Book 2: Earth

Chapter 30- Ashes

Korra fought down the urge to throw up as she exited the courtyard. She didn't know where to, but she didn't care. All she knew was that she had to get out of there, fast; as far away as she could from that courtyard of bodies.

It was just...too much, and for the first time, she noticed it in the air; the city was marked by the stench of death, of embers and burnt flesh. It was almost suffocating, the fires were still burning in the outer districts of the city where the fight had been hardest, and raining ash from the sky like snow.

A fierce whirlwind of emotions clawed through Korra's mind as she made her way to the barracks, ranging from fear, anger and finally, disgust. She had seen the brutality of the Phoenix Empire firsthand, but not like this, never like this- and it sickened her. A part of her didn't want to leave Zhenjin alone like that. She saw it in his eyes, the same isolation and pressure that she felt from her own experience as the Warden's top student, along her recent knowledge of being revealed the Avatar. And the way he had talked to her with his pained, almost pleading voice sent shivers through her, because it probably wasn't too far from what she felt herself all through her life.

But all she could see were the corpses around him, and the sickening realization that she had contributed to it.

To be sure, she wasn't the one who personally ordered the execution, but she had a hand to play in defeating the Earth Kingdom general, and helping the Phoenix Empire obtain their victory. In her mind, there wasn't any difference at all. The blood may as well have been on her hands as well. And not just that, they used her to achieve their means.

At that point, she couldn't help but remember something that she heard not so long ago...

"Don't bother Tarrlok, She's just a dog of the Fire Nation."

That thought struck home, and Korra blinked away the tears in her eyes as she continued running.

She didn't get far as suddenly, the deafening roar of engines and propellers filled the air, and Korra looked upwards to see the massive steel airships of the Fire Navy Armada rising into the sky, and turning eastwards. Most likely heading towards the city of Omashu and the Southern Earth Kingdom villages.

No...

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The sky had turned blood red this day, and it was appropriate, considering the work that had to be done.

Admiral Chan smiled grimly as he surveyed the first of his airships taking off from Yu Dao. There were at least six of the crimson dreadnoughts in the sky, their gargantuan shapes overshadowing the battlefield, and they were on the move eastward. With Giam's army out of the way, there was nothing to stop his ships, and the crews were given the same instructions as Fire Lord Ozai had given them twenty years before, to burn the Earth Kingdom to ashes.

He chuckled lightly at the thought of the Earth Kingdom engineering their own airship. But what was most amusing was the fact that the Earth Kingdom thought that they would get the upper hand with just one airship, when the Fire Nation had been mass-producing them for decades. Their arrogance was almost insulting, but even he had to admit that they were onto something. The design of the Goliath Airship itself was marvelous, and Chan wasted no time in having his own engineers examine its burning husk in the hopes of producing their own brand of them.

Who knows? Maybe in time, we would have a fleet of them. It would be useful to have them against those blasted water tribes...

Chan smiled at that thought. The future would be an interesting one indeed.