Summary:
This is a pretty big project, planned out for four segments and an estimated word total of about 160,000, over a forth of which is written out and ready to be posted. It covers almost the entire storyline in a more adult fashion, including language, violence, and some sexytimes later on. This is proudly AU, and the main characters are quite a bit more intelligent and heroic. Essentially, this is a chance to re-interpret characters and situations who I felt were underdeveloped or underutilized in canon. FemSokka.
The premise for this story is totally borrowed from Babyuknowme13's totally awesome story First Firebender, wherein
A. Sokka is actually a girl.
B. Sokka (heretofore known as 'Sukka') was the product of an assault by a southern raider (so sad, I know) and is in fact a firebender… living at the South Pole.
There is another note at the bottom, but that's less critical.
Sukka fumed silently, pacing up and down the path out of the village where she had last seen her sister. 'I can't believe she picked that boy over her family!'
It was completely ridiculous- Katara had only known Aang for a day. And he hadn't exactly been impressive in that time. In a matter of hours, he had destroyed a piece of architecture that they didn't have the skills to repair anymore, and convinced Katara to disobey the very sensible edict of staying away from creepy abandoned Fire Nation weaponry. (This was just plain common sense, really). When that flare had been sent shooting into the sky, Sukka had known fear for the first time in a very long time. The older women had pointed and shouted, some crying. They remembered Fire Nation communication methods from the days when Southern Raiders would gather to hunt them, lurking somewhere off in the dark ocean at all times and coming by in force at the height of noon when waterbenders were weak. When they had come to the conclusion that it had been from the old iced ship, and not any new threat, a wave of relief had gone through the tribe.
Of course, that relief didn't make them any less angry that it had been set off in the first place. Sure, no Fire Nation troops were nearby at the time. But that signal had been designed to be seen from a very long distance away. There was a good chance that some other ship had seen it, and they might come to investigate. The Fire Nation had stayed away for so long that they quite probably didn't know where the villages were anymore- they moved around a bit, every few years. But that signal was enough to give their position away.
'That might have even been his intention,' Sukka grimly acknowledged. 'He seems like a dumb little kid, but he could be a Fire Nation sympathizer.'
He probably wasn't, but having someone who willfully went against tribal edicts and endangered the village was just as risky. Sukka didn't want to have to be the bad guy who scolded and upset her willful baby sister, but she knew how justice was distributed on the ice. People who wouldn't work for the good of the group could not be tolerated- they were a danger to everyone around them, and a burden besides. When the tribe barely escaped starvation every single winter, the price of luxury of mercy for non-contributing members became too high to pay.
'He has to go,' Sukka had decided grimly after hearing from her elders. 'for the good of us all.'
If he'd been an adult of the tribe, he would have been quietly pushed into the ice and never spoken of again. But as a child and a foreigner, it would probably be best to banish him. Aang would even be fine- he had that stupid flying snot-monster.
In the distance that evening, she had seen two small figures trudging their way to the village from the same vantage point she took now. She'd tapped her booted foot in the snow, impatient to get the lecture over with. The two children had been unrepentant- Katara had spewed some ridiculous garbage about needing to prove her bravery. It made Sukka see red.
"Bravery," she'd yelled, waving her arms to indicate the village, "Bravery doesn't mean you get to endanger every person who lives here! I can't believe you, Katara. You know better than this. You knew you weren't allowed there, and you knew why. You know what the Fire Nation does, and yet you risked drawing their attention to us, on account of some boy we don't really even know."
She'd glared at him from where he cowered behind her baby sister. "For all you know, he's a spy or a Fire Nation sympathizer and you played right into his hands by leading him to that iced ship."
Katara had laughed derisively, not even considering the notion. And when the village had gathered around and told Aang that he was banished, never to be seen in their village again, her eyes had watered with angry tears. With a huff, Sukka's ridiculous baby sister had grabbed onto an orange sleeve and picked a boy she'd just met over her family.
The strange boy had given a whistle, and his horrible, smelly animal had dropped from the sky. In a matter of moments, the two children had crawled up into the saddle while Sukka was frozen in shock and disbelief. By the time she regained her senses, and started to sprint towards them, they had taken off and were out of her reach. She'd screamed at the sky, and cursed Aang with every invective and wish for ill luck and misfortune that she knew while the other tribeswomen milled around the snow, aghast at the abandonment.
'It isn't really that she picked him over us,' she corrected herself dully. 'She picked waterbending over us. She'd rather learn how to use magic water than do right by her tribe. He's just her ticket there.'
The thought hurt, although she understood the burning need to practice her bending. Sukka felt that same draw to her element as well, even though the fire that shot from her hands frightened and repulsed her. She would have given anything to be more like Katara, whose bending could create beautiful and useful things instead of just destroy them. Even so, what Katara had chosen was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, especially so for a chief's daughter. None of the people in the village would ever follow her now.
That created problems, though she felt guilty for thinking of them at a time like now. Sukka couldn't inherit- she wasn't really Hakoda's child by blood, though he treated her as his own and had been the very picture of a loving father. It had always been an unspoken assumption that Katara would one day lead the Southern Water Tribe. She'd be lucky if they let her walk amongst them again. At fourteen, Katara was considered an adult- still in need of guidance, but a full-fledged woman in most regards. The betrayal of trust was a serious one, and she could no longer receive the sway that a child would.
Sukka blinked, suddenly unnerved by something, but she couldn't quite tell what. 'Something is wrong.' She spun on her heels, checking her surroundings carefully. She couldn't see anything- just the village, drifts, and… grey snow, fluttering down.
Her heart fell to the bottom of her belly, and she felt despair creeping over her skin like cold fingers.
'I am going to kill Katara, if it turns out that she hasn't been kidnapped'. It had been almost a full day, and her little sister had yet to return in apologetic tears. Sukka grimly re-adjusted her grip on her spear, feeling the fresh warpaint on her face harden. It was uncomfortable, but at least it kept the wind off, and it helped to make her look more intimidating and asexual. A sixteen year old boy looked like a young warrior- a sixteen year old girl looked like she was playing dress up in daddy's clothes.
Granted, it was probably optimism to hope she looked like a sixteen-year old boy. She was tall for a Water Tribe girl, but still far too short to pass for a boy her age when boys sprouted like weeds after 13. Maybe she could pass for a willowy fourteen.
She cursed (a habit Gran-Gran hated), considering taking off her gloves to get a better grip. If the fight was a short one, she'd be better off with the additional dexterity- but if it lasted more than a minute or two, her fingers would be frozen and clumsy. As the Fire Nation ship drew close to the ice, she took them off and stuffed them in her pockets. A fight with one half-trained girl against a shipful of soldiers was going to end quickly anyway.
She stifled the fear that rose in her chest at that thought- it was unproductive. She was the only warrior of the Southern Water tribe present, (even if she wasn't a real warrior yet) and the Chief's daughter. There was no option other than bravery.
Feeling a little sick, and her thoughts marching a hundred times their usual speed, Sukka was suddenly grateful that her sister had run off with that idiotic airbender boy. ('and she had to have run off instead of gotten lost or something, there's no option other than believing my baby sister is safe, even if that means she's willfully disobedient, unrepentant, and irresponsible') If she were here, she'd have fought. She repressed a shudder at the thought of the Fire Nation knowing her baby sister was a waterbender. They'd take her away, like they did all the other water benders.
"What'll they do to a firebender, if they kill waterbenders?", she questioned quietly. No one was close enough to hear, anyway- which was a good thing, because that was about when the Fire Nation ship decided to make a dramatic entrance by bowling through their painstakingly constructed ice wall.
Sukka backed up with a yelp, struggling to keep upright and not lose hold on her weapon. She'd probably have to use firebending to fight, if it came to that, but it would be nice not to have to. Her dad and his men had claimed that she looked pretty good from what they remembered of firebenders in combat, but there really couldn't be any comparison between what she'd learned third-hand at age twelve on the directions of men who had only fought firebenders, and what someone taught by a master for years would be able to do.
The ship came to a stop with a horrible screeching sound. 'They probably damaged their hull against the ice. That was stupid of them.'
She heard fearful whispering behind her- the tribe was gathered together in a huddle, further away than she was and behind the shelter of the huts. Sukka swallowed, considering telling them to run for it, even though she knew it was pointless- they wouldn't make it very far carrying children. She and Katara had been the fittest by far, which was why they'd struggled to provide for a village full of the elderly, invalids, young children who'd been born soon after the men left, and a few mothers too busy taking care of everyone else to hunt or fish or do more than some gathering.
'What's going to happen to them if I die?' She steeled herself. 'Don't think like that. The tribe will survive. It always has.'
A long, thin sheet of metal swiveled into view over the hull, then shot out and careened towards the ground, dislodging a spray of ice chips. Sukka gritted her teeth, and tried to calm her heartbeat. 'How threatening do I want to look? Do I want to try to talk first, or attack before they can get a word in? They're almost certainly not here to talk, but if they are and I start a fight, I'll have condemned everyone to death.'
She closed her eyes for a long moment. 'I'll try to talk. Stand tall, look proud and capable, but not aggressive. I'm a warrior, not a cat-bear."
The sharp sound of metal-clad feet tapping on the ramp reached her ears and she moved to the bottom, standing between the foreigners and her tribe. One man- he was slim and young looking with a high ponytail like a girl would wear, maybe not much older than she was- stood at the head of the group, followed by a trio of uniformed soldiers. 'He must be someone special…'
She examined him more closely. As the young man raised his head, she caught sight of his face and tried not to recoil. 'Ayah! I've never seen a burn like that.'
Not that she saw many burns, living at the South Pole, of course. Ice didn't burn, and fuel was expensive to import. Her flames had made the most of the little firewood they had, stretching out supplies that hadn't been renewed in years. The occasional traders that travelled this far south had last come a few months after the men left.
'You're distracting yourself, Sukka. Pretending they aren't there won't make them disappear.'
Sukka took a deep breath. "I speak for Chief Hakoda," she stated with a voice that sounded much calmer than she felt. "Why have you come here and destroyed a year's work on our wall? Have we broken faith with you?"
The wording was more traditional than heartfelt- maybe even a little ironic. Still, it was technically in good form.
His voice, when it came, was raspy and much lower than she expected. His wording, however, fit her rude expectations for Fire Nation savages. "Where is the Avatar?"
'I didn't even get a greeting,' she noted, before the words sank in.
Sukka blinked. Then she shook her head. He was looking right at her, clearly impatient. "What?" she croaked, certain that she'd misheard.
The man looked pissed. "I know that this village is harboring the Avatar!" he snapped. "Tell me where he is, and no one gets hurt." He moved to stride past her towards Gran-Gran and Sukka quickly sidestepped to stay between the two. He scoffed, and raised a hand to point. "He'd be about as old as that woman, and an airbender."
'He thinks Gran-Gran is a hundred and twelve years old?' some small, indignant part of her brain registered.
The women started to murmur in the distance at the word 'airbender', and the boy who had played with Aang yesterday started to fidget. 'Don't say anything, kid," she prayed.
Then she turned to face him and pitched her voice as low and steady as she could make it. "You are mistaken, Fire Nation. We have no such man here, if he even exists." Then her voice turned wry. "If you'd look, you might notice that we have a distinct shortage of men altogether. Until you came with a boat full of them, anyway."
She immediately cursed her own snarky tongue and bit it to keep from provoking him further. If he was looking for someone that wasn't here, then he could look around, kick over a few baskets in anger, and then leave them in peace. Pissing him off wouldn't help anything. Her body betrayed her with a sinking feeling of nervousness that belied her self-reassurances.
'Don't be stupid,' she chided herself. 'Aang is like, twelve. He can't be the Avatar, even if he is an airbender… who didn't know that Sozin killed the airbenders a hunded years ago.'
Her stomach roiled with fear now, for her sister and her village. 'Who am I kidding… There's a very good chance Katara is running around with a very dangerous person. Who is hunted by the Fire Nation.'
Then she paid closer attention to the real world, more specifically the angry young man quickly invading her personal space, actually breathing a little bit of steam. A thrill of fear ran up her chest, and she twitched cold fingers tighter around her weapon.
"Don't play games!" The boy was right in her face, yelling. She recoiled. He moved to grab the front of her coat- and Sukka panicked, reflexively knocking him back with the butte of her weapon and quick-stepping backwards. 'Stupid! He wasn't going to grope you, he just wanted to look threatening!' The boy outright roared with anger, and the soldiers made their first move off the ramp.
"Oh, shit", she croaked. In the distance, she heard a woman scream and Gran-Gran shout "Language!" (which was a surreal bit of normality in a fight for her life). Then the village was far from her mind as she dodged flaming fists and fast-moving feet. He caught her weapon with a strength that sent a jarring pain up her arm- 'is this guy even human? He is insanely strong.' The boy ripped it out of her grip, and suddenly her best method for ameliorating the disadvantage of her short limbs was gone. The soldiers were watching cautiously now, as she ducked and wove around fire. One blast moved close to her face –'too close!' – and she automatically pushed it away with a flame of her own. Then she heard a chorus of gasps from the watching soldiers, and realized what she'd done. The boy attacking widened his undamaged eye in disbelief, though the other was frozen in an angry expression.
"You… You're a firebender?" He sounded strangely betrayed. "Traitor!" He attacked with a new anger. She was having a ridiculously hard time keeping up, her amateur blasts less focused and exact than his and growing weaker, but her only method of deflecting flames. 'I was definitely right about third-hand katas not being able to compete with the real thing.' She caught a blow against her forearm and nearly cried out with pain- she couldn't even tell if it was the force of the blow or the heat behind it, but she needed to end this quickly. She couldn't win if she fought the way he did. She had to be cleverer.
"Have you no honor? Why would you fight for these savages?" She was having trouble even breathing- the fire sucked up all the air, and her gasps were unproductive. She'd never managed to do much bending without carefully modulating her breathing. Her heart beat pounded- failure, failure. 'Okay, fine. No more bending… back to weaponry.' It was a good strategy for her anyways, against much larger opponents. Her spear was out of her reach on the snow- he'd been driving her backwards, and she hadn't even noticed. She could have perhaps made a run for it, but that would have no element of surprise, and he could just tear it away again.
"I am no traitor!" she shouted indignantly in the hopes it'd distract him, but with less power in her voice than she'd have liked. "I was born here, first child of Chief Hakoda." She whirled forward and kicked snow up into his eyes and jammed her secondary weapon into his gut, (a boomerang that had been hidden under her coat) then watched the ugly look on his face as he fell to his knees, trying to breathe. She heard clanging metal around her as the soldiers rushed in, but she leaned forward calmly to impart her last point.
"I'm one of these savages, thank you very much." Then she spat into the snow beside him and raised her hands unthreateningly. A soldier grabbed at her wrists anyways and wrenched her to the ground, shoving a boot into her back. She gasped in pain, bending forward until her hair pooled into the snow. She heard a wail from the village and her blood ran cold.
"Stay back," she forced out through the pain and spots in her vision. "Gran-Gran, keep them back!" She heard rustling and soft crying, staring into the snow as she tried to catch her breath.
"Look at me." Then a gloved hand grabbed her chin and yanked her face up. She was staring into eyes the color of gold- like sunlight on still waters. 'If the guy attached weren't such a jerk, they'd be remarkable eyes', she noted dazedly. She'd never seen such exotic eyes- even she had the water tribe blue coloring. Later, she would attribute this strange thought to oxygen deprivation.
"Are there any other benders in this village?" His voice was calm now, but no less dangerous. He shook her lightly. "Are there?"
"There were," she wheezed. Then she bit her tongue. Stupid, stupid! Even if she were going to give up Aang, who she had little love for, she'd just implied that there was more than one bender. The boy's eyes widened and he drew closer. She could feel his breath on her face where her paint was thin. He grabbed her shoulders. "Tell me" he commanded. His breath came quick now in excitement. Bitterly, she noted that he hadn't even worked up a sweat during their fight, while she was laid out with her pulse jumping.
Sukka grimaced. "I wouldn't tell you anything, Fire Nation."
The boy wrenched backwards, hypnotic aura gone and anger present again. "Fine!" he snapped. "Marines! Search the homes. Don't kill anyone. Bring any one who resists to me." Then he strode off, towards the group of frightened villagers.
"No!" Sukka shouted and struggled. It didn't do any good- the man holding her was much stronger than she was. He was big, like her father. She turned her face down and wept. 'If dad were here, this wouldn't happen.' She felt shame burn her face red and was thankful for her paint. 'I've failed my village.'
Minutes passed, but they felt like hours. Her fingers began to tingle with pain- she should have left her gloves on. She tried to wiggle them as much as possible, but they were in a tight grip. The soldiers with masks like death tromped in and out of their round homes. She heard the sound of things breaking, falling, and indignant yelps. In the distance, she heard the scarred boy talking to her friends and family, probably threatening and frightening them. She couldn't understand his words, but she heard a little boy's high pitched voice telling him that "the boy who bent air was banished."
She cursed the Fire Nation, even as the soldier holding her loosened his grip in surprise at confirmation that there had been an airbender, who were thought long-dead. She took advantage of the moment of shock and dropped to the ground out of his grip, rolling and kicking out with both feet. She caught him on the shins, and the force cut his feet out from under him. The man fell to the snow with a dreadful clang and she leapt to her feet.
"Alright, you know what you wanted! There was a boy here, in saffron and yellow. He was strange, he was an airbender, and he was banished for setting off a trap in an abandoned fire nation ship in the ice fields." Her voice was hoarse with fear for her fellow villagers, who were easily within range of that boy's fire blasts. "Let them go, they haven't done anything!"
The scarred boy turned to face her, face twisted in confusion. "What do you mean a boy," he demanded. "The avatar would be old by now!"
"I don't know anything about an Avatar," she cried out in frustration. "He was twelve, maybe. We found him in the ice. He… He didn't know about the war, or that the airbenders were supposed to be dead. Is that what you want to know?"
A hundred thoughts passed over the boy's face, and he raised a hand up to stop the soldiers who had rushed back to keep her away from him. "Return to the ship," he commanded. Sukka could have wept in relief, until his next statement. "Take the firebender. We can't leave a bender with our enemies."
Her breath caught, and she looked at the village. It was a mess- collapsed walls, fallen supplies, and the people she'd been entrusted to protect were cowering and crying. So far, the damage was mostly superficial. With a few days labor, and a bit of squeezing into undamaged homes to fight off the cold, everyone would be fine. The Fire Nation boy was willing to leave without doing anymore damage… If she refused, they'd fight, and she would be overpowered. They would do more damage to her home. She swallowed. All this crossed her mind in an instant, and then she bowed her head in surrender. "I'll go, if you don't harm anyone else."
'Katara, you'd better get home and help Gran-Gran, or everyone is going to starve this winter.'
The boy snorted. "Fine." Then someone grabbed her from behind and forced her to walk. She held her head high this time, knowing that her fellow villagers were watching her. From behind, a cry rose up. 'Gran-Gran, don't fight them,' she prayed. But it wasn't just Gran-Gran… all the women were wailing. A sense of wonder rose up in her chest- 'That's for me? They're weeping for me?' She swallowed hard, feeling more loved, more Water Tribe than ever before.
The feeling of Water Tribe pride sustained her as she was led up and seated on the deck in an out-of-the-way corner with a guard, and when her hands were secured behind her back with cold chains like she was an animal. It failed her when she struggled to lift her head from her position on her knees, fighting the heavy hand on her neck in order to see her home one last time. It looked strange from inside the ship, a higher point than she'd ever seen it from before.
Sukka felt sick with grief, but she was so relieved her baby sister wasn't there to see this happen. She would have fought and been exposed as a waterbender.
While the soldiers boarded the ship and bustled around, shouting orders and getting ready to take off, she carefully modulated her breathing, just focusing on the moment. The jerking motion that indicated they were sliding off the ice nearly knocked her over where she knelt on the deck, and the motion pulled painfully at the cold metal around her wrists. The chains were heavy, and so cold that they bit into her skin in only a few minutes. She felt cold welts rising… and then heard steps slowing approaching her in the bustle of movement. She was too numb to care or look up.
"Who is this, nephew?" A cheerful voice called out. Then, more softly, it continued, "Hello, my dear. I must admit, you are not the guest I was expecting."
Appalled and confused by the cheer she heard, Sukka raised her head to stare disbelievingly at the short man she'd heard speak. He was not a fit man, but he had a kindly face, lined with age and a smile. 'He looks like somebody's grandfather,' she noted. 'Not like a Fire Nation savage'. Then she remembered that the boy had called her people savages, and she forced down a snort. 'The world is backwards. There's an elder on a ship of soldiers, and they think we're the savages. Funny.' She gritted her teeth and looked away, uninterested in being lulled into pleasantries.
"Oh, how rude of me!" the man exclaimed. "I have not introduced myself. Prince Zuko, would you like to get changed for tea in my quarters? You can introduce me to your friend."
"He's not my friend," the scarred boy growled from somewhere above her head, where he'd been menacing a man with a map. "Uncle, this boy is a firebender." Then his tone changed, to something hopeful and slightly awed. "The villagers claim that there was an airbender here, as recently as yesterday when we saw that signal flare. This boy knew about him, and likely has more information."
Sukka sensed surprise in the old man's expression, and he looked interestedly at her. He didn't speak to her, though. Instead, he directed his comments to the ship as a whole. "How fascinating!" He clapped his hands together. "All the more reason to sit down to some nice, hot ginseng. I would love to hear about this adventure. Good job, all of you!" Then he happily turned away, moving with surprising speed and grace for such an elderly person through the crowd of bustling soldiers.
'That person is more than what he looks,' her intuition warned. The soldiers gave him a far more respectful berth than they did the angry boy. There were only a few things men responded to better than fear, and she didn't particularly want to face an enemy with those qualities.
"Come on," a voice echoed from inside one of those horrid helmets, and a large hand yanked at her arm. "Let's get this paint off you. You're going to tea with royalty, boy."
Sukka grit her teeth and swallowed an indignant reply as she was dragged along like so much luggage. She was the daughter of a chief. She didn't need to bow before any foreign royalty. And she certainly wasn't a boy. She gave real consideration to telling them that- was there any point in keeping up that particular façade? Undecided, she kept quiet. Until the soldier bothering her dumped a cloth in a rain barrel and then roughly brought it up to her face.
She let out an involuntary yelp, outright pained by the cold. The man gave her an odd look, but didn't say anything, and she bit her lip, angry with herself for breaking her warrior stoicism.
It took a few swipes, but she could feel the greasepaint sliding off her face, and the wind hit her face again. It outright burned with cold- she was used to the biting wind, but not when her skin was wet. Sukka shook like a wet kitten. She didn't have the thicker skin or adjusted metabolism her little sister did- for Water Tribe, Sukka was surprisingly unused to the cold. She might have complained back home, but here she kept bitterly quiet as tears of pain mingled with the water on her face and her eyes probably reddened.
A warm hand grabbed at her chin and lifted her face to examine the work he'd done, and a man's voice made a surprised oath. "Agni, you're a little girl, aren't you?" She glared, both at the diminutive and the incredulous tone. "What, Fire Nation kidnaps boys but not girls," she snapped, making it more of an insult than a question.
The man fidgeted uncomfortably for a moment, then grabbed her arm again and dragged her below deck, then down a hall. He rapped his knuckles perfunctorily at the door, and then swung it open at the cheery, "Come in!" that he received.
"The prisoner, sirs," The soldier said with stiff formality, letting go of her to bow. She rolled her shoulder absentmindedly in a feeble attempt to distract from the pain on her arm from being restrained multiple times and the discomfort of being bound.
"Dismissed. You, come sit." The boy from before snapped, glaring angrily at a tea set. He was out of his red armor, in fine silks lined with gold now. Sukka raised a brow- he looked far smaller in normal clothes. Like he could he her age- sixteen, instead of the nineteen she had guessed.
With a heavy heart, she made her way to the empty cushion across from the two males and folded herself to the ground gracefully, thankful for her good balance. She would have looked terribly stupid if she'd fallen and been unable to right herself. The old man gave her an amiable smile that was edged with amusement. 'He knew I was a girl,' she surmised. Then she realized that the amusement implied that the joke was on the angry boy- the prince, apparently. The old man was keeping an eye on his prince, clearly eager to capture his reaction. He wasn't disappointed.
The Prince looked over in her direction, his face fixed in a scowl, and his mouth open to speak. An undignified yelping noise came out instead, and his deep, raspy voice broke as he struggled to his feet, pointing at her. "That- that's a girl!" He swiveled to look at the old man, clearly panicking to convey this information. "Uncle, that's a girl!"
'Uncle?' she wondered. 'That means he's important too. What are a couple of nobles doing in the South pole?'
Outwardly, Sukka regarded him with cold disdain. "Why, are you scared of girls?" she snapped.
The boy flushed. "I- of course not!" He dropped to a seated position again, scowling. "I just couldn't tell, under those hideous furs," he snarked.
Sukka raised an eyebrow. "Next time I'll wear a dress for you," she drawled sarcastically. "I feel all sorts of underdressed next to you, princess." She wasn't entirely joking about being dressed inappropriately- she was absolutely suffering from the heat inside this cabin. Sukka had always been fond of warmth, but warmth on the tundra was very different from warmth inside a Fire Nation ship, apparently. It was almost funny how quickly she'd gone from wet and cold to over-heated. The Fire Nation really knew how to heat a ship, apparently.
Her jab at his wardrobe hit home, and the prince's jaw dropped. He opened his mouth angrily- but the old man beside him gave a chuckle. "Now, now, young lady," he gently chided. "That was rude. But Prince Zuko, you should take a joke better. It was funny!" He reached out and poured a cup of tea- and Sukka winced. He wasn't really her elder, but it still felt very wrong to sit and let an elder pour while she had two perfectly good hands. Two sets of sharp eyes caught her recoil, but only the old man smiled indulgently, as if to say it was quite all right.
"You should untie the young lady," he noted in a singsong tone that implied he was talking about unusually pleasant weather. "How will she drink her tea, with her hands behind her back?"
Sukka stiffened. 'I don't really want that guy behind me where I can't see him', she thought miserably. 'Not that it really matters. He's a much better bender than I am. If he wanted me dead, I would be.' He didn't look any happier than she felt as he rose to kneel behind her, and she felt a slight tugging on her hands, and the chain slipping around and bumping into her legs before he pulled it away and set it down out of her reach.
'Shame, that would have made a decent weapon in a pinch.'
"Now that Prince Zuko has ascertained that you are a young lady- and such a beautiful young lady, too- I must ask your forgiveness, for my rudeness. I am Iroh." He regarded her with a calm good cheer that made her want to reply politely.
For a moment, she struggled with her lingering hostility and her good manners. There wasn't really any point to pretending to be someone else. The Fire Nation didn't respect foreign nobility- they wouldn't care that she was Hakoda's daughter.
"I am Sukka, first daughter of Hakoda and Kya, elder." She bowed her head perfunctorily, not wanting to overly honor him. He was an elder, yes, but he wasn't one of her elders.
"Such a pretty name," he commented. His eyes were much sharper than his smile. "How did a firebender come to be born in the Southern Water Tribe?"
Rage bubbled up in her gut. She'd expected it, but she still didn't want to answer. She had never really had to explain herself- the adults all knew, long before she was old enough to know why she was different. It wasn't their business! It wasn't her fault!
"Answer him," the prince snapped.
She glared at him. He had no right to order him around… and she said so. "You're not my prince," she snarked. "If you can't be polite, I don't have to talk to you, and I certainly don't have to jump when you bark at me." The 'you dog' was left unspoken, but it still echoed loudly around the closed cabin.
He looked outright shocked, and then a little embarrassed. He turned his head quickly, and the candles lighting the room whooshed up. The old man cut in conciliatorily, waving his hand a little frantically. "Forgive my nephew for his sharp tone! He has a bit of a temper."
'I'll say,' Sukka noted dryly. The boy was positively steaming. Then she glanced back at the old man, who looked calm as ever.
Iroh hmm'd and stroked at his long beard thoughtfully, gazing into thin air.
'What a weird old guy,' Sukka thought. 'He should be mad at me for avoiding answering.'
"But please, my dear, forgive an old man his curiosity. I really do wonder at your curious situation."
'Ah, there it is.' Sukka bowed her head in momentary defeat. 'There's no point. Lying will make them think it's a bigger secret than it is. Paranoid jerks.' Immediately she felt guilty for calling the old man a jerk, even in her head. Which was ridiculous- he was Fire Nation! And, you know, complicit in her kidnapping.
She rubbed at the painful welts where metal had dug into her wrists thoughtfully, gathering her thoughts. Unnoticed by her, four golden eyes caught the movement and catalogued it for later. Bitterly, she started, "there's not much to tell. A Fire Nation raider raped my mother and she got pregnant from it. He didn't make it out- my village wasn't always empty of warriors." She bared her teeth at the boy in a mockery of a smile, rubbing in the point that he'd assaulted a village of non-combatant women and their children. "Hakoda raised his wife's child as his own. I'm as much Water Tribe as anyone else."
The prince snorted. "Who are you trying to convince here?"
She saw red. Sukka only realized she'd moved after her palm had met his cheek, but she merely picked up her hot tea and took a sip. Then another- it was good, and her belly was empty. Across from her, the prince stared in wide-eyed shock, one hand absently covering his stinging cheek.
"Prince Zuko, I am ashamed!" Sukka glanced at the old man, surprised. For a moment there was steel in his tones. "That was uncalled for." He turned to look at her again. "I am sorry my dear, that must be an unpleasant tale to tell."
A lump rose in her throat. Zuko's comment wouldn't have hurt if it had been unwarranted. She'd always felt a distance between herself and the other villagers, except Katara and Gran-Gran. And now she'd never see them again. She bowed her head to hide her expression, furious with herself for having so little control over her own emotions. She'd never needed to practice stoicism before- the villagers had given her enough distance that hiding her emotions was easy.
'They had good reason,' her traitorous mind reminded her. 'You could have hurt someone with fire. You're half a monster.'
An awkward silence reigned. Prince Zuko looked ashamed, clenching his hands tightly in front of his body and waiting for the other two to finish their tea. He'd poured his cup down his throat and rose a hand to refuse another serving. Sukka noticed the slightly pained look on Iroh's face and wanted to slap the rude boy again (he'd definitely been downgraded from a young man to a boy) until he had some manners. 'At least he has some shame', she noted acidly. 'He's a rude brute, but he at least knows to recognize some crossed lines.'
She should have hurried, but Sukka savored her drink instead, feeling the heat slide all the way to her tummy. "This is excellent," she commented archly, trying to keep the tone light.
Iroh beamed. "Why, thank you my dear!" Zuko groaned, and began to mouth the next words. "I brewed it myself! I have some small skill with tea, if I do say so myself." Sukka hid an inappropriate grin- it was kind of cute. "Would you like some more?" He reached towards the pot.
"Oh no," she burst out, snatching it instead. "I can't have you pour for me." The older man smiled indulgently at her. She filled Iroh's when he held it out, and then her own. Before she could set it down, she was interrupted.
Zuko growled. "What, are you too good to drink tea he poured?"
She looked at him like he was an idiot. "I suppose I don't know how it's done in Fire Nation, but back home a fit young man would never let an elder wait on him hand and foot."
Zuko's good eye widened, and red crept up his neck. "Give me that!" He snatched the teapot out of her hands and held it awkwardly. The gesture would have been better if Iroh had needed tea, but at least he tried. She mused, 'He's rude, but not all bad, I guess.'
"Why did you start a fight?" Zuko demanded. "You can't have thought you could win." Iroh looked interested- he must have been watching from the ship.
Sukka's face burnt. "Uh, yeah. That." There was a beat of silence.
They waited, apparently not accepting that as an answer.
She coughed uncomfortably. "You… you moved like you were going to grab the front of my coat… It was kind of reflexive to smack you, yeah."
There was a long moment of silence.
"Oh," Zuko managed, looking like he wanted to sink through the floor and escape into the ocean to go live with the seal-turtles instead of participate in this conversation any longer.
Iroh burst out into laugher. "Oh, nephew," he chided with a shaking finger, "Don't you know anything about dealing with a young lady? Save that for the second date, at least!"
"Or for a girl whose home you haven't ransacked," she added spitefully. "Probably one you haven't kidnapped, either." She paused deliberately. "I guess you really don't know much about girls, huh."
"You're not a girl," he snapped. "You're Water tribe."
"That's not what you squeaked out earlier," Sukka taunted. "I am so a girl- a pretty one, according to your uncle. Are you claiming your uncle is a liar, princess?" Even as she said it, Sukka knew it was a Bad Idea to mock her captor.
'Dear La, he's going to kill me for that. Why do I have to be so funny all the time?'
Zuko growled, which was downright undignified for a prince. Luckily, Iroh cut in before things descended into hair-pulling.
"So, my nephew mentioned that there was an airbender in your village!" He waited for a response, then prompted her again. "Was he really a young boy?" He shot a strange look at his nephew when he said this.
"I agreed to come so you'd leave my people alone, not so that I could give you information," she gritted out between her teeth. "Do your own dirty work."
'Oh, this heat is unbearable.' Sukka felt dizzy, more so than angry. Going from comfortable to cold to hot was wreaking havoc on her body. Apparently it wasn't obvious, because her captors's expressions were normal- placid in one case, and angry in the other.
"Why, you-"
"Zuko, please." Iroh stared at her with a calmness that suddenly frightened her. Sukka repressed a shudder, remembering her earlier premonition that the old man was dangerous. They were in control here. "If the lady doesn't want to talk about that, we only attempt to persuade her later. For now, perhaps we should determine what is to be done with her? You were probably right to take her with you, Prince Zuko- the Southern Water Tribe isn't supposed to have any benders anymore."
Sukka's fist tightened with rage at the casual reference to her mother's murder, and breathing became a bit harder. The old man clearly caught the reaction, but chose not to comment. She wryly assumed he'd bother her about it later. 'Thinking is really hard right now. How do they live like this?' She glanced at the captors. 'Ah.' They were both in light, silk clothing, whereas she was wearing a parka and furs.
"Well?" He took a sip. The old man seemed more like he was waiting for a student's answer in a lesson than deciding a girl's fate.
Zuko tightened his hands in his lap. "Policy for foreign benders is that she should be returned to the appropriate prison facility in the Fire Nation." He frowned. "That's impractical, for multiple reasons, not the least of which being that such facilities aren't intended to hold firebenders."
Sukka shifted uncomfortably, and pulled at her collar.
"The policy for firebenders born from mixed relations is that they are returned to the nearest occupied territory and sent into the orphanage system."
She glanced over at him, startled. "People do that," she blurted out, "people just give up their children? That's horrific!"
Zuko looked at her, clearly confused. "You're a firebender," he said much in the manner that Katara used on slow children. "You belong in the Fire Nation." He scoffed, crossing his arms. "Clearly, she's a little old to be properly educated and adopted out. She'll never realize where she belongs."
She raised her voice in anger. "Where I belong, is my home. Where you took me from!" She set her cup down as gently as she could- it clanked. Her hands were shaking with anger. "Why did you force me to come, if you didn't know what you were going to do to me! Are you stupid? What's the point? Did you just want my people to starve?"
He jerked, startled. "I didn't-"
"What did you think was going to happen to them," she continued brutally. He needed to face what he'd done. "You saw them- elders, children, and mothers! Who do you think fished and hunted to keep them alive? Do you think any of them have ever held a spear?"
"That is quite enough," Iroh said quietly. "Zuko, we shall discuss this later. Where are you going to put her for the night? I hardly feel the cell prepared for the Avatar is an appropriate accommodation for a young lady, much less the daughter of a chief."
Sukka narrowed her eyes. "I don't need your consideration." She stood up, impatiently. "If you're quite done pretending you think I'm a human being, I'd like to be alone. The cell is fine."
"If you really feel that way, we can re-evaluate your situation in the morning. For now, I think it is time that we all go to bed." Iroh stood and walked over to open the door, but Zuko lingered behind. "I think perhaps we shall meet tomorrow for breakfast. Prince Zuko, would you humor an old man and come discuss our next course before you retire for the night?"
The cell was not fine. She had been exaggerating when she claimed they thought she was subhuman, but this cell certainly implied they thought that way about the Avatar. She tried not to think about poor, childish Aang in this box. It was four metal walls, with metal ceiling and flooring and no cot or furniture, other than ugly chains secured to the wall. Thankfully, they didn't use those on her. Her hands had been bound behind her back with chain again. The masked soldier who did it had an apologetic air about them, and murmured something about how they would have been rope, but firebenders could burn that, and there was a risk a skilled bender could escape the cell.
The information was interesting, but Sukka's eyes widened at the voice- "You're a woman", she blurted out.
She heard a snort in response. "You're hardly one to talk," came the reply.
Sukka shook her head impatiently. "No, it's not that. I'm like stupidly hot in this coat. Can you help me get it off?" She gave a barking laugh. "Only, I'm not exactly wearing much under it. I'd dressed to be able to move in a fight. I thought I was going to spontaneously combust during tea. Gave real thought to stripping despite the mixed company." 'Not much' was a bit of an understatement- she was only in her breastband under the coat, although she was wearing her usual pants. They were hot too, of course, but not nearly so insufferably so.
Outside her cell, she heard a sound like choking, and then steps quickly receding back down the hallway.
She gave a wry grin and ignored the sounds of an ignoble retreat. "I was anticipating either dying or being home, not ending up under your generous hospitality". She gave a mocking shrug at the sparse accommodations.
The woman soldier snickered. "Ah. Well then. I think we can work something out, though I didn't exactly bring my finest ballgowns aboard either."
Zuko beat a quick retreat away from the girl prisoner. He'd wanted to check on her, but definitely not badly enough to see her in a state of undress. His face burnt, and he tried to maintain quiet dignity.
There was no use- as soon as Uncle Iroh saw him stride into his cabin, he had to ask.
"Prince Zuko, how is our friend settling in," he boomed, eying Zuko's flushed countenance with amusement.
'It's like the old man knows everything,' he fumed.
"She's fine," Zuko snapped, wanting to leave the topic quickly. "Lieutenant Natsumi is taking care of her. We have more important things to discuss. She's strangely reluctant to talk about this person, isn't she? Back at the village, she mentioned that 'we' found him- implying that someone else was involved, but never specified who the other person or persons were."
He began to pace, talking as he thought. "She said- said that he was found in the ice fields, and that he didn't know the airbenders were gone. How could that be possible? Could he have been frozen for a hundred years, like those awful frogs?"
Iroh gave a silly smile from his seat on an orange cushion. "The young lady said he was in the ice fields?", he questioned.
"Yes, I already said that."
Iroh ignored the crabby tone. "Nephew, she implied that the people you saw were incapable of going out fishing, which is the only thing I can imagine doing out in the ice fields." He paused meaning fully.
Zuko continued slowly, "But she also implied that she wasn't the only one to find him, which means that when the Avatar left, he didn't do so alone. This other physically capable person we didn't see left with him. A teacher, perhaps?"
"We don't know that this boy is the Avatar," Iroh corrected gently. "But yes. We can assume that he did not leave alone. Did she say anything about when he left, or why?"
Zuko bit his lip in thought, treating this like another history recitation. "I don't think she actually said much…" he said slowly. "She only spoke up after a little boy did, and he said that the airbender was banished just yesterday." He made a noise of comprehension. "Oh, he set off that flare we saw! They must have been angry with him for drawing attention, or thought he might be a spy of some sort." He snorted, amused. "I suppose they were right to be angry, since that flare led us to them."
Iroh chortled. "Life is amusing, sometimes. How fortuitous for us… and how much less so for them." He stole a look at his nephew, who seemed anything but amused. He looked like an uncomfortable little boy. Iroh half expected him to drag his toe through the dirt and fidget.
"Uncle… Do you think she was telling the truth? I mean, they'll be fine without her, right?"
Iroh sighed, feeling even older than his years. "I would not know, Prince Zuko," he said gently. "I have studied the Water Tribes, this is true. But I cannot claim to know what supplies they might have for the winter, or who would be capable of supporting the group." He stopped, suddenly curious. "Prince Zuko, were there really no men there?"
Zuko shook his head. "Nowhere," he frowned. "They can't all be dead, right?"
"She talked like Hakoda was still alive, otherwise she would have claimed to be Chief." Iroh pointed out. "I wonder… Oh!" He gave a chuckle. Zuko looked at him strangely and sighed in frustration.
'Uncle is so odd.'
"What exactly is so amusing, Uncle?", he asked, the perfect picture of a long-suffering relative.
"Oh, nephew. We have been harried for three years by a small group of ships bearing the markings of the Northern water tribe. I have long thought that strange- they have stayed out of the war in all other ways." He chuckled again. "Now it makes sense!"
"They're framing their sister tribe?"
'That's rather clever, actually. Like something Azula would do.' His jaw clenched painfully. 'Don't think of her.'
"They're trying to force the stronger tribe to get involved, as well as keeping retribution from falling upon their unguarded kin", Uncle correctly gently. "If they were depending upon one untrained girl, they were desperate indeed."
He paused. "On another note, that likely means that the person who went with our mysterious airbender friend was also female. The Water Tribes are somewhat conservative in their attitudes about men and women. If there had been a fit, young man here, the young lady would not have been trained in combat. That is a last resort measure from such a people."
"Right," Zuko said tightly, ignoring the discomfort in his throat at the thought that his victory had been against one little girl who he'd thought to be a short boy. It didn't seem so impressive now, to have swept into the heart of a foreign power and taken their only bender from the clutches of her crying grandmother. And Agni, that had been strange. The women had let out this horrible wail when they'd realized that he was taking the girl…
He shook his head. 'There was nothing else I could do. And besides, she'll lead me to the Avatar, and then I'll have my honor again.'
Zuko clenched his fist, torn with indecision and frustrated. He hadn't meant to harm the savages- really, he hadn't! He'd given the Marines careful orders not to harm anyone, a task made easier by the way that they cowered, almost like they were afraid to hide in the tents.
"We… We can't take her back.", Zuko said, trying to convince himself more than anything.
Iroh sighed. "Indeed, we cannot, Prince Zuko. It would be most unwise to leave a firebender in enemy hands, untrained or not. And against Military policy, besides!" He coughed lightly. "In addition to that, there is the fact that we would lose a valuable source of information about our potential target. It does seem like this supposed airbender is the best lead we've had by far, if we are to trust the Water Tribe's assessment that he is such a thing."
Zuko rolled his eyes at this delicate understatement. "It's been our only lead. If he's really just a kid, he can't be the Avatar. But his existence implies that Sozin missed a few airbenders in hiding somewhere. That must be where the Avatar has been hiding all this time!"
"That is a rather large assumption, Prince Zuko. We cannot be certain of anything until we have spoken with this young man. Be that as it may, our water tribe friend looks to be quite the resource, if we can handle her correctly." Iroh shot him a mischievous look. "A good-looking young man like yourself could certainly charm the young lady, hmmm?"
"I'm not flirting with her, Uncle! Not for information or for your amusement." Zuko fumed, feeling flames spurt off his hands. He sighed, suddenly feeling tired. "I guess I thought I could threaten to go back and ask her villagers for more information… But that plan would only work if we stayed nearby. We can't linger here forever, we're getting low on supplies. Besides, I don't actually want to frighten them too badly." He sat down with a thump and put his head in his hands. "I'm so close I can feel it, Uncle. But she won't help me." Frustration tore at his throat.
"Have heart, Prince Zuko," Iroh said quietly, rubbing his back soothingly. Zuko arched like an affronted cat, then relaxed into the gesture, too tired to protest that he wasn't a child. "She is not an unreasonable girl, and not nearly as careful with her words as you and I are clever, hmm?"
A smile tugged at his lips. "True," he acknowledged. "She probably doesn't even realize what she's given away. I bet the person who left with the airbender is the key, and I bet you can get her to talk about it." Reluctant admiration was in his voice when he bemoaned that, "You could talk an earthbender into buying dirt. I bet you can make friend with one girl." He shot a scolding look at his uncle. "You can't go ten feet without making a friend onshore. If I'd taken you into that village, you'd still be sitting there playing games and flirting with her grandmother, I bet."
Iroh gave a booming laugh, wiping tears from his eyes. "Oh nephew, you wound me. Am I truly so terrible?"
"Yes," Zuko said flatly. He changed the subject before the old man's faux-wounded expression could get to him. "I suggest we set course for a neutral port where we can make repairs. If we have the information we need, we can leave the girl there. She shouldn't be harmed, and if we go very far, she won't make her way back to hostile territory to act against us. If she turns out to be a problem, we can take her to an occupied territory instead and send her straight to their jail so no one has to pay for our mercy." He turned on his heel.
"That makes quite a bit of sense." Iroh dipped his head obligingly as the room emptied. 'Ah, my nephew.' He stifled a smile. Perhaps spending some time with someone he'd been raised to think of as a savage would lead Zuko to wonder about the validity of other teachings. Besides, Zuko was sixteen and had been on a ship filled with adults since he hit puberty. Iroh let out an undignified snort, then quickly looked both ways to be sure no one had seen that lapse of decorum.
He had a feeling hormones were going to hit Zuko like a komodo-rhino, which could be endlessly entertaining for the adults onboard. Perhaps a friendly wager was warranted…? He hummed happily to himself as he set out to look for certain crewmen.
Katara gripped Appa's warm fur tightly, feeling nervousness in her chest. They'd made it to the closest air temple in half a day… It wasn't a pretty sight. Seeing Aang's panic and anger at his own ravaged home had made her want to see her own again. It would be terrible to leave on poor terms with them. She still wanted to go with Aang to learn to waterbend, but she needed to make up with her family first.
"They're going to be so mad at me," she murmured. Beside her, Aang pouted.
"It won't be so bad, Katara!"
She shot a scathing look at him. "You don't know Sukka."
Aang sucked all the air from his cheeks, and bounced on his toes in a way that made her feel a little sick and want to shriek at him to be careful while they were flying on the giant buffalo. "She's your family, Katara." His tone turned sad. "Your family won't turn you away."
Katara looked at him, confused, focusing fully on him for once. 'Aang…' He'd never sounded so sad before… 'Of course', she realized, feeling stupid, 'he just realized that everyone he ever knew is dead. He wouldn't forget that just because I have problems.'
Katara had been feeling a sinking feeling in her gut all day- leaving without her family's permission had stopped being fun. She didn't want to disappoint them, or for Sukka to have to do all the work by herself.
'I bet I hurt Gran-Gran's feelings too,' she thought miserably, seeing her village in the distance for the first time. 'And Sukka must have been scared. She's always worried about me.'
"Hey, what happened here? Was there a party?"
"What?" Katara looked closely at her village, quickly approaching. She gasped. "What- I don't understand!" There was a huge hole in their ice wall, and water was slowly leaking into the village square. A few houses were touched by the water- others had kicked-in walls, and there were figures slowly struggling between buildings, carrying heavy belongings.
As soon as Appa came to a stop, Katara slid off and started running. "Gran-Gran! Sukka!" She ducked through her fellow villagers, noting their strange stares- they were almost hostile, and some were disbelieving. 'What, did they really think I wouldn't come back?' In the crowd, she saw her father's sister glance at her and begin to walk over, but other women seemed to intentionally stay back. She swallowed the hurt and confusion at the strange situation, and forgot it altogether when she saw her grandmother come hobbling around an igloo.
"What happened!" Katara gestured at the mess around her. "I was only gone a day. Gran-Gran, I'm sorry I left without permission. It was wrong of me. I had Aang bring me back."
Her grandmother gave a sigh and opened her arms. "I could use a hug, Katara," She obliged, feeling soothed and comforted. "I bet Sukka is so mad at me," she mumbled. Gran-Gran stiffened strangely, then put her hands on Katara's shoulders and drew her back.
"Gran-Gran?" she asked strangely, as though something was in her throat. "Where's Sukka?"
Her grandmother avoided her eyes, looking at Aang instead. "The Fire Nation saw the flare that you set off," she said tonelessly. "They came, demanding to see the avatar, of all the ridiculous things." Aang gave them a wild-eyed look, and Gran-Gran closed her eyes, as if he'd confirmed something. Then she turned her attention back to Katara. "Your sister tried to get rid of them through diplomacy, and then she fought them. She lost. They searched the village, where, shockingly enough, they found no one and nothing. Then they took her and left. They were led by a young man, perhaps seventeen or eighteen years old, with a horrible scar on the left side of his face."
There was suddenly no air.
"They- They took her?!" Katara couldn't believe it. "What you mean, 'took her', like she was a –a blanket, or something!" She fell to her knees in the snow weakly, still gripping her grandmother's dress. She was vaguely aware of tears on her face. 'It's just like when they killed mom… this is what they do.'
"But why," she asked Gran-Gran's toes bewilderedly. "What could they possibly hope to gain?" Gran-Gran sighed.
"You already know the answer to that, Katara." At that moment, she looked a hundred years old. "They don't want anyone else to have benders to fight them with." She closed her eyes, pained. "If you'd been here, they would have taken you too." A lone tear streaked down her face. "Young man. You are the Avatar." It wasn't a question.
"I am," Aang said quietly. "This… this is my fault, isn't it." He looked down, shamed.
'Aang... is the Avatar?!'
"Yes." Katara looked between the two, shocked. "And no." Aang looked hopeful at that. "You are not responsible for the evils of others, young man, but you are responsible for doing what you can to protect those who cannot protect themselves." Her stare was hard and unforgiving. "You have been frozen for a hundred years, and the world has suffered in your absence. May Tui and La forgive my harshness to a child, but you can no longer be a child. The world needs you. You only know airbending?"
"Yes," Aang said miserably.
"We cannot teach you waterbending, but our cousins at the North Pole can. Katara, you are a woman of the tribe, and our representative."
Katara looked up, confused. "Does this mean… you want me to go?"
"You must be trained," Kanna sighed, (and she was sounding like the formal, capable 'Tribeswoman Kanna', not gentle 'Gran-Gran'). "The Avatar cannot go alone, and you are extraordinarily talented. Clearly, your destinies are intertwined in some way. It can be no coincidence that you were the one to discover the Avatar after a hundred years. You must also be able to help rescue your sister, which I assume is your intent. They won't kill her, but I do not know what they will do with her, or how they treat prisoners."
"Yes, Gran-Gran. I want to." She clenched her hand into a fist. "So we'll go get training!"
"It will not be easy," Kanna said bluntly. "The Northern Water tribe was my home as a girl. They do not believe that girls should fight, even waterbenders. They will instead teach girls to heal. You are a chief's daughter, however. You have some rights. Either take the healing training, which could be useful indeed, and then train under the Avatar after you leave, or convince them to train you in the first place. However well-held their idiotic beliefs may be they will be reluctant to snub their only real allies."
Katara swallowed hard. She hadn't even known they didn't train girls when she'd run off, and she'd certainly never heard Gran-Gran sound so bitter.
"Katara, I am counting on you." Kanna gestured at the village. "We will likely have to move inland. Do not expect us to be here when you return. We will leave signs." She turned and startled to shuffle towards their hut. "I will pack your belongings, and send you on your way with blessings."
Aunt Koharu, Hakoda's younger sister, tapped at Katara's shoulder and drew her into a hug as she stood there in a state of shock. She murmured, "Katara, you've upset a lot of people by your actions two days ago, and the stress of yesterday's events didn't help. They will calm down, but you need to reevaluate your role as a woman of the tribe." She held Katara at arm's length and gave her a serious look. "You may have a calling to help the Avatar, but you also have responsibilities as the Chief's heir apparent. Yesterday, Sukka showed the courage and wisdom of the Southern Water Tribe. I know you can too." She kissed Katara's forehead. "Be safe, little cousin."
Rest of Author's Note:
Please review so I know if I'm writing this for me or for an audience.
Because I have a seriously crazy thing for Zuko, when I read the original story and it veered away from Fire Nation-y focuses (and what's up with that, they totally rock), I hit the awesome Babyuknowme13 up via private message and got permission to utilize the above premises. Other than it, I think I took this in a pretty different direction (hard to say, since I've got quite a bit written out past where the story diverted, but any other similaries were made telepathically or accidentally).
I think that we've all seen how Katara and Sokka argue, then find Aang out on the ice enough times that I chose not to replicate it. If you want to see that with this specific character set- go to the original story by the aforementioned author, because the characterization there is dead on and I see little point in replicating it. :D
The first major diversion in my story is that extremely convenient moment in canon where Katara and Aang turn around after having been banished and come back to the village in the middle of the dramatic confrontation with Zuko. In my story? They come too late to be of any help, because they went to the air temple right away. Due to that, the villagers are not quite so forgiving of either Aang or Katara, and Katara quickly realizes that she can't just expect things to work out. Because I wanted to shake her until she made sense more than once when watching the show, mostly. I'm going to try to make her more than just idealistic and maternal with inexplicable talent that allows her to be the equal of other talented individuals with years of intense training, because she's sort of sadly a flat character when she has so much potential to be cool.
I know ATLA is primarily a children's show, but my focus is a little different. Thusly, things that I think were essentially edited out for the audience - like violence, complex motivations, language stronger than 'darn', and real consequences for dumb choices are going to have a larger place in my story than the show would suggest. I'll try to remain true to character's basic personalities and the style of light-hearted humor, but that's the only real stylistic concession. If I'm getting way off base, critique me, I need any excuse I can get to avoid that thesis paper.