"You wouldn't happen to know where we are?"
Sokka's voice, even though he was whispering, cut through the darkness like a knife.
"Generally, or specifically?"
"Specifically, thank you. I know where we are, the problem is that place is an absolute maze."
"It is- look out!"
Suki grabbed Sokka's arm and pulled him back, just as a pair of pirates approached from the other end of the hallway.
"Thanks," he said, looking at her.
"You know, it's a miracle we haven't been discovered yet," Suki whispered, watching the pirates turn another corner and vanish down another corridor.
"We have one of them lying unconscious in our cell and another lying unconscious in the armoury. If either wakes up too early, we're done for."
"That's an 'if' Suki. You criticised my plan for having too many ifs in it, be more optimistic!"
"I am optimistic- but I'm looking at all the possibilities."
"So am I- I just prefer to think about the good ones. Shall we?"
Sokka pulled his club out of his belt in case he needed it and crept down the hall. Suki followed him, war-fan already in hand.
Mercifully, no other pirates appeared, and no shouts of alarm came through the base. Both Ty Lee and that other guard presumably remained peacefully slumbering on the floor.
"Presumably the prisons are somewhere on the lower levels," she whispered to Sokka, as they came to a staircase.
"Good shout."
Sure enough, when they descended that staircase, they were greeted by a corridor. On either side of that corridor were two enormous and heavy iron doors, with bars set into them.
"Ooh, those are imposing doors. Really scream "prison" at you." Sokka mused, stroking his chin in an effort to pretend he had a moustache.
"You wouldn't happen to have the keys, would you?"
"I did steal that guard's keys, so let's hope it's "one size fits all."
Fortunately, it was. The first door swung open to reveal a large room, stuffed full of men and women in green uniforms. At the sight of Suki, they stood up and a chatter began to spread through the room, but Suki gestured for them to be quiet. Then, she handed the key to Sokka and he went to the other door, which presumably had the water tribesmen in it.
"Suki- I mean Captain! You're safe!" Li said, pushing his way to the front.
"Never mind me, I'm glad that you're safe. I woke up here, I didn't know what happened to you."
Li sighed. "Well, it wasn't fun, I'll put it that way. They disarmed us, took your friend Toph and the rest of our earthbenders away somewhere, and locked us in here."
"They took Toph away?" Suki was suddenly worried again.
"She's an Earthbender. If she was here we wouldn't have stayed here for any longer than it took her to smash a wall down."
"I suppose that's true, but we need to find her."
Li nodded, but then looked at her questioningly.
"Just one thing, Captain. Who was that you were with just now?"
So this was the moment of truth. This could end badly, but it was a conversation that needed to be had if anyone was to have a chance of getting out of here.
"His name is Sokka."
"As in the captain of the Tui? What's he doing here?"
"He was captured too, and so we are helping each other escape."
She sighed, and launched into a monologue.
"Now, I know what you're going to say. You are going to rebuke me for teaming up with not only the enemy, but the captain of the ship we are supposed to be hunting. But we talked in that cell and we realised that we had a lot more in common than we thought, despite being Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe- including the fact that we both desperately want to get out of here. I'm sure that you also want to get out of here, and so we do that by working with the water tribesmen, not against them. The pirates are the real enemy here, and we need to deal with them."
A silence fell over the group for a second, before Li spoke up.
"... actually, I was going to say that it's good we've decided to help each other."
"Really?"
"Did you think we were going to turn on you?" One of the marines asked.
"Yes, I did a bit." Suki admitted reluctantly. "I thought you would think me a traitor."
"Considering our situation, treason against the Earth King is the least of our worries," Li replied.
"What's the plan, Captain?" A sailor shouted. Suki remembered that her name was Biyu.
She opened her mouth to address her crew, but before she could Sokka was back again.
"I have my crew out, and they've agreed to work with you, but there's a problem," he said.
"What?"
"My sister isn't in there. They took her somewhere else."
"Didn't you say Katara is the only waterbender with you?"
"Yes."
"That must be why. They also took our Earthbenders."
"You must be Sokka," Li stepped in to ingratiate himself with his new ally.
"I am indeed. I hear you all had orders to hunt me down!" He spoke to the room at large.
"Sokka, I've already spoken to them. They've agreed to work with you."
Sokka even looked a bit put out by this.
"Oh, was it that easy? I wanted to make a heroic speech."
"There will be no need for that." Suki turned to the room at large and addressed them.
"Now that we have agreed to work together, there is a room upstairs that contains all our weapons. With over 200 of us, stealth is not an option so we will rush it, basically. Once we are there, we will arm ourselves and take this base by force. We should also find our benders too."
"Oh, so you get to do the speech," Sokka groaned. Nobody else heard them, though, as an enthusiastic cheer came through the room.
"We probably have seconds before we're discovered now, so let's go!" Suki stood aside, and with that her crew began to flood out of the room, to join the water tribesmen who were already there. There were a few suspicious glances thrown, but fortunately nothing more.
Sokka and Suki, as the captains and at least for the moment the only ones with weapons, stood in front of them, closest to the staircase, with their weapons drawn. Sokka had his club and his boomerang both out, and Suki had a war- fan in each hand.
"Follow us! Remember, once we reach the armoury, grab the first weapon that suits you- the sooner we're all armed, the better."
And with that, the two of them charged up the steps, their crews in tow.
Ahead of them, there was a shout of alarm, as an unfortunate pirate found himself in the path of a tidal wave of sailors with absolutely no warning. He was swiftly dispatched with a club to the head and the swarm moved on, retracing their steps as they shouted their war-cries, invoking the spirits of Avatars and spirits, monarchs and whoever else was important to them. The shouting did attract the attention of some pirates, but the two crews still had some surprise on their side- the pirates had not been expecting a mass breakout, so they had a while before the Pirates would be able to properly organise themselves to respond to the threat.
Those pirates who did get in their way were swiftly knocked down, and their weapons taken by one of the crewmen behind them.
Eventually, with only minimal resistance, they reached the armoury. Sokka and Suki opened the door and ushered their crews inside.
Once they were in, they took position at the end of the corridor and waited. After thirty seconds the first newly armed man joined them, a water tribesman with a dao sword. He was soon joined by a Kyoshi warrior with a katana, and her own war-fans in her belt, and a couple of Suki's archers with newly acquired bows and quivers full of arrows. Others, including one man armed with a naginata polearm that Suki thought was totally unsuited to the sort of battle they were about to fight, emerged.
Eventually, they had about thirty people armed and ready outside the armoury. This was just as well, as by now the Pirates were beginning to get their act together. A horn blast echoed down the corridor, a long, low sound, and the first pirates began to charge towards them. They crashed into their still swelling ranks and were swiftly cut down, but they were replaced immediately.
Suki looked over her shoulder to see how many of their crews had armed themselves, and was gratified to see the corridor crowded behind them with people and steel.
Amid the din of battle, Sokka tapped her on the shoulder.
"I'm going to find my sister!"
"Then I'm coming with you!"
"What?" Sokka was taken aback by the immediacy of Suki's response. "No, you need to stay here! Someone needs to command."
"And I happen to know just the woman." Suki scanned the crowd for Mingzhu, eventually spotting her braining a pirate with her shield. Suki worked her way over to her and explained the situation.
"Sokka and I are going to find Toph and the others, can you take over for us?"
Mingzhu looked like she was about to make a comment, before she was silenced by a look from Suki. She then nodded, and took her place at the front of the formation. Then, the Kyoshi Warrior and the Water Tribesman ran up the nearest corridor, taking advantage of the chaos of battle to slip away unnoticed.
"Do you have a clue where we're going?"
"No, but they'll be too busy with the enormous battle happening back there to be concerned with us. And then we can ride back in there with the power of bending and crush them." Sokka told her.
Another round of corridors that all looked the same ensued, although rather than sneaking through them Sokka and Suki were now running, with no regard for their stealth. As Sokka had predicted they would be, the Pirates were far too concerned by the commotion being caused by the crews of the Kyoshi and the Tui, affording Sokka and Suki time to search.
Fortunately, they didn't have to search for long before Suki heard a very familiar shout.
"Wait! Did you hear that?"
Sokka stopped and listened. Sure enough, just over the faint din of the battle, a cry of "Come in here and fight me, you cowards!" Could be heard.
"It's Toph, follow me!"
"Who?"
"The blind girl. You met her at the palace, remember?"
"Oh, her. Didn't you say she could see with her feet?"
"Yes, but don't ask. I'm not sure how it works either."
"I'll ask her myself."
They had stopped before another door, and on the other side the sounds of Toph's shouting could clearly be heard. Sokka pushed the door open, and they were confronted with the biggest room they had yet seen in this place. In the middle of it, a large rope hung from the ceiling, on the end of that rope was a wooden cage, and in the wooden cage were Toph, Katara, and the other earthbenders.
"Katara!" Sokka shouted, running towards it. He stopped and looked up at her.
"Sokka! I'm so glad you're alright!"
"Not as glad as I am. We're here to get you out."
"About time!" Toph grunted.
"Hello Toph!" Suki greeted her.
"Hi, fangirl," Toph responded.
"Fangirl? Where did that come from?"
"You fight with war-fans. Hence "fangirl". Can you just hurry up and we can argue about nicknames later?"
"Actually, I kind of like it," a cold voice said behind them. Suki swivelled to find Azula standing behind them, levelling the Space Sword at Sokka. She had two other swords on her hip, and Suki couldn't help but notice that one bore a suspicious resemblance to the traditional weapon of a Kyoshi Warrior.
"So, you escaped," Azula sneered. "You know the penalty, I trust?"
"No dessert for a week?" Sokka asked.
"No. First I'm going to kill you with your own sword, and make your sister watch, and then I'm going to kill everyone in that cage."
"Oh, so nearly as bad."
"Don't joke around with me."
Sokka now did something very strange. He put his club away.
"I wouldn't dream of it. But before you do kill me, would you like to know an interesting fact about that sword?"
Azula only rolled her eyes.
"It's not made of metal. It came from a meteorite, which means it's made of space rock. And Space rock," he said pointedly, "is still rock."
A look of confusion came over Azula's face. "What are you talking ab-"
She was interrupted as Space Sword wrenched itself free of her grip unexpectedly, and flew through the air towards Sokka. In one smooth movement, Sokka managed to reach around to grab the hilt of his sword, swung it around and pointed it at Azula.
"Thank you, Toph," he called.
"It was nothing- but shouldn't you be getting us out of here?"
"Oh, right. You might want to hold on to something."
Sokka drew his boomerang and turned to aim it. Azula saw her chance and sprang forward, drawing a second sword from her belt. Suki managed to react in time and jumped in between them, blocking the strike with her shield.
At the same time, Sokka released the boomerang, which spiralled up and away, around the room. Azula realised what was about to happen and tried to blast it out of the sky with her firebending, but she missed and the sharp edge of the boomerang connected with the rope holding up the wooden cage.
With an almighty crash, it smashed onto the floor and split open like an egg.
Azula, realising that the benders were now free, tossed her sword aside and ignited her palms.
"I did want to avoid using Firebending, you see it's fun humiliating non-benders at their own game. But the gloves are off now."
Just as the first Earthbender emerged from the ruins of the cage, she blasted at them with fire. Sokka and Suki dived out of the way in either direction while the Earthbender just managed to raise a rock wall to protect himself. Azula then turned to blast at Sokka, who again barely dodged it.
Meanwhile, Suki attempted to take advantage of her opponent's fixation on Sokka to work her way behind her and surprise her, but unfortunately Azula realised what she was doing. A blast of fire came her way and Suki narrowly avoided it by ducking under it. The Fire dissipated against a nearby wall.
Just then, the ground under Azula began to shift, and the firebender nearly fell over; Toph emerged from the ruins, with Katara and the other earthbenders behind her.
"This won't help you," Azula warned.
"Yes we will, because I'm the greatest Earthbender in the world!" Toph responded. The Earthbenders behind her exchanged looks.
Toph began the battle by throwing a rock at Azula, who dodged and responded with a fireball. This was blocked by a rock wall and then two of the earthbenders behind Toph sprung into action, fashioning spikes out of the rock wall and firing them at the Firebender. Azula drew her third sword- Suki was pretty sure now that was her sword- and began expertly deflecting the spikes, which either fell to the floor harmlessly or embedded themselves in the wall behind her. She then set fire to the blade, which took flame and lit up like a candle, and charged at them. Suki again placed herself in between the Azula and the Earthbenders, and blocked her first strike, feeling the heat coming off Azula's blade as it passed by her face.
She inwardly cursed the relatively short reach of her war fans, because she had to put herself within easy reach of Azula's sword to use them, and with that sword on fire it could end badly. She put those thoughts out of her head.
Sokka came charging in from the side, Space Sword raised above his head, but Azula swung her sword towards him. This forced him to duck out of the way and Azula took the opportunity to kick him in the head. She was prevented from finishing the job by Suki catching the strike with her fan. She then dropped the fan, grabbed Azula's wrist instead, and forced her to drop the sword, catching it and turning it on Azula.
For the second time, Azula found herself staring down the blade of a weapon she had been wielding seconds previously. She snarled, and blasted a plume of flame at Suki, forcing her to go reeling backwards. She ended up over balancing and sitting down heavily. Azula then began to spin her arms, slowly at first, and tendrils of blue electricity appeared between her fingers. Suki recognised the technique- lightning bending.
Avatar Kyoshi, the founder the Kyoshi Warriors to which Suki belonged, had once defeated a lightning bender by throwing them off a cliff, and that had been a popular story on Kyoshi island. But it was one thing to hear of lightning benders and quite another to face one down. Azula sneered at Suki for a second before her face turned away from her; Suki followed her gaze to see her looking at Sokka, who was still lying dazed on the floor with Katara kneeling over him.
Suki realized what Azula was about to do, and forced herself to get up and run. The distance wasn't very far, so she got to them just as Azula finished charging up her attack and pointed at the water tribe siblings.
As Suki flung herself at them, time seemed to slow down. A flash of blue light came from the firebender, accompanied by a tremendous thunderclap. Suki hit the two of them and sent them sprawling, just enough for the lightning to narrowly miss them and hit the ground just behind them, creating an explosion that knocked them forwards. Now all three of them were dazed and confused, and Azula advanced on them.
"It's almost touching, you know. You're supposed to be enemies with these people, and yet you threw yourself in front of a lightning bolt for them. Still, if you're so eager to die for these people, allow me to oblige you."
Azula raised her hand again, and then stopped as the door burst open and Mingzhu charged in, accompanied by warriors from both the water tribe and the Earth kingdom. Azula turned to face the new threat, and Toph took the opportunity to fire a small rock into the back of her head while she was distracted. The pirate swayed, and then fell forward, unconscious.
"The base is ours!" Mingzhu shouted, and she was met by boisterous cheers from the rest of the crew. Suki lay back on the floor, exhausted but satisfied. They had done it. They had won.
"Sorry Azula, you're my prisoner now," she said under her breath, smiling.