Live for your Nation
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Prompt: "Never give up/Never give in/Be on our side so we can win" by dark_puck
Characters: Mai, Xian (OC)
Summary: A revolutionary ready to die for his nation is given a choice
Word Count: 1792
The game was up, and Xian knew it.
He fled around a corner, narrowly avoiding being scorched by a gout of fire from one of the armored palace guards. When the man charged after him in pursuit, Xian lashed out with a circular kick, sending a wave of fire diagonally outward. The guard went tumbling backward from the rapidly-expanding air of the blast and Xian used the opening to dash over his prone form toward one of the outer halls. The rest of his compatriots had been captured or subdued already. He couldn’t help them now.
Someone talked, He raged inwardly. They were waiting for us!
He and his associates had cornered the the Firelord Zuko in a side garden and attacked in force. It had been an ambush. The body double standing in for the Firelord had fought back furiously while hidden soldiers literally exploded from hidden alcoves. He was certain that the only reason he hadn’t been captured right then was because the Fire Nation soldiers were fighting cautiously. They wanted prisoners.
With a furious kiai, Xian dove his palm forward, sending a bolt of fire through a paper window. His legs propelled him forward into a dive through the now-open window a heartbeat ahead of a superheated stream of orange fire. The slanted roof of one of the smaller outlying buildings of the palace rushed up to meet him. He tucked himself into a ball as best he could, but something in his shoulder twinged as he made contact and rolled clumsily. Several tiles went cascading over the edge as he slid to a halt. He heard a splashing sound as he scrambled to his feet.
The click of a latch opening drew his attention to where several palace soldiers were emerging on to the roof, qiang spears in hand. Desperately, he looked over the edge to see a pool down below.
Thirty feet? Maybe more.
With a shout, the leadmost guard dashed forward, the noise and motion making the man look less a professional soldier and more like one of the thugs Xian handled in his hometown. Xian turned to face him as the spear came jabbing straight forward.
Thank goodness for rookie mistakes.
With practiced ease, Xian pivoted and wrapped his fingers around the shaft of the spear as it passed. He continued to turn, using his body as a fulcrum. The wax-wood shaft bent around his waist for a second before splintering. The hapless guard continued forward over the edge, still clutching his broken weapon.
Completing his pirouette, he launched fire at the other soldiers, who had stopped short at seeing their comrade’s fate. Shouting in fury, Xian bounded up the sloped roof toward the closest one, sending balls of fire to keep the others at bay.They backed off in response, trying to keep him at bay as they moved to encircle him. Spear blades jabbed and twirled, their ostrich-horse hair tassels making their movements difficult to track. He ducked and twisted, deflecting attacks with his palms and shins, finally building up enough energy to complete a spin and send a circle of fire out in all directions, scattering his attackers.
Almost immediately, a lithe, robed figure leaped from a nearby pagoda and darted toward him. With a yelp of panic Xian rolled backward to avoid the darts that the figure had flicked in his direction upon landing. Tumbling precariously close to the edge, he regained his feet just as his opponent set on him. The attack was all flowing fabric and whipping hair. He jabbed with fists, elbows and knees, but the sinuous attacker seemed to be an instant ahead of him. The sound of sliced fabric reached his ears as he saw an opening. Roaring defiance, he shot his leg and fist forward, fire haloing his outstretched libs.
His changshan came apart in strips. In the space of a heartbeat, the whirling figure grabbed a loose end and used it to wrap his arm up tight against his leg. Finally coming to a stop, he marvelled at the pale skin and dark eyes that greeted him between strands of jet-black hair. He gaped, realizing who his opponent was, but his surprise lasted only an instant before she twisted and kicked him off the roof.
The sensation of free falling lasted what seemed an eternity. The pain in his ribs had just started to register before something crashed underneath him. His back impacted with the bottom of the pool, knocking the wind from his lungs and flooding his open mouth with water. Coughing and spitting, he struggled to his feet unsteadily. Even through the spinning, he could see several soldiers approaching from nearby doorways, weapons out.
With a shout, he untangled his limbs and tore the twisted remains of his changshan off. He took a step forward and stumbled as his knee buckled underneath him.
“Surrender,” one of the masked guardsmen spat as they approached.
Anger flooded through him, dulling the pain and fueling the burning furnace in his heart. Sweat and water glistening off of his bare chest, he surged to his feet, sending a corona of fire out of his hands and filling the area with steam.
“Never!” Xian roared. “Come on, you whipped curs! Come and see how a true servant of the Fire Nation dies!”
He thrashed to and fro, sending clumsy arcs of fire out, sending soldiers scrambling back as others surged forward to fill the gap. The thin, robed figure alighted deftly on the ground nearby, unnoticed in the pandemonium.
Spears burned, fires surged, swords warped, shouts filled the air. Slowly, Xian gave ground until his back hit the wall. He knew it was over, and it didn’t matter. He raised his hands and willed the last of his strength into an advancing wall of fire
“Zuko has sold out his people!” His voice was hoarse with rage and defiance. “You serve a tyrant!”
Suddenly his arms were numb. He looked down to see darts sticking out of his shoulder as his limbs flopped limply to his side. His legs gave out as he stared down wonderingly. He looked up as he collapsed. There, standing before him, with her arm extended to reveal a dart-launcher strapped to her wrist, was the Firelord’s concubine, Lady Mai.
He awoke some time later to the sight of a stone ceiling. His surprise at waking up at all was quickly overtaken by despair.
They got me.
He felt around with his leaden arms and was only mildly surprised to find himself covered with bandages. There was no blood on his body and his knee felt locked into place. Rising to a sitting position, he saw that it was enclosed by a physician’s brace.
Unusually thorough care for a failed assassin.
“Awake?”
With a start, Xian looked up to find the source of the voice. The Lady Mai stood nearby in the cell, hands tucked nonchalantly into her sleeves. He didn’t make any moves toward her. If the stories he heard were true, she could fill his torso with half-a-dozen knives in a second.
“Xian Hu. Twenty years old. Firebender. Magistrate of the Roku Ishi colony. Promoted after your father died in the line of duty six months ago. Mother Lin Hu, deceased four years. Older sister Xia Li Hu, unmarried seamstress. Younger brother Pao Hu, incarcerated for anti-state activities.”
Xian blinked. How the-
“How does a true servant of the Fire Nation,” she asked, her voice imperious, “Find himself trying to assassinate its leader?”
His teeth started to grind of their own accord.
“If you know so much about me, then you probably know why.” He turned his head and spit.
Lady Mai gave no reaction that she had even heard. The silence stretched on. He tried to wait and meet her unblinking gaze, but her stare was like a swift-flowing river. Xian could not shake the feeling that, behind those impassive eyes, she was weighing whether or not it was worth keeping him alive.
“Zuko abandoned us!” He said into the silence. “I never agreed with the war, but when he pulled the army away from the colonies, he left us behind! Every single time we’ve begged for help from the Firelord’s armies, we’ve been ignored!”
Mai said nothing.
“Do you know what it’s like? When every mother who lost a son in the war, every earthbender who lost comrades to Ozai’s army, everyone in the Earth Kingdom looks at you and sees a chance to get even!? Do you understand? Living somewhere all your life and calling it home and suddenly being treated like a war criminal by people you grew up with?”
Again, Mai said nothing.
“How could you? Wrapped up and cozy here in the palace! I’ve been to six funerals of people who were beaten to death by mobs of angry Earth Kingdom refugees passing through the town. Deaths that I can’t stop because nobody wants to report a lawbreaker to a firebender.”
He realized that he was nearly shouting as he was greeted with more stony silence. Finally, it became too much.
“Say something!”
“Would you die for the Fire Nation?”
He blinked, caught momentarily off guard. “Of course.”
“You showed remarkable aptitude for gathering information and acquiring contacts with local undesirables. I only became aware of your plans two nights ago. Your record of keeping the peace and tracking criminals in Roku Ishi with dwindling manpower and almost no support is impressive. When you were discovered, you were the only one of the attackers that didn’t give up right away. It took upwards of twenty soldiers to bring you in. And you never stopped fighting.”
It was his turn to remain silent.
“The Firelord is a warrior. He loves his people, whatever you might think. But he’s an honest, honorable, man who fundamentally is better in a stand-up fight than a game of hide and seek. Half of his generals are gathering the military up under their own commands, out of his sight and control. And it’s people like you and your town that suffer the consequences of that power-jockeying.”
Xian said nothing as she turned and reached for the door.
“He needs people who aren’t afraid of shadows. Who can find hidden things out. People like me. And like you. You claim to be a servant of the Fire Nation. I’m going to give you an opportunity to prove it.”
The door opened with a creak. Light flooded in and turned her into a silhouette as his eyes narrowed at the glare.
“I’ll be back at dawn. You can, give up, go to the gallows, and die for the Fire Nation. Or you can keep fighting, work for me, and live for it instead.”
EDIT: Fixed typos
EDIT: Turns out that hedgehog39 did not do the research. A qipao is women's wear. A man would wear a changshan
Prompt: "Never give up/Never give in/Be on our side so we can win" by dark_puck
Characters: Mai, Xian (OC)
Summary: A revolutionary ready to die for his nation is given a choice
Word Count: 1792
The game was up, and Xian knew it.
He fled around a corner, narrowly avoiding being scorched by a gout of fire from one of the armored palace guards. When the man charged after him in pursuit, Xian lashed out with a circular kick, sending a wave of fire diagonally outward. The guard went tumbling backward from the rapidly-expanding air of the blast and Xian used the opening to dash over his prone form toward one of the outer halls. The rest of his compatriots had been captured or subdued already. He couldn’t help them now.
Someone talked, He raged inwardly. They were waiting for us!
He and his associates had cornered the the Firelord Zuko in a side garden and attacked in force. It had been an ambush. The body double standing in for the Firelord had fought back furiously while hidden soldiers literally exploded from hidden alcoves. He was certain that the only reason he hadn’t been captured right then was because the Fire Nation soldiers were fighting cautiously. They wanted prisoners.
With a furious kiai, Xian dove his palm forward, sending a bolt of fire through a paper window. His legs propelled him forward into a dive through the now-open window a heartbeat ahead of a superheated stream of orange fire. The slanted roof of one of the smaller outlying buildings of the palace rushed up to meet him. He tucked himself into a ball as best he could, but something in his shoulder twinged as he made contact and rolled clumsily. Several tiles went cascading over the edge as he slid to a halt. He heard a splashing sound as he scrambled to his feet.
The click of a latch opening drew his attention to where several palace soldiers were emerging on to the roof, qiang spears in hand. Desperately, he looked over the edge to see a pool down below.
Thirty feet? Maybe more.
With a shout, the leadmost guard dashed forward, the noise and motion making the man look less a professional soldier and more like one of the thugs Xian handled in his hometown. Xian turned to face him as the spear came jabbing straight forward.
Thank goodness for rookie mistakes.
With practiced ease, Xian pivoted and wrapped his fingers around the shaft of the spear as it passed. He continued to turn, using his body as a fulcrum. The wax-wood shaft bent around his waist for a second before splintering. The hapless guard continued forward over the edge, still clutching his broken weapon.
Completing his pirouette, he launched fire at the other soldiers, who had stopped short at seeing their comrade’s fate. Shouting in fury, Xian bounded up the sloped roof toward the closest one, sending balls of fire to keep the others at bay.They backed off in response, trying to keep him at bay as they moved to encircle him. Spear blades jabbed and twirled, their ostrich-horse hair tassels making their movements difficult to track. He ducked and twisted, deflecting attacks with his palms and shins, finally building up enough energy to complete a spin and send a circle of fire out in all directions, scattering his attackers.
Almost immediately, a lithe, robed figure leaped from a nearby pagoda and darted toward him. With a yelp of panic Xian rolled backward to avoid the darts that the figure had flicked in his direction upon landing. Tumbling precariously close to the edge, he regained his feet just as his opponent set on him. The attack was all flowing fabric and whipping hair. He jabbed with fists, elbows and knees, but the sinuous attacker seemed to be an instant ahead of him. The sound of sliced fabric reached his ears as he saw an opening. Roaring defiance, he shot his leg and fist forward, fire haloing his outstretched libs.
His changshan came apart in strips. In the space of a heartbeat, the whirling figure grabbed a loose end and used it to wrap his arm up tight against his leg. Finally coming to a stop, he marvelled at the pale skin and dark eyes that greeted him between strands of jet-black hair. He gaped, realizing who his opponent was, but his surprise lasted only an instant before she twisted and kicked him off the roof.
The sensation of free falling lasted what seemed an eternity. The pain in his ribs had just started to register before something crashed underneath him. His back impacted with the bottom of the pool, knocking the wind from his lungs and flooding his open mouth with water. Coughing and spitting, he struggled to his feet unsteadily. Even through the spinning, he could see several soldiers approaching from nearby doorways, weapons out.
With a shout, he untangled his limbs and tore the twisted remains of his changshan off. He took a step forward and stumbled as his knee buckled underneath him.
“Surrender,” one of the masked guardsmen spat as they approached.
Anger flooded through him, dulling the pain and fueling the burning furnace in his heart. Sweat and water glistening off of his bare chest, he surged to his feet, sending a corona of fire out of his hands and filling the area with steam.
“Never!” Xian roared. “Come on, you whipped curs! Come and see how a true servant of the Fire Nation dies!”
He thrashed to and fro, sending clumsy arcs of fire out, sending soldiers scrambling back as others surged forward to fill the gap. The thin, robed figure alighted deftly on the ground nearby, unnoticed in the pandemonium.
Spears burned, fires surged, swords warped, shouts filled the air. Slowly, Xian gave ground until his back hit the wall. He knew it was over, and it didn’t matter. He raised his hands and willed the last of his strength into an advancing wall of fire
“Zuko has sold out his people!” His voice was hoarse with rage and defiance. “You serve a tyrant!”
Suddenly his arms were numb. He looked down to see darts sticking out of his shoulder as his limbs flopped limply to his side. His legs gave out as he stared down wonderingly. He looked up as he collapsed. There, standing before him, with her arm extended to reveal a dart-launcher strapped to her wrist, was the Firelord’s concubine, Lady Mai.
He awoke some time later to the sight of a stone ceiling. His surprise at waking up at all was quickly overtaken by despair.
They got me.
He felt around with his leaden arms and was only mildly surprised to find himself covered with bandages. There was no blood on his body and his knee felt locked into place. Rising to a sitting position, he saw that it was enclosed by a physician’s brace.
Unusually thorough care for a failed assassin.
“Awake?”
With a start, Xian looked up to find the source of the voice. The Lady Mai stood nearby in the cell, hands tucked nonchalantly into her sleeves. He didn’t make any moves toward her. If the stories he heard were true, she could fill his torso with half-a-dozen knives in a second.
“Xian Hu. Twenty years old. Firebender. Magistrate of the Roku Ishi colony. Promoted after your father died in the line of duty six months ago. Mother Lin Hu, deceased four years. Older sister Xia Li Hu, unmarried seamstress. Younger brother Pao Hu, incarcerated for anti-state activities.”
Xian blinked. How the-
“How does a true servant of the Fire Nation,” she asked, her voice imperious, “Find himself trying to assassinate its leader?”
His teeth started to grind of their own accord.
“If you know so much about me, then you probably know why.” He turned his head and spit.
Lady Mai gave no reaction that she had even heard. The silence stretched on. He tried to wait and meet her unblinking gaze, but her stare was like a swift-flowing river. Xian could not shake the feeling that, behind those impassive eyes, she was weighing whether or not it was worth keeping him alive.
“Zuko abandoned us!” He said into the silence. “I never agreed with the war, but when he pulled the army away from the colonies, he left us behind! Every single time we’ve begged for help from the Firelord’s armies, we’ve been ignored!”
Mai said nothing.
“Do you know what it’s like? When every mother who lost a son in the war, every earthbender who lost comrades to Ozai’s army, everyone in the Earth Kingdom looks at you and sees a chance to get even!? Do you understand? Living somewhere all your life and calling it home and suddenly being treated like a war criminal by people you grew up with?”
Again, Mai said nothing.
“How could you? Wrapped up and cozy here in the palace! I’ve been to six funerals of people who were beaten to death by mobs of angry Earth Kingdom refugees passing through the town. Deaths that I can’t stop because nobody wants to report a lawbreaker to a firebender.”
He realized that he was nearly shouting as he was greeted with more stony silence. Finally, it became too much.
“Say something!”
“Would you die for the Fire Nation?”
He blinked, caught momentarily off guard. “Of course.”
“You showed remarkable aptitude for gathering information and acquiring contacts with local undesirables. I only became aware of your plans two nights ago. Your record of keeping the peace and tracking criminals in Roku Ishi with dwindling manpower and almost no support is impressive. When you were discovered, you were the only one of the attackers that didn’t give up right away. It took upwards of twenty soldiers to bring you in. And you never stopped fighting.”
It was his turn to remain silent.
“The Firelord is a warrior. He loves his people, whatever you might think. But he’s an honest, honorable, man who fundamentally is better in a stand-up fight than a game of hide and seek. Half of his generals are gathering the military up under their own commands, out of his sight and control. And it’s people like you and your town that suffer the consequences of that power-jockeying.”
Xian said nothing as she turned and reached for the door.
“He needs people who aren’t afraid of shadows. Who can find hidden things out. People like me. And like you. You claim to be a servant of the Fire Nation. I’m going to give you an opportunity to prove it.”
The door opened with a creak. Light flooded in and turned her into a silhouette as his eyes narrowed at the glare.
“I’ll be back at dawn. You can, give up, go to the gallows, and die for the Fire Nation. Or you can keep fighting, work for me, and live for it instead.”
EDIT: Fixed typos
EDIT: Turns out that hedgehog39 did not do the research. A qipao is women's wear. A man would wear a changshan