Problems Unsolved

Kenji had just been transford to the garrison at Ba Sing Se. he had stared at the huge walls of the city and marveled at the arcetecture of the palace. he was then shown to his quaters after the long march over here. he had been bunked with two other people how he had not met "must be on patrol" he said to himself as he unpacked his things and layed inbed to try to get some shut eye.

only an hour after he fell asleep he was awoken for a tour of the walls, he and the some of the others had been instructed to tour the walls and get familier with the city. he had broken away form the group into the armory, he gazed out over the stacks of polished weapons. he then walked back out to the walls and walked back to back across them. Kenji became tired and sat looking out toward the inner part of the city and was amazed.

Aion walked a while, looking away finally from the palace. He was still on the outer walls admiring the view. The distant mountains and the rolling hills caught his eye. A group of soldier walked past and stopped.

"Good morning, General Aion, sir."

"Good Morning. Where are you all heading off to?" Aion asked.

One of the soldier looked to his feet as if in shame and then back up to Aion. His look was that of either exhaustion or sadness. Aion was perplexed by his change and wondered what had happened.

"We are off to the recruitment depot to hand in our uniforms. The Earth King has deemed it that he no longer needs our help... nor half of the entire military's it seems." Answered the soldier.

"What!? The Earth King had laid off half of the military?" Aion asked surprised and enraged.

"Yes, sir. It seems that in this time of peace, he wishes for a smaller force. We will have to look for other jobs." Said another soldier.

Aion looked from one soldier to the next. He felt as though he was punched through the stomach. Those soldiers had served with him through many a battle. They shed blood for this nation. A fire burned within him at that moment. He felt he couldn't contain his rage any longer. He looked back to the palace with the look of a madman. Unconsciously, his grip upon the Guan Dao tightened.

"You men, stay low for a while. I am sure that after I talk with the Earth King himself, he will reconsider." Aion said.

Before the grateful soldiers could answer, Aion had started to walk off, straight toward the palace.

"But sir, I don't understand. Why is this necessary?" An officer of the earth military pleaded to the king. Shenrai looked back at him, uninterested in what he had to say. With a snap of his finger, the man was sent on his way. "So troublesome..." He sighed to himself as he sat back in his throne. A small flock of birds flew by the windows of his throneroom, other than their chirping it was quiet and the room seemed still.

An imperial guard stepped through the large chamber doors, he held a small scroll underneath his arm. "Sir, information has come to our attention." Shenrai looked up, a little curious but no changes in his facial expression were present. "Step forward, carry on." The guard moved up along the rug leading to the large chair. Halting himself in the middle of the room, he opened the scroll and recited it to the earth king.

"Forwarded from the Fire Nation," Already the king glared in discontent. He desipised the Fire Nation and held a strong loathing towards their people. But he let the message continue. "Sent by the Northern Water Tribe. It seems that th-" Another guard stepped into the room, a little anxious but he was calm. Shenrai didn't react to this fondly.

"What is it? I'm receiving a message right now." The guard kneeled down in apology, he wasn't fond of the earth king's temper or his actions of resolve. But he'd set that aside for now, he wanted to get this through to him. "Forgive me, sir. General Aion is outside these doors, he wishes to have a moment of your time." The angry expression was wiped from his face, what could the general want? "Send him in. Guardsman, read me my message afterwards." With a bow, both guards left the room, leaving the throneroom doors open. Shenrai awaited patiently for the man to step in.

Aion waited outside of the large palace doors. A guard had gone within the throne chamber to tell the King that he had come. After a few moments of waiting, Aion was allowed in. He tried to wipe the anger from his face as best he could.

Upon entering, he could never help but look to the high vaulted ceilings and the immaculate designs. A long silken carpet lay out from the high throne of the King, which Aion walked on and then knelt before the King for a moment, before standing back up and and started.

"Greeting Earth King Shenrai. I have come to discuss a rather urgent matter with you. This concerns me very much, as I am in charge of your military. I have been informed by many soldiers that you have cut the military in half... why is this, my lord?"

"Ah, you're concerned about my actions towards the military." Getting up from his throne, Shenrai walked over to Aion. With a hand gesture, the king lead him over to the large windows. "look out there, general. The fields of green, the skies of blue. Everything here is in great peace." Walking over towards the other side, he looked out the other window. "This has been a time of happiness my friend. You see, there is no need for military activity. I have been letting go of these soldiers because they are unneeded. The wars and dangers towards our land has ended and we have rebuilt successfully over time. But it seems that a large army is no longer required."

Shenrai walked back to his seat and sat down. Watching Aion, he continued. "I can't afford to keep all of the soldiers, general. And at times such as this, they are only causing us debt. Something had to be done."

Aion thought for a while. He knew that there was something else going on behind the scenes... he just had yet to figure what that was. He knew that the reasons were somewhat justified as of now, but even Aion could see that it was causing more poverty than needed. Also, he could see that a large army would still be needed to keep domestic peace, as well as to compare with the other nations.

Finally, he also had a bad feeling. He couldn't point out what it was, but he knew that there was still strife in the world, and that lessening the military would be a horrible decision on the Kings part. But he knew that the King would not be one to agree with such things. After all, the King was only acting benevolent to him because of the threat of death that Aion posed. The current King was weak, and very very corrupt.

"Lord Shenrai, although I do not agree with such decisions... I shall respect yours. I suppose that I shall take my leave from you, Lord. May we meet again." Aion said.

After leaving the Palace, Aion knew that he had to do something about the situation. The military had shrunk ten fold under the King. He was a treacherous snake that had to be dealt with as soon as possible. None of the royal blood should be one to take underhanded bribes, and horrible deeds such as the ones that the King had done. There was only one answer for Aion: To stage a coup d'état.

Kenji had finaly ceased his scouting of the wall and began to walk through the streets. he passed the vendors and bough a small loaf of bread and put it into his bag. he had missed the details of the city from the wall and they were beautiful. he continued through the city and stoped at a small park like to rest on the bench. he pulled out his small loaf and broke it and began to eat. the wind was low but you could still feel the cool flow of air that caused ripples in the small pond. Kenji sat there for awile longer

An imperial guard watched as General Aion stepped out of the king's room. Following him before the king sent him back in, he tried to keep this low so no one would hear him. He hid behind a pillar, attempting to call over the general.

"Psssst, General Aion. Come over here, quickly." The guard felt disobediant to his king for what he was about to do. But this was the only way, he knew that the king was up to no good. "The king, he's awful. He's destroyed us as a whole, who knows what he'll do next." A little jittery, he tried to keep himself quiet as he continued.

"If I am found doing this, I will be destroyed. A message came in for king Shenrai. I can't give you the scroll, but I can give you the message. Maybe it can help us stop our king from becoming too powerful and ruining us all."

Aion's eyes grew wide. He put a hand onto the guards shoulder in respect. Taking the message, he slipped it into his tunic pocket beneath his armor. He looked back to the guard and nodded.

"You might just have helped this country more than that man will ever hope. When are you off duty? I have an idea, and I will need support." Aion asked the Royal Guard.

"Unfortunately, friend, I am on duty until night falls. I must be getting back to my post, the king will be furious if he doesn't get the message. I'm just hoping that with you knowing it will serve us a great purpose before Shenrai thinks of something to do about it."

Looking around with hawk eyes, the guard slowly began to walk off. He kept a low voice as he finished his conversation with the general. "I will find you on the wall by the militia outpost. Be waiting there when the moon rises." And with that he was off. It seemed another guard was looking for him, for he was escorted back into the king's chamber.

Kenji had finished his bread and had gotton a message to be put onto duty. he was to survey the walls and keep them strong. he got some thing together and began the walk to the wall. as he arrived he had walked slowly along the very edge of the wall to look for impurities and anything else that could comprimise the wall. Keji had gotton through one third of the distance and had fixed three cracks along the way. he rested and pulled out another piece of the bread and began to nibble away at it as he did his inspection.

"The Avatar has been announced in the Northern Water Tribe. It appears that the waterbenders have set him off on his journey." The guard had read through the scroll, the king seemed pleased. A smirk crossed his face as he raised a hand towards the guard. "Excellent, this is wonderful news. Our Avatar has returned to the world."

Watching Shenrai think to himself, the guard also had thoughts on his mind. He hoped that General Aion had gotten to reading the message about the Avatar's return. This was big news and it could be the end of the earth king's tyranny of the earth kingdom and its people. "That will be all for now, guard. I want to be alone for now." Kneeling before Shenrai, he did as he ordered and stepped out of the room. This was his chance to get to the outpost by the far wall of Ba Sing Se.

Aion had read the message. He re-read it carefully again and again. He felt elated. The Avatar was back, and going upon his journey to learn the elements no doubt. He folded the message and put it back within his robes. Looking at the time, the sun had since then gone down, and it was about time to meet the Royal Guard at the outer wall of Ba Sing Se.

Aion headed off to the outer wall and found a few guards on duty, watching the surroundings. He headed atop the wall and found the Royal Guard leaning against the battlement waiting.

"I have come."

Kenji had gotton through a little more then half the wall and have signed off four reports. the wall had been taken care off, which most walls should be. although he has seen some walls that should havee fallen by just steping onto it, But not this one it would take weeks to tear this wall down. He finished filling a crack in the wall and climbed back up the side of the wall. "whew" Kenji had said to himself out of tiredness. He signed another piece of paper and continued his route looking over the side of the wall

"Tell me about your plan, general. I hope that my information proves useful to what you have in mind." The guard remained comfortable against the battlement. He knew the general was a great tactician and what not. But if he was thinking correctly, how could they possibly get the help of the Avatar? Especially so soon? There were a few questions that needed to be answers and yet couldn't be answered.

"It's great to know that the Avatar is once again among us. If he's making his journey now, he must have mastered waterbending completely by now. According to the cycle he should be off to learn earth next. Do you think..?" Looking at general Aion directly, the guard was thinking hard about what he was saying. He didn't want to misinterprete anything.

Aion frowned at this. He leaned with the Guard on the battlement and sighed.

"Listen, it would be very unwise to get the Avatar of all people mixed up in this nations internal affairs. He already has to worry about mastering all of the elements. The last thing he needs is to have to quell uprising in the largest nation of the land. It would cause trouble for him, and us. This must be concluded by Ba Sing Se's own people." Aion stated.

Aion looked to the palace again, filled with a sense of anger and sorrow. He thought for a few minutes over the plan he had formulated in his mind. It seemed plausible, and as a tactician himself, practical.

"I have a plan... I myself and going to stage a coup d'état. I will gather the most loyal of my own forces and march upon the Earth King's palace..." Aion looked around cautiously to make sure none were listening. "My forces will no longer be known as the Earth Kingdom military... I am going to bring back the Dai Li. With them, I will... kill the Earth King myself. Afterward, the entire kingdom will be able to decide who is right for the position as Earth King. Someone who is fair, strong, and loyal to his country!" Aion said.

"The Dai Li..." The guard pondered to himself. He knew that in the past, the Dai Li were manipulative of the king and attempted to overthrow all of the earth kingdom. But with the general's good intentions this might just work out for the greater good. There's just one problem that comes to mind.

"General Aion, there's just one thought about this plan. To manipulate the king would be a hard task to accomplish. He knows of how the past Dai Li had worked to rule over the earth kingdom, do you think he'd allow them to come back?"

Aion smiled at this. He looked out to the palace again and then back to the Guard.

"The Dai Li were known for being the secret service of the Earth King. They could have been considered the most skilled of all of the Earth Benders in all four of the kingdoms. Yes, they were corrupt, but that was then. This is now. It will be a new day... and a new Dai Li. I will reform the Dai Li.. new members, and a new creed. We will be like the special forces of the Earth Kingdom. Perfect for taking out that corrupt bastard Shenrai!" Aion said happily as he referred to the King as something less so.