99 A.G
Hino's fingers scraped against the tunnel wall as he ran, his palm sliding over cold stone, loose dust. He had been a fool, he shouldn't have entered these tunnels, and the hope he had felt of finally finding more people like him, ready to oppose the evil spirit, vanished.
He could not see more than the suggestion of his own arm in front of his face, and even that vanished whenever the tunnel was a longer passage or seemingly a hub of some kind. The dark pressed against his eyes until it felt like cloth had been wrapped across them, thick and suffocating, and he kept one hand on the wall because the moment he let go he knew he would crash headfirst into stone.
His torch had been discarded some time ago, the spirit could just snuff it at will and he doubted a wooden stick would be much use against it. His feet struck uneven ground, stumbling over ridges and shallow cuts in the floor, while his breath tore through his throat so harshly that it sounded like someone else was dying beside him.
Behind him, somewhere in the maze, laughter followed. It was the laughter that kept him moving even after his legs began to burn. It bounced through the tunnels in twisting echoes, rising and falling until he could no longer tell whether it came from behind him, beside him, or ahead of him.
Sometimes it sounded distant enough that hope sparked in his chest, and then it would return close enough that his stomach clenched and his feet slipped beneath him. The voice was too young and too delighted, carrying a cruel joy that no human child would have.
He was beginning to think this was the end, not only for him, but the rest of the city as well. There had been no resistance waiting below Omashu. There had been no organized escape route, no loyal soldiers in hiding, no brave earthbenders gathering beneath the city to strike back against the ash-makers.
The whispers that had reached him in the market had been bait, and he had followed them because he had wanted to believe that someone was still fighting. He had wanted to believe that the city had not truly fallen, that King Bumi's defeat and the Fire Nation's speech and the terrible girl with metal limbs standing above them all could be still fought somehow.
Yet, now the truth was chasing him through dark tunnels, laughing as if his terror was a festival game. He was running out of breath but he pushed through, knowing that if he stopped, he would die.
Hino turned left as the wall fell away under his hand there, and the passage narrowed so suddenly that his shoulder struck the opposite side with enough force to send pain down his arm. He swallowed a cry and forced himself onward, dragging his hand across the stone as his boots skidded through dust.
He needed to find a way out. If he reached the surface, if he reached any house, any street, any person still willing to listen, he would tell them what had happened. He would tell them the resistance was a trap and that the spirits in the Fire Nation's service were hunting people beneath the city for sport. The laughter came again, this time it sounded closer.
"There you are." the voice sang from somewhere behind him, sweet with amusement and cruel enough to make his heart stumble. "Do you still think you have a chance of escaping?"
Hino bit down on his own tongue to keep from answering. The taste of blood spread through his mouth, warm and coppery, and he pushed himself harder. It was obvious that it was a spirit. No ordinary person could follow him through passages like these without a torch, only a spirit would be able to see in total darkness.
It was hard for Hino to keep hope up, the spirit was clearly able to move freely while he clawed along the walls like a blind animal. It was just toying with him, but he hoped that in its arrogance, it would make a mistake.
Every old story his grandmother had told him rose inside his mind at once, stories of hungry things that wore human faces, stories of spirits that lured travelers away from roads and laughed when they realized they had stepped into their graves.
His hand met empty space again and he turned through another opening, taking three desperate steps before the ground changed beneath him. The passage sloped down, then ended.
Hino stopped so abruptly that his chest struck the wall in front of him. Both hands flew out, searching, scraping his hand. He turned one way, then the other, feeling along the sides, then higher, then lower, refusing to accept there was no exit.
But sadly, it seemed the tunnel ended in a blind pocket of stone. There was no way out.
"No…" he whispered, his voice breaking as he spun back toward the way he had come. "No, no, please."
The darkness beyond the passage remained empty for a few breaths, and in those breaths Hino considered running straight back, pushing past whatever waited there, throwing himself into the tunnel and trusting speed or luck or the spirits to carry him through.
Then a shape appeared at the mouth of the passage, small and still, no taller than a girl, its edges swallowed by the dark so completely that it looked less like a body and more like a shadow coming to life.
Hino's legs failed him before he could decide to move. His back struck the dead end behind him, and his hands spread against the wall.
"Please…" he said, his voice barely leaving his mouth. "Please, spirits, do not take me." The small silhouette laughed again.
"Watching you squirm and piss your pants was exhilarating, but sadly I cannot play with my food for too long, there are other peasants to hunt, you see."
Food, the spirit had called him food. His mouth opened, but no sound came out, because every prayer he had ever known scattered before he could remember the first word. He thought of his mother, of his friends and family he was leaving behind.
"No… please, please, don't eat me! I'm sorry!" he begged.
He thought of the people above, still walking through Omashu as if the Fire Nation's occupation was the worst thing that had happened to them, unaware that the real horror was beneath their feet. He thought, in horror, of the terrible fate that awaited him.
"I won't rebel anymore, please!" he continued to implore.
"I know you won't, and I'll make sure your family knows as well." The evil spirit mocked.
Hino watched, frozen against the stone, as the spirit began moving its arms in a circular motion, opposite to one another. Blue light bloomed between its palms and flooded the narrow passage, painting the walls in cold colors.
For the first time, he saw the shape clearly, the Fire Nation armor, the small frame, the dark hair, the wide smile stretched across a young face with eyes full of terrible delight.
"Monster..." he whispered.
The light grew brighter, gathering with a hissing sound that filled the tunnel like a nest of angry serpents. Hino tried to raise his hands, tried to beg again, but the thunder came before he could say any word, and the last thing he knew was terrible pain coursing through his body.
----0000----
Aang was fixing Appa's reins. After almost two days of flying they had camped close to the mountain range as soon as they had reached the island north of the Southern Water Tribe territories.
"Wait till you see it, Katara. The air temple is one of the most beautiful places in the world." Aang said.
"Aang, I know you are excited but it's been a hundred years since you've been home." Katara replied, worried.
"That's why I'm so excited!"
"It's just that a lot can change in all that time." Katara finished, gently.
"I know, but I need to see it for myself."
Aang was sure his people were one of the most creative and spiritually touched communities in the world. Finding a way to hide and detach themselves instead of facing the conflict was in their nature, there was still a chance that no one had seen them, no one could climb to the air temple after all.
He quickly climbed down from Appa and approached Sokka, who was snoring loudly.
"Wake up, Sokka! Air temple here we come!" Aang said in enthusiasm.
"Urgh… sleep now, temple later." Sokka groaned.
Aang was perplexed and annoyed that someone couldn't be excited about the temple. So in great Gyatso manner, he quickly came up with a prank to get him up and grabbed a wooden stick.
"Sokka wake up! There's a prickle snake in your sleeping bag!" Aang shouted while pushing and moving the stick against his sleeping bag from his feet to his chest.
"Ahh! Get it off! Get it off!" Sokka said, trying to run away while still in the sleeping bag, hopping and finally failing, faceplanting the dirt.
Katara laughed and Aang loved the sound for some reason. Still his excitement was too huge to stop and think so he urged Sokka again.
"Great, you are awake, let's go!" he said.
As Sokka mumbled an insult, he quickly got out of the sleeping bag and grumpily placed it in Appa's saddle.
"No one forced you to come, you know?" Katara said, still giggling.
"Look, we have been over this, I'm your older brother, I cannot allow you to go alone with a guy, even if he is the Avatar."
"And I still think a woman can defend herself. Besides, Aang is kind and gentle, he wouldn't do anything bad to me." Katara challenged him.
"Guys, please, let's not have this discussion again." Aang said, climbing on Appa using airbending. "Appa, Yip Yip!"
Off they went again, flying through the clouds, mountains decorated the landscape, but Aang was looking for a specific set, they had a really curious shape after all.
"Hey, stomach, be quiet, alright? I'm trying to find us some food." Aang heard Sokka mumble in the back.
"Hey! Who ate all my blubbered seal jerky?" Sokka shouted.
'Blubbered Seal Jerky?' Aang thought for a second then quickly realized the mistake he made.
"Oh… that was food? I used it to start the campfire last night. Sorry." he said, innocently.
"YOU WHAT?!" he looked heartbroken for a second. "Aw. No wonder the flames smelled so good." Sokka whined dramatically.
Aang was about to think of a way to repay him when he finally spotted the mountains he was looking for.
"The Patola mountain range! We're almost there!" he said.
"Aang, before we go to the temple, I want to talk to you about the airbenders." Katara said, softly.
"What about them?" he asked.
"Well… I just want you to be prepared for what you might see." She closed her eyes, clearly reliving a memory. "The Fire Nation is ruthless. They killed my mother, and they could have done the same to your people."
Aang felt sorry for her, it was clearly something that still hurt Katara deeply, but he couldn't stop to voice his opinion.
"Just because no one has seen an airbender, doesn't mean the Fire Nation killed them all. They probably escaped. Maybe they returned home after a while, or left some clues as to where they will be." Aang said.
"I know it's hard to accept…" Katara began, but Aang quickly cut her off.
"You don't understand, Katara. The only way to get to an Airbender Temple is on a flying bison, and I doubt the Fire Nation has any flying bison. Right, Appa?" Aang said, petting his friend.
"Yip, yip!"
As Appa climbed higher crossing the mountain range the Air Temple came into view, but to Aang's horror, what he first saw was a flying machine bearing the Fire Nation flag on its wings, circling the temple, slowly gliding.
"No…" Aang said, his world shattering in front of his eyes.
"Aang! It's the Fire Nation, what do we do?" Katara asked, in panic.
"Quickly hide us in the clouds, maybe they didn't see us yet!" Sokka said from the back.
Aang quickly complied, guiding Appa to hover close to the clouds in a daze. 'It can't be.'
----0000----
Lin was in a dilemma. Railway guns were made obsolete in her world in just a few years, the tracks could be easily destroyed with any kind of bombardment, artillery or air-strike, they could also be sabotaged and the guns were just useless in that scenario.
Every major country in her last world had one. They were too big and easy targets for any air-force, they were easily damaged and weighed so much that if the ground was not prepared correctly, they could even damage the railway themselves.
The problem was that she couldn't come up with an argument strong enough to discourage their use against Ba Sing Se. Preparing the land and the construction of railways was done so quickly thanks to the employment of earthbenders that getting railway tracks within a 40km radius of the walls of the great city was not that difficult or costly, in both time and resources.
The minister of war had come up with different sized guns that would act as a whole artillery battalion that could be moved rapidly through the tracks. The enemy did not have air elements or artillery of their own, certainly not ones that could fire shells from several kilometers away.
They could sabotage the land but it was denied again by using earthbenders to feel the land and create strong stable land to put the tracks on. They had enough of a strong military that if they tried attacking the artillery directly they would have to go through a lot of men first.
The railway tracks had to be constructed anyway to secure a supply route towards the front and by combining them with their air elements, the guns would be deadly accurate. Their cost was way lower than the initial idea of building a giant drill that would go through the wall, and they could be produced in bulk in the future by modifying existing industries.
There was simply no real argument to discourage their use, even if in her world they were massive failures. Lin just didn't like them at all.
As she was writing to Qin back with what improvements they could make to the guns that she could briefly remember worked well, a firehawk entered her room with the latest report then a second one with a scroll with golden decorations that piqued her interest. As she uncorked the scroll, and took a look at the white paper with the red Fire Nation sigil she smiled.
Effective immediately, Lieutenant Colonel Lin Renshi is promoted to the rank of Major General. New Orders will soon follow.
Congratulations.
Fire Lord Ozai.
It was a very short and to the point message, just like the rest of her previous promotions. For a nation with so much pomp and over-the-top ostentatious displays, these seemed too quiet and plain. Maybe it was because the war had been going for so long they had just given too many already to make it a big deal. She proceeded to read the report next.
Found spies in the Fire Nation army, previously their vocation was 'adventurers'. After extensive torture they revealed that a man called Myeongsu tasked them with infiltrating in the Fire Nation military to sabotage and slow Fire Nation progress in different fronts. It's almost as if their aim is attrition and gaining time for their allies. For what? We don't know. We know almost nothing about this person but after proceeding to discover their whole group, which was extensive, we got the name of the group Myeongsu belongs to: The White Lotus. The spies sadly didn't know more than that, not even the face of this person so we don't have a description yet. As soon as I discover more information regarding this group I will let you know. We believe they may have infiltrated the political scene as well, but we are not certain yet, it may be a coalition of Nations we are not aware of.
-Agent Wu.
Lin groaned. It made sense now that she thought about it. Even while winning the Fire Nation hadn't made much ground in the world. And besides the initial defeat of the Air Nomads, they couldn't defeat their enemies fully.
The Fire Nation had to retreat from the Southern Water Tribe due to being a logistical nightmare, but on other fronts the Fire Nation should be able to stomp the rest of their enemies, the technological edge was too great. The navy dominated the seas, most of the grand army of the Earth Kingdom was behind walls and they hadn't ventured out for decades.
The same could be said for the Northern Water Tribe, they didn't leave their territory anymore to even harass the Fire Nation, so it was basically a one on one fight with their enemies whichever they chose, but for some reason there were no major gains for years.
They had finally made progress but due to introducing even more of a technological edge, mostly thanks to her memories but also because the Fire Nation focused a lot on engineering and industrialization.
She would have to be cautious enough to root every element of this hidden group out of her campaign, otherwise she would be stuck in Ba Sing Se. There was no doubt in her mind that being promoted so young meant that she was going there next.
Lin had already expanded her loyal spy network, using trained spies her family had been nurturing for years. It would be difficult, but she needed to find a group who would be loyal to her and had no previous influences from anyone.
She hated using this twisted world circumstance, but she would need to recruit child soldiers like she once was.
"Damn this world." she muttered, dejectedly.
----0000----
After seeing the Fire Nation machine gliding around the temple, they had hidden in the mountains close by. Appa landed between rocks and snow, low enough that the clouds and the shape of the mountains could hide him from the sky.
Katara didn't know what to say at first. Aang had gone completely silent, sitting against Appa's side while looking toward the temple in the distance. Katara saw how Aang's confidence and hope vanished. It had hurt him a lot and now it was up to them to cheer him up, even if it was hard to do so.
Sokka had wanted to leave immediately. To him it was obvious that if the Fire Nation was there then the airbenders were obviously gone, and that walking into a temple watched by soldiers was a very quick way to become prisoners. Katara understood him, but she also saw Aang's face when he heard that, and she knew he wouldn't be able to leave without looking inside.
"There's a sanctuary inside the temple." Aang said after a long silence. "The doors can only be opened by airbending. Monk Gyatso told me that when the time came, someone would guide me there."
Katara looked at the temple again, worried. "Do you think someone could still be inside?"
"I don't know… I don't think so anymore." Aang admitted. "But if there is even a clue there, I need to see it."
In the end, they waited and watched. The Fire Nation soldiers didn't seem to be searching for anything. Some of them were walking between the buildings, while others carried boxes and cleaned the stone paths.
There were not many of them, and most of them seemed bored. Katara found that strange. She had expected them to look cruel and alert, like the men who had come to her village, but these soldiers were mostly cleaning and talking among each other, joking around.
They left Appa hidden and climbed the rest of the way on foot. Katara's hands were cold against the stone and she kept looking up, afraid that the flying machine would return and spot them. But it seemed that it had gone away for now. Sokka moved first whenever the soldiers turned away, and Katara followed with Aang close behind her.
Aang was trying to be quiet, but Katara could see how much the place affected him. On the positive side, it seemed the invaders and cruel Fire Nation at least respected the palace and kept it tidy. There were no scorch marks and a few statues seemed to have been repaired as they had newer material on them.
They slipped through the entrance and moved into the temple, thinking they had gone unseen. Then an old man with a huge belly stepped in front of them, looking at them curiously. His eyes moved from one to the other slowly, and for a heartbeat, Katara's breath stopped.
"Well, this is a surprise, welcome friends. Curious… By your attire you are from the Southern Water Tribe. How did you make your way here?" he asked.
"Don't tell him! We can't trust him." Sokka said, immediately.
"Err… we climbed?" Aang said, unsure, ignoring Sokka.
Katara hesitated. There was no hostility in the old man but his armor still looked threatening, it seemed Aang didn't want to pick up a fight here, but if he tried anything they could still make a run for it.
"HA! I told my nephew we could have climbed, I was right!" the old man laughed. "Want to talk over tea? You can tell me why you came here, my nephew could join us later, but I'm afraid he is busy eating up all the scrolls at the temple's library."
"We don't want anything from the likes of you." Katara said, already moving her hand to uncork her waterskin.
"Katara, please. Let's talk things first, alright?" Aang asked, looking pleadingly at her. Katara relented.
"Alright." she mumbled. She looked at the old man, she wasn't going to apologize to him even if he expected her. But on his face there was nothing but understanding.
"Sorry about that, we will accept the tea." Aang said.
"Great, I don't mean to brag, but I've been told I make a particularly good tea." he said, laughing again.
They followed him in through a series of rooms, Katara was tense when she saw another soldier spot them and move closer.
"General, who are these?" he asked.
"As I keep repeating, retired general, Lieutenant Jee. But either way, we have guests, I'm just inviting them for a cup of tea." the old man explained.
"Of course, General. Should I notify-" he began to ask only for the retired general to cut him off.
"Yes, let my nephew know, but don't disturb him if he seems too focused. We don't want him to get agitated again."
Jee quickly nodded and ran off in the opposite direction. Then they settled in one of the wing's rooms. Aang seemingly lost in memories looking around. The old man set up a small table and brought wooden cups for all of them.
The old man took a long sip and sighed looking pleased.
"Ah, it's so good to share tea with other people. I'm Iroh, you are?" he asked.
"I'm Aang, and these are Katara and Sokka." Aang introduced them. "Are you scholars? Is that why you are preserving the place and going through the library?" he asked.
Iroh was going to reply when a huge rumble interrupted him, and he looked amused at Sokka's distraught face.
"It seems you will want some food with your tea." he said, standing up again and offering fruits and a small tray with what looked like small pieces of meat chopped off in squares.
"Yes! Food!" Sokka said, although as he was to take a bite seemed to realize who had just given him food and hesitated.
"Just be mindful of the Komodo Chicken, it's a bit spicy." he said, while taking one of the small squares and eating one.
'At least they are not poisoned.' Katara thought, and it seemed that Sokka reached that conclusion as well, for he dug in passionately, making her roll her eyes at him.
"Well…answering your previous question, Aang, we are looking for some information we think is lost to time. So far we had no luck. We have been cleaning the Temple in honor of those that fell here in battle. When we first arrived there were Fire Nation and Air Nomads that were not honored properly in their own rites for quite some time." he said, sadly.
Katara almost believed him to be sad, if it weren't their own fault that there was death here to begin with.
"We cremated all of them, offering them rest, releasing their ashes into the wind for them to finally be free. We have discovered it was the rite of passage done by the Air Nomads. In the Fire Nation we usually make crypts and tombs for them as well, but I tried to respect their tradition instead."
"Then… they are truly gone." Aang whispered.
"Why is it that you came all the way up here from the Water Tribe?" Iroh asked.
"Uhm… enlightenment?" Aang said, probably hoping his lie would stick, Katara thought he needed a better face to conceal lies.
Iroh looked at him for a few seconds before smiling. A gentle smile that Katara had seen a few times in GranGran.
"Then I will instruct the rest of our crew to leave you alone. I'm glad we have left the place in a better condition for you. I can see that the talk of death rattled you. If you need anything from us, or more food, do let us know. I better go find my nephew now." Iroh said, leaving them behind in the room with the still warm tea on the table.
"Aang…" Katara began, trying to find the words to cheer him up, but finding none for the situation. She resorted to hugging him instead. "I'm sorry."
"I'm truly the last one alive. I'm all alone." he said, with tears in his eyes.
"You have us now, and we still have to go into the sanctuary, right? We might find clues there if any of them managed to escape." Sokka said.
"Thanks guys." Aang said, sniffing his tears away.
"Still, we should be careful with these guys, they seem alright for now but I think it is all a play so that we lower our guard." Sokka said.
"I think Iroh is alright at least, he gave you food." Aang pointed out.
"Which you inhaled almost, seriously can you be more embarrassing?" Katara asked rhetorically, sounding stressed.
"Hey! I was hungry!" Sokka said, indignantly.
"Sokka is right though, we should not trust them, they are all a bunch of murderers. But for now, we don't need to fight them until we are stronger." Katara finished.
Aang looked at her weirdly but said nothing. The trio peeked out of the room and found no one around, they quickly rushed out following Aang's direction toward the sanctuary.