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RonaldM40196867: I don't think I could nominate one clear favourite; I like all six members of Team Avatar fairly equally.

Sokka watched as the Kyoshi Warriors expertly secured their new prisoners, tying bags over their heads and then dragging them towards the Kyoshi Statue. With a start, he realised that this must have been how it looked when he was captured when he first came to the island.

He suspected that Suki hadn't been as angry then as she was now, though. As soon as the ropes were in place, the bags were removed and the men glared at them with defiant expressions.

"What did you do to her?" Suki demanded. "And why did you attack us?"

"That is none of your concern," one of the men replied.

"It kind of is," Sokka muttered, but was ignored.

Suki zeroed in on the man.

"Are you familiar with the culture of this island?" She asked.

He shook his head, confused.

"Perhaps you are familiar with the legend of the sea monster that guards it?"

"In passing."

Suki drew in close and grabbed the man's collar as she yelled in his face.

"You'll be a lot more familiar with it soon unless you tell me! What's this liquid? Who even are you?"

The man just snorted.

"If you think you can threaten me, girl, you have another thing coming. We know all about you. You're soft."

"We are the heirs of Avatar Kyoshi," one of the warriors next to Suki growled.

"Nice words, but like I said, weak. I know how you lost to the Princess Azula and her friends, and spent months in prison as a result."

Suki was by now heavily restraining herself from punching the man, Sokka could tell. He found the prospect very tempting as well.

"Are you trying to get fed to the Unagi?" She demanded. "Answer the question!"

"I'm not trying to get fed to anything," the man replied. "I am calling your bluff."

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you."

"I will do it. You're weak!"

"So you've said," Suki muttered.

"Twice," Ty Lee added, but the man pressed on.

"'Heirs to Kyoshi', sure. She would be disappointed if she could see the quality of her successors. You needed to be saved at the boiling rock, and it's a miracle how any of your friends ever won the war-"

The man didn't finish his sentence as he was knocked out by a gloved fist to the jaw. Suki stood there, breathing heavily, an expression of pure rage on her face. The rest of the men looked at their limp comrade, and then up at Suki, but before she could pursue the line of enquiry Sokka decided to intervene.

He came up behind the group and put his hand on Suki's shoulder. She whipped around, looking for a fight, but softened when she saw it was him. He gestured for her to follow him, and she did.

They made their way in silence away from the village, towards the cape overlooking the bay in which Aang had ridden the Unagi. Finally, when they had got there, Suki burst.

"How could he say that?"

"He's evil," Sokka replied. "That's what they do."

Suki just looked at him.

"Well, evil is probably too simple," Sokka amended, "but he's not a good guy."

"I think I got that when he attacked my home and knocked out one of my warriors," Suki replied. "And then when he rubbed the boiling rock in my face! The absolute nerve!"

Sokka just took her hand. "I don't think he's telling us anything, so we're going to have to do this ourselves."

Suki took a deep breath to calm herself down, and nodded. "We should send a message to Toph and Zuko."

He nodded. "They should probably know. They might be targets themselves."

"What are we going to do with them?" She pointed back towards the centre of town where the interrogation was still ongoing. Sokka just shrugged.

"What would you normally do with them?"

"Throw them to the Unagi."

"Oh, you actually do that?" Sokka looked surprised.

"What do you mean?"

"I thought you only threatened to do that to scare intruders."

Suki snorted at that.

"It seemed to work on you."

"No," Sokka bluffed, but when Suki just raised one eyebrow at him he relented. "Fine, but it was my first time outside the South Pole and I had just been kidnapped."

Suki just shrugged.

"Hey, maybe it would be better to keep them alive," Sokka told her.

"How?"

"Leverage. They have our friends, but now we have some of theirs."

Suki frowned in the direction of the statue of Kyoshi.

"That's all well and good, but we don't even know who they are! That lot aren't being very helpful."

"Then we'll find out ourselves," Sokka told her, taking her hand and turning her to look at him. "We'll find whoever sent these idiots, rescue Aang and Katara, and make whoever is trying to mess with us regret it."

Suki just looked at him impassively.

"Are you bringing the hat?"

"Of course I'm bringing the hat! This is serious detective work, I need the hat!"

A small smile broke out on the Kyoshi Warrior's face, as his jokes broke through.

"Just think! Me, the heroic adventurer, out to save the day, heroically, you my plucky sidekick-"

"Shut up, you'd be my sidekick," Suki interrupted, laughing. "I'm the heroic adventurer."

"We could be each other's sidekicks?"

"No chance."

The argument lasted the rest of the way back into the village.


"What do you mean, they lost?"

An outraged voice echoed throughout the chamber. In the centre of the room, a nervous looking man quivered. He was holding a piece of paper that had been retrieved from a messenger hawk from Kyoshi Island.

"That- that's what it says-"

"I'm surrounded by idiots," the voice said, earning its owner a few insulted looks from those around it, but they merely waved them off.

"It's not all bad though," one of them pointed out. "We got our main objective."

"Yes, but they'll know now. Besides, I need all of them."

"We'll just have to move quickly. We still hold the initiative."

There was a silence as all present digested this.

"Our charges are comfortable, I trust?" The first voice spoke again.

"As comfortable as they can be."

"Good. Then we wait."

"What?"

"I know what kind of people we're dealing with. We've all heard the stories. They know their friends are in trouble, so all we have to do is wait,"

The figure looked around again, taking in the faces of their associates.

",and they will solve our problem for us."