Fury

After Xiao left the Beifong family, and exited Gaoling, he planned his next course of action.

"The Northern Water Tribe is… well North. However between me and the Northern Sea there is nothing but the rocky terrain of the Earth Kingdom. I'd say that the best course of action is therefore to travel through Ba Sing Se, before then hitching a ride with a merchant train heading north and eventually taking a ship to the Water Tribe…"

He muttered to himself as he traced a line with his finger along various paths and rivers on the map until it landed on the section of land at the top.

He smiled to himself and pocketed the map, starting to stroll down the path leisurely.

—A Week Later—

Xiao stopped and looked at the smoke in the distance. At first he assumed it was just a small forest fire or maybe an unmarked town, however as he got closer he felt the heat of the wild flames and saw them clawing towards the sky.

Xiao stopped and held his head, suppressing the memories as he heard screams of women and children. He looked down and saw blood flowing from his hands.

Tears hit the earth as Xiao cried silently for a moment, curled in a ball in the middle of the road. He took out his water skin and poured it all over his face and hands, cleaning them fervently by scrubbing.

When he looked again, there was no more blood and he once again was on the quiet path.

He sighed and got up, starting to sprint towards the Fire.

When he got there, Xiao saw a squad of fire bending soldiers setting a village and the surrounding forest ablaze with their fire bending.

Rage boiled within Xiao as he stared at the fire benders. He looked over and saw a man dressed in the armor of an Elite soldier standing there, directing the others.

One man dragged out a woman and her daughter. Xiao watched as the man punched the woman, the daughter screamed. He went to punch the woman again, but Xiao would have none of it. He saw the bruises and tears along the woman's body. She had been raped.

"Enough." He said, catching the man's hand before he could strike the woman in front of her child.

"Who are you?! Fuck off!" The man yelled angrily, trying to get out of Xiao's grip.

However, he couldn't. He tried to pull his hand free once more but it didn't budge he started screaming as Xiao's hand started to heat up.

"I SAID ENOUGH!" Xiao screamed at the top of his lungs. The other fire benders stopped and looked over.

Xiao whipped his arm around, dragging the man through the air and throwing the man into a nearby tree.

An audible snap was heard as the man's spine broke. He screamed, gurgling slightly as one of his lungs was punctured by a fragment of bone.

Xiao pointed at the man. "If you don't stop I will cripple every single one of you. Just like him." He said coldly.

The men backed up and the elite soldier stepped forward.

"Who are you to order us around? This is Fire Nation territory!" The man said, trying to sound confident but failing miserably.

Xiao had just thrown a grown man like he was a sack of potatoes after all.

Xiao scoffed. "Shut up you fucking pig. Men like you who allow their subordinates to burn, kill, and rape innocents don't deserve to even speak to me." He said, his voice dripping with malice.

This scene was bringing up memories he would rather forget, so Xiao wasn't in a very caring mood.

The man stepped back nervously.

Xiao turned around and walked into the village. With every step the flames receded slowly, burning down until they became embers and eventually vanished. "He's a fire bender!" One of the soldiers said, surprised.

Xiao saw a boy crying over a dead man who was crushed by a fallen piece of roof.

Xiao walked over and felt the man's pulse. He shook his head. He put his arm around the boy. "He's dead. I'm sorry." He said, regretful that he hadn't gotten here sooner.

The boy cried even louder. Xiao grimaced and looked around.

Elderly, children, parents and friends, loved ones. He saw the corpses and the ones they left behind as they mourned for them, crying loudly.

Xiao slowly walked back to the Fire Nation squad. "Why did you do this?" He hissed, his voice filled with a venom that seems to poison the very air around him.

"They didn't pay their taxes sir. Therefore they had to be punish-" Xiao grabbed the man's face. His hand glowed as he coated it with flame armor. The man's head exploded.

"YOU FUCKING KILLED THESE PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE MONEY?!" Xiao screamed, his eyes red with rage.

The men took a step back. "They knew the punishment of not paying! They did this to themselves!" One yelled, panicked.

"Please! We are only following orders! Don't hurt us!" Another pleaded.

Xiao laughed. "You don't deserve pity." He said coldly as he grabbed the two who had spoken's faces and blew them up as well.

The final man backed up, he was the elite soldier. His helmet fell off and Xiao could see tears in his eyes. "Please! I have a family at home!" He pleaded, sobbing at Xiao's feet.

"Xiao grabbed the man by his hair and dragged him through the village as he continued to cry. He forced the man's head up and pointed at the boy crying over the body of his father. "You have a family, you said? That boy did as well. Now they're all dead." He said.

He pointed at two burned corpses. "That was an elderly couple, imagine that happening to your parents." He said, pointing at them. The man kept muttering gibberish as he stared at what Xiao showed him.

He pointed to the woman and her daughter, who were clinging to each other and crying.

"That woman there was raped by one of your friends. In front of her daughter no less. AND YOU HAVE THE GALL TO TALK ABOUT FAMILY?!" Xiao screamed in the man's face.

"I'm sorry…" the man squeaked pitifully.

Xiao scoffed. "Sorry won't cut it you bastard." He muttered as he went to chop off the man's head with his katana.

However, Xiao felt a tug on his kimono. "Mister. Can you help my dad?" A boy asked.

At first Xiao thought it was the same one as before, but he looked over and that boy was still there, crying over his dead father. Xiao dropped the broken crying man on the ground and spat at him. "You're lucky. Swine." He said turning to the boy and smiling warmly.

"Maybe. I'll see what I can do." He said to the boy. The boy smiled through his tear-filled eyes and led Xiao by the hand towards a house at the back of the village.

{A/N}

Xiao finds this village and it brings back bad memories.

That is why he is more violent than normal.

Hope you enjoyed.