Junior Lieutenant Zhao

This wasn't right. It was bad enough that I'd gotten no reply yesterday and had been met by nobody when I was at Xinxing at the designated time, 3 hours before, and 3 hours after just to provide more than enough space for unexpected complications. Now, it'd been two days and I've heard nothing back from the merchants. I swear, if that student ended up having a bounty on him, or if he promised some grandiose ransom and they took it, there'd be consequences.

I'd made an attempt yesterday to requisition a squad to take to Misty Palms and see if I could knock some sense into them. The personnel officer had simply said that I had no authority to requisition a squad, only being a Junior Lieutenant. And even if I was of "notable rank" as he put it, I'd still need permission from the General.

'Notable rank.' Asshole.

So instead, I was stuck pacing around the ship, performing menial duties: taking inventory, preparing meals, assisting officers, delivering messages, all of that useless crap as I waited to finally have luck start favoring me for once. The days dragged by as I just ran through every image in my head of what had changed, why the deal had gone south, why they'd betrayed my trust, and the more I thought on it, the more I wanted them dead to the point that the reasoning they may have had no longer mattered to me.

The days dragged by, and news came in. Primarily news that I ended up delivering to the General himself. North of the Nip, we had 2 more convoys raided, a patrol ambushed, and a group of commuters travelling from Shibi to Xinxing robbed. South of the Nip, there's been more news of actions against our frontier outposts. Waterbenders from the sound of it, and not just petty raids like in the North. I delivered the second day's casualty numbers. 17 men killed, 36 injured, 5 MIA. 58 Casualties in a single day against an enemy we could barely defend ourselves against.

We'd be better off burning that entire swamp to the ground.

Shu had put in the order to deliver more troops to the South and go on the defensive, but he'd been on the fence about pulling out of the South entirely until we could find a workaround the waterbenders.

All the more reason to pull my weight and get my own mission in order. All the more reason to find the people who backstabbed me and get the answers I needed, and make them pay.

I was delivering another casualty report when I was stopped in the hallway by a soldier. I recognized him soon enough. One of Harzek's men. Great. Just what I need right now. "What is it, soldier?" I asked. Then I recognized him as Zaik. He saw that I recognized his face in that moment, and he even stuttered a bit before saying, "I just. I never got the chance to thank you before. For saving my life on that mountain. If there's anything I can do for you. Anything at all, just tell me. I owe you my life."

The sentiment amused me as nothing more than a young rookie thanking a veteran, so I took it as just that as face value, but the day went by, and nothing changed. I'd received no new orders from Shu, hell, I had my orders, to follow the lead, and had been failing, so I seethed, my anger building as more casualty reports came in. More dead men killed by waterbenders who they could barely hold their own against.

I thought back to what Zaik had said, all useless sentiment, but at this moment, it had its use. I found him around midday in the mess, seated amongst some of his other squad mates, and said, "As a matter of fact, there is," trusting him to know what I was referring to.

It wasn't long before we set out for Misty Palms, and it wasn't long before we got there. We couldn't commandeer a tank, but managed to get away with requisitioning an ostrich horse. They weren't made for the desert, but with any luck, we wouldn't be gone long.

We didn't any time taking the safer route keeping a wide berth from the forest. We were on a tight schedule, and I wasn't keen on wasting any more time than I already had. Luckily for me, my mission enabled me a degree of free reign. I required permission to access resources, but where I went was my own choice for the moment. This was my first time taking advantage of it, knowing my time spent out there would be better spent than relying messages and taking inventory aboard the Zodiac.

Zaik didn't ask many questions, which, as far as I was concerned, was a positive on his end. He had at first, merely asking where we were going and what we were doing, my answer to both being "Misty Palms" and "Getting answers", respectively.

The vagueness of my answers was enough of a preventative measure from getting him to inquire more. Good. I needed the extra muscle, however little it was. I didn't need somebody else asking questions into my ears. His last effort to spark conversation had been one final question, one different from the last, "Why did you save me? Back on the mountain?"

This time around, the silence that followed wasn't because of an equally vague answer, but rather, the lack of one. The truth was, I didn't know what the real answer was? Why did I do what I did? Why did I put myself in harm's way to save an inferior? Was I simply being selfless? No. I wasn't that stupid. Who was I hoping to appease? Zaik? Harzek? Some omniscient spirit watching? None of what I had done back there had made any sense. So why did I do it? I pushed the question aside, satisfying myself with the answer that I'd saved the Fire Nation a resource. I allowed myself to believe that for the moment, none to keen on pursuing the question any further.

It was hard to say I bore the kid any ill will. Hell, I bore none of them in my squad any hostility. Even Harzek. He was simply limited by his own shortsightedness. He was a pawn, like so many others, but that didn't earn him my hatred. Not even close. The Fire Nation needed people like Harzek, like Zaik, and maybe, maybe, maybe that's why I did what I did. No. The answer still didn't sit right. I shook it out of my head. This wasn't the time for this kind of thinking. Not even close.

We got there quickly enough. I knew what to look for. Knew who I was dealing with. Knew where they'd likely be hiding. Absent that day, it was an annoyance, an understandable one. Absent the next day, shirking the responsibility to meet with me and at the very least send a reply back. No, they'd neglected their duties. I was out of patience. They better all be dead, or they would be soon. I wasted no time scanning the faces around me. I ordered Zaik to stay with the horses. I was going into the tavern myself.

"Oh great," commented the tender. "More Fire Nation."

I paid him no mind. My eyes were instead drawn to the man with the idiotic hat at the rear of the bar, one leg in bandages rested on the table, very much still breathing.

The eyes of the tavern were drawn to me then as I wasted no time approaching his table, slamming down on it, asking, "You my contact?!"

"Who the hell are you?" His two guards turned to face me, hands tensing on their spears. They seemed nervous. Good. They should be.

"I'm the man you refused to meet in front of Xinxing. Where is my asset? Where is the prisoner?!"

"Your asset? The Fire Nation already came, and we made the exchange. We held our end of the bargain, now you hold up yours as well. We want our payment. 750 gold pieces as was negotiated."

I stepped back. This man really does have a deathwish. I brought my foot up into the air, slamming it down with an arc of fire on the table at which he was sitting, blasting it into flying splinters that flew across the room, giving me the space to step forward, grab him by the neck, and hold a dagger of red fire to his neck. "Don't play game with me! I know that no exchange was made. I'm your contact, and if you want to live, you'll tell me where the prisoner is!"

He was sweating. I couldn't be sure if it was from the fire, the fear of imminent death, or both. "We don't have him. I'm sorry."

"You don't have him now? Or you never did?"

He was whimpering. "We did, we did. And we made the exchange with men in Fire Nation uniforms. We gave the prisoner to him, we thought that everything was settled. It went perfectly smooth. He's probably back at your base and you just missed him."

I brought the fiery blade to his neck, singing a small portion of his neck, the smell of burning flesh filling the air as none of the bar's patrons sought to interfere, and some in fact were probably enjoying the show. "Your leg doesn't look like something that was so 'smooth'"

I kicked him in the knee, bending it at an angle it wasn't supposed to go in as he crumpled to his other leg on the ground, only held up by my hand on his neck as his two guards looked on in helpless terror. We squealed. "We didn't know they were Separatists at first. They're money was good, so we didn't ask any questions."

"You sold him to the Separatists?!"

"I'm sorry! We didn't know! Look, we can get him back. I can hire some mercenaries out of my own pocket, and we can help you attack their base. We know around where they are. We can make up for this. We made a deal, and we'll hold up our end."

There was nothing to think about. The only solution was obvious. "What is it that they say about handshakes in the desert? It's a phrase you people love to throw around. Worth little more than a grain of sand."

I led the flame dissipate, and I turned to see Zaik standing at the doorway, seemingly having heard the commotion from outside. Good. I want him to witness this next part. "You knowingly betrayed our deal, and you conspired with our enemies. In the name of the Fire Nation and Fire Lord Ozai, I sentence you to death."

"No wait!"

There was no point begging. I thought back to when General Shu ordered the execution of Zain. The authority he commanded, the attention he gained from everybody on board that ship. I had that no, if only for a brief moment, and the people here would learn what happened when you betrayed the Fire Nation, and Zaik would learn who I was, and with any luck, he'd tell the others.

I brought an arc of fire down on him, and his body crumpled to the floor in front of me, a clear streak of scorched skin and ash splitting him nearly in two.

I looked back on his guards, cowering at the rear of the room. A mighty fine job they did. They weren't going to have an easy time finding work after today, after this miserable display.

I walked away. I'd learned what I needed. There was no point in sticking around.

I thought for a moment. So the Seppies have him. Now what? It felt like a dead end, like the only solution would be to end the threat itself and remove the Seppies from the picture in what we be a bloody confrontation, which defeated the whole purpose of what I was doing-to try to defeat these Seppies with minimal loss of life for ourselves. I thought, and I remembered. At this moment in time, I had nothing. Nothing, except for a plan.

We were headed back to the Zodiac. For once, I needed Harzek. More specifically, I needed his prisoner. He was my way into the Seppies. He was how I could get what I needed. I would have to make a deal, and hopefully this time around, it would be set in stone rather than discarded in sand.