Focused Fire (ATLA)

“I am not furious.”

Ren frowned at the princess who still had not wiped the scowl from her face since the ambush a couple of days ago. The only time it faded somewhat was when she visited Xing in his room, who was still recuperating from the near death by poisoning. If not for Kilin’s quick intervention, they’d have lost him that day.

“You say that, Azula, but you’re still stomping around looking to murder somebody.”

Azula snorted. “I. Am. Fine. Xing is recovering. Everything is being taken care of.”

Ren quirked an eyebrow. “Then could you unclench your hands right now?”

The princess hastily looked down at her fists and relaxed them, watching the color return to her palm and fingers before looking back up to Ren with a heavy sigh.

The captain nodded sympathetically and placed a hand behind Azula’s back to gently lead her away from the office. If she wasn’t visiting Xing or taking administrative meetings, Azula had cooped herself in the room to deal with paperwork, particularly on the many prisoners taken from the failed ambush.

A literal army’s worth of prisoners now sat crippled in one palace wing. It was the most efficient way to secure so many of them with the limited manpower they had. There was none of the usual soft treatment from the 11th, the limbs of these prisoners were hastily broken before they were tossed into one of the many rooms within the palace wing. Food was sloppy, minimal gruel, and the waterbenders helped to clean the holding rooms with callous floods of cold water. 

Only General Fong was held separately, though his detention was far less comfortable than his men’s. Koshi and his team had personally seen to the general’s interrogation, having taken personal affront to the attempt that had almost cost Xing his life. For all his bluster, it seemed that Fong broke quickly, barely lasting an hour before Koshi declared the man ready to speak.

To save time, only the officers of Fong’s army were interrogated, and with far less care than the Dai Li enjoyed. Battlefield torture was messy and quick, but most soldiers like Ren found that it had only a slightly lower efficacy in information gathering over the more formal methods. The biggest difference lay in the survivability of its victims.

None of the 11th, or their princess, cared too much about the insurgent’s long term wellbeing, not when their fates were already decided. These prisoners would be discarded very, very soon.

Not that Xing was going to argue against it, even from his bed. 

He had awoken shortly after Kilin purged the assassin’s venom from his face, and despite the recovery his body still had to undergo his mental faculties were as sharp as ever. It was only because he woke up so early that Azula hadn’t already ordered sweeping executions. Though surprisingly, he was not going to argue for any sort of leniency.

“A staged rebellion, especially what’s most likely one premeditated from the moment they surrendered, is something that cannot be tolerated,” Azula had helpfully relayed to the 11th’s officers. “Xing is treating this as treachery, and as such a message has to be delivered.”

Well, it was good to know that Xing was still Xing with his fondness for making examples.

So with Kilin forcing him to stay in bed, Azula had taken it upon herself to pick up Xing’s work, as if she was already his wife. It was a sweet thing, if not for just how furiously focused the girl was.

“The other Earth Kingdom generals, they’re cooperating?” Azula asked as they walked the massive hallways of the palace.

Ren shrugged. “For now. Yiu and Sung are complying with the order to disarm their forces, though Yiu especially is still pleading mercy for his men.”

“Hmph. Mercy or not, they cannot be trusted. The moment that idiot Fong pulled off that stunt, Ba Sing Se became an even greater liability to the Fire Nation. No doubt the courtiers back home would be hosting a party after hearing of this incident.”

“Xing survived though,” Ren pointed out.

Azula shook her head. “That’s not the point. The ambush just proved that the local manpower Xing was relying on is tainted and untrustworthy. Keeping them would make Xing look desperate. Removing them would severely cut down on our garrison, as you well know. For a city as large as Ba Sing Se, it’d be reasonable to expect that with a shrunken garrison the whole place could erupt into rebellion very soon. Xing’s bold ideas would be proven ineffective, and his reputation would take a hit… Enough so for father to call off the engagement, if they exploit it properly.”

Ah, Fire Nation politics.

“So we just have to act fast and decisively,” Ren said to shore up Azula’s confidence, though surprisingly it wasn’t needed.

“No, it’s just Xing who needs to get out of bed fast,” the princess replied. “Annoying as it is, he was right to keep the prisoners alive for now. Executing them would’ve been…shortsighted of me.”

Ren couldn’t help smirking. “Of us, Azula. Shortsighted of us. We were all ready to burn all of those scum to ash and turn them into ink blocks as souvenirs for their families.” 

Thank Kilin and Prince Iroh for being the voices of reason while Xing was still incapacitated. Strangely, Yama was on Azula’s side calling for mass burnings, though his rage was not as incandescent as the princess’. “The fuckers are making it harder for everyone else in this fucked city!” His love for Ba Sing Se was definitely different from what Ren and the others had expected.

“You can’t just do it on his behalf?” Ren asked Azula as they turned towards the gardens.

The young princess snorted, smoke actually trailing from her nostrils as her caged anger grew hot again. “It’d make Xing look weak. We’re walking a fine edge, Ren. If I act on Xing’s behalf too much, it’d make him look ineffectual and unsuitable for his title, someone who managed to get his rank out of his…connection with me.” 

Which was about how the nobles usually did things…

“But if he acts too boldly, they’d say he was trying to use me to gain power, that I’m being manipulated.” Azula growled out the last words, and this time Ren had to place a soothing hand on her shoulder to calm the girl down. “Either way, Xing would be viewed unfavorably, and I’d be seen as being too…young and emotionally compromised. I will stand for neither insult.”

“Rightfully so,” Ren agreed, and not for the first time wished that some problems could be easily solved by careful applications of daggers.

They finally reached the gardens, and Azula froze as she saw Ren’s little surprise in the center of it. The captain smiled as the girl gave a questioning and mildly stunned look.

“Mozi agreed that this one had no further value to us, so I was allowed to borrow her until Xing needed her back.”

Azula turned back to the garden’s pavilion, inside which the small assassin that wounded Xing was bound to a stone ornament improvised as a stake. Her bruises had been healed by the waterbender healers, so the only sign of her ordeal was the sheer terror in her eyes. 

Ren would’ve requisitioned the assassin’s friends as well, but apparently the wannabe theater actor with the hook blades had some rather juicy information, and the archer was being used as torture in proxy of sorts.

“I figured you could use some venting. So long as the assassin remains alive by the end of it.” The princess then followed Ren’s smug gaze around the garden, where several instructors stood guard, and then glanced back at the royal bodyguards shadowing the princess. “I assume you can pretend that we’re all just enjoying the flowers?”

For all their usual stoicism, they nodded as one, making Azula break out into a grin.

“Thank you, Ren. You can have a go once I’m done.”

“Ah, it’s alright Azula,” Ren answered laconically as she watched the little prisoner shake her gagged head in sheer terror at the princess stalking over towards her. “Can’t have you playing favorites with regimental officers, after all.”

Blue flames erupted from Azula’s hands, and Ren was treated to a masterful display of precision firebending from the crown princess. She only had to intervene four times to stop Azula from really breaking her loaned gift.

*****

The results shouldn’t have been surprising, but Iroh still found himself appalled at the way the prisoners were dealt with after their failed insurgency. The 11th were a close knit regiment after all, so the losses they took, however few that might be, were still taken almost personally. And besides, their beloved leader had been brought low by an assassin’s poison.

Such a callous reaction should be expected, but to be taken to such an extreme felt excessive. Out of consideration for being outnumbered, the 11th had broken every prisoners’ limbs and locked them in rooms like mistreated barnyard animals for convenience's sake. Iroh had seen the troughs filled with slop and water being carried over to feed them, and imagined the mutilated men crawling over the troughs like moo-sows.

The prince also heard the screams from the tortured officers as they were interrogated. It was a terrifying feat that the soldiers of the 11th could wrench out such screams from General Fong’s usually steely demeanor. Even with the torture sessions being carried out in one wing, the stench of blood and shit and terror reeked throughout the whole palace complex. Men and women made dark jokes about what they managed to make their victims endure over their meals, or complained about their victims so rudely sullying their clothes with blood and viscera as if it were a minor hazard during a chore.

That Azula gave her regiment a free hand was one thing, but Xing too did not try to stop them as Iroh had thought he might once he woke up. It was a horrifying glimpse into an infamous fighting force having their leashes loosened, at getting permission to reveal their true, bloodthirsty selves.

Worst of all, for all his dread, Iroh had no right to stop the bloody madness.

Azula had labeled the prisoners as rebels rather than prisoners of war, which meant no courtesies were considered for their wellbeing. After its own warlord era and the bloody unification that followed, the Fire Nation was far less tolerant of treachery within its own ranks than when facing the hostility of an enemy, so the crime of insurrection was similarly given a far harsher penalty that practically rescinded every right a person had.

Xing managed to somehow reduce them even further by decreeing that the insurgents were operating on a false surrender, as General Fong clearly had planned for the attack when he bent the knee to Xing.

As a retired prince, Iroh had no right in interfering in such affairs when the two teens were taking the appropriate measures, according to Fire Nation sensibilities.

The prince still remembered the whispered tales of his grandfather Sozin ruthlessly crushing any protests against his campaign to conquer the Earth Kingdom continent. Those stories tried to paint the mass public executions as being brutal, but now, seeing the fate of these prisoners locked away, Iroh began to understand that death, however agonizing as it might be, could be seen as a sweet mercy.

Iroh regretted appealing to his niece to spare the prisoners from swift execution, rather than damning them to a worse fate. 

But Iroh also knew that on paper, what the prisoners were undergoing now might be construed as being lax and indulgent for letting them live at all. After all, the 11th had managed to practice extreme restraint by only venting their wrath on the very people that tried and failed to bring them down.

The standard practice in the colonies before Azula took over was to raze a town or village to the ground if anyone in it raised a hand against Fire Nation rule. Its people might be slaughtered or allowed to spread the tale, depending on the mood of the field commander at the time. Cities would theoretically be sacked before being fed to the fires, though up until Omashu none have dared try. It was a sentiment still held by many in the courts of the home islands.

So here in Ba Sing Se, where the insulted 11th were keeping its treacherous prisoners alive for more than two days now, and the city’s populace were allowed to continue living their lives without so much as a random arrest out of suspicion?

On paper, with the broad details reported in court, it’d make it look like Xing and Azula were being immensely patient. Iroh suspected that even with the grisly details added in, some in court who saw themselves as jaded veterans might still make remarks about how the young couple were being too casual with the attempt on their lives, that heads should be rolling immediately instead.

If only Iroh could capture all the carefully sown and harvested agony, if only he could bring everyone from the royal court - his brother included - over here to experience the ruthlessness by themselves.

And that was not to mention the potential fates of those caught in the crossfire, the other Earth Kingdom armies in particular.

Iroh sighed as he laid down his bowl of tea and faced the two remaining generals. General Yiu looked resigned, while General Sung was utterly desperate.

“Is there not anything we can do to alleviate their concerns?” the latter asked, not for the first time.

The old prince sighed again as he shook his head ruefully. “I have tried talking to my niece, but the crown princess is adamant. You will either relieve your forces of most of your armory, or you will be viewed as conspirators to the failed insurrection and be dealt with appropriately.”

Yiu stared into his tea bowl for a moment before shaking his head. “We have little choice then.” The weary general looked to Iroh with his brittle composure clearly wavering. “At least tell me, Prince Iroh, are we to be…purged?” At that last word, Sung went pale and slumped back into his seat.

“I honestly wish I could tell you, general. But neither my niece nor the young prince would inform me of what is to follow next.”

“I…see…”

Iroh tried to find and offer a silver lining. “If it is of any consolation, I am sure that neither Azula or Xing would seek to extend any punishment to family members.” Yiu took some heart in it, but Sung looked no better from hearing the words.

General Yiu finally picked up his bowl of tea, but opted to stare into it with despair. “Our problem wasn’t whether we knew of Fong’s treachery or not. It was how we acted when it happened.”

“Unfortunately so,” Iroh replied with a solemn nod. He could understand that turning your blade against your comrades, regardless of reasons, could make even the most stalwart warrior hesitate. Torn between their pledge to work with Xing and Fong’s attempt to free the city, these generals and their men abstaining from the fighting was reasonable, from a certain perspective.

Perhaps even Xing could see it.

Unfortunately, public perception would not share such a view, and Xing and Azula were nothing but careful about nurturing that for their own sakes.

Still… “I will ask Prince Xing to enlighten me, or to allow you generals to appeal to him once he recovers enough to leave his room,” Iroh promised, however useless that offer was. “However ruthless he is, he has been honorable in his dealings as a commander thus far, so I have hope that he does not intend for you and your men’s unjust demise.”

“It is all we can hope for,” Yiu finally answered, and emptied his bowl of tea in a single gulp. Iroh easily forgave the general for his callous treatment of such an exquisite brew, and quietly refilled the bowl. These might be the last proper drinks these men had, it was best that they were allowed to enjoy this illusion of tranquility.

Iroh was silently relieved, however disgraceful it was, that it wouldn’t take long to find out what the generals’ fate would be. Knowing Xing, he’d want to resolve the Dai Li and the insurgent issues before the Avatar arrived.

 

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Author's notes: And that's the 100th chapter done! As before, I'll be taking a break from Focused Fire to work on other stuff. Maybe try to continue Console Heresy.

So, with 100 chapters in, how do y'all find things so far? Is the story sliding inexorably downwards into a horrible mangle of words? Is it flying far too high towards the sun Icarus-style? Are plots too contrived? Despised parts? Fav moments?

I'm open to critiques as usual, though I cannot promise that I can make the changes you might seek due to the plans I already have in mind and my limited abilities. I'm fine with hearing how much I suck though.

By the way, in case it's worth mentioning, I have a Ko-fi account if you think my work is entertaining enough to be worth some of your currency. Apparently I should be advertising myself more...

Anyways, see y'all in a bit!