Yingsu

Yingsu was a firebender who became one of the earliest combustionbenders in recorded history. She was planned to be used by the shang merchants as a human weapon in order to break free of the authority of the four nations.
== History ==
Yingsu was born to a family of mixed Fire Nation-Earth Kingdom heritage in a village of mountain guides in the Earth Kingdom's Kolau Mountain Range. The area suffered under the period of isolationism kickstarted by the Platinum Affair. Yingsu's parents wanted to migrate to the Fire Islands, but could not do so as the borders remained closed. To seek a better life, Yingsu enlisted with a secretive project which turned out to be "Unanimity". Alongside many others, she was brought to an isolated island of the Natsuo Island chain. There, she was subjected to a extremely brutal training regime including full-scale torture. The project was part of a larger operation by the shang merchants, mainly Zongdu Chaisee of Jonduri, to create human weapons. As a firebender, Yingsu was part of the group which was forced underwater for extended periods to develop an extremely dangerous, new firebending technique.
Possibly due to being a large person and having grown up in the mountains, meaning that her lungs were larger than usual, Yingsu was one of the few firebending trainees to develop combustionbending. Among the first batch of trainees, only two others survived: Xiaoyun and Thapa. All three were subjected to brainwashing by Chaisee, though Yingsu and Xiaoyun never fully surrendered to the mind control. By the time the three were relocated to Jonduri, more trainees had entered the project on the secret island. Yingsu was somewhat shocked to realize that most of the new recruits were children.
When Unanimity was dispatched from Jonduri to Bin-Er, the three combustionbenders boarded the Queen of Omashu, a ponderous five-masted junk. During the voyage, they guarded three large wooden boxes that were carrying rocks, which acted for a decoy to those that thought Unanimity would be an actual object. They were very tight-lipped to other crew members, such as Kavik. They ate twice as much as everyone else to preserve their energy and their strength, and slept in shifts. Once the ship arrived, Yingsu bent toward the hoist carrying the crates in order to distract everyone and giving the combustionbenders time to get off the boat unnoticed. Kavik saw that the crates were full of chopped seal blanks, and realized that the benders were in fact Unanimity itself.
During the display of Unanimity's power that Zongdu Henshe had planned Thapa stayed by the zongdu's side, while Xiaoyun was posted deeper within Bin-Er, and Yingsu posted in a separate apartment. After Yangchen and her companions apprehended both Xiaoyun and Thapa, they tried to take down the third member of Unanimity, Yingsu having deduced that something had happened to the other benders with the lack of noise and having moved to the gathering hall as a secondary fallback location. Seeing that Kavik was in range of her blasts, Yangchen lobbed a huge chunk of the street toward the wing, but Yingsu did not take the bait, and it crashed into the wall with Yingsu moving out of the way, leaving the combustionbender and the Avatar at a stalemate. Yangchen then walked into the empty street, revealing herself openly for her foe, booming to Yingsu that she stood before the Avatar, declaring they would talk and come to terms. Only Yangchen's airbending-powered speed saved her from Yingsu's blast. This provided an opening for Jujinta to shoot an arrow in Yingsu's direction, which struck the combustionbender under the collarbone. Yangchen considered removing the air from the room to knock Yingsu unconscious, as she had done with Xiaoyun and Thapa, but her silence told her to take a step back. Instead, Yangchen found Yingsu in the room, her face growing paler by the second, with arterial blood spilling from the arrow's shaft. Yangchen gathered snow to turn to water, and then started applying it to Yingsu's wound in order to heal her. She spent time stabilizing her patient before removing the arrow, with Yingsu giving up and closing her eyes, thanking the Avatar.
As Yangchen could not expose the truth behind Unanimity to the Earth Kingdom, she had the three combustionbenders contained in plots of land along the mountains of the Northern Air Temple, and made monks renowned for their martial prowess watch over them. Abbot Sonam was disappointed that the Avatar had made jailers of the Air Nomads, but she had no other option. The combustionbenders refused to answer her questions, and she realized that they were players in their own right, eager to improve their position.
Later, Thapa fought and managed to escape, killing Xiaoyun and presumably Yingsu also. Yangchen formed a connection with Yingsu during the battle with Thapa before Mingyur came and attempted to help, leaving Yangchen no choice but to expose Yingsu in order to help Mingyur.
However, Yingsu managed to survive the attacks and had faked her death with assistance from the Avatar. Yingsu was hidden and helped Yangchen practice subdueing the attacks of combustionbenders before Yangchen freed her into the world under the condition that she lays low and does not use her ability to harm anyone again.
== Physical description ==
Yingsu was a tall and powerfully built woman. She had golden eyes that were often only found in the Fire Nation, and wore her hair in long braids.
== Abilities ==
While Yingsu did not have as much raw strength and power as Thapa, she was noted as being able to summon her combustionbending technique much quicker than both him and Xiaoyun.
== Appearances ==
=== Chronicles of the Avatar ===
==== The Dawn of Yangchen ====
== References ==
Category:A to Z
Category:Characters
Category:Combustionbenders
Category:Earth Kingdom characters
Category:Firebenders
Category:Minor characters (Yangchen novels)
Category:Neutral characters
Category:Yangchen novels characters