CH 12 - ATLA 11 - Northern Water Tribe

(Word Count: 3,005)

Since I was a captain, I didn't have to keep watch. Maybe if I was on the side of the Fire Nation, perhaps I would have cared more about the men I was placed in charge of and helped with the night shifts, but I wasn’t. So I had a good night's sleep.

The next morning, I strapped my sword back on and headed out to the deck. Throughout the morning, I kept an eye out for Appa. If I remember right, Sokka should be taking Princess Yue out for a romantic flight which would reveal the Fire Nation Fleet early. Unfortunately, I didn't see them.

We got close enough where we could see the glacial walls of the Northern Water Tribe. The massive walls of packed ice blocked all entrances into the city. It was beautiful. Behind the wall, I could see the top of the palace, also made of packed ice.

The picturesque scene didn't last long when the ship in front of us launched the first fireball, marking the beginning of the bombardment.

With that signal, the rest of the ships opened fire. Dozens of fireballs rained down on the city at a time. I wanted no part of it, so I retreated back into the ship to my quarters. I didn't want to fire one of those and receive kill experience.

A few hours later, there was a knock on my door. It was a random soldier. "Captain Lee, General Zhao is calling you to the bridge."

I made my way over. On the bridge, there was General Zhao and Iroh overlooking the scene. I go out onto the balcony they were on and look as well. A lot of the ships ahead of us were lifted up onto ice, some were even pierced through. The city ahead was smoking.

"Ah, Captain Lee," Zhao said, "We're calling a ceasefire for today, and we'll breach the city tomorrow. Tomorrow is a very important day. A day that will go down in history! Everything must go according to plan. For that, I want you to lead the men into the city, clearing a path those that follow behind."

I saluted. "Yes, sir!"

"Good man! You bring honor to the Fire Nation!" My lips twitched beneath my mask, trying not to smile at the situation. An infiltrator seeking to ensure the failure of the Fire Nation is being praised by the general. It was too good.

The bombardement ceased. Night came and I didn't bother intruding on the scene with Zuko and Iroh in the launch room. Zuko would be sneaking into the city tonight ahead of Zhao to try and snatch Aang on his own. I didn't have any advice to give or anything, so I would rather Iroh say his piece undisturbed.

The next morning, in the privacy of my own quarters, it was time for me to remove my disguise. First I scrubbed off all of the coal paste that had been dying my hair black and I was back to my natural blonde hair. Then I shaved off my beard. I wasn't a huge fan of it, and had mostly just left it on for the sake of the disguise. I also cut my hair short. I was using a knife to cut it, so nothing fancy. Then I put on all of my armor, including my helmet and faceplate, so I looked the same as usual.

Now when I defect I only had to find some water tribe clothing in one of the houses somewhere and there will be no link between the current smooth-shaved blonde and "Jin Lee the Undefeatable". Well, I can't just leave my sword somewhere and hope it's not stolen, so I'll have to act cocky in front of some soldiers saying that I defeated him sometime during the melee, using my now famous sword as proof. 

Because I had never lost, and with the unique damascus patterns in my sword, many have wondered just how my sword got those patterns. In both of the ships I’ve been on, some have whispered that it was imbued with the powers of the spirits. They began calling it the “Blade of the Spirits” making it more famous than it should be. I’ve heard from Iroh that it’s being whispered about across the entire fleet. However, I gave it the name “Telluris,” Latin for “of the Earth.” I tried thinking up a cool name in Chinese, since the writing system here uses it, but nothing I could think of sounded cool to me. 

For the rest of my stuff, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to return to get anything, and it would be too weird for me to wear a backpack with all of my stuff. So I tried to make sure I got only the things I needed to keep. My first sword, even if I wouldn’t be using it anymore, the firebending scrolls I got from Iroh, and the tiny sketchpad. I stuffed those underneath my armor. They were sentimental. And of course the white lotus tile. It may save my life if the water tribe gets upset at my presence once everything dies down.

I limber up to psyche myself up. It was time to go to war. I had no delusions about actually being “undefeatable,” I knew that all it took was one slip up for a waterbender to pull me down into the ground, and I would be dead.

A shiver of fear ran through me. Just a few months ago I was just some college student. Now here I was, about to be plunged head first into a full-blown war. I ran my thumb along the Hanzi characters etched onto my sword. Strength Within Stone. I took a deep breath and centered myself. I could do this.

I head down to the general quarters. As a captain, I had a responsibility to help my squad in getting ready, so I needed to ensure that they weren't sleeping in.

"Wake up, boys!" I shouted as I entered my men's barracks. "We've got a city to raid today!" All of them were awake already, but they weren't in their armor yet. some of them were lounging in their bed reading or playing cards. When I came in, they shot up in salute. "What are you louts doing not in your armor already? Do you want to die? Get geared up and out on the deck in 10 minutes!" I bellowed, and then promptly left.

I chuckled. Like it or not, they needed to limber up before we entered the city. I may be against the Fire Nation, I still didn't want the men I was in charge of to die. Especially when I bailed on them.

10 minutes later, my entire squad was armored up and in cloaks running laps around the deck, the frozen tundra air biting at their cheeks and eyes. I was running with them as well, up at the front. I didn’t want to die either.

I had 10 men working under me. Zheng, Mao, Huo, Ten, Lang, Wu, Wang, Lin, Qin, and Pan. Zheng and Mao were lieutenants that I left in charge when I’m not there.

Only after 10 laps did we head back in to eat breakfast.

By then, the sun was fully in the sky, and the ships were moving in. Fireballs began launching, arcing overhead. Several of the smaller ships in the fleet were raised up on ice but ours was the main flagship. It was too large to stop.

Soon, two ships ahead of us rammed into the icy wall, the sharp points of the ships folded down, forcing open a path.

There were many waterbenders on the wall, throwing down spikes of ice, but they were quickly being overwhelmed by the tide of soldiers and tanks.

Our ship hit the wall, and Zhao and his squad were the first ones out, riding their Komodo Rhino mounts. Sadly for me, they were only for his personal squad.

I had my sword drawn and followed right behind them. I couldn't afford to get too far behind Zhao, or I might miss my window to act.

Breaking through the outer wall, I could see that all the snow that had made the wall had fallen down to make a slope. We came out onto a large snowy plain, with a large canal splitting it down the middle. On the other side of the field, was another wall.

By now, several ships had breached the wall and hundreds of soldiers and dozens of tanks were spilling into the field. Overhead, the ships that hadn't made it yet were still launching fireballs further into the city.

"Come on, men! Let's go!" I shouted, raising my sword up high.

The men cheered behind me and we charged to the inner wall. We were close to the front, but some of the tanks sped ahead. Going along the length of the inner wall was a smaller canal, so we couldn't reach it unless something changed. The tanks should be able to blast the walls down, but some waterbenders had descended down to the plains and were focusing on destroying them before they got too close.

"Zheng! Mao! Defend the tanks!" It was an obvious order, but needed to be said anyway.

I charge in, using brief instances of Chi Enhancement to subtly boost myself when needed to dodge incoming water whips and spikes of ice. The style of waterbending was the push and pull of fighting and redirecting incoming attacks back at the opponent. It was like the middle ground between the Airbending and Firebending forms that I had learned.

A waterbender slides in on ice to my left, sending a wave of ice my way. I leap over it directly towards the man, and bring my sword down onto him. He raises up a shield of ice, but I cleave straight through it. My sword and strength were both too great to be stopped by ice. I create a large slash across his chest, doing my best to avoid a fatal wound. He cries out, before I knock him out and leave him on the ground. The cold should actually help him stay alive long enough to get help.

A stream of water hits me in the back, knocking me off my feet. I roll forward and immediately jump aside when another wave, this time blades of ice, slices through where I just was. I curse myself for getting tunnel vision on a single opponent.

Another waterbender came rushing in when he saw me down his comrade. I look and see him already picking up the one I had just wounded and rush off immediately. I leave them be. My shoulder twinged, so I cycled some Chi into it. It didn’t heal anything, I didn’t know exactly how to do that yet, but it did seem to ease the pain so I could continue.

I looked around and the rest of my men were defending the tanks. I watched as one of them burned a waterbender with a face full of fire. I grimace. One of my men fell down, I couldn’t tell which one with all of them in armor, so I rushed in just in time to block an icicle with my blade, deflecting it away. "Captain!" He cried in relief.

"Stand up quick!" I shouted, and rushed the offending waterbender. This one was also wielding a spear, so he tried to stab me. He must not be very confident in his bending if his go-to was his spear instead. I simply hack straight through his spear. It was only bone after all. Then with the flat of the blade, I bash him in the side of the head. He collapsed unconscious onto the ground.

I look around, and some of the tanks we were protecting have successfully broken through the inner wall, pulling it down towards us, and all of the snow from the wall filled a portion of the canal making several bridges for us to cross. I looked just in time to see Zhao's squad of Komodo Rhinos pass through the wall.

"We're through! Let's go, men!” I followed after the tanks as they drove through the gap.

We entered the actual city now. There were no burning houses, as everything was made of snow, but many remnants of the fireballs were smoking. Facing us from the streets and from up on the roofs, were many more water tribe soldiers. 

All the main streets were actually canals. Only the back streets and allies were solid ground. So we had to fight against many different choke points, capturing one bridge at a time. The street by street dogfights we had to go through. About 2 hours in, I finally found a chance to break away. We were in a courtyard, and there were two houses that had enemy waterbenders posted on top of them firing water and ice down at us.

I split my men. "Mao, you take your men and take out the left. Zhang, your guys take the right. I'll go and take down those guys in the alley there."

Zhang looked worried. "Captain, are you sure you'll be alright facing those guys by yourself? They know the streets better than us. What if they're luring you into a trap?"

"I'll be fine, Zhang. You just focus on your target. Now move!" I said. Zhang and Mao took their men, splitting the squad of 10 into two teams of 5. I charged into the alley where we saw a group of enemy soldiers go by.

Not all of the enemies were waterbenders. In fact, many of them weren't. So dealing with this group of 4 non-benders was a quick ordeal, with the aggressive shaolin style I've been using so far, I focused mainly on attacking quickly and forcefully. I mostly just parried the enemies' spears aside, chopping off the tips while I was at it, and body slammed into the closest one. With Chi Enhancement, I was too fast to react to now.

I used my momentum to pick up the first one and threw him into the guy behind him. While they were unscrambling themselves off the floor, I attacked the last two quickly knocking them out. 

When the four guys were down, I rushed further into the allies. Once I've gone a reasonable way into the neighborhood, I duck into one of the houses.

A kitchen/living room with a central firepit for cooking, thick skins and furs lined the walls, keeping in a lot of warmth in the house.

I go further in to find a bedroom of some kind to change into some waterbending clothes. There was no one in the house. It looks like the civilians were evacuated.

As soon as I found a chest with some thick coats inside, I started shucking off the Firebender armor and quickly got changed. The watertribe coats are designed to be large, and go to your knees but this one was a bit too small and tight around the shoulders. Same with the fur boots. It would do though. I wish I could take my armor with me, but I couldn't try to lug it around in the middle of a war. 

I headed back out, having discarded the name "Jin Lee." I was now once again "Callan Stone." I ran back to the clearing that I left the men in, and saw that they were still struggling against the two houses. Streams of water and gouts of fire were being thrown around as they fought. There was a dead watertribe soldier at the base of one of the houses.

I raised my sword up high and shouted. "Firebenders! I killed your captain!"

Zhang, Mao and the rest looked and all cried out in horror and anger. I took off running. They tried to chase after me, but I was too quick and lost them in the allies. 

I eventually made my way to one of the mainstreets. On the road there were about 6 tanks, and dozens of fire nation soldiers advancing. I leaped up onto a bridge, so I was in clear view of all the fire nation soldiers.

"Fire nation!" I raised my sword so they could see it. "Your so-called Undefeatable, Jin Lee, is now dead! I killed him myself! Give up now!" Loud murmurs of disbelief ran through the fire nation ranks.

Then I turn around and start booking it up to the palace. I've wasted enough time as it is. Night was already falling. I needed to hurry if I wanted to get there in time to save Yue.

Now that I was in water tribe gear, they left me alone, but I now had to take down the occasional firebender that got in my way. Somehow, there was no “frontline” in this battle, there were firebenders and waterbenders spread throughout the entire city. 

I duck under a blast of fire. The firebender cried out “how dare you!” Presumably referring to me wielding my “Sword of the Spirits”. I recognized the voice as Lien Feng. He wasn't a part of my squad, but he did spar a lot with me. 

Now that I was Callan Stone again, I had returned to my style that I've been trying to develop: the baguazhang and Piandao swordsmanship mixed together. If there was earth around I would have used that too. 

I continued under the fire blast and got in close, and slashed up. The armor he was wearing protected him from being dissected, but the force still knocked him off his feet. I kicked him in the side of the head before he could recover and he was knocked unconscious. 

Just then, the Moon turned blood red. The eerie moon painted the entire night red and the sheer unnaturalness of it was like a suckered punch to my cosmic connection. I was running out of time.