Gladiator

by Seyary-Minamoto

In a world where the Avatar wasn't found, the Fire Nation took over two nations and they strive to overcome the last one. Water Tribe warrior Sokka seeks to fight for his people's rights, but he's captured by his enemies. His life is no longer in his hands as he fights as a Gladiator, and his fate will eventually depend on the Fire Nation Princess, who needs him for her own ends...

264. Chapter 264: U Attack-Child of Two W 5

Under Attack/Child of Two Worlds

5

Chaos threatened to take hold of the village: the dreaded sight of those black specks of snow ravaged the fragile tranquility that had reigned over the Water Tribe for the past three years. No one had truly believed the strange peace would last long, especially when they hadn't known under which terms it had happened, let alone by whose hand…

But as much as Ozai had vowed to never again attack the South Pole, as much as he had agreed to reward Sokka's saving of his nation by sparing his Tribe, the Gladiator never had doubted that promise would vanish for good if Ozai ever thought of any reason to double-cross him. Evidently, his daughter's choices had been the perfect excuse for the Fire Lord to set aside his so-called honor and break every vow he'd ever made.

Within moments, Hakoda had stepped up and bellowed orders and commands to the tribe's members: the discipline many had learned recently through their many fighting lessons saw to the quick silence of most everyone but the youngest children. Suki held Zi against her chest, cradling Mari with an arm too as she crouched on the snow, waiting for Hakoda to organize their forces. Zuko stood beside them, with a prominent scowl on his face, furious that his father had truly attempted to attack the Tribe… and utterly determined to protect his family and friends with every ounce of his strength.

"The youngest, and the eldest, shall take refuge in my igloo with my mother," Hakoda spoke firmly, betraying no anxiety, no dread regarding what was to come. "Gather here and head inside as fast as possible. Stay calm while you're there: the rest of us will handle protecting the village to the best of our ability."

Some of the older villagers stepped towards him: many held the hands of their grandchildren, still too young to partake in any sort of fighting. Yet this time, unlike how it had been in the past, the women of the Tribe did not join them. Instead, they stood nervously, waiting for Hakoda's next orders: they had no doubts they would be directed towards them.

"The newly trained women and teenagers…" Hakoda continued, turning his gaze towards them before his eyes sought the red-haired woman in the thick of the crowd, still holding her children tightly. "Will be led by Suki. You will stay here, in the village, and you will keep our homes safe if the enemy manages to outmaneuver us, despite our best efforts. Be careful, do not take unnecessary risks, and watch over our young and old."

A chorus of agreement and approval rang in the Tribe. Zuko tensed up beside Suki: she rose to her feet, gazing at him meaningfully before cupping his face, pressing a brisk kiss to his lips.

"I will be fine. I can do this," she whispered. "It's not the first time I have to repeal an attack against my home. I was trained for this, pretty much."

"I know, but…" Zuko said, gritting his teeth. "Ironically, I'm not. I… I will fight, but this is newer territory for me than it is for you."

"They need you out there," Suki said, caressing his face gently. "You're a firebender, Zuko. Use your fire and your blades against the enemy and protect your people."

Protect his people… that was an unexpected concept, for sure. In another world, in another life, the attackers would be his people instead… but today, there was no room for doubts or uncertainties pertaining where he belonged: if his firebending could prevent other flames from hurting the Southern Water Tribe, he wouldn't hesitate to use it.

"Alright… alright," he said, nodding in her direction. Suki smiled almost cheekily now.

"They'll never see it coming, will they?" she asked. Zuko grinned back and nodded.

"As for the warriors…!" Hakoda continued, and Zuko's brow drew together with purpose and drive. "We will march to the bay and defend our territory from this attack directly. Our defensive strategies won't fail us, I know they won't… but even if the enemy is more numerous or better prepared than we expected, we will be ready to defeat them!"

A much stronger shout of agreement cut through the crowd, as the warriors threw their fists in the air. Hakoda breathed deeply: his eyes fell upon Sokka, who stood by his side. Darkness clouded his son's mind, but the steel in his gaze could have split the hull of the incoming battleships all on its own, Hakoda suspected.

"Gather your weapons, then!" Hakoda called. "We march to the settlement together!"

Sokka breathed out upon hearing that final command. The warriors rushed to their respective igloos, tents and huts, eager to prepare for the upcoming battle. With further notice, they might have seen to wearing warpaint too… but they would do best to charge towards the battlefield as quickly as possible. They had prepared as best they could so far… it would have to suffice.

He didn't rush into his igloo to find his weapons yet: instead, Sokka stepped quickly towards where a tense Aang stood, with Kino and Katara. He already had his weapon in hand, if that staff of his was meant to be one.

"Aang, Katara… Kino too, if you wish to join them," Sokka said, stopping before them. His stern semblance saw to it that all three of them would listen to him in silence. "I won't ask you to fight right now, Avatar, not if you don't want to, but…"

"No. I will… I will help. As best I can," Aang said, nodding with more confidence than he felt. Katara gritted her teeth beside him, eyes flickering towards Aang, almost with a hint of guilt.

"Then all the better," Sokka said, releasing a relieved breath. "But for now… I need you to scout. Climb on Appa and do your best to measure the enemy's forces. Can you do this?"

"Sure. Right away," Aang nodded, glancing at Katara and Kino. "You guys want to…?"

"You don't even have to ask," Katara said, with a firm nod.

"Definitely!" Kino exclaimed, nodding promptly: both him and Katara set out to Appa's hut, even before Aang did.

The Avatar sighed before glancing one more time at Sokka.

"I won't fail you. Not the way I… I failed my people," he said, earnestly. Sokka nodded.

"And I won't ask you to save us on your own. Not the way everyone expects the Avatar to," Sokka said, with a small smile. "Go on, now. I'll meet you guys at the settlement."

Aang nodded and he sprung after Katara and Kino without another word. Sokka breathed once, twice, thrice… his fists tightened, and he marched towards his family's igloo.

The elderly and the children were already on their way inside: Kanna had been alerted of the situation, so she helped accommodate everyone who entered the most spacious igloo in the tribe. Sokka slid through the igloo's entrance, hearing the youngest children whimpering and crying in their grandparents' arms, or those of their elderly neighbors. Had there been more time, he would've hoped to reassure them somehow… but he had to focus on preparing for the battle ahead.

So he sortied through the obstacles, ensuring not to bump into anyone, before entering his room once more. He dropped his old hunting gear in a corner quickly before turning to his newer belongings.

His armor, slick, smooth and sturdy, with its black-blue plating, would stand out among those of his fellow warriors. The armor that had seen him through most his gladiatorial career… the armor they had crafted together, so long ago, when they were but testing the waters of a destiny far greater than they had ever imagined awaited them.

He would wear it again today. He'd do it for the first time since she had last left the Water Tribe's shores. And along with it…

He released a breath before shedding his parka, changing thoroughly into the newer clothes Katara and Kanna had sewn for him. A blue, long shirt, of a deeper hue than usual. Two arm sleeves, but this time they reached all the way to his upper biceps. Black bandages, which he fastened upon his forearms quickly. A waistcloth lined with white fur, fastened with a pale blue sash. Then, his boots armored with metal plating to match the forearm guards he often had worn, that she had often fastened for him, far more kindly than he did right now. At last, his armor…

It didn't weigh quite as much as he had thought it would these days. If anything, the metal that hugged his frame now seemed to envelop him with a strength, an energy he had lacked, that he had direly missed, for the past months.

His hands trembled with a strange blend of trepidation and excitement as they reached for the weapons he had already used before, that he had left lying about in the room after his training bout with his father not so long ago. He picked up his knife first, slipping it into his sash, where it would have been joined by bombs next… if only he had any left, of course. He had no chance to craft his usual smoke bombs, not when the smoke salt had been needed for his father's tangle mines, so he would make do without them. He picked up his boomerang next, draping it over his right shoulder, and then his club, upon the left.

The last weapon he picked up was the one he had refused to touch so far… the one that was as foreign to these lands as his armor, the one that had become his signature in the Arenas, a weapon so much stronger than most it had clashed against in the battlefield. It had taken him some time to control it properly, to learn how to exploit its potential in full… to harness his own darkness and hold back nothing to kill an enemy, as he had slain Rhone and Combustion Man. His heart clenched as his hand wrapped around the hilt, but slowly and surely, he drew out the sword from the pack it had been lodged in.

An unfathomable energy seemed to swirl around him now… an energy akin to that which had burst inside him when Hakoda had told him, earlier that day, that he wouldn't stop Sokka from leaving again… in fact, when he had as good as encouraged him to take off to find and save the woman he loved, for she was still within his reach. She wasn't gone… and until she truly was, Sokka's purpose in this world was clear. His grief had blinded him for the past months, of course it had… but he knew what he had to do. Today, as he held that sword in his hands again, as blood rushed in his ears at the rhythm of drums of war, his vision, so clouded and muddy, had become clear once again. She asked him not to… she begged him to stay here, to live his life as best he could.

What she hadn't realized was that a Gladiator could never live his best life by cowering and fleeing from the enemy.

A Gladiator would only live his best life if he devoted it to fighting for those he loved with every beat of his broken heart.

In the end, the answer to his predicament had been so much simpler than he'd expected: he couldn't live the life she'd asked of him without her in it.

He rose from the floor, strengthened, steeled, undeterred by everything he lacked, everything he'd lost. Even if so much had changed, even if he felt like nothing but a pale shadow of who he had become while he had stood by her side, suddenly he felt her closer than ever before. As though, upon cladding himself in the armor he had always worn, in the weapons with which he'd fight for her, alongside her, he had invoked her very spirit, bringing her into battle by his side.

"Well, then…" he released setting his sword in place as he stepped towards his sleeping bag…

The black velvet necklace, with its blue stone, had lingered by his pillow since the day he had found it. No matter how much grief it brought him, no matter how painful it was to believe she had broken their promises, it had still been her necklace. It had still belonged to her… and as much as it pained him, it was a memory, a connection to the woman he loved most desperately.

He thought to leave it this time… it would be safer here, after all. Yet…

His fingers slid underneath that velvet, lifting the polished pendant to his eye's level. His heart ached as he gazed at it, but a sudden rush of strength – not unlike the one he had felt upon bringing the necklace with him to the fight that should have been his execution – had infused his heart upon touching it. Another way to keep her close… another way to fight for her, to never let go of the best promises they'd made, of every glorious moment they had shared…

"I'd have asked you to wish me luck…" he whispered, with a slow, sad smile. "But I think I'll only feel lucky if you come with me this time, eh?"

His father spoke to Kya, he said… it helped, sometimes. To imagine her, to think of what she'd say, of what she'd do, of what she'd think… He closed his eyes, summoning the memorized beauty of Azula in his mind, and all he could see was a heartwarming, proud smile.

"My gold fire… my inner flame. My Gladiator."

Warmth spread inside his chest, warmth he knew might resemble that through which she was able to bend fire. Warmth like that which had coursed through his own chi paths, when they had bent jointly.

However far away she might be, however hard it was to face life without her by his side, that swirling strength now burst inside him as he raised his head once more.

He fastened the velvet across his palm once more. The necklace's stone would remain pressed against the underside of his forearm guards, perfectly protected from damage in battle… serving as a reminder that he wouldn't fight alone. A fire dwelled inside him… she had put it there long ago, a small ember of her own that she had shared with him. She had a heart of ice, and he of burning coal, she'd joked when they had scarcely started to know each other… if she remained as strong, as unyielding as ice through the perils and through the suffering her father would inflict upon her, then he'd certain burn with the strength of her fire, both gold and blue, as he marched into battle to fulfill his purpose.

This was why he had returned. This was why he'd trained the warriors, why he'd worked with his father and sister to craft strategies to defend the South Pole. This was the last battle Azula had sent her Gladiator to, and he refused to fail her.

The rumor of disparate conversations deadened into silence when he crossed the threshold back into the central room of the igloo. Where his storytelling had calmed many who had feared him or found him untrustworthy, now they seemed to tense up around him all over again. Perhaps it wasn't simply his full warrior regalia, but also the stern frown on his face… but whatever it was, Sokka strode towards Kanna without hesitation, as his elderly grandmother brought her hands together in the gesture of a mournful prayer.

"Oh, my boy…" she said, softly. Sokka remained stern and serious as he knelt before her.

"You can take care of everyone here, right?" he asked, softly. "Dad and I, we caught a seal earlier today. If need be, you can use it for…"

"You needn't worry about us, my dear. We will be fine," said Kanna, with a fragile smile. "Be careful out there. Take good care of yourself, your father and your sister…"

"I will," Sokka answered, earnest and firm. "We'll all be back here, safe and sound, before you know it."

"Oh, I'm sure of that, Sokka. I believe in you, in all of you," Kanna said, cupping his face delicately. Sokka closed his eyes, clasping her hand in his, briefly. "Go on, then. Your father must be waiting."

Sokka nodded, leaning close to press a subtle kiss to his grandmother's brow. He rose back to his full height then, striding towards the door… which he found obstructed by a red-headed child, who had stepped away from her parents. Suki was setting Zi down on a cluster of blankets inside the igloo, and Zuko stood by her as he kept an eye on his oldest daughter.

"Uncle Sokka…?" she called him softly, shyly. Sokka gritted his teeth and knelt again, as her hands rose to her mouth nervously. "Uncle Sokka…"

"I'm sorry, Mari. I'll have to reschedule our storytelling session of the day," Sokka sighed, reaching out to pat her hair gently. "But don't worry. I'll come back and tell you all about Jing and Wentai once I can. I promise."

Mari bit her lip and nodded. Sokka offered her a weak smile as his hand fell on her shoulder now.

"Be a good girl, stay inside the igloo and do what Gran Gran says, alright?" Sokka said. "Your mommy will be nearby, but you're a strong little one, as strong as Princess Jing… so stay here, help out Gran Gran and wait as patiently as you can, alright? We'll be back very soon."

Mari gazed at him in hopeless silence as he rose back to his full height. Fear permeated the young child, but there was little Sokka could do to reassure her beyond promising to deliver more stories as soon as this was over.

"Mari, come here and sit with your sister, okay?" Zuko called her, gently.

Mari glanced back at Zuko quickly, uncertain still, before looking at Sokka one more time. He smiled warmly, far more warmly than usual, as he let himself gaze into her golden eyes, so familiar as they were: fear didn't suit this child any better than it had suited her aunt.

"Go on. Little Zi needs you," he said.

Mari bit her lip, but it seemed the unusually tender expression on Sokka's face reassured her, to a fault. She nodded and turned to her parents, who welcomed her into a warm embrace, kissing the top of her head as they held her close.

Sokka's breath escaped him as he watched them: those two girls deserved to live a peaceful, happy life. They deserved both their parents… they deserved a world better than the one they'd been born to. A world at peace… a world where said peace could not be threatened as easily as this.

Today, they had the chance to start building said world. A chance to ensure Mari and Zi would never undergo the tragedies he and Katara had, when the black snow had fallen on a day none of them wanted to remember. Today, the Fire Nation's forces would be kept at bay and the Water Tribe would be protected, at all costs.

Clinging to that powerful resolve, to the burning certainty that dwelled in his heart, Sokka stepped out of the igloo, ready to face the decisive battle brewing by the South Pole's shores.

---

Kino clung to the bison's saddle as though he feared he might fall off it. Never before had he been so unsettled by a flight, not even before he had grown to enjoy the feeling of being airborne on Appa's back… for they weren't flying for the fun of it today. Nervous and frightened, he glanced down at the icy ground so far away, so difficult to glimpse properly under the lacking brightness of the dark period's snow-charged clouds…

"Okay… we're almost there," Aang said, reassuringly, sitting at Appa's neck. On the saddle, right behind him, Katara nodded promptly, gazing at the horizon to find the cliffs, the icy walls, remained pristine and untouched.

"They haven't reached our walls, at least. That's good," she said, releasing a slow breath of relief.

"How many ships do you think we should expect, Kino?" Aang asked, glancing back at his friend. Kino flinched before shrugging.

"I… I don't know, to be honest," he said. "They never wanted to send that many resources here because… well, the South Pole was seen as a lesser threat than the north? But if the Fire Lord is really angry, then… maybe he'll be sending about a hundred ships, or so…"

"A hundred…?" Katara scowled. Kino gritted his teeth.

"Maybe he can't afford to send that many, I don't know. But the good news is… they won't be likely to see us, it's really dark! Whereas their ships will be visible because they have lanterns and such, and they'll have to use plenty of them if they intend to attack right now," Kino said, nodding promptly. "We'll have it easier to figure out how many enemy ships we'll have to deal with…"

"Yeah, fire means light," Katara said, brow furrowed. "It will give away their positions."

"Of the firebenders, in particular," Aang said, pressing his lips into a tight line. Katara sighed and nodded behind him.

"Though the others would still need lanterns to guide their path, like Kino said. They don't know the South Pole as well as we do, and there's snowfall, too, even if it isn't heavy. Even if they manage to disembark somehow, they'll have trouble making it all the way to the village, at the very least," Katara determined. To her relief, Aang nodded in agreement.

They continued to fly onwards, past the first lines of tall ice walls: Kino's jaw dropped as he gazed at the perfectly intricate maze Katara and Aang had crafted through the days of preparation for the coming battle. It was impossible to see them from this distance, but buoying bombs floated amid the ice, where Katara had set them carefully, helped by her father's warriors at first, by Aang as well, on the days after their spat. They hadn't talked things over yet… but at moments like these, it almost felt like they wouldn't have to. There was so much at stake, perhaps too much… and worrying about unresolved arguments wouldn't help anyone. For now, the tension that lingered between them faded, replaced by determination to see this battle through with the least casualties for the Water Tribe.

The first thing they noticed, several minutes after they'd flown past the last of the walls, was the noise: only waves and tides would break the silence in the usually quiet ocean. Engines, machinery, weren't often heard or seen in the South Pole… let alone many of them. Today, however, the seas parted under the incoming, thunderous approach of a line of ships… Aang tensed up, almost yanking Appa's reins to make him turn back at once, but he resisted the urge to escape as best he could. He snarled, fearful, but continued onwards, reaching out to touch his bison's fur gently.

"Be quiet now, buddy," he said, softly. "Not a sound, okay?"

Appa seemed tempted to respond with a groan, but he settled for a soft snort instead. His paws swayed in the air as he progressed towards the battleships. Aang clenched up, a sickening feeling rushing through his head, through his very soul, as more and more shapes of ships could be discerned in the horizon… just as Kino had predicted, they were easily spotted by the bursts of light in each ship. Columns of smoke poured into the sky, their source the tall chimneys on the back of each vessel. There truly might be hundreds of ships…

"Stay calm," Katara said, reaching out to clasp his shoulder. Aang gritted his teeth but nodded. "We're scouting. They're not going to notice us up here, and even if they do, we're well out of their soldiers' reach. We'll try to count how many ships there are, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I… I know," Aang said, shivering under the brush of a current of freezing air. "It's hard to say, exactly, but… the closer we get, the more defined the lights are. Each cluster of light would be one ship, right?"

"They can't sail that close to each other," Kino confirmed, hugging himself to fight the cold. "The ships could collide and then they'd be in lots of trouble, so yeah, if you see lights accumulated in one place, it's probably a single ship."

"Well, that makes me wonder…" Katara whispered, softly. Aang glanced back at her and Katara grimaced. "Just… if things get complicated, we could take advantage of the sea and make them crash into each other? If the bombs and walls aren't enough…"

"Right," Aang nodded, biting his lip. Katara shivered, but it wasn't related to the cold.

"It's okay if you'd rather not…"

"No, Katara. I… I'll do whatever needs to be done," Aang said, reassuringly. "It won't be easy, but… it's not easy for you guys, either. I'll do my best."

Katara gritted her teeth but nodded. She wanted to reach out to him, to embrace him gently, to let him know she was grateful for his efforts… but the time for comfort and emotional relief would come later. First, they had a job to do.

As fast as Appa flew, it still took them over ten minutes to reach the line of ships in the horizon. By then, the shapes of the ships were much easier to discern: they sailed in an arrow formation, following a flagship that Aang immediately guessed would serve as a scout as well, to test the waters and seek the safest way for the Fire Nation troops to disembark. Dark as it was, the lanterns' lights allowed them to glimpse the swaying flags that crowned every vessel: the Fire Nation's standard danced in the wind, proud and menacing.

"I think I count… about five rows of ten, more or less?" Kino said, biting his lip as he scrutinized the horizon. "It's… it's not as bad as I expected, actually."

"So… fifty ships?" asked Aang.

"How many soldiers would there be on each one?" Katara asked Kino.

"Well… there can be about twenty on each ship? But there could be more than that. Maybe thirty or forty…" Kino said, biting his lip as they flew above the flagship.

"Well, maybe it's not a lot of ships… but it still would be a lot of soldiers," Katara said, frowning heavily. "More soldiers than we have warriors, for sure…"

"And we're not accounting for the sailors," Aang said, grimacing. "Do you expect they'd know how to fight, Kino?"

"To defend themselves? Yeah, at least the basics," Kino said, shrugging. "But they won't be well-equipped the way the soldiers will be, so they shouldn't be that hard to defeat… they're also not bound to be firebenders but non-benders."

"Alright… alright," Aang breathed out, watching the slow advance of the ships towards the icy shores of the South Pole. "We should report back now."

Katara nodded: in this darkness, it'd be all the harder to identify meaningful threats aboard each ship. The dark period still largely played in their favor, hindering the Fire Nation's forces – the tangle mines would be even harder for them to identify under these conditions –, but it meant the information they could acquire, beyond their guess regarding the bulk of the enemy forces, would be quite limited. There was, however, one bit of information that became apparent to the waterbender just as they were turning back:

"No airships," Katara said, releasing a sigh of relief. "Sokka was right. I mean, unless they arrive later…"

"We'll keep an eye out for them if they do, but Sokka says they're faster than traveling by water," Aang pointed out, glancing back at Katara. "They'd likely have arrived first…"

"And maybe without the warning of the black snow," Katara said, biting her lip as she slid a hand through her hair. "I guess the situation isn't as dire as it could be…"

"The Fire Nation's forces are spread too thin," Kino said, with a small smile. "Everyone's always said so. The Fire Lord… well, the whole lot of them, they've prepared their forces for invasion, but they didn't think much about how to maintain control after conquest. A lot of operations were reckless, sacrificing many valuable soldiers… so even with their constant recruitment, they can't have enough forces to hold the Earth Kingdom while attacking the north and south poles at the same time."

"Makes sense… though I have to wonder just how numerous their forces were back when the war began," Katara said, frowning. "I know the comet was powering them further, but…"

"They must have been preparing to go to war for many years," Aang said, a tinge of sadness in his voice. "I never saw those preparations myself, not even when I visited my friend Kuzon… but they must have been happening anyway. It's the only explanation…"

"And however successful the latest Fire Lords have been… they tend to succeed through the sacrifices of their forces," Katara finished. Kino nodded in her direction. "Must have been… well, terrifying, to serve in that sort of army."

"Eh, it wasn't. I didn't have much of a life worth living… which I guess is part of the whole system," Kino said, his eyes falling upon his hands. "They make you think you have nothing to live for but the Fire Nation. If you have to give your life for its advancement, it's a wonderful sacrifice and you will always be remembered for it… heh. Kind of hard to believe anyone would've remembered me if they didn't even know how to spell my name, eh?"

Katara sighed, reaching out to grasp his hand. Kino offered her a fragile smile for the gesture, appreciating her attempt to comfort him.

"For what it's worth… I'm glad we got you out of there before you had any harebrained ideas of dying for the Fire Nation's glory," Katara said, with a sad smile of her own. Kino laughed and shook his head.

"I don't think I'm enough of a hero to deliberately think of something like that," he said. "But… I'm grateful to you two for getting me out. More grateful than you can even imagine. Without you, I…"

"Now, now, Kino, no need to be so emotional… almost sounds like you're scared things won't go well today," Katara said, though her playful tone couldn't mask her own anxiety. Kino snorted and shook his head. "If you're grateful… we'll hear all about it once the fight's over, okay?"

"Right," he grinned, nodding in her direction. "I'll see to that, Katara."

Their ten-minute flight saw them reaching the pole's shores just as sleds and marching warriors arrived at the abandoned settlement. Aang steered Appa carefully towards the snow, aiming for an empty space the warriors cleared for them: they had to be around two hundred warriors, and as strong as Aang knew them to be, his heart clenched upon reasoning with the numbers the Fire Nation was likely to bring upon their shores: if Kino's most optimistic guesses were correct, they might face an onslaught by fifteen hundred soldiers… almost ten times as many as they had in their ranks. Could the environment and their strategies guarantee a victory, under these circumstances? Could superior planning outmaneuver the dangerous Fire Nation navy when the odds were stacked so dangerously against them…?

They dismounted Appa's saddle and marched together towards the huddle of warriors, at the settlement's entrance. Groups of warriors carried large, sharpened contraptions made of bones, setting them down in the snow: they were barriers that would serve as another line of defense against the potential onslaught of the enemy. It had been a late development in the strategies to fight back against the Fire Nation, thus, they didn't quite have enough of them to position throughout the full coast. Hakoda and Sokka, standing at the center of the soldiers, gave out orders and recommendations for where best to position the barriers, but they focused on the new arrivals once Aang, Katara and Kino came closer.

"Well? What are we up against?" Sokka asked: dressed in his full armor for the first time since he had arrived in the South Pole, he sounded a lot calmer than Katara expected he'd be now. Perhaps this was but another consequence of how he'd been hardened through his years as a gladiator… it would serve them well if he could keep his head cool in this crisis, she knew.

"Kino counted fifty ships," Katara answered. "He says they might be carrying any number between twenty to fifty soldiers on each vessel. It's… a considerable force, yes, but our strategies shouldn't fail, I'm sure of that."

"Well, I'm not sure of anything just yet, but I hope you're right," Sokka said, glancing back at the walls of ice Katara and Aang had erected to defend the South Pole. "Any airships?"

"None," Aang confirmed, and Sokka released a relieved breath.

"Great. He really mustn't have expected we'd be ready to fight back," Sokka said… and a ghostly smile spread over his face for just an instant. A smile meant for someone who didn't stand among them, someone who would have responded in kind. Then, he was back to his firm, unexpectedly confident and serious self once more. "That being said… how far away were they?"

"At the rate they're moving… guess they might reach the furthermost walls within thirty minutes?" Kino said, with a grimace. "There's a flagship ahead, that one's bound to test any dangers in the water first…"

"Huh… figures," Sokka said, biting his lip as he stroked his chin, in deep thought.

"What are we going to do?" Zuko asked, stepping up, brow furrowed: he seemed far more tense than Sokka, but as combative as the two men could be, it seemed the banished Prince was prepared to listen and abide by whatever strategies Sokka would come up with. "Where should we position ourselves? Inside the settlement?"

"Hmm, I'm not entirely sure about that," Sokka said, grimacing. "Kino… you know it well, don't you?"

"Oh, yeah. Lived there, so… yeah," Kino said, nodding.

"Are there any booby traps we should beware in there?" Sokka asked, frowning. "No one ever approached that frozen ship in the shore because…"

"It's possible," Zuko said, frowning. Kino grimaced and shrugged.

"Well, we've looked through some of the building and found none. If they did set up any traps, maybe they're in the higher levels of the building and I never knew it. Damn it…" he said, sighing.

"But the lower levels of the settlement are fine," Zuko said, confidently. "Me and Suki took refuge there before, uh…"

"Before we first found you and beat you guys up, yeah," Katara said, with a dry grin. Zuko sighed and nodded.

"Well, I'm wondering about the top floor, frankly," Sokka said, glancing at the central building of the metallic settlement: it wasn't too tall, but it would be tall enough to offer a vantage point from which someone could observe the ocean better than where they stood right now. "Do you think that, if there were any booby traps, you could sort through them without tripping them up, Kino?"

"I can help him sort them out, if he can't do it alone," Zuko suggested. "I can light the way with firebending…"

"Wait, but… why?" Kino asked, blinking blankly. "You guys want me to…?"

"I need someone with eyes on the battlefield," Sokka said, glancing at Aang and Katara again. "You two… I'll appreciate any information you can give us, but you'll have a bigger task than to serve as scouts, if there's really only fifty ships here."

"What… what do you mean?" Aang asked, puzzled.

"I thought about this earlier: do you want us to mess with the tides and make their ships collide among themselves?" Katara asked, raising her eyebrows. Sokka actually smiled at her suggestion.

"That's not a bad idea. But maybe you could do that later: more than anything, I want you two to erect a new, quick wall, right after the last ships enter our territory. That last-minute wall would be raised right behind their final ship. It will hinder their mobility and chances to escape: however mechanized these ships may be, they're not infallible. If we weaken them, slow them, and limit their possibilities to maneuver…"

"We might just stop them from taking off in retreat?" Katara guessed. Sokka nodded promptly.

"Fifty ships… it's a lot, yes. It sounds insane when you consider the number of warriors we have here," Sokka said, gesturing at the nearby warriors, who watched their discussion intently. "But it's manageable. Fifty ships… we can beat that, but things will get ugly if they call for reinforcements. We won't have tangle mines anymore to deal with further forces, the walls will be broken… and if any of our warriors take injuries, it'll mean less of us will be able to fight against a second wave of attackers. The more we limit their possibilities in requesting help, the better."

"A distress flare here wouldn't be visible from Whaletail Island…" Zuko pointed out. Sokka nodded. "But I guess they must have some means for emergency communication with the rest of the navy. That's… well, the main reason why the Fire Nation's done well in the war…"

"I'm aware," Sokka said, bitterly. He remembered all too well how that communication system had been helpful in pinpointing something was wrong during Azula's week as Fire Lord… right now he had no choice but to plan against it, instead. "It's insane, bringing a messenger hawk here… but I wouldn't be surprised if they'd done that. As long as we can keep any messengers, whether hawks or not, from conveying to the rest of the navy that things aren't going well for them… we may just have a chance to end this for good, today."

That he seemed so certain that a single battle could see to the safety and protection of the Water Tribe surprised his allies. Not a soul knew what strange thoughts dwelled in Sokka's heart since his conversation with his father… no one could imagine where those dangerous thoughts might lead him if he carried on in this path. But Sokka intended to pursue them… to follow through with the epiphanies he'd undergone, and he had to defeat the fifty ships Fire Lord Ozai had sent to kill him if he wanted to do so.

Well, he'd faced a murderous gladiator with combustion abilities before, right after spending days in prison, eating next to nothing and receiving virtually no treatment for the spree of wounds Shaofeng and his men had left upon him… and he'd still survived. If he could overcome those impossible odds, perhaps nothing was all that impossible so long as his plans worked the way they were meant to.

He allowed himself a small smile, evoking thoughts of Azula again: long ago, she had scolded him for not coming up with plans and strategies before a battle, instead settling for reading his opponent in the middle of combat and crafting a strategy once he was already in the ring. He had slowly improved in those regards… little by little, they had strengthened themselves and learned from each other. Today, he had planned extensively beforehand, trying to prepare for any setbacks he could think of… while also being ready to come up with new plans, if need be, to handle anything he couldn't have accounted for.

She would be proud, he thought, as his hand tightened around the fabric of her necklace: he evoked her smile, approving and confident… a smile that she offered him freely, kindly, in that unique way in which she only ever smiled at him. With that warmth just like her gold fire… with that affection that soothed him and assured him he could succeed.

This was what they'd prepared for, this was what she'd sent him here for. Whatever threats those ships brought with them, Sokka wouldn't fail Azula, no matter what.

"How will we do that?" Aang asked, softly. "Ending things today, I mean. By preventing them from escaping? By… making them our prisoners?"

"The first part, definitely. The second part… guess it depends on how many of them survive," Sokka admitted, breathing deeply as he focused on his allies again. "Admittedly, we're not equipped to keep lots of prisoners alive, but we'll do best to refrain from killing as best we can. At least, I know I will hold back unless I'm given no other choice."

Katara swallowed hard but nodded. Kino and Zuko did the same. Aang, along with them, sighed in relief and smiled a little before nodding, too. It was all he dared hope for, in the current circumstances.

"Now, then… get going to the settlement," Sokka said, gesturing at Kino and Zuko, though he caught Zuko's shoulder in a hand. "You'll help us fight them off, right? I don't know how ready you are to push back against all those firebenders, but…"

"I've trained a lot against the Avatar over the past years. Hell, I've literally trained him," Zuko pointed out, raising his eyebrow. "I know you remember me as a weak wimp and all, but…"

"It's not that. I know you're stronger these days," Sokka assured him. "It's only… do you think you can perform defensive firebending?"

"Defensive…?" Zuko repeated, puzzled.

"Steal their fire, turn it against them," Sokka explained. "When they attack, whether they attack you or our men, you can take the flames out of their control and either extinguish them or turn them around. It may not be as fancy or instinctive for you as your spinning kick style, but…"

"I can try," Zuko said, nodding as he frowned in deep thought. "I haven't done that a lot, but… I can try."

"Good," Sokka said, with a small smile, as he clapped Zuko's shoulder. "That'll help."

The two Fire Nation-born tribesmen took off towards the settlement after that exchange, nodding in acknowledgement towards their allies as they ran past them. Haka and Kattan stepped up next, followed by Yuro: they had listened in on the whole conversation silently, as other warriors had, and they awaited their orders nervously.

"Do you want us to take off already too?" Aang asked, next. "Katara and I can try to communicate with Kino from midair, as he watches from the tower…"

"Yeah, that'd be the best choice," Sokka said, nodding in his direction. "Good luck, you two. Thanks for all your work so far and… uh, sorry for that last-minute request."

"Don't worry about it," Katara smiled, patting her brother's shoulder. "We got a lot of practice with building these walls after the last weeks. We'll pull it off in no time."

"I hope so," Sokka said, grinning at his sister.

She drew close to offer him a quick hug, and Sokka returned it with one arm before the waterbender dashed towards the sky bison once more. Aang bowed his head in Sokka's direction before following Katara, jumping easily on the spot at Appa's neck before shaking the reins and taking to the skies anew. Sokka watched them go silently for a moment, then he turned to the group of warriors who crowded around him… his father and his men included, by now.

"Uh, well," Sokka cleared his throat, uneasy: why would he be nervous about public speaking right now? No doubt he'd never given orders to so many people, let alone to his own father, but it wasn't the time or place to act like a meek fool. "I suggest we position ourselves near the settlement. They built this place deliberately to make it defensible, to serve as a foothold that we struggled to run them out of… might as well use it against them now, as we have the chance."

"Some of us can climb the settlement's walls," Haka suggested. "Might help in the fight if we attack from there."

"Better vantage point from which to use our boomerangs," Kattan pointed out.

"Yeah, that's a good thought," Sokka said, nodding. "I'd say a good idea might be to stay hidden behind the settlement's walls, to a fault, to conceal our actual numbers until they actually rush our shores. In the best-case scenario, they won't be able to disembark at all, or easily… but it's hard to say what will happen once they breach our first defenses."

"We can take positions within the settlement, some of us behind the walls, others right outside," Hakoda suggested, pointing at the area right by sides of the metal enclosure. "We could even put together some snow mounds to conceal ourselves better that way…"

"With how dark it is, they may not be able to see us much, whether we have snow mounds or not… but they might sense movement anyway, so that's not a bad idea," Sokka said, breathing deeply and nodding towards his father. "Then we split our forces. Three groups: one within the settlement, two at either side of it."

"They'll have to go through us to reach the Tribe," growled one of the older warriors.

The same man cracked his knuckles as Sokka made his way to one of the sides of the settlement. Many others followed him, others moved in the opposite direction, and the remaining warriors gathered within the settlement itself. Sokka and Hakoda lingered on one side of the settlement's entrance, their gazes raking the horizon anxiously.

"The ice cliffs around the shore… they make it inviable for them to disembark anywhere but here," Hakoda pointed out, frowning. "Whoever's coming… if they've been here before, they'll know that and choose to break through the walls. If they don't, however…"

"Do you expect they might try finding other places where they could disembark?" Sokka asked, frowning.

"They won't get too lucky if they do… but we need to keep them from finding anywhere else to land," Hakoda sighed, rubbing his eyes with a hand. "Hopefully they won't find our Tribe's port and docks if they do try…"

"We'll do our best to prevent that, Dad," Sokka said, clasping his father's shoulder. "Back in the day, they would simply use those icebreaker hulls to dig deeper and deeper into the shore without a care… they might be stubborn enough to think they can get through our new walls that way, and they'll definitely fail to do so this time."

"I hope you're right… I bet you're right," Hakoda said, with a gentle smile. "Now, then… whatever comes next, my boy, we will face it together."

Sokka nodded promptly: Hakoda's hand found his… then that hand slipped over Sokka's forearm, clasping it firmly. The Gladiator and his father shared that moment of camaraderie, of firm strength and faith in each other, while the world seemed to be at a standstill as the battle threatened to begin at any moment.

Kino and Zuko found their way to the top of the tower without bumping into any traps. The firebender returned down the stairs quickly as Kino stopped at the biggest window in the building, watching the dark horizon again… glimpsing small lights past the first wall of ice.

Airborne, Aang and Katara could see them too. The snow fluttered about, falling in dark splotches upon the saddle, on Appa's fur, on the ground below… on the group of vessels that approached slowly, guided by that flagship hellbent on breaching their shores.

The ship continued onwards, whether it had taken notice of the ice walls ahead or not. Their acceleration would take them right into the first line of Water Tribe defenses shortly: if the flagship could be goaded into barging through the walls, if it didn't touch the mines right away…

"It's almost there," Katara trembled on the saddle: never before had they staged an operation of this magnitude. Never before had they counted on defenses like the ones they had today: they weren't guided solely by powerful convictions today… they had a stronger leadership than ever.

As chaotic as her relationship with her brother had been, as many ups and downs as they'd had, as much as she couldn't understand fully his love and attachment to the Princess of the Fire Nation, Katara found herself believing in Sokka wholeheartedly today. Where she had put her faith in miracles as a child, in nothing but her own strength after Sokka was gone… today she would put it in him, in the strength she knew he could evoke out of everyone else in the Water Tribe.

Another few meters and the flagship would reach the first wall. The distance shrank further, further, until…

A loud, jarring, crashing sound tore through the silence of the night in the South Pole.

The warriors by the settlement flinched, quickly glancing at Kino in the tower. He leaned out the window and nodded as visibly as he could.

"They've breached the first wall!"

Sokka grimaced but glared at the scenery once more: no sounds of blasting just yet, just the scraping of ice against metal. That was good… as long as the mines worked eventually, that they didn't do so right away would be fine.

The ships continued onwards, emulating their flagship's daring, bold approach. It had successfully broken through the first wall and the impact had resulted in the collapse of most of it. Katara cringed, knuckles whitening as she gripped the saddle tightly, her heartbeats drumming so loudly in her ears they almost dwarfed the noise of the ship's progress through the wall…

Some of the ice had fallen on the ship's deck: soldiers scurried in it, perhaps some had been injured by the large chunks of ice that collapsed atop their vessel, but it was hard to tell from such a distance. The progress of the flagship slowed, evidently hindered by the wall in its way, but it continued regardless, even if it was no longer capable of the high speed it had boasted of earlier.

"They… they might wait," Katara pointed out, frowning. Aang glanced at her from Appa's neck. "For the rest of the ships to arrive, I mean. Now that they've breached the first wall, they'll have realized there's more ahead, and…"

"And they might think it's safer to tear down our defenses if they break them together?" Aang finished. Katara swallowed hard and shrugged.

"Maybe? But if they do…"

Eventually, one of the tangle mines would be triggered. Eventually, those ships would begin to sink, and the Water Tribe's defenses would withstand the assault…

Yet the flagship hadn't been damaged enough to stop its progress into the icy harbor.

The bulk of the fleet approached now, too. It wouldn't be long before they arranged into a full formation to tear down the walls, Aang knew, and he flinched as he watched their single-minded progress towards the harbor. The flagship had already begun digging into the next wall, and as it lacked the speed with which it had impacted the first one, it seemed this time it would take longer for it to collapse

No explosions still. Nothing yet, and Katara could barely stand to watch anymore. She knew the tangle mines would work, they had to… but inevitably, she wondered if she had failed to install them properly. If there had been a problem with the components… if she had overlooked anything and their whole operation might be doomed to fail. Fifteen hundred soldiers, give or take, marching into their village? The thought nearly brought her to tears. She couldn't allow it, she knew Sokka wouldn't allow it, but…

A blast, loud, sudden and deafening, broke past her string of dark thoughts.

"It worked!"

Aang's unexpected enthusiasm about the tangle mines' success didn't register in Katara's mind right away: instead, she gasped and watched as the flagship, upon reaching the other side of the second breached wall, had stopped progressing abruptly: judging by the urgency of the men aboard, it seemed Hakoda's 'stink-and-sink' strategy had been successful.

By the shore, the warriors appeared on the brink of launching into a full celebration… but Sokka raised a hand to silence the ones within the settlement, at the very least.

"Calm down. If that worked… it's one less ship, but we still have a lot more to go. A small victory is important, but we have to stay focused," he said, sternly.

The warriors eased up and nodded, though one of them stepped up to Sokka, bumping his shoulder lightly.

"You sounded like someone else I know, just now…"

Zuko's comment startled Sokka. The firebender shot him a meaningful glance, and Sokka's chest tightened for it: it seemed he truly carried Azula with him, in more ways than he had realized.

He could only offer Zuko a tight-lipped grin before glancing back at the walls: they couldn't see much of anything yet, though it appeared that a column of smoke, far thicker than those that rose from the chimneys, currently spiraled towards the sky, someplace within the maze of walls. Voices echoed in the night, sailors and soldiers who seemed startled by the explosive welcome they had just received…

Sokka frowned as he watched and waited: any moment now, the rest of the ships should reach the walls too…

"Kino!" he shouted, waving at the former soldier, who watched the horizon, entranced. "The rest of the fleet! Are they…?"

"Oh, they're about to break through!" Kino answered. Sokka released a relieved breath…

The sound of further crashes of metal against walls of ice followed instants after their quick exchange. Either they were making it past the debris of the first, collapsed wall, or they had reached the second, and…

Another blast. Another explosion, so loud Katara flinched on Appa's saddle.

A new ship had crashed into a tangle mine… or, perhaps, slid right over it while coursing through the ice that had fallen atop it. It had exploded so fiercely, shattered not only by the mine's explosion but the flying shards of ice, that it seemed the engine had been caught in the blast directly.

Within moments, another explosion wracked the ship, and it seemed to sink even faster than the first one.

More sounds of ice against metal, and more blasts, two that followed so quickly Sokka dreaded a ship might have detonated two of the tangle mines at once…

"Four ships are damaged so far!" Kino reported "The others are…! W-well, some are still moving, but the ones on the back lines are…!"

"They're slowing down," Sokka snarled, finishing Kino's thought, despite knowing he wouldn't hear him.

That was one crucial, terrible factor he hadn't thought of so far. Damn it… they might retreat before Aang and Katara had a chance to create the perfect ice enclosure to restrain their ships: he couldn't allow that.

But how? What could he do to ensure those bastards came for him? If he had a clue, he…

"Catapults!"

Sokka flinched: he raised his head instants before another loud sound, that of a rock colliding against the ice, tore through his ears. Of course… they'd take to tearing down the walls, and with that, they'd hope to detonate the tangle mines and clear the way… but the ice debris would still make it difficult for them to sail into the shore. Still… it would minimize the damage. If their means to counter the bombs paid off, the Fire Nation would lose far less ships than the Water Tribe could afford them to.

"Okay… okay. We can't just hide here in wait," Sokka decided, snarling as he let his gaze travel over their surroundings, their supplies, everything they'd brought…

The barricades.

Some would be quite useful for their intended purpose, yes… but if he wanted to goad those ships into pouring into their shores… he might be better served by using at least one of them for a different purpose.

"Zuko! I need you to give me a hand with something! Dad, can you gather some of your stronger men? I need to use one of those barricades!" Sokka bellowed, rushing away from his position at the side of the settlement without any further explanations.

Zuko and Hakoda exchanged a worried glance, but the firebender followed Sokka immediately while Hakoda called some of his fellow experienced warriors. Within moments, he had five men with him, and together with Sokka and Zuko, they hoisted and carried one of the barricades…

In the direction of one of the cliffs hugging their bay, in fact.

"W-what are we doing?" Zuko asked, careful not to stumble with his own feet as he followed the tribesmen uphill.

"We're making sure they won't retreat… and giving them something else to aim for!" Sokka exclaimed.

Another attack by a working ship's catapult did trigger a tangle mine this time. Sokka snarled, urging the men with him to hurry up through the cliff. It was taking too long, it was a large expanse of ice, but still, just a little further until they reached the peak while the Fire Nation navy continued to tear down the Tribe's defenses…

"Here! Set it down!" Sokka exclaimed: nobody seemed to follow his train of thought in the least, despite obeying it without complaint, placing the barricade at the topmost position on the edge of the cliff: the Fire Nation fleet was perfectly visible from there. "You guys can run back now, the less of us are exposed, the better, but Zuko…!"

"What? What are you doing, why do we need a barricade up here…?" Zuko asked, but Sokka clasped his wrist and aimed his hand towards the pile of bones before them.

"Set it on fire."

The determination and certainty in Sokka's gaze wasn't shared by the rest of the warriors with him.

"What?!" one of the men exclaimed, looking at Sokka in chagrin. "If you do that…!"

"You'll expose all of us!" Zuko said.

"No… just me," Sokka said…

And a vicious grin spread over his face as he spoke the words. His expression was so strange, so unexpected, none of them even dared say a word.

"Get back right after lighting it up. I'll join you guys soon," Sokka said, intensely. "We need to make sure they won't retreat… and that they won't take down every tangle mine with those catapults before their ships reach them. This is the only way."

Hakoda gritted his teeth… but he nodded and clasped his son's shoulder.

"If you're sure… then we'll do this," he said, biting his lip. "We need to do something about those catapults, though…"

"Their reach isn't that great," Sokka said, clenching his fists. "They won't get to our men at the settlement yet. But… yeah. The sooner we can disable them, the better."

Hakoda nodded, unsure of how to make that happen, but hoping Sokka's idea would buy them enough time to think of a solution. He clapped his son's shoulder and walked back to the other warriors, urging them to leave, as Sokka had told them to. Zuko lingered back, staring at Sokka with unusual concern.

"I hope you know what you're doing," he said, simply. Sokka nodded.

"This will work. I know it will."

Zuko breathed out before unleashing a powerful burst of fire towards the barricade, that now became an improvised fireplace instead. Without waiting another moment, he ran back… while Sokka stayed, right by those flames, right by their warmth, evoking more thoughts and memories he couldn't afford to lose himself in right now…

Memories that strengthened him, for once. Memories that brought him to raise his hand to the weapon on his back, just as the flames gained further power, shining brighter and brighter, and no doubt serving as a beacon in the night for the Fire Nation ships, whose limited visibility would be drawn to the fire immediately…

A fire before which stood a man, tall and strong, raising a blade as dark as the night that spread upon the South Pole, perfectly silhouetted against each rising tendril of flame.

For a moment, the battle seemed to freeze completely, although the sinking ships continued to be consumed by water… but all men on the decks of the remaining ships glanced at the fearsome inferno burning at the top of that tall ice cliff, the sole source of light in the South Pole besides the lanterns on their ships. Katara's jaw dropped as she saw, even at a distance, the unmistakable shape of her brother… of the sword he hadn't wielded a single time since he had come home. Standing before that fire, showing himself without fear, without any regard to his wellbeing, courageous, bold, reckless and heroic…

Among the noise of shattering ice and crashing metal, of waves rushing against the crumbling walls Katara and Aang had crafted, a sudden rumor of urgent voices took wind among the Fire Nation forces: Katara gasped at the sight of soldiers rushing about on the decks of ships, seemingly forgetting they were supposed to be manning the catapults or struggling to rid their decks from the ice debris – even in the case of the sinking ships, some of the men aboard seemed to stop in their motions to stare at the unbelievable sight that now crowned the frozen cliff.

It was her brother… but to them, he was something else. A sudden, frigid, terrifying awareness seized her heart as she finally was confronted, directly, by the reality that the Fire Nation's navy had genuinely been mobilized to find Sokka… to attack Sokka. To…

A jarring, loud, frantic and urgent voice echoed across the sea and ice, finishing her last thought for her:

"KILL THE GLADIATOR!"

Katara flinched, returning to her senses: the ships, some of which had slowed, others which had taken to attacking the walls with their catapults, now appeared to forget all caution and return to their previous intent to reach solid ground, whether to apprehend or murder Sokka in cold blood…

They'd have to get through Katara first.

"Aang!" she shouted, careless about revealing their position at this point. The Avatar grimaced as he glanced at her. "We're taking out those catapults! Now!"

"Right!" he responded, clasping the reins and angling himself carefully on Appa's neck. "Yip-yip! Come on, buddy!"

Sokka kept his position, steady and stalwart for as long as he dared. His father and the rest of the men – Zuko had joined them moments ago – now watched him in horror, halfway between the cliff and the settlement, understanding both how heroic his actions were… and how utterly risky, too. He couldn't stay there. If he did…!

When the first catapult, loaded with a flaming rock, aimed towards Sokka, the Gladiator remained on the cliff for as long as he dared, before taking off in a hasty sprint.

"Run! Go on, back to the settlement!"

Was it their imagination… or was he actually smiling?

The warriors had only taken a few steps when the sound of a rock crashing into the ice shook them, nearly causing them to stumble: Sokka, however, leapt through the vibrations and rushed towards them even faster, urging them down the cliff and back towards the settlement as quickly as their feet might carry them. Another attack… then another, and one of the warriors stumbled, but Sokka yanked him back to his feet.

"This is madness!" exclaimed Zuko, glancing at Sokka in disbelief. "Why would you…?!"

Another loud, explosive sound… but this time it was in the water.

Sokka disregarded Zuko's words and glanced over his shoulder at the bay: another wall had been breached, by a ship that seemed to seek a better position with which to attack the depths of the cliff, and it had paid for its boldness with yet another tangle mine.

"You… taunted them," Zuko gasped: the ship in question now sank, slowly, and the shrieks of desperate soldiers reached them easily. "You…!"

"If they see the prize they're so desperate to seize, they'll stop at nothing to get it!" Sokka said, smirking. "Their eagerness to obey their fucking Fire Lord will be their undoing, nothing more, nothing less!"

Oh, it was a risky gambit, no one had any doubts about it… but it had paid off perfectly. Sokka's stunt wouldn't only preserve the usefulness of their tangle mines for a little longer, but it would also ensure the Fire Nation fleet wouldn't leave unless they found what they wanted… and they wouldn't achieve that, not if Sokka himself had a say upon the matter.

More attempts by the enemy to draw closer resulted in the triggering of more mines, and the relentless attack by the catapults at the cliff where Sokka had stood before didn't advance the fight at all: instead, it resulted in shards of ice peppering the ships closest to the cliffs, even injuring several of the soldiers aboard. Yet it wouldn't be long before the powerful devices of destruction suffered an upheaval of their own:

As far as the Fire Nation soldiers of one of the warships could tell, a mysterious, heavy, loud and smelly monster dived towards their vessel from the sky: with a single sweep of its gigantic tail, it summoned a current of air so powerful as to knock most soldiers off their feet, some of them even falling overboard… just so, the catapults were slung sideways, their levers shattering under their own weight.

The creature's roars only worsened the panic that seized the soldiers: some attempted to attack it, distracted entirely from the pursuit of the Gladiator in the face of an alarming, confusing threat. Bursts of flames poured from the firebenders' gloved hands… only for the ocean water to douse them immediately, splashing against their bodies next, to freeze them where they stood.

Chaos erupted among the Fire Nation's ranks. By the time Sokka's group reached the settlement anew, everyone left behind pleaded with Kino to recount everything he could see.

"I… I'm not sure! It's too fast, too far away, I…! I think Appa's attacking them?!" Kino was exclaiming once Sokka finally stopped by the settlement's gates. "I figure Aang and Katara are helping, too… ah! Another ship's blown up!"

"How many so far?!" Sokka asked him, and Kino gasped again upon realizing he'd returned.

"Uh…! Ten, I think! But two of their ships also crashed together just a moment ago, so there's about twelve out of commission, so far?!"

"Ten…" Sokka repeated. Hakoda, beside him, groaned in frustration.

"About forty more remain?" he said. "That's not good enough yet."

"We can't play at being patient either, can we?" Sokka said, gritting his teeth. "They might come up with other strategies if we're complacent, and… and damn, I asked Aang and Katara to help with something else, but what they're doing is really useful already. If we could just disable those catapults ourselves instead, then…"

He spoke the words without thinking, and his brow drew together as he pondered them. Hakoda eyed his son with perplexity as Sokka blinked blankly.

"Heh… come to think of it: why don't we?" he said, with a slowly growing smile. He glanced at his father with a raised eyebrow.

"You mean to board their ships?" Hakoda asked, raising his eyebrows. "That's what you're, well, implying here?"

"It's not the worst idea, is it?" Sokka smiled, glancing at the bay. "The cliffs around the shore… they've broken a lot of the ones to the left with their catapults, so they won't be safe, but the ones to the right are probably structurally sound enough, still. If we leap onto their ships from there…"

"How about if we jump from the junction between the cliffs and the walls Katara and Aang built? The ships are still trying to get through them, they're not all broken yet!" Haka suggested. Sokka nodded promptly.

"The stink-and-sink strategy is good, but not immediate. Even the ships stuck in the walls right now are bound to have a chance to attack with their catapults for several minutes until they have no choice but to abandon ship," Hakoda pointed out, biting his lip.

"We'll board any ships that have stopped moving, near the walls or the mines," Sokka said, breathing deeply. "It looked like the sinking ships at the front were already serving as an unintentional barrier to stop the others from progressing further, so…"

"They won't come further into the harbor?" Kattan asked, glancing at the battlefield: they could only glimpse occasional movements from what could only be Appa. "Then… we'd definitely have to go meet them in the battlefield."

"They'll be too confused to anticipate what you're planning, I'd hope," Zuko said, sighing as he glanced at Sokka. "Though what's the plan, exactly?"

"The plan right now…" Sokka said, biting his lip. "You can stay here, Zuko. I'll take about thirty men this time, we'll steal a ship, focus on disabling the catapults, and we'll try to buy Katara and Aang enough time to build the ice enclosure I told them to. If this keeps up, it won't be long before one of their ship captains finally decides he's had enough and that he'd rather go home… and we can't let that happen, now, can we?"

If he jumped aboard any of the ships, it'd also stir chaos and confusion in the fleet. They could jump from ship to ship if they were lucky, like ghosts in the night, tearing through each vessel, one by one… allowing none of them to disembark at all.

It was yet another dangerous gamble, but for a man who had lived for six or seven years off numerous dangerous gambles, Sokka couldn't quite find the risk of more importance than the reward. If things got too complicated, he'd ensure his fellow warriors backed away… but if they could deliver extra damage to the enemy, if they could meet them in the field rather than waiting for them to disembark…

"I'm coming along, then," Hakoda's voice broke through Sokka's thoughts: he glanced at his father with astonishment, and the Chief clapped his shoulder firmly. "We'll both see this through, Sokka."

His confidence brought a small smile to Sokka's face. He'd force his father out of danger immediately if their newest operation seemed destined to fail… but for as long as they could work with the cover of darkness, by confusing and misleading the enemy in the foreign waters they had attempted to break into, they would have a fighting chance. No… a winning chance, outright.

"I'm not sitting out on this one, either," Haka said, stepping forward as well. Kattan, unsurprisingly, followed his best friend.

"Nor will I."

"Nor I."

Yuro's decision carried determination and strength most unlike the boy he had once been. Sokka smiled at his three most devoted warriors, nodding in approval to their volunteering, and he accepted the next soldiers who offered to join him in this dangerous task until their numbers were adequate for the task at hand.

"The rest of you… stay here, keep your senses on the battlefield and be ready to fight back if any soldiers manage to disembark somehow," Sokka said, glancing across the group. "We'll be as quick as we can."

"Be careful," Zuko said, and other warriors echoed the sentiment.

"But tear their hulls and skulls a new one, while you're at it," Nanuk finished, with a proud grin that earned him several laughs.

"See you guys in a bit," Sokka said, smiling as he turned back towards the battlefield.

This time, he led his troops to the right: the walls Aang and Katara had erected were linked to the cliffs, just as Haka had pointed out. They weren't comfortably thick, but they would offer helpful footholds from where the warriors would be able to leap down onto the enemy ships.

By now, Katara, Aang and Appa had dismantled several catapults aboard three or four ships: the soldiers were much bolder now, however, and Aang had no choice but to steer his sky bison out of the line of fire – quite literally, since firebenders attacked the furry creature with as much strength as they could muster, under the circumstances. The dark period might have weakened them, but Aang found their flames still burned quite brightly when he yanked Appa upwards while using his bending to snuff out some of his animal companion's charred fur.

"What do we do now?!" Katara asked, urgently. Aang flinched.

"I'm not sure! They know we're here now, so I guess we've messed up…!" Aang said.

"We had to help Sokka, though!" Katara grimaced. "They could've gotten him if we hadn't acted…!"

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of another mine's blast: another ship had taken a killer blow, but when Katara glanced down at the ground, her eyes were drawn, instead, to the movement of people on the cliff opposite to the one where she'd last seen her brother.

"What…?" she said, frowning with uncertainty.

Her first, immediate impulse was to tell Aang to steer Appa in that direction. She restrained herself mere instants before she could voice those thoughts: Appa had drawn the attention of the enemy right now. If they dove that way, whatever operation the warriors were up to, Katara would reveal it and sabotage them if she urged Aang to head that way.

"What's going on?" Aang asked her now, urging Appa to fly higher – one of the catapults from the ships further back had loaded a new flaming boulder and they seemed to aim for the sky bison.

"I have no idea," Katara confessed, pointing at the group of men she'd seen moments ago. "But we'd better keep their ships busy while the warriors do, well, whatever it is they'll do."

Aang released an anxious breath but nodded: his hands clasped Appa's reins and he shook them daringly, riding forth so the creature would hover right above the catapult taking aim in their direction: the projectile was misdirected towards the ice, and Katara gasped as she reached for Aang's shoulder.

"If we mess their aiming…!" she exclaimed. Aang glanced back at her, eager for any suggestions. "We can make them shoot each other by mistake! They're not used to fighting against a sky bison, against anything airborne…!"

"That… won't be that easy, but I'll try," Aang nodded, focusing on the fight anew and shaking Appa's reins.

There were far too many ships to keep in mind, even if it was easy to spot which one was charging a new attack by finding flaming rocks loaded onto the catapults. The sound of each cranking lever, of the whirring metal, helped, too. Aang focused as he guided Appa towards the back of the fleet, clasping his staff tightly as they angled themselves down, as though to wreck another catapult…

He yanked Appa's reins brusquely to the left, forcing him out of another rock's path instants before it hit them: Katara yelped on the saddle, Appa groaned fearfully… but the catapult they had aimed for was shattered by a friendly fire, and the deck of the ship now sported a massive crack.

"Aang!" Katara exclaimed, as the Avatar steered Appa back to the sky.

"I'll try to make it less risky the next time!" he called back, grimacing.

"Please, do!" Katara said, wincing as she glanced over her shoulder just in time to hear another cranking sound: a new rock had been launched at them. "BEHIND US!"

Aang jerked Appa to the side again, nearly ramming the sky bison into the cliffs but succeeding at avoiding the last flaming rock: there were far too many projectiles to brace themselves for, especially at the back of the fleet, where the ships were mostly in good shape. But this was where they needed to be to fulfill the duties Sokka had asked of them…

"Aang! We can push the ships into the bay!" Katara called out. Aang, stressed out as he was, turned to her with his hair standing on end, eyes wide and frightened.

"They might still attack us! Turn their ships around to hit us, and that's exactly what we're not supposed to allow…!"

"Then we fly in front of them and goad them further in… we can't build that wall otherwise!"

"As it is, I don't know if we'll have a chance to do it at all!" Aang exclaimed: another whistling sound, and Appa sped hastily right past a catapult projectile that sank into the sea.

They'd left the frontlines free now, however: the catapults might just continue attacking the walls and setting off the bombs instead of chasing the enemy…

Or so it seemed, right until a group of soldiers leapt from a half-torn wall, onto one of the healthier ship's decks.

There was no time to waste: the Fire Nation soldiers were startled by the invasion, but quick to jump into defense right away. A few plums of fire bloomed towards them… and they were swept out of the way by the powerful swings of a white-and-blue club.

He no longer held back: the skills he had unwantedly developed in the Amateur League would serve just fine now when his life was, once again, on the line. Sokka slammed the thickest, heaviest end of the club into a firebender's armor: he felt the bones crack underneath the weight of his weapon, but he had no time to ascertain whether the enemy was alive or dead. Instead, he moved on to the next one, who attacked with just as much panic in his eyes. Sokka slammed the club into his arm, shattering the bones once more before slamming a powerful punch into the man's face.

Behind him, his father and the other warriors fought off their own sets of soldiers: many were distracted by Sokka, no doubt aware of who he was and of the need to take him down at once. Their brief moments of distraction enabled the stealthy squad of Water Tribe warriors to reduce them quickly. Sokka didn't wait to ensure everything was going well, though: he made for the catapult, armed and ready as it was, but unmanned, now that the soldiers behind it had been defeated or killed.

For a moment, Sokka pondered tearing down the catapult and nothing else… until he reasoned with the possibility and opportunity of hijacking this ship. It wouldn't be in their control for very long, there were surely more soldiers coming their way by now… but why not seize this chance, at least while they could?

Hakoda had taken down the third soldier who attempted to attack him when he spotted Sokka reorienting the catapult… he was spinning it towards a nearby, still steady ship that had only just launched another flaming rock at their defensive walls.

"Sokka!" Hakoda gasped: his son spun the massive, mechanized weapon upon itself, far more familiar with its structure than Hakoda was.

Still, the Chief rushed to help him at once. There weren't many active soldiers left on the ship's deck right now, and it seemed Haka, Kattan and Yuro were prepared to take down the ones rushing towards them from the ship's tower.

"At that ship!" Sokka told Hakoda, gesturing at the target he had in mind. His father nodded immediately.

It took them less than a minute to rotate the catapult properly: after assessing quickly that the system's chains were rightly tense and prepared, Sokka raised his club once more and slammed it on the catapult's trigger.

The device folded onto itself, the cranking sound revealing their catapult had released its cargo… and Sokka watched with eager eyes as the flaming projectile slammed directly into the side of the ship's hull.

The projectile left a massive hole in its wake: the functioning catapults aboard the vessel rolled down the deck as water flooded the ship's compartments quickly. Sokka allowed himself a wild grin before turning his attention to the remaining foes.

"What do we do now?!" Yuro asked, glancing back at Sokka after the latest wave of soldiers that had rushed them lay defeated, made short work of by the warriors while Sokka and Hakoda prepared the catapult.

His voice drew him back to reality quickly enough: they had to use the ship to sow chaos and wreak havoc across the fleet… much as a White Lotus invasion had once masqueraded as Fire Nation soldiers, right underneath the Fire Lord's nose.

"We'll capture this ship," Sokka declared. "And we'll use it against them."

Hakoda could only smile at his son's choice, far more effective than returning to the cliffs to climb aboard another ship: it wouldn't be easy to unravel how to sail and steer the vessel properly, but if Sokka's ideas paid off, they might even be able to capture more ships later and wear down the Fire Nation fleet, little by little…

"Into the bridge!" Hakoda called, leading the warriors towards the ship's tower. "Let's go!"

"Haka, Kattan!" Sokka called them, urging them to approach. "Reload this while we take care of cleaning out the ship, alright?"

"Uh… how?" Kattan asked, puzzled. Sokka grimaced but backtracked instead of following Hakoda. He had seen blueprints of these catapults in the Mechanist's study: they weren't as difficult to grasp as most of the man's inventions could be.

Hakoda and the rest of the warriors poured into the tower at haste, some rushing upstairs, others down to the boiler rooms. Hakoda himself, however, focused on the bridge as he had intended: the ship captain, flanked by anxious soldiers, attempted to defend himself, but the quick responses and swift attacks by the warriors saw to it that none of the firebenders, weakened as they were in the dark period, could fight back against their weapons. Without needing Sokka's help, the ship's control room was seized by the Water Tribe's warriors, and Hakoda dabbled with the controls right away, eager to unravel how to steer the large, mechanized ship, unlike anything he'd ever sailed before.

Sokka finished explaining the catapult's system to Kattan and Haka as quickly as he could. The two young men picked up the oiled rocks, munition the soldiers had left in place, setting them into the catapult's bucket. The Gladiator rushed towards the tower immediately afterwards, hearing the sounds of fights and scuffles upstairs. Despite intending to march into the bridge at first, to ensure his father and the others were hijacking the ship properly, he clenched his weapons tightly and rushed upstairs to help his fellow warriors.

Five of Hakoda's men, and three younger warriors, fought fiercely against a group of furious firebenders. The barrage of flames they cast against them pushed the warriors down the stairs again… only for Sokka to willfully slide through them, receiving the flames on the steel that protected his chest before slashing at the enemy with Space Sword.

A scream was joined by an outpour of blood, but the Gladiator didn't hold back at the sight of it: the remaining firebenders were cornered in the tower's corridor, and one even fled into the nearest room, seeking any means to escape the dangerous Water Tribe warrior.

The ones who stood before him still attempted to strike at him: Sokka swung his sword in an arch, quick and violently, cutting across their chests before stabbing each of them through the gut. The last soldier cowered within the room he tried to lock himself into: a quick swing by Space Sword, once the rest of the firebenders were dead, cleared the way for Sokka to deal with that final soldier. The man trembled visibly under his armor, under his helmet, as Sokka powered his way towards him, sword in tow…

"D-don't… p-please don't kill me, please don't kill me…!"

The pleas might have fallen on deaf ears had they been spoken to anyone but Sokka. The Gladiator frowned as he continued to step towards the soldier, who raised his hands in what might have been a defensive maneuver… but in the end, as he fell on his knees, it seemed it would be a plea for mercy instead.

Sokka stopped mere inches from the man. His unyielding glare froze the man's soul, lit by the sparse red lights within the Fire Nation ship…

"Surrender," Sokka said, sharp and harshly.

The man shivered but nodded, dropping on the floor before Sokka, face-first on the ground.

"I… I surrender. I surrender…!"

Killing the man, killing any men, sat ill with Sokka. He had powered through it so far only because he knew there was no other choice, and even then, many of the soldiers he'd defeated had fallen unconscious, not dead. Surrender… it would be optimal, far better than death, he knew so.

He also knew that soldiers from the Fire Nation's occupation forces couldn't be trusted, though.

He took a step back, tentatively, allowing an opening for the man to take…

Space Sword slid cleanly through the soldier's ribs when the allegedly surrendering foe leapt to attack Sokka with a weak burst of flames.

Sokka sighed, staring at the helmeted soldier with undoubtable remorse. The man choked on his own blood, it seemed, as the fire fizzled out of his fingertips.

"Your Fire Lord was never worth your life… any of your lives," Sokka said, through gritted teeth. "But I guess I'll avenge you as well someday: you and all the Fire Nation, along with the rest of the world."

His words, he knew, would confuse the man dying in front of him. Sokka drew back the sword then, and the soldier fell to his knees, choking as blood escaped his wound in a torrent. Sokka stepped back, though, turning towards the warriors anew as he exited the room.

"Anyone hurt?"

"Just… just a few burns, but nothing serious," one of Hakoda's warriors responded, patting the shoulder of a younger warrior, who clasped his wrist for support.

"Those injured, go to the bridge. My father should be safely there by now. The others, head to the deck," Sokka said, frowning. "We'll need to be ready to defend ourselves when the other ships realize we've taken this one."

The warriors nodded and followed his orders. They rushed downstairs, and Sokka checked in on the bridge quickly to make certain his father had matters under control.

"Is everything in order here?" Sokka asked: Hakoda smiled wildly as he shifted a lever forward.

"Yeah, just figuring out this ship!" he said.

"I'll check the lower decks now," Sokka said, frowning. "We won't be able to move this thing at all if the engine room's not properly manned."

"Then go ahead! I'll try and turn us around, might give our catapult a better chance to aim and fight this way," Hakoda said. Sokka bit his lip.

"Just a warning… don't get too attached to this ship," Sokka said, clapping his father's shoulder. "When they notice what we've done, we'll draw their attention and we'll have to be ready to run away. Not entirely sure how we'll pull that off, but…"

"Back in my day, Fire Nation ships always had emergency skiffs at the ready," Hakoda said. Sokka raised his eyebrows approvingly at the suggestion. "Could be a way to…"

"Heh. Come to think of it, we could drift out, approach another ship, pretend we're soldiers escaping any of the other sinking ships…" Sokka said, smiling wildly. "We may need to steal some armor to make the deceit work, but…"

"But we could wreck their defenses little by little this way, huh?" Hakoda smirked.

"We could get started with doing this already," Sokka smiled. "Damn, now I wish we had more warriors with us… but we can make this work, Dad. If it's worked so far, then…"

"We can ensure it continues to work, my boy," Hakoda smirked. "Who knew a Fire Nation fleet could fall apart this easily?"

"I wouldn't say it's all that easy, myself…" Sokka said, stepping towards the door again. "But we do have resources we didn't in the past. We can make a difference today."

Hakoda nodded proudly as his son rushed outside. Sokka's feet led him through the familiar structure of a Fire Nation ship, finding this one so much smaller, far less refined, than the Royal Barge he had ridden and learned his way through. Still, the broad strokes were the same: his feet guided him through the corridors, and he shoved every door open until he ensured none of the soldiers had hidden away in their quarters while the battle raged outside. There were several corpses through the corridors… none of them Water Tribe, at least, not so far. Their attack had taken the enemy by surprise to such an extent they had failed to articulate any form of defense against them, it seemed to Sokka.

The engine room, however, wasn't empty: the engineers and sailors had been gathered here, held shivering and helpless by Yuro and ten more warriors. Some had been slain, and it seemed the others were far too scared to rebel anymore because of that.

"Sokka!" Yuro glanced at him, his voice terse and intense. Sokka breathed out as he strode forward, and the men before them only seemed to shiver more in his presence.

"They surrendered? For good?" Sokka asked, curtly.

"They say so, but…" Yuro grunted. Sokka scowled as he raised his sword menacingly towards the Fire Nation crew. There was one soldier among them, too.

"I already cut down one of you after he feigned to surrender," he said, sharply. "I won't hesitate to do it again if any of you dare double-cross us."

"W-we're not…! Please, we're not fighters…!" begged one of the sailors.

"I know. But that doesn't mean you're truly surrendering," Sokka said, sharply. "Up. And back to work with you."

"Wait, what?" Yuro flinched, looking at Sokka in confusion. Sokka raised his eyebrows again.

"We need this ship to move. If they're going to live, they'll make themselves useful," Sokka demanded, unyielding blue eyes glaring at the group of prisoners.

His harshness paid off, however: a few of the sailors rose to their feet, hands raised as they stepped towards the boiler area, returning to their duties silently. Sokka scowled as he watched them, glancing at Yuro afterwards.

"Don't lower your guard… but be ready to run when the time comes," he advised him.

"What are you guys going to do?" Yuro asked, puzzled. Sokka raised his eyebrows as he turned around.

"For the time being… win this battle, if we can get away with it."

He spoke with far stronger conviction than Yuro anticipated. Sokka glanced at the other warriors, nodding in their direction to confirm they'd stay here, before dashing back through the ship, and to the bridge once more.

So far, they had gotten off easy. The Fire Nation had fallen to their defenses, and Sokka could already hear the metallic sound of another launched catapult payload from their hijacked ship, aimed towards another enemy, he expected. Step by step, they would overcome the Fire Nation fleet, even if it might take hours, who knew if even days, to defeat them thoroughly.

The chaos in the battlefield only continued to worsen: some ships had managed to break new walls only to blow up shortly afterwards, wrongfully assuming that enough of the tangle mines had been triggered and disabled – Hakoda had wanted more bombs closer to shore, extra defenses in case ships broke past the initial chaos, and his strategy paid off. The ships that had been hit earlier were almost fully sunken, resulting in small skiffs sailing towards the shores or other nearby ships as fast as possible.

But the back of the fleet continued to attack the sky bison, even if by now Aang and Katara had successfully altered the currents and forced the ships to move in unintended directions. This had saved them from receiving direct hits from loaded catapults more than once, and their chaotic tactics had caused two ships to sink when the careless, poorly thought-out attacks, aimed at the quickly flying bison, wound up striking their fellow ships instead. A third attack had successfully done away with a catapult, even if the damage wasn't enough to sink the ship…

All in all, the bay was a disaster. Smoke rose to the sky, and the whirring sound of metal crashing into ice, or into more metal when Katara and Aang shoved ships together, along with the noise of every launched projectile from the catapults, seemed to do a number on Appa's sensitive ears. Ships burned as they sank, screams of soldiers roaring orders back and forth, as well as those simply frightened in the face of likely death… Aang gritted his teeth as he continued to focus on surviving, on working to ensure the safety of their Tribe, but his heart ached painfully with the knowledge of every soldier who had likely died over his actions today. He had never wanted this… but did any of them truly have a choice anymore?

"There… there it is again!" Katara gasped, clutching the saddle tightly as Appa flew out of the path of another catapult's projectile. "Aang, look, they're…!"

Aang had only a brief chance to look in the direction Katara pointed at before a new projectile cracked into the hull of another ship: a projectile that wasn't on fire.

"It's them! They've taken a ship!" Katara exclaimed, looking at Aang with an exhilarant glee.

Aang gritted his teeth and nodded before yanking Appa's reins again: he steered his companion out of the path of more projectiles, aiming to wind up at the back of the fleet once more…

At last, the hijacked ship, controlled by the Water Tribe's warriors, succeeded at turning around entirely. The men on deck, manning the catapult, readied themselves to attack again as Sokka stepped out into the open, glaring at the horizon, at the many ships that still stood ahead of them. How many had gone down by now? Several were still sinking: how many had gone underwater yet? It looked as though half the fleet had been reduced through the efforts of the tangle mines, Aang and Katara's joint work, and the recent capture of this particular Fire Nation vessel. Two new skiffs had drifted into the water through the hijacked ship's stern's exit: ten of the men who had helped Hakoda clear out the bridge earlier would now sail to nearby ships, in the hopes of hijacking them as well, just as Sokka and Hakoda had strategized they could.

Little by little, their plans came together. Everything was falling into place, and Sokka could only glare at the horizon intently, knowing himself, and his ship, would serve as bait once more, as Katara and Aang worked together to fulfill the mission he had appointed for them.

"What now?!" Haka asked, tense and wary: they hadn't been attacked so far, but they were in optimal range for the Fire Nation fleet to strike at them with their own catapults… though, now that Sokka squinted, he found the ships ahead didn't feature lit projectiles. Whether by the actions of their own catapult, or Aang and Katara's, most the ships ahead seemed to have lost their siege weapons.

"Now… now we get closer. And then we strike," Sokka determined, scowling heavily as he raised a hand and gestured towards the fleet ahead: his father would be sure to see him from the bridge in the tower.

Haka and Kattan clenched their teeth but worked to reload the mechanical catapult as quickly as they could. They didn't have lots of projectiles left… but going by the damage they had already delivered against that large fleet, perhaps they wouldn't need them quite so urgently anymore.

"Load that projectile… and let's set it on fire, this time," Sokka said, walking towards the nearest lantern on the ship's walls. "We want them to see us… once they do, Aang and Katara will finally be free to cut off their escape. I doubt they'll be easy pickings even after that… but if they pull it off, we may just turn the battle to our favor for good."

Haka and Kattan nodded, notching the latest projectile properly as the ship continued to power forward. Sokka stepped up to the catapult, raising the lamp towards it, exhibiting the flame so the rock, covered in oil, would catch fire quickly.

Sokka set the lantern aside, the acrid scent of the burning oil quickly pouring into his nostrils. Just a little further in, just so they could aim the attack at the second line of approaching ships…

By the shores of the settlement, Zuko scowled upon spotting sudden movement to the left, where the cliff remained unstable and shattered after Sokka's earlier stunt. He and the rest of the warriors had witnessed as Aang and Katara flew Appa in every conceivable direction to avoid being hit. Kino had kept them posted regarding the ship's hijacking, even if he seemed quite confused about it, too… but by now, the soldier were astonished, perhaps even thrilled, by what he was witnessing.

"They're mounting an attack!" he shouted. "They're about to…!"

"Kino! What do you see by the left cliffs?!"

So caught in his amazement over the battle, Kino's attention had been hogged up by the wildest action, but now, by the slightly crumbled walls of the left side, he spotted movement… a lot of movement.

Emergency skiffs, docked awkwardly against the ice, had seen to the landing of a group of Fire Nation officials who had escaped the sinking ships.

"They're landing!" Kino shouted, and Zuko's innards churned and turned over his words. "Two skiffs so far! They've made land, but the ice is unstable, Zuko, they might not make it very far…!"

"All the better," Zuko decided, glancing at the nearest senior warrior, Nanuk, who nodded in his direction.

"Kallik, stay here for now with half the warriors!" he called to the nearest senior warrior, who nodded proudly in his direction. Nanuk turned to the rest of the group again, throwing a fist into the air. "The rest of you, we're stopping those soldiers before they come any closer to our village!"

A roar of pride rushed through the group of warriors, who charged into battle without another moment's hesitation. Zuko fell into formation with them, following Nanuk's lead while preparing himself to fight both with the dao swords that hung on his back and the firebending they were sure to be attacked with. Sokka had told him to focus on defense… he would do his very best to do so, creating opportunities for his allies to fight back against the firebenders he could annul and defeat by wrestling their power from them.

As they rushed out to meet the soldiers head-on, the powerful load of the hijacked ship's catapult flew fast and hard, slamming hard into the tower of one of the fleet's ships.

"Reload! Get ready!" Sokka roared: the ship's tower seemed poised to collapse, catching fire far more quickly than he would have expected. "Aim to the ship on the left now!"

The attacks by the ship that should have been an ally didn't sit well with the rest of the fleet: they hadn't known if their catapults had hit other ships by mistake before, but it was clear now that the ship had been taken by the enemy. Still, they couldn't see to the defeat of the hijacked ship when most their catapults had been shattered or rendered useless by attacks, either by the sky bison or by poorly aimed attacks that failed to find the creature in the sky…

Now, though, with a ship sailing so powerfully towards them, there was no doubt to be had as to why its projectiles had struck other ships: with the lighting of another rock, the glow of fire fell upon the features of the man standing on the ship's deck… a man who clenched a dark sword in his hand.

Again, his presence shook the Fire Nation fleet. His sudden appearance wreaked true havoc when they needed to restrain their fears the most. He stood there, relentless, raising his well-known jian sword up towards the sky once more, aware that he'd caught their attention… and seemingly unafraid of the consequences, too.

Sokka's eyes narrowed as he spotted the sky bison, far beyond the last line of the fleet. The creature flew towards the edge of the bay: if he kept the fleet's attention, as he intended to, his sister and Aang would finally succeed at the task he had given them.

Thus, Sokka swung his sword down powerfully as he roared his command:

"FIRE!"