Boss

I couldn't let myself become distracted.

It was a constant, uphill battle, but one I needed to maintain control of.

It was hard, accepting the changes in priority. Hell, it was hard even allowing those priorities to change.

But they had to.

For years, I'd known what, rather, who my family was. We'd stuck by each other, fought for each other, killed for each other, and one some occasions, even died for each other. We'd gotten through years that way, and while not all of us had made it, those who had emerged, we'd become family.

But that family was bigger now.

I watched them continue to spar, train, beat the hell out of one another to become faster, stronger, smarter, to become better soldiers.

It was midafternoon, and we had only just now received news from the other side of the sea.

The survivors of Xiahu had regrouped at Jingping. The report read little more than that. It was simply a statement of position. Something the Fire Nation would undoubtedly already know. It was too much a risk to say any more than that, I understood. But nonetheless, I couldn't help but worry.

Don't.

They're fine.

I sighed.

Jadoh was running them through the same war games. More of the same. The shipboard drills went by. The edge still mostly fell to the defenders.

The enemy.

It was the attackers I needed to learn how to win.

Each time, they got closer and closer, but it was never quite enough. More than a few separatists had gotten injured during the exercises.

They would have to learn one way or another.

I realized then that my concern was for them as much are for Gordez and the others.

It almost made me feel guilty to realize that, as though I was betraying my family.

Was I?

I found I didn't have an answer.

As well as that, I also found myself wondering again if the others would have an answer where I didn't. It'd been nearly 2 months since we'd last seen each other. Since then, our senses of belonging had changed significantly. I no longer was the outsider I had been when all of this began. The people who had been keen to kill me at the slightest insult now considered me one of their own. They respected me, looked up to me.

And the others? Where had their sense of belonging fallen. I prayed between one another. The last thing we needed was for them to splinter. I prayed that they had managed to hold themselves together, to not let anything tear them apart.

We were family.

I looked over the field at the separatists in training.

Albeit a slightly larger family now.

But the fact remained.

United, we would stand.

Divided, we were sure to fall.