Chapter 26

Realising that her prolonged silence was proving The Avatar's point, she struggled to quickly come up with a clever reply. "How naive Avatar, if you think-…"

"Aang."

"What?"

...

The Avatar looked up, directly into her eyes, and for a moment Tanya was stunned by the flickers of wisdom she could see within them. "You keep calling me Avatar. But that's not my name. It's Aang."

She knew that. Zuko had mentioned it during his questioning that day he'd limped into Zhao's port, and Tanya would never forget information about such an important enemy in case it ever provided her with an advantage over them.

Yet now that she thought about it, even in her head she only referred to The Avatar by his title. Calling him by his title was a reminder of his power, his history, and the threat he presented to her nation. Calling him by his real name was a reminder that he was…

… That he was human too.

No! Tanya shook her head, trying to physically dispel the thought from her mind.

This wasn't how the conversation had been supposed to go! He was playing mind games with her, trying to undermine her commitment to the cause her entire life depended on! She took a step backwards, scowling as she realised that her best option was to cut this conversation short and just leave. Yet as she turned her back and stormed away, Aang's voice rang out one more time.

"What's your name?"

Tanya froze at the door, unsure why she found herself affected by such a simple question. What would he do with that information? Put a price on her head? Send Earth Kingdom assassins after her?

Try some spiritual witchcraft to steal her identity? No, she was being ridiculous. It was a simple question, and refusing to answer it would be a sign of cowardice.

"Tanya." She said simply, not turning back to face him. A second later she pulled open the door and, without another word, disappeared down the hallway.

Aang watched her go, continuing to stare at the door even as it slammed shut behind her. Even since he'd been awakened from the ice, a part of him had been curious about the Fire Nation's perspective on this whole war.

It seemed alien to him how an entire nation could believe that the war was something that should be continued despite all the pain that fighting it had caused them.

It was gratifying in some way to get confirmation that they hadn't all just turned into cold-hearted killers overnight; they were just being led astray by a few evil people in position of power.

If he could bring an end to this war there was still a chance that the Fire Nation he'd once known, the one that had produced his best friend Kuzon, could be reborn once again.

...

Sleep would not come easily to Tanya.

It wasn't that she was doubting her loyalty to The Firelord, but Aang's words were enough to make her ponder the ramifications of the Fire Nation winning the war from a broader perspective.

And something about the tone of the speech Zhao had delivered to the soldiers moments ago; a prediction that this would be the year The Fire Nation burnt Ba Sing Se to the ground, struck a wrong cord with her.

The Firelord being an unelected dictator was something she hadn't really thought about before, as monarchies were a common political structure seen during the equivalent of this time period in her original world as well.

However even after living two very different lifetimes, she had never before caught a hint as to what would happen if one dictator gained control over the entire planet.

She turned over and buried her face into a pillow, seeing if that wouldn't suffocate the unwanted doubts. This was absurd! Why should she care if some dictator another hundred years in the future proved unworthy of their power? There were flaws in any political system, and by that time she'd be long gone.

The next couple of generations could wage their own civil wars if that was a problem. All she should have to worry about was surviving the war she'd been forced into.

Suddenly the ringing of alarm bells chimed loudly around the stronghold, causing Tanya to sit up, wide-eyed and alert in an instant.

An emergency now?! This had to be Aan-… The Avatar's doing! It was too much of a coincidence to think otherwise! Within the minute her uniform had been thrown on and she was halfway out of the door, rushing in the direction she could hear the most commotion coming from.

It did not take long to find the source.

She had to hand it to him: Aang was gutsier than he first appeared. That or he was insane enough to honestly think that using airbending to throw his own friend at high speed towards a wall was a good idea.

Speaking of which he must also be more cunning than he appeared, because the black-clad figure in the blue mask assisting him in his escape was most certainly a covert agent of some kind? An assassin perhaps, if the skill with which he wielded those dual swords was anything to go by? It had been clever to keep this mysterious companion of his hidden for a moment he was really needed.

The man in the blue mask successfully landed atop the innermost wall, and Aang was quick to follow with his own air-powered leap.

A second later flames blossomed from Tanya's feet as she propelled herself into the sky as well, shooting through the night sky like a shooting star. If The Avatar really thought that he was the master of the skies around here then he was in for a rude awakening.

Spinning a spear pole above his head like a helicopter and grappling blue-mask between his legs, The Avatar had almost reached the middle of Pohuai Stronghold's three walls before Tanya was in effective firing range.

She decided to announce her presence by spewing a wide fan of flames out of both hands, aiming to completely envelop both targets and burn them enough to shut down this escape attempt without killing them. It was her misfortune that, in the dark of the night, such a spread out wave of fire generated a lot of light.

No sooner had it left her hands than blue-mask noticed, and tapped The Avatar's foot to get his attention.

As the attack was about to crash upon them Aang twisted and spun his pole to create a shield of air, protecting him and his accomplice even as the force of the attack pushed them the rest of the way towards the middle wall.

As they hit the top of the wall and skipped across the dusty stone like tumbleweeds, Tanya's hard won battle instincts screamed that now was the time to finish them off while they were down.

However Zhao had already made it clear that he wanted The Avatar alive, and if this blue-mask agent was an operative of another nation he was sure to know some useful intelligence.

A different approach was needed here. Whilst the soldiers atop the wall engaged Aang and blue-mask, Tanya changed course and touched down daintily a few feet away, patiently waiting for the melee to finish. She crossed her arms and leaned against the brickwork, content to watch for the moment as the two would-be escapees fought.

Besides a whole lot jumping around back at the fire temple, Tanya hadn't seen any airbending forms before. Watching a master, albeit a young one, fight was an informative experience.

After his makeshift staff was kicked away early on in the brawl, Aang switched to an unarmed style that mostly incorporated open-palmed strikes to throw enemies around the battlefield, and lots of light, agile motions that allowed him to quickly spin away at the first hint of an incoming attack.

He was always on his toes, letting his enemies unbalance themselves with their clumsy attacks and only then providing the final gentle push needed to take them out of the fight.

Blue-mask however was far from non-violent. He fought like a machine: a constant whirlwind of motion that aimed to cause the greatest effect with the least amount of effort. It was efficiency in motion: a form that was fluid, powerful, and honed to a razor-fine point.

Headhunters would be salivating if a guy like this walked into a recruitment office back in her first world. This individual must have received high-quality professional training for years to obtain such a level of skill.

Before long the melee was over, the fire soldiers having been tossed around like rag dolls. She was going to have to draw up a stricter training regimen when she was done here.

Down below she could see more soldiers approaching with siege ladders, but before they could set foot on the wall Tanya raised a finger and sent a spark of sizzling flame, like a firework, up into the sky.

All at once the soldiers froze wherever they were, watching silently with rapt attention.

...

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