Twisting the wrist of the tall, scarred other woman who'd attacked her, Suki was honestly surprised that it'd taken this long. With a twist of her own wrist, she grabbed the smallest finger on the other woman's finger and pushed it back, snapping it.
The other woman cursed at her and struggled to escape, but Suki's other forearm on the back of her elbow prevented it. "Look, I've got no interest in attaching myself to any group that seeks to give me no choice in joining." Applying more pressure on the back of the elbow, she could feel the strain on the joint. "And you're not going to ask me again, get it?"
The woman grunted, and Suki wasn't sure if it was in an affirmative or not, so she chanced on the safe side. And pushed the joint another inch in.
"Yes! Yes, I understand. Ash and bone, woman." Suki let her up, and the woman flexed her hand to her shoulder before flicking her hand away while massaging her elbow. "Barbarian."
Suki allowed a hint of a smirk to pass over her face, golden eyes set in pale skin and a disfiguring red scar from the last Fire National to call her a barbarian. "That's what I thought." She said, before giving her another shove away from her, sending her stumbling away. She turned to Suki one last time, hate burning in her eyes, before walking back towards her gang.
"She won't soon forget that, tinder." She looked to see her conversation partner from days earlier. Giman lounged on a bench, soaking in the low sunlight. "I seem to recall someone warning you of this exact thing happening. Would you happen to remember who that was, Suki?"
"Yes, Giman, you were right. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
The older woman smiled like the cat-owl who ate the canary-mouse. "Well, you've effectively made an enemy of the Scars. That's what they call themselves, if you were wondering. Along with the Crowns and the Unity, they informally run this place. If you're going to join a gang, you're left with the Unity. Crowns won't take you; your blood isn't rich enough for them."
"How do you know that I'm not noble?" Suki might have taken offense, but she was honestly too amused and intrigued by Giman.
"You? Anyone with eyes could tell that you're commonborn. It's how you eat, how you stand. That measured pride, speaks of confidence earned, not born to it."
The warrior Looked at the older woman, who was still at ease on the bench before deciding on confrontation. "Okay. Who are you, really. You're not part of any of the gangs, yet they all leave you mostly to yourself. You're too insightful for the average criminal, even one sent to the Boiling Rock."
"Little tinder, little tinder. What did I tell you? I don't tell, you don't ask. However… I'd be willing to tell you some of what you want to know. You do, however, know the price." She flipped her hair, a confident smile in place on her face. She cracked her knuckles, waiting for the answer that she could seemingly predict was coming.
Suki frowned. She knew that Giman wanted her to ally with her. But there was still so much that she didn't know, couldn't trust. On the other hand, this was only the opening move. She could still expect an invite from the Unity, and she doubted that they'd send only a single representative. Fighting the unease that she felt simmering in her stomach, she shakily extended her hand. "I don't suppose that I have much of a choice in accepting your deal, do I?"
Giman's smile could best be compared to a shark's. "Earth Kingdom. And not just the colonies. My my, Suki. This is going to be an interesting partnership." Belatedly, Suki realised her mistake. She grimaced but kept her hand out.
"And you made a deal with this Earth Kingdom woman, so we're going to seal the deal Earth Kingdom style. Unless you've changed your mind?" She honestly wasn't sure if she could risk the older woman changing her mind; she'd been exposed as an obvious prisoner of war now, and she'd likely find few if any 'friends' in the Boiling Rock with her heritage revealed.
The other woman made her wait for a few heartbeats with her hand outstretched, as if debating her decision, before finally taking her hand and pumping it once. She held onto Suki's hand a moment longer, angling their wrists so her wrist was pointed skywards and her brow furrowed as she cocked her head. "Your chi flow is lazy. You're going to have to work on that if you're going to survive here."
The Kyoshi Warrior scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Not all of us are firebenders, you know."
Giman met her gaze seriously. "...you're serious, aren't you?"
"No, I'm lying to you. I'm a secret firebender, clearly." She rolled her eyes and took her hand back.
The older woman moved faster than Suki thought possible, grabbing her hand again. "No, seriously. I can barely even feel your chi pathways, they're so mucked up. Are the Earth Kingdoms really this backwards?"
Suki tried to break her grip with pure force, but found to her mild surprise that she couldn't. She looked closer at the grip that the other woman had on her hand. It didn't look unusual, and she wasn't overly muscled. She should have been able to break her grip fairly easily. She slid her fingers under Giman's thumb and slid it backwards, easily breaking the hold. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about. Only benders have chi."
Giman Stared at her for a long moment before breathlessly laughing. "You're not joking. Agni, you're not joking." She was bent double over herself, arms wrapped around herself.
"What's so funny? Stop laughing at me!" Suki crossed her arms and glared at the laughing woman.
"The.. the Earth Kingdoms are that backwards!" She was still laughing, and had almost fallen off of the bench. She continued laughing for a good minute in the face of Suki's glare before she got control of herself again. "Everyone has chi, little tinder. From Fire Lord Ozai to his pathetic son, from Kensai Piandao to you. It's a little harder for nonbenders to learn how to use their chi, but they've got it. Agni, even the lowest soldiers of the Fire Nation learn how to move it, it's that elementary. Mind you, most of them don't master themselves enough to do much with it, but it's a mandatory part of basic training"
Suki felt herself rock back on her heels. Everything that she'd ever been taught was telling her that the woman in front of her was lying, trying to get a rise out of her. But why would she possibly do that? She'd already agreed to help the Fire National. "Prove it." The words burst from her before she'd even realised that she'd opened her mouth. In hindsight, she couldn't say that she exactly regretted it.
"I never had enough of a knack to get tossed into one of the specialist's units, but I can show off a little, I suppose. Okay, back up, back up." She got up and indicated that Suki should back up. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, relaxing her muscles. In a sudden burst of movement, she backflipped into the air. She easily soared eight, maybe even nine feet straight up before landing easily on her feet before scowling at Suki. "Damn, I'm rusty. Used to be able to clear ten feet easy."
Suki realized that she'd fallen onto the ground. It was nice and solid and wasn't casually upending her world views. "Can… can you teach me how? How to move my chi?" the phrase felt unfamiliar in her mouth, but she suddenly realised that she wanted it more than almost anything. That's how they did it. Mai and Ty Lee. It wasn't their mind or bodies that were moving them, it was their chi.
"I don't know, little tinder. I'm not sure that I should be teaching Fire Nation secrets to someone from the Earth Kingdom. That sounds downright traitorous, and no matter what I've done, I'm a loyal citizen of the Fire Nation." The guards sounded a gong, and Giman smirked. "Oops. Looks like we're going to have to cut our conversation short. Maybe next time."
She glared at the older woman as she sauntered off, still reeling. This… this is how the Fire Nation is beating us. I need to learn this, so I can pass it onto my girls when I get out of here, and take the advantage away from the Fire Nation. And next time… She envisioned Azula beaten on the ground in front of her. It's not going to be much of a match.