Quneitra
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Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. It is the property of Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, and Nickelodeon Studios
"The question of humanity can be solved only by constant dread" - Hassan Blasim
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1.
Suki notices the suicide bomber two seconds after he stoops to pay respects to the Fire Lord. She sees him kiss the Fire Lord's hands, adjust the bulging pouch masquerading as his potbelly. She knows. She shouts.
It takes another two seconds to reach him. By then, the Fire Lord has separated from his attacker and Mai has drawn her knives. Suki swipes away at the attacker's hand with her fan. Then, one of the guards breaks protocol and and decides to firebend.
"Lord Zuko!"
The attacker's abdomen explodes. Suki closes her eyes, shoves the Fire Lord away. When she opens her eyes, the attacker's remains burn in fiery totem. The guards bundle the Fire Lord to safety.
Then, the pain hits her: a sharp escalating ache. She removes her charred arm guards. Her sleeves on her left arm are burnt through. Three fingers and all the skin from her wrist to elbow bubble with blisters. Her fan lies in a mushroom of melted iron the ground.
"Protect the Fire Lord," she says.
She passes out to the odour of cooked flesh.
2.
She wakes to Mai's face. She sees dark shadows pooled under her eyes.
"Don't move," she says. "Katara just left. She rescued your arm."
"Is he safe?"
"He's stunned. But yes safe. He's meeting with the generals now."
"What was it?"
"Kerosene. Blew up when that guard shot fire at him."
"We know who did it?"
"He had the tattoo of a disbanded unit"
"Isn't that all the proof Zuko needs?"
Mai sighs, turns away. When she returns, she holds up a mirror on the side of the bed. Suki sees the scarring, a shiny ridge of skin bisecting her arm. She can still feel the burn. She wonders if this is how it's like to be wounded by fire.
"Katara couldn't get rid of the scar?"
"Suki –"
"Is anyone watching him now? Did you get Ty Lee to take over me –"
"Suki," Mai says, again.
"If not, I can go back –"
"Suki!" Mai says. Before Suki can respond, the older girl wraps her arms around her, smothering her in the fruity scent of her perfume.
"Don't talk. Rest."
She tries to get up. So Mai orders in Ty Lee, who promptly chi-blocks her.
3.
"As Kyoshi Warriors today, your loyalty is to the Fire Lord, not the Fire Nation. You are not the Fire Nation's combatants. You are the Fire Lord's defenders."
Suki remembers giving this speech to her company of twenty-four on their first day at the capital, Mai standing along with her. The Fire Lord had requested their assistance and expertise. He needed a group of impartial, loyal fighters to form his closest security detail following the post-war chaos in the nation. He did not trust the generals and the army, who had spent decades waging war for his father.
"The politics of the Fire Nation do not concern you," Mai had added. "Unless they bring harm to the Fire Lord."
They did their duties without complaint. Suki herself – with Ty Lee and two others – watched over Lord Zuko and Mai. They took rotating shifts in the inner chambers and accompanied them to all formal events. Every night they performed a complete lockdown on the palace each night, working with the Imperial Guard to secure the surrounding grounds.
When they came, the Imperial Guards did not take well to being displaced from their position in the palace by foreigners. They had taken to spitting when she was nearby, and turning their backs on when Lord Zuko gave public speeches. Things had become better with time, but Suki knew they still disliked her. She learnt it was Mai, not the Imperial Guards, who brought her for treatment when she saved the Fire Lord from the suicide bomber.
But Suki thinks the tensions between the Kyoshi Warriors and the Imperial Guards mimicked Lord Zuko's relationship with the rest of Fire Nation's army: full of suspicion, but mutually dependent on each other.
4.
Suki recovers enough to accompany Mai for the last leg of the Fire Nation's talks over Yu Dao. There, she meets Katara.
"Thank you for saving my arm."
"Shouldn't you be resting?" Katara touches her shoulder. "You're just as bad as Sokka."
Suki's heart jumps in expectation. "Is he here?"
But Katara says, no, he's managing the negotiations from Ba Sing Sae.
Suki listens to old men talking and praising their respective heads-of-state. Some district officials from the Earth Kingdom object to certain terms. But eventually an agreement is reached: Yu Dao will be part of a new sovereign state governed by a ruler appointed by both the Fire Lord and the Earth King.
"That was the easy part," Mai tells her.
They have a short recess before everyone returns. Only the Earth King, the Fire Lord and the neutral moderators from the Southern Water tribe remain. They discuss the fate of the towns outside the United Republic's borders.
Things become heated when they disagree over who should control Taku, a ruined town by the coast.
"We are already giving the Fire Nation a permanent port on the mainland."
"That port will expand when we develop the United Republic's navy. We need the land."
"You want to demolish Taku?"
"It hasn't been inhabited in at least 90 years."
"Because your nation destroyed it."
"And you did not bother to rebuild it."
"We are still suffering the aftermath of the war your grandfather waged on us."
"Gentlemen!" the mediator says. "Let us please not get personal."
But it does. The discussion ends within five minutes, the fate of Taku unresolved.
Suki finds it hard to stomach that the two most powerful rulers would let a few buildings get between them and lasting peace. But Mai just shrugs and says, "Politics."
5.
"Would it be that difficult to withdraw?"
"My hands are tied, Katara. You know that."
"You know that we don't want more bloodshed."
"If I withdraw, the generals will call for my blood."
Suki stands guard as Lord Zuko and Katara meet in the inner court of the palace. Behind the curtain, drawn for privacy, she sees the shadowy etch of their bodies, backlit by candlelight.
"If only I had Aang's resolve to set things right."
"Talk to us Zuko. Tell us what you need."
"I need you to remain neutral. Let me fight the legacy of my family and nation on my terms. Support me in the background."
"We will. Promise me you don't you anything stupid?"
"I will."
Later, Suki runs into Mai. She waits in the window-filtered moonlight, hair done up to show the taut angles of her neck.
Suki wants to say something, but Mai beats her to it.
"Zuko trusts her. So I will."
Outside, the moon hangs over the palace grounds like flat shiny skull.
6.
A week later, Suki wakes to the news that the Fire Nation army has occupied Taku.
The palace is in chaos. Petitioners and protesters clamour at the outer gate, the Kyoshi Warriors holding them back. The generals wait in the throne room. Katara is there too. She says Aang is on the way to talk some sense into Zuko.
Suki finds Lord Zuko and Mai in the same private room. Mai's all dressed for the day, but Zuko's has his robes partly done up. The slender line of his spine shows through his undershirt. An overturned cup of tea traces a near-mathematical line of liquid from the table to the ground.
She knows they've been arguing.
"The Avatar's on his way to see you," Suki announces.
"Let him wait," Mai says. "Meet with your generals first."
"I should have them all executed for treason. For moving the army without my permission."
"You'll invite a coup. You know that."
"The Earth King will see this as an act of war."
"You are still in control, Zuko. At least to outsiders."
So Suki helps Mai clear the throne room of everyone but the Fire Nation's generals. While they meet behind closed doors, Aang arrives.
"Does he know what he's doing?" he says to Mai.
"He knows."
"Then why lead us back into war?"
Mai doesn't answer. Suki chooses not to say anything.
Later, when she joins the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors in crowd control, she hears people shouting Lord Zuko's name. Young men hold up portraits of the Fire Lord and wave Fire Nation banners. It's the first time she's seen any public support for Lord Zuko's policies since she came to the palace.
7.
Suki thinks that the first mistake Aang makes is to rebuke Lord Zuko publicly. The second is giving him no option other than peace. Lord Zuko meets him halfway: he orders the withdrawal of the army to the limits of the ruined town.
Things happen quickly. All the key political bodies condemn the Fire Nation, save for the Southern Water Tribe. The Earth Kingdom mobilises its forces, and stations several thousand troops on the river across Taku. Lord Zuko's generals send thirty airships to reinforce their men near the town. Both sides expel each state's ambassadors.
Then, Suki hears that Sokka has arrived in the capital.
Suki doesn't see him. He goes straight to meet with Lord Zuko. They spend hours alone talking. Mai joins them for dinner but leaves later. They continue talking into the night. Suki watches the two of them alone on the Fire Lord's private balcony, twin silhouettes in the bone-pale moonlight.
8.
She finds Sokka waiting by the throne room, his eyes rimmed with exhaustion.
"Suki."
She does need any words. She throws herself onto him. He responds by burying his tongue in hers.
In the dark of her quarters, she feels his hands removing the press of armour from her body as she undoes his robes. She gropes for him in the shadows until she finds the rail of his vertebrae. She presses him close, mashes their bodies together until she becomes sore with friction from the texture of his body.
In the morning, Sokka leaves her for the Earth King, leaves the room a disaster of sheets and sweat.
In the morning, Lord Zuko says he will return to the negotiating table.
9.
The next time she sees Sokka, he's sitting in between Lord Zuko and the Earth King, leading what he calls a peace summit. He's smiling, cracking jokes that make even the oldest Fire Nation generals snicker. As if to prove a point that peace is possible, Sokka conducts the meeting before a huge watercolour painting of Yu Dao.
Sokka's eyes, large and liquid, seem to settle on everyone except her.
But still the negotiations end deadlocked. Neither side wants to make concessions. When both sides begin to accuse each other of genocide and bloodlust among other things, Sokka ends proceedings. The only thing they agree on is that he and Aang will chair the next summit, to be held at a yet-to-be-determined date.
He doesn't come to her. She watches him exchange a sentence with Katara, before he disappears with Aang.
So she doesn't go to him. She chooses to see to the Fire Lord. She and Ty Lee stand outside the assigned royal quarters at Yu Dao all night.
Just before dawn, Mai asks both of them to enter. They see Lord Zuko and Mai all dressed as if for a celebration.
"What's going on?" Ty Lee asks.
"Join us. We're going on a walk in Taku."
10.
An unmarked chariot conveys the four of them by a deserted road to the coast. They walk the rest of the way. By the time they reach Taku's burnt gates, Suki sees sunrise spreading along a horizon of battered buildings.
They walk through the town, stepping through grey sand. Bleached white trees, like the leftover bones of monsters, line the main thoroughfare. Dead weeds storm the empty shells of buildings. Everything's covered in an ecosystem of ash.
Lord Zuko motions to her. So she follows. They walk east, towards the bright ball of the rising sun. Soon, they lose Mai and Ty Lee in the midst of the blackened rubble.
Alone with him, Suki voices her thoughts.
"Are you sure this a good idea?"
"It isn't."
"So why are you doing this?"
He shrugs. "Politics."
"I see Mai's been influencing you."
"She is my fiancée. Plus I trust her more than my generals."
"So why are we here?"
"Because you're my bodyguard. And I trust you too."
"Uh huh."
"You saved my life more than once, Suki."
"It's my job."
They turn into what Suki thinks are the ruins of a house. The floor is a necklace of puddles. They pass melted furniture and clothes scorched into insane black flowers. The outline of a man charred into dust lies in a twisted smear at the back of the house.
Lord Zuko ducks underneath a crumbling doorframe. Suki follows. Then, they're at the river.
Suki's breath catches in her throat. On the far bank, she sees Earth Kingdom's armies spreads out before them, separated by the river and the bones of destroyed bridges.
They walk to the water's edge. By then, Earth Kingdom soldiers come to the river to gawk and point. So Lord Zuko waves at them. They wave back.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to win a war without fighting."
When more soldiers appear at the opposite bank, she moves to block their view of the Fire Lord.
"Get inside, Zuko."
"They won't attack, Suki. Don't worry."
"It's still my job to make sure you're safe."
She pushes him into the ruins, behind a section of wall still standing like a loose tooth. She guides him back where they came, until they flushing purr of the river recedes completely.
Suki walks ahead this time. Seeing the sunrise behind her, she leads the Fire Lord back to the gates. Halfway through their walk, Lord Zuko breaks the silence.
"I'm sorry, Suki," he says.
"What for?"
"For doing this, for involving you and your warriors in this mess."
"We signed up for this. We know."
"I'm sorry for keeping you away from Sokka."
"What?"
"I'm sorry, Suki."
When they reach the gates, Suki sees Mai and Ty Lee are waiting for them – along with what she believes is the entire Fire Nation army. An honour guard escorts them onto an airship, where the highest-ranking general gives the Fire Lord a report. Before Suki can even understand what's happening, the same general commands the Imperial Guard to salute her and Ty Lee for their service.
11.
It's only in the hours after their impromptu visit to Taku that Suki understands.
The summit is cancelled. The Earth Kingdom delegation walks out of Yu Dao and calls the Fire Lord's visit a provocation. The mayor of Yu Dao asks Lord Zuko and his entourage to leave the town. Aang is incensed, and until they leave, Suki realises she might have to stop him from shouting at the Fire Lord.
Even Katara won't talk to the Fire Lord. When meets them, she ignores Mai and goes straight to Suki to tell her about Sokka.
Sokka has his head in his hands when they meet. It would be the last time she ever sees him again.
"How could you do this, Suki?"
"Sokka, I –"
"How could you do this to me? When I'm trying to mediate between these two idiots? Why'd you have to pick sides?"
"I didn't pick sides."
"Suki, half the Earth Kingdom army saw you out on the front with the Fire Lord!"
"I was just doing my job!"
"Then doing your job may just started a war."
When they can't shout anymore, they face each other, letting the weight of everything sink in. At once, Suki wants to tell him about everything and why Lord Zuko did what he did. She wants to tell him about the suicide bomber and her scarred arm. And how she misses his warm fingers against her skin in the windswept darkness of the palace.
But she doesn't.
"Please, Suki. Leave him and join me and Aang," he finally says. "We can still set thing right."
She thinks of Lord Zuko and Mai arguing after midnight. She thinks of the next assassin willing to sacrifice his life to kill the Fire Lord. But most of all, she thinks of Ty Lee and the other sisters standing guard all night at the palace as the world threatens to go to pieces around them.
"I can't."
She embraces him. His warm, fat tears moisten her shoulders. Then she realises she's crying too.
When she pulls away, she realises she'd spent so much time trying to take care of another person's life that she'd never taken care of her own.
12.
Within days, the Earth Kingdom declares war and crosses the river to occupy Taku. When they reach the outer limits of the town and begin to move towards the Fire Nation port, Lord Zuko orders his generals to respond. Supported by airships, Suki hears that the Fire Nation army manages to successfully repulse the Earth Kingdom forces within several hours. Then, they take Taku and drive their adversaries back across the river. As the Earth Kingdom troops retreat, airships strafe them with firebombs.
The war lasts three days before Aang and Sokka force a ceasefire. By then, it's clear to everyone that the Fire Nation's armies are still strong and will win any prolonged war. A representative of the Earth King signs a ceasefire agreement, and pulls his forces back.
For the first time since the Day of the Black Sun, the Fire Nation army is victorious.
The streets of the capital break out in celebration. Generals are given a heroes' welcome when they return. When Lord Zuko assembles the army for a parade, everyone chants his name. Not Ozai, not even Sozin. But Zuko.
From the Southern Water Tribe healers who work with both sides, Suki learns that Earth Kingdom casualties run into the hundreds. Meanwhile, the Lord Zuko declares the day of victory a new holiday to be celebrated across the nation.
Later, alone with Mai, Suki asks:
"It was your idea, wasn't it?"
"What?"
"To walk into Taku."
Mai sighs. "Politics is a game of snakes. To play it, I'm afraid we've all ended up becoming vipers."
"Then why did you choose me to follow Zuko?"
"Because you were the only one we could fully trust."
"Then what about Katara?"
Fireworks bloom overhead, illuminating them. Mai's face, however, remains coated in shadow. Suki lets the weight of her silence sink in.
"Were several hundred lives worth another few years of peace?" Suki asks.
"No."
"Then why do it?"
"Because it was them or us. Either several decades under Zuko or a military junta of his father's generals ruling after a coup."
"We would've fought."
"We would've all died."
"I would've fought to save you and Zuko."
"They would've killed you first."
"What does it matter, Mai?"
Then the older girl turns to her and takes her hands. She kisses them and lowers her forehead to Suki's palms.
"Oh Suki!" Mai says. "Please don't change."
When she embraces Suki again she says, "We need you to save us from ourselves."
Within a month, the Fire Nation army pulls out of Taku and stays at the port. Taku remains a ruined, empty monument to a pointless war. Lord Zuko reaches out to the Earth King. Ambassadors are reinstated. They appear in public together to discuss the future of the United Republic.
Within a month, Lord Zuko invites the Avatar and his companions for tea. But Sokka doesn't come.
Suki learns from Katara he's given up on finding balance. She hears he has resigned, stopped promoting peace and has joined the movement to build up the United Republic on the ground.
13.
They at a funeral for one of young soldiers killed in the Taku skirmish when Suki sees that Lord Zuko is weeping. Silent tears stream down his face, and he wipes them with his royal robes. This time Suki isn't sure if the tears are genuine or it's all a public relations show.
The mourners bow to him as he leaves, some of them pressing their foreheads to the earth.
At the end of the line of mourners are the soldiers from the deceased's regiment. One of them, a female soldier, approaches the Fire Lord and kisses his hands. Then Suki watches as she digs into her uniform and adjusts a bulging object.
"Lord Zuko!"
Her fan hits metal. Suki sees the soldier has a sheathed blade in her hands. It's an Earth Kingdom ceremonial dagger, and Suki knows it was taken as a war trophy from some unfortunate soul.
Suki withdraws, apologies for the mistake. The soldier offers the dagger to Lord Zuko. He acknowledges the offer, but refuses. Then he continues greeting the other soldiers.
Before Suki can follow, the soldier comes to her instead.
"Please accept this small token for what you've done for the Fire Nation. And for our Fire Lord," the soldier says.
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end
NOTES:
Cover Image Credit: Suki by stretch from Crapnahalficons on LJ
This piece is Suki/Sokka, but the focus is on the friendship (professional and personal) between Suki & Mai. I will be writing another piece that will explore them getting over the fact they both used to be adversaries.
This piece was a character exercise for Suki that morphed into a full story. After watching ATLA, I realise I'm drawn to the secondary characters (Suki, Mai, Ty Lee Sokka, Toph) and their relationships with each other (Suki & Mai, Suki & Ty Lee, possibly Mai & Sokka). I'm wondering how did they all come together in Ba Sing Se in that last scene in Book 3, and how did they get along since many of them were either former enemies or possibly rivals for another's affection.
Quneitra is the name of an abandoned town in the Golan Heights. It was fought over by the Israelis and Syrians from the 1960s until the 1980s. A victim of politics, both sides use its dilapidated state to accuse the other of violence and warmongering. Since 2014, the town and surrounding countryside has been overrun by anti-regime rebels.
Questions (to help me improve):
1) Does Suki's 3rd POV as an observer help shed light on Zuko's complex actions?
2) Was the army's influence over Zuko's decisions clear enough?
