The whole world burned around me. The heat came at me in droves as particularly flammable kindling among the remains of the town were sparked and promptly ignited. The screams had all stopped by then. In fact, they had stopped long ago. Not that I had even heard them in the first place. I couldn't listen to it. I couldn't.
I was on the ground, kneeling, as sparks floated off in the air around me, travelling with the breeze away from my handiwork into the open sky.
I wondered who had been the last one to scream. I knew who the first had been. I saw her myself.
I had only one question on my mind. What had I done?
/
I still remembered that morning. Or had it been the morning before? I couldn't remember. Everyone was excited. Everyone was ready. The war was coming to its end.
I had spent the morning training, firing at targets, killing dummies, shooting target balloons out of the sky. I didn't drink. I didn't celebrate ahead of time. I had no friends to pass the time with, so I readied myself for the battle ahead, because I hadn't forgotten what most of the 5th army had: the war wasn't over yet.
It wouldn't be over until the last Earth Bender was dead.
I took that sentiment with me when I gathered my gear from my squad's tent. I held it as I put on my armor, clasping the armor plates over the shirt and pants underneath, clasping them together, tightening them, ensuring everything was on perfectly. It all felt right.
I sheathed my sword into my belt, put on my fingerless gloves to allow firebending, and lastly, I put on my helmet. And the next second, I was facing the Earth Kingdom army, not half a kilometer away.
I saw the walls beyond them, the last obstacle before victory, and knew that soon, they'd not be standing anymore.
I saw the Earth Kingdom fortress ahead of us and could already see the Fire Nation banners flying in the wind above burnt structures, Fire Nation soldiers traversing the trenches, but only a handful, as the main force was securing the city proper.
I saw in my tank then, alongside a crew without names as I hadn't bothered to remember them. Names slowed me down. Names assigned value. Value made me forget the mission. Names had slowed me down with Gan and Gi Gu. They slowed me down with Iron Fire, but they wouldn't slow me down now. No obstacles left. No loose ends. Just 1 kilometer between me and victory, nothing left to hold me back.
And 2:00 was struck. I heard the whistle. And we charged.
A tidal wave of tanks rolled over the once green farmland of the outer district, trampling over corpses of no man's land and other gifts left for us, disabling mines, braving mud that once would have stopped the entire advance, crushing barbed wire, all of it.
The Earth Kingdom artillery came down, but like even the fiercest of storms, it failed to stop us.
There was no disillusionment about what lay ahead. The men may have been celebrating in their trenches back at camp, but now, on the field, there was no confusing the danger ahead.
The Earth Kingdom camp, no more so a fortress, had laid down its defenses to attempt to launch as many killing blows against the armored assault as possible, but when they failed to stop our advance, they raised their earthen walls, and held.
We had our objectives. We knew what to do. My squad knew their role, as did the others, so we stayed back. When I had heard the orders from my Staff Sergeant, I had braved the thought of risking insubordination to object, but knew, having a clear understanding of my squad, that it would work out. Iroh would have been a fool to leave our squad out of the fighting. And he was no fool.
So we stayed back as a double line of Fire Nation tanks made complete semicircles of the Earth Kingdom camp that was backed against the inner wall, using it as at least one impenetrable defense, or so they thought.
We had our objective of course, to break through their defenses. And we would do it, though with many losses. That wasn't the plan, however, for even we had a few tricks up our sleeves. They're rear wall wasn't the impenetrable defense they thought it, for soon enough, any minute now, 100 trained Fire Nation soldiers alongside the Prince himself would break through it and give us the diversion needed to break through the Earth Kingdom defenses with minimum casualties, and finally take this camp, and this forsaken city.
But we continued on our own, we held back, waiting for an opening in their defenses, even the slightest sign of one. I watched their walls, measuring the odds of success of an attempt to blast through with sheer force, but thought the better. Brute force would get us killed before the fighting even began, but even the strongest of defenses had a weakness, and I saw it.
The Earth Benders, sadly, weren't nearly stupid enough to keep their walls stationary. They had them shifting and overlapping each other like a deck of cards being shuffled. They no doubt had the bulk of their benders focusing on keeping the wall intact. Which would be why Danev and Lu Ten would be more needed than ever. They're intervention would either serve as a distraction for the Earth Benders, giving us a chance to break through, or as a knife in the back. Either way, so long as those defenses came down, and we got our chance to fight, I'd be happy.
But it was useless to wait for somebody else to do the job for you. We had prepared for this stalemate to last 15 minutes at most, it was reaching 10 now, but I saw an opening. An we had our orders from our commanders: "You see an opening, you take it."
And I saw it. Like the deck of cards they were, there was the point where the walls lost their double layered characteristic, where the wall in the back became revealed, one unfortified and undefended. I had the timing. We had this.
I crouched down into the tank to relay my findings to an unnamed driver and co-pilot. "Opening, between the layers, every 2 and a half seconds."
There was no questioning what I had seen. I had proved myself enough in these last few weeks. They knew my capabilities, and I knew theirs. There was no questioning what could be done. So we charged. I closed the lid of my tank, preparing for the upcoming barrage and earth and debris, and took my target, focusing on that one single spot on the wall, counting, waiting. Open, closed, closed, closed, open, closed, closed, closed.
And we were 5 feet away when it became exposed, but it made no difference. I had half a second to fire and took it. And the portion of the wall crumbled. With no wall in the back to support the front layers, a portion of the wall spanning at least 30 feet collapsed, and the battle began.
We were through, the Earth Kingdom army in plain sight. And so we fought. Now past the wall, I emerged from the seclusion of the turret, trusting myself to be able to deflect and destroy incoming projectiles. And so I did. I fired a stream of fire at the ex-wall managers who had been gathered in a tight rank and file formation behind the walls, maintaining it and keeping it shifting until we had come through. I directed the stream of fire to my right, catching at least 7 Earth Benders within it, sending them burning to the ground as the rest broke formation and backed up, seeking to escape the spew of fire, and rightly so, but it wouldn't save them.
I fired blasts of fire towards them, one after another, shifting from target to target, not waiting to see if my shots hit gold or not. Our tank moved along, past the line of Earth Benders, and into the deeper portions of their camp where non bending soldiers had assembled and were marking a concentrated effort to destroy our tanks. I could see their artillery in the rear of their camp shifting to redirect their focus on us. Good. We have everyone's attention. Now just for Danev and Lu Ten to come in and end this, but until then, we have some fighting to do.
We were about 50 feet from the wall when an earth disk hit us from behind in the rear of the tank, sending us spinning, facing more towards the right towards our attackers, giving me a perfect angle to fire, until my shot was ruined by another earth disk hitting us in the front of the tank, smaller, but far deadlier, penetrating through the steel layers of the tank, absolutely cutting through its left side.
The blast had knocked me to the ground of the tank, but it was nothing that would stop me. I had seen the other Fire Nation tanks entering the camp. There were plenty of us. We would win this. I got on my feet, ensuring my sword was still clasped to my side, and I stumbled past the fires growing in the tank, past the crushed and burning corpses of the rest of my crew, and out of the entry wound of the tank.
And what I saw in front of me was nothing short of pure chaos and hell. And it was glorious. I unsheathed my sword, clutching it in my right hand, and entered the fray.
Tanks rolled past me in all directions, coming from the breach in the wall as Earth Kingdom soldiers were dispersed and cut down systematically. I walked past pieces of what had once been my tank, wondering if anyone else in my unit had survived, pushing back any semblance of care instantly, and focusing on the task at hand.
I walked, headed straight towards the center of the Earth Kingdom camp, past the drift track my tank had taken when it was hit, noting the ground torn beneath it and sent into the air, colliding into one or two Earth Kingdom soldiers in the process, both of whom were on the ground, attempting to stand to no effect. I walked past them. I had no time for the injured.
I heard the soldier to my right before I saw him. I turned, dodged his axe which he had sent towards me in a downwards arc, and cut at him in a sideways cut, entering his abdomen and leaving through his back, cutting a chunk out of his torso and sending him to the ground, nearly in two pieces save for a thread of flesh and bone keeping him together, though it'd do him no good.
I kept on walking, dodging an earth desk sent towards me from my front left, not caring where it hit once it went beyond me. I turned my left hand into a fist, and, aiming it towards him, shot a constant beam of fire that culminated in the combustion of his body, sending him to the ground, writhing in pain as I stopped the beam of fire to leave him to his fate. I had to conserve my energy. The real fighting was yet to come.
2 Earth Kingdom soldiers who had been attempting to stand from where they were on the ground, likely injured or stunned in an earlier attack, grasped their weapons and charged towards me. The first, a spearman, took one of my blasts of fire to the leg. The force alone was enough to bend his leg in the wrong direction. The rest was child's play as I dug my sword into his neck, grabbed his spear in my left hand, plucking it from his weakened grasp, and shoved it into the stomach of his approaching comrade who dropped his sword upon the entry of the spear into his abdomen and dropped limp, only being kept off the ground by the spear, which I promptly released, freeing my sword from the first soldier's corpse and continuing on.
I looked ahead, and I could see it: the inner gate. Why is it still closed?
I shook my head, not caring to worry about it, and carried on. No new tanks were passing me? Where are they? I turned around. The wall had closed behind me. Why were any of those Earth Benders still alive. Why hadn't they been killed yet? It didn't matter. I would have to do it.
I turned around, ignoring my warpath towards the wall, and headed towards the new line of Earth Benders forming, and when I was in range, with their backs turned, I took my first shot, and sent a kick of fire that grew in diameter as it approached them. 10 of the nearest benders went down until the rest were alerted and enabled to turn on me, forming a barricade of Earth blocking my advance. Cowards. But it wouldn't stop me.
I readied myself to fire a blast large enough to tear down their temporary fortifications until something told me to duck. There was no questioning it. I did, and the disk of earth hit the wall, sailing straight over where my head had been not half a second ago. On the ground, I flipped onto my back, and fired a kick at the Earth bender who had approached me from behind, sending him down to the ground, dead, as the strike took him straight in the head.
I would've turned back to finish my work on the wall, but when I had turned to fend off against the Earth Bender, well, I had become preoccupied with an oncoming force of Earth Kingdom soldiers.
I had an idea.
I turned back to the wall, not the one separating me and the earth benders, but the one separating How's camp and the 5th Army. If I could bring that wall down once more, they could come in for the last time. So I waited those 2 and a half second while I knew an army of Earth Kingdom soldiers charged at me behind my back. I missed the first shot. I closed my eyes for a second, exhaled in the next, waited half a second, fired, and the wall came down once more.
So when I turned to face the oncoming force of Earth Kingdom soldiers, it made no difference, for not 1 second later did the wall behind me collapse in its entirety and hundreds of tanks and infantrymen came crashing through from behind me and charging towards their opponent.
And I joined them. I charged forward with them, at the very front of the line.
I cut at soldiers with the sword in my right hand, burning those at a distance who posed a threat all the same. I saw the Earth kingdom archers gathered on a hill near the center of the camp. We had no shields. We weren't in formation, but it didn't matter. I ran to the nearest soldier I could find, cut off his sword hand, fired a blast of fire at his leg, sending him into a kneeling position, and grabbed him, hiding beneath his sagging corpse as the arrows came down, hitting his already dead corpse in place of mine. I threw his body aside, discarding it as more unfortunate soldiers around me, Fire and Earth alike fell to the ground while our tanks moved forward all the same, undeterred, charging straight for the line of Earthen archers.
Then the artillery came down. I hadn't even noticed the first wave of fire. I had grown suspicious by the dwindled numbers of tanks that rolled past me, but was convinced when a tank missing its top half, engine on fire, crew missing the top halves of their bodies, rolled on past me from the last remnants of its engine propulsion, coming to a stop when it hit an earth disk sunk into the ground, half of it in the ground, half above.
The next wave of artillery was easier to notice, particularly when they hit all around me, finishing off soldiers trying to get to their feet both friendly and unfriendly. I had to take out that artillery. Where the hell is Danev? This is supposed to be his job. I clambered up the hill where the archers had been, moving past their bodies with an ever-dwindling number of fellow Fire Nation soldiers beside me. And we reached the top of the hill. And ahead, below us, I saw what had happened to the first and second waves of the Fire Nation Armored. Their empty husks lay ahead, dead, demolished, in front of an organized line of Earth Kingdom spearmen, followed my swordsman, benders, and archers in the rear, artillery behind them.
I turned around, and the earth itself opened behind me, earth benders rising from the hells and closing off our retreat. I was getting sick of Earth Kingdom traps. I could heart the yells of the oncoming Earth Kingdom formation beyond the hills as they marched, still in formation, ready to meet our pathetic force, and the Fire Nation army beyond the camp, still probably falling into the trap and going past the walls. Walls that could close at any moment.
I turned to face the earth benders behind us, and fought, gaining their attention while a select group of nonbending Fire Nation soldiers rushed to do what they could in the face of such odds, meeting little success as they were promptly cut down, but I wasn't so unlucky. I cut down the Earth Benders with fire and sword, ignoring those marching towards us from beyond the hill. I cut down two who approached me in a foo's effort to ensure I never reached their rear guard.
It failed
And soon enough, I stood in the center of a line of Earth Benders as some went from their barricade to facing me, but it made no difference. I extended my arms in both directions, and left the fire flow, breaking apart their rocks as they hurdled towards me into thousands of harmless pieces as my flames went through rock, flesh, and bone alike, torching all in my way, and as the last bender went down, their enthralled wall collapsed with nobody left to keep it up.
And I exhaled, readying to turn around to face the real threat as I heard a noise come from behind me, towards the Fire Nation lines. I paid it no mind, but still had that same one question: Where the hell is Danev?
A Fire Nation soldier bumped against my soldier as he ran. Wait, am I facing the wrong direction? I wasn't, but he was, as were the rest of the Fire Nation soldiers that had just stood by me. What changed?
I heard them yelling at me in words I couldn't here. I could here nothing for that matter. It was all just white noise. Cowards! I wanted to yell, but no words could come out. I was parched, my throat dry, heart rate up, my hands were shaking, I clenched them.
I stood my ground. And they appeared over the hill. I stood. I clenched the sword in my right hand, and I charged forward. They arrived in droves, circling me, but it made no difference. The first I stabbed through the chest, pivoting his body to absorb the blow of another's axe as I turned my body to fire an arc of fire towards 3 oncoming swordsman who fell to the ground, tripping their comrades.
I freed my sword from the first soldier's corpse, throwing fire into the face of the axe man who had struck his comrade. I turned now, with my sword to deflect a swordsman's blow, parrying, slicing along his belly, dropping him to his knees as I fired a blast of fire across my sword arm to hit a charging spearman.
I felt a pain in my side, turned enough to avoid a worse injury, spun to find the swordsman, and made a perfect cut to his throat, taking out a sizeable chunk of it as well. I spun to send another arc of fire at oncoming foes. The fire dissipated in air before it could do any good as an earth hand grabbed at my shoulder, yanking me to the ground, before I could turn the fall into a backwards roll, landing on my legs, dropping my sword, sending two blasts of fire behind me, not bothering to see if I even hit anyone, but the screams served as proof enough.
I grabbed my sword again, using my left hand to send fire to my left, covering my side when a hand stomped on my right hand, sending me further to the ground as another leg kicked my stomach. A hammer man stood above me, but a blast of fire to the throat lit him up and sent him to the ground, Warhammer crashing down at my side.
I abandoned my sword, but stood again, shooting a bolt of fire at an approaching spearman when a pain erupted in my shoulder and I saw the point of an arrow come out from the other side just where I could see it. I turned to fire until another arrow hit my thigh, sending me to the ground, but my shot still hit gold.
I broke the shaft and tried to stand when an even worse pain shot up in my leg and I fell to a knee. Without turning to look, I shot over my shoulder behind me directly towards where his face would have been, and the release of pressure on my leg told me he had fallen, likely missing half a face in the process.
And then another pain, in my side, across my back, in my shoulder. I was on the ground. Hands and knees, and I felt something I never felt before. The world became a blur, then emerged in sudden light, and when that light left, the world around me was on fire.
The bodies lay on the ground around me, still flaming, all instantly dead, none writhing in pain, just dead. Just like that.
And the adrenaline wore off, and I collapsed to the ground. When the world was no longer black, whether it was a minute later, 10, and hour, I was alone.
And ignoring the pain across my body, I stood. Where was everybody? Where was the Fire Nation? I looked around, and over that same damned hill, on top of the wall, the Earth Kingdom banner remained, and I heard the marching, they were still coming.
I tried to stand, to put weight on my legs, but fell. Stop! A voice in my head yelled at me. On my knees, I tried summoning the energy to produce a flame, but there was nothing left inside of me. Stop! It yelled again, but I didn't. I was exhausted. I wanted to lie down and sleep, but that marching was approaching. I could now see the banners rising above the hill. Run!
And there was no choice. I ran in no direction. I just ran, ignoring the bolts of pain running up my legs, spine, and head. I ran all the same. Hide! The voice yelled at me. And I found it, the hollowed remains of a burnt-out Fire Nation tank, crashed against a sizeable boulder, likely an Earth Bender's machination. I dived into it, ignoring the stench of the burnt corpses. I tried to look out the tank to see if the Earth Kingdom had seen me, but I felt myself unable to move, as if I were being held back as that same voice yelled Stay!
And I couldn't move. Both my mind and my body were stationary. I couldn't have moved if I had wanted to. Adrenaline wearing off, I could now feel the pain. The wounds along my entire body, the arrowheads stuck inside of me, the holes in my body, the scratches along my torso, all of it. The second arrow had already fallen out, but there was one still inside of me, in my side.
I didn't have my sword. I had left it behind. Damn it! I reached into the ashen cockpit, reaching for a knife I could see on the belts of one of the dead crew, removing it, ignoring the dried blood.
I lifted my shirt above my side, finding the wound easy enough, and the top half of the arrow still inside. I gave the half of shaft sticking out a yank and the pain shot through me as though I had taken another hit. I tore of my helmet, unable to see a damn thing, throwing it aside, and biting on the collar of my shirt as I dug the knife into my side, searching for the point of the arrow, trying my damndest to deal with the pain, until I found it, turned and twisted the knife with one hand, grabbing onto the shaft with the other, until finally, it was loose enough, and I pulled. And the world went dark.
/
The town was still aflame. We had made sure of that. Buildings were crumbling now, supports weakened by the flames that weakened stone, burnt wood, and destroyed homes.
There would be no saving them, but that was the idea. Wasn't it?
/
When the world came back to me, the first thing I had wondered was if I were dead. It wouldn't surprise me, because in that moment, the pain had left me. All of it had. My wounds had scabbed, scars that would be there until the end of my days. I was no longer in intense pain as my blood had finally found its permanent residence within me.
What the hell was happening?
And I could stand, no voice around to urge me otherwise. I stepped out of the tank, the sun had shifted, the battle was over, but worse than that, atop the walls of Ba Sing Se, the Earth Kingdom flag remained. The army was nowhere in sight. Where were they? Had we just not taken down the banners yet?
But there was one, and only one indicator that told me we hadn't won. Because when I looked towards the inner walls of this hellish city, and I saw that gate, still down, I knew we hadn't emerged victorious. And that same damn question came to mind. Where the hell is Danev?
And I questioned myself. Was the attack even today? Had I dreamed all of this? Though the tank I exited and the bodies I saw upon re-entering the battlefield told me otherwise. Stone's Edge, to the north east. That's what they said.
Was I even alive right now? Was it all over? I walked, going north by the indication of the now setting sun, not yet below the walls of the damned city.
Where was Lu Ten? Where was Danev? Where was anyone?
I met nobody on my way out of the camp. It was although it had been abandoned. What the hell was happening?
I continued north. The walls that had surrounded the camp during our attack had been lowered, and I walked past bodies of the battle, friendly and unfriendly. How many had died? How many were left?
And I left the camp. And I walked. I walked past destroyed tanks, Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom. Past bodies of both nationalities. Past destroyed farm houses, small villages, the like.
How long was I out? How much had happened? What had I missed?
And I kept on walking. I was walking as the sun lowered beyond the wall. I was walking as the gray clouds disappeared into the night sky. I walked, until ahead of me, leaning against the wall, I could see it. A town. One that could only be storm's edge. The town was alive. Lit, surviving. They had to be there. They had to be alright. If the town was alive, they had to be alive. I smiled, relieved, taking another step forward until something, someone, grabbed me from behind, yanking me backwards onto the ground.
I heard the sound of steel against leather, raised my own recovered knife, until my knife stood at his throat and his sword at mine. It was another soldier. One like me.
"Luke?" he asked. "I recognized his voice before his face, that was, at least, until he took of his helmet.
"Dazni?" Of course I remembered him. He was the only person in Citadel who had ever stood up for me. And he was part of Danev's unit. So if he was alive, then Danev must be too. "Your alive." I said.
"Yeah, man. Shit, so are you, but, fuck, you look like shit."
"Yeah. What's going on? Why'd you tackle me?"
"Can't be too careful. It's bad out here. Getting worse."
"Why? Why are you so far out from the town? That's stone's edge, right?"
He paused. It was too dark to see his face, but something in the atmosphere around him changed. "We need to get back to camp. It's bad out here. I'll explain it there."
"You mean Lu Ten will explain it, right?"
He paused mid-way turning away. I could see his head turn as he said, "Just follow me."
And it was enough then to know something was terribly wrong.
There camp was completely unlit. No fires were lit. Everything was pitch black, but its position atop the hill meant it'd be compromised come morning. I knew it, and so did they. And by they, I wasn't referring to the force of 100 Lu Ten and Danev had left with. There were less than 30 of them.
"What's going on?" I asked Dazni by the time we were near the center of the camp. Everybody seemed to be noticing my arrival. They were on edge. That was easy enough to tell. I could recognize a good amount of them. Kids from Citadel. I thought I even recognized a few from far earlier in my life. Were they all Citadel kids from one point or another? "Where were you during the attack?" I asked.
Dazni turned to me once he had enough of an assurance that we were safe, all things together. "We left. On time. 1200. All of us. Then-"
"Then they fucked us." Another voice. Once I was less likely to ever forget. And a face just as unforgettable, obvious even in the light of the night, or lack thereof."
"Zihe. You're back." Dazni said.
"I am." He replied. And he turned to me, and I remembered my last encounter with him. Back in Citadel's gym, I nearly burnt his face off when I bent for the first time. He was my worst enemy back then, before the Earth Kingdom, before all of this. He knew that too. Whatever had happened these last few months, it had taught both of us that the past was the past. "Luke." He nodded.
"Zihe." I responded, nodding. "What happened here?"
"Stone's Edge. They betrayed us. We were marching through. Everything as planned. And they shut the gates, cutting us in half. They would have trapped us all on the other side if Danev hadn't noticed the trap." Danev. His name, the mere mention of it had my heart racing. Why wasn't he here?
"Was he-"
"Trapped on the other side? Yeah. He was. Him, Lu Ten, and over half of our guys. We saw enough to know they were in trouble, but we had our own problems. Those of us trapped out here, we got ambushed. Half of us got killed. We're all that's left."
"And the rest. Are they-"
"Zihe." Dazni interrupted. "You finished your patrol. What did you see?"
Zihe sighed, looking at me, and looking back at Dazni. "I saw the bodies. The Dai Li stuck around. They put the heads on pikes."
"And?"
"What bodies?" I asked. I got no answer. "What bodies?!"
Zihe looked at me again, and in that moment, I knew that no matter what he felt about me, no matter what happened in the past, there was one thing we had in common. We respected the same men. "I'm sorry, Luke. Danev, Lu Ten, they're all dead. They killed them all.
/
The smoke illuminated by the fire was the only thing visible in the sky. There were no stars to be seen and the wall, from my distance to it, eclipsed the moon, hiding it from view. The smoke was all there was in front of me, rising from that fucking town, leaning against that damn wall, protecting this city of hell.
But it was gone now. We, no, I had made sure of that.
/
I didn't know how much time had passed. I wasn't keeping count. I remember them sitting around me, trying to console me, to reassure me, but it had made no difference. Maybe it would have before I had known the fact, but now, but now it was too late. There was nothing that could be done. It was over. It was over. It was all fucking over.
I wanted to scream, to shout, to yell, but I couldn't. I couldn't do anything. I was just sitting there. I had no idea what to do. I was lost. Alone.
And finally, sooner rather than later, I was awake enough to notice Zihe who was kneeling in front of me from where I was sitting on a log facing the remains of an old campfire that had been extinguished for hours now, going on a full day.
"They won't get away with this, Luke. They promised us shelter. Food, safety, hospitality, and they tried to kill us. They'll pay for that."
He looked away from me towards where soldiers where putting on gear, gathering weapons, the works. "We can still get justice. We can still avenge them. They don't deserve to hang up there, heads on pikes. It's disgraceful, and they'll all pay for that." He looked as though he was going to say something more until a cry yelling "Incoming!" erupted throughout the camp, and everybody sprung into motion.
Dazni and Zihe raced to the peak of the hill where the scout knelt with a telescope, facing southwest. I followed behind, stalking from a distance.
Dazni confiscated the scope from the scout, watching, saying "Hold up! They're friendly! Tanks! Ours!"
Tanks? My squad? "Can I see?" I asked Dazni. He knew enough to know I would have an easier time spotting Armored Markings than him, so he surrendered the scopes to me, and I took them.
"So?" Dazni asked. Who are they? Will they help us?"
And I found the tanks, 3 of them, coming straight towards our camp. Even in the night, I could recognize the markings on the tank. The words that read 'Shanzi.' Boss. "No." I said. "They won't."
"Then they're useless." Zihe said. "You know them, Luke?"
"Yeah." I said, putting down the scopes. "My old squad."
"Can you convince them?" asked Dazni. "We're going to need help. There could still be Dai Li in the village."
"They won't help us." I said as I handed the telescope back to the original scout.
And by then, the 3 tanks had come up the hill. 3 tanks I noticed. So they too had taken a beating. Maybe they would understand.
But of course, that had been too much to hope for.
Boss came out of the leading tank first, hopping down as Fire Nation soldiers from the camp gathered around, on the defense, trusting nobody. Who could blame them? They had been betrayed once? They'd do anything to stop it from happening a second time.
"Luke!" said Boss. "There you are. We thought you'd be here."
"Why are you here?" I refused to call him Boss. He'd never live to hear me say those damn words. Not again. I'd said it once, a while ago, and he'd held me back. Not this time. Not ever again.
"We thought you'd head up here."
"So you know."
"We know that a lot's happened in the last 12 hours, Luke. A lot of bad, but we're still alive. That doesn't have to change."
"I don't intend for it to. I'm a survivor."
"I know, Luke, and I know what you're thinking. We've gotten word. We know what happened. The Earth Kingdom's already distributed word of it. The battle's lost. The war too, maybe."
And in that moment, I knew what I had to do. Earlier, revenge had been a dream. A hopeless fantasy. Something I'd never dare to do, but now, after hearing that, after how the Earth Kingdom had used their betrayal, their cruelty, as propaganda, well, I'd made my choice.
"You're a coward."
"Luke. It's over. You don't have to stay here. You'll find nothing down there but hatred and regret. You can come with us."
"And go where?! You're defecting, leaving everything behind because of one damn battle?! You giving up after all of this?! After 2 years of fighting just because things are starting to look down?! You'd betray your nation for that?!"
"This revenge of yours." he said. "It'll get you nowhere. It'll only lead to further pain and suffering."
"It wouldn't be revenge. It would be justice."
And he sighed, and his voice stayed that same damn aggravating soft tone as he said "Our nation's eating itself alive. It's not just today, but there's rumors circulating of a coup in the Fire Nation, of assassinations, power grabs, it's not the same Nation anymore, Luke. I'm not your commander anymore, Luke, but please, come with us. We can still do some good in this world."
And I looked around, where 20 plus men stood ready. Men ready to fight for their nation, to avenge their brethren. And in front of me, sat 5 cowards, ready to leave everything behind, abandon their comrades, betray them all in the blink of an eye.
"You're right." I said. "You're not my commander anymore."
"Luke."
"Go."
"You don't have to-"
"I said Go!" And I bent an arc of fire that ended right before them. I didn't want to kill them, but I couldn't stand to see them any longer. Not after what they'd done. I turned around, and only heard as they left.
And what was left of Danev's Unit continued to prepare, for there was still much to do.
The march to Stone's Edge was a quiet one, for there was nothing to say. There was no questioning to be done. We knew what we had to do. We knew what we were here for.
And I stood in front of Stone's Edge, the rest behind me. They'd given me the chance to fire the first shot.
I watched the town where it slept in front of me, street candles lit, by the town asleep aside from that.
I let the rage flow. I let the memories come back to me. Of the friend who saved my life in Citadel, who gave me a home, a purpose, who saved me in the academy on many occasions, who saved my life on the battlefield. I remembered the Commander who saved me from an incompetent Command Structure. Of the charming general's son who inspired thousands with words alone, and whose actions backed him up. I thought of the great men this Kingdom took from me. Of those these people took from me.
The rage inside me flowed. The memories, the hatred, all of it. The energy flowed, and I felt the flames grow in my palm.
And as quickly as it began, it was all over.
The whole world burned around me. The heat came at me in droves as particularly flammable kindling among the remains of the town were sparked and promptly ignited. The screams had all stopped by then. In fact, they had stopped long ago. Not that I had even heard them in the first place. I couldn't listen to it. I couldn't.
I was on the ground, kneeling, as sparks floated off in the air around me, travelling with the breeze away from my handiwork into the open sky.
I wondered who had been the last one to scream. I knew who the first had been. I saw her myself. I killed her myself.
Though the dead had been silent for what felt like an eternity now, I could still hear them. Still hear their screams. Their cries. They screamed when they saw me. They screamed when I saw them. They screamed even as they burnt.
And now, they were all dead. And I was alive.
I knelt in front of what remained of Stone's Edge, a killer, a murderer.
What the hell had I done?
And then the rain started coming down. It started soft as first, but then it picked up in frequency and velocity as the storm came in, and the rain came down.
I stayed there, kneeling on the ground, in front of my own handiwork, quite possibly the first thing I had ever done.
And in front of my eyes, it washed away.
The fires died down, extinguished by the rain. The smoke dissipated, flowing up into the sky, forever to be forgotten, like it was so easy. I don't know what I felt in those moments. I didn't know how to feel. I still heard the screams, still felt the fires, still was choking on the smoke, but when I looked up, it was gone, like my own tears in the rain, unnoticed, forgotten. But not by me. I remembered. I would always remember.
I couldn't even tell if I was crying. It was indistinguishable from the storm around me, but all the same, I knelt there, and I shook not from the cold or from fear of what was beyond those walls, but fear of myself. Fear of what I had done. I stills aw all of their faces and the rain kept coming down, but I wouldn't move. I couldn't move. I could just sit there and cry in the rain as the rain came down in droves.
Because even when I was alone, when Reek, the Hornets, Riu, Danev, Lu Ten, and everyone else was gone, there was always one certainty, the rain was there, a life of its own, to stand by me, to wash away what I had done even though I'd always remember, but in that moment of time, as I soaked there, sitting in front of the site of the worst crime I'd ever heard of, myself the culprit, I was forgiven. By whom? I didn't know.
And in that moment, I knew, it didn't have to end like this. Boss was right. He was right, and for some reason, that was the worst feeling of all. That I had missed my chance.