Disclaimer: Never been mine.

A/N: Speculation about something in 'The Southern Air Temple' that I always found odd.

If you are confused, reading 'Shi ni Ichi' could clarify some things.

Agni Zanti

"So, what were the airbenders like?"

Colonel Kizua, the eldest of the three Fire Nation soldiers sitting around a campfire in the middle of the Earth Kingdom, looked at Officer Zurashi, a woman who was barely more than a child. His brows furrowed, bringing out the deep lines on his face. He didn't answer.

Corporal Wei Lee, however, stroked his goatee and appeared to think. "Crafty," he said, after a moment. "Tricky. Foreign. They thought in strange ways. Odd angles, like."

The Corporal had never spoken with an airbender. He had never let his relationship with them get personal enough to exchange words.

Zurashi leaned forward, propping her chin in her hands. "And their temple fortresses? What were they like?"

"Huge! Immensely fortified with twisting architecture. There were stairs that ended in nothing, and cliffs that dropped into the depths of the earth!"

"Lying doesn't become you, Wei Lee."

Both the Officer and the Corporal turned to look when Kizua spoke. The Colonel was frowning deeply.

Wei Lee sputtered. "It's true! I've read the reports."

"You never saw it."

"You did, though, didn't you?" Wei Lee smiled thinly. "Correct me, then. I'd hate to spread false information."

Kizua turned back to look at the campfire. Wei Lee was not a bender. He had not accompanied his peers during the attack on the temples. But he was skilled with a jian, and had been part of the later purges.

"The temples…" Kizua trailed off.

Wei Lee shook his head, and turned back to Zurashi. "You want to know about airbenders? They're nothing special. They're delicate. No armor, no weapons, unless you count their sticks. They're fast, true, though all you need to face an airbender is a steady hand and good aim."

Kizua snorted.

"Kizua," said Wei Lee patronizingly. "Surely you can't say I'm wrong about this. I've fought the air rats. I know."

"You've fought them?" The Colonel's eyes narrowed. "You've picked them off from behind while they talked to some sap with a shaved head and blue paint."

Wei Lee frowned, and Zurashi glanced back and forth between her two superiors. "Well, that's how it's done. Don't give me flack about methods. It's not like they were Fire Nation. There's no honor in killing airbenders, no matter how you do it. They have no concept of it."

Kizua was silent for a moment, then spoke.

"You're wrong, Wei Lee. You are as wrong as can be."

"Am I?" Wei Lee looked smug. "Everyone knows it's true."

Kizua made a sound close to a growl. "Listen. I was a Seargent, during the offensive on the Southern Air Temple fortress. After a few hours, one of my men spotted an airbender in the temple's lower plaza. It was one of the old ones, and he'd been burnt, from the foot-" Kizua gestured on his own body. "-to the shin. Burnt badly. And I thought to myself: someone's aim was off.

"He was hobbling around with a staff, not going anywhere, so I sent my squad down to take care of him. The comet was bright in my blood, and I was expecting it to take all of ten seconds.

"The old airbender went into this little shack with a cloth roof, and I saw my squad follow him in. A few seconds later, I saw the light of their flames, but it lasted only a moment. The wind started howling around, and the cloth started…" Kizua waved his hand in the air, mimicking flapping fabric. "But that only lasted a moment, too. Then everything went quiet and still, and I was wondering what was taking my men so long.

"I went down after about a minute, because neither my men nor the airbender had come out. But the moment I stepped up close to that little building, my ears made this little pop noise, and my knees and elbows started hurting terribly. You can bet all your wages that I backed out of there, and a minute or so after that, the cloth started going again.

"Well, my joints were feeling better, so I tried stepping inside again. This time, nothing. I felt fine. But when I moved the cloth aside, I saw them. All my men, every one of them, were dead. They were lying all over the ground…" Kizua paused for a moment, and sighed. "And there wasn't a mark on 'em. Not one.

"And there was the one old airbender, all in the middle of it. I thought for sure he was just sitting there, and I was ready to kill him. But when I got close, I could see he was dead too."

Zurashi looked at the Colonel with wide eyes. "What happened?" she asked.

Kizua looked back at his subordinate. "I can't be sure, exactly. Who knows what the airbenders were capable of? But it was clear to me that he'd killed himself to take out my men."

"Well!" said Wei Lee suddenly. "I suppose he couldn't have known it was going to kill him to do it. That doesn't make sense."

"Don't be a fool, Wei Lee. It does. It's Agni Zanti. The final rest of the honorable."

Zurashi raised an eyebrow questioningly, and Wei Lee scoffed. "Agni Zanti? Self-immolation? Are you serious, Kizua? No one takes that seriously anymore!"

"Then apparently, the airbenders were more honorable than everyone."

Zurashi took a sharp breath, and Wei Lee's eyes widened. "Kizua, that's…"

The Colonel grunted. "I know what it is. But I know what I saw. And I saw that the old airbender had honor. That's why I didn't move him, or my men, when they came through with the sweeps. It's bad luck to disturb something like that."

Now Wei Lee looked horrified. "You didn't cremate the fallen?"

"No. I'm not concerned for their spirits, if that's what you mean. They died in the most honorable way, and I fully believe they were welcomed into the Spirit World."

Zurashi stared at the Colonel in shock, and Wei Lee's expression held a kind of closed hostility. "Officer Zurashi," said Wei Lee. "I think we should check to see if a messenger hawk has arrived."

The two got to their feet, and Wei Lee bid Zurashi towards the makeshift hawkery. "Don't listen to the Colonel," he murmured to her as they left the fire behind. "He's seen too much battle, and it's addled his mind. I doubt that whole business with the airbender even happened…"

Behind them, Colonel Kizua sat alone at the campfire and watched the flames as they danced in the smoke, like ghosts.

A/N: 'Zanti' is Sanskrit for both 'peace of mind' and 'death.'