A/N: Just a one-shot of a scene that got stuck in my head and wouldn't go away. Sokka gets separated from his friends. Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Avatar.

Sokka ducked behind a tree, narrowly dodging the blast of fire, but not the explosion that followed. He flew through the air with a shower of dirt and a cry of surprise.

When he hit the ground he rolled to his feet and unsheathed his meteorite sword in one smooth motion. Then he was off, running between the trees as fast as he could. Thinking he could distract the Fire Nation soldiers from attacking any of the others, he shouted, "Hey! OVER HERE!"

Suddenly, a hand whipped out from behind a tree trunk at head height, and he smacked into it. Hard.

He teetered dangerously off balance, but recovered quickly, bringing his sword in front of him in a ready position to find –

A girl.

She was undeniably pretty, dressed in Fire Nation red clothes cut to allow freedom of movement. And she held her own sword before her.

With a yell, she swung her sword. Sokka blocked it just in time. She attacked again, and again, and each time Sokka barely blocked it, stepping back to escape the blade. This girl was putting all of her heart into this fight; it was time he did the same.

He narrowed his eyes and began to drive her back. She seemed surprised and fell back before remounting her own attack.

They exchanged blow for blow as they circled each other among the trees. They dipped and wove in some sort of twisted parody of a dance, and their spirits nearly glowed.

There was an explosion in the distance, and someone screamed. Sokka's attention instantly wavered, and the girl cut his left arm. She smirked, and retreated to a neutral distance to await his response, taunting him.

He'd had enough of this. His sister or friends were probably in trouble, and here he was tiring himself out in a pointless battle.

He turned and started to run back the way he'd come, but the girl slid into his path. Sokka dodged, but she side-stepped, blocking him again.

"Let it go!" he cried, trying to knock her out of the way, but she would not be so easily deflected. They clashed swords again, and Sokka attacked with such fervor that soon he caught the girl's sword with his, and it twirled away into the depths of the trees.

Her eyes widened. She evaded Sokka's next few swipes of the sword, but she was thrown off balance and fell.

With his path clear, Sokka turned to run but the girl leaped to her feet, whipping two silver fans out of her belt and snapping them open. There was a moment when even the leaves on the trees were still as Sokka and the girl stared each other down.

Then they were flying at each other, moving twice as fast as before in a flurry of metal, Sokka's meteorite black against the girl's twin silver. For a few fleeting moments it felt like he was fighting with...but he knew that was impossible.

Finally, she stuck her foot out, sweeping Sokka's feet out from under him, and held the edge of a fan to his throat. The breath knocked out of him, he dropped his sword in defeat.

"All right," he gasped. "You win."

She blanched, and stepped away from him, regarding him as if he were a ghost.

She shuddered.

"Sokka?"

He propped himself up on one arm, grabbing his sword with the other hand. "I think so," he said.

"It is you!" she cried, and tackled him in a rock-crushing hug. He yelped as his head slammed into the ground.

"I thought you were dead," she whispered, and pulled back to get a better look at him. Then she gave him a kiss and it all clicked into place. Her hair was longer now, and her gaze more shadowed, but it was her. Impossible of impossibles, she was alive.

"Suki!"

A/N: To explain, since I didn't feel like writing the next part that explains everything, lol: the Gaang was attacked by Fire Nation soldiers (doesn't really matter why); Suki has been hiding out in the Fire Nation too (really long complicated reason that would probably never happen anyway), and has also learned sword-fighting; when Sokka said "OVER HERE" she thought he was a soldier and that he had found her, so she attacked him - all I gotta say is, I swear this would have worked better visually . I love the idea, but I hate what I wrote, so I would appreciate any advice.