Chapter 37.4- And so the Dragons Danced

When he had begged for help, for scraps of affection or failing that, even the barest recognition of his existence, he had received nothing but scorn. His father had wanted a firebender. His mother was chosen purely for her bending potential. Two powerful firebenders from two powerful firebending families, and they had given birth to a non-bender as their first son of all things. It would have been humorous if it hadn’t meant a childhood of abuse.

It never got physical- not with the adults of course- but they had been more than willing to turn a blind eye when his cousins made him the butt of the ‘joke’ over and over again. The abuse half toughened him. He’d learned to fight from those days. Eventually, he became so good that even his bender cousins could not touch him. When physical means of showing their dominance failed to be an option, they moved to words. They tried to break his spirit by seeing how much pain they could force him into with their insults. That had hurt for a time and then he had learned to ignore those words. After that had come the isolation. He was shunned by one and all for years and expected much the same when he got into the Academy. Only for Natsu of the Wu family, a prodigy so famous that even Toji had heard of him, to look at him like he was everyone else. To look at him like he was human.

Natsu was more than family to him. That was why he did not mind taking on burdens like this to help him when it was clear he needed it. The body that had once been Amara still had twitching fingers, but he was sure the water bender was dead. He was no stranger to death- to killing. Neither was Natsu, but the man could make nonsensical decisions at times. Letting Amara live was one of them. He knew that Natsu himself knew he was making a mistake but he saw the usefulness of a waterbender and weighed it against the potential threat she held as a proven traitor and found that her usefulness came out victorious.

Toji would have supported the decision had it related to anything else, but there was a crucial part of the calculation that Natsu had gotten wrong. His life was not worth less than the war effort. Natsu Wu’s life was worth everything and more. That was why he could not let the betrayal stand. She had put Natsu’s life in danger. She had almost cost him everything. There was no chance he would be taking that lightly.

He had given Natsu the chance to get his own revenge, but when his friend showed mercy, he had known that he would have to move to deal with things on his own. All he’d needed to do was find the opportunity to move against her without garnering suspicion. Done with looking at his kill, he got to work, moving the dead bodies of the Earth Kingdom guards that had ambushed them into position to tell a story. Natsu would never investigate- it was not his nature. He trusted Toji wholly just as Toji trusted him wholly. It was how things were meant to be.

He took a step back when he felt he was done. It told a tale of a surprise attack which was what he would tell Natsu. Amara had been stabbed from behind before either of them had even known what was going on, and he’d killed them for their audacity.