Author's Note and Disclaimer:
"What would you do if someone tried to take me?"
"I'd kill them. I'd kill them all."
This one-shot is inspired by the above quote, from the new The Last Airbender movie. Rights go to Nickelodeon, blah blah, I own nothing, blah blah, wish I owned Sokka and Zuko, etcetc. Anyway, I geeked out and saw the midnight premiere of the movie, and that quote really struck a chord in me and inspired this fic. It takes place a few months before the whole Sokka-and-Katara-finding-Aang-thing, and is obviously completely AU. There's some mild language and violence, though the latter is more implications because I fail at it. And excuse typos of any sort - it's 5:30 AM. ;_; Enjoy. :3
When he first heard the scream, he thought he was dreaming. It felt like something torn from his worst nightmares, something that sent a chill down his spine. High-pitched, terrified, in desperate need of help, screaming his name. It made him stiffen even then.
The second scream made him realize that he wasn't dreaming.
Blue eyes snapped open as he automatically reached for the boomerang resting on the make-shift table beside his bed. Sokka sat up quickly, pushing himself to stand just as quickly, and was pushing aside the flaps to his tent in just mere seconds. Those eyes quickly scanned the skies, and Sokka judged it to be about three in the morning due to the positioning of the stars and the moon. He scratched his head and moved forward, eyes narrowing a bit due to the moonlight reflecting off of the snow and nearly blinding his poor, tired eyes. He was glad that he hadn't been the only one to notice the disturbance, and he watched as other members of the Tribe slowly came from their tents as well.
"What's going on?" He asked, voice still raspy with sleep though on the edge of a whine. He received mostly murmurs and shrugs in reply, though a few people looked pale and wide-eyed. He raised an eyebrow and cocked his head, looking around as the rest of the tribe seemed to fill in. All except for one.
And suddenly, he got the message.
"Katara," he said quickly, no longer feeling crabby and tired - instead he felt panicked and suddenly more cold than he'd felt in months. "Where's Katara?" He looked around again, not seeing the face he so desperately wanted to see - the only one he wanted to see at the current moment in time. Now the silence that greeted him was stifling, and it only fueled the cold in his stomach. "Where's my sister?" His voice had risen almost to a shout at this point, and still he was greeted with nothing but silence.
"She went out a little while ago," someone finally spoke, and he immediately found himself looking at a girl his sister's age. "I thought she would have been back by now –."
That was all he needed to hear, and he was running. He ignored the "Sokka!" he heard coming from behind him, and kept going.
He had told her time and time again not to go out after dark, but she never listened to him. She never listened to anybody, but especially not to him. Katara was a free spirit and would do as she pleased whether or not Sokka was against it. Actually, his aversion to her wandering off alone probably drove her to do it more. 'The night is safer for me,' he could almost hear her say, 'the moon makes me stronger.'
Bullshit, was his only thought as he slowed his pace and looked around, breath coming out in short pants, visible due to the freezing temperatures. She'd only just started learning her bending, and despite that the moon supplied the water benders with their power, she was a novice at best. The moon would do nothing for her until she improved, and while he agreed that she needed to practice to get to that point, Sokka preferred it in daylight with him present. While her bending usually ended in him getting soaked and frozen, it was better than her going off on her own.
Which she had clearly decided to do.
His eyes scanned the area, though found nothing. His mind was racing (as was his heart), trying to think of what could have happened. Could the ice have broken, and she fallen in? He looked for cracks, and knew that would be the last of his worries - his sister could swim, and get to an edge and pull herself up. It could have been some animal attack, and that sent his heart into a bigger flurry. Katara couldn't hold herself against a tiger seal - she didn't carry a weapon, and her bending wouldn't do much if anything.
The third scream, this one sounding much closer, sent him into motion again.
He followed the sound and slid to a halt when he spotted exactly the last thing that he wanted to see - A Fire Nation ship. Sokka felt as though his heart was going to explode in his chest, and he gripped his boomerang more firmly. He had to find his sister - he had to find her and get her back to safety, no matter what it took. He'd sworn that he would protect her. He already felt like a failure; if their father were around, this never would have happened. However, he did not allow himself time to wallow - Katara was priority right now. There was a Fire Nation ship, and his sister was missing - those two facts were not good in combination, and made him want to throw up.
A fourth scream gave him his final direction, and he was greeted with the sight of his sister being hauled off. She was fighting harder than he'd ever seen her fight, though the bits of water that she managed to shoot at the man taking her off weren't doing much. She was squirming and kicking though she was so tiny in comparison to the soldier. God, she was just a little girl. She was just his baby sister, there was no way that she could fight him off.
Her eyes fell on him and the "Sokka!" torn from her throat broke his heart. The soldier turned around, hiking Katara up over his soldier as if she were a rag doll, and the smile on his face filled Sokka with rage.
"Your tribe should have known better than to lie to us!" The soldier called as Sokka moved forward, knuckles white around the boomerang he still held. "Fortunately for us, we did know better." The soldier's smile grew, as did the bubble of wrath that was steadily growing inside Sokka. "We've been doing our little housekeeping, as we call it, for years now - just to be sure that your little tribe is clean of water benders. I'll give you credit - you've done a good job at hiding her until now. You should have given her up when you had the chance." The scoff he offered, along with his words, was making Sokka's blood boil. "Now, your whole stupid little village is going to pay. We warned you - you should have known that you couldn't keep her hidden forever. And to think, she was practicing on her own in the middle of the night. I saw her quite well from my position on the ship. Clearly, you've taught her nothing."
And that was Sokka's fault - he should have taught her to protect herself, should have made her keep a weapon on her. "Let her go," he managed to get out, though his voice betrayed the emotion that he was feeling. "Let her go and I won't have to hurt you."
The laughter that erupted from the man scared Sokka momentarily, making him jump, which probably made him seem all the more pathetic. "You? Hurt me? Boy, run back home - I've had years of training, more than you've been alive. Run off before you get more sucked into this than you already are - leave the girl if you have any sense of self preservation."
"I said let her go!" And with that, he sent the boomerang flying. He missed his target (his hand had been shaking) though managed a solid hit to the man's soldier, which only resulted in his sister being dropped. Despite the wince he heard her suck in, she scrambled to get away. She only managed a few crawling steps before the soldier stepped on her coat and yanked her back by her hair, resulting in a loud cry from the girl and causing Sokka's heart to jump to his throat. Katara had a few weak attempts at bending, only managing to soak the soldier and clearly anger him further. He pulled Katara up by her hair, snarled a warning at her before throwing her back down, causing her head to ricochet off of the ice.
And that was Sokka's breaking point.
"You son of a bitch!" was all that he shouted as he sent the boomerang flying again, this time hitting his intended target, the soldier's head. He took off running as well, barreling into the man as the boomerang hit, holding his hand out to catch it as his weapon loyally returned to his hand. He abandoned it, however, in favor of his fists, though his strength was no match for the other man's - Sokka found himself only getting a few punches in before he was rolled over and he found himself on the receiving end of more blows than he could get out himself.
It was only through pure willpower that he managed to get the man off of him, and Sokka again reached for his boomerang. The close range blow knocked the man backwards and Sokka held out his hand as the boomerang sailed easily back into his hand. He hardly noticed that blood dripped onto the snow, falling from a lip nearly split in two. He didn't care about himself - he wasn't thinking, he was running on pure rage. He kicked the man twice as hard as he could, nearly rolling the body over and getting a sick satisfaction when he heard ribs crack due to the force. But Sokka didn't stop there - he couldn't stop himself. He used the boomerang as a club, hitting once, twice, three times before he felt the bone that was the man's skull give in, and suddenly blood covered his hands.
He didn't allow himself to think - he allowed his father's voice, telling him to protect his sister at all costs, fill his mind instead. He did what his father had taught him to do. He hit the ice as hard as he could, watching as it cracked and broke. He moved away quickly, though left the still body of the Fire Nation solider, and watched as the ice around him gave in and the body sank below the surface.
That was when he allowed himself to think, and when he ran towards his sister.
"Katara," he said loudly, shaking his little sister by the shoulders, praying to whatever god that was listening that he'd see blue eyes that matched his own open soon. "Katara, wake up. Katara!" It took a few more good shakes before her eyelids twitched and a soft moan left her, and what felt like hours later, those eyes he so desperately wanted to see flickered open. They widened as soon as she blinked a few times, and immediately filled with tears. He barely had time to register that she was (more or less) alright before her arms were thrown tightly around his neck and she was sobbing into his shoulder.
"Sokka, I'm s-so, s-so sorry," she managed to get it, her words shaking with the sobs that wracked her. His arms immediately found their way around her as he quietly shushed her, shifting them both so that he was sitting and she was being cradled on his lap. He hadn't held her like this in ages - not since they were both young and neither of them found offence of him holding her this close, not since either of them began to get annoyed with the other.
"Don't apologize," he whispered into her hair, his voice horse. He closed his eyes tight and pressed a kiss to the top of her hair. "Please don't apologize, this wasn't your fault."
"But it was!" She sobbed, clinging to him tightly. "I sh-should have li-listened t-to y-y-you, but I d-didn't!" It was hard to understand her, with how fast she was speaking and how hard she was crying. "I d-didn't s-s-see the sh-ship until it wa-was too late. I hear-heard footsteps and th-then he had me and oh God." Her speaking paused as her sobs increased and her grip on him tightened, almost impossibly so. He shushed her some more and rocked her carefully, just as he did when they were younger, after she had seen their mother die. "H-he almost t-took me!"
"But he didn't." Sokka's heart began to race again, just thinking about what had occurred. "I've got you, Katara, don't worry. It's over now. I'm never going to let anything happen to you - I'll die before I let anything happen to you. I swear, until the day I die, I'll protect you." He wished he could think of something to say that would lighten the situation and make his sister smile, but he couldn't - there was nothing to make this better. Someone had tried to take his little sister, and Sokka had killed him. It seemed as though Katara had read his mind, as she pulled away slightly and looked around with wide eyes, and then looked down at her brother's blood stained hands and boomerang. Then, those wide eyes turned to her brother, looking at him in disbelief.
"Sokka," she said, voice shaking still. "Sokka, did you–"
"It's over now," he repeated, though it seemed as though her noticing had made the realization set in - he had killed someone. Despite the fact that he repeated to himself over and over that it had to be done, that it was justified, he still felt as though he was going to be sick. He swallowed the bile that had filled his mouth, knowing now he had to deal with his sister - he would deal with his own problems later.
He looked her over carefully. She was already forming bruises on her arms, and the fact that they were hand prints made him angry all over again. She had a few scrapes, though nothing too bad - they would heal up in a few days at most. One of her eyes was already darkening and swelling, and he idly scooped up some snow and placed in her hand before pointing to his own left eye. She got the clue and placed the cold snow over her eyes, wincing when it made contact with the sore skin.
"Are you alright?" He finally asked. "You hit your head pretty hard there."
"I think so," Katara managed, her breathing still quick and tears still falling, though she seemed to be recovering. "My he-head hurts, but I th-think I'll be okay."
He nodded and shifted, tightening his hold on her as he stood up, lifting her with ease. "There's going to be a raid tomorrow," he said as he walked back, taking his time so to avoid slipping and dropping her. "We need to be more careful with you, more than ever. No more bending until the Fire Nation's gone, Katara." He took her silence as an agreement, and picked up the pace a bit as he felt her shiver. It became harder to carry her as the pain settled in from the beating he'd taken, but it was nothing that he couldn't take - he was a man, after all, and he was sure he'd go through worse in his life. Besides, she'd taken far worse a beating than he had, and he wasn't going to risk letting her down. Besides, having her close to him after what had just occurred made him feel better - there was no way that Sokka was going to let her out of his sight for a long, long time.
Everyone at camp gasped at the sight of a bloody Sokka holding a bruised and seemingly broken Katara, though Sokka brushed them aside and walked straight into his tent. He placed Katara down on his bed and washed himself up before heading back outside, bracing himself to explain everything that had just happened.
After being grilled for details and explaining everything, Gran-Gran put some healing ointment onto Sokka's lip and reminded him to ice it (and the black eye that he had to match his sister's) before going to bed. He rolled his eyes and mock-saluted her before heading back to his tent, picking up some snow to use on the swelling as he went.
He eased himself into a chair near his bed, now occupied by his little sister. He thought her asleep, and had just been about to move to pick her up and move her to her own tent when her eyes opened and locked on him.
"Can I stay?" She mumbled sleepily, and he couldn't help but smile a little.
"Yeah, sure," he said, deciding that his cot was big enough - they'd shared when they were younger, in any case, and it would be a tight fit, but workable. He wouldn't say no to anything she asked at this point. "Just don't think you can make a habit of it," he said, reaching forward and ruffling her hair. He eased himself into bed and discovered there was more room than he'd anticipated, which was definitely a nice surprised, though he had a feeling he would still end up holding her close - he was feeling paranoid, but hey, there was nothing wrong with that.
Sokka was just on the verge of sleep when he felt his sister shift, rolling over and then pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Thank you," she mumbled, managing half a smile. "For everything."
"Anytime," he said, matching her grin with one of his own. "It's what I'm here for." And he meant it with all of his heart. Katara was his sister, and he'd sworn to protect her, though he would do it without his promise to his father. He meant it - until the day he died, he would protect her from whatever tried to harm her. His family had suffered enough, and he refused to let them get to the one he cared most about.
He would rather die than face that.