"I'm surrounded by idiots," Sokka announced a week later, slamming the door shut behind him and nearly barking his shins on yet another random box of crap that was in his and Katara's commandeered room.
Katara just looked at him mildly. "Glad to be excluded from that generalization, brother dear."
Sokka huffed, and didn't exclude her because that would be nepotism and she was part of the problem too.
"Then tell me why," he said instead, "We're parked on the shores of the Aral Sea, less than a hundred kilometers from our supposed objective, and no one has a plan of what to do next, at least that they're willing to share. Because everyone's too busy guarding their precious secrets."
Katara frowned. "Aren't you reading a little much into this? Maybe no one has a plan because no one knows what to do. Toph and Aang are kids, and Zuko may have more experience with this kind of thing, but he's barely older than us, Sokka. And how do you plan for something you don't even know how to ask for, especially when it's at a place you don't know exactly how to get to?"
Sokka privately thought more than half their party would resort to brute force to do the former, so what was really bothering him was that they presently had no solution to the latter. Between the Syr Darya glacier and the Aral Sea, which had expanded far past even its original borders before freezing over – a small silver lining to global climate disaster – the terrain was forbidding even for someone who'd been raised on the ice. This glaring obstacle was, however, purposefully overlooked by their friendly neighborhood Tracker. Sokka figured this was the kind of jaded attitude a person could develop after they'd already spent years looking for things that were never meant to be found.
"Zuko knows something," Sokka still insisted. "Look, I don't know what he does during his so-called Avatar research hours, or what's he's got to do with Ozai's aspirations for becoming Asia's Next Top Colonizer. But I can guarantee that there are lots of things he's not telling us, and he's not the only one. And we've all spent almost two weeks pretending that everything is fine, because no one wants to rock the boat!"
"It takes a long time to build trust. Like you said, we've known each other for all of two weeks, and we didn't exactly get off on the right foot with everyone."
Katara implied that they both wanted to and were succeeding in building trust. Sokka wasn't so sure that was a good idea. It would make accomplishing their objective easier, sure, but it would also introduce complications. Dangerous ones, like friendships, feelings of obligation, caring, all those touchy-feely things that would make it so much harder to detach when logic told them they needed to.
"There's too many unknowns," he groaned, kicking a box full of old hard drives. "I don't like it when there's so many unknowns."
Katara clicked her tongue. "You're always saying you're a man of science. Doesn't that mean acknowledging how little we actually know about the universe? Besides," she continued before Sokka could butt in, "We know enough. Aang is a sweet kid despite everything that's happened to him, Toph's a little hellion but she wears her heart on her sleeve, and yes, Zuko's an Imperial Tracker, but he has a code."
"I know, I read it." Sokka found his opening with a quip and barreled on. "But that's just the thing. Aang acts like he's not dying and everybody else he ever knew isn't already dead, Toph seems to think that she's on some life-changing field trip with Zuko, and Zuko pretends like he's got a plan, but if he does he only talks it over with his AI! So what gives?"
"Is it so hard to believe that we're all just trying to cope?" Katara said sharply. "And everyone's got different ways of doing that. You, for example, just love pestering me about all the little details."
Sokka glared at her. He didn't let himself get so weighed down by emotions that he needed to cope, he just was trying to determine a logical plan of action in the face of their current circumstances. Katara, on the other hand…
"Are you okay?" Sokka asked, awkwardly.
Katara sighed, twisting her hands together. "It's a lot, and sometimes I just want to turn around and go home," she started. Sokka bit his tongue to keep from interrupting with the facts. He'd learned by now that she needed to vent just as much as he did, but about feelings and stuff instead. Sokka could tolerate it, but that didn't mean he had to enjoy it.
"But then… it's also exciting, being away from Badu? I know we haven't seen much, outside of each other, but … I've always felt like I could do more. Be more. It still scares me, a little, what I could become, but I know who I am at the heart of me, and … this suits me." She looked up, a little smile on her determined face.
Sokka jerked a small nod. Good for her, and everything. At least her whole self-image wasn't in a shamble along with the wreckage of a freezer. "Well, I don't think this suits me," Sokka said. "I'm an engineer, more than a scientist. I like working solutions, not elegant theories and wild conjectures."
A slight frown flitted across Katara's face before she leaned over and patted his knee. "Hey, don't worry, Sokka. I know you. You'll figure something out."
"Sure, sis." Sokka accepted the platitude for what it was. "Because I always do."
Even if it meant subconsciously hijacking a Fire Nations warship, apparently. And an extremely cramped one at that. Sokka let out a loud breath and stood up. Well, time to go make sure Zuko wasn't planning on ramming his ship into another dome or something equally stupid.
Katara's low voice followed him out the door. "That's what I'm worried about."
Sokka definitely wasn't the one Katara needed to be worried about. He understood she felt it was her sisterly duty or whatever, but Sokka wasn't currently trying to sneak out onto a frozen sea at the coldest time of night.
No, that would be Zuko.
Sokka let the cockpit chair squeak loudly as it swung around to face the Fire Prince. Okay, so on occasion, Sokka wasn't above his own dramatics. He'd seen enough movies to know this looked cool, after all.
And besides, Zuko's expression was priceless.
"Not up to anything, huh?" Sokka pointedly glanced at the large pack on Zuko's back, and the white camouflage that had replaced his usual red-and-black outfit.
"It's my ship, I can leave it when I want to," Zuko said, defensive.
Sokka grinned, sharp. He had the upper hand and Zuko knew it. "So what's the plan?" he asked.
"Find a way in."
So maybe Katara was right, and Sokka had been grossly overestimating Zuko when he'd expected him to have formulated something slightly more concrete than four words. "And then?"
"Look around. Figure it out from there."
"So you have no plan. Great. Hope that makes you happy, because I'm ecstatic." Sokka rolled his eyes.
"If you're fishing for an octopus my nephew, you need a tightly woven net, or he will squeeze through the tiniest hole and escape," offered IROH suddenly.
Sokka nearly fell out of the chair in shock. "Butt out!" he hissed, just as Zuko honest-to-God pouted: "I don't need your wisdom right now, Uncle."
"Yeah, if he was going to do anything wise he wouldn't be dressed like that," Sokka remarked to the disembodied AI.
"I'm sorry," said IROH, but Sokka had a feeling the AI didn't really mean that. "I just nag you, because ... well, ever since I lost my son ... "
"Uncle, you don't have to say it," Zuko interrupted hastily.
Sokka squinted in the darkness, unsure if Zuko's face was flushed or not. Admirable acting from the AI though, for sure. As if it didn't launch and kill a million child processes a day. Must've been programmed by a real artist.
"Remember your breath of fire," IROH said, seeming to collect himself. "It could save your life out there!"
"Yes, Uncle," Zuko sighed, trying his best to turn the lock on the door, but it blinked back to red as IROH overrode the controls.
"And put your hood up."
"Yes, Uncle." A hint more of a growl to it this time.
Sokka smirked, and debated whether or not to laugh.
"And take your nice young friend Sokka with you!"
"Yes Unc—what?"
"What?" echoed Sokka.
"You were going to go along anyway," accused the AI. Apparently, it was a thought-reader now, but Sokka thought about many things before immediately dismissing them as stupid dangerous.
"Was not!" Sokka protested, just as Zuko took objection to Sokka being called his nice young friend.
Sokka faked a hurt look in his direction. "I am too nice!"
"You're not young. Or my friend," grumbled Zuko in return, tugging again at the door, although he didn't argue Sokka's original point.
"Younger than you! Although, old enough to not be condescended to by a machine," Sokka said meaningfully in IROH's direction. Or what was the direction of the computing core where IROH resided.
"Ah, the follies of youth…" started the old AI.
"Can we mute him?" wondered Sokka.
"Unfortunately not. Want to get out of here?"
"Sure," sighed Sokka, despite second-guessing his own judgement for once. He was certain that he'd waited here with the intention of talking Zuko down from great heights of stupidity, instead of getting annoyed into joining in. Yet there was a certain logic to it. Safety in numbers, and the temptation of finally getting some answers – Sokka could see why an AI might come up with that solution.
"Great," said Zuko, although his tone was flat. "But tell your sister first so she doesn't kill me when you end up dead from your own stupidity."
That was rich, coming from someone without a plan. At least Sokka knew the bare basics of survival in extreme environments, which always started with Don't Go Alone, You Idiot.
"So how are we getting there?" Sokka asked, after he'd left a note, because he was smarter than to wake up Katara and let her freeze his feet to the floor. "One does not simply walk into Baikonur."
Zuko's grin was sharp and didn't reach his eyes. "Who said anything about walking?"
"Okay, so we're paddling. Makes sense. Plenty of meltwater in the channels above the ice that will let a light craft navigate them easily enough," allowed Sokka, huddled up in the bow of the packraft. He pulled the eight-millimeter-thick neoprene hood closer about his ears. It was unfair that the water was definitely warmer than the air, and here he was, dressed for water, yet exposed to the air.
Sokka decided that they were close enough to the dark, seemingly bottomless holes in the ice that he could start pointing out the holes in Zuko's plan. "Cool, cool. Paddling will work so well inside flooded glacial tunnels and caves."
Of course, that was the moment that Zuko chose to dive over edge of the packraft.
His people had been Islanders, once, and still technically were. The ocean was just… a little more solid now than it had been back in their heyday. So Sokka knew the techniques. He knew that shock was the enemy that stole the breath from his lungs, that freediving under the ice was truly a sport of mind over matter. He knew that he needed to regulate his breathing, keep his heart rate low, and not let the muscles in his torso tense up when he hit the water.
And Sokka knew that doing so was going to be damn near impossible, thanks to Zuko. Had the bastard been pre-breathing the entire time? Sokka wasn't ready, and his adrenaline had just spiked watching Zuko pull his stupid stunt, and it was going to take way too long to get into the state of calm required for such dives.
Mind over matter. The ultimate test, in a way, for someone of Sokka's intellect.
He dove.
Follow the light. Follow the light. Ignore external stimuli. Cold is a construct. The drysuit will maintain necessary bodily temperatures even in supercooled water for up to an hour.
Follow the light.
The entire world narrowed to the soft blue glow of Zuko's headlamp, far ahead.
An eternity of an instant later, Sokka surfaced, and found himself half-crawling, half-hauled up onto a frozen ledge.
He gasped, letting frozen air into his burning lungs. For lack of words, he held up a shaking middle finger in Zuko's direction.
"F-f-f-fff-fuck you," he finally managed. "You asshole." Shit, he was shivering now that he'd let his breath control go. Not good.
Zuko didn't look too much better than Sokka felt, but he was already slowing down his panting. He held up his pointer finger. One more.
"Fuck you," repeated Sokka, with feeling. "I'm feeling very culturally appropriated here."
But hey, at least he got some warning this time, and could pre-breathe. Small mercies.
They did it again. It was even worse the second time around.
Zuko came out on the other side breathing fire, which Sokka vaguely registered was most likely indicative of a deep-seated lung problem. Maybe it was hereditary, so IROH's reminder to Zuko made sense.
Sokka also noticed that they weren't in a naturally-formed basal cavity any more. He noticed that at about the same time that he noticed the group of armed warriors glaring down at them.
"H-hhh-hi." Sokka's fingers were more spasming than wiggling in their direction. "Nice night for a swim."
Then Zuko attacked, extending his blades and managing one stilted swing, which was impressive given his condition, but it did not impress his opponents in the slightest. A club caught both swords, sending them flying from frozen fingers, and then Zuko was shortly tasting the ice.
So was Sokka, which was rude, because he'd been nothing but the picture of politeness now had he?
From where his face was pressed into the ice, Sokka had a wonderful view of a simultaneously very pissed off and very cold Fire Prince. "You hh-h-happy now?"
"I'm never happy," growled Zuko.
If this was his success record on missions, Sokka could definitely see why.
A/N: Thank you everyone for the kind welcome back, it means a lot to me!