Chapter 8

Ty Lee loved her friends.

Azula was always so brave, and talented in everything she did. She could count on Aluza to always be strong for the both of them, and to know what to do no matter the situation.

Okay sure Azula could be a little rough sometimes, and could sometimes say things to her that made the corners of her eyes prickle with the beginnings of tears, but Ty Lee knew that it was just one of the ways Azula was looking out for her.

Like that time she had confided in her friends about her secret dream of running away to join the circus, and Azula had laughed and began nicknaming her "circus freak." Ty Lee had cried into her pillow when she got home, but come the next day she understood that Azula had actually been helping her.

If she'd told her sisters or parents about her dream she'd have received a much harsher punishment, and if it had gotten around the school her classmates would have taunted her about it forever.

Azula had been teaching her an important lesson: that silly little fantasies belonged locked up in her head, and should never be told to anybody.

Mai was a little shy, but was loyal to a fault and had amazing aim. Her reserved nature balanced out with Ty Lee's usual bubbliness perfectly, and she was always willing to step in and help when people asked things of her that she felt too polite to refuse.

Sometimes Ty Lee liked to hang out alone with Mai and relax after Azula led them off on a fun, but sometimes stressful, adventure. Not that they told Azula about these days of course: they didn't want her to feel left out.

Then there was Tanya.

Ty Lee was a little surprised when Azula had immediately taken a student with a commoner background under her wing, but she'd wholeheartedly approved.

Tanya had such beautiful golden hair, and her serious attitude was adorable coming from someone so small and cute looking. The fierce pout that would cross her face every time someone mentioned how darling she looked in her uniform made Ty Lee want to squeal with glee.

The fact that she was a genius who consistently scored perfect marks in every test they did, no matter what lesson, and was always happy to help her out with homework was icing on the cake.

But if she was being honest, Tanya scared her sometimes. She felt horrible for even thinking it, like she was some kind of traitor, but she couldn't help her thoughts.

And she didn't mean fear in that uncomfortable sense she sometimes got when she couldn't do something Azula had asked her to do. No, she meant a fierce shiver that would run down her back and tell her to run away as fast as she could.

The first time it happened was during their first lesson on military strategy since Tanya enrolled. As General Iroh's siege of Ba Sing Se was the talk of the nation at the time their teacher had posed a hypothetical scenario to the class about how they would go about breaching the legendary walls.

Most of the class had offered uninspired answers: siege towers, underground tunnels, or even firing soldiers over the wall via catapults.

But when it was Tanya's turn the little blonde girl had launched into a twenty minute pitch on not just how to breach the walls, but also claim and hold the entire outer section of the city.

She advocated sending raiding parties out across the surrounding lands to burn every village in the province to the ground: notably not killing anyone, but giving the survivors the barest amount of supplies necessary for them to make the journey to Ba Sing Se.

By flooding the city with refugees, she reasoned, Ba Sing Se's government would be incapable of properly handling the logistics needed to provide them all with food and shelter, leading to a growing sense of discontentment as the city clogged up with people and more refugees turned to crime in order to survive.

If an uprising didn't naturally occur within the six weeks, spies could be snuck in amongst the refugees with orders to burn the food stores.

Once the uprising began many soldiers posted on the outer walls would have to be pulled back to help deal with it, leaving the wall undermanned for a mass incursion via siege ladders.

It was not the tactical genius that scared Ty Lee. It was the dispassionate, almost uncaring, way that Tanya spoke about both civilians and soldiers; how she referred to them as "human resources" rather than actual people.

It was the glint in her eye when she talked about the "efficiency" of launching the assault in the middle of the uprising, massacring the guards when they were at their weakest.

It was the ring of certainty in her voice when she finished delivering her pitch: as if she'd already tried a strategy like this before, and personally knew that it would be effective.

In lessons of history, etiquette, economics or anything else not applicable to war Tanya was a model pupil: diligent, hardworking and always successful.

To be fair she was all of those things during lessons related to warfare too, but it was at those times that she seemed to really come alive in the worst sense of the word: grinning like a lion before cornered prey, and spouting out cruel diatribe about the other nations or advising ruthless, merciless strategies to attain victory.

Ty Lee was not at all surprised when she found out that Tanya was in regular contact with a navy lieutenant who'd all but guaranteed her a position in his command.

For all that Tanya liked to claim that she thought war was a senseless waste of resources, none of her classmates believed her, even though they were too afraid to say it to her face. Tanya was a natural born soldier. A natural born killer.

Yes, Ty Lee loved her friends. But when she closed her eyes and dreamed of running away to join the circus, she never envisioned her friends coming with her.

...

Peace and relaxation. Was there anything more beautiful?

Tanya had been surprised to receive an invitation to study at the Royal Fire Academy for Girls. It was the top school in the nation, exclusively for the children of nobility, and not a place she would have had any chance of getting into were it not for the scholarship from the royal family.

It was a rare opportunity that suited her goals perfectly, for the academy worked in partnership with the army to offer officer training to its students. Graduating would allow her to enter the navy at the rank of junior lieutenant, immediately giving her some level of authority and skipping the positions that were likely to put her directly in harm's way.

It was only two ranks away from a captain, and four ranks away from her ultimate goal of becoming an admiral.

The reason for such a stroke of good fortune revealed itself on her first day, when Azula had approached her at the first opportunity and introduced Tanya to her friends. It would seem that Tanya really hadn't imagined that spark of friendship between them during her match. Poor Ozai.

No doubt he'd patiently endured Azula's pestering for as long as he could before finally giving in to her demands, and pulled a few strings to have a place offered to Tanya. An act of such soft parenting would no doubt have the more traditional nobility tutting with disapproval.

Being friends with royalty certainly had its advantages though, and not just at opening new doors for her career. Tanya had been expecting that, in a school full of noble children, a commoner girl like her would be a ripe target for bullying.

Instead most of the other students parted like the red sea wherever she walked, and treated her with unfaltering politeness, some even shaking at the knees whenever she stepped too close. Being best friends with royalty seemed to make her untouchable.

Tanya aced all of her lessons, scoring perfect marks on every test or challenge they presented to her.

The honour of being top student used to be Azula's alone, but when Tanya arrived Azula had started studying harder than ever to match her, and once again Tanya felt pleased at the spark of friendly competition they shared. Yet if she was being honest, Tanya was a little bored by most of her lessons.

Subjects like history and etiquette were interesting, but the simple fact was that Tanya had already been to school before, and in time periods that had been considerably more advanced than this one. She knew of concepts that her teachers couldn't even dream of, and having to sit through lessons that she already knew quickly became tedious.

It was selfish and entirely ungrateful to dismiss her peaceful education as boring when soldiers fighting on the battlefield would have given a limb to be where she was, but such was the curse of perspective. In a few years time, when she was forced into the war, she'd look back on these boring lessons with a fond smile.

More interesting was the time that Tanya got to spend with Azula and her other two friends, Ty Lee and Mai.

Both were kind and friendly girls, and were always so eager to support Azula in whatever she said or did. That was true friendship right there. Sometimes Zuko would join in too, but most of the time he would avoid them whenever Tanya was around.

Zuko acted very awkward in Tanya's presence: stuttering over his words, and looking away whenever she made eye contact. It wasn't long before Tanya came to an uncomfortable realisation about why this was.

Zuko had a crush on her. It was the only condition that matched all the symptoms he was displaying. Her inspiring words back at the tournament must have done too good a job at lifting his spirits, and now his feelings for her were leaving him confused whenever she was around. It was a disaster in so many ways.

For one thing, although she now wore the body of a young girl, at heart Tanya was a middle-aged man. Having someone so young crushing on him, however unrequited, was an uncomfortable experience.

For a second thing Mai seemed to have a bit of a crush on Zuko herself if she wasn't mistaken, and Tanya had no intention of getting involved in some kind of period drama love triangle rom-com.

And for a third thing Zuko just wasn't her type. Unfortunately Tanya didn't know how to go about letting him down gently without breaking his little heart, and so did her best to act with respectful, albeit a little cold, formality when talking with him to avoid getting his hopes up.

There were some days when Azula invited her over to play privately, and the two of them usually spent their time sparring and practising firebending together.

Considering that she was Azula's only firebender friend, not to mention the only one who could beat her, Tanya didn't mind these bouts at all. She even let Azula beat her every now and again, just to make sure she didn't get disheartened.

Coincidentally on these days Prince Ozai would sometimes make an appearance, and had even invited her to stay for dinner a couple of times.

Tanya liked Ozai. He was a firm, commanding man who put a staggering amount of effort into his work, but always found time for his daughter's education.

Unlike his warmongering brother, General Iroh, Ozai preferred to dedicate his time to the arts of politics and statecraft: a far more worthy profession in Tanya's opinion.

At the same time though it was clear that he wasn't afraid to wage war or even step into combat himself when the situation demanded it, and firmly believed in the Fire Nation's aim of bringing order and prosperity to a soon-to-be unified world.

During their meals Prince Ozai would quiz them about the state of the war, the history of the Fire Nation and a range of other patriotic subjects, as well as offer his own logical and well-reasoned opinions on strategy, philosophy and economics that Tanya often found herself agreeing with.

His wording could be a little extreme at times, but the core of his beliefs was that rewards should only be given to those with the dedication, talent or power to earn them. A true capitalist.