Chapter 30

Tanya had a serious problem on her hands.

In some ways things between her and Zhao had not changed at all. Their day-to-day routine remained the same: he presented her with a mission that would free up nearby troops for reassignment, and she executed it flawlessly and without mercy.

Every week missives were sent back to the homeland detailing their unbroken string of victories, and as a reward Zhao's claims to the troops they freed up were approved.

Yet in other ways things were completely different. No longer did Zhao pretend to be anything other than the ambitious, demanding taskmaster he truly was, and in turn Tanya showed all the emotion of a robot when in his presence. Their office culture had burned away in the flames of the execution platform, leaving only a cold, clinical relationship.

Tanya did not believe that Zhao had been bluffing when he threatened her with death. Despite the fact that she was perhaps one of the most skilled firebenders in the world, Zhao's pride would not let him back out of a threat he'd made. He would see it through if only to prove that he wasn't afraid to.

This was, of course, a problem, as Tanya had no intention of dying by his hands or anyone else's.

There was no denying however that the sword of damocles was dangling perilously above her head.

There were precious few choices she could make that didn't place her in mortal peril. Request a transfer, and Zhao would no doubt deny it and then send her on a suicide mission. Leave the military altogether, and she'd be hunted down by the Fire Nation as a traitor, unable to take refuge within the other nations thanks to having slaughtered so many of their troops.

Stay, and whenever The Avatar next showed up she'd be executed if she didn't manage to catch the slippery bastard, which was not a gamble she was comfortable taking given her current track record.

If only she'd been more hesitant to trust Zhao right from the beginning. If she'd been able to establish her own method of communicating with the homeland outside of military channels she could have contacted Azula, and pulled on her connections to have Zhao brought before a military court.

She had enough evidence against him to send Zhao to prison for a lifetime.

And it was no secret that Firelord Ozai, who would doubtlessly preside over such a trial, favoured her. Sadly Zhao had all communication within his fleet closely monitored, and would no doubt personally read any letters she tried to send through official channels.

"When I'm in charge, I'll make sure proper procedures are put in place to prevent any other barbarians from abusing their position like this."

She thought to herself as she marched through the corridors of Zhao's flagship, heading towards the helm whilst clutching a binder of papers close to her chest. She rapped sharply on the door when she arrived, and pushed her way in when Zhao's voice called for her to enter.

The helm was currently a neatly organised flood of maps, astral charts and other stacks of important-looking scrolls, all organised around a large map sprawled out across the central table that showed the most up-to-date layout of the Northern Water Tribe's capital city.

Various arrows had been drawn in red, all representing potential paths for troops to take in order to reach vital areas, and a large black circle had been drawn around one area that appeared to be some kind of holy shrine in the middle of a lake.

It was no great secret among the officers that Zhao was planning a siege of the North Pole, but the admiral had kept his strategy infuriatingly close to his chest.

Tanya stepped inside just in time to see Zhao finish locking something within a heavy safe, and tuck the key hanging from a piece of string around his neck underneath his shirt.

"Admiral." She announced cooly, her face an emotionless mask as she snapped into a perfectly formal salute. "We've received another lead on The Avatar. A nearby town just reported that a young boy with airbending abilities disrupted their Fire Day Festival mere hours ago."

Zhao's grin was like a shark's: full of teeth and aggression, and as cold as the depths of the ocean. "Excellent. Fortune smiles upon us once again."

Fortune. Right. Nothing at all to do with the hours of complicated analysis Tanya had done since they received reports that The Avatar had been sighted in Makapu village and Mo Ce Abbey.

Assuming that The Avatar was heading to the North Pole in search of a waterbending master, Tanya had predicted the route he would take and adjusted their own course to intercept. There was as much good fortune involved here as there was playing cards with aces hidden up your sleeve. Not that Zhao would care for her mentioning it.

"Gather my personal guard." Zhao declared. "There can be no mistakes this time. I'll see to the capture of The Avatar myself."

...

"So, the Avatar was here and you let him slip away?"

Zhao was not happy. Not in the slightest. Why was it that incompetency seemed to rife within the Fire Nation these days? To think that an entire town of soldiers had failed to capture one little boy who only knew how to blow air. Since when were children too much of a challenge for the Fire Nation's finest to handle?

"Yes, sir, but other than that the festival went off without a hitch!" The anxious leader of the town guard reported, just as a huge piece of burning wood crashed to the ground behind him. "No fights. Theft was way down."

"I don't care about your local crime rates!" Zhao spat. "Which way did they go?"

"They headed into the forest, up the river I suspect."

Not immediately north? Interesting. Witnesses had reported a hooded man throwing bombs had helped The Avatar escape, yet Tanya's reports had not mentioned any such figure present in his last two appearances.

This smelled like an opportunity! With the cover of trees to hide them, they could ambush The Avatar before he had the chance to flee on that fat, flying cow of his!

He turned to his ever faithful right-hand woman, who stood woodenly at attention by his side. Tanya had been in a sulky mood ever since his little show of authority back at Pohuai Stronghold: speaking only when spoken to, and even then only ever in a curt, formal tone.

It was like watching a child try to give someone the silent treatment, except that her position as his subordinate forced her to break said silence whenever he desired it.

Frankly, Zhao didn't care. He'd had to rope Tanya along with kind words at first, but she was too tightly bound to him for that to matter anymore.

She was under his power, and had no means of escaping before he could launch his invasion of the North Pole. He had no doubts that the moment they returned to the homeland she'd go snivelling to The Firelord about what he'd done to the sages, but by then The Firelord wouldn't care.

He hated the sages anyway, and with the title of Moonslayer under his belt Zhao would be a hero beyond reproach. Any laws he'd broken along the way would be swept under the rug as ends justifying the means.

"Ready the river boats." He commanded, watching with satisfaction as Tanya quickly, but clearly reluctantly, saluted him in acknowledgement. "We're going after the Avatar."

For too long he'd trusted his subordinates to handle the task for him, but as the old adage said; if you want something done right, do it yourself. This time he'd see to the capture of The Avatar personally, and nobody, not even the Blue Spirit, would mess things up.

...

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