Luke

None of us knew what the smoke or the faint glow in the distance was. Fire, we knew, of course, but belonging to what? Combat between the Fire Nation and the rear infiltration team, the sabotage of fuel depots, mere happenstance, unlikely though it was?

It was hard to know. All we were capable of knowing was that it was precisely where we were headed, straight through the Fire Nation line, and to rendezvous with those who waged war with them from their new front.

Because the old front, where the fighting truly was, it was where we found ourselves now. And it was war all over again.

There was something demoralizing about it, watching how Shibi still stood tall even in the midst of war, being invaded by an all-powerful enemy granted inhuman strength by the heavens themselves, while Jingping, invaded by a force half our size, had been brought to ruin in the span of only a couple of hours.

It wasn't a complaint, merely an observation, one that struck me to the core, that the Nation I had once served was so capable of so much inhuman destruction in such a short span of time, while those I had once considered enemies, those I fought with now, truly seemed intent on understanding who the enemy was, not allowing the damage to spread to those whose war this wasn't.

Perhaps it was simply the man that led them—Korik. We all knew we would have vastly preferred Boss in this man's stead to lead us deeper into the city into battle, but Cholla had made his choice. Boss, rather, had been set to defend the fuel silos, a gross misallocation of his skills so far as any of us were concerned. His ties with the Separatists, he was the perfect fit to rendezvous with their forces, but rather, he had been put on defensive duty. Any complaints had been suppressed, and there was little we could do. Cholla's word was law, and we wanted to believe that if the last 3 weeks of fighting under the man had taught us anything, it was that he always had a plan. Cholla's task force had gone off to join the main front while Korik would be leading us into as a spearpoint directly through the Fire Nation' frontline.

And quite the frontline it was.

The fighting we faced; it was nothing I was accustomed to. It startled me to find how similar it felt not to real war that I had faced, but the gang warfare of Citadel's slums, door-to-door fighting from house to house, paranoid of every corner, danger ever-present.

We were lucky the Fire Nation seemed intent on not adhering to a scorched earth policy and simply burning Shibi to the ground before we could secure it. Perhaps they believed they could still hold the line, foolish a notion though it was, or it also could have been that it was mere sentimentality—an unwillingness to resort to animals in times of strife.

How much longer will it be that way? I wondered.

It had been only a little more than an hour since the battle of Shibi had begun, and already, the Fire Nation had been pushed far from the coast, deep into the town's center, and we were only gaining momentum.

I pushed forward, and at my side, the others: Zek, Ka'lira, Gordez, Zare, and Jadoh fought as well, pushing forward as one entity, looking after one another at all times, nothing daring to stand in our way.

Our push had only just begun but 10 minutes ago, and already, the Fire Nation's front was beginning to bend to our will. Now it was only a matter of breaking it, though it would not be an easy task.

A pocket of soldiers encased themselves within ab abandoned mason's shop, archers at the windows, and 2 firebenders guarding the doorway, an indeterminate number of infantrymen within.

"Some friendly artillery would be damn good right now!" Zek muttered, a crossbow bolt just narrowly missing his head and colliding with the stone wall he took cover behind.

A shuffle of footsteps to our rear that we quickly turned to face. It was Korik and two other waterbenders by his side, water already at the ready, the constant rain only feeding its strength. "What's the hold up!?" he called over the downpour.

"Pocket holed up in that mason's, sir!" Gordez yelled in response.

No cockiness, not arguments, only action. "Stand back!" he ordered, moving forward alongside his entourage, pulling the water from the air as they darted through the alleyway we hid within, immediately stopping the bolts and blasts of fire dead in their tracks with mixtures of water and ice.

The Fire Nation soldiers' initial volley having failed miserably, they left themselves wide opening—an opening Korik did not waste as he and his men flooded the building with spouts of water spouts of water that stormed in through the doorway and windows alike, freezing instantly then in a grotesque contortion that ripped the building from its foundations, collapsing it atop the men stuck within their icy confines, the only survivors being the firebenders who had been at the doorway, swiftly finished off however.

"Keep on advancing!" Korik called. "We've almost got them encircled.

Sure enough, we were approaching the flames, what we assumed to be the handiwork of the infiltration team.

It was odd, however. The flames had grown, and not in the obvious manner befitting that of a single building, but they had spread, as though from building to building. There was no way this was targeted to enemy infrastructure. They had to have grown out of control, be it by negligence or the interference of firebenders.

We need to get there now, I knew, if only to suppress the flames before they grew and consumed half the town.

Abiding by Korik's words, we picked ourselves off the ground and continued moving forward. Sure enough, the pocket of Fire Nation soldiers had been one of the last layers of their defensive line, a fortress of sorts that nearby forces had been relying on to hold. Of course, it hadn't, and their retreat had begun.

A brave few held back in desperate efforts to keep us at bay. I did not relish in needing to be responsible for their deaths as we pushed forward.

I cut through the stomach of a firebender whose blast had nearly struck me, only missing on account of my swift dodge to the right added with the slightest manipulation of the flame with my free left hand, subtle enough that not even the bender had understood what he'd done wrong before his stomach was cut open just below where his armor ended, and he fell to the ground.

The call of a spearman to my left, coming from within the alley, sent my heart into a leap, turning just in time to see him approach, stopped only by the sudden intervention of Jadoh who pushed him aside at the last moment, tackling him to the ground, battling for control of the spear before I ended the stalemate, shoving my blade into the soldier's neck and helping Jadoh back up to his feet.

"Thanks," I said, breathless, as I helped him up.

"No problem," he said and response, before we both turned to rush back into combat. An arrow struck the ground right by Jadoh's feet as he ran, both of us turning up just in time to see a Fire Nation fall from the roof of the building he was perched atop to the ground, an arrow in his own neck, belonging, we saw then, to Zare who knocked a new projectile as she rushed up to join us in our push forward.

Ahead, down the main street, a desperate line being formed by a infantrymen and benders determined not to take one more step back. Their resolve, however, was quickly broken by an explosion to their right, sending numerous falling to the ground. I turned just in time to see Gordez as he prepared an additional stick of dynamite, Ka'lira right beside him, utilizing the moment to step our of cover and fire her crossbow, striking a still-standing soldier straight in the neck, sending him to the ground in an audible clattering of steel against stone.

The others endeavored to rise once again, their efforts in vain as a localized ground tremor, courtesy of a fireteam of two approaching earthbenders, sent them to the ground once again. Zek, who now made his appearance from a nearby alley, blade recently bloodied, was the first to seize the opportunity, cutting down the nearest soldier at the shoulder, sending him to the ground screaming, though not dead. We joined him up front now, my own blade tearing off the hand of a firebender as he made one desperate attack, the others falling around him as our combined force quickly overwhelmed their defense, the rest now fleeing.

Our division of soldiers were all joining now, the combined force of the Fire Nation having been ushered back into what seemed to be a town square, drawing ever closer to the flames that now danced across the roofs of the structures that made up the north side of the square.

Our lines are almost together. They're surrounded.

From the flames, confirming my theories, emerged Fire Benders, but not in advance to reinforce their comrades, but in their own retreat as well, being cut down by the second, frantically falling back, until it was revealed who it was that had them in hot pursuit—waterbenders, earthbenders, and Separatists, weapons raised, and bloodied at that.

And so the Fire Nation retreat came to a stop, realizing then where they were up against. Their retreat had pushed them right here, at least two hundred of them, terrified, injured, on their last legs, surrounded on all sides by us, ready to end this fight right here and right now as boulder, bows, and waves of water even terrifying to myself, were raised in wait, daring them to make their move.

The water rose, and the sky grew dark, the wave shrouding the moon itself and its light, ready to wash over them all in the span of a second.

My own blade was raised to. We all had picked out targets, who we would strike first if it came to it, based upon proximity rather than malice. And so I saw mine, a boy hardly any older than me, a spear in his hands, himself clutching it desperately, seemingly unaware that the head had been broken off and he was holding little more than a weak quarterstaff.

He was shaking, his mouth quivering, and I found myself begging for his sake as much as my own that his comrades would make the right choice, that they would stand down, that they would not kill themselves right here and now.

On our side of the line, pleads for them to stand down.

"Don't do it!"

"Surrender!"

"Be smart, damnit! Stand down!"

And on the other, from the infiltration team, the exact opposite.

"Fucking do it, ashmakers!"

"Give us a reason!"

"You know you want to, fuckers!"

Half of the Fire Nation troop present, those who had been fleeing the infiltration team, they appeared even more terrified of the infiltration team than us.

They were still backing up, and the Separatists were approaching even further as their taunts and cries for blood escalated, the flames growing behind them.

Bodies lined the streets, I saw, dozens, no, hundreds.

They were only supposed to be the infiltration team. How had so many Fire Nation soldiers confronted them?

The infiltration team pushed further, weapons raised, their taunts being drowned in the roar of the flames as I looked ahead, my eyes focusing beyond the distortions of the heated air.

The bodies, they weren't Fire Nation. Our own?

I looked further. No. They were unarmored, not Fire Nation, not United Front. I saw the blood puddle that grew from a single source, and my eyes followed it its source, a woman garbed in brown and green—a civilian.

Just an anomaly? I wondered as my eyes looked further down the street, and I saw that such was far from the case. More, many more.

No.

My eyes turned back up, back to the present, back to reality, to the Fire Nation soldiers that cowered in fear, and the Earth Kingdom invaders who seemed ready to kill them on the spot.

The Fire Nation soldiers, they could only stand there, but I saw it in their eyes, the hopelessness, the surrender. They knew it was lost. There was little more to do than to know when the time had come to give up.

And from the crowd of gathering Separatists, a man I recognized all too well, the leader of the infiltration team, bloodied sword in hand—Jet, a look in his eyes, a look that I recognized. One that I myself had worn in a position all too similar, just only a year ago.

Oh no.

It was difficult to discern just what had happened next.

All I remember was being thrown to the ground by a sudden blast that seemed to echo across the town of Shibi as a whole, raising my head to find sparks as they flew. To my sides, I turned my head to find the others on the ground as well, but attempting to rise as I myself did. In front of me, Fire Nation soldiers on the ground, trying to stand once more, seemingly as thrown off as I was by the blast.

And then it happened.

The Fire Nation soldier I had been watching, on the ground, he put his arms in from of himself to try and force himself to his feet, his entire body shaking from the fear as he did so. He had dropped his excuse for a spear in the panic, seemingly all that mattered to him now being to get on his own two feet. He had no idea that would be his greatest mistake.

A sudden lurch to his left, and he fell to the ground, the faint glint all that I saw before the arrow entered into his neck and a horrifying speed, sending him immediately to the ground.

And that was what started it all.

Screams erupted from around the town square. Fire Nation soldiers scrambled for their weapons as Separatists, waterbenders, and earthbenders charged forward from either side to stop them dead in their tracks.

"Hold back!" Korik yelled, turning back to his men and to the Separatists on the other side of the square. "Hold back! Hold back, damnit! They've surren-"

But his words were held back, stopped dead in their tracks as an arrow from the enemy worked its way into the back of his head, emerging from his mouth as he fell forward with a loud crash that said it all. The time for peace had passed.

And so it was chaos, a free for all in the town square, the flames spreading around us at a rate that only a fool would ignore. A fool, or one so caught up in the horror around him.

Where? I wondered. Where are the others? I looked around me as I tried to rise to my feet, desperate to catch a glimpse of where they were, but saw none of them, seeing instead only a rushing of feet around me in one direction or another, shrouding ay chance I could get to find my comrades, wherever they were. I was still struggling to raise myself off of the ground, looking forward into the brawl that was emerging, Fire Nation versus United Front, no order to the battle, just death incarnate, flames, arrows, spears, swords, boulders, ice, flying aimlessly as pandemonium reigned.

It all seemed to be passing in slow motion, but still felt as though it was occurring at a speed so fast I could not comprehend. He had showed up out of nowhere, but still, the Fire Nation soldiers seemed to be approaching at a rate that saw each step lasting longer than the previous.

My head was spinning. Had I hit it?

The man still approached, raising his weapon over his head, ready to bring it down on me. Is he that close? He still looks so far away.

What is-what is happening?

Then something changed, and the world stopped spinning, and in the next instant, he was right in front of me, head on the stone floor, his lifeblood flowing beneath him, and a hand grabbed my own, pulling me to my feet.

"Get up!" Zare cried. "We need to run!"

All around us, hell. Hell that could not be comprehended. It wasn't made to be. It was chaos, little more, but I could see that now. I could see as men killed one another, so caught up in the fear of battle that they were striking their own down out of horror as much as they were the enemy. And it was spreading, outside of the square, just as the flames spread as well.

"What the hell is happening?! Where are the others?!" I called to Zare, quickly retrieving the blade I had dropped.

"I don't know!" she cried out, running to the east where soldiers seemed to be least present, others to our south, both of us knowing better than to try and approach them, on our side or otherwise. "Just run!"

And a howl rang out overhead, myself facing upwards just in time to see the comet of fire and smoke fly overheard before the flaming boulder struck the square clocktower, exploding in a brilliant blaze of color, ash and debris falling below atop any so unfortunate as to found themselves there.

That artillery, it came from the south? What the hell is going on?!

Now actually running, rather than just being frozen in place, I shook off Zare's grasp, running beside her. Where are we going? What are we doing? Where the hell are the others? So many questions, no answers.

Another boulder exploded down the street to the east, forcing us to change course due south, where the flames reigned less supreme, but rapidly spread.

Had they taken our guns? Surrounded us? Cut off our escape? Was it the fleet? What in spirits' name is happening?

"We need to hold the line!" I called to Zare as we both still ran, begging to be heard above the horror around us. "What the hell happened back there?! It's hell!"

"I don't know!" she called back in answer, both of us seemingly in the dark as to what in the world was transpiring, why hell was spreading all around us, because it was doing just that.

We were approaching the main front now, and things were only getting worse. The artillery above us grew in intensity and frequency, boulders and even shells falling to the ground as the flames of Shibi spread, and we approached the site of the fighting once again.

An earth bender caught a Fire Nation soldier's boot in the ground, snaring him in place, and proceeded to detach his torso from his lower body with a boulder sent towards him in a kick. His legs, still tethered to the ground, stood in place as the earthbender moved on.

We continued running, an additional explosion to our south forcing us north now.

A Separatist I did not recognize hurled to the ground by a Fire Nation soldier who emerged from a flaming alleyway, flames still dancing across his body, but still raising his axe to claim one last life before his life was lost.

I drove my sword into his side, stopping him dead in his tracks as Zare tackled him forward, driving him off of my blade as he fell to his right, and the Separatist quickly rose to his feet to flee. To where, I had no idea, but as he ran west to where we knew hell waited, we went north, through the flames, searching desperately for a route east, west, anywhere that would take us away from here.

A squad of firebenders retreated down a street from the west, 2 benders defending another two soldiers as they carried an injured man between them, stopped dead in their tracks by a sudden volley of icicles that piercing through them as though they were made of soft butter, sending them to the ground in a gruesome haze of blood.

East now out of the picture, knowing the Fire Nation still held there, we opted instead for the west, knowing precisely where it led, but having little other option, and fled, through the flames, into the midst of combat.

A couple emerging from a flaming home. There are still civilians here?

I raised my arms, waving for them to come to us, my shouts indicating the same, but they only looked at us in horror, and immediately turned the other way, being met suddenly by a Separatist fighter.

And I was relieved. Good, I thought. He'll take them. Get them out of here.

And before I knew it, the husband was dead, hacked from his left shoulder to his abdomen, his body hanging together by a thread.

His wife screamed, and the Separatist raised his sword again, ready to finish the job until one of Zare's arrow found his eye, and he fell.

No.

The woman screamed, and screamed, and screamed, and then stopped singing as an arrow met her in her chest from down the street.

Fire Nation? Earth Kingdom? Separatist? WHAT?!

From my left, to an alley caked in flames, emerged an Earth Kingdom soldier who charged at us with a spear in hand, myself narrowly avoiding, pure instinct driving me as my sword glided across the shaft of his spear, went right through his fingers, and met him in his chest, driving him to the ground. I retracted my blade, looking down at the body of a man I had thought my ally, that I had killed.

No, no, no, no, no.

Zare was raising her bow once again to meet the archer, but he had been quicker. I saw the glint, and it was all I could do to grab her by the wrist and pull her immediately into the flaming alley, the arrow just barely missing her.

We ran, in which direction, we had no idea. We only ran through the alley engulfed in flames, singing us as we did so, trying hard to not be rendered mad by the cries of help from people still stuck within their homes, caught by the flames, too far gone, already dead. They're already dead, already dead, already dead. Just run!

We emerged from the alley, no doubt not left unscathed, into a primary street littered with corpses, new ones being added by the second.

An unarmed and unarmored man, a civilian, was fleeing, screaming at the top of his lungs until he was suddenly gone, a bloodied boulder now sitting where he had stood just seconds ago.

Down the street, an earthbender in firing position, seemingly ready to strike again at a group of Fire Nation soldiers further ahead, stopped dead in the their tracks by horror.

The earthbender lost his chance, however, swept aside by a wave of water turned into ice at the end, hurling the man aside in a bloody mist.

Somebody sane. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Zare turned to the Fire Nation soldiers who still stood there in shock, eyes transfixed on the pull of blood on the ground that belonged to the civilian they witnessed crushed just seconds ago. "Run!" she called to them before I dragged her down the street to meet the waterbender who had just seemingly turned against his own ally.

He was no doubt alert to see us, instantly manifesting a stream of water to attack us on sight until we both raised our hands to our chest in surrender. "Stop!" Zare called. "We're not the enemy!"

"There is no enemy!" he called anymore. "You need to get out of here now!"

"What's happening?!" I asked. "The battle, are we-"

"There is no battle anymore! Our own people, they're not just killing Fire Nation! They're killing everyone! You need to go, now! Get back to our ships! We're leaving!"

And he ran. Ran south. Our eyes followed him as he ran. He did not make it far. A spray of fire caught him in his tracks, and he fell to the ground, distorted, mutilated, thankfully already dead.

The same could not be said for the others who littered the street. Earthbenders, waterbenders, firebenders, soldiers, civilians, it made little difference. Some dead, some still screaming for life, not even knowing they wouldn't make it.

I was in a land surrounded by the dead in the dying.

It was Jingping all over again.

No. It was going to be different. It was going to end here! It wasn't going to happen again! I wasn't going to let it!

But here I was, the flames of Shibi growing around me by the second, leaving nothing in their wake except pandemonium.

And so it was, the exact same thing all over again.