but they were coherent enough to answer questions once Lin ordered her men to open the cells.

Their interrogations were concerning, most had arrived in Ba Sing Se as refugees from territories lost during the war. Some remembered being arrested after refusing assignments from officials, while others had been taken directly from shelters and transported here without being told why.

Farther inside the facility, the prisoners behaved differently. Several remained seated even after their cells were opened. One woman followed the instructions of a Kaida immediately but showed almost no concern about who the soldiers were or why they had released her.

Another man repeatedly spoke about charging Ba Sing Se's invaders whenever anyone asked him a question, regardless of what he had actually been asked. There were bruises around the heads and necks of several prisoners, while others seemed dazed enough that they barely understood where they were.

"This is horrible." Toph said. She had been very quiet now, and hearing her distressed voice made Lin turn to face her.

"Yes, it is. I know it's hard so please continue to guide us, we will help them out." Lin told her.

"There are their own people…"

"I know."

Lin already had an idea of what they had found before they reached the rooms used for the actual process. There were chairs fixed directly into the floor with restraints for the arms, legs and head. A ring with a lamp would surround each one of them.

Looking though a few of the records they kept there was haunting. The terminology varied, but the purpose became obvious quickly. The Dai Li had developed a method to break down a person mentally and condition them to respond to commands in a specific way.

'This is a conversion camp, I cannot believe it.'

Some records mentioned removing unwanted memories, reinforcing loyalty, suppressing resistance and repeating sessions until the subject reacted correctly without hesitation. Lin felt her hands begin to tremble while she continued reading.

She tightened her grip on the documents and forced herself to concentrate on the mission. Tens of thousands of refugees had reached Ba Sing Se throughout the war, and if this facility had processed even a fraction of them, there was no telling how many more had already been conditioned and sent somewhere else.

The thought of millions of civilians living inside the inner city became much more concerning. If the Dai Li had more facilities like this one and enough time to continue their work, the Fire Nation could eventually find itself fighting through entire districts filled with people who had been stripped of their free will.

They wouldn't surrender until death, and it would be one of the bloodiest battles yet. Lin lowered the documents and continued forward with the rest of the group. Her concentration became harder to maintain as they went deeper.

It was hitting her hard and her mind was panicking internally while trying to continue forward. Soldiers wearing Chinese uniforms appeared where Dai Li agents should have been, moving through openings that disappeared once she focused on them. She breathed deeply and kept moving. She had worked through these visions before, she could ignore them.

"Are you alright?" Toph asked, worried.

"Yes, I'll be fine." Lin replied automatically. Azula looked at her with concern as well, but said nothing.

The Yuyan archers made the advance considerably easier. Once Toph identified movement beyond walls or around corners, the archers prepared before the Dai Li could attack properly. Their accuracy in the narrow tunnels gave the agents very little opportunity to surprise the group, while the firebenders and Azula protected Toph whenever the fighting became close.

Lin continued mapping the facility until Toph confirmed that the deeper passages either returned toward areas they had already cleared or ended beneath the lake. There did not seem to be a hidden route connecting directly with the inner city, which meant they could evacuate the prisoners without worrying that another Dai Li force would arrive behind them.

"Alright, let's get all of these prisoners out and evaluate how they are. If they present a risk to us we will have to leave them here."

"R-right away, ma'am."

While the evacuation continued, she returned to the rooms where the conditioning had taken place.

Seeing the restraints again made her stomach turn. There were personal belongings stored in boxes, instructions for future sessions and evidence that this had been happening for a long time. Lin wanted the entire facility destroyed once the prisoners they could help were outside.

They had not brought enough blasting jelly for a structure this large, and asking Toph to collapse an underground complex beneath a lake would put her directly in danger. Lin refused to risk her life that way.

'I cannot let this base stand though, it needs to be erased from existence.'

Azula knew something was wrong with Lin, but like her, she decided to focus on the mission. The last refugees were already being moved toward the entrance, escorted by soldiers while Toph guided them through the tunnels they had mapped earlier.

All of the Dai Li agents had been killed, and Lin had not allowed them to surrender. She had said she didn't want them as prisoners and executed them as they encountered them. Now they were gathered together to move out.

"I want everyone outside." Lin ordered. "Take the prisoners, wounded, and anything useful we recovered. I'm staying behind."

Azula frowned immediately. "Why?"

"I'm destroying the base."

"With what? We didn't bring enough explosives."

Lin glanced toward the ceiling. "The base is beneath the lake. If I bring down enough sections, the water will do the rest."

Azula wanted to argue further, but Lin's expression stopped her. She studied her more carefully. Although Lin's orders had barely changed since they discovered what the Dai Li were doing, Azula knew her well enough now to notice when something was wrong.

Everything sounded like usual, but her eyes looked empty and glazed over, as if enchanted by a spirit. Azula realized soon that she had seen that expression on her before, back then she had never felt fear of death before.

Years ago, during one of their training sessions, Azula had ordered cannons fired in the distance while they sparred, thinking there was a weakness to be exploited out of the loud noise, and hoping to finally win against Lin.

It had backfired immediately, and for several terrifying seconds Lin had stopped behaving like herself. She had nearly killed Azula before recovering enough to understand where she was. Azula remembered those eyes clearly, and she did not like seeing them again. If Lin lost control again here, she could kill someone before she came back to herself.

Azula turned toward the others. "We are in danger. Get everyone out, right now!" The soldiers did not question her, rushing out.

"Toph, with me, we are leaving." The princess said, grabbing her by her hand and began running.

"Wait, hold on, why?" Toph protested, but kept pace with her anyway.

"She is destroying the base." Azula explained while guiding her toward the entrance.

"How?"

"I don't know, but trust me, you don't want to be close to her when she is like that."

"You are scaring me, is something wrong with her?" Toph said, breathing hard now while they ran.

Azula didn't answer. Once they made their way out however, she stood by the entrance refusing to move further away.

"Is she going to be alright?" Toph asked.

"Yes, she will be back to normal after a bit, at least last time it was just a few minutes. But she almost killed me before she could." Azula commented.

"WHAT!?" Toph shouted. "How did that happen? And how come you never told me about it?!"

"It never came up." Azula shrugged.

They waited in silence now and, for a while, nothing happened. Then Azula heard a peculiar popping sound from deep underground. It was followed by an explosion muffled by layers of earth.

Toph immediately turned toward the entrance. "What was that?"

"I have no idea."

Another series followed several minutes later. They heard a series of cracks and snaps followed by another explosion, this one loud enough that Azula could feel the earth tremble beneath her boots.

The soldiers around them began backing farther away. Toph planted her feet firmly and frowned. "Something is collapsing down there."

The pattern continued, each set of sounds coming closer than the previous one. Several pops echoed beneath them before another explosion shook the ground, sending pebbles rolling from the entrance and making the refugees cry out behind the soldiers.

Azula's concern grew and she hoped that Lin was coherent enough not to get trapped under rubble. Another explosion followed, much louder than the last. A section of earth near the lake sank inward, and water began rushing into cracks that had opened along the shore.

Toph moved her feet apart immediately, ready to bend if the terrain collapsed beneath them.

"How is she doing this…?" Toph muttered.

Azula had already identified what technique Lin was using, but she didn't know she was capable of doing it. The only known user in this era was her brother after all.

A rapid series of pops echoed through the passage, followed by a violent explosion that sent a cloud of dust outward. Soldiers raised their arms to shield their faces, and Azula stepped forward despite the debris blowing against her clothes.

Lin stumbled out of the entrance, coughing and covered in dirt, then immediately turned back toward the tunnel instead of continuing away from it. Azula was about to shout at her when Lin planted both feet firmly and took a deep breath.

A visible smoke trail shot from her forehead so fast it rippled through the air creating those pop sounds, traveling all the way through the entrance she just left. The explosion that followed made it collapse inward violently.

Azula was stunned for a few seconds, she had never seen combustion bending before. Her first thought was that she wanted to learn it, she wanted that power. The thought disappeared almost immediately though when Lin turned toward them.

Her face was pale beneath the dirt, and her eyes did not seem properly focused. She stood there breathing heavily with the same distant expression.

"Lin?" Azula said, approaching her carefully.

Azula stopped directly in front of her, trying to keep her panic under control. "Are you alright?"

"멸공!"

Rotceh · Sep 21, 2026

Wow, Lin is in the middle of a severe TPD attack... and wow, she knows how to use combustion control... I wonder why she doesn't use it more often.

Good work I love this fic

Lucernello · 2026-10-03T22:02:20+0100

AN: Hello guys. I'm sorry for the delay, this week was busy with a lot of work and I finished most days quite tired. I hope you can forgive me. On the bright side... I commissioned more art so yay!

This is by nissimissi and you can buy art from her in Ko-fi:

Enjoy the chapter!
Luce

99 A.G

Lord Kaien had spent the last several weeks feeling so proud of his daughter. Every report arriving from Ba Sing Se seemed more unbelievable than the last. Lin had breached the outer wall, broken the Earth Kingdom army and secured almost half of the city's territory in a matter of weeks.

The casualty reports were not that terrible, not if you took into consideration the amount of lives taken from the other side, and the campaign itself had gone better than anyone in the Fire Nation could have reasonably expected. The Renshi family looked stronger than ever before.

Which is why his informant delivering these types of news was quite concerning.

"You are certain it happened again?" Kaien asked.

The man sitting across from his desk nodded. "Several witnesses confirmed it, my lord. Officers, soldiers and some of the Yuyan archers attached to General Shinu's army."

Kaien leaned back in his chair and rubbed his forehead. Lin had suffered episodes like this many times when she was younger, especially during the years immediately following her accident. She would become confused, speak in languages nobody around her understood and occasionally behave as though she were somewhere else entirely.

Most of the time, she became violent enough that several adults were needed to restrain her. At the time, they were her instructors, and she lacked the strength to beat them. They wouldn't be able to with her present daughter.

Shyno and Kaien had eventually concluded that the spirits responsible for blessing their daughter were reacting badly to what had happened to her. Lin had nearly died, lost most of her limbs and spent months barely able to move.

They assumed that the spirit had chosen her for some purpose, and was understandably angry seeing its blessed human damaged so badly. It was fortunate that it seemed that it was only able to take control of Lin's body and not pass whatever skill the spirit had.

The episodes had become increasingly rare as Lin grew older, which Kaien had taken as a good sign. Whatever spirits followed her had apparently accepted that she was recovering and had stopped interfering so frequently.

Having one appear now meant something big happened. His informant placed several copied reports on the desk.

"This is the detailed report, my lord." The man said.

He took the files quickly, scanning the pages quickly. Lin's group had discovered a Dai Li facility beneath Lake Laogai filled with imprisoned refugees. Those who had escaped described people being tortured, conditioned and stripped of their memories until they obeyed whatever commands the Dai Li gave them.

Some of those same people had later been sent against the nation's army. Kaien could understand why the spirits would object. According to the Yuyan archers, his daughter had destroyed the underground facility before emerging in a confused state and attempting to head directly toward Ba Sing Se.

She had apparently spoken in that weird language, and only uttered a few words in the common tongue mixed with the spirit's lost language. The few they could understand were about burning the entire city to the ground.

Several officers recognized quickly that something was wrong with her and tried to stop her. There were no reports of anyone injured, fortunately. It had taken the Yuyan archers to finally restrain Lin without badly hurting her.

Kaien was particularly grateful that Princess Azula had not attempted to stop his daughter personally. The princess had apparently remained nearby throughout the incident, and if Lin had turned on her while possessed, the consequences could have been disastrous regardless of what ultimately happened after.

"Let's control the narrative of the official version. Let's spread it quickly." Kaien said.

"Yes, my lord. What should we say?"

"Let's spin the tale that Agni himself had witnessed what the Dai Li were doing beneath Lako Laogai. He became so enraged that he momentarily acted through his blessed general."

Considering Lin had already returned from the Spirit World claiming to have spoken with Agni directly, people would be willing to believe it.

Kaien did not particularly care whether every detail was accurate. The story would protect his daughter, and the Renshi family's stability as well.

With his propaganda campaign in full force, instead of newsletters discussing General Lin losing control of herself in front of her soldiers, they were describing Agni's outrage at the barbarity of the Earth Kingdom. The destruction of Lake Laogai was already being presented as divine punishment, while Lin's instability had conveniently become further evidence of her connection to the spirits.

It also gave her time to recover without anyone openly questioning whether she should remain in command. Kaien was confident she wouldn't need that much time, and another occurrence like that was likely to happen anytime soon either.

The war was approaching its end. Half of Ba Sing Se was effectively under Fire Nation control, the Earth Kingdom army had been devastated, and the remaining population was trapped behind their walls. Once the city fell, there would be little left capable of seriously resisting them.

Perhaps when the war ended, the spirits would no longer bother Lin. Most importantly, the family would be hailed as the heroes who won the Fire Nation the war. They would be spoken of for centuries to come.

He pushed the military reports aside and pulled another folder closer. Unfortunately, his daughter was not the only matter demanding his attention. Something unusual had been happening inside the Fire Nation political sphere.

Over the last couple of months, several of Fire Lord Ozai's strongest supporters had lost their positions one after another. None of the incidents were suspicious enough on their own. One noble had been caught hiding financial scams, another had become involved in a scandal with a married woman, while a senior official had been accused by his own subordinates of secretly negotiating with colonial merchants for personal profit.

There had also been accidents, rumors of betrayal and old family disputes suddenly becoming public at particularly convenient moments. Each incident removed another person closely tied to Ozai and forced the Fire Lord to replace them.

Ozai had apparently begun noticing the pattern as well, because those close to the palace described him as increasingly suspicious of the people around him, and highly paranoid. There was a rumor that he even banished some workers to the colonies.

Kaien initially wondered whether the group of dissatisfied nobles that had visited him previously might be responsible, but he had dismissed that possibility rather quickly. Individually, a few of them were clever. Together, they were still a collection of morons incapable of organizing dinner without arguing over who sat where.

Whoever was doing this understood how to play politics by the hand. Kaien had quietly ordered his own people to investigate, and so far they had found very little. There was no obvious connection between the scandals, accidents and accusations beyond their effect on Ozai's political power.

More interestingly, nobody had touched the Renshi family. Kaien's businesses remained undisturbed, his allies had not been targeted, and no damaging rumors had appeared despite Lin becoming one of the most politically valuable figures in the entire Fire Nation.

Considering how carefully other pieces were being removed from the board, Kaien doubted their exclusion was accidental. Someone wanted the Renshi family left alone, but he couldn't figure out what their end goal was.

Whether that was because they considered them allies, useful tools or simply too dangerous to provoke remained unclear. Kaien closed the folder and stood from his desk.

"Continue investigating." He said to the informant. "Quietly. I want to know who benefits every time anyone is removed from their post, especially those close to the Fire Lord."

"Yes, my lord."

"And keep watching the reports from Ba Sing Se. If Lin suffers another episode, I want to know before word gets out."

The man bowed and left the room. Kaien remained there for another moment, looking between the growing list of officials disappearing from Ozai's inner circle and the propaganda posters. He disliked having two problems at the same time, but sometimes you had to do with what life gave you.

He called for his attendants and began preparing to return to the Royal Palace. If somebody was carefully dismantling Ozai's support from inside the Fire Nation, Kaien intended to find out who it was.

He would make sure to understand if this new player was worth supporting or if they were traitors who needed to be put down.

Aang could clearly see that things had been a little tense between everyone lately. Haru and Katara still believed letting Lin's brother travel with them had been a mistake. Neither trusted him much, and Katara in particular seemed uncomfortable having someone from the Fire Nation around after everything that had happened.

Sokka disagreed, although he made it clear that he did not trust him either. In his eyes, having someone who knew Fire Nation territory and could eventually help Aang learn firebending was hard to come by. Besides, he had helped them already.

Aang understood both sides, but personally he was just happy to have made another friend. Having someone from the Fire Nation traveling with them made him feel better about the situation too.

Since waking up, he had heard so much about what the Fire Nation had done and how everyone saw them as monsters. But surely not everyone was the same way, and if the war wasn't a thing, he was sure most people in the Fire Nation would be cool friends to have.

There were still ordinary people there, and if someone raised among their supposed enemies could travel with them, laugh with them and help them, then maybe things could be a lot better than everybody assumed between each nation.

Lin's brother didn't talk much, but he was kind and understanding, even when Katara or Haru treated him badly. He would often sleep further away from everyone to offer comfort, and he had a lot of knowledge on how to survive in the wilderness.

What convinced Aang that he wasn't a bad person to have as a friend was Appa. His companion enjoyed spending time with Raizo. Especially when he was left in charge of cleaning his toes and helping with the excess of fur he had.

Raizo also had advice on which towns to visit and where they wouldn't be bothered at all. He had even suggested that he could travel on his own. He thought he would be too heavy for Appa to carry him and everyone else, but Aang insisted they try and Appa didn't even break a sweat.

Still, the group would bicker among themselves whenever Raizo would head out to look for provisions. The disagreement came up again while they rested for the evening, with Haru questioning why they were still taking the risk and Sokka immediately arguing back.

Aang sighed as the discussion started getting louder. 'Not again.'

Azula had spent most of the day watching Lin more carefully now that they were back at the camp. She had calmed down after the incident at Lake Laogai, but it had taken several people to get her there.

Kaida and Aiku had been the first to try stopping her when she suddenly started moving toward Ba Sing Se, and both had learned very quickly that getting in Lin's way while she was like that was a terrible idea.

Lin had shoved them aside hard, sending both captains flying several meters away from her. Neither had been seriously injured, although Kaida had landed badly and complained about her shoulder afterward.

The situation might have been almost funny if Lin had actually been herself. Azula had already experienced another outburst like that before, and she had almost been killed. Her eyes became dazed, her attention would go somewhere else entirely, and it became obvious that she no longer understood what was around her properly.

The Yuyan archers had eventually brought her down without hurting her, using their accuracy to pin her armor plates in place and restrict movement before the rest of the soldiers could restrain her properly.

Even then, Lin fought against them for several minutes before she suddenly stopped moving, almost as if she were a puppet whose strings were cut off from one moment to the other.

When she finally recovered enough to speak normally, she apologized to everyone she had hurt and admitted that she remembered very little of the entire incident. She seemed embarrassed by the entire ordeal, especially when she learned she had nearly marched toward the inner city alone.

Azula had reassured her that nobody important had been badly injured, and they had already recovered everything they needed from the base anyway. Although it didn't stop Lin's concern, at least she looked lighter and smiled at her.

Spiritual matters had never interested Azula much before. People could believe whatever they wanted about spirits, blessings and ancient stories as long as it did not interfere with anything important.

She had grown up hearing that Agni watched over the Fire Nation and that the royal family carried divine authority, but most of it had always felt rather useless. The Fire Sages were old men whose power diminished with each passing year. If the spirits really cared about humans, they would have helped them before her father began diminishing their influence in the Nation.

Azula had now seen these episodes happen twice with her own eyes, and both times Lin seemed to become someone else completely. Combined with everything Lin had told them about meeting Agni and the stories surrounding her since childhood, Azula could understand why people believed the spirit that had blessed her sometimes took control when angered.

The things the Dai Li had done to those refugees felt wrong even by Azula's standards. Taking someone apart mentally until they obeyed without question was cool, but they would have no passion to venerate her, so what was the point?

The princess would have to reevaluate her opinions on spirits, but for now, her mind was somewhere else. Although it was similar to that frightening yet exciting incident years ago, she felt a bit disappointed that the spirit's violence was not directed at her. Azula was still not sure she liked the idea of any spirit borrowing Lin's body whenever it felt offended either.

She sat beside Lin later that evening while her general rested, writing a letter to the capital city to her contacts in the palace. Her plans were coming together nicely, and she knew she wouldn't be bothered staying there. Azula had another reason for staying nearby.

During the incident, Lin had spoken several sentences that nobody understood. The sounds were completely unfamiliar, and according to the soldiers present, they had never heard it before. She wanted more information and she hoped the Royal archives would have something that may help her learn it.

If there really was a spirit speaking through Lin, then she wanted to understand what it was saying. She had already begun writing down whatever fragments she remembered phonetically, but it was very foreign to pick up its meaning.

It was a shame Lin didn't remember what she said or what really happened in her episodes. She could make the right questions and they could figure it out together if she did. Azula glanced toward Lin again and found her resting with her eyes closed.

'Well, I cannot waste this opportunity.' She thought with a smile on her face.

She got up and locked the tent with a hook, coming back quickly to rest beside her. Cuddling with Lin was still a novelty for her and she liked the feeling of having her body close to her.

Long Feng was furious with how the situation had developed since his plan had gone into motion. He had expected the Fire Nation to accept negotiations once they realized how difficult taking the rest of Ba Sing Se would be, especially after what he assumed had been an extremely costly victory against the Earth Kingdom army.

Instead, every attempt to open communications had failed. The Fire Nation had rejected his terms without even entertaining them, and two of the messengers he had sent had been killed before they could return. It was becoming clear that whoever was making decisions on the other side had no interest in giving him an opportunity to preserve his position through negotiation.

That was considerably more frustrating than dealing with the usual Earth Kingdom stubbornness he was used to. Long Feng had expected them to grab whatever opportunity gave them a faster victory, especially when several million people remained protected behind the inner walls.

The loss of the Agrarian Zone had created a problem that would only become worse with time, since nearly all of the food necessary to sustain Ba Sing Se had come from the land now controlled by the Fire Nation.

Long Feng believed they were refusing to grab the opportunity for quick victory because they controlled that territory, believing they had already won by taking their food source and besieging the inner city. They were also stopping every attempt at leaving as well, which only brought a crisis between the inhabitants.

The agents he had sent in an attempt to escape the siege and gather information had also failed to return. He did not know whether they had been captured, killed, or simply found themselves unable to get through the Fire Nation lines, but he was unwilling to continue sending experienced Dai Li agents away when none of them came back. They were far too valuable now that the city was becoming increasingly difficult to control.

Long Feng returned his attention to the agent giving him his latest report.

"Send word for our agents to start recruiting as well, we will use the old catacombs in the palace for our main base now." He said.

The Agent nodded and left the room, and he went back to his thoughts. The food already stored inside the inner city would sustain them for some time, but feeding millions of people would hit even their enormous reserves, no matter how much they planned for it, it would eventually disappear.

Rationing had already begun, although Long Feng knew he would have to make it increasingly strict if the siege continued for several months. The Upper Ring would need to remain stable first and foremost.

The officials, important families and Dai Li operating from there were necessary for maintaining control over the rest of the city. And while the Lower and Middle Rings contained enough people that any serious shortage could quickly turn into unrest, he was sure he could plant civilians that would fight against those with the strongest voices.

There were still ways to delay the problem if he acted quickly enough. Several parks could be converted into farmland, while buildings in less important areas could be demolished to create more space for crops. He cared little for the people living there anyway, they could be thrown into the lowest ring and people would forget about them.

It would never produce enough food to sustain the entire population, but even a limited harvest could extend their supplies and give him additional time to find a way out of the situation. The difficulty was getting everything done without allowing the population to understand how desperate their position was becoming.

Their defeat and the loss of the outer walls was impossible to hide, and the Dai Li could only suppress so much information when thousands of retreating soldiers had entered the inner city. So most people already knew their situation was dire.

Long Feng would need more agents if he intended to maintain order while food became increasingly scarce. Employing all of the Joe Dees to calm people down was crucial, and training additional Dai Li had become his priority.

They would not have the experience of his current agents, but the organization needed more people capable of controlling crowds, arresting troublemakers and ensuring that orders were followed throughout the city.

Long Feng was reviewing the available numbers when another one of his agents entered the room and approached him quickly. The expression on the man's face immediately told him that whatever news he carried was not something Long Feng was going to enjoy hearing.

"My lord, we received information concerning Lake Laogai."

Long Feng's breath stopped for a moment, looking at him concerned. "What happened?"

"The Fire Nation discovered the facility and attacked it. They liberated prisoners and then the base was destroyed. One of our agents was able to escape through the tunnels to bring this information."

Lake Laogai was one of the Dai Li's most important facilities, and the operations carried out there had never been intended to become known outside the organization.

"How much did they find?"

"We do not know yet. If they were there long enough to free prisoners they might have captured our reports, sir."

This definitely made the situation worse. There was no way of knowing what documents they had taken or how much information the refugees had been able to give them. On the other hand, if he controlled the city it mattered little what propaganda they used outside of Ba Sing Se.

The problem would be for the future. If they surrendered to the Fire Nation as he had planned, they would have to allow the Fire Nation to enter the city. If they spread that information, he would have a huge problem on his hands.

The methods used at Lake Laogai had allowed the Dai Li to take refugees who were otherwise useless to the war effort and turn them into obedient reserves for the army, while also removing people who could become troublesome inside the city.

If evidence of those methods survived, the Fire Nation could control the narrative and most of the people in the city would support their occupation.

"Was the destruction complete?" Long Feng asked.

"The underground sections were heavily damaged and much of the base appears to have flooded. We have no confirmation that everything inside was destroyed."

If the collapse had buried the records and equipment, then there was still a chance that the worst evidence had disappeared with the facility, while the testimony of refugees could at least be dismissed as enemy propaganda.

If the Fire Nation had removed records beforehand, containing the damage would become impossible. Long Feng despised not knowing, but he would have to plan for the worst. Maybe he could demand the return of those documents as a condition for their surrender.

"We will plan as if they have those documents, and spread the order through all of our agents: they need to be on the lookout for anyone who comes across any information at the border. I don't believe the Fire Nation would use their resources to smuggle that information in, but we can never be too careful." Long Feng ordered.

The other Dai Li facilities throughout the city would also need to be reviewed immediately, especially anything containing records that connected them directly to Lake Laogai or the conditioning of refugees.

Once the agent left to carry out the orders, Long Feng returned to the maps and reports covering his desk with another problem added to the growing list. The Fire Nation was becoming increasingly difficult to deal with, and he wasn't sure how he could force them to the negotiation table, but he would prevail like always.

He could only hope that when Lake Laogai was destroyed, everything that could be used against him had been buried along with it. It would otherwise hurt him by the time they were ready to discuss terms.

'Things are just going from bad to worse.'

Lucernello · 2026-10-03T22:06:47+0100

AN: Second chapter today. I will post a side story as an extra as well!

Art by @CalypseArt you can find them in vgen:

99 A.G

Once Lin felt completely like herself again, she returned to what she did best and began planning how they could take control of the inner city. After everything that had happened at Lake Laogai, Azula and several of her officers had insisted that she rest for a whole day before returning to command properly.

Lin had agreed and had spent the entire day in bed, getting her well-deserved rest. But by the time she returned to the main camp she already had most of the next operation worked out in her head.

If she was honest, it didn't look like taking the city would be particularly difficult. The Earth Kingdom army had been shattered throughout the Agrarian Zone, with most surviving units either retreating behind the remaining walls, surrendering, or simply refusing to continue fighting.

The Fire Nation now controlled the territory surrounding the city, along with the rail lines and fields necessary to keep their own army supplied for however long the siege lasted. More importantly, the information recovered from Lake Laogai had given them a better understanding of how the Dai Li operated and how much influence they had over the population.

Lin did not want to repeat the fighting they had just gone through by attacking millions of civilians trapped inside the walls, especially if the Dai Li intended to use them the same way they had used the refugees.

There were better ways to take a city without wasting their own manpower. No, Lin would make sure no Fire Nation soldier died from this point forward, she was going to use their own people against them.

Lin entered the main officers' tent with Azula beside her and found her senior officers already gathered around a large low squared table. Maps of Ba Sing Se covered most of its surface, including everything they had learned about the Lower, Middle and Upper Rings from spies, and prisoners.

General Shinu was present along with several colonels from the Second Army, while officers responsible for logistics, intelligence and the newly arrived head of the military police had also been called to the meeting.

Lin took her place at the head, sitting on one of the cushions prepared and waiting for everyone to sit as well. She already knew what she wanted to do, but hearing a second opinion never hurt. Besides she couldn't go over another general, even if said general seemed to like her and allow her room to dictate the orders.

Besides, her officers had spent most of their time in the academy as well, and might notice problems she had overlooked.

"Gentlemen, I have devised a plan that will see us take control of the city, and help with the occupation at the same time." Lin began.

"We will have a three phase operation. The first phase will see us spread information and rumors about the Dai Li's plans. We want the people in the Lower Ring to feel desperate. We will have Toph and our earthbenders infiltrate the city by tunnels and convince the people they are being left to die." Lin said.

"But ma'am, wouldn't that make it more difficult for us? They would fight harder if they feel they have nothing to lose." Colonel Zhou interjected.

"Right, but what if we didn't fight them at all?" Lin asked. "We will direct their anger toward the Dai Li, the city guards and the Upper Ring population. We will use the information we gathered from Lake Laogai against them, we will direct the unrest towards their own. Already we have spies that have informed us that the Dai Li seized their food reserves probably to have them depend on them, it shouldn't be that hard to do so." Lin said.

"Only rumors won't create a problem for them, and the control they have on the city is extensive. How do we keep the unrest going before the Dai Li snuffs it?" Captain Aiku asked.

"The second phase will be starting a rebel cell. We will give them their own weapons and armor we recovered from the battlefield and have the civilians prepare to rise against them. We will have them commit terror attacks against their own while convincing them they are liberating themselves from their oppressive and failing government." Lin answered.

"Apologies, but this is madness, General. You would be giving weapons to a large population of the city, what stops them from using them against us? You would have an even stronger enemy." General Shinu said.

"Normally, that would be true. But the second phase will be complemented by the third phase. Once the Lower Ring is deemed lost by the guards and Dai Li, that will have them retreat to the Middle Ring, we will open the gates of the walls. We will offer them relief, healing supplies and food. We will make it clear that we won't see any civilian as an enemy and that we will do our best to improve their conditions. We can even spin a lie and say that the Upper Ring didn't want to negotiate a surrender with us." Lin finished.

"You want us to be seen as saviors that care about their well-being." Azula concluded. "It will help with occupation indeed, and desperate people will believe it if they get help back. Fire Nation soldiers won't be fighting either so there is no risk of casualties. It's perfect."

"Yes, as the princess mentioned, this plan relies on them taking control of the city for us, without them even knowing about it." Lin finished. "Any questions?"

"I think we should go over the details carefully, General, but it looks good enough for me." Captain Aiku commented. The rest of the officers agreed.

They spent a couple of hours going over every detail of the plan, assigning officers to each phase and giving orders to prepare the weapons, armor and volunteers in the earthbender units for this operation.

Lin was confident it was going to work, even with their characteristic stubbornness, the Earth Kingdom citizens were people after all.

Two weeks later.

Hyugh had never imagined himself carrying a pike through the streets of Ba Sing Se. A few weeks earlier, he had been worrying about whether there would be enough food for his family and whether the fighting outside the walls would ever reach them.

Now he stood surrounded by neighbours wearing mismatched pieces of Earth Kingdom armor while people passed swords, spears and shields between one another. The small earthbender girl who had emerged from beneath one of the abandoned buildings had somehow brought an enormous crate filled with equipment for them.

Hyugh had no idea where she had gotten so many weapons and armor pieces, although nobody around him seemed interested in asking questions and he certainly was not going to. He was only one man among hundreds gathering in the street, and as far as the people organizing everything were concerned, he was just another peasant willing to fight.

Everything had started with cruel rumors. People whispered that the Upper Ring had decided to preserve its own food stores while leaving the Lower Ring to starve. Others claimed the Dai Li intended to keep enough supplies for the wealthy and government officials while everyone else survived on whatever scraps remained.

At first Hyugh had not believed much of it. Rumors spread through the Lower Ring constantly, especially since the Fire Nation breached the outer wall, and half of them usually contradicted the other half.

Then Dai Li agents began taking food from the warehouses. They arrived with city guards and claimed the supplies were being redistributed for the war effort, but less food came back afterward.

Portions became smaller, lines to collect them became longer, and families that already had little were told to make do with even less. The wounded soldiers arriving from the Agrarian Zone had made things worse.

Some were missing limbs or covered in burns, while others barely reacted when spoken to. Hyugh had helped carry several injured men into an abandoned house after the military stopped having room for them, and one of them had spent most of the night staring at the wall without speaking.

Nobody from the palace came to help them. King Kuei had done nothing to help them that Hyugh could see, while the Dai Li continued walking through the streets as though everything remained perfectly under control.

People began getting angry but the city guards responded with beatings and there had been some people who had banished after complaining too loudly. Now Hyugh might not be the smartest guy out there but even he knew he was taken by the Dai Li.

Then the papers started falling from the sky. They came in bundles scattered across the Lower Ring, and within hours people were passing them from neighbour to neighbour. Hyugh could read well enough to understand most of what they said, although others gathered around anyone capable of reading the words aloud.

The papers talked about Lake Laogai, imprisoned refugees and people disappearing from shelters. They listed names of officials and Dai Li agents involved in taking civilians away, along with descriptions of how refugees had been forced into the army and sent against the Fire Nation without being allowed to retreat.

That was when several disappearances in Hyugh's neighbourhood suddenly made sense. Women who had vanished after going to collect rations, men who had been taken for questioning and never returned, entire families moved from shelters without explanation.

Everyone had assumed they had simply been relocated somewhere else in the city, yet now people were asking whether they had been taken beneath Lake Laogai instead. The Lower Ring had exploded into anger after that.

Protests filled the streets almost every day, growing larger whenever the Dai Li attempted to break them apart. There were simply too many people for the agents to control anymore, especially once the city guards began hesitating to attack crowds filled with their own neighbours and families.

By the time weapons began appearing, Hyugh had already decided to take the fight to them. Sitting still would just be like laying down to die. He adjusted the borrowed armor around his chest while the people around him prepared themselves.

It did not fit particularly well, and one shoulder plate was badly scratched, but it was better than walking toward armed guards in ordinary clothing. A man beside him had no armor but one look at his eyes and you knew he was going to fight anyway.

A kid came running toward them just then. "They're gathering near the Middle Ring gate again." he shouted, then kept running to let others know.

Hyugh tightened both hands around his pike. "They'll try to push us back." He said.

"Then we don't let them." Another one said.

Someone farther ahead began shouting for everyone to move, and the crowd started filling the street. Hyugh followed with the rest, bolstered by the amount of people marching alongside him. People emerged from alleys carrying whatever weapons they had been given.

Some had proper swords and spears, while others carried tools, wooden clubs or pieces of metal. Earthbenders moved among them as well, several wearing armor that looked battered and some even had blood on them.

The Dai Li had withdrawn from several neighbourhoods already, unable to maintain control everywhere at once, but they were still holding the routes toward the Middle Ring. That was where they needed to go then.

The closer they came to the gate, the louder the crowd became. People shouted about stolen food, missing relatives and soldiers abandoned after giving everything to defend the city. Hyugh joined them until his throat hurt, surrounded by thousands who had finally decided they were tired of being told to remain calm while everything around them collapsed.

City guards formed a line across the main road ahead, shields raised while Dai Li agents stood behind them. Hyugh felt fear settle into his stomach once he saw them, for he had never fought anyone before.

Around him, however, nobody stopped moving, and when the first earthbenders in the crowd raised slabs of stone to protect the people behind them, Hyugh forced himself to continue. The guards shouted for them to disperse though nobody listened.

Stone struck the street ahead and the crowd surged forward, forcing Hyugh to run with everyone around him. He lowered his pike the way one of the rebels had shown him earlier and moved toward the line of guards while people screamed and earth began rising around them.

For the first time in his life, Hyugh was fighting for his life and the life of everyone around him.

The operation had worked better than Lin expected. By the time the reports began reaching her, every earthbender unit assigned to the infiltration had already entered the Lower Ring through tunnels prepared beneath the city.

Toph and Azula had gone in with the first groups and were moving between the rebel cells, coordinating where additional support was needed whenever the city guards or Dai Li managed to hold a position for too long.

Although Lin had again requested Azula to stay behind, she had argued that if Toph was going, then she was going to help as well. Lin really should stop saying a mission was dangerous, it only seemed to convince the princess more that she needed to be there.

The uprising had spread quickly once the first fighting began. Entire neighbourhoods were joining in, either helping directly or simply refusing to cooperate with the authorities trying to restore order.

The weapons and armor they had distributed were already moving between groups far faster than the Fire Nation could have arranged on its own, which made the rebellion look considerably more natural from the outside.

Reports from their infiltrators confirmed that the Dai Li were struggling to contain it. The Lower Ring had too many people and too many streets for the remaining agents to control at once, especially now that earthbenders were appearing among the rebels and were openly helping the civilians fight back.

Whenever the authorities concentrated enough men in one area, Toph or one of the other units redirected the uprising elsewhere and forced them to divide again. Lin was particularly satisfied by what they were hearing from the remaining Earth Kingdom soldiers.

Most of the army had no interest in fighting anymore. Units that had retreated from the Agrarian Zone were exhausted, badly supplied and angry with the people giving them orders. Some had joined the uprising after seeing civilians fighting against the Dai Li, while others simply stepped aside and allowed the rebels through.

A few officers were still attempting to organize resistance, but without the army supporting them properly, they could not do much. That meant the first part of the city was effectively theirs before even a single Fire Nation soldier had done any fighting.

Lin stood with her senior officers overlooking the main road leading toward the Lower Ring entrance while messengers continued arriving with updates. General Shinu remained beside her, reading through one of the reports before handing it back to the officer who delivered it.

"The eastern section is almost completely under rebel control." Lin said. "The Dai Li are retreating toward the Middle Ring, and their guards are abandoning several positions."

Shinu smiled. "Then your plan worked, General."

"Our plan worked, while it is true I came up with the idea, everyone did their part." Lin corrected him. "And they all followed their assignments properly."

She turned toward the other officers gathered nearby and nodded toward them. "Good work, all of you. Make sure the men preparing for the next phase understand that they are not entering the Lower Ring as conquerors. No looting, no unnecessary violence and absolutely no attacks against civilians under any circumstance."

The officers nodded solemnly.

"The moment the gates open, the relief columns move first," Lin continued. "Food, medical supplies and engineers before anything else. I want field kitchens operating as quickly as possible, and the hospitals should be ready to take civilians alongside our own people."

Shinu looked toward the massive walls in the distance. "You didn't order your earthbenders to open the gates from the inside. You really think the rebels will open them for us willingly?"

"The people controlling the Lower Ring will do so, yes. We have already offered them that possibility." Lin replied. "They need food, and we have plenty of it sitting outside their walls. Once they realize we are not going to attack them, there will be very little reason to keep us out."

The gates were the most important part of the third phase. If the Fire Nation forced them open, everything they had done would look like another invasion. If the rebels opened them themselves and welcomed the supplies coming through, the image would be completely different.

Lin intended to wait it out if she had to. Luckily she didn't have to wait for long in the end, for another messenger arrived and confirmed that the main gate area was now controlled by the uprising.

The remaining city guards had either surrendered or retreated toward the Middle Ring, while the rebels were already attempting to organize their own people around the entrance. She quickly ordered the officers to get the columns ready just in case.

Soldiers began moving into formation farther behind them, but most of what would cross first were supply wagons and medical teams. Military police followed behind to help maintain order, along with engineers and workers who could repair damaged streets, water lines and help build sewers if needed.

Lin watched the preparations with satisfaction. Once the civilians saw that the Fire Nation could offer food, medicine and assistance while their own government retreated farther into the city, they would welcome their occupation with open arms.

In fact they might even help them keep everyone under control and on the side of the Fire Nation. Instead of being seen as conquerors they will be seen as liberators by their people. It would make everything considerably easier.

Lin was also preparing to go help herself. Her reputation among the people of Ba Sing Se was probably terrible after everything that happened in the Agrarian Zone. Stories about her had surely spread through the entire population already.

And while her methods had quickly brought victory, it also brought a lot of fear in the hearts of the Earth Kingdom's people. Lin knew that fear could backfire at any given time. People usually reacted violently to what they feared.

She needed them to see someone else at this moment. Helping them now would not erase what she had done during the battle, and Lin was not foolish enough to believe it would, but slowly having new rumors and stories spreading about her feeding and assisting people would do wonders to quiet the more fearful voices down.

Lin turned toward her officers once the first column was ready.

"Have them prepare to approach the gates as planned. Once they open, we move slowly and let the civilians see exactly what we brought for them." The officers saluted and separated to their assigned units.

She then pulled out a folded sheet of paper and handed it to one of the messengers. "This needs to be sent as quickly as possible to Chin Village, make it happen, corporal."

"At once!"

Lin remained behind for another moment, watching the wagons line up along the road before heading toward her own place at the center. The city was already beginning to fall into their hands, and so far, they had no casualties.

The war was coming to a close.

When the request for assistance had reached Kyoshi Island, Suki had been confused by it. The Fire Nation was asking for help managing civilians and refugees in Ba Sing Se, and the message had arrived urgently by one of their flying machines.

Apparently the Fire Nation had created one large humanitarian problem and wanted help from different places, especially if they were aligned with the Earth Kingdom, as they would be seen without mistrust or fear.

While that had been strange enough, Lin had also offered Fire Nation transportation toward the city, and supplies should they need them. Apparently she had also asked help to Gaoling and a convoy would be sent from that city as well.

Suki gathered the Kyoshi Warriors willing to go, along with healers and volunteers from several villages across the island. Whatever Lin was planning, if civilians were going to need help then Suki saw little reason to refuse simply because the request had come from the Fire Nation.

After they arrived by ship to Chin's port they were quickly guided to another of the Fire Nation's methods of transportation. The machine waiting for them was called a train, and it carried them toward Ba Sing Se much faster than Suki expected, taking less than a week to get to the outer wall.

Most of her group spent the journey staring through the windows as the landscape rushed past, sleeping in the comfortable compartments and they even had a compartment to train. Once they reached the outer wall, everyone became much quieter.

The holes left behind by the Fire Nation attack were enormous, wide enough for the train to pass directly through them. Suki had heard that Ba Sing Se had been breached, but seeing the damage herself made it very real what the Fire Nation was capable of.

Suki hoped they were not being led to a trap where they would be seen as the enemy for aiding the Fire Nation. Beyond the wall, the Agrarian Zone was already filled with Fire Nation soldiers, workers and supply columns. Roads were being repaired and trains moved constantly toward the inner city.

When they finally arrived close to the second set of walls, Suki understood why Lin had arranged for them to come ahead of time. A massive relief camp had been prepared outside the gates with medical tents, food stations and temporary shelters.

The gates themselves were open, and civilians moved between the city and the camp in large numbers while Fire Nation soldiers unloaded food and supplies. It was not what Suki expected to see of their conquest of Ba Sing Se.

Her group had barely stepped away from the train when Lin approached them personally and Suki almost did not recognize her at first.

Lin was not wearing her usual armor, and for once her prosthetics were dirty and visibly worn instead of polished until they shined. There were scratches across the metal and dust on her clothing, while her hair had been tied back with little care.

She still carried herself normally, though, and showed no obvious exhaustion despite everything she must have already done in the day.

"Suki, I'm glad you came." Lin greeted her.

"Lin. I hope your words are true and my people are not exposed to any fighting." Suki said, looking toward the relief camp.

"I promise there is no fighting being done at the moment, the only fighting being done is by Ba Sing Se rebels against their own government in the Middle Ring at the moment." Lin replied.

"And you are not helping them?" Suki asked.

"No, we are only providing food and medical aid. To be completely fair, we are not sure what the King is thinking, they are leaving almost two million people to die while they defend the Upper and Middle Ring. So obviously they rebelled and let us in themselves so that we could help their people."

Suki was quiet for a few moments, while the rest of her people watched the exchange warily. "You can tell me more in detail while we work." She finally nodded.

"Of course. We knew there would be too many civilians for the army to handle properly once the gates opened. Kyoshi Island is seen by civilians as a neutral party so I sent the request early. They know they won't have anything to fear from you."

Suki glanced toward the civilians receiving food nearby. "I didn't expect the Fire Nation to ask us for something like this."

"I figured you wouldn't."

That at least sounded like the Lin she remembered. Suki looked back toward her warriors and volunteers as they began gathering their supplies. She still had plenty of questions about what had happened in Ba Sing Se and how the Fire Nation had managed to reach this point, but the people coming through the gates needed help more than she needed answers.

"We'll do what we can. Where do you need us?"

Lin motioned toward the city. "Come with me. We need people inside the Lower Ring as well."

Suki nodded before turning toward her group and ordering everyone to move out. The Kyoshi Warriors formed up with the healers and volunteers behind them, then followed Lin toward the open gates of Ba Sing Se.

Lucernello · 2026-10-03T22:20:20+0100

AN: This idea had been in my head for a while, something to mess around with and have fun, nothing really serious. Let me know if you would like things like this in the future, or if you don't really fancy them. I have been correcting it for a few weeks now because I came back to it and I didn't like it anymore. Figured I would just leave it as it is and hope for the best.

Enjoy,
Luce

3019 of the Third Age

Aragorn was exhausted, and although his horse had done a remarkable job of carrying him steadily across the uneven countryside, every rise and dip in the terrain reminded him of the wounds he had suffered during his fall.

His shoulder in particular had begun to hurt again, a persistent ache that spread down his arm whenever he adjusted himself in the saddle, but he had neither the time nor the desire to stop. He had to reach them in time.

Helm's Deep was still ahead of him, and somewhere behind marched an army of Uruk-hai numbering close to five thousand by his estimate. All of them moving with the same purpose: to destroy the world of men to the last.

The valleys ahead provided the quickest path through the hills, their green slopes opening into long stretches of grass that would normally have made for easy riding. Aragorn pushed his horse onward, occasionally looking behind even though he knew the enemy was still far enough away that he would not see them.

He could still picture the thousands of black shapes marching together, weapons and standards rising above their heads, chanting and shocking the very earth with their march.

His horse carried him up another gentle incline, and Aragorn leaned slightly forward as they approached the crest. He expected another empty valley on the other side and was already looking forward to going downhill as it would be an easier and faster path.

But as he approached the ridge, his horse slowed beneath him as Aragorn stared down. Several hundred soldiers occupied the valley. They stood in rows spread across the open ground, their armor dominated by black and dark red, while unfamiliar banners moved gently above them in the wind.

From the distance, Aragorn's first thought was that Saruman had sent a smaller force ahead of the main army, perhaps to secure the valleys leading toward Helm's Deep or intercept any allies attempting to reach the fortress. Worse, their appearance did little to dismiss that fear.

The helmets worn by many of them were pale around the face, giving them a strange skull-like appearance from afar, and their disciplined formations looked far more organized than any other wandering band of soldiers.

Aragorn's hand moved toward his reins, ready to try and bolt away and avoid them, even if they pursued before he caught himself and continued watching. Something about them was wrong for Uruk-hai.

Their proportions were different, for one. Most were smaller than the creatures he had fought, although still clearly larger than hobbits, and there was none of the constant aggression he had come to expect from Saruman's servants.

No one shoved another soldier aside, fought among themselves or wandered away from the formation. A few men moved between the ranks carrying crates and equipment, but they did so with the same deliberate order as everyone else.

Aragorn realized after another moment that they were clearly humans, which only confused him further.

'Who are they? What are they doing here of all places?' he wondered.

He knew of no army in Rohan that wore anything resembling these uniforms, and there was nothing Gondorian about them either. Corsairs aligned with Sauron or Haradrim were nothing like them, and Easterlings or Variags of Khand were never disciplined at all.

Aragorn had travelled far enough east and south to see weapons and armor unfamiliar to most men of the West, yet even he found himself unable to place what he was looking at. Some soldiers carried long objects made from dark wood and metal, holding them against their shoulders or resting them beside their feet.

Others stood near squat metal tubes mounted on strange frames, while a smaller number wore swords at their sides. Bows were entirely absent, as were the long spears he would have expected from a force positioned in open country.

Aragorn remained at the top of the hill while he tried to determine whether they had noticed him. The answer came quickly when one of the nearest soldiers looked up and pointed toward his position.

Another turned immediately, then another, and within seconds the entire section closest to the hill was reacting. Their speed surprised him more than anything else. Men who had been sitting rose at once, while those carrying the strange wooden and metal weapons brought them into their hands.

Several ranks adjusted their position without anyone visibly panicking, and he could see orders being visibly passed through the rows of soldiers. What had looked almost like an encampment moments before went alive to a very hostile looking force.

Aragorn made certain his hand remained well away from the hilt of his sword. He did not know who these soldiers served, but they had not attacked him yet, and provoking several hundred unknown warriors while already wounded would accomplish nothing.

If they were enemies, he would have to find another route to Helm's Deep. If they were not, then perhaps Rohan had somehow received aid from a land Aragorn had never expected to see here. The line below opened near its center and two figures emerged and began walking toward him.

Aragorn watched them climb the slope while the soldiers remained behind. He found that strange in itself. There was no escort surrounding them, no group of guards following several paces behind, and yet the army made no effort to stop either of them from approaching an unknown armed rider alone.

Whoever these two were, they were clearly confident that they did not require protection. As the distance closed, Aragorn realized that both were women. That gave him another moment of surprise.

He had known women who could wield weapons and defend their homes when necessary, but he had never seen women be part of armed forces before. It would be unthinkable for the races of men. They wore military armor in the same colors as the troops below and moved with the stiffness of disciplined soldiers.

The younger-looking of the pair wore the more elaborate armor. Deep black plates covered her torso and shoulders, with golden edges worked into sections that marked her apart immediately from the soldiers in the valley.

Her dark hair was kept carefully arranged despite whatever journey had brought her here, and there was something in the way she carried herself that reminded Aragorn more of nobility than an ordinary soldier.

She walked beside the other woman without hesitation, observing him with the same open wariness that he imagined he was showing them. It was her companion who drew most of Aragorn's attention though.

At first he thought she wore unusually heavy armor over her arms and legs, but the closer she came, the less convincing that explanation became. Sunlight caught one of her hands and reflected the metal. There were a few gaps in the armor but there was nothing behind the metal where flesh should be.

Same with the joints in her legs, they were able to flex and move in ways no armor he had ever seen could move. He looked lower and noticed the same construction beneath her clothing, accompanied occasionally by the quiet sound of metal moving against metal.

He also noticed that her steps sounded heavier than normal and his ranger abilities made him realize that the girl weighed a lot more than she showed.

'What kind of magic is this?'

Aragorn had seen men survive the loss of hands, feet and even entire limbs, usually with wooden replacements fashioned by craftsmen afterward, but nothing like this existed anywhere he had travelled.

The metal hand moved almost as easily as his own, and whatever supported her legs allowed her to climb the slope without the slightest sign of difficulty. Aragorn steadied his horse and waited for the two strangers to reach him.

By the time the two women reached the upper part of the slope, Aragorn had become even less certain what to make of them. Distance had hidden just how young they were, particularly the dark-haired girl in the more elaborate armor, who could scarcely have been older than many of the youths Théoden had been forced to arm for the defense of his kingdom.

Her companion was older, although not by enough to explain why several hundred soldiers below appeared willing to let her approach an unknown rider without escort. Aragorn had spent enough of his life among powerful men and knew authority when he saw it, the young girl had in spades.

He briefly considered turning his horse and continuing toward Helm's Deep. There was no guarantee these strangers would allow him to leave once he had approached them, and he had already lost precious time examining their force from the hill.

Yet neither woman had drawn a weapon, and the older one had kept both of her strange metal hands visible while they climbed. If they meant to attack him, their soldiers had been given ample opportunity already.

Aragorn raised one hand in greeting once they were close enough that speaking no longer required shouting.

"Greetings fair ladies. I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn. I mean you no harm."

Both women stopped and stood still, perplexed, then they glanced toward each other in confusion. Then they spoke to one another in a language he had never heard. Aragorn listened carefully in the hope that he might recognize even a word.

He had learned enough tongues during his travels that unfamiliar speech was rarely completely beyond him, especially when languages had borrowed from their neighbors over generations, but this one shared nothing obvious with any kind of elvish, Rohirric or any tongue of Men he had encountered in the East.

Its sounds were sharp in places and surprisingly quick, with the younger woman asking several questions while her companion answered in shorter sentences. When both looked at him again, Aragorn understood the problem.

"You do not speak my tongue, that is a problem." Which was quite the problem to have.

The older looking girl turned to him and answered to him though.

"I speak small English, and yours sounds strange to me." She replied.

Aragorn blinked, confused. She spoke a similar language to the common tongue yet using incorrect words. He smiled though, explanations could be reached even if some words were lost between each other.

"What I speak is Westron, I don't know what English is." He touched his chest. "Aragorn."

The woman watched him closely.

"Aragorn."

Her pronunciation was strange, although recognizable enough. Aragorn pointed toward her. She seemed to understand the gesture immediately and placed one metal hand against the front of her armor.

"Lin Renshi."

She paused, apparently searching for another word.

"Call me General Lin."

Aragorn didn't know why a third name was mentioned, but in any case it was not important. Lin gestured toward her companion.

"Princess Azula."

That explained the ornamented armor and bearing far better than Aragorn had expected. He lowered his head respectfully toward the younger woman. "My lady."

Azula clearly recognized the gesture even if she did not understand the word, because she returned it with a much shallower inclination of her head. There was nothing shy about her inspection of him.

Her golden eyes moved across his clothing, sword, horse and visible injuries with an intensity that made Aragorn suspect she was forming her own conclusions about him just as quickly as he was forming his.

Lady Lin said something to her, then looked at Aragorn again.

"Nation of Fire."

Aragorn frowned slightly. "Your nation was burned down?"

Lin frowned then shook her head immediately, seemingly annoyed that she wasn't understood.

"Our Nation, where we were born."

He knew of no realm by that name.

"You were born in a nation of fire? Where does this lie?"

Lady Lin stared at him without answering. Aragorn tried simplifying the question. He pointed around them and then toward the distant horizon before pointing back to her.

"Household, homeland."

Understanding came slowly. Lady Lin turned and exchanged several sentences with Azula. The princess looked back toward the soldiers and then toward the unfamiliar countryside surrounding them, with an unamused expression on her face.

When she answered, her words were careful.

"Home... not here."

Aragorn waited.

Lady Lin touched two fingers together and made a strange sweeping motion through the air.

"Spirit took us."

That word he understood easily.

"An Ainur brought you here?"

Lady Lin's eyes narrowed as she worked through the sentence, but eventually she nodded.

"Evil spirit."

"Evil? Dark?"

Lady Lin pondered for a second but shook her head eventually.

"Angry spirit."

Aragorn looked past her again at the hundreds of soldiers occupying the valley. An Ainur had transported an entire military force across lands they themselves did not recognize. His thoughts went unwillingly toward the Valar.

He had heard stories of their power since childhood and knew well enough that the world contained forces far beyond the understanding of ordinary men, yet he could think of no reason one of the Valar would tear hundreds of people away from their homeland and abandon them in Rohan.

Perhaps this angry Ainur was something lesser, one of the many ancient beings that still inhabited places beyond the knowledge of men, although that only created more questions about where these people had come from.

Whatever explanation existed would have to wait, for the Uruk-hai were still marching. Aragorn straightened suddenly in the saddle as the urgency of his journey forced itself back into his thoughts. He had allowed the strangeness of the encounter to distract him for too long.

"You cannot remain here."

Lady Lin frowned and Aragorn didn't know if he would be understood. He still pointed toward the direction from which he had come.

"An Army is coming our way."

Lady Lin became immediately attentive.

"Army?"

"Yes. A huge army approaches this valley."

He pointed again and then held up both hands several times before realizing that attempting to communicate a number in that fashion would take far too long.

"Five thousand strong."

It seemed the young lady understood the number for her eyebrows rose slightly. Princess Azula asked her something after hearing it, and Lady Lin answered in their language. The princess looked toward the distant hills, although Aragorn saw no fear in her expression.

"Orcs are coming this way." Aragorn continued. "They are forces that have only one goal, to kill all men."

Neither seemed to have recognition in their eyes, and Aragorn was starting to suspect it would be difficult to explain.

"Orcs?" Lady Lin asked.

Aragorn had not expected to explain what an orc was to another human being.

"Creatures. Like Men, but..." He hesitated, searching for concepts simple enough to survive the language barrier. "Evil. They kill people. They cannot be reasoned with, they seek not wealth but destruction and burning everything away for their cruel lords. They overwhelm us with their numbers and they care little for their own losses."

The armored lady stared at him slowly, yet she seemed to have understood a bit of what he said as her expression hardened. Princess Azula noticed the change immediately and again interrupted, probably to know what he had said.

Lady Lin began explaining in their own tongue and again Aragorn could follow none of it, but whatever description she offered lasted considerably longer than his own. Azula's expression gradually became concerned as well.

"We help kill communists." Lady Lin said, a word he knew not of.

Aragorn frowned. "What?"

"Communists."

"Forgive me, my lady. I do not know this word."

Lin looked irritated, although not with him. She gestured toward the direction of the approaching army.

"Orcs, communists."

Aragorn shook his head. "Orcs."

"Yes. Communists. We help kill."

"No, they are Uruk-hai."

Lin looked at him for several seconds before giving a small nod although he wasn't sure she agreed either. Aragorn was not entirely convinced she had abandoned whatever conclusion she had reached, so he pointed southeast in hopes of steering them into helping Rohan defend their land.

"There is a fortress called Helm's Deep. My people are there."

He hesitated before correcting himself. Théoden's people were not his own by blood, but explaining alliances through gestures and broken words seemed unnecessary.

"Many people. Families. Soldiers. The orcs march there. You should come with me. Helm's Deep has walls and defenders. We will accept any help we can get."

Lady Lin caught enough of the explanation to understand his intention, although she didn't seem to agree.

"Defend?"

"Yes. Your soldiers could help defend it."

She looked back toward the valley and then toward Princess Azula. Aragorn expected them to discuss the possibility of moving. Looking back at the camp, it was clear that they seemed well rested and would be able to keep a steady march ahead of the orcs.

"Orc weapon?" Lady Lin asked, catching him off guard.

Aragorn frowned. "Weapon?"

"Yes, this." The young girl said, pointing at his sword.

"They carry crossbows, swords and shields, spears as well." He explained, still confused as to what else an army would have.

"Big weapon?" She asked.

"Siege weapons?"

She did not understand. Aragorn tried to illustrate a large crossbow with his hands and luckily Lady Lin eventually nodded, for he felt silly doing hand motions to explain himself.

"Big bow."

"Something like that."

"Fire?"

"Err…They carry torches, my lady."

Lady Lin shook her head and pointed toward her own palm, where a small flame appeared above it that grew into a fireball. Aragorn's horse pulled backward sharply, concerned with the appearance of fire quite suddenly.

He had to tighten the reins, while both younger girls moved backwards a bit. Aragorn kept staring as the flame moved between her metal fingers without burning her. She then extinguished it almost immediately.

"Orc fire?"

Aragorn needed another moment before answering.

"No. They cannot do that. I didn't know you were a sorcerer."

"Mmm, not magic. Orcs magic?" She quickly asked before Aragorn could ask what she meant.

"No."

Aragorn considered mentioning Saruman, but the wizard himself wouldn't march with his army of orcs.

"The army has no wizard with it."

Lady Lin asked another question that Aragorn failed to understand, then simplified it by miming someone being struck.

"Orc die?"

"Yes."

She pointed toward his sword.

"Sword kill?"

"Aye. They may be stronger than ordinary Men, but steel kills them well enough."

Lady Lin turned toward Azula and another discussion began. The princess listened carefully, then replied at considerable length. Aragorn found himself increasingly uncomfortable with how little concern either displayed.

Five thousand Uruk-hai should have been enough to make any army leader reconsider remaining in an exposed valley, particularly one with only a few hundred soldiers under her command.

"Burn?" Lady Lin asked suddenly.

Aragorn assumed she was speaking about her flames abilities and he considered for a second before answering.

"They burn as any living creature does."

Lady Lin smiled for the first time and she quickly communicated with the princess again, both looked smug and altogether unconcerned. Aragorn did not find that reassuring.

"You should gather your soldiers and move now." He insisted. "They are not far behind me. If we ride and march quickly, we will reach Helm's Deep before them and warn them in time."

Lady Lin seemed to understand most of that, but instead of agreeing, she pointed toward the army below.

"Talk men." She said simply.

Aragorn looked down toward the valley.

"You intend to discuss it before moving?"

Lady Lin nodded once.

"Discuss the enemy."

"You do not have much time."

"Mmm."

Lin turned toward Azula and said something, and the princess answered with a short command of her own. Both women then began walking back toward their soldiers, leaving Aragorn watching after them from the saddle.

He had hoped the sheer amount of five thousand approaching enemies would convince the strangers to move quickly toward the safety of Helm's Deep. Maybe the language barrier was bigger than what they let show.

Aragorn could only hope that whatever decision they reached, they reached it quickly.

Aragorn remained where he was while Lady Lin and Princess Azula returned to the soldiers below, uncertain whether following them would be welcomed and equally unwilling to ride away before learning what they intended to do.

He had already delayed his journey longer than he should have, yet abandoning several hundred people directly in the path of Saruman's army sat poorly with him, even if their commanders appeared strangely unconcerned by the danger approaching them.

From the hill he had a better opportunity to study the strangers while five other soldiers gathered around the two women. Whatever discussion followed was conducted in their own language, leaving Aragorn with little to do besides observe.

The differences between them and the armies he knew became more apparent the longer he looked. Most were somewhat smaller than the men of Rohan, although still comfortably within the height of Men, and their features suggested a people he had never encountered during his travels.

Their discipline was easier to recognize. No one had broken ranks and there were some guards still pointing things at him. Even the soldiers who had been resting before his arrival remained close to their assigned places.

What continued to confuse him was their lack of recognizable weapons. Some carried the long objects of wood and metal he had noticed earlier, while others had shorter versions hanging from belts or secured against their backs.

The strange tubes mounted upon small frames were being inspected by groups of soldiers, several of whom opened wooden crates and removed objects that Aragorn could not identify from the distance.

A few men carried swords, but bows were almost entirely absent, and the warriors wearing the heaviest armor appeared to carry no weapon at all. Aragorn found that particularly strange for heavy armor normally belonged to men expected to fight at the front of a formation, where a shield, spear or sword would be essential.

These soldiers seemed prepared to march into battle with empty hands and although there were some mighty hand to hand warriors, he doubted they could bring an orc down. Lady Lin eventually left the group and made a motion for him to come down.

It took him a couple of minutes but he made his way there. He was offered a pouch that had water on it which he accepted with gratitude. Aragorn had yet to dismount and he saw another young girl in armor approach his horse with a brush and a bucket of water for his mount.

While thankful they would take care of him, there was no time to delay and he needed to know the decision regarding marching to Helm's Deep. But when he was about to confront Lady Lin about it, she was looking at his shoulder intensely.

"You hurt."

He glanced down at himself. "It is nothing that will stop me riding."

Lin appeared to understand him easily enough this time, although she took a moment before answering.

"We have healer. Come down and let her see."

"There is no time for that, my lady. Your soldiers must begin moving if they are to reach Helm's Deep before the enemy."

Lady Lin shook her head slowly and rested her hand on his leg.

"We are not going to Helm's Deep yet. Come down, heal. You can leave after."

Aragorn stared at her. "You intend to remain here?"

"This valley is perfect for defense."

The answer was calm enough that he wondered if he had misunderstood her.

"There are five thousand orcs marching directly toward this valley."

"I understood."

"And you have only a few hundred soldiers."

"Four."

That did nothing to reassure him at all.

"Then surely you understand that you are no match for them. Helm's Deep has walls, soldiers and supplies enough to give us a chance. If we combine our strength there, your men may make a great difference."

Lady Lin glanced toward the terrain around them before answering. "We cannot fight there, not with people we cannot speak with. Your soldiers do not know how we fight, and mine do not know how yours fight."

Aragorn could hardly disagree with that, coordinating an army that couldn't speak to one another was going to be difficult, yet he found the alternative considerably worse.

"You would rather face five thousand here?"

"Yes."

She said it with such little concern that Aragorn began wondering whether some part of his explanation had still been lost between their languages.

"This is open country, not a forest, this is no land to defend."

Lin looked around the valley once more. "It is good ground for ambush."

"They will see you from a mile away, no ambush could be possible."

"We can change the land, you will see."

That answer made Aragorn pause while Lady Lin continued before he could ask more.

"You said they are infantry. Swords, shields, crossbows and a few big bows. They cannot control earth or fire, and they have no other support."

"Why would they need more?"

"We will kill them."

Aragorn studied her face and found no sign that she was boasting. If anything, she seemed mildly confused by his continued insistence that the approaching army presented an impossible problem.

"You cannot hold them here with four hundred men."

"We have held against worse."

Before Aragorn could ask what she meant, Princess Azula called something from her side. Lin turned toward her, listened, then answered in the same language. Orders immediately began spreading through the soldiers.

The entire camp came alive just like that. Groups broke away in different directions, although there was no panic in their movement. Some climbed the slopes on either side of the valley carrying the metal tubes and wooden crates, while others began clearing equipment from the center.

'So she is their leader, it was not just because she can speak my tongue.' Aragorn thought, still confused as to how that came to be.

They continued talking, and Aragorn realized why Lady Lin was in charge, she seemed quite smart and her communications skills were improving by just talking to him, almost as if she instinctively understood what he meant and used his own words to continue.

Aragorn watched perhaps thirty of the heavily armored soldiers move forward and form a long line across the valley floor, each standing several paces from the next. None of them carried weapons.

Aragorn looked back toward Lady Lin.

"What are they doing?"

"We prepare the ambush."

"You should be preparing to march."

"No, now, come heal."

His patience finally began to wear thin.

"Lady Lin, I have seen this army with my own eyes. These are not frightened peasants or common brigands. Uruk-hai are bred for war, stronger than ordinary Men and willing to die if their masters command it. When they reach this valley, numbers alone will flood whatever defense you mount."

Lin gave a small nod, although it felt as if his words fell on deaf ears.

"If they had bigger weapons, maybe."

"They have enough strength to tear your line apart without them."

"Hmm, doubt it."

Aragorn opened his mouth to answer, but a deep vibration beneath his horse interrupted him. The animal got scared, and started stamping nervously while Aragorn tightened the reins and looked around for what was going on.

The ground shook harder, spreading beneath his boots and through the horse until the grass itself seemed to tremble. Down in the valley, the thirty unarmed soldiers were moving together in a weird dance, their feet struck the earth, and their arms swept forward causing the ground to fracture.

Aragorn's horse reared hard enough that he nearly lost the saddle. He fought for control while an enormous slab of earth rose from the valley floor, stretching outward from one soldier to the next. More followed immediately, each section joining the last until a continuous barrier now stood tall.

The soldiers continued moving and the loose earth compressed before Aragorn's eyes. Its surface darkened and hardened while sections rose higher, becoming stone thick enough that even a ram would have struggled to break through it.

Openings appeared along the upper edge, evenly spaced and deliberately shaped, while another section rose behind the center into the beginnings of a tower. Within less than a minute, a defensive wall crossed the valley.

Aragorn finally managed to calm his horse enough to look properly at what had happened and Lady Lin remained beside him gently patting the horse as if nothing extraordinary had just happened.

For several moments Aragorn could do little more than stare at the wall that now divided the valley. He had seen magic during his travels and had known Gandalf for years, yet even the wizard had never raised an entire wall from the ground before his eyes.

What had been open grass less than a minute earlier was now protected by a broad stone barrier, complete with narrow openings along its upper edge and a tower overlooking the approach from the west.

The soldiers responsible for it were already moving on to other tasks. Some remained close to the wall while others spread along its length, using their magic to create more towers on top of it and ramps to be able to climb to the top.

Behind them, tents were being raised throughout the camp, while soldiers carrying the strange metal tubes continued climbing the surrounding hills with crates balanced between them. What had looked like an open field was now a very defensible terrain.

Although Aragorn was still confused as to why some of them were going to be defending the hills in the first place, the orcs wouldn't circle around them, they would meet them head first. He finally looked toward Lady Lin, who was still beside his horse with one hand resting gently against its neck.

"I have seen much in my life, my lady, but never magic used in such a fashion."

Lady Lin followed his gaze toward the wall before shaking her head. "Not magic. Earth."

Aragorn frowned. "You command the earth itself and call it something other than magic?"

"Earth control." She considered whether he understood before adding, "In my world, some people control the earth. Some fire, others water and air."

Aragorn decided that arguing over the meaning of magic would accomplish very little. Lady Lin instead returned her attention to his shoulder and motioned toward the center of the camp.

"Come. Your horse tired, you hurt. We have time."

Aragorn almost refused again, but the wall behind her made his earlier argument considerably weaker than it had been a few minutes before. If these people truly intended to remain, there was little chance he would convince them otherwise by repeating himself, and his horse could use the water after carrying him so far.

He allowed Lady Lin to take the reins and guide them farther into the camp. Everyone had their own task and they seem to be sticking to it without caring to even look at him. Soldiers carried ammunition crates toward the hills, others dragged equipment behind the newly raised wall, and several groups were already exercising for the battle to come.

Aragorn noticed that nobody appeared particularly concerned by the approaching Uruk-hai anymore. Some were speaking among themselves while they worked, and he met soldiers who were laughing, as if the imminent threat was not their main concern.

Near the center of the camp he saw a shallow pool that he could have sworn had not existed when he first looked across the valley. The earth around it was freshly disturbed, and clean water filled the depression almost to its edge. Aragorn assumed that is what she meant when she said they had people that were able to control the water.

He dismounted carefully, feeling the pain in his shoulder immediately once his weight left the saddle. A young soldier approached before he could reach for the reins, spoke briefly with Lady Lin and took the horse from her.

"He will care for it." She explained.

Aragorn nodded gratefully. "Then he has my thanks."

His horse was led toward the water while Lady Lin remained beside him, watching him carefully but not saying anything. Aragorn suspected she expected him to complain or voice show weakness. He was preparing to assure her again that he could stand perfectly well when Princess Azula approached from another part of the camp.

She was accompanied by someone Aragorn had not noticed before. The newcomer was younger still, a small girl wearing green and yellow clothes beneath black pieces of armor. What caught his attention first was that she walked barefoot across a military camp without the slightest concern for stones or equipment beneath her feet.

Her pale eyes appeared unfocused as well, and Aragorn soon realized that she had the eye illness. He looked toward Lady Lin, unable to hide his confusion. "Another child?"

Lady Lin nodded and glanced toward the girl. "Tough. Earth control."

That explained very little until the small girl stopped beside them. She planted one foot against the ground and moved her arms through a short series of deliberate motions. Stone rose smoothly between them, forming first a broad table and then several chairs around it.

Aragorn watched without speaking while another soldier hurried over carrying a small red cushion, placed it on one of the stone chairs and stepped aside. Princess Azula sat upon it immediately, apparently seeing nothing unusual in having furniture created from the ground for her convenience.

The young blind girl took another chair, while Lady Lin sat beside her and gestured toward the remaining seat. Aragorn lowered himself into it slowly.

'What a strange occurrence… Maybe I already fell and my head is showing me a fantasy beyond my understanding.'

But no matter how strange these people were, it felt too real to be a dream.

Aragorn had barely settled into the stone chair before another soldier approached them, this one carrying a small wooden bowl filled with water. She appeared older than Princess Azula and the young earth controller.

"Healer Siku, Aragorn."

She bowed gently to him and he responded awkwardly. Having a closer look, she looked young as well, her armor was lighter than that of the soldiers preparing around the camp and it had a blue coloration.

Healer Siku seemed to regard Lady Lin with fear, and they exchanged a few words with her before pointing toward Aragorn's shoulder.

It felt strange again for Aragorn. Blue color in silk and clothing was difficult to achieve and usually reserved for Royalty, yet it seemed this lady was a mere servant for the Princess and Lady Lin. Another thing to note as odd and move on.

The healer stepped closer and motioned for him to remove enough of his coat and leather jerkin to expose the injury. Aragorn hesitated at first, mostly out of habit, but the pain had worsened considerably since dismounting and he had already accepted enough strange things during the last hour that refusing treatment now seemed pointless.

He pulled the clothing aside and allowed her to inspect the bruised flesh. The young woman dipped two fingers into the bowl, although rather than touching the water she lifted it with a small movement of her hand. Aragorn watched the liquid rise from the bowl in a thin ribbon and settle across his shoulder, glowing faintly as it moved over the damaged flesh.

Warmth spread through him almost immediately. He drew in a surprised breath as the ache began to recede. It did not disappear entirely, but the constant throbbing softened until moving his arm no longer sent pain down his side.

The healer continued for another minute before returning the water to the bowl and speaking quietly to Lady Lin.

"She says no broken bone, lucky." Lin explained. "Muscle hurt, many bruises. You need rest."

"That may be difficult today."

Lady Lin seemed to understand the humor and gave him a small nod before saying something to the healer, who bowed briefly and left them. Aragorn tested his shoulder carefully and found considerably more movement than before.

"Your people possess remarkable healers."

"Water control helps."

"So I have gathered."

Lady Lin looked toward his damaged clothing next. "We can fix the leather and coat. Some soldiers know fix."

"There is no need. There are more pressing matters than repairing this."

She did not argue, which Aragorn appreciated. A soldier brought water for him to drink while the three girls spoke quietly among themselves. Aragorn understood none of their language, although he occasionally recognized his own name and what sounded like references to the approaching army.

Princess Azula appeared particularly interested whenever Lady Lin answered her, while the young earth controller leaned back in her stone chair with complete ease.

Aragorn eventually looked toward Lady Lin. "You said your people command the elements."

She nodded. "Yes, very common in my world."

"And every person in your land may do this?"

"No. Some can. Some cannot."

Lady Lin gestured toward the camp around them. "This force has many fire controllers. We are the Fire Nation army."

Aragorn followed her gaze. He had already noticed the absence of familiar weapons among much of the force, but the explanation gave that observation an entirely different meaning. The heavily armored soldiers he had thought strangely unarmed were not lacking weapons at all.

"Ah, I see. That's why they have no weapons on them."

"Yes."

Princess Azula had apparently understood enough of the conversation to know what they were discussing. She smiled and raised one hand, allowing a small blue flame to appear above her fingertip.

Aragorn leaned forward slightly surprised. He had never seen a different colored flame. Lady Lin's fireball had been the usual orange and yellow, yet the flame burning over the princess's hand was a brilliant blue.

Princess Azula allowed it to grow until a sphere of fire rested above her palm, illuminating the gold of her armor before she calmly extinguished it.

Lady Lin looked toward Aragorn. "Princess' flame is stronger."

"I had begun to suspect that."

The princess did not understand the words, but she seemed satisfied by his expression. Lady Lin continued explaining, using simpler terms whenever Aragorn failed to recognize one of her words.

Their soldiers came from several lands and included people capable of controlling different elements, although most belonged to the Fire Nation. Their unit itself was part of an elite formation, trained to operate against enemies far larger than their own numbers and accustomed to combining their abilities with weapons Aragorn had yet to understand.

While the Princess and the young blind girl bickered back and forth, Lin turned to him once more.

"We could have helped more. What you see is only part of our weapons." Lin added. "Spirit took us without everything."

Aragorn looked toward the metal tubes on the hills. "You possess… uhm, bigger weapons as you called them?"

"Yes."

"If your entire army had come here, what then?"

Lady Lin considered the question for a moment. "Not enough room in this valley."

"What? How big is your nation's army?"

"Sixty." Lady Lin answered

"Sixty thousand?!" It was the largest army Aragorn had ever heard of. Maybe Sauron could muster that amount, but no other race could gather that large of an army.

"Sixty times." Lady Lin replied.

"Pardon me, sixty times?" He asked.

"Yeah, sixty times orc army coming here." Lady Lin finished.

"That makes no sense." Aragorn said.

"Don't worry." She dismissed.

He rested his forearms against the stone table and considered his choices. Helm's Deep still needed warning, and every moment spent here delayed him further, but leaving immediately meant abandoning the first force he had encountered that might actually destroy a significant part of Saruman's army before it ever reached Théoden.

"I will stay for the battle."

Lady Lin looked at him with some surprise. Aragorn continued before she could answer.

"If your defense fails, I will ride for Helm's Deep and warn them. They need to prepare defenses ahead of time, they think no one would dare attack them there."

Lady Lin nodded after thinking through his meaning.

"I did not expect you stay, but you can fight with us. You will have your horse ready."

Whether these strangers truly understood what was approaching them or not, he would soon discover.

By the time the Uruk-hai finally came into sight, Aragorn was anxious and couldn't understand how the men beside him in the wall were so calm. The approaching army looked huge in his eyes, weird magic or not.

They appeared first as a dark line beyond the western hills, spreading wider as more of them marched into view. Aragorn had already seen the force once and knew what to expect, yet from the top of the newly raised wall their numbers seemed even greater than he remembered.

Thousands moved together beneath the banners of the White Hand, the sound of their march carrying across the valley as a constant distant rumble. He looked along the Fire Nation defenses and expected some reaction from the soldiers who had spent the last hours preparing for them.

There was almost no fear among them, certainly some still showed some nervousness, but it was not enough to disturb their positions. Soldiers continued carrying crates into position, and others were moving into position.

More surprising was the singing. It began somewhere along the wall and spread gradually through the ranks, a marching song in their own language accompanied by their armored arms hitting their chest.

Aragorn understood none of the words, yet the rhythm was unmistakably military, and before long entire sections of the defense had joined in.

"WAY LYWUH GWOR!" They shouted loudly to end their chant. (For the Fire Nation! - Classical Chinese)

He found the display difficult to understand. Men were not supposed to be eager to fight, especially at such odds. Below the wall, perhaps a hundred troops had gathered in the open ground between the fortification and the direction of the approaching enemy.

Most of the heavily armored soldiers were among them, Aragorn now understood were fire controllers. Alongside many others and some of the ones who had built the wall. What surprised him was that Princess Azula stood near the front with them.

It made no sense to risk them like that when they had a wall to defend from. And why would a princess lead from the front even if her abilities were greater than the rest. He turned toward Lady Lin, who was watching the distant Uruk-hai through a small metal object she held before one eye.

"My lady, why is your princess outside the wall?"

Lin lowered the device.

"She fights."

"I gathered that much, but surely the wall exists so your soldiers can fight from behind it."

Lady Lin appeared to consider how to explain the matter.

"Wall is second defense."

Aragorn looked again at the soldiers waiting in the valley. "Then what is the first?"

"Our plan already started."

He was getting frustrated with how little her answers revealed. Lady Lin pointed toward the top of the wall.

"You stay here. If soldiers come back, help defend."

"You expect them to retreat?"

"Probably. Depends on enemy."

Aragorn followed her gaze toward the Uruk-hai, whose front ranks were now beginning to descend from the distant hills.

"What are you planning?"

Lady Lin gave him a faint smile before turning away. She walked toward the edge of the wall and climbed onto its upper surface. Several nearby soldiers moved aside for her without being told.

"Lady Lin?"

She looked back briefly and seemed to be thinking how to explain but ultimately she said nothing. Aragorn was about to ask what she intended to do when flames burst beneath her feet.

His hand moved toward his sword by instinct as Lady Lin launched herself from the wall, clearing the soldiers gathered below and although she never landed, she was already dozens paces away, her momentum continued, throwing her forward across the valley.

Aragorn stared after her, perplexed. She was flying close to the ground, crossing the ground at a speed that matched the great eagles. Within moments she was far beyond the forward soldiers and continuing directly toward the approaching Saruman's army.

"What is she doing?" He muttered

The blind girl beside him answered in her own language, Aragorn just looked down at her.

"I'm sorry little one, I cannot understand you."

The girl folded her arms and said something else that sounded distinctly amused. Aragorn returned his attention to the valley. His eyes scanning the horizon for the missing armored flying lady.

Lady Lin had become little more than a distant figure against the open grass, occasionally visible only because another burst of fire marked her position. The Uruk-hai had clearly noticed her as well. Their formation continued advancing, although Aragorn could see movement near their front as warriors reacted to the solitary figure approaching them.

For several uncomfortable minutes he wondered whether Lady Lin intended to confront the entire army herself.

Then he could no longer see flames. Even from the wall Aragorn could see her standing alone in the path of thousands. The Uruk-hai continued toward her. Aragorn gripped the stone parapet as the distance closed, expecting arrows to begin flying at any moment.

Whatever confidence he had gained in these people during the afternoon did not extend to believing one woman could stand before what he now knew to be ten thousand enemies without consequence.

Lady Lin suddenly turned. Fire erupted behind her, and she came back across the valley at extraordinary speed.

She returned far faster than she had gone out, using a bigger burst of flame to propel herself across the ground until she reached the waiting Fire Nation soldiers. Several officers immediately gathered around her.

Orders followed and the relaxed atmosphere disappeared at once. Soldiers climbed the wall, the battle lines below spread farther apart and men carrying colored flags moved into clear positions where they could be seen from the surrounding hills.

Lady Lin pointed toward several places in the advancing army while speaking rapidly. The flag bearers started moving them in different patterns and sequences, and Aragorn briefly wondered what they communicated with that.

Another group farther along the wall repeated the signal and Aragorn followed their movements toward the soldiers positioned high upon the hills, barely visible among the rocks and grass with their strange metal tubes.

For a few seconds nothing happened. Then the valley erupted with a collection of deafening booms, loud enough that Aragorn felt them through the stone beneath his feet.

The first explosions landed among the Uruk-hai before Aragorn understood what the soldiers on the hills had done. Great bursts of earth and flame erupted inside the advancing formation, throwing bodies aside and breaking apart entire ranks that had been marching shoulder to shoulder only moments before.

Another series of thunderous sounds came from both hillsides, followed seconds later by more explosions deeper inside the army, and Aragorn quickly realized that the strange metal tubes did not need a clear line of sight to strike their enemy. Their crews worked behind the ridges, loading and firing while the flag bearers below relayed instructions from Lady Lin.

The orcs reacted by pressing forward faster, which only drove more of them into the center of the valley. Several groups attempted to spread toward the slopes, but the earth controllers stationed there began moving together, bringing down sections of loose rock and soil onto the enemy.

Aragorn watched portions of the hills collapse into their path, crushing some and forcing the rest inward until the large army was being compressed into a narrower space between both elevations.

Only then did he understand why so many soldiers had been sent toward the hills instead of remaining behind the wall. They were not defending those positions from attack, as he had assumed earlier. They were using the terrain itself to bury the incoming army and launch that devastating magic.

Crossbow bolts began flying toward the troops waiting ahead of the wall once the enemy finally came close enough to answer. Most never reached their targets. Thin barriers of stone rose where the bolts were likely to strike, some appearing only long enough to absorb a volley before dropping back into the ground.

The fire controllers behind them answered immediately, sending fireballs and broad streams of flame into the front ranks. The Uruk-hai continued advancing through it, but their front was already becoming disordered as warriors climbed over fallen bodies or tried to force their way around those burning in front of them.

Princess Azula remained among the forward troops despite Aragorn's earlier doubts about allowing a royal child so close to the fighting. He saw her bring her hands together while blue light gathered around her fingers, then thrust them forward and release a bolt of lightning into the approaching line.

Several armored orcs collapsed from the strike, and the princess moved to another position before preparing the same attack again. Whatever reservations Aragorn had held about her presence at the front were becoming increasingly difficult to justify when every attack she made removed several enemies at once.

Lady Lin was farther ahead, fighting alongside the other fire controllers while still directing the battle. Aragorn saw her raise one metal hand and gather a flame above her palm, but unlike the fireballs being thrown around her, this one began growing brighter as it turned from orange to yellow and then nearly blinding white.

When she released it, the flame expanded into a long torrent that swept across the Uruk-hai in front of her, forcing those behind them to halt or push through the burning ground. The enemy kept advancing even when faced against that overwhelming attack.

These orcs were not ordinary men who might break after losing a few in front of them. They had been bred for war and driven forward by commanders who cared little for casualties. Even after the explosions, collapsing hills and fire had killed hundreds, those behind continued stepping over their own dead and pressing toward the wall.

For several minutes Aragorn believed sheer numbers might finally accomplish what their weapons could not. The distance between both forces narrowed until the first orcs were close enough that Aragorn could begin smelling burned flesh.

Just then a group of soldiers carrying those long metal sticks encased in a wooden frame joined him in the walls. They aimed at them and after one man shouted they also produced a deafening crack and boom sound.

The forward Fire Nation troops began retreating in organized groups, continuing to attack while giving ground toward the fortification. Aragorn wanted to shout at them in warning but the noise from the metal stick would make it pointless. Either way the soldiers showed no sign of panic and slowed them down while they orderly retreated.

Openings appeared in the stone wall. The retreating troops passed through them in groups, with earth controllers closing each section behind them as soon as the last soldier crossed. Princess Azula entered near the center, followed shortly afterward by Lady Lin, who hovered over the last stretch of ground using fire beneath her feet before clearing the top of the wall and landing among her soldiers.

Both looked tired, but neither appeared alarmed by how the battle was progressing. The tubes on the hills continued firing over them. Explosions tore apart the rear of the enemy line while the front ranks crowded against the newly closed wall, leaving the army compressed between the fortification and the bombardment behind them.

Fire controllers stationed along the top began pouring flames downward, forcing those attempting to climb or place ladders against the stone to retreat or burn. Lady Lin immediately returned to the flag bearers and began pointing toward something deeper inside the enemy formation.

Aragorn followed her gaze but could see little beyond the mass of armored bodies until he noticed several Uruk-hai carrying a large metal sphere surrounded by others protecting it. He assumed that was their target but he was not sure what that did.

Maybe it was a weapon, but how Lady Lin had been able to identify it when their own weapons were so different was a mystery. Aragorn barely had time to open his mouth when one of those explosions hit the ground where that metal ball was.

The resulting explosion was unlike anything that had struck the field before. A violent shockwave reached the wall strongly enough to rattle Aragorn's teeth and force him to brace himself against the stone. Fire and debris erupted from the center of the orc force, tearing open a massive gap and throwing warriors in every direction.

For several seconds even the Fire Nation soldiers stopped shouting as the smoke expanded across the valley. Lady Lin watched the destruction with narrowed eyes before turning toward the young blind earth controller and giving her an order as well.

The young girl grinned and she stepped forward, planting both feet firmly against the stone beneath her, moving her arms through a series of deliberate motions that Aragorn had learned to associate with something unpleasant happening to the ground.

At first he saw no effect, and for several seconds the remaining Uruk-hai continued forcing themselves toward the wall. Then a deep crack appeared across the valley roughly fifty paces from the fortification.

The ground split apart, opening widely in the middle and rapidly expanding as earth controllers along the wall joined the movement, dividing what remained of the army into two groups. Uruk-hai near the fracture lost their footing and fell into the widening gap while those behind struggled to stop their advance before being pushed in by their own comrades.

A red glow began appearing from somewhere below and an uncomfortable heat reached the wall soon afterward. Aragorn stared as molten rock filled the bottom of the fracture and thick smoke climbed into the air, cutting the enemy formation in half with a burning trench that none of them could cross.

Aragorn was speechless as he watched hundreds of orcs perish in front of his eyes. They couldn't even retreat because there was a lot of rock they now had to get on top of to be able to escape.

It was going to be a bloodbath and by their broken and disorganized state, he knew the Fire Nation would win the battle, and he was not even going to be needed.

Once the battle was over, Aragorn could find no living orcs remaining in the valley. The few who had attempted to flee had been cut off by the soldiers positioned along the hills, while those trapped near the wall had been overwhelmed once their lines collapsed.

Thousands of bodies now covered what had been green grass only hours earlier, mixed with shattered weapons, broken siege equipment and deep craters left by the Fire Nation weapons. Aragorn had seen many battles throughout his life, but he struggled to imagine how he would explain this one to the men waiting at Helm's Deep.

If someone had told him that several hundred strangers had destroyed an army of thousands without allowing most of them close enough to swing a sword, he would have assumed the story had grown with every telling.

Around him, the Fire Nation soldiers already behaved as though the battle was finished business. Their wounded were being treated, equipment collected and counted, while groups of fire controllers burned piles of corpses to prevent disease from spreading through the valley.

Lady Lin joined Aragorn as he watched from the wall, her armor covered in soot and several sections of her metal limbs darkened from flames she controlled. For some time they watched the work below before Lady Lin spoke.

"Maybe spirit bring us here for a reason."

Aragorn looked toward her. "You believe that?"

Lady Lin glanced across the field. "You said these creatures kill humans, burn homes and serve evil masters. Maybe we help until we find a way home."

"You would aid us in this war?"

"Yes, unless we find our way back before that."

Aragorn could hardly deny how valuable that aid would be after what he had just witnessed.

Lady Lin continued after a moment. "You show us Helm's Deep?"

"Aye. We could march to the fortress, it should be a day from here."

"We go there. Need maps, food and information." She gestured toward the weapons being carried down from the hills. "Also need to know if your people can make these."

Aragorn followed her gaze toward the strange metal tubes that had devastated Saruman's army from beyond the reach of any bow.

"You wish to produce your weapons here?"

"If possible. We have ammunition, not unlimited."

Everything Aragorn had seen that day had been accomplished by only a small part of their army, using whatever weapons and supplies had been carried with them when the spirit transported them into this world.

If the craftsmen of Middle-earth could provide these strangers with what they needed to replace their supplies, their strength would be equal to what he had just seen hours ago. They could take the fight to Sauron easily.

He remembered Lady Lin's explanation that the full army of her nation numbered many times greater than the force Saruman had sent against Helm's Deep and found himself wondering what such a civilization could accomplish if it ever brought its complete strength into these lands.

He wasn't sure even Gandalf would be able to stop them. For now, however, they were allies, and after watching the destruction of Saruman's army Aragorn could only be thankful for that.

"Let's hope we can help you, your aid would be invaluable."

Lady Lin nodded. "Good. We leave when soldiers ready."

Aragorn looked across the ruined valley once more. He was happy at least that he would bring good news to the people of Rohan.

Ashes of Devotion [ATLA - Azula x OC]

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This world has too many villains.

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This world has too many villains.

Mecha enjoyer and Waifu enthusiast

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Versed in the lewd.

This world has too many villains.

This world has too many villains.

I LOVE Pan-Pan

This world has too many villains.

This world has too many villains.

This world has too many villains.

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