Ch27
The heavy gates of a Fire Nation palace chamber were loudly, but slowly, thrown open. The dim lighting and bordering darkness added to the seriousness of her situation.
"Let go!" Akiko screamed and kicked, "Let go of me!"
The IJN guards took no note of her desperate cries, and muscled her along, her feet dragging the entire journey.
Akiko was suddenly thrown into a dark room, a small chamber of sorts, by the triad of armed sentries. The heavy door was slammed shut behind her, leaving her in the dark. Her hands and ankles still remained shackled together by the heavy iron cuffs the Fire Nation used in prisons such as the Boiling Rock.
"So," a calm, collected, but notable disappointed voice purred from the darkness. "Despite all your concern or your care for my situation, even you betray me. At this point, as you've heard, everyone does at some point in time sooner or later. Truthfully, I don't even know why I still allow myself to get bothered or flustered by it. Especially by the likes of you, who I have known for the shortest amount of time. Akiko-san."
Akiko's eyes widened at the realization of who awaited her in the darkness of her cell. Brilliant and fierce blue flames ignited suddenly atop the torches around the room, casting an ominous blue illumination around the room. Sitting before her was Azula, notably cross.
"Not only do you, like everyone else in my life, stab me in the back," she said with a crack in her voice, "No- You even try to impersonate me. And not very well I might add. Maybe, just maybe I'll let you go if you tell me who put you up to this."
Akiko felt a certain slight fear from within. She was unarmed, and now confined in a close space with one of the most powerful fire benders on the planet. But she couldn't compromise the Admiral. He was already in enough hot water as it was. And he was right. "Someone else?"
"Don't take me for some fool! I know you aren't stupid enough to come up with this yourself!"
Akiko took a firm and stubborn stance. Although she was quaking with fear within. "There was no one! I acted on my own because I was concerned! I can't abandon my own people!"
"Well, I hope you enjoy the consequences of your actions," Azula threatened.
The door once again swung open and in stepped Admiral Nagumo and a small detail of two armed riflemen.
"I wasn't thinking one of our own would commit such an act of treason. Committing espionage, and threatening the sanctity of our alliance!"
"Admiral, this alliance! It isn't what you believe it to be! She-"
"Silence! I will not hear these fabricated assertions by the likes of you! You are a disgrace to His Majesty's Navy! And have been nothing but a burden ever since we left Japan!" he barked. "I was always against the, remarkably foolish, mercy of my superior to have allowed you, a woman, to join us on this mission. Your emotions get the better of you! Truthfully, if it was up to me, you'd have been turned over to the Army to deal with you!" The officer turned to Azula. "Firelord Azula. I understand this puts a strain in our cooperative alliance. A strain I will take responsibility for. In good faith, we will carry out whatever sentencing you so call for."
Azula turned to the person, most recently, she felt she could confide in. "Take her as far away from me as possible. Abandon her as she did me, and let her rough."
"As per your orders," Nagumo replied. With a snap of his fingers and a wave of his hand, the two sentries which accompanied him took hold of Akiko once more and dragged her out of the room. "Battleship Yamato is departing for Kyoshi Island in the coming hours, ahead of the other ships set to follow. Hold her in cruiser Atago's brig for now. I'll inform the crew that they are to dispose of her at sea."
Akiko screamed as the door shut once more.
Joe, as well as the other thousands of Marines and Sailors trapped in this alternative world or sorcery, knew very well how much of a commodity cigarettes had become ever since they had resurfaced from their mysterious oceanic passage. The knowledge that there were no more resupplies and care packages coming from the states.
The realization that this world could become permanent, and they would never see American shores again crossed the Lieutenant's mind at somber times like this, often at night. It was now the earliest hours of the morning. The sun had not yet begun to rise, but it would soon begin to crest the horizon in the coming hours. The LT cradles his M1 rifle across his chest as he tried to light his cigarette with his Zippo lighter. It was his and PFC William's time for watch duty, as the other members of the gang slept.
"Hey," William asked, "Lieutenant, do you think we are ever going to get home?"
"To tell you the truth, Williams, I have no idea." His lighter sounded a sharp ring as he closed the lid. "You missing home?"
"To tell you the truth, LT," Williams replied, checking the ammo count in his carbine's magazine. "Home, the place, not missing it that much. The south isn't too great to me." He restored his gun's magazine to the mag well. "Missing family though."
"I hear ya," Joe replied. "Got a girl back home. I promised her it wouldn't be long and that I'd come back real soon. Didn't think I'd be getting into this at the time. Then again, who would've guessed?"
"I guess my concern right now," Williams began," On top of that. Is. Eventually, we are going to run out of ammunition. And not only are we going against someone who can manufacture bullets. But eventually too, we are going to be up against people who can spit fire, throw rocks, and move oceans, with their flipping minds."
"Yeah, I suppose that would be a problem. But I'm pretty sure by the time that happens we would have figured this out. Or…"
"Or what?" Williams asked.
"Or we won't." The young officer answered.
The cyclic rhythm of distant machine gun fire sounded overhead followed by the hum of radial aircraft engines. Bursts of mg fire. The two looked up, seeing the stray orange tracers whizzing through the night sky.
"Is there a dogfight up there?" PFC Williams asked.
"I can't tell," the LT replied. "Cloud cover is pretty thick tonight."
Another burst of machine gun fire, followed by a muffled explosion!
Joe squinted his eyes to the skies above, putting out his cigarette and putting his helmet on.
His eyes widened as he barely made out a large steel object bearing down on them!
"Get out of the way!" he yelled as he dove for cover. Williams dove for the nearest tree.
"WHAT?!- WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Toph snapped up.
Crash! The ground shattered from the weight and momentum of a fallen iron propeller! It was huge!
"Where'd that fall from?!" Toph frantically asked, feeling the full force of the impact in the ground.
"What's going on?" Zuko and Sokka shouted, coming to their senses.
"Ambush?!" the other two marines followed, taking up their guns.
"No! Aircraft debris's raining down on us!" Joe barked. "Get moving and get to cover! Let's move!"
More steel and iron came crashing down around the group. Appa roared, startled by the nearby impact of a metal catwalk and supporting cables.
The gaang soon was up on their feet and moving out of the drop zone of all the falling metal.
Looking up,they could now see a great flame, seeming to glide across the night sky above the clouds. An airship of the Fire Nation, it's outboard engines destroyed and its envelope compromised and riddled with holes from the .50 caliber fire from the naval aviators. It was like seeing a dragon, struck down from the skies above.
"What happened?" Sokka asked, now finally making it out of the way."
"Anybody hurt?" Aang and Katara asked around.
"It's our fly boys in the Navy," Joe answered. "Looks like they bagged themselves a Fire Nation airship. She's going down hard."
Another look at the shot down dirigible gave another sight of the squadron of F4F Wildcats ripping more .50 caliber tracers into the airship's gondolas and crew quarters before peeling off and climbing back into the clouds, another roar of their engines signalling their departure from the engagement zone and return to the fleet.
The airship let off a screech and a thundering explosion as it plunged from the sky, now entering a steepening dive toward the ground ahead. More pieces continued to fall away as the vessel went up in an uncontrollable flame.
"We have to help any survivors," Aang ordered, beginning to run towards where the zeppelin would inevitably crash down.
"Hey! Hang on!" Joe barked, trying to grab hold of Aang to no avail. He took off after him, barely slinging his rifle.
"Follow the LT, guys! Let's go!" Sergeant Jones ordered. The marines took off after their CO in a frantic rush. No time to gather additional gear from Appa's saddle.
"We need to help Aang!" Katara similarly called, getting the gang into action.
A torrent of screeching, twisting, snapping, and expanding iron joined the cacophony of shattering and crashing wood and glass as the airship smashed into the wooded areas ahead. Light now started to come into the sky.
"This kid's impulses and do-good attitude are gonna get him killed one day," Joe said, fixing his ka-bar to the muzzle of his rifle.
"Don't tell the water girl I said it," Sergeant Jones replied, "But it might make it easier for us. As evil as that sounds."
"Yeah, except we need him to get back, sarge," Williams said, falling in.
"I don't remember asking the likes of you!"
"Hey, lock it up and get serious," Joe ordered. They had finally caught up to Aang and were getting closer to the downed wreckage of the airship, it's fires now weakening.
Aang pushed his way through the shrubbery, accompanying entourage in trail. "Hey, Aang get back here! We don't know what's out there!" Joe tried to callback, again to no avail. Reluctantly he ordered his men forward from the treeline, slowly advancing with the avatar forth.
From the treeline where they were, was a clear opening all the way to the mangled wreckage. The dirigible had crash landed in a clearing in the woods. The only features separating them from the crash site was a shallow creek midway, and numerous medium sized stones. Very little cover.
"You think anyone could've survived that?" Williams asked Zuko.
"I don't know, but I don't like this," the prince replied.
A rip of machine gun fire ignited amidst the ominous silence! Puffs of dirt erupted from the ground around them! Bullets whizzed by over and around as the group dove for cover, startled.
"Machine gun!" Joe shouted, shouldering his rifle for a shot, but flinching as a bullet whizzed by dangerously. "Get to cover! We're exposed!"
Accompanying volleys of rifle fire cracked in addition to the chatter of the machine gun. Joe fired off two rounds from his Garand before, ping, the clip ejected!
"Pop smoke! We're sitting ducks out here!"
"Smoke's still with the bison!"
"Shit!"
The lieutenant racked another eight round clip into his rifle. The chatter of an M1 Thompson submachine gun and the pops of William's M1 carbine sounded off as they fell back to whatever cover they could find.
"Someone have eyes on?" Joe asked over the sound of gunfire.
"Negative! Too dark! too many places to look!"
"There in and around the airship," Toph reported. "Big gun's in the gondola!"
Sokka took a look from behind a tree stump. "More men are pouring out-!" He ducked back as a 7.9mm round chipped the wood just beside his face.
The mg bursts ceased. Empty. There was a brief pause of silence from the gun before it began to spit fire once more.
"It's a magazine-fed gun!" Joe called. "Advance in between!"
"Firebenders!" Zuko called.
Fire balls soon erupted from the wreckage in addition to the hail of 6.5 and 7.9mm bullets.
Katara pulled Aang behind cover. Zuko threw whatever fire he could in between moving to and from cover and trying not to be hit by fire or bullets. Toph shot forth boulders of varying size, but it was too dangerous for her to stay exposed. It was more difficult to react to bullets as they were smaller and flew much much faster.
Aang blew down a firebender with a concentrated gust of airbending, but jumped out of the way just in time as a burst of the machine gun strafed by him.
"We need to take out that gun!" Joe called. "It'll tear us up if we don't!"
"I can do it!" Toph called.
"It's too dangerous!" Sokka yelled in objection.
"It's too dangerous if we sit here and take it, anyway!" she rejected.
The platform where the gun crew was posted was only held up by a pair of iron girders which fell into place after the crash. Toph could see there were two men tending to the machine gun, a Nambu Type 99, which rested on its bipod. A well placed rock would take down the platform. Quickly she shot an adequately sized stone which displaced the support beams. The platform screeched as it tilted and fell forth, dumping both men of the gun crew. The gunner fell onto the jagged edge of a vertically broken rod of iron, impaling him through the chest and killing him. The loader landed on the dirt below, it was a far fall. As he tried to stand up, being exposed without cover, a .30-06. round hit him center mass, knocking him against the wreckage.
The machine gun silenced, Joe ordered, "Advance!" Ping! He replenished another clip into his weapon. Continuing their fire, the marines pushed forth with their officer, team avatar following along.
Another enemy rifleman shot! Another struck down! Their bodies recoiled from the impacts of the heavy caliber cartridges. Pings and clinks sounded, as bullets punctured the metal armor of the Fire Nation soldiers.
Despite the lessened enemy force, the incoming fire was still overwhelming. Katara, taking water from the creek which split the combat field, tried to make cover, a wall of ice to hide behind.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Crash! Bullets impacted the ice and shattered the wall in quick succession. Katara shreaked as she ducked for cover.
Aang and Toph took turns launching forth boulders at both the Japanese riflemen and Fire Nation troops. A boulder struck back an enemy rifleman, breaking his shooting stance, and a single rifle round, or a burst of submachine gun rounds finished him. Much to Aang's disapproval.
Katara sent forth a torrent of water, overwhelming a poor IJN sailor. The water washed away his Type 39 rifle and pushed him against a wall of wreckage, similar to how she stopped Zuko initially at the North Pole months prior. A clench of her fist froze the water and trapped the enemy. His scream of terror was only brief as a single springfield slug bored through his forehead, which recoiled back from the hit.
Katara wasn't able to look away fast enough, and winced at the sight. Joe pushed another en-bloc clip into his rifle.
Toph could feel the impact of a tossed hand grenade which landed at the foot of Sokka, Zuko, and a couple of Marines holed up behind a small earthbent wall. "Grenade!" the Marines yelled, realizing it late. With a stomp of her foot, the explosive was launched back toward the enemy. The explosive detonated midair, but the shrapnel blew back the opposing Japanese riflemen, again leaving them exposed to get shot.
The combined earth, water, fire, and air, with the volume of fire the marines could muster was enough to slowly but surely begin to thin the enemy.
"You gonna fire that thing or what?" Jones asked Sokka, referring to his still-holstered M1911 Colt.
"Oh yeah," Sokka replied, "Right." He reluctantly and shakily drew his pistol, timidly peeking out of cover.
"Sword's not gonna help you here, man. Time to get serious," Corporal Martinez pushed.
With a strong, fierce, and at times, desperate, combination of the bending of the four elements, and the precise and efficient return fire by the Marine Corps, the nine members of the forward reconnaissance squad slowly but surely advanced toward the wreckage. The opposing IJN sailors and Fire Nation combatants now steadily falling. Lacking their medium machine gun, the bolt action Type 38 Arisaka Rifles of the IJN were out-gunned by the M1 Garand, Carbine, and Thompson submachine gun. As the riflemen of the IJN were downed, so too was their volume of fire. And against Team Avatar, the remaining fire benders were no match. The IJN riflemen, what was left of them, outlived the fire nation troops. The opposition was reduced the occasional pop shots from cover by bolt action rifles, now no longer enough men remaining to discharge a deadly volley.
Ping! Corporal Martinez's Garand rifle ejected its clip as its round was fired, taking with it one of the last remaining enemy soldiers. Ratatatat- Clack! The bolt of Sergeant Jones's M1 Thompson flew forward and locked as his weapon emptied its twenty round stick magazine, cutting down yet another soldier and landing multiple wounding shots on another who recoiled behind cover. PFC Williams was fumbling for his next magazine for his carbine behind cover.
"There's one S.O.B. left!" Jones called, frantically fumbling for his next stick magazine on his bandolier.
The Japanese soldier popped out of cover, quickly shouldering his Arisaka rifle. Joe followed suit, raising his Garand. The enemy quickly shut the bolt and pulled the trigger. Click!
Joe did the same. Click. "Shit!" he yelled as he tried to cycle the bolt. "Sokka!"
Dropping his Type 38 rifle, the Japanese soldier, an NCO, went for his gunto. "Tenno Heika, Banzai!" he yelled as he charged forth at his opponents in a final attack attempt over surrender.
Instinctively, Sokka, seeing the sword, dropped his Colt and went for his space-sword and ran forth to meet him.
Joe racked the bolt and ejected the dud round.
The enemy soldier swung his gunto.
Sokka moved to defend, with more precision and mastery of his movement.
Ching! The blades, curved and straight, hand-forged and factory-produced, clashed.
Sokka pushed back against his opponent, who did not receive as thorough a training with the sword. He placed his boot against the enemy's stomach and kicked him back forcefully. Being injured from the burst of .45 ACP from Jones prior, the opponent stumbled back away from Sokka, giving Joe a separation he was comfortable enough with to take his shot.
Bang! A puff of smoke and a flash of orange from the muzzle of the M1 rifle. Ping! The clip ejected! A fleshy 'whack' sound resounded as the Japanese soldier was struck by the .30-06. slug in the left shoulder. He recoiled back from the shot and fell to the ground. Sokka looked back to Joe, startled by how close he was to the line of fire.
"And they said I wasn't qualified for 'sharpshooter' on weapons quals," Joe said.
"Contact right!" Jones called out, pulling back the bolt on his submachine gun. He let loose a burst of automatic fire. The sharp chatter echoed throughout the briefly still and silent woods. Puffs of wood shot off the trees where the pistol caliber slugs landed. He landed none of the shots, but definitely put his opponents on edge. "They're taking cover behind those trees."
"Who are you shooting at?" Joe asked for clarification, raising his M1 to eye level.
"Got no eyes on," Corporal Martinez added. "Are you seeing right, sarge?"
A streak of green and yellow dashed between the trees, moving from cover to cover.
"Contact!" Joe called out.
"Wait," Toph said comparatively quiet, "Isn't that-"
Bang! A round fired from the lieutenant's rifle. A larger thud bounced back as the larger bullet struck a tree.
"Who are we fighting," Aang yelled, concerned after all the bloodshed and death he was still stomaching, "Just slow down for a minute! Nobody else needs to die!"
"On the left too!" Martinez called out, aiming his rifle.
"Left side are those two girls that are always with Azula," Toph reported.
On the right, the streaks and dashes of green drew closer and closer, moving up from cover to cover.
"Wait, hold your fire!" Sokka called out amidst the crackshots, trying to garner the marines' attention. "They're friendlies!"
"They're not!" Toph called to those watching the left flank. "Duck!" She swiped her wrist to the left, moving the earth beneath PFC William's stance, knocking him to the ground just in time. A flying stiletto knife planted itself into the wooden shoulder stock of his carbine. Had he not been moved, it would have impacted close to his head or chest.
Corporal Martinez's M1 rifle erupted repeatedly as he took shots at a target who seemed to jump weightlessly between the trees.
On the right flank, now in bayonet range, Joe and his NCO battled it out with two armor clad warriors. One maneuvered the barrel of the LT's longarm, swiftly pushing it away from her just in time. Bang! Ping! A burst of smoke erupted from the gun just inches away from the opponent's head. The sound of the shot disoriented his opponent who now wrestled with Joe for possession of his weapon. Joe fought back to resist, he could only make out the vivid colors of red and white. He kicked his opponent away, regaining control of his rifle for only a moment when another joined in, effectively prying the rifle from his arms and quickly gaining distance. Joe drew his Colt sidearm. Sgt Jones had buttstroked his own opponent across her face with the stock of his Thompson, all that mass of steel and wood crashing into someone's head was never a pleasant feeling, sending her falling back and knocking some sort of metal headpiece off her head. He reshouldered his smg and pointed it at the one who had just taken a rifle off his CO.
"Drop it!" Sergeant Jones barked, resisting the urge to pull the trigger.
"Stay down," Lieutenant Stevenson ordered the person who was just knocked to the ground. He turned to Jones. "You don't need to shoot her."
"Not yet," the NCO replied. "Give me a reason, would ya? I dare you. Drop it!"
"You first," the woman responded. Holding the M1 by her hip like a short spear.
"It's empty, sweetie," Jones called.
"It's bladed," she replied.
Toph shot a boulder at the acrobat who continued to advance, who vaulted off the stone mid-flight. She was caught by an arm of water from the creek by Katara.
"You, with the knives!" Martinez shouted. "Stand down right now!"
Seeing her partner subdued, the woman in the dark robes nonchalantly put her hands up.
Sokka came between Sergeant Jones and the girl he was in a standoff with, spreading his arms and legs out and forming a shield. He got him to lower his weapon.
"Sokka!" the girl remarked, dropping the weapon and suddenly embracing the water tribesman. "I was so worried about you. I knew you'd come sometime!"
"This is a real on-edge, near-death, reunion," Katara commented.
"I've missed you, Suki." Sokka let out.
The Marines examined the uniforms of their prior enemy, now getting the idea that they are indeed friendly.
"Oh the Japanese would get a kick out of this," Williams remarked, helping one to her feet. Their faces painted a bright white with rouge lips like that of a geisha. The red streaks which lined their eyes were akin to those of kabuki actors. And their armored shoulders, chest, and side skirts were similar to samurai armor.
"You know these ladies," Joe asked Aang since Sokka was clearly having a moment.
"Of course, these are our allies," he said, "the Kyoshi Warriors."
"And them?" Joe asked, motioning to the two girls subdued and under arrest by Williams and Martinez. "The knife thrower and the circus freak?"
"Mai and Ty Lee," Katara jumped in. "Sidekicks of Azula. They've been giving us trouble since Omashu, all those months back. They are our enemies."
"They aren't anymore," one of the other warriors interrupted. "They're with us."
"They are?" Katara asked for clarification.
"Azula threw us away to rot," Mai spoke up. "She's lost it. We've been imprisoned with them for a month or so now."
Zuko tried to stay distant, remembering the bridge he sort of burned between him and his former girlfriend when he ran off. There was definitely an elephant in the room, but no one except the two noticed.
"Lieutenant!" Martinez called, "We got a live one!"
Running over with Katara and Aang in trail, Joe looked down on a severely wounded Japanese soldier. Blood streamed from his mouth, and his thick naval uniform, despite being a deep black, was starting to easily show taints of crimson. The soldier who was last dropped, who had sustained a burst of submachine gun fire and caught a .30-06. slug to the upper torso was still alive, albeit in extensive pain.
"We don't have a corpsman," Joe said.
"Katara, can you help him," Aang asked.
"I can try."
"He won't survive that," Jones observed from a distance. "He's as good as dead. Might as well just shoot him now. Put him out of his misery."
The downed soldier flinched as Katara made contact with her palms, soaked with water.
"Not so hasty their, buddy," Martinez threatened, quickly raising his rifle to shoulder.
"This isn't looking good Aang," Katara simply said grimly. "But I can try as best as I can."
Aang desperately wanted to try and save one life, even if he was an enemy.
"I will die before I surrender to you. You barbarians!" the soldier said.
Private Williams lumbered over to his officer's side, looking down at the enemy soldier with a perplexed look, cigarette held aloft from his mouth burning incessantly as he tried to process what he had just heard. The Japanese soldier managed to catch the attention of the other marines.
"Lieutenant," he began, "Permission to ask a question."
"Granted," Joe said, now returning his bayonet to its sheath, also weirded out.
"This is going to be a very weird question, but..when you were at the academy, you didn't happen to study Japanese language now...did ya?"
"No I did not, Private. But I am..well aware as to why you are asking...Why can we understand him?"
"Hey!" Martinez shouted to his downed enemy, "CAN...YOOOUUU...SPEAK...ENGLISH?" he enunciated.
"I cannot speak English, but I can understand you somehow." the Japanese soldier replied, also now curious. He winced as Katara continued to work on his wounds.
"You can heal?" Martinez asked Katara on a sidetrack.
"Waterbenders, certain of us, have healing capabilities," she flatly said, trying to focus.
"Well, I guess blood is water," he shrugged off. "That would be a useful power to have had in San Francisco a while back. A buddy of mine got shot one day, trouble with the mob."
"Blood is water…" Katara pondered on that statement. He wasn't going to live much longer unless she tried something...no matter how drastic. "This might hurt," she cautioned.
"You guys normally can't understand each other," Aang asked.
"In our world, there are hundreds of different languages. If you don't speak by learning it or being born with it, you won't understand it. These languages from the orient are even more complex too."
"It's the spiritual energy," Aang wrote off. Energy, and spirit are all connected here. Like one big tree with roots that just expand out and out. Regardless of your differences, it's possible that here, in this world, you can communicate verbally." Truthfully he didn't know how they could understand each other either. There were dialects throughout his world, hundreds of them. And Fire Nation people did not speak the same way as the Air Nomads. But it was always generally accepted and known that they could all understand each other. Aang, since the beginning of all this, and even way back to his time in the Swamp, began writing off supernatural occurrences or oddities in capability as something having to do with the spiritual energy of the cosmos...or other stuff hammered into his head by Guru Pathik. Having been exposed to a world where 'people could throw rocks if they simply thought about it hard enough with their minds' the lieutenant quickly and simply accepted that explanation without care to ever follow it up looking for a more scientific reason.
"AAHHH!-" the Japanese soldier yelled as Katara continued to work on his wounds.
"Sorry!" she exclaimed, continuing on. Sure enough blood was able to be moved and bent to her will. But it was difficult. And she needed to really focus all her energy into it. She would have benefited from the influence of a full moon, but had to make do with whatever she could muster.
Blood vessels came together where they had once been ripped apart and burned by the impacting bullets. Roughly, she was able to speed up the healing process, in the midst of it she also ejected the embedded metal slugs which remained in his torso. Tissue reformed, painfully and slowly, but faster than it naturally could have. Bones, of course, would be another story however.
Aang couldn't believe it. No one could. Especially not the Marines. Katara, although not well adept to it, was actually undoing the damage from the ballistic trauma of the bullets.
When she finally stopped, the entry holes were sealed. Far from healed and still badly injured, but the wounded soldier was no longer on a path to his eventual demise. He was, remarkably, stable.
"What were you guys doing on that airship," Sokka asked Suki. "You could have been killed!"
In the background, Katara and accompanying marines were helping the now stabilized Japanese soldier to his feet. What to do with him, they didn't know yet. But they couldn't go about simply executing prisoners. He was now, whether everyone liked it or not, officially in their care as a prisoner of war.
"Getting shot down certainly aided in our escape, although it did put us on edge. We've never seen weaponry like that before. Watching guards and being struck down or...blown apart behind all that metal was..scary. And when we landed, we really didn't know what was going on when all the shooting started. Honestly, I didn't even recognize you guys when we were moving on you. And you guys with Aang are pretty easy to spot," she recounted. "The Fire Nation and the..uh..Japanese..are rounding up anyone that had to do with Kyoshi Island for some reason. They banded us together, even though I was in a separate prison facility. Their allies had us dress in full uniform. It seemed like they knew about our background as warriors."
"They were trying to make examples of you," Sergeant Jones interrupted, slinging his Thompson over his shoulder. "I've heard talk about the ways they instill fear. You're lucky we blew that airship outta the sky when we did. Who knows what could have happened if you reached your destination."
"Some of us are back on the island!" Suki exclaimed, turning to Sokka. "When we were captured outside Ba Sing Se, we weren't all together! Those that slipped away were ordered to return to Kyoshi Island as fast as possible to provide as much protection as possible! We need to help them!"
"Lieutenant," Sokka asked. "Would it be possible? It's along the way anyway. No doubt there'll be a huge Japanese and Fire Nation presence with everything we've heard and seen."
"Sorry, not much I can do. That's above my paygrade. My Captain isn't going to humor me as far as landing on the island and aiding some village, sad to say, not even mentioning someone as high up as Spruance."
Sokka whipped out a map. "Look, Kyoshi Island is here," he said, pointing to the southern region. "With our current course it's a choke point. And, it's the last viable island to stage before making a move on the Fire Nation. I'm willing to bet the Japanese fleet is waiting for us there. They're building up for a single key naval strategic victory to win their campaign here. That has to be their plan. They've been building up a trap and are waiting for us to sail right into it."
"Destroyers found a thick naval minefield, on the outlying waters between the bordering island chains outward from our fleet's heading. They've been silently funneling us toward this point the whole time. And it would take way too much time to high tail it around from where we started at this point," Joe commented. "There's little choice but to go through. But blindly walking right into a potentially reinforced and fortified land and naval battle willingly is deadly, borderline stupid."
"But you're forgetting, lieutenant, we have Aang," Suki added, holding a wad of gauze to her bleeding lip and avoiding the large bruise on her cheek as best as possible. "The weapons from your world are far superior to those of our own, possibly even more so than being able to bend the elements. But what you cannot fathom is just how powerful Aang is. The avatar is capable of ending even the most bloody war imaginable and restoring peace between those whom one could never imagine peace being possible."
"Well, he did manage to sink a battleship. But that was on pure luck alone, I think."
"Trust me," Zuko said, recalling the events that ended the Fire Nation fleet's advance on the North Pole. "It's power beyond what you guys can imagine. And I'm not trying to argue or insult you guys. It can be terrifying."
"With him, victory should be swift," Suki said confidently.
Joe, thinking of his father's few open-to-discuss stories of the Great War said, "...or bloody."
Aang remained grimly quiet as they discussed in the background. A torrent of emotions swirled within him, and he felt more and more unstable. On one hand, they were making swift progress in reducing the Fire Nation's war efforts. And Kyoshi Island was in jeopardy, he needed to protect them at all costs. But all this killing pained him, even if they were the enemy. Even if they, the Fire Nation, were responsible for wiping out his people a hundred years before, these men did not deserve to be similar ended abruptly. They were men just following orders, cannon fodder caught in the middle, not so much unlike the Marines and sailors of the US Navy that Aang travelled with, nor the men of the IJN whom they opposed. This wasn't the way to solve problems. And standing by, even going along with it, even if for the sole reason of survival and the protection of his friends and the eventual restoration of peace, went against everything the monks had instilled in him as a young air nomad. There had to be another way to end this. There just had to! And although they meant well, being talked about and made out to be this war-ending super weapon wasn't making it any easier for Aang.
He had to see what the situation on Kyoshi Island was. He just had to.