They'd missed out on so much in their youth by not being able to have strategy meetings while slightly buzzed from good whiskey, Sokka thought as he spread out the map on the table they'd brought to the deck. He could almost feel the creative juices flowing - or maybe he just needed to pee. He had, naturally, brought a few bottles of his favorite Adventure Beers along for the trip, and had been using them to cool his tongue after sips of fiery whiskey. Privately, he had also established a few rules that would make this meeting a lot more entertaining. Damned if he was going to tell the rest of the group about his game though.
"Republic City and Fire Nation intelligence reports indicate that a group with connections to the Bamboo Union is manufacturing a chi-blocking drug in the foothills northwest of Republic City." Zuko assumed charge of the meeting as easily as breathing. A younger self might have felt threatened by that, Sokka reflected, but no one could question that the firebender, for all his awkwardness, had been born and raised to be a brilliant leader. "My experts have confirmed that such a drug can only be made with the root of boushuuboku, which grows exclusively on a few islands on the Fire Nation's easternmost borders. " Zuko indicated a handful of red specks on the map. "I'll explain the significance of that information given the current context in a moment. But first, Chief Bei Fong, Councilor Sokka. If you could give a quick summary and update on the latest intelligence from Republic City?"
"That's just Toph and Sokka to you, your highness," the blind earthbender drawled, and Sokka took a surreptitious sip. Zuko being overly formal: one drink. Toph calling him, or anyone else, out one it: not worth a drink, she did it all the time and Sokka didn't want to be drunk before the meeting actually finished.
"Sorry, force of habit," Zuko said, rubbing the back of his neck apologetically. Sokka noted that the gesture didn't make the Fire Lord look any less intimidating, but it helped set him at ease nonetheless. Not quite into Zuko relaxing: two drinks territory, but with any luck they might get close.
"I'll speak to the police business, and then Sokka can fill you in on the ramifications," Toph started. "The Bamboo Union is, as we all know, a criminal organization with suspected political interests in the United Republic. We aren't sure yet who they're backing or trying to corrupt, because they're a bunch of slippery bastards and they're really good at covering their trail. And even when we find a trail, more often than not it leads to someone with a rock-solid alibi and no traceable suspicious dealings. Hell, half the force is convinced the Bamboo Union doesn't even exist!" She threw up her hands in frustration.
Sokka knew all this already, so he listened with one ear for his cues, mainly combinations of swear words in different degrees of severity, while daydreaming about Suki and how cute and glowy she'd gotten as her belly rounded.
"Our information hasn't changed much since we were last in contact, but I can give more details now that I'm sure it won't get intercepted. A few weeks ago, a student asked for an escort home from the university where she'd been working late at one of the chemistry labs. Ming Na was frightened but didn't give any specifics to my colleague. The officer assumed it was a harassment issue, but when she dropped out the next week and went back home to Ba Sing Se, he got a little suspicious because one thing she had mentioned was that there was a lot of turnover in that particular group. Anyway, long story short, one Professor Yannuck had evidently recognized that one of his student's discoveries had huge ramifications for distributing drugs in water. He bullied the student into a non-disclosure agreement and basically stole his work, then took sabbatical. None of this was too far outside the realm of academic drama, but we managed to put two and two together when we got a tip-off about a mild chi-blocking serum. Normally if such drugs are available at all, it's as a pill. They don't take well to water." Toph frowned.
Sokka was starting to become mildly worried about his friend. Toph barely censored herself when addressing the City Council, was she really so considerate of Aang and Katara that she had cleaned up her language now? That didn't sound like Toph, as unkind as that thought was.
"There's no solid evidence that any of this is connected to the Bamboo Union, besides some vague trends we've noticed in rhetoric about 'institutionalized bender superiority'," Toph continued.
Sokka was appeased as he took a sip for her use of air quotes, a gesture he'd taught her himself, although he was annoyed that she'd chosen to use them for that particular phrase, as if she didn't believe it held any truth.
"A chi-blocking drug that can be quickly distributed would be a game-changer for anyone with that political agenda. We didn't manage to confirm the existence - or effectiveness - of this serum, but we know there's only a handful of people who might have the knowledge to both make and weaponize this drug. It's a surprisingly short list." Toph laid a paper on the table. Sokka silently turned it right-side-up, revealing the faces of the eight suspects. He took another drink.
"Of course, we might have missed someone," Toph continued. "But I'm no chemist and the people who are have assured me that 'keeping the solution stable', whatever that means, is an extremely delicate job on scales larger than a single beaker. This is probably our best shot at finally pinning down some Bamboo Union activities. Professionally I have to say that doing recon is far more important than breaking up the operation, since we don't know how deep or far the roots of this particular bamboo plant spread." She snickered at her own pun, then paused.
"So that's the interest of the law-and-order folks over in the City. Sokka, however, has me convinced that we need to do more than just gather information." She paused. "And since you're my best friends, I'll let you know I've got a personal reason to favour that option as well." Toph scowled, and took a breath. Her next words came out in a rush. "Remember Kanto? That guy I've been seeing for a while? Well, that didn't work out, and it ended pretty badly, so now I'm going to beat up a bunch of bad guys and after that when I feel better you can ask all your questions."
Sokka glanced around, surprised as the rest of them, and didn't know whether to drink or not to this revelation, and set down his glass. He'd dropped in on Toph and Kanto just last week and all had seemed well. So maybe her early departure to the Fire Nation, instead of waiting for Aang and Katara to fly up from the Southern Air Temple, had been less due to a need to hash out new details with the local intelligence and more of a need to escape. She probably had a lot of pent-up anger to work through, Sokka thought, eyeing Zuko for fresh bruising. Age had only increased the ferocity of their bending duels, but the firebender looked spry enough, so maybe they hadn't had a chance to spar yet. Sokka's eyes flicked back to Toph. "That's rough, buddy," he ventured, hands ready to jump to guard as Toph bristled. Sokka glared at Katara fiercely as she started to open her mouth; the waterbender thought better of it and simply poured another shot of whiskey into a glass. Aang lit it wordlessly - Sokka could only imagine the amount of self-control that cost the airbender - and slid it across the table to Toph, who slammed it back before gracing them with a grateful smile.
Sokka took a long drink in sympathy, and also because 'Sokka diffuses awkward situation' warranted two drinks, and anyone but Zuko causing said situation also got two drinks.
"So, what this all means for Republic City," Sokka started, sad to be talking rather than imbibing so soon. "Normally, we wouldn't get so worried about a few chi-blocking drugs floating around in the black market. After all, they can be medicinal for benders who struggle with - ah, mental stability, among other things. But what we're looking at isn't some university kid trying to make extra money from their basement. Organization on this scale means a target market - or worse, involuntary consumers - of thousands of people. There's a couple ways this is really bad news for Republic City."
He counted them off on his fingers.
"First, and best case scenario, not counting whatever big misunderstanding Aang thinks this might be - "
"It's just not safe to develop the technology near a big population center and they really just want to help sick people stop their bending for a while until they get better and can't hurt anyone by accident anymore?" broke in the airbender hopefully, his indefatigable optimism earning Sokka another drink.
" - someone is being very greedy and is taking a big investment risk that developing this drug on a large scale is really going to pay off. Perhaps their initial funding is coming from the Union, which is why they're starting with chi-blocking drugs, but the end goal is to be able to mass-produce actual useful drugs - or let's face it, illegal drugs bring in more money so other illegal drugs too - that are easier to distribute and hide as liquids. Legal or illegal, the police and the city definitely need to know about it, so we can get the proper regulations in place, or start figuring out what to do about a massive influx of illegal drugs to the market."
"Second, the existence of the chi-blocking drug on a large scale is used as a tool for the Union or a threat to their enemies. Think about the police force - the elite are almost exclusively metalbenders, and most of the other officers are benders of some kind. So are most security forces and personal bodyguards. Groups that have a lot of power, like the Dai Li. The Fire Sages. I could go on, but I think you get the picture." He looked around at the serious faces. They really needed to lighten up, maybe next time he would distribute the drinking game rules before they started…
"Last, and worst case scenario - someone needs to drug a whole lot of benders to do something very evil. Could be as large-scale as a coup, or an anti-bender revolution. We all saw the chaos that happened in the North when the moon went dark for a few minutes, or when the eclipse passed over the Caldera. Imagine the power that would come from being able to make that happen on command."
Silence fell, and as much as he wanted to take an irreverent slug from his bottle, Sokka restrained himself. This was, after all, a very real and very dangerous possibility.
Aang cleared his throat. "Do we have any cause to believe that the anti-bender rhetoric is still so pervasive? That they're still so well-organized after we took down the so-called Business Council more than fifteen years ago?"
Sokka was going to need a new beer for this one. He knew that Aang and Katara at least would have to grow to understand, given that they had a non-bender child, but he and Suki never felt the gulf that separated them from their friends as keenly as when they discussed this topic.
He sighed. "There's always going to be conflict between benders and non-benders as long as the existing socioeconomic and political systems, many of which inherently favour benders, remain in place." Sokka was impressed with how succinctly he'd managed to put it, especially considering he was one beer and an unknown amount of whiskey in, but this was a conversation he'd had many times before.
"I'm surprised there hasn't been large-scale organization to address this yet, especially in the Earth Kingdom," Zuko added unexpectedly. "Maybe they can't decide if they want to fight for bender equality first or gender equality," he mused.
On second thought, Sokka had never had this conversation with the Fire Lord, but probably because he assumed someone who grew up neglected because he wasn't a bending prodigy was a product of a very bender-dominated culture. Sokka wondered if this surprising perspective warranted a drink.
Zuko was clearly uncomfortable at the looks his companions were giving him. "What?" He said defensively. "Most of my people live on islands small enough to walk around in a day. We're separated from each other and surrounded by our opposite element. If everyone doesn't develop their skills, in bending or something else, whether they're man, woman or child, we wouldn't survive. The one major exception is the Fire Lords, but then all monarchies have a bunch of ridiculous rules limiting the succession."
"Well. Perhaps you'd best update us on why your oh-so-egalitarian absolute monarchy of a nation has cause to be concerned about these drugs then?" Sokka asked, more aggressive than intended.
Either Zuko's sarcasm detector wasn't working or he chose not to take offense, because the Fire Lord just agreed and brought their meeting back on track.
"The eastern islands where the boushuuboku is grown are still extremely volcanically active. They're actually the caldera of Fukutoku-Okanaba, whose active cone is underwater. It's constantly erupting, but it's pretty deep so the islands – the caldera walls that are what's left above sea level – stay fairly stable, but what's between those islands is always changing as magma cools into webs of tubes all over the caldera floor and some even form beyond onto the dormant peaks of the same ancient chain."
Toph, entranced, let out a strange choked whine. Sokka side-eyed her, wondering what was wrong.
"Sorry," she said, sounding a little breathless. "What you described is basically earthbending porn. Even if it is underwater. Why have I never heard about this before, and how do I buy a vacation house there?"
"They're not very easy to get to, due in part to the ever-changing seafloor. There used to be a naval outpost in the deeper waters outside the islands, but since the war's end only one shipping route goes even close. We have slightly better access with balloons but the air currents can be difficult to navigate because of the constant heating and cooling of the caldera waters, especially in winter when the temperature difference is enhanced."
"So how does anyone even get this root off the island without everyone knowing about it? As I recall, the regulations for its refinement and export are extremely tight." Katara asked.
"Divers and kayaks," the Fire Lord responded simply. "By navigating the tunnels, a skilled diver can reach unobstructed water very far from shore. And it's pretty easy for a kayak to reach a larger vessel undetected. The diving is very dangerous, of course, and the routes and air pockets change unexpectedly, but for a valuable enough cargo - or piece of information - it's worth it."
That actually made a lot of sense to Sokka, who recalled how Zuko had swum into the North Pole and treated it like no big deal when asked about it later. Apparently everyone in the Fire Nation trained breath control to an absurd degree and Zuko wasn't even an exceptional swimmer by their standards, even though Sokka, who was no slouch himself in that department, had nearly drowned following the older boy through the Ember Island lava tubes when they were younger.
And if smugglers could come and go using these routes, so could spies. "It must be a huge hub for any network needing to get sensitive information into or out of the Fire Nation," he realized.
"Exactly," Zuko said. "And the most I can do to stop this smuggling, whether of goods or information, is damage control. The islands have always been fairly autonomous because they've had to be particularly self-reliant just for people to survive. In a way, my interest in this mission is similar to Toph's. Without solid proof tracing the boushuuboku smugglers back to certain merchants or officials, I can't figure out who might be corrupt or trading information."
"What secrets do you have that divers are willing to risk their lives for?" Aang wondered, and Sokka took a drink as Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"The divers take the risks because it pays, and there's still not a lot of jobs over there, despite our best efforts. Who commissions the divers, how they got their information, what it is and what they want to use it for - well, there's a thousand answers to that that don't have anything to do with state secrets."
"I think we've established that we first really need to find out what's going on here, and who exactly is behind it all," Katara broke in. "The question now is, what do we need to do catch all these people red-handed?"
Zuko acknowledged her with a nod. "Toph said it best. Recon, recon, recon."
"That's not what I said," Toph grumbled. "What I said was therapeutic violence."
They all ignored her. Sokka asked the obvious question. "So, how do we do this? Especially since we only have a vague idea of who and what we're looking for." He took a nervous drink as all eyes turned to him, expectant. "Just because I'm normally the Idea Guy doesn't mean that I always have ideas," he said defensively.
"Come on, I can't be the only one who's thought about this," he chastised, looking around the circle. Surely they didn't expect him to come up with something brilliant right now, when they had so few leads in the first place.
"All I can recommend is that we operate at night, which, since it's the northern winter, gives us a big window of opportunity, " Zuko supplied. "Assuming a large part of the people involved are civilian scientists it's the best way to limit the number of people who get hurt. An obvious downside to that is that Aang and I have to avoid firebending, depending on how likely it is to draw attention. In any case, it would be foolish to rely entirely on bending when going after people manufacturing a chi-blocking drug."
"Well, that explains why you're armed to the teeth," Sokka said dryly, eyeing not one but two pairs of dual dao strapped across Zuko's back and the curved katana at his belt.
Zuko stared back, expressionless. "I'm on vacation," he stressed, and absurdly it made sense to Sokka that in Zuko's household, holiday wear might mean steel instead of sun hats. Fortunately, the firebender seemed to be aware that that was not normal, as a smirk slowly made its way onto his features. He unbuckled the katana and scabbard from its place. "And anyway, Sokka, this one is your sister's."
He tossed the weapon and belt to the waterbender, who caught it expertly and lovingly unsheathed the blade with a familiar grip. Sunlight caught the tip where layered steel waves broke it to its spectrum like mother-of-pearl.
Sokka's jaw dropped. He was sure he hadn't had enough fire whiskey to be hallucinating. That blade was a spirit-sword or he was a chicken-pig, and what was that doing in his sister's hands? "Wait, what?! Katara! Tell me that isn't yours!" Because Katara being Cool was up there with Aang being Mean, Toph being a Proper Lady, and Zuko being Happy in the list of improbabilities that earned Sokka a whole lot of drinks.
Katara flushed slightly pink but met his eyes, before sheathing the sword and glancing to her husband, who wore an expression of resigned neutrality. "This is Yofune's Claw, one of five sister-blades named for that dragon. A gift, from the Lady Ursa, some years ago."
"Not a gift," Zuko said quietly. "A token of kinship, from one mother to a mother-to-be, in gratitude for the life of her son, twice over."
Sokka sputtered. Even he had heard the Fire Nation legend of the sometimes-sea-serpent Yofune and how she was slain by one of the many maidens she'd abducted to feed on. He couldn't believe his sister not only had an awesome sword with a cool name, but she'd never even told him about it. "I never got anything for saving your sorry hide," he complained instead to the Fire Lord, jealous.
"I think the scales of that life-debt tip heavily in my favour," the firebender said, deadpan, although his gold eyes sparkled at Sokka's reactions. "And I wouldn't be so hasty to challenge her either, if I were you," Zuko added, predicting Sokka's next move. "She knows how to use it. I made sure of that."
"It's not like I had much else to do, with Aang trapped in the spirit world for so long," Katara said, only a little bit defensive. "I was still pretty agile up until seven months pregnant, and I needed a way to work off my frustration."
Sokka almost forgave her then, remembering how awful it had been for her, sidelined from the action as he, Toph, and Suki scoured the world for a way to rescue the Avatar. Navigating the spirit world was tricky enough for one spirit from one body, much less two that were sharing the same space. He could probably fault Zuko for spending his convalescence teaching his sister the sword instead of quietly recovering from a mortal wound as instructed, but if the firebender hadn't pushed himself so hard he might not have been fighting fit when they needed him to help free Aang. Still, that was no excuse for keeping a secret, and Sokka could allow himself a few more moments of petty jealousy.
He held out his hands, fingers wiggling. "CanIseeitnowplease," he exhaled, and Katara laughed and handed it to him.
"It's more of a museum piece, really," she said. "Which is one reason it's lived in the Fire Nation since I had Bumi, aside from the general non-compatibility of babies and sharp objects."
"I'm sure Bumi and Kya know better by now," Zuko said, to which Toph pointedly declared there was a big difference in the home of a pacifist monk and a healer compared to any place inhabited by both Zuko and Mai.
Sokka barely registered their conversation, lost in the fine craftsmanship and perfect balance of the blade. Well, perfect balance for a slightly smaller set of hands than his own. A museum-piece, indeed; and though Katara might not remember, he'd actually been to a Fire Nation museum or two of his own volition, and any weapon worthy of a place in those cases was a masterpiece durable enough to be deadly centuries after its forging. Like the two-hundred-year-old war-fan Zuko had gifted Suki with for their wedding, that had allegedly belonged to Avatar Kyoshi herself. In comparison, his own gift of an inscribed pearl dagger was a cheap trinket, although Sokka knew what it had taken Zuko to part with it.
He really shouldn't envy his sister, Sokka knew. It was one of a set of five, certainly not a one-of-a-kind like his space sword. But his sword didn't have a name yet, and not for lack of trying; he just couldn't seem to find a name that was both simple enough for news crews to spell and catchy enough for them to remember. Intellectually, he knew it was probably for the best. After his experience wielding Sozin's longsword Infamy in the spirit world - not to mention what had happened to Zuko, though Sokka still blamed that on the White Lotus and Piandao for thinking named spirit-steel dao were an appropriate coronation gift for an unsuspecting teenaged ruler - Sokka knew these things could come with unforeseen consequences. He couldn't think of what these might be for a weapon passed down through Avatar Roku's bloodline, but by now he knew that the manner in which they were given - or taken - was extremely important to how the associated spirits reacted, so the fact that it wasn't exactly a gift should keep Katara safe from any unpleasant side-effects.
"The point is," the Fire Lord declared, as Sokka debated testing the sharp point of the blade he was handling, "All of us need to be prepared to fight without bending. We don't know how far they've progressed in weaponizing this drug, but they'd be idiots not to equip darts, arrows, small knives and the like with a coating."
Katara took over. "We don't have a sample so we don't know about dosage or the exact effects yet. Worst case scenario, it's like taking a hit from a chi-blocking master. Complete temporary loss of muscle control, in addition to loss of bending. However, all known chi-blocking drugs don't work that way. You maintain body control, but you're out of touch with your element." She glanced at her brother. "And they're completely harmless to non-benders."
"Any ideas on how it would affect the Avatar State?" Aang inquired.
Katara shrugged. "Hard to say. It probably couldn't stop the World Spirit from taking over your body, but how would it react if it couldn't touch the elements?"
Aang pondered. "Spirits don't think like us. I don't know if it would understand … controlling the elements when manifesting through me is as instinctual to the World Spirit as breathing is to us. Or even more. Like our hearts beating. We don't even have to think about that to do it - but if it stopped we would think we were dying ."
"As much as I hate to say it, in this situation - which is very much a worst-case-scenario, by the way - our two most powerful benders are our greatest liabilities," Zuko said.
"I resent that, but it's true," Toph growled. "Twinkletoes sucks at hand-to-hand and the closest thing he has to a weapons experience is hitting people with his airstaff accidentally. And without my bending all I can do is try and hear where people are and punch them."
"Well, that's all very doom-and-gloom," Sokka said. "But some of us have managed to do just fine without bending our entire lives. And by some of us, I mean me." He knew it was petty but he couldn't resist. "We'll make sure to split up smart when the time comes. Keep Aang and Toph apart, and one of them each with either me or Zuko."
Zuko's eyebrow quirked up at him. "You've already gotten that far in your plan? We don't even know if we'll find anything yet."
"Well, no," Sokka admitted. "But it's never too early to start training with your strike team."
"Or for dinner!" Toph interrupted. "Seriously, am I the only one getting hungry over here?"
"But we don't talk shop after dinner and we're on a roll!" Sokka protested.
"So's my stomach," replied the earthbender.
"Fine then. Dinner people go make dinner, and in the meantime, I'll find us a drug lord."
"I'm blind," Toph said lazily, kicking her feet up on the table (Sokka had learned long ago to put a glass plate over the maps for this very reason) and leaning back in her chair.
There was a collective 'Really? You don't say" sigh from the others. Sokka wasn't the only one who took a drink for that one.
"Toph. You're the best cook out of all of us," Katara stated. "And almost everything in the galley is made of metal."
"Fine," Toph grumbled, "But only cuz none of you lazy sighted people know that taste is the most important sense when cooking."
"Have it your way," Sokka said. They all knew Toph loved to cook, but since having a domestic side clashed with her persona - and she was as stubborn as a rock - it always took a little persuading to get her into the kitchen.
He went to rummage in his bag for a moment while Zuko rolled out the enlarged map of the area northwest of Republic City and Aang gave Toph a verbal description of where they had stowed things in the galley. Sokka found what he was looking for; he swirled a structured grey coat around his shoulders and set a pair of spectacles artistically on his nose. "Druggy Mc Drugface, reporting for duty," he said. Aang let out a longsuffering sigh, and Toph rolled her eyes as she got up, yet another gesture Sokka regretted teaching her. Katara and Zuko wore matching expressions of "I'm too old for this shit" which one of them had learned from the other along the years. "Pass the whiskey. Now, if I was a crime boss kidnapping chemists to force them to work on my drugs - and I am - where would it make sense to build my secret base?"
A/N: Hi, scientist here. However, not a geologist or chemist, so I took a lot of liberty.
Also, I might have gotten a bit carried away in building the backstory to this fic, since I'm certain a bunch of life-changing crazy adventures have happened in their adult lives too. The working title for the Spirit World Incident story is 'The Rescue', although it has developed a lot of arcs and will not be coming soon ;)