Seeing Azula so happy lifted Ty Lee's spirits almost equally in the same degree. Her royal friend smiled more and was genuinely more personable despite the hard, steely foundation underneath. The soldiers of the 11th must've really helped Azula focus her malice that the palace servants were bowing to her out of deep respect instead of fear.
And Xing must've done a really big deal too. Ty Lee fought hard to stop herself from teasing Azula when she spotted the hints of gleeful pinkness to her aura.
Azula. Cute and happy pink!
Whatever happened the other day must've been great if the princess was smiling warmly for the rest of the day. The uneasy, awkward looks of purple and blue from the royal bodyguards gave Ty Lee enough of a hint. Or the knowing grins exchanged between the officers of 11th.
Ty Lee couldn't be sure if she imagined it or if Azula actually broke into happy skipping several times. She was most definitely humming, though, and Ty Lee caught her friend's hand absently wandering to her chest or groin before she remembered where she was and snapped her limb back to position. Xing was less pink than red, but was still interesting to see how he tried to keep his composure despite breaking into a goofy grin every time he looked at Azula. And how neither him or Azula cared that people were present as they quietly held hands and matched pink-red auras.
Which all meant to say that coming to Ba Sing Se had been the right choice despite the general meh-ness of the recently conquered city. Besides the couple watching, Ty Lee got to spend time with the regiment that adopted Azula, and found them to all be interesting people...if a bit sharper around the edges than Mai pretended to be. Good people, but not the kind you want to peeve off. Azula's uncle was around too, and he was always free to regale her with many interesting stories about tea and traveling. More interestingly, the soon-to-be former prisoners of the 11th were also mostly open to conversation. Quite a few of them were wary at first, but after a few days, they tolerated her presence with gentler smiles and less guarded words.
Ty Lee rarely focused too much on what the people she interacted with said, she just liked watching their auras play out. Iroh had a gentle, breezy glow to his cyan calmness as he talked about the benefits of particular tea leaves, while the soft curmudgeon Yama had a thin shell of spiky yellow aggravation almost totally obscured his blue-purple melancholy that was specked with deep reds of joy when he opened up about his past as the uncle to the Earth King. There was also a sweet and shy waterbender girl called Uki that quickly broke out of her timid blue into an excited yellow-red when she spoke of how the 11th looked after her. With how cute she acted, it was no wonder the troops around Uki kept a protective eye on her.
Everyone here was so interesting! And they weren't so stuffy about showing it, not to a friend of the crown princess.
Well, maybe the Earth Kingdom soldiers stationed in more public parts were bores, but they were going through a tough time so Ty Lee graciously forgave them.
When Azula invited Ty Lee to observe her and Xing's first public speech, of course Ty Lee giddily accepted the opportunity. She didn't want to miss Azula's pinkness when the princess stood with Xing in public.
Riding atop Bosco, the fluffy bear Ty Lee adopted after the poor thing was abandoned by the mean Earth King, Ty Lee fought to keep herself from bursting from excitement as she took in the sight around her. The not-so-formal stage and arrangement of people that would've probably incited scandalous whispers back home because the public were allowed to get so close without enforcing a proper dress code or something, the surreptitious placement of people on rooftops and street corners, the diverse people gathered behind Azula and Xing…
And Ty Lee got to meet- well, take a closer glance more like, the group of girls that Azula highly respected. The Kyoshi Warriors had been secluded after their horrific ordeal, and Ty Lee understood why and sympathized with them. They were so much more brittle now, compared to when Ty Lee last saw them in the colonies, but they were defiantly fighting off the blackness of fear gnawing at the edges of their aura.
Ty Lee would have to check with Azula if it'd be possible to meet them. Maybe she could help the girls in some way or another… Such strong people did not deserve to have such ugly black horrors tainting their auras.
The whole speech thing was going off well enough, judging from the silence of the crowd. There were bubbles of anger and resentment, but it was understandable, expected even for circumstances like this. Some people were particularly ugly in their auras due to their hate, but Ty Lee shrugged it off, trusting fear of the Fire Nation to keep them in line, like the various villagers she'd encountered in the colonies with Azula.
It was a mistake, it turned out, because Suki, the Kyoshi Warrior leader, was suddenly moving with worrying urgency, and the guards around Xing and Azula sparked orange in alertness.
Then one of them launched a fire bolt into the air, causing a disappointing explosion, which was soon followed by several more explosions from the nearby noble mansions. Ty Lee was caught by surprise for a moment as she saw people burst through the debris cloud of the ruined buildings.
"Full overwatch!" Xing's order had the bodyguards and soldiers of the 11th snapping into action, stepping up to blast down the larger pieces of flying masonry with their fire.
Armed people, all dirty and desperate, pushed through or simply cut their way through the crowd, sowing blind panic. The archers and firebenders on the rooftop let loose their projectiles, picking off some of the scowling terrorists, but then arrows from seemingly all around began to zip towards the soldiers' position.
"Down with the Fire Nation!" someone yelled, a hate-wreathed boy with novel hook swords, and the cry was echoed by his accomplices as they tried to charge towards Xing and Azula.
Tried, because the 11th were making it very hard for them. The boy was the closest, and he recklessly darted forwards with a bestial scowl on his face and his blades swinging, ignoring the fact that his friends were still some ways behind him.
His aggression was quickly dampened when one of Xing's bodyguards intercepted him. Hook boy's moves were flashy, but so clearly in need of refinement. The bodyguard barely shifted his head to avoid a wide swing, and used his bracer to catch the second hook sword to yank its wielder towards him. In less that four moves, hook boy was unceremoniously knocked to the ground with a helmeted headbutt.
More of his comrades were pouring over, though. Many wore Earth Kingdom soldiers' uniform, while a surprising number were in richer nobles' attire. The guards on the rooftops were busy dueling with hidden enemy archers to suppress the incoming tide, but it looked like the rest of the 11th had it well in hand. Soldiers stood firm and met the roaring human tide with spears and flaming fists, breaking bones and searing faces with machine-like efficiency.
A few more arrows rained down on the stage, but it was the waterbenders and earthbenders that intercepted them this time. Yama and his followers quickly tore up the stage and wall behind them to fling at the arrows, while the projectiles that remained plinked harmlessly off ice shields created by Kilin and her people.
"Evacuate the civilians!" Xing ordered. "Protect the princess!"
"Fool, protect yourself too!" Azula added, before turning to Ty Lee and flaring into a worried yellow.
Ty Lee was about to ask why, but her royal friend literally flew over to tackle her to the ground. Ty Lee coughed all the air in her lungs out, but her surprise increased when she heard a solid thunk reverberating from Azula on top of her.
"Stop dawdling, Ty Lee," the princess admonished as she got up, seemingly unaffected by the small boulder rolling off her back as she got up. "It's not safe here, I suggest you lead some of our guests back."
Ty Lee blinked several times as she rose up. Azula had saved her?
"Oh, don't worry about me," her friend said, misinterpreting her stare. "I've got armor underneath. You, on the other hand, don't."
Azula had just saved her. Armor or not, she'd thoughtlessly taken a hit for Ty Lee.
"No," Ty Lee said resolutely as the armored forms of Azula's bodyguards formed an inviolable ring around them. "I can help."
She met Azula's searching gaze for a second before the other girl gave a nod. "Fine. The rabble on the ground should be handled in no time. Can you deal with the hidden archers?"
"Leave it to me, Azula." And with that, Ty Lee launched herself up past the protective ring of armor and leapt her way from walls and cracked columns towards the rooftops. She quickly sped past the clamor of fighting, pausing only to send a few disapproving strikes to some men screaming 'Traitors!' as they hewed through the panicked civilians with their blades. Earth Kingdom armor poorly protected their pressure points, so it was a simple matter of skipping down, immobilizing them with a flurry of strikes to the right places, and then returning to the rooftops as firebenders landed to clean up.
She found the first group of archers holing up in an abandoned noble's house. It took no effort in avoiding their arrows, and Ty Lee slipped in through the same window the group was shooting at her from. The men clumsily began to switch to cleavers and axes, but they were far too late.
A hard kick into one man's throat sent him grasping his neck as he fell. At the same time, Ty Lee's fingers shot out and stabbed at the exposed pressure points of his comrades she was flying past, numbing their arms and dropping their weapons. A carefully applied sweeping kick as she landed swept off another man to send his head knocking painfully against the wall, and the attack transitioned into an upwards kick between the legs of the remaining opponent, sending him on his knees as he gave a pained whimper.
All five men were down in barely six seconds since Ty Lee made her entrance.
The girl peeked out the window to wave down a squad of firebenders soaring through the air, and after waiting for their arrival, she headed off to find some more unwelcome ambushers.
*****
Iroh stood protectively with the soldiers of the 11th around the waterbenders and earthbenders keeping the skies clear of arrows. These insurgents were poorly trained, but there was a surprising amount of them, considering the reports of a relatively docile population.
It wasn't until General Fong on the other end dropped into a stance and sent a wall of earth shooting into a squad of firebenders that things clicked.
"For Ba Sing Se!" the Earth Kingdom general yelled, and his men began to engage the surprised men and women of the 11h. His two colleagues in the meanwhile were simply stunned, and thankfully neither General Yiu, General Sung, or their officers joined in once their senses returned.
It was a bold plan, to feign obedience right up until this point, but General Fong had made a huge mistake. He'd placed himself and his secondaries in the heart of the Fire Nation presence, which for all their advantage of surprise, they were still woefully outnumbered.
"Fire Lancers! For the princess! For Xing!" Colonel Mozi rallied the troops and proved the point almost immediately. After the initial surprise and casualties, the Fire Nation soldiers promptly recovered and tore into their backstabbers with daggers and an intimidating ferocity. Those Ba Sing Se officers that were isolated were brought down screaming as the troops stabbed to horrifically maim, not kill.
General Fong was immediately beset by a squad of Xing's dreaded Han unit. They lead with jars that poured out noxious fumes as they shattered. Iroh himself had to bring his sleeve to his face as he watched the silhouette of the general and his men coughing helplessly right until the Han soldiers descended on them and brutally subdued them.
Elsewhere, more of the rebelling army were pouring in from the ruined buildings, the earthbenders creating ramps that allowed them to leap over the 11th's defensive line to try reaching Xing and Azula.
Neither were making it easy, though.
Azula's blue fire joined her bodyguards' as they ruthlessly burned away any and all hostiles in their vicinity. Iroh had mixed emotions as he saw his niece grinning while she set men alight and left them to scream as they burned. Very few reached close enough for the royal bodyguards to actually engage in melee, to the point that they began to fire on other targets engaged with the 11th.
A massive armored man appeared, decked out in the ornamentation of a general's champion, roaring a challenge before he charged at Azula's position. Iroh felt a spike of pride as his niece barely put any attention on the needlessly showy attempt, dismissively flinging a burst of azure flame that broke the man's charge and sent him tumbling to the ground right before her ring of bodyguards. With no immediate enemies to deal with, they dealt with him with appropriate harshness, two bodyguards descending on the champion with apathetic ruthlessness before they stomped hard on his shoulders to break the joints.
"If you're quite done with that, we still have actual threats to deal with." Admirably Azula didn't even offer a sideways glance at the beatdown, focusing fully on nearby enemies that she could fling her fire at.
Xing on the other hand was proving his reputation. Leading his own bodyguards, the young prince carved through the thickest enemy formations like a chopstick through a block of tofu. White flames burst out that had enemies dropping to the ground with blackened stumps for limbs. The bodyguard squad were no less brutal, each taking on three or more opponents at a time and leaving behind smoldering, screaming heaps of flesh.
Where Azula bore contempt, Xing was annoyed. He faced down a group of earthbenders, and after a glare they fell to the ground screaming, and it took Iroh a second to notice their feet turning a bright, scalded red. This invisible firebending of the Prince of Ba Sing Se was most intriguing indeed, and would definitely require more investigation. What kind of gift did the moon and ocean spirits give Xing exactly?
"Fuckwit Fong…" Old Yama muttered from behind Iroh, distracting the prince from the fighting. "Knew he was browning his nose a bit too much…" Yama stomped his foot to create a dome that protected a squad of the 11th from a mob, and then exploded the dome outwards to pepper said mob with debris.
"Ah, come of it," his counterpart, the waterbender Kilin admonished while she smirked and sent a whip of water into a group of charging soldiers. "You're having as much fun as all of us."
Yama did not argue the point, but opted instead for a different line of grumbling. "Fuck the fun. Ba Sing Se's already got a shit reputation to deal with, now they're making it worse… Stupid, short-sighted amateurs, I swear…"
Iroh didn't hear the rest of the grumbling as he stepped forward to blast away some earthbended boulders. Predictably, spearmen followed up after the rocky projectile, and Iroh was more than ready to knock them down with quick bursts of fire. He'd deal with the earthbender, but the poor man was already brought down by a couple of soldiers jabbing their spears into his shoulders.
His old instincts flaring, Iroh took a step back just in time to avoid an series arrows flying past him and bouncing off the stone wall. After the initial stunt, the firebenders avoided further dealing with the potentially volatile projectiles and wisely left it to the waterbenders and earthbenders while they dealt with other things.
It was impressive to see such cooperation between the elements, but Iroh would mull over the idea later. Right now, he was getting distracted. He crouched and stepped into a charging man in the uniform of an Earth Kingdom captain, and then threw him over his shoulders. To dissuade his opponent from rising, Iroh sent a powerful jab down between the man's neck and shoulders that sent his eyes rolling up into his head.
Despite the familiar exhilaration of battle rising in him, Iroh went back to his position to guard the water and earthbenders, and contented himself in watching most of the fighting play out. Some of the 11th were on the ground, though their fallen were vastly outnumbered by the growing carpet of smoking or writhing enemies around them.
Though outnumbered, the regiment was fending off an entire - admittedly poorly organized - army with admirable effort. With their treacherous general down and unable to lead them, the insurgents rushing the lines acted little better than armed mobs, and fell just as easily to the cold discipline of the 11th.
Some firebenders were rocketing through the air to hunt down enemy archers, diving into windows or dousing them with generous servings of fire. Those soldiers still keeping their position on the rooftops provided precise arrow and fire support that picked out leaders or particular threats. The tanks became strongpoints for firebenders to safely firebend from, the metal hulls protecting them from rock spikes, arrows and spears. Noxious smoke wafted through the mobs, rendering them into helpless, coughing prey for the soldiers who were far more resistant to easily pacify.
General Yiu and General Sung were backing into the gate with their entourage, probably questioning their loyalties right now. A collective shriek from the other end drew Iroh's attention to a group of girls, supposedly the rehabilitated Kyoshi Warriors, who joined the fray with loaned blades and spears. One of them dove straight towards a boy with hook swords who had been earlier thrown aside.
The boy was now up again and trying to gang up with the other insurgents on a squad of soldiers, but had to roll away to avoid the Kyoshi Warrior's charge. He rose up with a pretty flourish of his hook swords, but he didn't last more than a couple of swings before she had her short sword buried in his gut and a blurring roundhouse kick properly knocked him out of the fight.
A blur of movement nearby caught Iroh's attention, and he saw a growling, roaring mob rushing towards Xing. Many were culled by the concentrated fire directed at them, but there were enough of them that some could regret entering within arms' reach of Xing and his men. Axes and swords melted like wax before they could be brought to bear. Glowing daggers were buried into faces and armpits. Several men dropped to the ground clawing at their necks as their mouths leaked smoke.
But then something darted out from the dying mob, and Xing leapt back for the first time as a small figure lunged out at him with a short blade. The smaller figure was fast, darting around Xing and his bodyguards and narrowly avoiding their flames. The assassin kept trying but failing to land a strike at Xing, who was curiously having a harder time dealing with his assailant.
It took Iroh several seconds before he understood why. Xing's fighting style, while meant for extremely close quarters, worked on the assumption that his opponents were at his size or larger. Judging by how he was suddenly angling his knee and elbow strikes, the young Scorpion Dragon was unused to facing someone significantly shorter than he was, as a result he was forced to quickly adapt his moves.
His bodyguards tried to intervene, but the rest of the surviving mob was tying them down. Azula too saw the awkward duel and immediately turned her attention towards Xing. The small combatant darted about for a while, barely avoiding a fiery death with each failed thrust or slash simply because Xing was barely able to lower his aim. It was this glaring weakness that enabled the assassin to duck and dive in close to land a single, grazing cut across Xing's cheek, though that was all they'd get.
Xing acted immediately by embracing his attacker with both arms, throwing them up in the air - at which point the opponent's surprised shriek betrayed her as a mere girl - and then catching the falling victim by the back and then slamming her head first into the ground, following up immediately with an elbow drop that likely broke several ribs.
Unorthodox as it was, the move put an end to the bout that barely lasted five seconds. The carnage around them continued, but eventually the mob's spirit was broken. They would have routed, if not for the rest of the 11th's tanks rolling in to block all exits. Instead, the insurgents were rounded up, and Iroh had to look away as the noose tightened around the quailing survivors and the sound of broken bones and screams of agony echoed down the streets.
It was only after all of that that Xing collapsed, finally sparking panic among the 11th as the sole wound he suffered spread a sickly purple shade across his face.