The rumble of gravel rubbing against steel is the only warning that Suki and Chit Sang get as Zuko and Sokka are easing the detached cooler down the slope of the hill. Suki very carefully kept her eyes on the cooler coming down and the walls of the prison despite Sokka' reassurances that this was a blind spot for the guard towers. Do not check out the firebender, no matter how fetching that prison uniform is on him.

The cooler begins to pick up speed as it comes towards the bottom of the hill, and Chit Sang rushed forward with her to slow it down so it didn't roll out of control into the lake. She took Zuko's side as Chit Sang helped Sokka. She could hear the men's grunts of exertions, and just as they slowed it to a stop at the bottom of the hill, Chit Sang pointed out at a pair of people approaching from around the bend, waving.

"Took you guys long enough. This here's my girl and my best buddy." His best friend was unfamiliar, but Suki knew Xiuying. She'd thrown her lot in with Unity, and Suki had to resist the urge to grab one of her secreted blades. It'd only been a few weeks, after all. She narrowed her eyes and glared at her. I know who you are, who you've aligned yourself with. There better not be any issues. She took a threatening step forward, and Xiuying blanched and took a step back. Suki tried to put a good effort at a smirk on her face, though internally she was relieved. Thank Kyoshi. She chose to ignore the inquiring glance that she got from Zuko.

"Fine." Sokka didn't sound happy about the unexpected extra escapees, but there wasn't exactly a lot that any of them could do about it now. "Everybody in the cooler. Let's go." The quartet dragged the cooler the short distance to the shoreline and pushed it in. Sokka turned around and headed back to the hill, lifting a rock to reveal his blue water tribe clothes.

Zuko walked up to his friend, voice pitched low enough to prevent Chit Sang and his posse from overhearing. "Are you sure that you want to go? You're the one who said that you wanted to redeem yourself. Redeem your honour. Rescuing your dad is your chance".

What. "Your dad?" Suki couldn't help herself. Sokka said that he came to break me out of prison. What is going on here?

Sokka looked up at them, desperate. Pleading for her to understand. "If I had just cut my losses at the invasion, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess. Maybe sometimes it's just better to call it quits before you fail."

Zuko shook his head. "No, it's not. Look Sokka, you're going to fail a lot of things before things work out."

"And that's supposed to make me feel better? Thanks, buddy." The other man slung his sword over his shoulder, and Suki couldn't help but notice that it was a distinctly Fire Nation blade, not the club and boomerang that he'd had back in the Serpent's Pass.

"Even though you'll probably fail over, and over, and over again." Zuko pushed through, not even slowing for Sokka.

"Seriously, Not. Helping."

Zuko grabbed Sokka's shoulder, and Suki could see the flames burning behind his golden eyes. Oh my. "But you have to try. You can't quit because you're afraid that you're going to fail. Agni, I'm practically the expert on that. You stop trying, you quit , then the Fire Lord wins. Is that what you want?"

"Hey ladies! If you two are done cuddling, can we get a move on?" Chit Sang yelled from the shoreline, his friends already in the boat. He looked to be on edge, though he was hiding it considerably better than his two friends.

"No…" Suki could barely hear Sokka's voice before he stood up and looked out at their makeshift boat. "No. I'm staying." He dropped his bag of clothes and supplies and turned to face them. "Suki, Z- Lee , you guys get out of here. You got me in here, man. I wouldn't have been able to get this far without you. And Suki, you've been in here long enough."

Suki exchanged a look with Zuko, and he gave her a barely perceptible nod. "We're not not leaving without you, Sokka."

"Not me. I'm out. Let's roll, baby." Chit Sang pressed a kiss to his girlfriend's head and shoved the cooler into the water before hopping in himself. It rocked unsteadily for a second before it crept slowly towards the far shore.

A moment of silence passed between the trio as they watched the cooler float out into the lake. "Well, we just gave up our only chance of escaping. I hope that we haven't just made a huge mistake."

Suki swallowed and finally gave voice to her thoughts. "Sokka… something's bothering me." He hummed non committedly as they watched the cooler float away. "Something that you and Zuko said has been bothering me. Zuko was surprised and worried to see me. But you told me that you were here to break me out. Now I find out that you weren't here at all for me, but for your dad?"

Zuko coughed awkwardly as Sokka glared at him. "Look, I had no idea what you talked about in her cell. I was immediately caught and tossed in a cell covering for you, remember?"

"Right… yeah, sorry about that." Sokka at least had the decency to look chagrined. As Zuko muttered something about promoting the guard that busted him, Sokka turned to face her. "Look, it's true. We came here for my dad. I didn't know where you were; Azula mentioned you when we fought her on the Day of Black Sun during the eclipse. I knew that she was playing for time, but I knew that she'd captured you. Then suddenly you were here and I saw a chance to help someone that I'd let down. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you that you were a bonus, but I'm not sorry about getting you out of here. That hasn't, and won't, change. We're not going to leave you here. Right buddy?" He elbowed Zuko.

"Yeah, we can't leave a ferry official to rot in the Boiling Rock." He raised his eyebrow at her, a hint of a smirk spreading over his face, and she blushed. Oh Kyoshi, we have in-jokes. Sokka looked between the two, and she noticed a troubled look on his face before he shook it off. With a wave, he motioned to the flirting pair we were flirting, weren't we? Guanyin's mercy to head inside. Hopefully their absence wasn't noted.

Less than twenty minutes later, they could tell that everything had gone wrong. They'd barely managed to get back within the walls before the gong had started ringing, and Suki knew that nothing good would come out of being caught like this, regardless of the fact that Sokka's cover as a guard was still intact. Chit Sang's group had somehow revealed themselves, and the Warden had put out the order for the prison to lockdown. Sokka perked up when he made mention of a new group of prisoners arriving imminently and wanting the entire situation resolved immediately.

"Ancestors. The plan failed. Chit Sang, you big stupid meathead, you got caught." He continued cursing as the guards shot some sort of massive mechanical bow to reel the free-floating cooler back in. He took a chance to take another look over the wall, and nodded over the lake. "Look, the gondola's moving." He took a deep breath to steady himself before looking over his companions. "This is it. If my dad's not there, we risked everything for nothing. Spirits preserve us."

Suki laid her hand on his shoulder and squeezed. "We had to." I didn't have a father growing up, but I can't imagine how I'd be feeling if Mom or Sena had been captured. Sokka began to mutter under his breath as men started disembarking from the gondola.

"Is that him?" Zuko asked, as a man who could frankly rival Chit Sang in size, stepped off of the gondola. His long hair and beard, combined with tattoos running up his arms, made him look almost feral.

"Really? No! My dad doesn't have a nose ring!" Suki was tempted to tease Sokka about other men getting off of the gondola who clearly weren't his father, but didn't have the heart as she saw his face fall more and more as his dad didn't number among them. "Where is he?" He asked quietly, more to himself than to her or Zuko. It takes a moment after the last man steps away from the gondola for him to begin panicking. "That's it? No, that can't be it."

Zuko looks at her and shrugs helplessly. She swallows. "I'm sorry, Sokka." Before she can add anything else, they hear the guard yelling at someone who had apparently refused to get off of the gondola with the rest of the prisoners. Sokka looked back up at the platform, hope filling his eyes. He broke out in a relieved grin as an older Water Tribe man stepped off of the metal carriage, blinking as he adjusted to the bright light. He took in the area as he stepped forward, and Sokka couldn't help but sigh. "Dad…"

Without pausing to look at his companions, he rushed off to the crowd of new prisoners and the circle of guards around him. Suki looked over to Zuko, ready with a wry grin to diffuse the awkwardness when she saw that he looked melancholic, sadness tinging his eyes as his mouth curved into a gentle smile. "What's wrong?"

"Don't worry about it." He waved her off. "We should get back. It's a miracle that we haven't been reported missing yet." She resolved to set aside that look for now, but he was right about them needing to return to gen pop.