The first of the huge siege fireballs crashed into the great gates guarding the city with a heavy crack, sending cascades of snow and fractured ice spilling over the people nearby. Immediately a team of waterbenders rushed over to repair the breach, but before they could finish a second fireball collided with a bridge, melting it in an instant.
It was clear to Aang that they couldn't let the bombardment continue, otherwise there'd be nothing left of the city to save. In a flash he was on Appa's back and flying towards the approaching ship.
When the next great fireball was launched Aang blocked its path, readying his staff and building a current of air in his wake. As soon as it was close enough for him to feel its heat on his skin Aang swung forwards, batting the fireball aside with his airbending and sending it hurtling harmlessly into a nearby cliff.
"I'll take it from here, boy." He called to Appa as he leapt from the bison's back and unfurled his glider, soaring down like a diving bird towards the deck of the ship. The moment his feet touched its metal surface he summoned great waves of wind to sweep the nearby soldiers off their feet.
Now, how to disable the trebuchets? They were big and sturdy looking machines, but he'd bet that if he could find a couple of weak points…
The familiar tingling of air rapidly heating sent his instincts screaming at him to move, and Aang threw himself to the side a fraction of a second before a great stream of fire roared through the space he'd just been standing in. As he hit the floor he rolled with his momentum, springing up back onto his feet and crouching into a low stance.
"Were all airbenders this hard to hit, or does being The Avatar give you some kind of hyper awareness? I swear I'd have an easier time trying to hit a fly with an arrow than landing a solid strike on you."
Aang clenched his jaw at the sound of the memorable voice. Standing proudly at the other end of the deck, one hand still smoking from the fire blast she'd just launched, was the golden haired girl who seemed to be becoming more of a threat every time they crossed paths.
"Tanya."
Tanya smirked at the sound of her name, and it struck Aang at that moment that she held herself a little differently.
During their previous encounters Tanya had been very formal: always stood at attention like a perfect soldier, and rarely let her expression slip into anything besides calm confidence. Yet now she seemed a little more relaxed, and her confident gaze held a hint of cockiness to it.
Perhaps she didn't feel the need to stand on ceremony without Zhao around? The other soldiers parted around her, forming a large, silent circle around the edges of the deck.
"You told me once that you thought war was a senseless waste of human lives." Aang began, resolute eyes meeting her piercing gaze. "Then help me to prevent lives from being wasted now. It's not too late to stop this battle."
"You know, you're absolutely right Avatar." Tanya agreed smugly, slowly striding towards him. "There's no reason for blood to be spilled today. Let's allow cool heads to prevail and try to settle this diplomatically."
Aang relaxed his stance a little, seeing the opportunity he'd been hoping for, when a memory of Jeong Jeong's guilt-hidden expression crossed his face. Immediately he tensed again, and his eyes narrowed in suspicion. He could not afford to let his guard down around Jeong Jeong's murderer. "Do you mean that?"
"But of course!" Tany replied jovially, coming to a stop just a few feet away from him. "Tell the Northern Water Tribe that our demands are simple: put down your weapons, relinquish Agna Qel'a, and surrender The Avatar to our custody.
Do that, and not a single person shall be harmed. The Northern Tribes will be seamlessly absorbed into the Fire Nation, and all shall be guaranteed full rights as colonial citizens."
Aang glared back at her. "That's not going to happen!"
"No?" Tanya feigned a look of hurt. "That was a rather blunt response, Avatar. You really need to work on your negotiation skills."
"This isn't a game Tanya!"
"Good, because I'm not joking!" All traces of mirth vanished from Tanya's face, leaving a deadly serious scowl in its place. "We have superior numbers! Superior technology! Superior tactics! Face the facts Avatar, you are completely outclassed! The Fire Nation will win this battle! Resisting will only delay the inevitable and bring pointless suffering!"
"It's not inevitable! None of this is!" Aang shouted back, anger welling up from within him. "The rest of the world doesn't want this war! They only want to protect themselves when the Fire Nation comes to bully them into submission! All it would take to bring this to an end is for you to convince this fleet to turn around and go home!"
Tanya sneered at him. "You are a child trying to find a simple solution to a problem that is so much bigger than you are. This war does not persist just because The Firelord wants it to.
It is a messy, complicated mixture of grudges, greed and misplaced pride in all nations, that has been growing even before the death of Avatar Roku." Tanya looked away and began to pace back and forth.
"There can never be peace until the noblemen who profit from dealing in death can no longer fill their pockets with blood money. Until the grieving families of those who died for their countries can move past their craving for revenge.
Until one side is so thoroughly beaten into the dirt that they have no choice but to accept responsibility for the war, and bear the everlasting shame of its horrors upon their shoulders. The only way to achieve peace now is for one side to emerge victorious: the quicker and more efficiently, the better."
Aang shook his head. "You're wrong. I'm not saying it will be easy, but the nations can resolve their differences without fighting. They just need to be willing to listen to each other again."
Tanya scoffed, looking at him with thinly veiled contempt. "The last time we talked, I believed that perhaps you and I were of a similar mind. I see now that I was wrong. We may both desire peace, but your methods for achieving it are rooted in foolish idealism. Mine follow the path of logic."
"Is that what you told yourself when you murdered Master Jeong Jeong?" Aang shot back tersely, his jaw setting as anger began to well up within. "That it was the logical thing to do?"
The smirk returned to Tanya's face, though this time it seemed more sarcastic than genuine; as if it were a deliberate attempt to rile him up. Aang hated that it was working.
"No. I don't take any pride in killing, but I can't deny that slaying that old bastard brought me some level of satisfaction."
Aang's hands clenched around his glider staff. "You're right. We aren't of a similar mind at all."
Tanya stopped her pacing. "Oh, don't go trying to play the sanctimonious card. Yes, I killed Admiral Jeong, but you're just as bad. After all…"
Her eyes narrowed narrowed on him, like a cat preparing to pounce on a mouse. The edges of her mouth curled up in a humourless smile. "… you killed Admiral Zhao."
Angry muttering and disgusted jeers broke out from the crew surrounding them, and Aang looked around at them with wide, panicked eyes. "What?! No, I didn't kill him! I haven't killed anyone!" He denied desperately.
"Save your breath Avatar. I was the leader of the group that found him after your little one-on-one duel." Tanya fired back. "He was laying on the banks of the river, watching our burning boats crumble and break, with a great hole seared through his back.
We know Jeong Jeong was teaching you to firebend, and Zhao confirmed it as he cursed your name." Tanya pressed a clenched fist against her armoured chest, bowing her head in respect of a memory.
"It was with his dying breath that he passed onto me the secret to conquering the north. That's why I took on the mantle of admiral in his stead, and why I refused to fail! I will see the north brought to heel in his name!"
Cheers erupted from the soldiers, and as Aang looked around at the spite reflected in their eyes he realised that they truly believed it. People really thought he was a murderer! The injustice of it all sparked a painful, acrid heat in his chest, like bile was building up in his lungs.
The airbenders had believed that it was never justified to take a life, and to be falsely accused of such an act was genuinely upsetting, even when it came from an enemy. "I-… I didn't do it…" He stuttered out.
"I said save your breath, Avatar. There's no denying the evidence." Tanya retorted, widening her feet and stepping into a firebending stance. "Now enough talk. Diplomacy has failed, so let's find out how good of a soldier you really are."
She punctuated her point by unleashing a quick, straightforward blast of fire directly at his chest, which Aang spun out of the way from. Two more blasts quickly followed, but like a leaf in the wind Aang slipped between them with almost casual ease.
Tanya readied a third blast, and it was just as Aang changed his footwork to avoid it that he heard a grunt of exertion behind him. He bent at the waist just in the nick of time to avoid the fireball that wizzed over his head, fired by the soldier directly behind him.
"You didn't expect this to be a fair fight, did you?" Tanya chuckled, snapping her fingers. Other soldiers began launching fireballs as well, forcing Aang to leap and spin like a ballet dancer in order to keep evading them.
...
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