The ceremony was a small private affair. Nothing too noticeable, nothing too fantastic. All that were in attendance was the graduating class. Nobody more. No parents, no teachers, just us and the Principal. I don't know how many among us knew what was really going on. I think I was definitely the youngest who did. We were separated by age and while the other kids around me cheered and goofed around with each other, I could see Danev off with Aden, worried out of his mind. He knew what was coming. I didn't doubt Aden knew, but the look in his told me he was indifferent. Maybe he wasn't planning on sticking around that long.
What Jeong Jeong had told me was still fresh in my mind. The other kids didn't realize it, but I did. I was going to war.
That had been a week ago. The 15th wasn't far off. Whenever I patrolled the wall in my newly issued Fire Nation uniform and armored plating, I would look into the horizon to the east, expecting to see a line of tanks come over it any seconds. I would look at the light snow every now and then, expecting to see it had turned black with soot rather than the white it was supposed to be, but they hadn't come yet. They would come. I'm not getting out of this that easily.
Danev knew too, but there was nothing he could do about it. He saw that. If he wasn't too busy watching Aden every second of the day, making sure he didn't run off and get himself or us killed.
We have to tell him eventually. I thought to myself. It felt cruel misleading him for this long, convincing him his friends, his family was still alive. And now, atop the wall, he was patrolling fifty feet above his home. Not the shelter that Danev and I had grown accustomed to calling it, but home. He didn't belong in the Fire Nation, even I could see that. His home was with the Hornets and he was lucky he didn't die with it so why should I feel guilty when all me and Aden are doing is stopping him from dying with them.
Hell, I didn't even know what Aden would do. Maybe he would do exactly what Danev, and I, to some extent, expected him to do: run wild and kill everybody responsible, for their deaths and his misleading, that he could find. I fit under both categories. The deaths of the Hornets still went where I did. I was the reason they were dead. There was no going around that. We had the upper hand. The Rats were in hiding and it wouldn't have been hard to find them. People would have flocked to the Hornets seeing they were in charge, looking for Rats for the promise of food and shelter. They would've been dead in a heartbeat. Miro too, and Reek. Especially Reek. He was good, but not good enough. What would I have done if we came face to face on the battlefield, not in the way we did at the end, but intent on killing each other? Would he have asked me to leave one last time? Would I have even gone?
What would have happened if we did kill the Rats. The Hornets would all be Fire Nation soldiers by now, patrolling these walls with me. Aden would have felt at home. He would have missed the slums, yeah, but he'd be with family. And now we were keeping up that illusion, of family. It was all that kept Aden from jumping down at a moment's notice and finding the bones of Riu, Ladle, and all the rest.
Still no tanks. It was just plains over the horizon. No banners, no soldiers, or tanks in sight. I wondered where they were now. Had they landed yet? Were they docking right at this moment? Or were they right past the horizon, and the second I turned back would be the moment they appeared?
"Luke!" I heard a voice, snapping me out of my daydream. It was Danev, Aden at his side, eyes wandering towards the slums. "We were supposed to meet you at the Southeast, not east. You're slacking on your patrol, private."
Every batch of soldiers had to be given ranks upon graduating and for once, the Fire Nation had done it according to merit, not status. Danev had been given the rank Private first class, and he had no hesitation to pull rank on me at a moment's notice. It was obvious he found it funny, but then again, we all did this last week. We tried to find the humor in anything around us to take us away from the fact we would be deployed on a battlefield a few weeks from that moment.
His smiles died quickly, and he joined me in gazing at the horizon. "Haven't seen them yet?"
"No. The second I turn away, they'll come right over it and then we'll be dead. Maybe not right at that moment, but we'll for all intents and purposes be dead."
"You don't know that."
"But you do. You just won't say it because I'm younger than you. I know I'm going to die, Danev. I'm 11 years old. Hell, I could be 12 for all I know. I'm a nameless, birth-less, street urchin. I gave myself my own name and my own birth day and I change that around every now and then depending on what day I think sounds cooler to have a birthday on. Maybe I'm a big 8-year-old or I'm a small 14-year-old. Who knows and who cares? I'm an unimportant, unnamed, weak, who-gives-a-fuck-years-old kid. And I'm going to be dead before I turn 13."
"It's the same with all of us, Luke." He replied. "Except I'll be dead before I'm 15 and Aden before he's 15 too."
"Not me." Aden said from where he was looking at the slums, kneeling on the ground. "I'm gonna live forever."
Danev looked to and simply shook his head, telling me not to bother. I snuck a last glance at Aden before turning back to the horizon. Now, we talked in a lower voice.
"How is he?" I asked.
"Fine. Why shouldn't he be?"
"Okay. You keeping an eye on him?"
Aden spoke up again. I was nervous he had heard us, but his statement put that worry aside. "I think I recognize the kid down there. I think he helped us find some Rats before. Isn't that the rich people road?"
Danev turned my attention back away from Aden by saying "It's nothing. Just getting some nostalgia. Yes, I'm keeping an eye on him. How else am I supposed to keep him from running away at a moment's notice? Frankly, I need the 15th or whatever it was to get here as soon as fucking possible. The sooner we get him away from here, the better. I've done what I could to stop him this long, but we've been on patrol for a week. Do you know how damn much I have to say 'No. That one's watching us.', see that kid down there? He works for the Fire Nation. He'll report you.' It's not going to work forever. I'm amazed he hasn't run off yet."
We both turned at the exact same moment. And as if on cue, he was gone.
"You're fucking kidding me, right?"
Danev ran to the edge and looked down. He turned back to me and shook his head. Nothing. I turned to the rick and above the gate to the homeland road, I saw the hatch shut leading to the interior of the wall. "He's in the wall!" I yelled.
We ran. Danev got ahead and opened the hatch for me, allowing me to ump right in. Avoiding the latter as it would take to long, I fell ungracefully on the steel catwalk as Danev came in behind me, sticking his landing and running off. In here, the only light came from arrow slits in the walls. It wasn't nearly enough.
"Where is he?" I heard Danev yell as he looked over the rails of the catwalks for a sign. I got to my feet finally and created a flame in my hands, focusing everything I could on it, allowing it to grow to the point that we could now see what was going on around us. I put everything I could into keeping the flame alive until I heard Danev say "He's there!"
Assuming I had done my part, I let the flame die. It took some readjusting to the darkness, but we knew where he was now, and we were in pursuit. We took the ladder down to the same level Aden was at, jumping off 10 rungs above the catwalk to save what time we could. "Aden, stop!" Danev yelled.
I hadn't expected a response, but he provided one nonetheless. "It's alright. I just need to have a talk with him. I recognized that kid."
"Who did he see?" I asked between breaths as we ran.
"Doesn't matter who. He'll know."
Aden took a turn at a catwalk, seemingly oblivious at the fact he was being cased. The poor kid probably thought we were running with him, not after him. And that's where he made a mistake. Rather than going all the way down to the bottom of the wall, he stopped at a door leading to an archer's platform facing the slums. The fact they had archers' positions facing both in and out wasn't a comforting idea considering I had leaved beneath their watch for most of my life.
Aden opened the door and the sunlight shone in, nearly blinding the three of us who were all together now.
Aden stepped outside into the light and even from behind him, I could see thousands of pounds raised from his shoulders. Danev moved to stand next to him, but I could see Aden's smile clear enough from where I was.
"I can land on that roof from here. It's what? Only 6 feet? I can manage that. I've done worse."
"Aden." Danev began.
"I know what you're going to say. It's stupid. I'll be caught. That there's some Fire Nation spy right there waiting for me to make a move. I know you're trying to protect me, but it's right there. Home. We can go back."
"Aden. Home's not the same as it once was."
"I know. I heard about the fighting between the Hornets and the Rats. I heard people are dying. That's exactly why they need us. We can end this war together. Those slums are pretty much ours. We're three military trained soldiers and Luke." He turned to me and I took a few steps back when I saw the fanatic look on his face. "Luke's a firebender. Think of what we could do. We'd be unstoppable."
Aden motioned forward, preparing to jump, but Danev grabbed him by the forearm holding him back. This time, he spoke louder, with more meaning behind his words. "Aden. We can't go back."
Aden chuckled. "And why's that, Danev? Afraid Riu will be pissed Meeko's dead? He'll be happy enough to see the three of us, right? The Hornets need us."
Danev said it quietly at first, but I heard, and I knew Aden did too. My heart skipped two beats once I heard him say "The Hornets are gone."
There was a pause. "What?"
"They're dead, Aden."
He let go of his grip on Aden, perhaps hoping he would jump rather than exact the revenge he had expected from Aden.
"You're joking."
"I'm not."
"Bu- How?! How do you know?! You were in Citadel with me! How would you know?!"
"Because I didn't stay in Citadel."
I saw Aden's fist clench and I could see sweat forming at his brow, beginning to trail down his face. He was scared. He didn't know what to believe. He doubted what was being said, but that doesn't matter. When you hear somebody's dead, you believe them. That's just how death strikes you. Suddenly.
Danev continued. "The Fire Nation let me go on the condition the Hornets would finish off the Rats."
"And you agreed?!" Aden yelled, his face reddening and his voice rising.
"I didn't have a choice. The food we stole would only have lasted so long. We needed a long-term deal. One to save the Hornets."
"Oh? And how did that work out considering you're standing in front of me, telling me they're all dead!?"
"There was a battle between the Rats and us. We held our end and the Rats died, but so did the Hornets. The Fire Nation took us in."
"No. No. That's bullshit, and you know it. I know Riu and I know Miro. He, or she, or whatever the fuck you told me it was would never commit to an actual fight. Miro would never have that many Rats out of hiding at once and Riu would never be so stupid as to do the same."
That hit me extra hard, considering I was the cause of both. I was the reason that confrontation had occurred, and it was eating away at me as this argument went all, and Danev did all he could to absorb and deflect all the blame away from me as best as he could. "Nobody could have known what would happen. Both gangs were getting cocky and Mir- "
"It was me." I spoke out. I couldn't take it anymore.
"What?" Aden looked behind himself towards me, still standing in the darkness of the wall.
"Luke. Shut up." Danev said.
I shook my head, ignored him, and carried on. "I'm the reason it went how it did. I thought I could save both gangs. I tried to strike a deal with Miro and she agreed. She agreed she would leave, and the Hornets would give the Fire Nation what they knew about where the Rats were hiding in exchange for safe passage into the military district and admission into the army."
I could see the heat rising to his voice again. I could see the small steps he was taking towards me, but I carried on.
"Janick, Miro's right-hand man, didn't like this, and killed her. He led the rest of the Rats to where we were to meet with the Fire nation and get inside Citadel. They ambushed us, and everyone died. They're all dead. I'm sorry, Aden, I am." I felt tears rising to my face and tried to hold them back, but at the same time I was remembering the blank looks on Reek's, Riu's, and everyone else's face, I also was seeing myself crashing onto the metallic floor below. I was fully expecting to die then and there, and Aden was expecting the same.
Aden just stood there, then took that first huge step towards me, yelling "You killed them all!" I was picturing myself hitting the rails of the catwalks before my body smashed against the bottom of the wall when Danev grabbed Aden by the arm, stopping him in his tracks, and smashed his face against the steel door frame with his other arm, knocking Danev to the ground, unconscious.
I was on the ground of the catwalk, the echoes of Aden's face hitting the door frame still ringing through the hollow wall.
Danev turned to me. "That was really stupid, Luke."
While Danev helped me up, I heard a horn blare outside followed by "Open the gate! Reinforcements approaching!"
Danev looked at me and said "See what that is. I'll get Aden back."
I nodded my head and rushed up the ladders I had just rushed down, opening the hatch leading to the top of the wall and when I climbed up, the sky was gray. I closed the hatch below me and stood on the top of the walls looking down on the hundreds of steel gray tanks that waited outside the city. The 15th Armored Division had arrived.