Chapter 19- And so the Dragons Danced (Complete but unedited)

XXXXXX- TWO MONTHS BEFORE THE ATTACK ON OMASHU

He resisted the urge to curse out loud as he whipped his fingers out and nothing happened. He’d been training at it for almost a month now, and even after writing multiple letters to Maki and getting her take on things, he was still yet to perform even the smallest bit of combustion bending. Maki had said it was impossible. His ancestor insisted that he’d managed it. His ancestor’s explanation was also almost entirely useless, but even knowing that it was possible should have been enough for him to manage something. Just the slightest bit of something.

That was the only part of his training that was delayed, as the rest of it progressed at the expected speeds. His fire came to him quicker than ever, and it was hotter too. The training exercise he’d theorised was having great effects after only a month. As he always did after making fifty failed attempts to blow up a boulder with nothing but his mind, he turned to the same boulder and took a deep breath before stretching both his hands out and bathing it in flames. The goal here was to improve his endurance and firepower. The theory was the fire bending would work a little bit like a muscle, or even like a magical core.

The more he firebended, the better he got at it. The more times he calle don his inner flame, the more readily it came to his aid and answered his desires. But even with the improvements, he was unsure it would be enough to take on the King of Omashu, the strongest earth bender of them all.

XXXXXX- SIX WEEKS BEFORE THE ATTACK ON OMASHU

“Left, Right, Left, Right” He heard Toji’s voice before he saw him. His friend had recently earned a promotion to the rank of Captain and had now taken the duty of training the recruits in the division’s tactics upon himself. Considering they were gearing up for a full scale assualt on Omashu, they’d been receiving a steady influx od soldiers, redeployed from other divisions within the Army. Some of the smarter ones among them even found it easy to figure out that something massive was in the works. Those were the ones who were most unenthusiastic about their addition. Major General Sung’s division was well known for being a meat grinder that left men dead, maimed or worse. It was a known fact within the army that this was where the action was.

That also made it the place people wanted to go to the least. Even the most battle hungry of firebenders would blanche at the amount of combat Natsu had seen in his few months with the army. The closer they got to their target, the more frequent skirmishes with the earth kingdom army became. It was almost like there’d been some form of alliance between Omashu and the rest of the Kingdom. That was a possibility placed in the worst case scenario category.

XXXXXX- COLONEL SHINSUKE

“So the plan will remain simple. We launch a two pronged attack. The first will be smuggling Natsu here to make an attempt at assassinating the Old King. When that predictably fails, they will fight, and we will take advantage of the distraction to begin our attack on the city. We strike hard and fast to give the army as little time as possible to adapt to our approach or our tactics.” Sung spoke the plan they’d been concocting for months on end now as they stood around the war table for the planning council.

“I still have some reservations” the boy on whom they intended to hinge. Most of the plan on, spoke up, but he was quickly shot down.

“I said we’ll get you in. Trust me on that.” Sung replied. Shinsuke knew that this had been a matter of conflict for the both of them pretty much since the planning as a whole began. Sung assured them that he had the means to get the boy in for the mission and the boy wanted something more concrete than that.

Shinsuke, on the sidelines, could see where they were both coming from. On one hand, he could understand Sung’s desire to maintain operational secuirity and discretion by keeping things on a need-to-know basis. On the other hand, if he was the one being sent in to distract one of the most powerful benders of all time, then he’d definitely want to know every single step of the plan. Scratch that, he wouldn’t want to know. If he were assigned with the task of distracting King Bumi the Mad, then he’d have himself sent home post-haste. He knew the boy’s grandfather had the resources for something like that, so it was clear that the acclaim he’d gotten from killing the mountain had gotten to his head.

Yes, Shinsuke had seen the boy train. He knew that the boy could probably wipe the floor with him on any day of the week with two hands behind his back. But that wasn’t the important part. The Old King got that name for a reason. He survived the war from the very beginning. A hundred years of war, and the man remained spry with no permanent injuries. When the war had been at its most bloody, in the first two decades, Bumi had been on the front lines. Bumi had fought with the best of the best that the fire nation had had to offer back then, and killed them all.

He ascended to the throne of Omashu with a stairway of bones and bodies. Fighting someone like that, even now when they were for all accounts, old and senile, was a tall ask for anyone with an ounce of common sense. But he guessed that was why Sung had chosen his victim well.

“Apart from that, the position of the army needs some clarification” Another said, drawing Shinsuke from his thoughts with a sharp jolt.

“Yes. What I have in mind is a straightforward dual charge. Using the explosives from the Lab, we can have a good shot of breaking through the city’s walls in one fell swoop. We make our openings here and here” He pointed down at two ends of the wall. From the east and the west. He also noted that they were the ends furthest away from the palace where all the chaos was going to be. All things considered, it was a good plan. And he decided to say as much.

“It’s a good plan.” He said. But what he didn’t say was that he fully expected it to fail. All this was predicated on a teenager managing to hold off the strongest earth bender in the last two centuries. The second that Bumi finished with Natsu and came for the rest of the army, then they’d basically be over and done with. He had expertise in using powerful earth bending to destabilise and shatter whole armies. He’d fought the fire nation at its strongest in terms of manpower. What they had now were a mere fraction of the numbers that had constituted the first assault on Omashu. And those numbers had been turned away with their tails between their legs by a pissed off old king.

Perhaps if the Fire Lord himself, or even General Ozai were here to lend their greater firepower, then they’d have more of a chance, but as things presently stood, they’d be toast by the end of it.

“In the absence of any further questions, that will all be all for tonight. Rest well, men. Rise with Agni tomorrow, and by the time He sets, Omashu will be ours. For Honour. For Glory. For the Fire Nation!” The ground shook as every one within the tent took up the old battlecry. The Major General might have been a quiet man, but he was a clever one who knew how to get the soldiers raring to go.

Their camp had marched across the months, straight through the mountains, to where they now stood. They were close enough to the city that they could march the remaining distance in a few hours, but still far enough that the Omashu residents would not deem them enough of a threat for them to deal with. Normally, the usual tactics would have involved luring the army to the field and crushing them there, but Sung had been well aware that things would have to change. They were going to risk a pitched battle in the streets simply because it was better than the alternatives. If Bumi ended up unleashed, he wouldn’t be able to just casually annihilate their entire army in one go. They’d also be bringing the civilians into danger so they’d ensure that the soldiers would have mixed priorities. They’d sacrifice a lot by letting them have the home field advantage of literally fighting in their home but Sung was certain that the psychological disadvantage of having the wolves in your house would be enough to win them the day.

XXXXXX- NATSU

“It’s time” he heard a voice say from outside his tent and he wasted no time in getting to his feet and putting on the last of his outfit. He hadn’t been able to get much sleep in the first place. He felt just like he’d felt on the night before his olympic debut. Just like back then, this was life or death. 
He had no misapprehensions that Bumi was going to let him live if he got the better of him. This wasn’t a kids show. It was just the same way that he knew that if he got the chance, he’d put the old man down without hesitation. Avatar’s best friend be damned. If Bumi got caught slacking, he’d die. Natsu was aware that same applied to him. Bumi was one of the most dangerous benders in the world. Natsu was still an unknown. But this would be his chance to put his name on the map. He knew this victory would be huge for him. He knew he’d get a promotion if he survived this. Just the same way that he knew that Sung was also likely to get a promotion if this harebrained scheme manages to yield any results.

But that was for the future. A future he was not sure would come. He left the tent and stared out at the night sky. He wondered what Zhufu could see now. Were they both looking at the same stars? Unlikely. He knew that he didn’t have to do this. Estranged or not, he was still his Grandfather’s heir. A letter or two would see him posted to a different section of the army in days. But he couldn’t deny the excitement. He hadn’t been joking when he compared this to his olympic debut. This smacked with a similar feeling of opportunity.

“I hope you’re ready” Sung said as he saw him, peering down at his outfit with an assessing eye. He’d ditched the standard fire nation uniform in favour of a completely black but breathable suit. It was made of a cashmere-like material that assured light weight and some minimal protection from the elements. He’d decided that flexibility would be more important than armour for today’s mission.

“Best I can be” he said in return.

“Good enough. Let’s go kill a King” He said in reply. ‘Let’s’ he’d said like he was going to have any part in this suite mission. I followed the shorter man as we walked off to the edge of the camp. It was still a surprise that the Omashu soldiers hadn’t noticed yes yet, but that would change in time. Just like I was going to be sent after the King in the cover of darkness, the army was going to match for the city in the same time. The only difference was that I was going to leave earlier than they did. Much earlier. The sun had just set and the night was just beginning.

We came across a man at the end of the camp. With the brown skin native to the earth kingdom and a grey goatee, he was distinctive, to say the least. He also had a giant cart of cabbages next to him. My brain started to short circuit as I ran through the implications of what I was seeing.

“Natsu, meet Pau Gan-Lan the Cabbage Merchant” He said. My brain was still racing through the consequences, so all I could offer was an absent nod of my head.

“He will get you into Omashu, under the guise of one of his farm hands. Here is your disguise” He said, passing me an outfit that I quickly put her my mission suit.

“Off you go now” Sung said, watching us walk away.

I had so many questions about what was going on. First of all, how could the cabbage merchant be a fire nation spy? I mean, it explained a bit. Everyone had assumed that the reason the cabbage guy kept showing up where Aang went was because the writers wanted him to have comic relief, but what if the reason he seemingly followed the Avatar around was because he was actually following the Avatar around. Keeping tabs on the Gaang on behalf of the fire nation was something else. It also explained how he always happened to have a new cart of cabbages. With the amount of times his cabbages got destroyed by the Gaang in their misadventures, one would expect him to have gone out of business pretty quickly. Replacing that much produce so quickly and consistently was well beyond most merchants, I knew. 
“I’ll do my part and you’ll do yours, Kid. You pretend to be my assistant and carry the cabbages in. When we’re in the city, I will guide us towards the palace and once we get close enough, I expect you to slip off and never be seen again. If any of this gets traced back to me, you won’t like yourself” He said with menace in his voice.

I merely smiled widely at him, reaching up to adjust the green beret on my head, a carbon copy of his. “I understand” I said after he kept giving me an expectant look before I moved forwards and took over the cart. If I was going to pretend to be his assistant, then I had to make sure I sold it as much as possible.

“Here you go.” He said, passing me three different strips of what looked to be hair. I took it, and confirmed that it was indeed hair. Black, coarse hair.

“Cover up that pale skin of yours. Anyone can look at you and see that you’re fire nation from a mile away” He grunted at me. His voice had an irritable quality to it. Like he was used to being annoyed and expected to be. It was like he went through the effort of being pre-annoyed before anyone actually did anything.

“Aye Captain.” I snarked, beginning to apply the disguise while strongly hoping and praying that the hair had not come from somewhere undesirable.

XXXXXX

“Name and Business” The Gate Guard asked as we approached, barely even looking up from the list in front of him. He was obviously bored. I would be, if I were in his place.

“Pau Gan-Lan, the Cabbage Merchant, with my nephew, Lou Gan-Lan. Here to restock the store so we can get right on selling cabbages in the morning” The merchant replied quickly, but not too quickly. I made a conscious effort to prevent any of the nervousness I felt from showing on my face as the soldier finally looked up to give us a long stare.

“I didn’t know you had a nephew” The guard said in turn, still fixing us with a gaze.

“Yes. My sister’s gotten tired of the boy lazing about the house so she sent him with me so he could get a feel for the family business.” The cabbage merchant was smooth but the guard kept staring at us. I looked around, noting where all the guards were. I was sure I would be able to escape from them if we got found out, but that would put months of planning to waste.

“The youth of these days” The guard said, shaking his head before slamming a foot down. There was an audible grinding sound as the wall split to make an entrance for us to pass through.

“Make sure to be good to your nephew, boy” The guard said as we passed him by. I nodded, not trusting my voice not to give me away.

“Good. We’re in. Keep your head down and follow my lead" The merchant ordered.

XXXXX

When we got to the palace it was only a matter of him leaving me alone for a few seconds for me to take off the disguise as I passed right in through the service entrance he pointed out. Once I was inside, it was easy. It was almost child’s play to walk into and across the palace once I got in. Considering that it was night time, maybe around 9 or 10 pm by my estimation, it was reasonable that there wouldn’t be that many people hanging about.

An empty palace meant that there was no reason for Natsu to waste any time in his approach. He had to be quick, and deadly. He knew that in the next two hours, the city would com under attack from his compatriots in the fire nation army. He had to be ready to kill Bumi once that happened. He immediately disregarded his original plan of sneaking into the King’s bedroom and ending his life while he slept. Natsu was many things, but a murderer was not one of them. There is no honour in killing a man while he sleeps, he thought to himself.

Even what he was doing now was dubious enough on its own, but he had to compromise between common sense and his principles. He was working hard, moving around the castle to set as many traps as possible. He hadn’t thought about it, but when he left the cabbage merchant, the man had simply passed him a bag. Natsu’s best guess was that it was from Sung. The contents were entirely standard issue military equipment, after all. It was a basic trap making kit taking to the extreme. And Natsu did indeed take it rot the extreme.

He prowled the dark stone halls like a predator. His prey slept in the rooms above, oblivious to his machinations. He worked to ensure every square inch of the castle was booby trapped to his taste. He worked to make sure that when he and the King finally fought, he’d be the one with the home field advantage.

Hours passed, and he’d exhausted his supply a scarce few minutes ago as he waited to send the signal to attack. Sung had assured him that the army would always be two hours behind.

“Hey there” he heard from behind him.

The blast of fire flew from his fist before he even saw who had spoken as he whirled around with the speed of man possessed with an ungodly panic. The fire hit nothing but the wall.

“Testy, testy. Aren’t yo-“ The words stopped as he lashed out with an arc of fire from his feet. Once again, the flames met no target beyond the palace’s black stone.

“Little fire bender” This time, the voice came from the left, right at the edge of his vision. His flames found no one to feast upon ad he called them forth.

Now, he was beginning to understand just what the situation was. The next time he heard the voice, it came from behind him again. This time, he did not bother to attack and just turned to face his opponent. Hunched over in a slouch that Natsu’s Grandfather would have had me whipped for, stood the old king. Wearing nothing but a pair of green shorts that clashed terribly with the grey in his hair, the man looked like no vision of a great warrior. His muscles flexed as he lifted his hand to pick at his ears, exposing a ludicrous amount of underarm hair as an aside. Everything about the king seemed to represent the peak of earth bending, if taken to a different extreme than the boulder had been.

He was the very definition of lean muscle. Every part of his aged frame was racked with muscle. When he made minor movements, it was like I could hear his bones strain under the weight of all that muscle. His manner was uncouth and rough in the way one expected earthbenders to be.

“King Bumi. It’s an honour to meet you. I am Natsu of the Fire nation” I said in greeting. The fact that I was here to fight him didn’t mean that I had to be rude about it. I was raised in a manor by the best etiquette teachers in the fire nation. I wouldn’t bring shame to my breeding.

“You little brat. What a greeting. Nice one. I’ll play along. So what brings you here, Natsu of the Fire Nation?” He asked, talking more to himself than me until the last sentence where his eyes trained themselves on me like a hawk.

“I’m here to get your head, King Bumi. Please cooperate and don’t make this any harder than it needs to be?” He burst into laughter. Full blown laughter that took over his body. I saw the opportunity so I took it. I lashed out with my hands, sending a lance of fire screaming right at him.

The fire screamed, but my instincts screamed louder as I jumped away from where I’d been standing. In that exact spot, was a single spike of stone, defiantly lifted towards the heavens at an angle. That spike would have punctured my chest with ease. Where Bumi had been, was nothing. He was back to the little disappearing act.

“Can we just fight each other man to man?” I asked, slightly exasperated and done with the tricks already.

“No. Fight me man to stone” Bumi’s voice came from the left but by the time I had turned, he’d gone underground again. Fuck this. 
I turned to the left, and went through the stances at my absolute top speed. When I felt the energies separate as they had under my control over a hundred times in the last few months, I lashed out with it. Tearing the sky asunder with a powerful bolt of lightning.

“Was there a point to that, Natsu the Thunderer?” Bumi asked, from right in front of me this time.

“So you’ve heard of me. Good." I replied, not answering the question. He’d find out for himself in a few minutes either way.

“I thought you’d be taller”

“You’re shorter than I am” I said sarcastically.

“I’m almost a hundred years older than you are, boy” He snarked back.

Whatever he was going to say next was overshadowed by the sounds of explosions going off as entire sections of the Great Wall surrounding Omashu began to fall down. The walls had been given the epithet great, but they shared little in common with the walls of Ba Sing Se. The fact that a single bender was able to bend the wall open on a daily basis was a sign that spoke to that. Unlike the great Kingdom, this was nothing but a mere city.

“So that was what the signal was for, ey? You people never learn” He said, turning around and showing me his back so he could jump away.

My attack was sent before I even made the choice. The bolt of fire was dodged with contemptuous ease as Bumi turned to me with none of the humour that had previously been on his face. Good. We were on the same page now.

The spike that was sent for my chest shattered as I lit my fist aflame and punched right at it. It was the consolation prize I had after months of trying to figure out combustion bending. I still could not do what my ancestor had been able to. But I could, at the very list, imbue a shit ton of concussive force in my fists, using fire bending. It necessitated a shift in how I approached combat, but it was nothing I was unable to do.

We looked at each other, face to face. Both of us could feel it now. Only one of us would leave here alive. He had to hurry to save his people. I had to stop him to save mine. My fingers twitched, unseen threads coming to life. There was a barely audible twang, and Natsu felt a twinge of disappointment run through his chest as the arrow failed to find its target. With almost languid movements, Bumi’s head moved out of the way in time for the crossbow bolt to sail past his head with no contact.

“Your traps are cute” The earth bending master said before he stomped down on the ground.

Everything around him shook as Natsu watched all his traps come undone. The ground rose to the Old King’s will in a way and manner far from what Natsu had ever seen before. The threads holding is traps snapped as they were pushed by stone and unsettled. Natsu thought to use the King’s evident distraction to get the better of him as he jumped in the air with a fist of flames held high, aiming right for the old man’s old bald head.

Bumi moved with speed that completely bellied his age as he dove under Natsu’s punch and sprang up with a punch of his own. The wall mirrored his motion as Natsu was forced to dive for his life lest his insides find themselves splattered across the floor. 
When he rolled up again, it was top meet the King standing still, watching him. “I see that you won’t let me leave without making a nuisance of yourself.” Bumi said with a smile on his face that Natsu was sure did not bode well for the next few minutes of his life.

A resolute look then replaced the King’s previously entirely amused appearance. “I hope you have said your goodbyes. I did not look forward to killing one so young today.” Those words acred like a sort of starting bell as both men dove at each other instantly. One aged and creaking with decades of experience, while the other was full to the brim with the boring passion of youth. It showed in how they moved. Natsu was quick and agile, while the old king was measured in his approach, but bold. Not a trace of hesitation could be seen in either of their movements.

They met with the younger attempting to smash the King’s head off his neck with a punch glowing red with power. The old king dodged out of the way with almost contemptuous ease before his own hand lashed out. As it moved, the ground rose with it, surrounding the limb in stone and multiplying his striking force. Not anticipating the change in speed, the younger man was caught off guard as a punch he could have previously tracked accelerated beyond his estimation. Years of training allowed him to dive backwards with the punch as it slammed right into his midsection.

That same training rang warnings in his head that forced him to dive out of his previous position instead of staying still, curled on himself in pain. Those instincts proved right as spikes of stone rose from the ground he’d let mere seconds after he’d left it. A boulder sent sailing for his head was smashed in smithereens as his red horn fist lashed forwards in a wide haymaker. The dust cloud from the destroyed stone was just what the Old King had ordered as he appeared out of nowhere. Like an Old God from the mist, he appeared. Cloaked from top to bottom in stone, he looked the part of an old God out for vengeance.

His young opponent attempted to lash out with another supercharged punch, but hit nothing but air and found said air knocked out of him as the old king’s retaliatory punch hit him dead centre. This time, the young man had been unable to bleed off the force with a controlled jump, and had to take the entire force of the punch as it was. He collapsed to his knees, spoilt upbringing not accustoming him to the pain that tore through his body. Hands clutching his ribs, the young man looked prepared to vomit, or to call it quits. The Old King, all out of mercy from the thought of his precious city under attack, grabbed a hold of the young man’s hair to pull his head up.

“You know, you remind me of another man I once fought. A pale copy, however. Prince Azulon had fire that I could feel even behind my stone. Your fire lacks the passion, the heat. Sure, it’s explosive, but that’s not what makes the element special. It saddens me that I shall be the one to snuff out a flame like yours.” The Old king said, still lifting his opponent by his hair.

He reared back and unleashed a powerful rock backed punch straight to his opponent’s head, sending him flying into the opposing wall. When he landed, the old king watched him for a few seconds. “So you managed to survive that, ey? You’re not in any state to cause any trouble to anyone so I’ll let you have some time to make peace with yourself before the spirits accept you.” Bumi said, laughing afterwards, stomping his right foot on the ground and converting the ground his opponent lay on to quicksand.

He walked off, sure in his victory.

XXXXXXX- COLONEL SHINSUKE

If there was one thing he’d learned in his years in the Fire Nation Military, it was that no plan survived first contact with the enemy. Especially when the enemy was made out of earth benders who were more stuboorn and unyielding than the stone they forced to bend to their will. He’d, for some foolish reason, expected this to be the exception. He knew that Major General Sung was a genius without equal. When it came down to it, his plans almost never went wrong. He was just so good at it that it was almost a given that things would unfold just how he intended them to.

And for the most right, the Major General had been spot on with his predictions. They’d set off an hour after the brat, marching in the cover of darkness and trusting the false sense of security on the part of the scouts and guards of the Kingdom of Omashu, from years without attack to hide their approach . It had worked. Major General Sung had been proven right as they’d made it all the way to the City’s walls with no one being any the wiser. Shinsuke supported that the Major General had taken other measures to ensure their success than he’d let on, but it was not his job to question.

The brat had sent the signal, and the attack had begun. From the beginning, things had gone smoothly. Whatever members of the city’s guard that sought to hinder them did so from an obvious Blackfoot. They’d been caught with their breeches at their knees, and Shinsuke relished in taking advantage of their weakness. Unable to organise into a committed defence, there was little they could do to prevent the Fire Nation Army from sweeping through the city. Of course, it was as they took their first major foothold, that everything went to the dogs.

Like a vengeful dark spirit of legend, Omashu’s king- for who else could it be- landed in their midst, clad in stone from head to toe. “Wasn’t Natsu supposed to be holding him back?” Shinsuke heard one of the men next to him say as the King began the butcher’s work.

The two men closest to the point where he’d landed were picked up by their heads. As they struggled to free themselves, the Earth bending master smashed both heads into each other, dropping the bleeding and broken bodies immediately after.

Shinsuke cursed his luck. This fool plan, trusting an idiot brat to kill one of the most dangerous benders on the planet, had been Sung’s idea. But now he was the one being forced to deal with the effects of it. A brave man, an infantryman, ran right at the King with his spear thrust forward. The metal failed to find purchase in the stone that clad the king. With speed that belied his over a century of age, the King snapped the spear and lunged for his attacker. The fist of his stone gauntlet shifted in form to become a blade as he stabbed the man through the head. Shinsuke silently thanked the man for his bravery and marked his face. He would see that his family got their due.

In an action that made Shinsuke’s heart swell with pride, the fire nation soldiers noticed the behemoth that had dispatched three of their own with contemptuous ease, and they did not hesitate. They turned right to him and they swarmed him with bodies. Shinsuke credited their bravery, but he would not be joining in that wild charge. He watched as man after man ran at the old king. Whether they did it in groups of two, three, four or six, they died all the same. The old man proved why generations of the fire nation had been raised to fear him. “Eat your vegetables or Bumi of Omashu will come for you” Shinsuke remembered being cautioned when he was growing up. Now, he was an adult, and he still felt just as afraid of the Spectre of death now as he had back then.

Slowly, but surely, the tide of men began to ebb. More and more men began to hesitate. Began to slow down, as they saw that no matter what they tried, their comrades were having no chance in making it through the King’s defences. It got so bad, that the last man to run at the king did so alone. And the punch that killed him echoed across their silent gathering. The sound of the man’s chest caving in as he wheezed out his last breaths would haunt Shinsuke until his dying day.

Shinsuke quaked in his boots as after what felt like an hour of slaughtering, the King turned to him. All around the King’s stone form lay bodies. Men that had been his friends, his partners, his subordinates. Men that he had trusted to have his back, and who had in turn trusted him to do the same for them. Now, they all lay dead. And the man who had done the killing was staring right at him.

A/N; I’ll end the chapter here. This isn’t edited yet. So consider it a placeholder. I’ll replace it with the spellchecked version eventually.