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Liberation is the tenth chapter of Avatar: Guardian.

Synopsis[]

Team Avatar and Zhentu arrive in his hometown and try and rescue the surviving Firebenders. Things go bad, and there is a large battle.

Plot[]

Team Avatar flies towards Zhentu's hometown. Zuko asks him about the town, how many benders and warriors were there.

"Well, we're a small village, and we've never had any real warriors, but we had plenty benders, but they're probably all gone now. I'm not sure how many of us survived, and since I've been gone-only a few days-the village may have been wiped out."

Aang snaps Appa's reigns "We won't let that happen. Yip-Yip!" Appa speeds forward with a mighty roar. As they near the village, Aang decides that they will try to ambush the Firefighters, so the team decides to get off of Appa about half a mile away from the village and walk the rest of the way.

Toph stops the group when they near the town. "Wait guys. I can feel a lot of people there. Hundreds of them."

Zhentu is the only one who realizes the significance of this. "We barely had 200 people before they took over."

"That means there are hundreds of Waterbenders there."

Aang asks Zuko, "Do you have any of those army units nearby?"

"No, they're all tracking the Phoenix Warriors. They could be of real help now, but oh well."

Sokka suggests that they search for any Firebenders held captive. "If they've been imprisoned, maybe they'll be willing to help us."

The team agrees and they begin searching for Firebenders. They manage to find a large building on the outskirts of town with barred windows. Toph puts her hand on it and senses some people inside. She puts her other hand on the wall and sinks a large rectangle into the ground, so the team can get in. They walk in to see some Fire Nation civilians inside. Zhentu does not recognize any of them by name, but can tell they all are Firebenders. They all agree to help fight for their freedom. One prisoner tells the location of the Firefighter's main base in the city. "It's what used to be the mayor's palace. Their leader was here, but he left one of his cronies in charge when he left for another island."

Sokka thinks they need some information on the leader of the waterbenders. "What did he look like? It could help us in the future."

"He was in his early 20's. I don't remember anything about his face, but he kept water on his wrists at all times. He launched water like it was fire, and put out all of our fire with it and used it to cut us. That guy was unstoppable."

Zuko muttered under his breath "We'll have to see about that."

Just as the words left his lips, a waterbender jumped down from on top of the roof and landed about five feet from the small group. He screams out to the rest of the city that there are intruders, and turns to attack the group with a water blast. Katara caught the attack, circled it around her back, and fired it back towards him as a fury of icicles. The Firefighter stopped them, and sent back as jets of water, one to Toph, and one to Aang. Katara intercepted Toph's jet, and Aang caught his jet and formed it into a water whip. He used it to trip the Firefighter, just as Katara redirected the blast to knock him back into the wall. As he fell, numerous others showed up, which Toph was quick to point out. "Guys, we have more company."

Some Firefighters come in through the hole Toph created, while others just crashed through the walls. Knowing that they would not be able to fight in such a small space, Zuko whispered a plan to Toph. A brief smile came to her face, as she turned around and created a five-foot tall Earth wall and pushed it towards the Firefighters approaching through the hole she made. Zuko called for the rest of the team to follow him as he ran out through the path Toph just cleared.

Toph and Sokka went first with the firebenders, while Aang and Katara deflected the water from the Firefighters. Eventually, Zuko stopped in an open space, convenient for his needs. Unfortunately, he turned around to see a large Waterbender standing behind him, easily six and a half feet. Zuko knew he should have expected this, but was surprised when the waterbender was launched into the air by an earth pillar. The waterbender landed a few feet away, and got up to see who had attacked him. He looked and only saw some Firebenders, a swordsman, and a blind Earth Kingdom girl who looked too happy, who sarcastically said "Hey, Tiny. Want some more?" The Firefighter got angry and stomped the ground. The group noticed he was wearing ice boots, and that as he crushed them, causing ice to layer the ground. He pulled the water up and formed it into an ice ball, which he fired at Toph. She pulled rocks onto her and caught the ice, which pushed her back a few feet. She dropped the ice and covered it in earth, before firing off her armor at the Firefighter. He seemed to be able to take it, and only was pushed back a few feet. A small grin flashed on his face as he put his arms straight in front of him and pulled the ice out of the ground as water. Zuko began shooting fire at him, but he was able to dodge most of the blasts. He extinguished the last one easily with a water shield, then used the water to be launched as a jet this time towards Sokka. Toph nudged the earth and Sokka slid out of the way before the water hit him.

"Yeah, I think I'm better off fighting some weaker benders." Sokka charged off towards the few captured Firebenders along with Aang and Katara, who were battling the rest of the Firefighters.

Aang was fighting multiple benders, and was using almost exclusively waterbending. Two waterbenders fired jets of water at him from completely opposite angles, and he bent one stream under his left arm towards the other Firefighter and the second stream to a bender who was trying to sneak up on Katara before firing an air blast at the other Firefighter that bended at him. He fired a horizontal air swipe aimed at the Firefighters fighting the civilians, and turned back to see Sokka coming at him.

"Aang, you may need to help fighting this guy. Toph and Zuko are having a really hard time."

Aang blew a few advancing Firefighters away from Sokka then jumped on his glider and flew off to help them. Sokka looked into the air after Aang for a few seconds before assisting in the battle. He sees Zhentu fighting four Firefighters, and decides to help, before Zhentu kicks down one and blasts another in the chest.

"I guess he doesn't need help." The two remaining Firefighters launch water at his head, and Zhentu ducks and blast the two at the same time, causing them to fly back ten feet. He then glares briefly at Sokka and sprints towards him. He grabs Sokka by the shoulder, pulls him to his knees, and fires a blast over his head. Zhentu looks down to see Sokka with his hands over his head, briefly cowering.

"I thought you were attacking me! Stop laughing!" Sokka yelled at Zhentu as he left with a grin.

Sokka followed Zhentu into the center of the fight, slashing the Firefighters. He didn't want to have to do this, but since they were attacking him, he had no choice. Sokka fought his way to the center, where he found a waterbender using a sword made of ice. Sokka snuck up on him and cut the blade of ice, but before he could attack, Katara fired a water jet at him, knocking him out. "Sorry, Sokka. You need to go faster." Sokka shot a glare at his sister and continued attacking.

Aang flew off in the direction Sokka came from, and saw earth and fire flying throughout the air. He quickly landed and brought a rock from the ground over his head until it was in front of him and fired it towards the large waterbender.

Although he was turned the other way, he quickly turned around and used a water blade to cut through the rock before it hit him. He briefly let his guard down after he got a good look at Aang. "The Avatar, huh?" He spoke in a grunt-like tone "I'm Karno. Master Mitros said to kill you. Too bad. You seem 'special'." He fired the water he had floating in front of him backwards, crashing into Zuko and almost cutting through the earth wall Toph barely had time to make.

Iceberg spikes

Karno sends ice spikes at Toph

"Watch it, freak!" As she said that, the waterbender shot ice spikes at her. Since she couldn't see them, Zuko had to get up and create a wall of fire in front of her to absorb the points. "Didn't see that coming..." Toph pulled numerous rocks out of the ground, which she shot at the waterbender. He got hit by one, but managed to dodge the rest, which almost hit Aang. He pulled an earth wall up and stopped the rocks and jumped over it to fire an air wave at Karno.

Karno froze water in front of himself, and felt only a slight breeze along the sides. He then saw Zuko forming a fire whip and Karno used the ice to do the same. Zuko tried to swipe the whip down, but Karno dodged and took out his legs. Toph knew exactly where he would land, and began sucking him into the ground when his leg first touched the ground. It almost worked, but, he dropped the water and used his arms to keep his upper body from being sucked down. He then bent the water into the hole and began increasing the size of the pit. Within a minute, he had climbed back out.

Toph sensed him getting up. "Didn't expect that." She sent an earth pillar, but Karno jumped back and used his water to cut the

Zuko blocks attack

Zuko blocks Karno's retaliation

earth into pieces and then pushed them towards Zuko. He formed a fire wall and the earth was burnt. Karno formed the water into a compact ice ball and began swinging it back and forth between the team. It hit Zuko clean in the chest, Toph and Aang could dodge it. Aang pulled his sword hilt out and began using it, swiping through the ice ball before it could hit him. He expected for Karno to surrender, since he didn't have any more water to bend. Karno formed the ice ball back together behind Aang and hit him from the back. As Karno prepared to attack Aang while he was down, Zuko launched a fire arc that knocked Karno to his knees, and Toph trapped his legs and arms in earth. As he struggled, Toph continued to build the casing around him to trap him.

Katara used the Octopus form to great effect here, since she was absorbing her opponent's attacks and adding it to her octopus. After the attacker had used all their water, she would grab them and throw them away, apologizing the entire time. "Sorry!" she said as one of the Firefighters landed on their head. One Firefighter had seemed to learn, attacking her with a water whip from a distance. She began conducting the Octopus with one arm and caught the water whip with the other arm, which she sent right back. She noticed the numbers of the Firefighters were thinning, and looked towards a crowd a distance to her right. She saw a few fire blasts coming out and heard clanking of a sword blade. She began using the octopus to pull Firefighters out from the outside of the group. Zhentu saw this and knew that Sokka had been fighting someone really skilled before he came here, and decided to meet him. With a dark glare in his eye, he launched a massive jet of fire right at the area that Katara was thinning from the back. He ran out of the area calling to Sokka "Cover me!" He needed to make sure he wasn't going to be hit from the rear. He sprinted in the direction of fire blasts and rocks crashing.

Aang got up and made sure that Zuko and Toph were alright. They decided since he was so skilled, he must be at a high rank and he must know something important. They told him that he needed to tell the truth since Toph could tell if he was lying. He told them little, besides claiming the superiority of the Water Tribe and saying they were led by Mitros. At that moment, Zhentu showed up in front of Karno. He finally spoke "More Fire Nation scum... Wait, I know your face, boy."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I think I killed your family. Too bad then. If I was free, I'd let you join them."

Zhentu's eyes began burning, and a tear fell down cheek. He stared at Karno for a moment, before firing a massive jet of fire into his face at point blank range. Aang, Zuko, and Toph are shocked, and Zuko manages to stop him, but Karno is dead. Upon realizing this, Zhentu seems to be feeling better, but remained stern. He bowed to the team, who were still in shock, and thanked them for their assistance before turning and going back the his family's former home.

Trivia[]

  • This was the longest chapter up until this point, later being easily topped by several other chapters.

See more

For the collective works of the author, go here.

v - e - dAvatar: Guardian Chapters
Book One: Water
Tensions - From the Ashes - The Dai Li Arise - Sokka's Training - The Sons of Azulon Pt. 1 - Memories of Ozai - The Sons of Azulon Pt. 2 - Wisdom of Iroh - The New Adventure - Ever-Changing Plans - Announcing a War - Liberation - What We Have Become - Being Assaulted - Flood Damage - The Follow-Up - Retaliation - The Last Stronghold - The Fall - Aang Goes Home - Ambush of the South Pt. One - The Ambush - Ambush of the South Pt. Two - Counterstrike
Book Two: Earth
The Hunt Begins - Like Old Times - New Discoveries - The King and the Peasant - Town of Fear - Infiltration - The Bunker - The Mayor's Tale - Turbulence - Omashu Attacked Part 1 - Omashu Attacked Part 2 - Ursa's Story - Roads and Pathways - The Airbending Master - Evading an Agent - Return to Gaoling - The Mansion - A Master and A Traitor - The Dai Li Part 1 - The King's Return - The Dai Li Part 2 - Kyoshi's Revenge
Book Three: Fire
The Burning Threat - Bitter Reunion Part 1 - Bitter Reunion Part 2 - The Camp - Wildfire - Penalties - Orders - Ruins - Denial - Timeless Security Part 1 - Preservation - Timeless Security Part 2 - Future Peace - Burning Ashes - Reborn in Fire - The Revolution - The New Direction - Clash of the Warriors Part 1 - Clash of the Warriors Part 2 - The Capitol Part 1 - Absolute Rebellion - The Capitol Part 2 - The Final Journey - The Capitol Part 3 - Blazing Passion - The Capitol Part 4 - The True Heart
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