You people are freaking sweet! Or maybe you just really want chapter six...oh, well. Here you go...I feel like a jerk for this though. Katara likes mangos, right? I haven't seen that episode for a while.
Katara and Sokka both looked sleepily at Aang. They had just gotten up and were trying to find something to eat.
"We're going where?" asked Sokka, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Omashu. Now that Ba Sing Se has fallen, we need to go get King Bumi. Smeller Bee thinks that we're taking Lee and Mushi there to start a new group of Freedom Fighters, so that's the story."
Katara looked up from her mango, "When are we going?"
"Today, so get ready to leave as soon as your done eating. Besides, I'm sure Appa's getting lonely."
Toph walked into the room with a comb in her hand, trying to flatten her insane bed-head.
"Which means be ready to leave by tomorrow, because that's how long it'll take Sokka to finish eating."
"Hey, I don't take that long!"
The two began to argue about Sokka's eating tendencies as Zuko and Uncle joined the group.
"It's a little crowded in here, wouldn't you say so Lee?"
"Uncle, with those two around, it's always going to be crowded." Zuko answered, pointing to Sokka and Toph.
Uncle put a pot of tea on while Zuko looked through the cupboards to find something to eat. He looked around. Where was the new guy, Aisu?
"Hey, where's Aisu?"
Katara looked around, "I don't know, he's probably sleeping. I would imagine being poisoned takes a lot out of you."
Aisu stepped into the room with Tei and Tai clinging to each leg.
"Guys, I'm not going to be able to eat with you down there. Can you let go?"
"No! Your gonna leave without us!"
"Sorry, but I have to. But, if you really want to come along and fight the Fire Lord with us, I guess you could."
They both looked at each other and then back up at Aisu, "Uh, no thanks. But you had better come back to visit!"
He laughed and set them on the counter, "Fine, I promise to come back and visit."
"That's assuming we're all still alive."
"Are you guys ready to go? I already ate."
They all nodded and left the kitchen to go get their things. Uncle looked sadly at the pot of tea he would not be able to finish and followed Zuko out. Twenty minutes later they were making their way down the streets toward the inner wall. In the sunshine, it was a much less ominous place. Upon reaching the wall they looked around one last time before jumping through the hole and following the tunnel Toph and Aang had made back to their cave. Appa let out a groan and licked Aang, knocking him to the ground.
"Appa! I missed you too buddy!"
"Aang, where's the Earth King?" Katara said, looking for the bumbling king and his bear.
"Oh, I decided to leave him with the Freedom Fighters. Our trip will be dangerous, and he really does belong in Ba Sing Se."
"You know, it was kind of pointless to make this place. We didn't even use it." Sokka said, gesturing to the cavern around them.
"No it wasn't. It gave Appa a place to stay while we got Zuko and Iroh."
Zuko looked at Appa cautiously. Why was the Avatar so weird?
"I've seen you do it countless times, but do we seriously ride on him?"
Toph brushed Zuko aside as she made her way onto the bison's back, "Yes we do. You'll get used to it though."
Aang bent aside the cover of the cave that kept it hidden from the outside world and leapt up onto Appa's back. Uncle was looking around with an expression of pure joy.
"This is almost better than Ginseng tea!"
Aang laughed, "Almost huh? Yip yip!"
With that the huge animal burst from the ground and slowly began to ascend skyward. As they passed over the main wall, they were glad that the Fire Nation had yet to bring in the catapults to the city. Guiding Appa through the burning rocks they hurled was not fun. Sokka turned to Katara as they left the city of Ba Sing Se behind them.
"Katara, do we still have that Vanguard armor? It may come in useful later."
"Yeah we do." she replied, rummaging through the packs and coming up with one of the helmets. Uncle gasped when he saw what she was holding.
"Where did you get an Imperial Vanguard member's helmet?!"
Sokka jerked his thumb at Aisu, who was staring off to his right, "From that crazy guy right there. He killed eight of them before we even arrived on the scene to try and help."
Zuko and Uncle looked at each other. Eight Imperial guard members? Even Azula didn't train against eight at once. There was more to this boy than met the eye. Zuko turned to see Katara looking at his scar.
"I'm sorry I couldn't heal it."
"It's okay. Like I said, it's become a reminder that I am free to do what I want." He turned back to Aisu. "Aisu, what is your sword made out of?"
Aisu rolled his eyes. Telling people what it was made out of who weren't going to die soon meant he had to explain it too.
"To make a long story short, it's made out of Sozen's Comet. Please don't make me explain the rest."
"May I look at it Aisu," said Uncle, holding out his hand. The blade reflected in his wisened old eyes as he drew it. "This is truly...amazing. I never knew that this was what became of Sozen's Star."
Aisu looked at him curiously, "What do you mean Sozen's Star."
"As you probably know, one hundred years ago a piece of Sozen's Comet broke off and fell to the earth. Fire Lord Sozen knew what it was, but afraid that it would decrease the people's support in him and his divine right to rule, he passed it off as a new star, naming it after his comet. Only the Fire Nation royalty are allowed access to the scrolls that record this story, so no one in the Fire Nation knows what it truly was, though I never imagined that someone would have found it and forged it into such a magnificent weapon."
Aisu took his sword back and put it into his sheath.
"And what do you think of it Zuzu?"
Zuko almost flinched at the sound of the hated nickname.
"Where did you learn that name? I hate it. It reminds me of Azula."
Aisu smiled at him, "I learned it from Azula, but I didn't know it was a nickname. I won't use it anymore if you'd like."
"I would. And when did you learn it from my sister?"
"That's something I really don't discuss. However, when we find your sister, I don't care what grudges you may have against her, I will be the one who deals with her."
Zuko highly doubted one boy could be a match for his sister, but then again, he had defeated eight Imperial Vanguard members. That had to count for something. Most of the day went by without much more talking, everyone seemed to be preoccupied with their thoughts. The sun was getting low in the sky when Sokka looked over at Aang.
"Aang, why are we going down? This isn't like the swamp is it?"
"No Sokka, no voices from the earth. I don't know why we're going down. Come on Appa, yip yip!"
The bison refused to go higher, flying down into the middle of a forest.
"Guys, this is the first time Appa has ever disobeyed me, this might be important. Besides, we should probably set up camp anyway."
As Appa landed with a thud the group got off to look around.
"This sure doesn't look very important." Sokka said, hacking at a branch with his machete.
"Well maybe there's something here. Let's look around while we set up camp, Sokka, you can get the firewood. Sokka grumbled something about always having to get the firewood as he set off into the forest, swinging his machete back and forth. Why did Appa have to be so difficult, landing in some stupid forest he'd never even been to? Sokka came to the base of a steep slope and he set down his firewood to crack his back.
"I wonder what's up there."
He put his machete away and began to climb, losing his footing a few times before reaching the top. He noticed a cave as he pulled himself up over the ledge at the top. If Aang could get Appa to fly their things up here, they might as well stay in there. Sokka entered the cave and looked around, it was pretty clean and looked like nothing was living in it. As he was about to leave to tell the others, he thought he noticed something further back in the cave, resting on the ground against the wall. Sokka pulled out his machete and carefully made his way back into the darkness.
"Hello? Anyone there?"
As he came closer to the figure, all the air seemed to empty itself from his lungs. He dropped his machete and ran forward.
"NO!"
As he dropped to his knees, tears ran down his cheeks. Her warrior's uniform was badly burned and she had her eyes closed.
"Suki! Wake up!"
Sokka shook her as he desperately tried to wake her up. This was not going to happen again! The tears seemed to flow on their own as Sokka continued to shake her, but she refused to wake up.
"No. No no no-"
Suki's eyes fluttered open and she looked up at Sokka.
"Sokka?...please tell me that's you... I was hoping Appa would come back and I'd get to see you before I died..."
"No Suki! It's me, your not going to die! I won't let you, this won't happen to me again! You aren't burned too badly, I'm sure Katara can heal you!"
"Sokka...nothing can help me now."
The Kiyoshi Warrior shifted herself, closing her eyes with the coming pain and lifted the bottom part of her dress. Sokka wanted to throw up, but he refused. Her skin was dry and black, and he could see her charred bones. Katara could not heal this. She dropped the cloth back over her legs and looked back up at Sokka.
"Sokka, I knew this was coming. I wasn't expecting to live. Just hoping, to see you one more time, for this."
Sokka's tears fell to the floor as he bowed his head, "For what?"
Suki lifted his head and brought it close to hers, giving him one last kiss before falling back into his arms.
"That. I'm sorry I couldn't help. A girl with...blue flames...attacked us, and we couldn't-we couldn't fight them off. We were no match."
She lifted her hand and put it against Sokka's cheek, "Sokka, I really am...so sorry. I guess this means the Avatar found his bison though...please, don't give up because of this. Help the Avatar defeat the Fire Lord...help him do what...we couldn't. I had hoped to see you under happier circumstances, this causes so much pain...I'm sorry..."
Her hand fell away and the breath left her body for the last time as her head tilted back onto Sokka's arm. Sokka lowered his head and shuddered.
"Not again, please not again! This is just like Yue! This can't be happening, this isn't happening!"
Sokka stood up with his friend's body in his arms and turned, running out of the cave and down the hill, losing the skin on one knee as he stumbled. He ran blindly through the forest, shouting his sister's name.
"Katara! Katara!"
Back at camp they heard his frenzied shouts. Aisu drew his sword as they all turned toward the noise, he hoped he wasn't the only one who heard the panic in Sokka's voice. Momo hid behind Aang's shoulder as Sokka came bursting through the bushes carrying a body and dropped to his knees.
"Katara! Please, you have to help her! Azula got to her, but please, I can't go through this again!"
They could all see her burnt legs and Zuko forced down the bile as he took in his sister's work. There would be no healing this. Katara ran over with her water already out and laid her hands on Suki's torso. She looked up after a few seconds with tears in her eyes.
"Sokka...I can't do anything. She's gone."
Sokka let out a scream and then seemed to whither as he fell back against a tree and held Suki's body close to him.
"No, no, no, no..." his words faded as he lowered his head into her shoulder. Katara walked over and quietly sat next to him. Aisu put away his sword as he solemnly approached Aang.
"This...has happened before?"
"Yes, at the North Pole. Our friend Yue died sacrificing herself to become the Moon Spirit, but Sokka was closest to her. It took a lot out of him."
Toph was silent as she stood looking at the brother and sister leaning against the tree, feeling the tremors come through the earth and into her feet. Why had no one told her that before? Uncle put his hand on Zuko's shoulder.
"Your sister has reached what I hoped she never would. I had hoped that we might have been able to save her, but in the end, it looks like the only choice that we have been left with is to give her what is coming to your father. Zuko, you may not remember, or care, but I can think of a time when Azula was just another girl, she was adorable at that young age, untainted by my brother's ideals..."
The sorrow that hung over the camp that night was heavy. Aisu felt as if he could feel it enter him as he breathed in. No one slept that night, and there was no fire.
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Hall of the Fire Lord
"Is there something you want me to do father? You brought Ty Lee, Mai, and myself all the way from Ba Sing Se, and I don't feel comfortable leaving the city in the hands of the Vanguard."
The flames rose as Ozai began to speak.
"Azula, my most trusted daughter, you have some loose ends to tie up. You know what I'm talking about. Go to Omashu, you should find what you are looking for there."
Azula glared into the flames. She hated loose ends, and the Avatar seemed to be a most elusive one. That would all end quickly though.
"Yes father, it will be done. I am the Fire Lord's most humble servant."
"If I can't handle the Avatar in a city that's already under my control, I might as well give myself a scar and join Zuzu."
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Unknown forest en route to Omashu
The next morning Sokka still refused to let anyone else carry Suki.
"Sokka, what are you going to do with her? Please, let me bury her here." Toph said.
"In the middle of nowhere! No! I'm sorry Aang, but we're taking her back to Kiyoshi Island. We bury her where she lived."
"It's okay Sokka, I wouldn't want her out here either. Omashu will still be there when we've finished."
Sokka wrapped Suki in a blanket and then carried her back up to the cave. He set her down outside the entrance and emerged a few moments later. He held Suki's burnt war fans. He folded one shut and untied the blanket around his friend to put it through her sash. He stared at the other one awhile before thrusting it through his own belt. The belt she had so masterfully humiliated him with when they first met. He bent to wrap her again and then lifted her and made his way back to the others.
"Did you find them Sokka?" he hadn't told anyone, but Katara knew what he had gone for.
"Yes. We can go now."
They looked back at the site they were now, in a strange way, happy to have landed in. Aang rubbed Appa's furry head, he didn't know how, but he was glad Appa knew where to land. Now it was off to Kiyoshi Island. This would be a bittersweet detour.
That was one of the harder decisions to make, but what it all came down to was that Azula wasn't likely to have left Suki alive in the show. In fact, I think a scene somewhat close to this one may come up in season three... On a lighter note, I lied. Please forgive me! This chapter is under three thousand words, but chapter eight will make up for that. Sorry about the Earth King, Gir The Insane Flaming Ninja. You know what to do for the next update!
Twilight Rurouni