DISCLAIMER: I do not own, nor have any rights to, the content, characters, or story of Avatar: the Last Airbender. The story depicted herein is a re-imagining of the story, and has no ties to the owners, writers and creators of the show.
As the heavy fog slowly rolled back into the bay from whence it came, Zuko was eternally glad that he was smart enough to switch sides. Katara had quickly gone from a feeble girl to a strong and powerful young woman, and Zuko was surprised at how much she scared him.
The last dregs of fog settled back into the ocean, and Katara's lone form could be seen on the shore. With the water up to her knees, her willowy form displayed none of the power she had just shown.
And a good thing that is, too. She would get into a lot more fights if she wasn't.
"Pretty impressive, huh?"
Zuko whipped his head so fast he cricked his neck. Sokka was standing beside him, holding his boomerang loosely in his hand. He gazed down the shore at his sister, mirroring the expression Zuko had been sure was on his face before: shock, awe, and just a little wary.
"Yeah," Zuko croaked, his voice dry. He cleared his throat before continuing, "Impressive."
They both watched Katara as she stood, staring out at the water. With a visibly large breath, she turned, and walked towards them. Although the effort to bend that much water must have exhausted her, she seemed to radiate energy and grace. It wasn't until she stopped in front of them both that he noticed the darker circles under her eyes.
"So," she said, looking from Zuko to Sokka. "You were telling me the plan?"
Sokka blinked, then stammered, "U-uh, yeah. The plan - the plan that I was telling you before. That plan."
"Yeah," Katara said, her tone unchanged. "That plan."
"Right." Sokka blinked a few more times, then dragged himself around and began walking back towards the main fire pit. Katara followed after, and Zuko, intrigued enough to hear Sokka's plan in full, brought up the rear.
The three of them settled around the fire pit, its flames now-extinguished. Zuko made a gentle punch towards the embers, and fire sprang into existence from his fist. The flames grabbed hold of the smoldering wood, and soon a steady fire had emerged. He turned back towards the siblings; Katara was gazing out towards the bay, and Sokka had found his scrolls and had just finished unrolling them.
"So," Sokka started. "Where was I?"
"The Fire Nation knows about the eclipse, everyone thinks Aang is dead, and we have no allies in the Earth Kingdom." Katara's voice was hollow as she listed out each item, her eyes still on the horizon.
"Um…yeah." Sokka said, shifting his eyes around with nerves. "But, we do still have a plan. It will just be a bit more complicated."
"Ok." Katara finally looked at her brother, her full attention on him.
"Ok." Sokka took a deep breath, then pointed at the scroll in front of him as he began outlining their next steps. "First off, we gather our forces here and find a way out of the Earth Kingdom…"
As Sokka went through the Plan as it existed, Zugo couldn't help but watch Katara. Her eyes had drifted back towards the bay, her body betrayed none of the excitement, anticipation or fear that the Water Tribe warriors had displayed earlier. Only when Saka began detailing aspects of the actual invasion plan did Katara begin asking questions: who is going where, contingency plans for attacks, and who was covering what angle. But once Sokka started detailing some of the finer points of the ideas he had sent to someone called The Mechanic, Katara settled back on the sand.
Zuko had seen Katara in action, in actual combat, and in tense situations as he followed their group across the world, but he had never seen her in this contemplative mood before. He focused on the soft waves of her body, rippled with defined muscle, but without the harsher edges of some of the more experienced warriors. Along with her equally wavy hair and blue eyes, in many ways she exemplified her element, reflecting both the calm and placid waters, as well as the raging storms that knocked down buildings and toppled ships. He thought back to the storm that nearly killed his crew, and saw a direct similarity to the fierceness of the warrior in front of him.
It wasn't until a few seconds later that he realized he was ogling her body. He felt his face turn bright red and he quickly looked away. Sokka, oblivious to everything but his plan, continued on in the background as Zuko struggled with his emotions. She's young…well, not that young, I think she's 14…but that doesn't matter! Now isn't the time, or place, or anything to be thinking like that. Agni, I'm glad Sokka can't read minds…
Zuko forced himself to check back into Sokka's monologue. He was talking about something called a Swamp Bender, but he had been out of it so long he was just lost. It wasn't until Toph joined them that Sokka lost his steam. He had been going on for a while now about air movement and mechanical pieces, scarcely noticing that he had lost their attention some time ago. That is, until Toph kicked sand in his face.
"Wha- " Sokka sputtered, rubbing his face. "What was that for?!"
"I can't see with the sand, and even I could tell that you were boring these two to death." Toph plopped down next to Zuko, her sightless eyes alight with laughter. She was another one that Zuko had underestimated; her age and size made you think she was weak or fragile, but she was undoubtedly the strongest of the group.
"They wanted to know!" Sokka cried indignantly, his eyes red from the sand and his vicious scrubbing. "Besides, we need to put the first part of the plan into action soon if we want it to work."
"Is that before or after Aang wakes up?" Zuko asked, his curiosity drawing him into the conversation.
"That depends," Sokka said, turning to his sister. "Katara, do you think Aang is ok enough to move? It would be best if he could help us, but -"
"We can move him," Katara said softly, not turning around. "But he's not anywhere near fighting, or even bending. There's too much damage to know how injured he actually is, since it's all tangled up in his core."
The group was silent, each of them contemplating their words. Zuko was reminded of the palace physician speaking to Uncle, all those years ago. There's too much damage to know how deep it goes, so we won't know for a while if he can still see. He's -
"He's still alive though, and that's what matters." Katara had interrupted Zuko's memory, matching it so closely that it shocked him. He turned to look at her as she rose, brushing the sand from her skirt. She looked at Sokka, and continued, "How soon do we have to go?"
"Well," Sokka began, rubbing the back of his head. "That really depends on the Fire Nation. Now that they're officially in control of the Earth Kingdom, they're going to be moving forces in soon. We need to get out of here before they close off the access routes, but we don't know when that is."
Sokka turned to look at Zuko, followed soon by both Katara and Toph - well, as close as Toph could get. Trying not to get nervous from the sudden attention, Zuko looked down and thought back to the few military briefings that he had attended before his banishment.
"It'll be soon," he concluded, nodding at the ground. "Generals are encouraged to move large amounts of troops at a time, not only to secure an area but also to get the villages in line. A large show of force typically helps with that."
Katara wrinkled her nose in disgust, but Zuko didn't have time to defend himself before Sokka interjected. "Well sis, I guess it's time to round up the troops. I'll inform Dad and the soldiers, while you get our things packed."
"No." Katara said, standing and dusting the sand off her dress. "The first priority is Aang; Zuko can handle our things."
Toph laughed as Katara began walking away, causing Zuko to turn red. He stood to give Katara a piece of his mind, but was interrupted as she looked over her shoulder. Her face was alight with mirth, and Zuko knew that she had meant her statement to be funny. His anger died at the delight in her blue eyes, and he kicked the sand before going to pack the bags.
After scrounging around for all of Sokka's clothing, which had somehow ended up strewn across the camp, he lugged all the items back to Appa. The bison was lounging on the sand, his mouth busy on a fresh pile of grass. The warriors were buzzing around him, sharpening spears and repairing damaged armor, all of them preparing to fight. Zuko knew from Sokka's plan that it would be more of a sneak attack than a full on assault, but he too was nervous at the thought of hijacking a Fire Nation ship. The last time he had been on one it was also under disguise, and he couldn't help but think about how poorly that had gone.
"Done packing already?"
Zuko turned to see a cheerful Toph stumbling her way towards him. She then dumped another bag at his feet, saying, "Great, then you can start on my things."
While Katara can poke fun all she wanted, Toph was a different matter; Zuko felt his face get hot as he retorted, "I'm not your maid!"
"Oh, I'm so sorry Your Royal Sparky-ness," Toph said in a mocking voice, doing a surprisingly graceful bow. Zuko blushed further as Toph laughed so hard her whole body shook.
"Don't call me that!" Zuko yelled, leaving her things on the ground and stalking off. Toph's laughter trailed after him, making him ball his hands at his side to prevent them from smoking.
"Better you than me, buddy," Zuko heard, and turned to see Sokka approaching him carrying a bag. Zuko scoffed as Sokka continued, "For someone so small, she's the most annoying person I've met."
"I heard that!"
Sokka had the good grace to look abashed at Toph's words, then quickly got down to business. "So, let's talk strategy. You know more about the set up of a Fire Navy ship than anyone here, so we're going to need your help getting where we need to go. If we can't get it done quickly and quietly, we may as well just turn ourselves over."
"Uh, ok," Zuko said, thrown. He knew that he was helping, he just hadn't realized how dependent they were on him.
Unaware of Zuko's internal struggle, Sokka dropped his bag and continued.
"First," he said, ticking off on his fingers. "We need to know what needs to be taken first. Helm is obvious, but what else should we know?"
"Uh," Zuko stammered, thinking quickly. After a moment, he responded, "I think next to that will be engineering and lookout; those are the three areas of the ship that are crucial to contain, and are most likely to cause issues if we don't have them under our control. The hawks are kept on the bridge as well, so we won't need to worry about them trying to report anything if we get it fast."
"Great!" Sokka said. "So we'll need at least three teams, one for each area. It's too bad we don't have another Toph or two, then we'd take the ship in no time."
Sokka had turned by then, so he couldn't see the confusion on Zuko's face. "Why?" he asked. "She can't do anything on a ship, it's all metal."
"Oh! I forget, you're new here," Sokka said, a proud smile on his face. "Our girl Toph can bend metal."
What?!
"What?!" Zuko exclaimed, stepping back in shock. "Since when? How? What?!"
Sokka laughed at Zuko's shock, echoed soon after by Toph, who was apparently still listening in. "Yeah, she discovered it after she was kidnapped by an underground bending tournament guy and her old bending teacher. It's helped us out a few times, for sure."
Zuko just stared at Sokka, at a complete loss for words. An under-what? The other boy laughed again, then took on his serious façade again as he continued.
"Next, we'll need to talk about armament. How many soldiers are on each ship? I know that a larger one will have more, but with how many people we have we can really only manage a small one."
Zuko blinked, tring to overcome his shellshock. After a moment, he stammered, "A standard Fire Navy cruiser has a full complement of 80 soldiers. The larger battleships can be anywhere from 150 to 250, depending on what their mission is."
Sokka whistled, his eyes wide with shock. "Ok, then," he stammered. "We'll be taking a small ship." He hoisted his bag on top of the bison, then walked back towards the grouping of tents, muttering to himself.
Zuko wondered if Sokka was always like this. In the times that they had met before, he didn't really pay attention to the boy; he had no bending, so he wasn't really a threat, and besides being loud and throwing things he didn't have any remarkable abilities. From what he'd seen so far, Sokka was both the smartest and the dumbest of their group.
He started, replaying that last phrase in his head. Am I… a part of the group now? He hadn't been a member of anything besides the royal family, so he wasn't sure what that meant. He also didn't want to overstep. They may have accepted my help, but that doesn't mean that they've accepted me.