For Sokka, there were few moments that could hold a candle to the joy he felt right now. A delicious meal he hadn't had in years, his sister and uncle in all but name sitting with him, surrounded by the warm furs… It was just like home. Being here with Katara and Bato, it was almost like the good old days. Before his father had sailed away.
The Water Tribe siblings laughed as Bato finished another one of his stories. It was a good minute before Sokka realised that Bato had stopped laughing and now looked very serious. Sokka's laughter died and he looked to the older man expectantly.
"There's something I should tell you kids. I'm expecting a message from your father," Bato told them, breaking the silence.
Katara's eyes widened. "Really?!"
"When?!" Sokka demanded, wincing at how high his voice sounded.
"Any day now. Your father said he'd send a message when they found the rendezvous point. If you wait until the message arrives, you can come with me, and see your father again."
Sokka grinned. He could see his father again! It had been so long since he'd last seen him and Sokka had missed him every day since he left. From Katara's smiling face, he knew she felt the same.
"It's been so long since we've seen dad. That would be incredible! Right, Katara?"
Katara nodded. "I do really miss him. It would be great to see Dad."
As Sokka thought about meeting his father again, his smile faded. He couldn't do it. There was too much at stake here. Aang needed to get to the North Pole. He wanted to see Hakoda more than anything in the world, but that would be no excuse to abandon his duty. He'd already been forced to push the group hard to make up for time lost in Gaipan. When they'd set off again, Sokka had vowed to not stop for anything other than essentials. And as much as the thought pained him, reuniting with his father was not essential.
With a resolute sigh, Sokka turned back to Bato. "It would be great, but we can't. We have to take Aang to the North Pole first."
In these critical few months where time was off the essence, a trip to the Eastern Earth Kingdom could cost them the war. It had been years since he'd last seen his father. Sokka could wait just a few more months. He met Katara's eyes and they shared a wordless conversation. She nodded in agreement.
"Even if we do have time to wait for the message, who knows how far we'd have to travel? We don't have time for a long detour," Katara said after a long pause. She was disappointed, but it wouldn't change her mind.
Bato stepped around the fire and sat down between them, his hands resting on their shoulders. "I'm sure your father would understand and be proud that his children are helping the Avatar."
Katara looked around the room, suddenly noticing the absence of a certain bald monk. "Speaking of the Avatar, where is Aang?"
"He must have slipped out while we were talking," Sokka suggested.
"I'll go find him," Katara sighed. "I'll trust Bato to keep Sokka from eating all the sea prunes before I get back."
As she pushed open the door, a gust of cold wind blew through the room, making the fire flicker wildly. Sokka pulled the furs tighter around him. Now alone, Bato turned to face Sokka with a grim expression on his face.
"There's something I've been meaning to talk to you about. You weren't old enough to know when it happened, but I think you deserve to know now."
Sokka listened closely. "Whatever it is, I'm ready."
"You say that now…" Bato trailed off, staring into the fire which now seemed dimmer then it had been moments before. "This stays between us, OK? Katara wouldn't take it well."
"I understand. It's not the first time I've kept something from her," Sokka replied. He still hadn't told Katara or Aang they'd inadvertently killed innocent civilians back in Gaipan. And if Sokka had it his way, he'd take that secret to the grave.
Bato nodded and began his story.
"Early into the war, the Fire Nation invaded the Water Tribes. At the time, the North and South Pole were united under one High Chief. Your grandfather, Chief Amaguk, was in the North Pole when the Fire Nation blockaded their capital. At the time Fire Nation victory seemed like a certainty, but one day we learnt that half their navy had withdrawn. We're not sure why. Hakoda thinks the Fire Nation shifted focus to securing the Western Lake, but your grandfather knew an opportunity when he saw one. He rallied the Water Tribe fleets and led a counterattack which saved the city. He sought to use the fleets to counter the invasion of the South Pole then break the Fire Nation's naval power entirely, turning the tide of the war."
Bato stoked the fire, but his eyes were fixed on some invisible thing on the horizon. Sokka shivered in the furs. He stared into the swirling flames, like he'd done for so many nights back home. Hefelt the pain in Bato's words. The undercurrent of anger. These flames could bring him no warmth now.
"The chiefs of the North had other ideas. They signed their own peace treaty with the Fire Nation, a peace treaty that gave our enemies free reign to raze our tribe. The Northern fleets went back home, Amaguk was stripped of his position on the Water Council and sent back home to fight the Fire Nation all alone."
The first half of this story, Sokka had heard before. Hakoda was always happy to share stories about his own father, and this was Sokka's favourite. The other part, about the Northern Water Tribe's peace treaty with the Fire Nation? That was something Sokka only ever overheard in hushed conversations in the dead of night, not meant for the ears of children. Hakoda was not a violent man, but it was hard to recall times when he'd ever been as angry as he was on those nights.
"I'm sure you knew that already," Bato stated. Sokka nodded slowly, allowing Bato to continue. "But what you might not have heard is what your father did when he became chief. He travelled north to persuade the Northern Tribe's council to honour the pacts they made with us and rejoin the war. They turned him away."
Another gust of wind blew open the shutters, sending shivers down their spines. The fire flickered feebly until they were little more than embers. Sokka got up to close the shutters.
"I think I get what you're telling me," Sokka began, sitting back down next to Bato. "You think they might not even agree to train Aang and Katara at all?"
"Oh it will be a miracle if they train Katara in anything she'd want to learn, but that's another discussion entirely. No Sokka, what I have to tell you is far more serious. Your father made two more trips to the North Pole, one of them just after you were born. They denied him again."
"And the other?"
"One month before your mother died. When Katara started bending, your father travelled north to ask the chiefs to send a master south. They refused. Hakoda tried to persuade them, even offering to send Katara north to train. But they were adamant. They would not help the Southern Water Tribe in any way."
"But surely they'd train the Avatar?" Sokka asked.
Bato cupped his hands over the fire, staring into its flames.
"That isn't the problem you should be concerned about. Think, Sokka. Hakoda told nobody outside our tribe about Katara's bending. Nobody, except the Northern Water Tribe. And only a month later the Fire Nation came searching for a waterbender in the south. How did they know to start searching?"
This time, it wasn't the wind that made Sokka shiver. "But that would mean-"
"Yes. Somebody in the North Pole betrayed our tribe to the Fire Nation."
AN: Well, it's here. Sorry it took so long, University was a lot more time consuming than I anticipated. But I will be uploading the entirety of Conspiracy in the North over the next month once I finish polishing up subsequent chapters.