I sat on one of the pillars with a throne made of earth, with five other members doing the same. The whole place is massive and foggy outside the circle of pillars, where only the underground ceiling could be seen. Each pillar had a green-wearing man who stayed close to their pillar, with the job being to move the pieces on the massive map spanning the interior of the circle. It's the map of the world, and there are already pieces of different colors based on their respective factions.
This secret meeting place inside a mountain close to Omashu came out well as expected. More than a hundred pure earthbenders that are loyal to my organization have created this within a week.
My back leaned on the hard throne, and I said, "Begin."
As the strategist of the group, Yana was the first one to give her report. "I want to address some interesting developments in the western frontline. After years of supplying the Earth Kingdom with weapons and machines through Earthen, they have started pushing back the Fire Nation. Just before this meeting, they successfully retaken a major city. If this continues, the war will soon have a temporary end, which will make our plans stop as well." She said, "If this happens, Ba Sing Se's attention might be drawn to us and we can't even stop the supply of arms without retaliation from Ba Sing Se and its loyal kingdoms."
"I can tell I will have a part in the next moves. Please tell me. Me and the secret army are ready for whatever we are called for." Hiro announced, his usual serious expression stayed even as he grew older. He was the pillar in charge of the secret army, being appointed as the supreme commander by me. Over the years, he has managed to recruit people from merely Omashu to people in different cities. I remembered that we have 15,300 ready to be deployed, and another 5,240 in training. And those soldiers were composed of 30% earthbenders, and the rest were highly trained and loyal non-benders.
We could have recruited more, but it's highly risky and might put us on the other cities' radar, especially Ba Sing Se. Fortunately, I have a secret unit that executes anyone who tries to betray the organization, as well as spies all over the Earth Kingdom, including Ministers in Ba Sing Se.
"Indeed, I will need your army for this next move. But not the main army, but the rebels that I've asked you to fund and train. Let them cause some chaos to slow the Earth Kingdom's movements for now while we decide what to do next." What Yana meant by we, is me and her only. It's been a few years since we decided to sponsor some rebels in the west, who are made up of only 107 members, based on my memory. Now, over the years, it became much more, becoming an official army. Its size is 4,603. It may look intimidating, but it's mainly composed of non-benders, and that's why we didn't order them to make large moves that can infuriate closer cities, and simply ordered them to become more like an activist group who wanted Nobles to be removed and to grow big and wait for the orders.
This seems to be a perfect opportunity to see what they're made of. Of course, we didn't just give them weapons but trained them as well.
Hiro frowned with a look of realization. "I think I forgot to mention that the leader of the rebels is just a non-bender who is simply good at strategies and weapon handling. If he dies, then the rebels will not function well after, and I can't just tell him to hide from the frontline and simply give orders, as that can be seen as weakness. The rebels need a strong leader who can maintain the rebels as it is and turn them into a bigger army without the risk of dying on the battlefield."
"And? Do you have a person for it?" Yana inquired.
Hiro immediately shook his head. "The secret army has many strong leaders, but I'm afraid that any of them can handle an army from the Earth Kingdom with merely their strength. We need someone from our ranks to replace the leader of the rebels."
I looked at the weakest member of my group, the one that I personally liked the least out of everyone due to his personality. "Jin, you will do it."
Jin looked extremely surprised. "Why me? I still have many things that aren't completed yet. I mean, Rama is always in Omashu. I know he's manipulative and yadayada, but shouldn't he-"
I looked at him with bored eyes, and my anger rose quickly after hearing the long rambling. The whole place shook as I violently engulfed the whole place with my Qi.
"I will… do it." Jin accepted with a face full of sweat, looking down at the map below to try hiding his embarrassment.
I would have long killed him if only he weren't a master earthbender, probably one of the strongest in the whole earth kingdom outside our group. And, he was also what my children always played with the most. Even Bumi wasn't close to my children, and I thought he would be a fun uncle since he was extremely carefree and insane, but it was the opposite instead.
"Come on, Jin… Why do you always have to bring me into your business, whatever you're in a mess?" Rama said, hiding his face behind a fan. He was probably doing that creepy smile again which he couldn't control. "Anyway, as Guan ordered, my subordinates have started filling the cities around Omashu with loyalists to our group. Soon, I will just need an order to dispose of the royal families without their respective cities knowing, just like what we did to the Omashu royal family."
"Wait, they're gone? What about Dora? Why doesn't she come back to me yet?" Bumi questioned, worry was plastered on his face. The Dora he was talking about is the child of his pet Goat Gorilla, which a minister offered to the former king of Omashu to get close to him.
"Not now, Bumi," I told him, putting Bumi to a stop.
"Everyone here did a good job with anything I ordered, and I'm very pleased that we're getting closer and closer to the beginning of a new era," I said, standing up and opening my arms wide, "Be prepared, the day of liberation is coming."
[Author Note : We're finally getting to the action. I honestly thought that it's going to take more chapters, but too many OCs are not really interesting, so I decided to fast pace the story more and timeskip whatever I can.]