War of Change | Book 3

11: The Aftermath

Art: Young Love by Clare Elsaesser

3rd Person

There was a chance, it was a slim chance, but there had been a chance that they could have won. If only Kida had played her cards right. All it took was one little sacrifice.

If she had saved her abilities for later, if she had let Bane die, then she could have made it up that mountain with everyone else. She could have joined the team that searched for Ozai. There would have been obstacles, but they would have surpassed them.

They might have even found the Fire Lord. There wasn't a chance that Aang would face him and finish the job, but Kida could. With the eclipse shielding them and Kida's abilities heightened, she would not have hesitated to kill the Fire Lord. And there would be victory.

They could have won, but Bane would have had to die. Would Kida had accepted that path had it been made an option for her? Maybe it was better for her soul that she didn't have to make that decision.

What happened instead didn't make the world feel any brighter.

It was absolute chaos after what happened with Kida. Like some of the firebenders she had inspired, those closest to her had a difficult time continuing on. All of the soldiers who had fired on her were nearly beat into a pulp by Zuko's former crew, but there was no real point. Her whole body was chard. There was no way she could have survived it.

Katara could barely stand after receiving a concussion from her sister's actions. Her legs wobbled. She stumbled down onto her knees several times but kept standing back out, each time her screams tearing her throat open wider and wider. Sokka barely had any feeling in his body. He acted mechanically, running to his last surviving sister and wrapping his arms around her to hold her back, barely keeping her from falling over the edge of the cliff and joining the rest of the women of their family.

Hakoda had just been injured. The pressure he put on the gash on his abdomen fell loose as he felt his whole body weaken. The pain of the physical injury was nothing compared to the pain of what he had just seen. It had happened all over again. First his father, then his wife, and now his daughter. The spirits were playing a cruel joke on their family.

Bane could hardly move. He just stared at the body through his swollen eye with the same horror on his expression as before.

Toph might not have seen what had happened, but she could feel it. She felt the energy slam through the earth as dozens of firebenders unleashed their attack. As smoke clouded everyone else's vision, she had felt the body wilt. Muscles constricted, and skin turned to char, filling the air with a horrible acrid odor. However, the worst part was likely that Toph knew she was still alive. Her heart was still pounding. It had gone into shock and was beating a mile a minute, but she was still there. She was still alive, and she could feel it all.

Toph didn't know what to do with this knowledge. She wasn't naive enough to think Kida could be saved. It would take a miracle for that. Maybe a tub full of spirit water could have a chance, but they didn't have that. They didn't have anything to help her. No one knew what to do.