I stood completely still and silent, my mouth agape. For a moment I refused to believe his words; there was no way that we could be related. But, after I thought about it more deeply, it become a more likely possibility. My parents had never informed me of any of my fire nation family, so it was fully plausible that he could be my uncle. I pushed the thought to one side. There was no point in jumping to conclusions without consulting my parents first. Still, I would be lying if I didn't say I felt extremely uneasy as I faced against Zhao.
"Now step aside," he growled at me. "I need to get to those spirits," he informed me, pointing at the pond where the two koi fish circled. I was quick to put myself between him and the pond.
"I won't let you near them, Zhao," I told him, and I saw his brows furrow. "Everyone relies on the spirits. Even you,". I saw Zhao grow more and more frustrated with every word that I spoke, so I braced myself for a potential fight. I knew that it would be wrong to bend the water from the spirit pond, so I would have to use the water that bordered the oasis. As I faced off against Zhao, I began to fill with nerves. I had only ever duelled against waterbenders, and had no experience in fighting firebenders. Furthermore, I had to win this fight, or else Tui and La would be killed. I was fighting for my own life; if either of the ocean spirits died, surely so would I. Unexpectedly, Zhao punched the air in front of him, causing a short burst of flames to shoot out of his first. Thinking quicky, I rapidly controlled a stream of water from the oasis border to block the fire, instantly extinguishing the orange flames. I knew that Zhao had just sent a small amount of fire as a warning, but as I blocked his attack, I saw a gobsmacked look on his face. He took a step back in surprise.
"You're a waterbender?" he gasped. "But how? Both of your parents are fire nation," he claimed in genuine confusion. In an attempt to perhaps intimidate the Admiral, I narrowed my eyes at him as I faked confidence.
"The spirits are more powerful than you know," I threatened him. I watched as his look of confusion quickly vanished, instead replaced with a fury.
"Your parents have brought water tribe blood into the family," he spat before giving me a menacing look. "It would appear as if somebody needs to purify the bloodline," he snarked, before lobbing a ball of fire at me. I quickly bent a big stream of water to protect myself, which I then threw at Zhao. It hit him in the chest, knocking him over backwards. I then attempted to trap him in a block of ice while he was on the ground, but he kicked at the water, shooting fire from his feet, before spinning to regain his balance and stand in front of me once more. Zhao bent a large square of fire, which he sent barrelling towards me. I was able to cover myself in a large bubble of water to protect myself from the flames. Once the fire had passed, I used the water to create many ice daggers, which I sent directly at Zhao. This didn't seem to faze the Admiral, who simply swiped and kicked at the daggers as he began to approach me.
Readying myself for close-combat, I bent some water into a sharp ice sword, which I swung at Zhao to keep him at bay. He avoided the melee attacks and sent a spray of fire at my face, which I just managed to duck out of the way from. I threw the ice sword at Zhao, who didn't expect it, and it narrowly missed his shoulder. He glared at me with pure hatred and ramped up his attacks. Using a sweeping motion with his hands, he created two desperate waves of flames which crashed down on my from both sides. I was just about able to roll backwards out of the attack, and I used my agility to flip back onto my feet so as to not be at a disadvantage on the floor. As Zhao was about to unleash another wave of fire at me, I used a thin stream of water as a whip, which I managed to wrap around his hands from a distance. I knew his hands would only be bound for a moment, so I sent a wave of water from his side, which also hit his hands. Thinking smartly, I turned the water into ice, locking his hands in a case of ice. Proud of myself, I grinned, though it quickly turned to a frown as I saw the Admiral raise his knee to the ice, smashing it into pieces.
"You sure can fight," the Admiral smirked. "But you're forgetting: I didn't come here to fight you,". As he said those words, I immediately realised my mistake. During the fight, Zhao had been strategically pushing me away from the spiritual pond. With his right hand, he now sent a slice of fire at the pond, towards the spirits. In desperation, I used all my might to bend the spirit pond water, turning it to ice. The fire hit the pond, but the ice protected the sacred koi fish. Zhao seemed to have this all planned out, though. With his right hand still sending flames at the pond, he used his left hand to shoot a wave of fire straight at me. I had no choice but to use my arms to shield my body from the fire. I felt the burning of the fire envelop my arms; it was unlike any other pain I had ever experience. Due to the pain, I fell to the floor with a shout, writhing around on the soft grass. Through my screams and tears, I knew I couldn't waterbend in this condition. I knew I could no longer protect the spirits. I had failed my only task. The spirits would surely die now, as would I.
In the corner of my eye I saw Zhao walk up to the spirit pond and capture one of the koi fish in a small sack. He held it in the air triumphantly, and I could see the fish desperately wriggling from within the bag. Everything went red. A feeling of dread went through my body and I suddenly felt incredibly weak and nauseous. Any hope of me stopping Zhao now had diminished, and I was forced to watch.
"I am a legend now," Zhao stated victoriously. "The fire nation will for generations tell stories about the great Zhao, who darkened the moon. They will call me Zhao, the conqueror! Zhao, the moon-slayer! Zhao the invincible!" he shouted. All of a sudden, the Avatar's lemur, Momo, jumped on Zhao's head it a last act of desperation. The Admiral struggled for a moment before Momo flew away. However Momo flew straight to the shoulder of Aang, who stood with Sokka, Katara and Appa. There was a glimmer of hope in my body when I saw the arrival of the Avatar, however Zhao quickly shot down any optimism.
"Don't bother," he told them menacingly, before bringing his fist up beside the squirming bag which contained one of the spirits, threating to kill it. Aang instantly dropped his glider staff.
"Zhao, don't!" he pleaded with the Admiral.
"It's my destiny to destroy the moon, and the water tribe," Zhao told him from the other side of the pond.
"Destroying the moon won't hurt just the water tribe," Aang desperately tribe to reason. "It will hurt everyone, including you. Without the moon, everything would fall out of balance. You have no idea what kind of chaos that would release on the world," he described. I tried to shout out an agreement, but I simply couldn't find the strength to utter any words. I was forced to lay on the floor, in pain and silence. Although, an unfamiliar voice seemed to agree with Aang, anyway.
"He's right, Zhao," the voice said, and I darted my eyes over to the corner of the spirit oasis. An older man with grey hair, tied up in a bun, and an interesting beard spoke assertively to Zhao. I recognised the man from photos I had seen in newspapers over the years. It was General Iroh, the brother of the fire lord. I was surprised that a member of fire nation royalty was deciding to do the morally correct thing.
"General Iroh," Zhao spoke casually. "Why am I not surprised to discover your treachery,"
I'm no traitor, Zhao," Iroh told him. "The fire nation needs the moon, too. We all depend on the balance," the old General explained, hoping to persuade Zhao. When the Admiral made no attempt to withdraw his fist from beside the spirit, Iroh became more aggressive. "Whatever you do to that spirit, I'll unleash of you tenfold! Let it go now! He fiercely yelled across the usually peaceful oasis, his hands in front of his face, ready to strike.
I watched Zhao's face falter. To my surprise, the threat appeared to work. The Admiral lowered the spirit down back towards the pond, and released it from the bag. The fish once more began to circle each other. For a moment, I thought all had been restored. The red colour in my vision had gone, and I started to feel my strength quickly return, despite the torturous burning feeling in my arms. However, almost immediately, Zhao let out a loud yell of pure rage, and sliced his hand in the direction of the spirits. There was nothing anybody could do: a wave of fire flew over the pond, and suddenly I knew it was all over. Instantly I felt an intense, searing pain all over my body. It felt as if every cell had been set alight. The whole world began to darken, and I felt my body fall completely limp. The pain was so great that I felt myself slipping out of consciousness. The last thing I heard was the yelling of many people, and I saw flames in the distance. My eyelids closed as I fell out of reality.
Tui, the moon spirit, had died. And now surely I would, too.
Word Count: 1730
(A/N: As promised, here is the second part of the Siege of the North! I hope you enjoyed! The final part of the Siege story arc will be released tomorrow. As always, I'd love to hear what you guys thought! Have a great day, and I'll see you guys tomorrow! -JetDragon09)