Chapter 46

That brat deserved everything coming to her and more! What hubris she had, to think that after everything she'd done, all the pain she'd caused, she could so casually show her face before them! It was almost like she was- ... she was ...

… provoking us?

...

The errant thought cut through the red mist that'd clouded Pakku's vision like a butcher's knife, stopping him dead in his tracks even as the unstoppable tide of warriors at his back parted around him.

Why would she attack on the night of a full moon? Why would she so stubbornly stick to a defensive tactic even as her soldiers bled out in front of her? Why would she present herself like bait right at the moment her army was at its weakest? The only way it made sense was if she'd wanted them to attack her! If she'd wanted them to abandon their own walls for a decisive charge!

The smell of decay wafted into Pakku's nose, setting off alarm bells within his mind. He'd become familiar with the scent of rotting corpses, an unfortunate cost to a youth spent fighting on the battlefield, yet now that he stopped to think about it he'd never smelt it so keenly on the first day of a battle.

The masked body of a fallen Fire Nation soldier lay lifelessly at his feet, and in a moment of introspection Pakku knelt down and carefully removed its helmet.

The face that stared back at him was pale and sallow, its skin gaunt and clinging tightly to the bone. Sunken eyes stared in an empty daze up at the sky. Yet what caught Pakku's attention was the blow that had taken this poor soul's life: a large, bloody gash across the neck.

A gash that was flecked with shards of rock.

"This man didn't die today." Pakku whispered to himself, the revelation dawning in his mind as fragments of Tanya's confusing puzzle started coming together into one clear picture. This soldier must have died weeks ago, fighting against earth benders somewhere in the contested regions of the Earth Kingdom.

The elderly waterbender looked out across the courtyard littered with dead Fire Nation soldiers that the warriors of his tribe stepped over without a second glance. What if all these fallen soldiers were the same? What if Tanya had packed the cargo holds of her ships full to burst with casualties stolen from battlefields across the Earth Kingdom, only to place them outsider Agna Qel'a as a decoy?

If that was the case, then where was her real army?

"Stop! It's a trap!" He cried desperately, but his voice was drowned out amidst the frenzied howls of his moonlight-drunk kinsmen. They were so assured of their invincibility beneath the night sky that all care for caution and strategy had completely departed them.

They were like a pack of wolves, howling to the silver moon as they prepared to sink their fangs into their enemies.

Yet the howling cut off abruptly, and their berserk charge ground to a sudden halt as the silver rays of the moon bled into a deep, bloody red.

...

She's found herself a master.

Zuko had approximately half a second for that thought to process before a torrent of water slapped him directly in the face, throwing him back as if a komodo rhino had run straight into him. Who knew that water could pack such a wallop?

The fight had been going so well at the beginning. He'd been fast and fierce, a relentless torrent of flames that had forced the water peasant onto the defensive.

Yet the lower the sun dipped the weaker he became, whereas the peasant's strength grew with the rising moon. Slowly but inevitably her defences became more assured, and the counter attacks she was throwing came in faster and more regularly, until Zuko realised he was the one on the defensive.

The longer this went on, the smaller his chance of victory would become. And he only had a few seconds left before the window of opportunity for his part of the plan closed. He had to finish this, and fast!

Two waves writhed along the ground towards him, and Zuko waited until they had almost reached him before pushing himself up and to the side with both arms and legs, vaulting himself to the side and evading them by a hair's breadth.

He snapped out a kick, unleashing a quick bolt of fire that forced Katara to reshape her follow-up attack into a shield to guard against. With the moment's breathing room he had Zuko squared his feet and deepened his stance, punching forward to unleash an unending stream of flames.

More water flowed to Katara to maintain her shield, and a serpentine hiss filled the air as fire met water. Zuko settled deeper into his stance, redoubling the strength of his flames in an effort to power through Katara's barrier. But there was no overpowering her under a full moon. It would be foolish to waste any more energy trying.

As the torrent of fire ceased Katara's form shifted, preparing to turn her barrier into a sweeping wave that would knock Zuko back to the ground. It was thrilling to finally be able to put her training to good use.

In the past Zuko had been a fearsome threat: an unstable firebender that she had no choice to run from if she didn't want to get burned. But now she could fight back! Now she could finally repay all the fear he'd caused her and her brother! Her wave lashed out, whipping through the cloud of steam kicked up from Zuko's previous attack.

Yet there was no satisfying crack of water slapping flesh. The wave passed through empty air.

"Wha-" Katara had no chance to finish her sentence as a figure burst out of the steam to her left. Zuko dropped low and slid-tackled her, swiping her feet out from under her before she could change stances again. Katara hit the floor hard, her head hitting the ground with a loud thud, while Zuko executed the same spin he'd used in his duel against Zhao to quickly flip back onto his feet.

The smack to the head must have concussed Katara, who seemed to be fighting to stay awake. It was almost impressive how she refused to succumb to the urge while her friend was in danger. Dismissing her, Zuko turned away and strode towards the pool.

A weak slosh of water splashed his back.

"I won't… let you… take Aang!" Katara gasped, hunched over and with wobbling knees. She'd pushed herself to her feet through sheer force of will?

Zuko ignored her and resumed his walk to the pool. The Avatar sat silent and unmoving by the poolside, taunting him with how easy he'd be to capture in this state. All he had to do was reach out his hand and grab him…

...

"Why is it that you, Zhao and I have been unable to capture The Avatar?"

Zuko scowled: a reflex action by now whenever someone brought up his failures. "He keeps getting lucky."

"Wrong!" Tanya replied, pacing back and forth around the command tent. "You blame luck because the truth embarasses you. The Avatar has not evaded capture for this long on luck alone. Nor is it because he has relied on his Avatar powers, barring a few exceptional cases. No, it is because he is more skilled than us."

"What!" Zuko shouted, shooting to his feet with a scornful glare. "That's ridiculous! I have trained for years to defeat the Avatar-…"

"Exactly!" Tanya cut him off, stepping forward into his comfort zone suddenly enough to make Zuko flinch back. "You have been training to defeat the Avatar! Everyone expected that, once the Avatar returned, the only way to capture him would be through some epic duel. That he would want to fight us, as his predecessors have." She shook her head.

"But that was a miscalculation. We overlooked that this Avatar was raised as an Air Nomad: a strictly pacifist culture. His entire style of bending is designed not for fighting, but for escaping. And he's probably been trained in that style even since he could walk.

You, me, Zhao and every other firebender has been trained how to fight our enemies: but he's not fighting us, he's just been blowing us back long enough to run away! It's like telling a professional wrestler to try and catch a professional sprinter! We can't catch him because he refuses to let himself be drawn into a proper fight! Every confrontation with him turns into a glorified game of tag, and he's specialised in that more than we are."

Zuko looked at her with bewilderment. "Then you're saying it's impossible to ever catch him?"

"Not impossible, no. We just have to stop playing his games, and start playing ours." Tanya stepped back, a cattish smile growing on her lips.

"You know as much as you beat yourself up for not catching The Avatar, you forget that you have actually succeeded once already, albeit not for long. Remember what you told me about your first encounter with him at the South Pole?"

Zuko nodded. "Yes. I had him captive on my ship."

"And how did you manage that? By fighting him?"

"No. He surrendered to me willingly in order to spare a village."

"Precisely!" Tanya hissed, eyes alighting wickedly. "You succeeded back then because you didn't try to chase him down; you forced him to come to you. If your ship had been better equipped to contain a rampaging Avatar we would have won by now! And as it so happens I have a whole fleet at my disposal, and more than enough resources to keep an Avatar locked up for good this time."

Zuko looked down at the map of Agne Qel'a with a frown. "But that only worked last time because I threatened the village. You're already planning to besiege the North Pole anyway. What could we use as bait?"

"We just need something that he places above his own wellbeing. Something he feels is worth sacrificing his own freedom for."

"His companions? I've tried that before."

Tanya chuckled. "Shrewd thinking, but no. I'm talking about something bigger than personal attachment. Something grand. Something that appeals to his unshakable duty as The Avatar…"

...

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