Focused Fire (ATLA)

Fortunately, the breach of the Outer Wall did not affect its immediate surroundings too much. The bursts of lava from either side of it created a large area of blackened, vitrified earth, particularly striking in the farmlands on Ba Sing Se’s side of the wall. From what Toph picked up, the death toll was surprisingly light, as even as farmers and soldiers rushed to search for survivors, it didn’t seem like there’d be more than a hundred lost souls.

Toph wondered what her friends saw with their eyes. It was an interesting thing, to be able to feel the shockwaves from the wall. Her tremorsense usually went out some distance, but whatever Xing did carried the seismic image of the destruction all the way over to the earthbender with a clarity that almost made it look like it was happening right next to her. 

She felt the solid wall turn into something like mud…and it took the gang’s shocked description to realize that Xing had melted rock and dirt down to a jelly-like consistency, and eventually breaking it down to a liquid state. Toph couldn’t ‘see’ the results of what happened after that until after the molten rock began to cool down and solidify, her senses couldn’t build a clear picture when it came to vibrations through liquids.

The displacement of so much earth had scarred the land in a way that Toph never knew possible. Her earthbending could raise hills, but Xing just melted down an equivalent to a mountain. Coupled with his incredibly immediate victory over Aang, Toph was not ashamed to admit that she did not look forward to facing the Scorpion any time soon. He just moved a little, and Twinkle Toes of all people couldn’t dodge the attack and wound up on the ground, almost roasted to death.

Katara might make a fight out of it, but unless the Sugar Queen could waterbend lakes, she’d likely end up getting boiled or something. Who knows how the Scorpion Dragon actually firebended, but at the moment, the gang stood no chance against him on a direct encounter.

It was a good thing then that Xing didn’t see them as enemies.

“I’m glad you’ve all decided to stick to your side of the deal,” he said with surprising honesty. He actually expected Aang to break his word. Well, that was admittedly understandable, with how they were operating…but still…

Of course he found them soon after the walls fell. Even Toph had been frozen from shock at the sudden rumbling roars of the walls being breached. Xing had dropped out of the sky a few dozen minutes after that, looking utterly unperturbed and confident. The latter had been true, while Toph eventually picked out that the former was slightly forced. 

Xing was good at hiding his weakness, it seems. Then again, he was supposed to be a master of deception. He’d greeted the wary quartet and their escorts, and surprised everyone further by suggesting Katara help the soldiers on the wall that everyone had assumed had been melted or blasted to oblivion.

For a monster that made Earth Kingdom soldiers loosen their bladders, Colonel Xing seemed a far more polite and considerate villain than what Toph had expected.

They returned to the breached walls, and while Katara immediately went over to heal the toasted defenders, Toph tried to further study the damage to the wall, and Sokka was in charge of looking after Aang.

“Why are you doing this?” Toph had heard the Avatar demand from the Scorpion. “Why destroy the walls if you say you’re trying to fix Ba Sing Se?”

She could feel the mild annoyance in Xing just a stone’s throw away from her. “I’m not trying to ‘fix’ Ba Sing Se. I’m righting a wrong. Those are two different things.” His feet shifted to turn squarely onto Aang. “I suggest you withhold your judgment of me and this city until after I’m done with it.”

Unfortunately, Aang was still coming to terms with his recent loss. “Don’t make yourself sound like you're here to save anyone.”

XIng shrugged too casually. “I’ll admit that I’m not.” That was…a lie? “This city state makes for a great prize, and I could use a career change.”

”You’ll be stopped. There’re more defenders ready to turn you back. You can’t fight all of them”

Again, the Scorpion shrugged. “Maybe. Probably. The whole of Ba Sing Se’s defenders  might be arrayed against me later on the Inner Wall.”

Why did he sound so pleased with that?

Xing easily tolerated Aang’s confrontational encounters for the rest of the day, using Appa to keep the airbender from crossing the line. When news spread of other Earth Kingdom armies approaching, Xing literally blasted off. Toph felt the distant explosion beyond the walls before everyone else heard it. From the way people around her were gasping, it must’ve been a great show of sorts. 

He returned shortly after, still putting on a strong facade, though he was definitely betraying some signs of exhaustion now. “Unfortunately, I can only keep so many prisoners in line,” he said breezily, but added after Aang and Katara were about to rage at him, “Don’t worry, I just  encouraged them to flee. I made sure the new hole in the wall was well clear of the conveniently clumped up formations.”

Could they take him now? Toph wondered. If she and her friends and every healed soldier suddenly turned on him now, could they win?

The consequences of Xing surviving the attack would be dire, though, so it had to be a sure thing. And Toph knew enough about reputations to know that it wouldn’t do them any favors in the future. She discarded the idea for now, they weren’t in desperate enough straits yet.

Plus, Xing was a little tense, which likely meant that he was expecting to defend himself.

He rested below the compromised walls for the night. The tank he drove through a breach totally hid his presence from Toph’s seismic sense, which was annoying, but at least she could track its movements more clearly due to the greater vibrations it made.

The tank remained parked until late morning, when new vibrations heralded the arrival of a Fire Nation force. The 11th had arrived to secure the breach. Xing left shortly after that, leaving an annoyingly cheery request for Aang and the generals to follow after him once they were ready.

Curiously, very curiously, Xing wasn’t heading straight for the Inner Wall.

*****

When news came of a lone Fire Nation commander declaring to capture the city by himself, everyone within the Dai Li had expected it to be a bluff, a feint of sorts. They double checked the refugees within the city for potential infiltrators, kept an eye on merchants who might have been compromised, and ran extra patrols throughout the city.

Because surely a mere colonel, no matter how feared, could take down the outer wall, nevermind capture Ba Sing Se, by himself?

And then Long Feng felt the earthquake, and ran out to the palace to see a plume of dirty smoke rising from the horizon. 

And then the panicked reports came flooding in.

The Scorpion had dueled the Avatar the day before, and won. The Avatar was incapacitated as a result.

The Scorpion made it to the wall in the morning, and somehow melted his way through the walls. Twice.

Generals Fong, Sung and Yiu had surrendered, and all other defenders were avoiding the ruined section of the Outer Wall.

The wall was breached again, and General Somsak’s army was forced to withdraw.

It all read less like an invasion and more of a natural disaster sweeping through the region. Long Feng was only glad that the curiosity of the gullible king was easily sated to keep him away from the windows and balconies. Things were hard to deal with as is.

Morale among the remaining wall defenders had plummeted, and the citizenry were on the verge of panicking. The Grand Secretariat had no choice but to draw on the full strength of the Dai Li to reinforce the Inner Wall and pacify Ba Sing Se’s population. There was no point of investing in schemes and operations if the city fell, after all.

The Scorpion was notorious for the destruction he left in his wake. General Yiu and some others might say he holds a twisted sense of honor, that Ba Sing Se’s populace would be left alone, but Long Feng didn’t dare delude himself. If the city fell, who knows who might blab about the Dai Li’s reach. And being inextricably tied to the throne, the Scorpion would surely not leave Long Feng and his organization in peace if he was truly here to capture the Impenetrable City.

Not unless he was given a reason to.

Displays had to be made. First, to prove the Dai Li’s potency as a fighting force to either turn away the Scorpion, or resist him long enough to be a noteworthy foe. If they could tie him down for long enough for reinforcements to finally come and chase him away, it would be ideal.

However, failing that, hopefully they could prove that they are more trouble than they’re worth fighting. It would allow Long Feng to open…negotiations with the Scorpion. Surrendering the Dai Li along with the city should allow them to maintain their grip over the city. He was still just a boy, after all, and a military brat at that, so he’d need capable administrators to keep the city running. 

He’d need the Dai Li to serve him.

It shouldn’t take too much effort to manipulate a battle-hungry psychopath like the Scorpion into delegating everything over to Long Feng and his peers. He could even win over the conquered populace by saying the surrender was for their sake. If he played his cards right, there might not even be much of a change in Ba Sing Se’s everyday life.

There were no objections to the overall plan. Some voiced their concerns, but no tangible solutions were offered. So with little time to waste, Long Feng used the Earth King’s seal to order most of the Royal Guard to join the Dai Li at the Inner Wall. Their earthbending would greatly help bolster the defenses, or if the worst comes to pass the paltry garrison left in the palace would make the defection to the Fire Nation a lot smoother.

And just to be on the safe side, the Royal Guard aiding at the walls would be subtly managed into front line positions, to hopefully absorb most of the damage from the coming siege. It was a win-win situation: If the defenses held, it’d open up positions for guards who were loyal to the Dai Li. Otherwise, the culling would leave control of the palace wholly to the Dai Li, which would secure their place when negotiating with the Scorpion.

With King Kuei distracted by some expendable Joo Dees, the palace was emptied out. So too were the hidden dens to monitor the population, and Lake Laogai’s underground complex. They could not risk holding back now, not when the Scorpion has already proven capable of tearing down the Outer Wall three times in a day.

Long Feng and his inner circle deliberated with the garrison commanders on how best to utilize their significant manpower over the theoretical hidden weapons the Scorpion might bring to bear, but then the scouts in the Agrarian Zone brought back troubling news. The first was of Fire Nation reinforcements arriving to exploit the breach, proving the wisdom of strengthening the defenses of the Inner Wall and giving Long Feng reason to hurriedly conscript every able-bodied earthbender and adult man to defend his city.

However, it was the arrival of the second piece of news that troubled the Grand Secretariat deeply. The Scorpion was not headed towards the Inner Wall.

He’d detoured straight for Lake Laogai.

*****

Sokka had to admit, for how much he really did not like Xing right now, he was really curious as to what the guy wanted to unveil. What was done to Aang was brutal, but Sokka and Toph agreed with the generals that the Scorpion Dragon was being nice. If the wall was any indication, Aang could’ve been melted down to nothing instead.

Aang knew this as well, and it dealt a real blow to the young airbender’s confidence, leaving him noticeably more withdrawn. Toph and Katara agreed that they just needed to get this whole affair with Xing dealt with so they could move on and build the Avatar back up again, but Sokka was skeptical. They might be dealing with Xing more frequently in the future. He was the one who hinted at being able to refer a firebending master to Aang, after all.

Oh boy… What if Xing was the firebending master? He’d be insufferable, and who knows how much of a mess it’d leave when Katara inevitably blew her top at having to deal with the Scorpion on a daily basis.

At that point, it’d be better to get Zuko as a teacher. Spirits, having Zhao even sounds like a preferable option. At least then the gang could believably beat down the mentors if they decided to be pricks.

Shaking that intrusive thought out of his head once more, Sokka corrected the ostrich horses pulling the carriage with a quick flick of the reins. The carriage realigned a bit to center on the speck that was Xing’s tank far ahead, keeping in the churned soil left in the tank’s wake. All around him, the farmlands were devoid of people, probably evacuated back to the city. Some livestock could be seen, but most were chased away by the noise of Xing’s vehicle.

The generals, while cleared of blisters and redness, were still in no condition to walk just yet so Katara was still tending to them back in the carriage. Once they were well enough, they can swap carriages when they next stopped for a break, and the next batch of wounded could join them. Sokka preferred that arrangement than having his sister hop between the other carriages following after them. 

Aang in the meanwhile was too busy brooding to be a good carriage driver, and Toph was…well, blind. She made for better company than the airbender though, so Sokka let her sit next to him.

“What do you think we’ll find?” she idly asked.

“Beats me, but whatever it is, if it’s anything like what happened with Zhao, we might need to rethink going to the Earth King about the Dark Sun.”

Toph paused for a second to think. “So…the Earth King might be trying to do something as stupid as killing the moon? What could earthbenders possibly try to kill around Ba Sing Se?”

“Well, Xing said that it’s not as bad as that, but still… If he’s taking the trouble to make a big presentation out of it, I still don’t think it’s going to be good.”

Maybe get whatever’s in charge of the earth element to do something really messed up like sink the Fire Islands? Hm…sounds about stupid enough.

The convoy closed the distance with Xing as dusk loomed, the tank’s detail being visible if you squinted hard enough at it. The Scorpion showed no signs of getting out to camp for the night, not even a trail of smoke to betray a fire. He seemed content to just stay in his tank. The convoy though were not as reserved, and used the evening to set up a simple camp for the night. The generals by then were able to at least limp around to give orders to their captains and lieutenants, though none so much as hinted at trying to ambush Xing once night came.

They had all accepted their defeat, and Sokka couldn’t help but find the honorable act of keeping to their word rather admirable.

Or maybe Xing just scared everyone so much that they didn’t dare betray him. Yeah, it’s probably that.

They moved out again the next morning, and by afternoon they finally caught up with Xing at the edges of a great lake. “What’s in Lake Laogai?” Sokka asked General Yiu, who had opted to help drive the carriage this time. The general frowned for a moment before shrugging.

“Some nobles visit it as a retreat, but beyond that it’s the main source of Ba Sing Se’s water. I…do not think the colonel would be poisoning or somehow compromising it, before you ask.”

“I wasn’t,” Sokka quickly replied. Thinking it and actually asking it were different things. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

The general nodded just as the carriage slowed to a stop. The rest of the convoy joined in too, and Xing stood casually by the edge of the lake’s waters, now with a cloak on his back, as everyone gathered to him. Toph stopped halfway, giving a confused look that only made the Scorpion grin and walk towards her.

“I was about to ask, but you found something?”

Toph gave a slow nod and pointed down one end of the lake’s edge. “There’s…there’s a tunnel right near the shore.”

Xing looked to the assembled generals and their captains, who were all looking confused. Sokka didn’t know why the guy was frowning so hard at- Wait. Did he think they might have something to do with it as well?

Oh. That might change things…

“Well, it saves me from boiling the water down to the right levels… Could you lead us to it?”

Toph did just that, stamping her feet to raise a walkway from the waters and reveal a hole’s entrance after shoving aside a round rocky slab. The pit was deep; the ladder leading down disappeared into the darkness. The Scorpion was smiling too sweetly as he regarded the confused crowd around him, Sokka and his friends included.

“Now, as this is part of my capture of Ba Sing Se, you are all still technically my prisoners of war. Kindly do not interfere until I allow you to. Avatar Aang, you and your friends will still abide by the terms as well. Otherwise, you may follow along.”

With that, Xing pulled out some chopsticks from the box attached to his belt, wielding them like throwing knives between his fingers, and then jumped down the hole.

*****

Suki did not know how long she had been kept in the darkness, and she gave up bothering to try. She also gave up figuring out where exactly she was, as the clues she was given - bare rocks all around her - was clearly not enough.

She never did give up resisting, though. None of the Kyoshi Warriors did. They would not give in to the Dai Li, these corrupted legacy of Avatar Kyoshi. They would not betray their pride as warriors, as Kyoshi’s elite warriors. They’d been separated into individual cramped cells, with barely enough space to stand. Assuming they could stand, anyway.

The Dai Li had bound their hands behind their backs with metal manacles, and chained that to their ankles, forcing Suki and her sisters to an awkward crawl. They were dragged out only when their captors tried to persuade them with honeyed words or break them with brute force. 

They even resorted to vile tactics that almost broke the girls. Suki hated that she couldn’t bury the feeling of her captor’s rough hand against her bare skin as she was groped before her fellow warriors. He had tore off her clothes, and his hands wandered across her naked body in an attempt to coerce the other Kyoshi Warriors.

“If you promise to behave, I’ll promise she won’t suffer…much.”

“Don’t do it-!” Suki had cried out before she was gagged with the remains of her clothing. Her burning gaze delivered the rest of the message well enough though, and despite the slapping, despite the man’s dirty fingers feeling about, the girls stared helplessly rather than give in. He made the mistake of loosening the chain binding her ankles to her wrists, and Suki felt immense satisfaction in driving her knee right up between his legs, even if it resulted in her losing a few teeth as the other guards proceeded to beat her almost into unconsciousness.

Thankfully, her show of defiance made them wary of furthering that approach, and the Dai Li torturers turned to more brutal, but much more preferable methods. Suki and her warriors screamed and cried openly, but they did not give in when their nails were pulled and their fingers and toes were crushed. They did not give in when the meager food stopped being delivered, and they were left in the growing puddle of shit and piss in their cells. At least the filth stopped their captors from coming in to molest them any further.

They would not falter. Suki promised herself that she would rather starve to death, or let her captors to further defile her body, than to ruin what’s left of Avatar Kyoshi’s legacy. 

Strangely, she found added resolve in her dreams that were once nightmares. Suki found strange relief and reassurance when sleep brought her to meet Xing. Xing, who still held her neck with his pincer, but also was standing over a pile of brutalized Dai Li torturers. In some dreams, the head captor was slowly crushed by the other pincer, or stabbed to pulp by the Scorpion’s tail. In others, Xing would be torching the Dai Li around him with his free hand as he pulled Suki protectively towards him. She could even imagine the smell of burnt meat in those dreams.

It was an unlikely source of hope, but Suki held onto it nonetheless. Hopefully, the spirits that supposedly guided him would lead him down here. He said he had a plan for the Kyoshi Warriors, after all. It’d be nice to have Xing come to save them, to save her…

Suki awoke to her cell rumbling all around her, and the muted echoes of panicked Dai Li. Despite the painful pang of ever growing hunger, her spirits rose as she heard the unmistakable sound of agony and the roar of fire. Straining her neck up to the cell’s sole source of light, Suki managed to smile as she saw the sinister green illumination flash hot white.

He’s here.

Each roar of flame became closer, and Suki realized that each also drowned out a secondary explosion. She realized what exactly caused it when the edges of her metal cell door glowed, and the door was promptly flung upward with such force that it buried itself into the top of the back wall of the cell.

Wreathed in flames, the silhouette of Xing made Suki spend the last of her body’s remaining water bursting into tears.

“You’ve…come…” she managed to rasp out between sobs.

He was frowning with heavy disapproval as he strode into the filthy cell to kneel before her. A flash of fire freed Suki’s arms and legs. “Can you walk?” Hearing his concerned voice only made her sob harder. 

“Are the others here?” At least she managed to nod at that. “I’ll have someone come to help you soon. I’ll free your warriors.”

She wanted to tell him to stay, to protect her, but he rose and left too quickly, sending a sliver of metal in his hands flying out with a blast of fire and causing another satisfying scream of pain. 

Another silhouette replaced him as he left, another familiar sight but far less reassuring. Suki almost flailed in panic as the stone wall beneath her moved, but Sokka calmed her down enough, promising that it’s his friend earthbending. She was brought out on a wave of earth, finding her other sisters in similar appalling states as herself, and they were now surrounded by Earth Kingdom soldiers and the Avatar and his friends.

“Don’t worry, they’re with us,” Katara said.

Suki rasped on behalf of her sisters, who were all eyeing the armored men with suspicion. “Xing?”

Katara winced, but otherwise nodded. “Yeah… Xing brought them here.”

Suki nodded and let herself collapse with a sigh of relief. These soldiers and the Avatar were with Xing. They could be trusted then. 

Things will be alright now. Xing was here.