3 Ch.3 The Traitor

The critical moment of this war was already upon us, I did not doubt my path anymore. I had decided I would follow Aang if they would let me join the group, I just hoped I would be able to convince them today. Either that or they refuse and I'm left to be executed at the hands of the water tribe, but what is life without a sprinkle of risk?

I was standing near Iroh while Zhao was cackling madly near the pond.

"Stop it, Zhao, you are going to destroy the balance of this world, the spirits won't have mercy"

Zhao was there, fish in his hand, the moon already turned blood red as if foreboding a disaster; after all, if the moon is destroyed the tides will become really messy, ironically the fire nation mostly consisting of islands would be the one hit the heaviest.

As soon as Iroh finished speaking I knew I had to act, like hell I would let an innocent young girl sacrifice her life if I had any say on that shit. Kids shouldn't even know what war is.

Gathering energy in my hand I shifted the fire into the shape of a sharp disk and as soon as the Admiral made a motion to attack the fish I launched said the disk. Taking him by surprise my ability cleanly cut the general's hand, Iroh looked at me bewildered while silence filled the pond.

Zhao's screaming like a banshee ordered to attack while he retreated and everyone moved, Iroh immediately attacked the bulk of the soldiers while I was left to face the two soldiers closest to me.

The two of them immediately attacked me with fireballs. Using both my hands I created a shield of fire and tanked the hits then I fit the shield on the ground and retreated a couple of steps. The shield was rapidly losing power from the onslaught and one fireball actually almost managed to hit me however that gave me the time I needed to take two pages from Phoenix's book I charged a fire bomb on my right-hand hand and launched it towards the two enemies, fire erupted from the bomb all over the place and the enemy's fire stopped, so I created a firewall from my shield starlight to the enemy's previous location with the intent on splitting the two and giving me time to fight one on one.

It worked, sure but I did not expect one guy to immediately ambush me in close combat as soon as I went around the shield. His fist coated with fire barely missed me and his follow-up kick on my stomach didn't, making me grunt in pain, but I did not have the luxury to lose time. Immediately I covered my own first in fire parrying other follow-ups.

After a brief exchange, I disengaged briefly faking to try to resume a fighting stance the enemy not wanting to give me time decided to engage again but instead, and without moving my fist, I conjured a fireball small and fast taking him off guard, he had to summon all his luck to cover himself in time. You have to know that in the fire nation during spars it is dishonorable to fight someone with ranged attacks if you are engaged in close combat, I just used this implicit preconception against him.

Even if he was able to protect himself from one fireball he certainly wasn't able to protect himself from the follow-ups: another fireball to his knees and finally a fire spear appeared in my hand. Before I could use it he decided to summon his last willpower and shoot a fireball at my legs I jumped over this last desperate shot spear still in my hand and landed before him, in the end, I coldly lodged the spear in his throat. He fell motionless. That didn't feel good in my stomach, but it was either him or me.

Of course, having time to ponder the meaning of life doesn't really cut it in wars, fireballs suddenly appeared in my vision, igniting my fists I intercepted all the attacks and took cover behind an ice formation. While that sounded cool it was in fact the most stressful thing I have ever done in my whole life.

Holy Shit, Holy shit, Holy cow. Thank god my reflexes from when I used to be a football goalkeeper worked overtime.

BOOM

A firebomb hit the formation and almost destroyed it, with quick thinking a took an incredibly heavy breath inserted my cape on my helm and hurled it to one side while I went in the opposite direction as soon as the enemy obliterated the fake me with fireballs I immediately let all air out, combining it with fire I got a watered down replica of the fire breath technique I was not really able to master. This version had more spread and less power which worked wonderfully when trying to pinpoint the enemy's location.

At the edge of the range of the ability, I found the enemy trying to avoid it with a roll, smart, it is always a bad idea trying to jump this kind of attack however as soon as the roll finished I attacked him with a volley of fireballs the enemy was still conscious and got back up and I realized everyone had just finished dealing with their enemies and we're looking straight at me and my fight. I couldn't make a show of killing him, especially for Aang.

Instead, I decided to rush into close combat again while he was still recovering, and punched his now exposed chest (probably because of the fireballs) where his heart resides, as soon as my punch was about to hit him I conjured a small fire knife and ended his life.

To everyone, maybe except Iroh, the enemy just went unconscious. Why didn't I choose to let him live? My face, he had seen my face. Hopefully, I would just remain The Traitor for a while longer.

Looking into their expression I saw surprise understandable, there are many things to be surprised about, I was young, just like them, I just betrayed my whole nation to save the spirit sacred to the northern tribe and I showed moderate ability against two very experienced guards.

"Shen... You have protected the balance..." he said nicely trying to cheer me up, he was a good man

"Maybe" I paused looking at a shocked Katara before answering again "But right now, I am only a traitor, I have lost my home, and no nation will give asylum to a fire nation soldier, I have lost my place in this world. But I will just have to adapt again I guess" as I adapted when I woke up here.

I went towards the pond, the fishes were swimming happily, as soon as the moon spirit saw me he cheerfully went towards my direction to the surprise of Aang. When I put my finger in the water the fish nudged himself against my finger before rapidly moving away to play with his companion.

I smiled, the feeling of having done something truly good for the first time in both lives overwhelmed me for a bit, it was a nice feeling.

At that, I felt Aang's hand on my shoulder, "The spirit is thankful, you did the right thing. Say... I also don't have a home to go back to so... would you like to go and try to find a new one with us?"

I froze. Did he seriously ask me to join them? Just like that? Wow. Color me surprised.

The wording is kinda wrong but I understood where he was coming from, we were both alone, without a family to return to he wanted to create a new world where everyone and he himself could feel at home. And be invited to create this world with him.

I smiled at his nervous face, "If your companions are fine with me, I would be happy to join you Avatar"

"Guys?" he asked to the duo

The two of them looked at each other, they knew what losing a family meant, and that firebender trashed everything to be had to save their spirits, that had to mean something. In the end, they smiled lightly and Sokka said "Welcome to the Gaang" he extended a hand I shook.

"Thanks uh..." I wasn't supposed to know their names

"Sokka, and she is Katara, the other girl Is Yue"

"A pleasure to meet all of you, I wish however our circumstances were different" They all smiled wryly.

In the end, when another ball of fire broke havoc in the city Aang realized his Avatar state and everything went exactly like the show.

Convincing the water tribe I helped them was a tad difficult but none was willing to contraddict the Avatar, not after what he did.

And so the journey started again