Hidden Amongst the Dragons

by fina5

Love and loyalty are often at odds in a world at war. Sokka meets his soulmate just as he throws himself into the fray of the Hundred Year War at the side of his sister and Avatar Aang. Devastated to find his other half on the side of the Fire Nation, he stands steadfast in opposition to their tyrannical rule, even when he finds himself behind enemy lines.

2. Book Two: Earth

Hi, everyone! So sorry for the long wait! Pandemics and remote classes do not make for free time!

Nonetheless, here's Book Two! Please read, review, and enjoy!

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Book Two: Earth

The trio's second journey through the Earth Kingdom starts horribly, and continues that way for quite some time. For starters, they have to put up with a crazy general who attempts to bury Katara alive to teach Aang a lesson. Meanwhile, Aang takes a trip in the spirit world, where Avatar Roku tells him that if he gets killed in the Avatar State, the reincarnation cycle ends forever. Then, they end up stuck in a cursed soulmate cave with a group of air-headed nomads who absolutely drive Sokka up the wall. After that, they meet Princess Azula—who is somehow even worse than Zuko—and have to leave Omashu and King Bumi behind in search of a new earthbending master for Aang.

Not to mention, Aang has been putting the twelve-year-old moves on Katara. As moon-eyed as Sokka has been over Yue lately, he's getting kind of sick of seeing the same behavior from Aang. If he makes one more waterbending mistake so that Katara will come over and correct him, or so much as even thinks about asking Sokka for any love advice, Sokka is going to lose it on him, avatar or not.

What's worse, though, is the turmoil in Sokka's own mind. For weeks, he's been trying to come up with ideas for Yue's betrothal necklace, the materials for which he's had stuffed in his pack. Problem is, whenever he brings out the piece of whalebone to carve, his thoughts stray to Zuko as opposed to Yue.

If he tries to call on the memory of him protecting Yue in the oasis by sending her off on Appa, all he can focus on is the way Zuko rolled in front of him in the nick of time to parry a firebending blast. If he tries to think of his kiss with Yue, he's reminded instead of the feeling of Zuko's soft yet firm lips; how warm Zuko is; how golden his eyes are—it's a nightmare!

The final nail in the coffin comes in the form of a tornado that pulls them into a creepy swamp. The three of them go hurtling through the tree line, Appa and Momo getting lost somewhere along the way. Katara and Sokka are the first to go tumbling into the murky water running through the swamp, Aang leisurely floating down after them.

Pushing himself out of the water, Sokka takes a deep breath of not-so-fresh air, the swamp having a distinct, rotten smell to it. He groans as he clambers to his feet, hand to his head.

As Aang flies beyond the canopy of trees above them to search for Appa and Momo, Katara notices an elbow leech on Sokka's elbow. In his panic, Sokka gets a little confused about as to where an elbow leech could be located. In his defense, after the pentapox fiasco in Omashu, he's sick of things attaching themselves to him.

When Aang returns, he informs them that not only had Appa and Momo disappeared, the tornado had, too. At first, a shiver runs up Sokka's spine, but he pushes down the feeling of uneasiness that comes with it. Yes, the swamp is a little spooky, but he's sure there isn't anything amiss here, and there's no reason to get all worked up over nothing. Surely, they'll reunite with their furry friends and be out of here in no time.

No time, though, is unfortunately no time soon. They spend hours trekking around the swamp in the waist-deep waters, hacking through vines galore and searching to no avail.

When it starts to get dark, Aang suggests that perhaps Sokka is being a little to rough with the swamp.

Refraining from rolling his eyes, Sokka quips, "Do you want me to say please and thank you as I swing my machete back and forth?" They're just plants, it's not as though they can feel it.

"Maybe you should listen to Aang," Katara advices from beside him, brow pinched in concern. "Something about this place feels alive."

"I'm sure there are lots of things that are alive here," he snarks. "And if we don't wanna wind up getting eaten by them, we need to find Appa as fast as we can." He resumes swinging his machete at the vines to punctuate his point.

After another few hours, they build a fire and set up camp at the base of a large tree. The three of them all fall asleep huddled together, each of them too on-edge to sleep any further apart. With the raucous of the swamp constantly sounding around them, it feels as though at any moment, they could be attacked by some rabid swamp creature.

Naturally, they are.

They wake suddenly, each of them being pulled in different directions by slimy vines that have somehow managed to wind themselves around them in the night. Sliding along the giant tree root upon which they'd been perched, Sokka manages to bury his machete into bark of the tree and cut himself loose, but he's too slow to save Katara or Aang.

Alone, he stares out into the fog permeating from between the trees, waiting for the swamp creature's next move. When the vines reemerge, flying out and grasping for him once more, he tries to run away, but he trips over his own feet in his haste and goes tumbling down the tree root. He falls into the water, and the vines follow after him, so he picks himself up and takes off in the other direction.

By the time he finally manages to get away from whatever's chasing him, the fog has dissipated and light has started peeking through the canopy far above him. He spends the morning looking for Aang and Katara, cutting through as many vines as humanly possible as he does.

At one point, he stumbles into a dark clearing with only one shaft of light pouring through the trees. Initially, nothing looks amiss, but as he looks closer at the illuminated section of the clearing, he spots a woman standing at the base of a large tree.

Cautious, he steps forward, calling, "Hello?"

The woman doesn't respond. As he grows closer to her, splashing through knee-length water, she comes into better focus. From what he can tell, she's wearing Fire Nation clothes—fancy ones, at that. Deep red robes span down her frame, and most of her hair is pulled up into a small bun, topped with a golden hairpiece in the shape of a flame. Once he's only a few yards away from her, he calls out again.

This time, she turns to acknowledge him. He's greeted with a kind but guarded face as the woman looks down at him with sorrow marring her expression.

A somberness begins to ache in his chest as they stare each other down. Sokka feels as though he's swallowed his entire voice box, too unsettled to say anything. Unnerved, he chances a glance behind him to see if there are any other ominous Fire Nation people hanging around, but he doesn't see anyone.

When he turns back to the woman, she's gone. The surrounding area is strangely vacant, as well, and there are no signs of anyone having made a hasty escape. Disquieted, Sokka decides it's time that he make his exit, too.

When he turns around, another woman stands before him. Her expression, though just as kind as the other woman's, is open and happy. She smiles at him with no degree of reservation, the age lines around her eyes and mouth drawing up. Despite her non-threatening demeanor, however, Sokka startles back from her, closing his eyes as he falls onto his butt in the water. When he opens his eyes again, she's gone, as well.

Thoroughly disturbed, Sokka hauls himself up and makes his way from the clearing, neither stopping nor looking back until he's a good several minutes past it in the opposite direction whence he came. For the next hour or so, he keeps moving in that direction, unwilling to make another stop.

By no small miracle, he manages to run into Katara and Aang again, or more accurately, they run into him. The two of them appear out of nowhere, joined together and tumbling through the trees. As they crash into him, all three of them go rolling down yet another huge tree root, accumulating guck and grime as they go. After they get out of here, Sokka thinks, they are going to need some serious bath time.

Sokka jumps to his feet as soon as they come to a stop. "What do you guys think you're doing? I've been looking all over for you!"

"Well, I've been wandering around looking for you," Katara fires back, glaring at him from where she remains lying on her butt.

"I was chasing some girl," Aang chimes in, and both Katara and Sokka look to him in bewilderment.

As Aang floats to his feet, Katara asks him, "What girl?"

"I don't know," he replies, stepping over to help her up. "I heard laughing, and I saw some girl in a fancy dress."

Hand on one hip, Sokka quips, "Well, there must be a tea party here, and we just didn't get our invitations."

Katara ignores his comment—as she's wont to do—and ducks her head. Quietly, she divulges, "I thought I saw Mom."

This gives Sokka pause, and he decides against making another insensitive remark. "Look," he starts, attempting a placating tone of voice. "We were all just scared and hungry, and our minds were playing tricks on us. That's why we all saw things out here."

Catching onto his last statement, Katara asks, "You saw something, too?"

Reluctantly, he shares his vision of the Fire Nation women, making certain to voice his doubts about any meaning that seeing them might have held.

Katara doesn't seem to like his conclusion so much, but it's Aang who speaks up. "All of our visions led us right here, though. That can't be a coincidence."

"Sure, it can," Sokka objects. Katara talks over him, however, and he goes largely ignored.

"Okay, where's here," she asks, responding to Aang. "The middle of the swamp?"

Turning around and looking up, Aang answers, "Yeah, the center."

Following his gaze, Sokka is surprised to find them at the base of an enormous tree. It looks ancient, and he imagines that it has to be at least three-hundred feet tall—perhaps more. Long clumps of vines hang from its branches, and its roots seep out in every direction.

"It's the heart of the swamp," Aang says, clarifying the next of Sokka's inner thoughts. "It's been calling us here. I knew it."

"It's just a tree," Sokka argues. Sure, it's gigantically majestic, but "it can't call anyone." Throwing his hands up, he continues, "For the last time, there's nothing after us, and there's nothing magical happening here." And no, he tells the tiny voice in his head that sounds eerily like Katara, he's not denying the potential spirituality of the swamp simply to justify rejecting the result of his soulmate bond.

Of course, a giant swamp monster takes this moment to interrupt them, bursting from the water beneath the roots of the mega-tree and scaring the wits out of them. The three of them scream and huddle together as the creature's vine-covered body and wood-like face come into view, staring down at them through vacant eyes.

As the creature moves to strike, each of them takes off in different directions. Sokka opts to make a full one-eighty and run for it, but the monster is quick to grab his leg and pull him back. It swings him back and forth through the air amidst his screams while Katara and Aang watch on in horror. He's set free only when Aang sends forth a pointed gust of wind that knocks him out of the creature's grasp, and he plummets back into the water for what must be the millionth time in the last twenty-four hours.

Rising to his feet again, he has to fight off the vines in the water, which seem to answer to the creature's will. He quickly gets caught up in its grasp again, and it takes off with him. Thankfully, Katara chases after them, slicing at the creature with precision and pushing it back with large, forceful waves.

The creature eventually manages to knock her away, though, along with Aang. It then begins to suck Sokka into the front of its torso. For a terrible moment, he thinks he's about to be eaten by the monster, doomed to slowly dissolve in its swampy stomach acid. He's barely managing to hold off its vines with his machete, which buys Katara enough time to save him by making an ice block around him and launching the both of them through the vine creature's body.

When they land on its other side, Aang tries to knock it down with his airbending, but he's soon punted away. The creature tries then to advance on Katara, who bends arcs of water at it so thin that they cut through its vines. When the vines cut close enough to the creature's middle, Sokka notices something amiss.

"There's someone in there," he yells. "He's bending the vines!" From what he can tell, a stout man stands at the center of the vines that he's evidently holding up, desperately trying to keep up with Katara.

With this in mind, Katara takes her offensive attacks a step further, amassing water around her and stepping forward to split the supposed-creature's mask in two. The mask, along with half of the vines, slide from the top of the would-be monster.

For a moment, Sokka thinks the fight is won. However, the vines suddenly pour forwards again, encircling Katara and lifting her far above the ground. Sokka is close to a panic, scouring his brain for a way to get her down, but he's saved the trouble of doing so when Aang comes flying in from above and blows all the vines away. Soon thereafter, all that stands before them is the man Sokka had noticed earlier.

"Why did you call me here if you just wanted to kill us," Aang shouts, face drawn into an angry scowl.

"Wait," the man says, likely to call off Aang's attack. He stands in nothing but a leafy loincloth—a loinleaf, Sokka dubs it—and a few of the vines that haven't slithered back into the water. "I didn't call you here."

Briefly, Aang explains how they came to land in the swamp. Against his better judgement, Sokka adds the bit about Aang being the avatar, hoping the man will grant them amnesty for whatever transgression he seems to believe they've committed and leave them alone.

"The avatar," the creepy swamp man questions. He gestures behind himself to the giant tree at the center of the swamp. "Come with me."

Sokka makes a noise of objection, opposed to the idea of following after they guy who'd been trying to beat them into the ground just moments beforehand. He relents, however, when Aang and Katara make to follow him with no qualms whatsoever, reluctantly trailing behind them.

As they climb up the great roots leading the way up the tree, the swampbender removes vines from their path. Soon, they reach a plateau beyond which Sokka doubts he could climb. At least, not without a proper piton, though he suspects trying to puncture the tree in anyway might bring back the swamp monster they'd only just appeased.

To Sokka's further chagrin, the man proceeds to discuss the many mystic properties of the swamp once they arrive at their destination. He spouts off about enlightenment, connections, illusions, so on and so forth. Sokka remains skeptical of the man's message throughout his speech, trying not to roll his eyes as Aang asks his characteristic earnest questions. Admittedly, though, he's impressed when Aang tops their conversation off by locating Appa via the weird spirit vines.

At the end of the day, he finds himself mulling over the man's words about their visions. Aang had realized that the girl he'd seen was someone he would come to meet, but could Sokka say the same about the women he'd seen? He certainly didn't recognize them, but he wasn't the avatar either, so no crazy spirit mumbo jumbo was supposed to happen to him. Why, then, had those women from the Fire Nation appeared before him, he wonders as they depart from the swamp the following morning.

They're moving East once more, flying in the same direction that lays Kyoshi Island. As the mind ruffles the end of his wolftail, he absently wonders if Zuko would have recognized the women.

---

"Do you think this bag matches my eyes," he asks Katara a few days later. The bag, held up next to his face, is green and yellow in typical Earth Kingdom fashion. Considering they'll be traipsing around the Earth Kingdom until and for a considerable time after they find Aang's earthbending teacher, he figures he may as well make more of an effort to blend in.

Also, this bag is really, really nice.

Katara rolls her eyes at him. "Why would that bag match your eyes? Your eyes are blue."

Scoffing, he lets his arm drop to his side and replies, "Yes, but green and yellow make blue!"

"No, they don't," she rebukes, placing her hands on her hips and scowling at him. "Blue and yellow make green."

Sokka's face scrunches up in disbelief, and he turns to Aang for confirmation. Somberly, Aang gives him a nod, and Sokka's shoulders slump in defeat. "Fine," he acquiesces, turning back to Katara. "I won't buy it."

As they walk away from the shop they'd been in, Katara makes a snide comment about him not needing to waste their money away.

Sokka scowls and makes to reply, but he's interrupted by an overly enthusiastic salesman promoting an earthbending academy. The man speaks mostly to Aang—as though he could somehow sense the young monk's proclivity to throwing rocks—and hands him a flier.

As the man walks away, Aang flips over the flier. "Look," he says, a hopeful lilt to his voice. "There's a coupon on the back. The first lesson is free."

Katara leans over his shoulder to get a better look at the advertisement. "Who knows? Maybe this Master Yu could be the earthbending teacher you've been looking for."

Aang looks up at her with an inquisitive look in his eye, and when he receives a reassuring nod and smile in return, he starts on his way to the earthbending academy. Katara and Sokka follow after him, as well as wait patiently outside the dojo for him while he takes his free lesson.

The two of them spend most of the hour loitering on the road outside the academy in silence. For whatever reason, Katara's been none too pleased with him since they departed from Pakku's boat off the coast of the eastern Earth Kingdom. Rather unsettlingly, her behavior reminds him of her reaction months ago to finding out that he and Zuko were soulmates, but he can't imagine as to what he could have done to upset her this time. Mostly, he just spends his time planning their routes, hunting for dinner, and carving Yue's necklace.

He's saved from having to think about Katara giving him the cold shoulder any longer by Aang emerging from the dojo looking a little worse for wear. The younger boy's clothes are marred with enough dirt to suggest that he got tossed around a fair bit too much, and he can't seem to keep a frown from his face. Aang gives them a halfhearted shrug. "He's not the one," he says, undoubtedly referring to Master Yu. Absently, he shakes some dirt from where it'd lodged itself in his ears.

Katara sighs loudly, likely revving up to assure Aang that all he needs is a little more time to find the right earthbending teacher. However, she finds herself cut off by some rather loud teenagers departing from the dojo behind Aang. The two of them are discussing some sort of earthbending match, piquing Sokka's interest.

Aang, too, it seems, takes interest in what the boys are discussing, bounding over to speak to them. They turn around to regard him with irked expressions, as though they can't fathom as to why a little kid is bothering them. "Excuse me," Aang asks, "but where is this earthbending tournament exactly?"

One of the boys smirks at him, replying, "It's on the Island of Noneoya—none o' ya business!" The two of them march off then, chortling to themselves. Sokka, too, laughs despite himself and the wounded expression on Aang's face, as well as the firm glare Katara gives him.

Katara follows after them to give them a piece of her mind at best, or to ice them to opposite walls at worst. When she returns, she reveals the location of Earth Rumble Six, as the boys had called the tournament, and the three of them make plans for attending that night.

When they arrive at the covert arena later, Sokka is quick to be swept up in the excitement of the matches. One by one, the contestants get their asses handed to them by the Boulder, much to Sokka's delight. As far as he's concerned, the Boulder seems like he'd be a great teacher for Aang, and it wouldn't hurt to get the man's autograph.

Sokka's excitement is disrupted, however, when a small, young girl takes to the stage. She—like many of the other contestants—wears Earth Kingdom colors, topped off with a matching and fairly childish headband. Unlike the other fighters, her eyes don't meet her opponent's. Sokka doesn't realize why until the host, Xin Fu, announces her name: The Blind Bandit.

In a short yet terrible display of power, the Blind Bandit wipes the floor with the Boulder. She has him out of the ring in under twenty seconds, her movements so quick and skillful that Sokka hardly even sees them. As the Boulder slams against the wall of the arena and the Blind Bandit raises her arm in triumph, Sokka can't help but let out a cry of despair. So much for adding another muscly guy to the team.

Xin Fu jumps down to stand next to the Blind Bandit after declaring her the tournament's champion for the nth time. Sweeping a hand out, he says, "To make things a little more interesting, I'm offering up this sack of gold pieces to anyone who can defeat the Blind Bandit!"

Excited, Aang jumps up, shooting himself into the air and floating down onto the floor of the arena before Katara or Sokka can say so much as a word to him.

Bag of money still in hand, Xin Fu awaits a response from the audience. He feigns shock when he receives no such answer. "What? No one dares to face her?"

"I will," Aang declares, glee in his voice as he approaches the platform's center. He stops as he reaches the same distance from his side of the arena as the Blind Bandit is from hers, and Xin Fu returns to his spot far above the spectators.

"Go, Aang," Sokka gleefully shouts while Katara anxiously watches on beside him. "Avenge the Boulder!"

The Blind Bandit smirks at Aang, though as to how she knows where he's standing, Sokka doesn't know. "Do people really wanna see two little girls fighting out here," she taunts.

As the crowd oohs, Katara sniffs, disappointed. No doubt, she finds the comment unnecessarily misogynistic and is displeased that it comes from another girl, no less.

Aang puts his hands up, stating, "I don't really want to fight you. I want to talk to you."

Sokka rolls his eyes. Aang can be so boring sometimes. "Boo, no talking," he jeers at Aang.

Katara gives him a swift smack to the shoulder. "Don't boo at him."

The fight commences in spite of Aang's protests as he takes a step forward. The Blind Bandit is quick to launch an attack. She sends the earth askew under his feet, but he floats away before any real damage can be made. As Aang glides through the air until he ends up on the girl's other side, Sokka can't help but notice how bewildered she looks.

When Aang finally touches down behind her, she turns around, snapping, "Somebody's a little light on his feet. What's your fighting name, the Fancy Dancer?"

Aang shrugs, making to laugh, but the Blind Bandit launches him into the air before he can. He flips around before landing again. "Please wait," he urges.

As soon as the Blind Bandit hears his voice, however, she attacks him again. She lifts a large rock from the ground to chuck it at him, but unfortunately for her, Aang easily deflects it. With a gust of air, he sends both it and her flying from the platform, much to the shock and dismay of the host and a fair bit of the audience.

Of course, Sokka is immensely pleased by Aang's victory. He rushes to the stage to collect his friend's prizes as Xin Fu glares forward with resentment sparkling in his eyes. "Way to go, champ," he congratulates Aang, slinging an arm over the younger boy's shoulders.

Aang keeps his bad mood well into the next day, bemoaning their lack of success in finding the Blind Bandit. Sokka does his best to keep Aang's spirit up throughout the morning and afternoon with little quips and jokes here and there, but to no avail. It's not until they stumble upon the boys who had led them to Earth Rumble Six in the first place that they get anywhere.

Following the clue the boys had given them about the Beifong family, they sneak into the sprawling, green gardens of the family's estate in search of the earthbending girl. They find her quickly, or rather, she finds them.

Standing over them after having shot them into the air and let them crash back down to the ground, she sneers, "What are you doing here, Twinkle Toes?"

Upside down on top of a peony-rose bush, Aang responds, "How'd you know it was me?"

"Don't answer to Twinkle Toes," Sokka protests, chin still planted on the ground where he'd collapsed onto the grass. "It's not manly."

"How did you find me," the girl asks, unphased as she rephrases her question in search of a better answer.

Much to her disappointment, she doesn't get one. Aang launches into a short but rambling tale of his search for an earthbending master, no doubt confusing her in the process. At the story's end, she throws up a hand in front of his face, declaring, "Not my problem. Now, get out of here, or I'll call the guards."

"Look," Sokka tries in his most beseeching voice. "We all have to do our part to win this war, and yours is to teach Aang earthbending."

The girl stands silent for a moment, facing away from them. He imagines she's reflecting on everything they've said, perhaps even considering joining them, but his hopes are dashed as she turns and cries, "Guards! Guards, help!"

The three of them scatter, running back towards one of the walls lining the estate. Aang airbends them over it, remaining at its top himself to observe the girl's interaction with the guards. When he drops back to the ground beside Katara and Sokka, he has a mischievous look on his face.

Wary, Katara asks, "What are you thinking?"

Aang merely smiles wider and beckons them after him. Never prouder, Sokka follows along, preparing to engage in whatever hijinks Aang has planned for them.

The hijinks, however, is much less enthusing than that which Sokka had been expecting. They spend a quiet dinner with the Beifong family with only a brief spat between Aang and the girl, Toph, to entertain him. Afterward, they're sent to a guest room, from which Toph pulls Aang away for a chat.

As the two of them run off into the gardens for whatever pressing earthbender business two twelve-year-old kids could possibly have, Sokka pulls out the pendant for Yue's necklace and whittles it for a while.

After about ten minutes of carving random stripes onto the piece's curved edges, he asks Katara if she has any ideas for a betrothal necklace.

She barely looks up at him before laughing nastily and turning back to the sewing with which she'd been occupied.

Thrown off by the unexpected affront, Sokka raises his brow and wonders aloud, incredulous, "What's so funny?"

Fed up with the act of ignoring him, she pushes her needlework farther down on her lap and looks back over to him. "I just wonder if the reason you can't think of ideas for Yue's betrothal necklace is that you're always thinking about Zuko instead."

He sputters, completely taken aback. He does not always think about Zuko. He tells her as much.

"Please," she protests, rolling her eyes. "You talk about him all the time."

Outraged, he stands up from the edge of the bed on which he'd been perched. As he does, though, the memory of Zuko kissing him in the oasis springs to his mind for what he hates to admit isn't the first time this month—who is he kidding, this week—and a blush stains his cheeks at the thought. Nonetheless, he shoves the thought to the back of his mind—it only occurred to him because Katara brought up Zuko, anyhow—and vehemently denies Katara's accusation no matter how ironic doing so may be.

Katara stands, too. Mocking him, she clutches her hands to her chest and cries in an awful impression of his voice, "'Oh, I wonder what's Zuko's doing! Do you think he's still following us?'" She changes positions, moving to dramatically drape her hand across her brow. Sokka pointedly rolls his eyes at how ridiculous she looks. Still, she continues, "'Oh, ow, something just scratched my head! Do you think Zuko banged his head on something sharp?'"

Extending one of his arms as a signal for her to stop, Sokka defends, "Maybe I just think it's suspicious that he hasn't turned up in a while!"

"Well, maybe it's because you can't avoid your soulmate," she fires back. She's glaring up at him, eyes watering just enough to shine in the low light.

All at once, Sokka deflates, the will to fight leaking out of him. He shakes his head and sits down to refocus on the betrothal necklace. "Don't do this to yourself, Katara."

Katara makes a noise of dissent, as though to protest him ending their argument. "Don't do what to myself?"

"Don't make yourself think that you're destined to end up either with Jet or completely alone. You can be with someone else if you want," he gently tells her.

Katara may think that she has no choice in the matter, but Sokka is under no such compulsion. Perhaps in another world—a peaceful one where Sokka's dad stays at home to act as chief and Zuko is just a foreign prince—the whole soulmate thing would've worked out. As it is, though, that's not the case. Far besides, his feelings for Zuko—if he's being liberal enough to call them feelings—are easily eclipsed by his feelings for Yue. Yue makes him feel all warm and fuzzy inside, whereas Zuko only makes him feel like he needs to make a break for it.

"What do you think soulmates are all about, Sokka," she fires back, still combative.

Scratching the back of his head, he starts, "I think—"

A servant runs in before he can get out the rest of his sentence. "Come quickly," the man urges. "Something has happened to the avatar and Miss Beifong!" After relaying his message, the man takes off just as quickly as he'd arrived. Not wanting to be left behind, Katara and Sokka follow close behind him.

He leads them into the gardens where they meet up with Toph's parents and earthbending instructor. Beside them lie two wide, deep grooves in the ground. Eerily, they remind Sokka of shallow graves. With the knowledge that Aang and Toph are missing, he tries to push that image far from his mind.

Noticing a long knife with a rolled-up note attached to it and the tip of its blade stuck in the ground, he bends over to pick it up. He moves the knife in Katara's direction, silently signaling for her to remove the letter from its place on the blade. "Whoever took Aang and Toph left this," he surmises.

Unfurling the scroll, Katara reads, "'If you want to see your daughter again, bring five hundred gold pieces to the arena.'" She looks up at the Beifongs. "It's signed, 'Xin Fu and the Boulder.'"

At this, Sokka leans over her shoulder. "I can't believe it." With a sudden burst of excitement, he tears the letter from Katara's hands and cries, "I have the Boulder's autograph!"

As he wonders over the messy script scrawled across the bottom of the parchment, he listens faintly to the sound of Toph's parents discussing the logistics of retrieving her from her captors.

It's not until they get to the arena that he mournfully realizes that they'd neglected to figure out how to have Aang freed, as well. As soon as Toph is back under her father's arm, the two of them make to leave, Master Yu close on their tail.

At first, Katara and Sokka try to get Aang back on their own, her fingering the plug for her sealskin pouch and him reaching for his boomerang. When they're confronted with all of Toph's former earthbending opponents, however, they realize they're going to need a different approach. Under the guise of a reluctant surrender, they leave the ring and go after the Beifongs.

Back in the tunnel they'd used earlier to enter the arena, Katara calls out to the younger girl. "Toph, there's too many of them. We need an earthbender." Raising her arms imploringly, she continues, "We need you!"

Spitefully, Toph's father turns back to glare at them. "My daughter is blind," he starts. "She's blind and tiny and helpless and fragile! She cannot help you."

Sokka winces at the man's words, so clearly at odds with the daughter he had raised. Though, that notwithstanding, Sokka imagines he'd be devasted if his dad said something like that about him no matter how well he knew him or how true they were.

Predictably, Toph has a reaction her father surely did not expect. She tears her hand from his grasp and turns to Katara and Sokka. "Yes," she declares, determination clear in her voice. "I can."

Without so much as another word or a look back—assuming dramatic looks back are possible for blind people—she follows them back to the ring. Once there, they find the earthbenders trying to make off with Aang, the container he's in perched over one of the shoulders of the biggest earthbender, the Hippo. Before they make it to the other end of the arena, however, Toph bends up a rock between them and the exit.

They turn back to regard her, and she orders, "Let him go." With a sweeping motion of her right arm, she taunts, "I beat you all before, and I'll do it again."

Rather snidely, the Boulder replies, "The Boulder takes issue with that comment." Nonetheless, the fight commences, Toph squaring off against the seven men.

Before any of them can land a strike on her, she covers them all in a shroud of dust, barring their vision. Sokka imagines she does this to level the playing field, or rather, to tilt it in her favor.

As she wades into the large cloud of dust obscuring the ring, arms held up in front of her, Sokka's confident enough in her abilities to pull Katara over to the box in which Aang's been imprisoned and leave Toph to her business. Katara gets to work on the contraption at the bottom of the box that opens up, pulling at its creases with the hope of working it open. At the same time, Sokka finds a sizable rock that'd been dislodged from the ground during Toph's opening move and uses it to pound against the lock below the box's barred window. Their efforts are slow to prove successful, as evident in the fact that by the time they finally get Aang out, Toph is almost all the way through her opponents.

When the final showdown between her and Xin Fu takes place, it only takes her three moves to knock him from the ring, safely securing her victory and their escape.

Once they return to the Beifong Estate, Toph tells her parents about her secret, double life. Aang, Katara, and Sokka sit at the back of the room, all hopeful at first. As the family speaks about what's to be done about Toph's awesome earthbending powers, though, their good moods dissipate. Upon announcing that Toph would have even less freedom than before and that Team Avatar—as Sokka had taken to calling them in his head—were to leave, it became clear that none of them were coming out of this experience for the better. The three of them still had to continue their search for an earthbending master, and Toph would be more isolated than ever.

As they make to leave, Aang makes an attempt at consolation. "I'm sorry, Toph."

"I'm sorry, too," she replies, tears streaming down her face. "Good-bye, Aang."

Disappointed and downcast, they take Appa from the Beifongs' stables and prepare to leave. With any luck, they'll find a suitable campsite within the hour and get in a few good hours of sleep before daybreak.

As Sokka stows their luggage on Appa's saddle, Katara goes to console Aang about losing Toph as his potential earthbending teacher. He's not confident in her success, but it all turns out to be for naught when Toph herself runs up to meet them, breathing heavily in exertion and smiling with a manic gleam in her eyes.

In a clear and unabashed lie, she tells them that her parents had given her their blessing in joining them. Desperate to keep her as Aang's teacher, they present no protests, though Sokka and Katara exchange a somewhat squeamish look at the prospect of kidnapping a child. Nonetheless, they're in the sky in less than a minute, the Beifong Estate growing smaller in the distance as they fly away.

---

Toph's integration into the group is, unfortunately, less than optimal.

She gets along with Aang and Sokka just fine—at first, that is. The three of them make crude jokes together, play pranks with bending—Sokka acting as an accomplice—and chew with their mouths open until Katara either storms off or screams at them.

It all goes downhill when she and Katara really get into it with each other, though, and it certainly doesn't help that they happen to be on the run from Azula and her psycho Fire Nation friends—Sokka hadn't thought to remember their names during their previous encounter—at the time either.

After a particularly grueling night of bickering, almost non-stop flying, and unending wakefulness, Appa falls asleep mid-flight. When they miraculously manage to land without killing themselves, Sokka grabs his sleeping bag, disembarks from Appa's saddle, and slides down to the ground below. "Okay," he drowsily murmurs. "We've put a lot of distance between us and them. The plan right now is to follow Appa's lead and get some sleep."

Katara, trudging along behind him, chimes in a manner most unhelpful. "Of course, we could have gotten some sleep earlier if Toph didn't have such issues."

Toph, who had been half-asleep already on the bare earth that she finds so comfortable, immediately rouses. The ground around her breaks into fissures as she slams down her hands, and she shrieks, "What?"

Sokka very nearly turns around, not wanting to revisit the night's earlier fight about Toph doing her share of the group's work. Yes, he agrees with Katara that Toph is just being a stubborn, spoiled little twelve-year-old, but he also does not think this is the best time to discuss such things.

Before he can feel guilty about opting to not intervene, however, Aang steps in. "Alright, alright. Everyone's exhausted. Let's just get some rest."

"No," Toph refuses, swiveling around to face Katara. "I wanna hear what Katara has to say. You think I have issues?"

The offhand manner in which Katara replies doesn't help the situation from getting out of hand, and Sokka can just feel Toph's blood boiling. "I'm just saying, maybe if you helped out earlier, we could've set up our camp faster and gotten some sleep. And then maybe we wouldn't be in this situation!"

"You're blaming me for this," Toph shoots back as Sokka rolls out his bedding and collapses onto it.

He can't see what they're doing, but he imagines that the light pitter-patter sound of quick feet comes from Aang, who says, "No, no! She's not blaming you!"

"No, I'm blaming her," Katara shouts over him.

"Hey," Toph shouts back, and then Aang grunts as Sokka can only imagine he's punted away by the small earthbender. "I never asked you for diddly-do-da. I carry my own weight," she tells Katara. "Besides, if there's anyone to blame, it's Sheddy over here!"

"What," Aang asks, incredulity potent in his voice. "You're blaming Appa?"

A little miffed at the turn in the argument, as well, Sokka turns over to regard the rest of the group. Brow furrowed, he watches as Toph strides over to Appa and pulls out some of his fur. "Yeah. You wanna know how they keep finding us? He's leaving a trail everywhere we go!"

Aang glares down at her from his perch on Appa's shoulder. "How dare you blame Appa. He saved your life three times today!" He jumps down onto the grass and slowly approaches her. "If there's anyone to blame, it's you! You're always talking about how you carry your own weight, but you're not. He is," he declares, pointing to Appa. "Appa's carrying your weight. He never had a problem flying when it was just the three of us!"

Toph frowns at him for a second before turning away. "I'm outta here," she declares. Having Aang, the most agreeable member of their group, stand against her must have been the last straw.

Quick as he can in his sleep-deprived state, Sokka gets up to intercept her. "Wait," he says, arms outstretched to his sides. Perhaps as both the oldest in their party and the one most removed from the conflict at this point, he can persuade her to calm down and not abandon the group.

Completely unphased, Toph bends the earth under his feet, sliding him to the side and out of her way. She walks on, and the three of them let her.

When she's nearly out of view, Sokka turns and trudges past his remaining companions, muttering, "Great job, guys."

Hours later, the three of them separate in an attempt to trick the Fire Nation girls. Aang leaves a phony trail of fur while Katara and Sokka head out on Appa to look for Toph. Unfortunately, they don't find her. Even worse, two of the dangerous ladies—sans Azula, thank the spirits—chasing them spot Appa as he's going down over a forest.

They manage to make it over a river, and for one glorious moment, Sokka thinks they're safe. He's proven wrong when the weird lizards the girls are riding suddenly stand up on their hind legs and sprint across the water.

Katara tries to impede the girl who dresses in frilly, pink circus-wear while Sokka takes on the morose girl with the knives. When he bats away her weapons not once but twice with his machete, she makes for Katara instead, leaving him to deal with the other girl. She quickly blocks his chi and leaves him struggling to stay upright. His only solace comes when she can't quite manage to knock him out because his head is too hard for her dainty fist. Not the most flattering deterrent, but hey, he'll take it.

With one working leg, he limps over to Katara, who's pinned against a tree. He nearly makes it to her before falling flat on his face. "How you doing," he asks her, as though it's not obvious how poorly they're coming out in this fight.

"Well, you know," she replies, the sarcasm in her voice overshadowed by panic.

Arms crossed, Knife Girl—Sokka decides that this is a good nickname to use in the interim before he learns her name—complains, sounding tired. "I thought when Ty Lee and I finally caught you guys, it would be more exciting."

She sighs, turning her head to the side. Sokka can tell she's on the verge of making another scathing if unexciting remark, but he's far more interested in watching Appa, who's creeping up behind the two girls with what is no doubt the intent to avenge Katara and Sokka's defeat.

"Oh, well. Victory is boring," Knife Girl manages to say before Appa roars, turns around at the end of his sprint, and swipes her and Ty Lee into the river with his tail. They go soaring, screaming in shock and plummeting into the water far down stream. In his triumph, Appa gives a generous, slobbery lick to Sokka's torso, arms, and head.

After the feeling returns to Sokka's limbs, he heaves himself off the ground. He stumbles over to Katara, who's been bemoaning the lack of feeling in her arms after having them pinned up for so long. Once they are both suitably recovered and Sokka has gathered his weapons from where they'd been flung during the fight, they manage to convince Appa to given them one last ride for the day and head out in search of Aang.

They scour the surrounding area for several minutes before spotting flames going up in the wastelands past the forests lining the river. As they near the fire, they find that its source is a skirmish occurring in a dilapidated, abandoned village. Katara, who sits atop Appa's head, has Appa land a considerable yet walkable distance from the town. An arc of blue flame cuts through the sky as soon as they've disembarked. As tired as they are, it inspires them to muster up the energy to run as fast as they can to Aang's aid.

Upon entering the village, it's difficult to tell where Aang or Azula are at first. So much destruction has been laid down that one can hardly discern that which is old or new. They soon hear a loud crash as the side of one building collapses onto another. Following the noise, they just barely catch a glimpse of Azula striding into the second building before setting its interior ablaze.

Katara picks up speed as they near the commotion, darting inside with her water drawn. Sokka opts to wait outside, expecting Katara to draw Azula out. Sure enough, she does, and he steps into Azula's path as she's chasing after Katara.

Ruthlessly, he swings his machete at her, disappointed when she merely counters his swipes with her metal armbands or dodges them entirely. Despite his failure to land a hit on her, however, he does successfully deter her progress, and the three of them—Aang having emerged from the burning building now, as well—slowly approach her from different sides.

She steps carefully backwards until she's made it to the middle of the main street in the village. She strikes at Aang at the first opportunity, quickly turning thereafter to counter a blow from Katara and strike out at Sokka with her crazy, blue fire.

They continue to exchange blows as she backs up to the entrance of an alleyway. For a moment, Sokka is worried that she'll make a break for it, but his concerns are soon assuaged by the sudden appearance of a sorely-missed earthbender.

Azula stumbles and collapses onto the ground as she falls victim to the same move that Toph had pulled on him earlier in the day. When she hits the ground, Toph crows over her slumped form. "I thought you guys could use a little help."

"Thanks," Katara responds.

Azula uses the distraction to make her getaway, indeed turning down the alley by which they'd been standing. Though, she doesn't make it very far.

Zuko's uncle—and Azula's uncle, evidently—makes just as sudden of an appearance as Toph had moments before, using his gut to knock Azula to the ground. As surprised as Sokka is to see Iroh here, he doesn't let himself dwell on it, not wanting to be distracted in the heat of battle.

Though, he does take a moment to appraise the handsome, young man who stands at Iroh's side. He's taller than Sokka and far paler, donned in lower-class Earth Kingdom garb. His hair is shorter than the typical boy in this region and it does little to cover up the terrible red scar that covers one of his eyes.

Zuko, Sokka belatedly realizes, forced to pull his attention away from his soulmate as the six of them surround Azula, who's backed herself into a corner.

Each of them has their hands raised in offensive positions, Sokka doing so with his boomerang in his right hand.

As Azula surveys them, she attempts to buy herself some time with a short monologue. "Well, look at this. Enemies and traitors all working together." She sneers at her brother before raising her arms in faux-surrender and continuing with a lie, "I'm done. I know when I'm beaten." She spares a glance at Aang. "You got me. A princess surrenders with honor."

No one believes that her surrender is authentic, but it's that doesn't stop Azula from making er next move. Even with all their guards up, she manages to land a well-aimed, powerful hit on her uncle. Iroh spins out and goes down several feet away from Zuko, who yells out in agony at the scene before him.

Not willing to run the risk of her striking down someone else, the remaining five of them strike as one. Still, she manages to bat away Sokka's boomerang and encase herself in a ball of fire that keeps out the other three elements and Zuko's fire blast. When the flames die out, she's vanished from sight, though none of them are particularly interested in going after her.

She's too dangerous, Sokka thinks. They're better off recouping and fighting her again another day.

Zuko kneels at Iroh's side, groaning and grasping at his hair in despair. Iroh lies supine on the ground, knocked out cold. A horrible burn peeks out beneath his singed clothes, and his breathing comes out slowly as his chest rises and falls with shudders.

The four of them are cautious as they approach the two firebenders, but Zuko takes it poorly nonetheless. He turns to shout at them, "Get away from us!"

Undeterred, Katara steps forward to offer a helping hand. "Zuko, I can help."

"Leave," he shouts in answer, sweeping out his arm so that a tongue of fire lashes out above their heads.

In the same spirit as his sister, however, Sokka doesn't take no for an answer. Grabbing Zuko's extended wrist, he tugs him back from Iroh and plops down next to him on the earth. "Just let Katara do her thing, Zuko. She won't hurt your uncle."

Expecting more of a fight, Sokka is nothing short of surprised when Zuko makes no further protests. Rather, he ducks his head and slumps against Sokka's side. The top of his head rubs along the expanse of Sokka's neck, and suddenly, all Sokka can think about is how surprisingly soft and fuzzy Zuko's short hair is.

Without any further ado, Katara squats down on Iroh's other side and pulls some water from her sealskin pouch. In short, precise movements, she brings the water above Iroh's chest. It begins to glow as her healing powers take effect. Not for the first time, Sokka wonders at his sister's abilities. She's come so far since they left the South Pole.

Not that he'd ever tell her so. She'd only lord it over him.

Absentmindedly, Sokka realizes, he's been toying with a bracelet around Zuko's wrist, which he's still holding. Looking down, he finds that it's an ornate silver band inlaid with blue gemstones. Evidently, it's one of the many souvenirs Zuko has of Sokka's eye color from before they'd met. Despite himself, a warm, glowing feeling begins to emanate from inside Sokka's chest. Resolutely, he shoves it down, along with ignoring the burning he feels high on his cheeks.

As soon as Katara has finished healing Iroh, the old man groans as he sits up with her assistance. Zuko's attention immediately deviates to his uncle, and he pulls away from Sokka, who ignores the unexpected flash of disappointment that wells up in him.

"Uncle," he starts, placing a supporting hand on the man's back. "Are you okay?"

Iroh takes a deep but steady breath. "Just fine, Prince Zuko."

Whilst the firebenders are emersed in a hushed conversation, Katara locks eyes with him and beckons him away with a flick of her hand and a tilt of her head towards where they'd left Appa. Slowly, Sokka scoots back from where he'd been sitting with Zuko. Once he's far enough away that Zuko can't randomly decide to grab him and hold him hostage, he pushes himself to his feet and runs off after his friends, Toph trailing behind Aang and Katara.

As he makes his way over to them, he ignores the small pang of regret that shoots through him at the thought of leaving Zuko. Certainly not for the first time in the past few minutes, he mulls over Zuko's sudden change in appearance and the strange effect it's having on him. Sokka can't quite put his finger on it, but something about the normal clothes and no crazy ponytail just makes Zuko seem approachable

And almost attractive, his mind murmurs to him.

Thinking to avoid scrutiny from Katara by going to the person least likely to snitch on him to her, he falls back to walk with Toph, whispering, "Is it just me, or is Zuko kind of hot now?"

Toph walks next to him with her arms swaying at her sides, staring vacantly in the general direction of Aang and Katara. Without missing a beat, she dips her head in a nod. "Totally."

"Right," he agrees a little too quickly. "I don't know if it's the hair or—Wait." Expression pulled blank, he tries—and notably fails—to make eye-contact with her. "You don't know what he looks like."

She claps him firmly on the shoulder, a self-satisfied smirk adorning her face. "You're a little slow on the uptake, Snoozles."

---

Later, after an enlightening yet ultimately disastrous trip to the oldest library in the world that may or may not have been Sokka's idea, the devastating loss of the only sky bison in the world, and a deadly trek through the biggest desert in the world, Team Avatar comes upon Full Moon Bay in the final leg of their journey to Ba Sing Se. They'd been heading to the Earth Kingdom capital ever since they'd left the Northern Water Tribe. Upon discovering the upcoming occurrence of a solar eclipse in the Fire Nation this summer in Wan Shi Tong's Library and learning that the beetle merchants from the Si-Wong Desert had sold Appa there, the motivation to get there had increased a hundredfold. Now, with the end in sight, coincidence allowing them to run into Suki, and Toph's rich-person privilege earning them four tickets on a ferry, they could finally get a moment's relaxation.

Or so they had all believed.

The small family that had informed them of the existence of Full Moon Bay finds them before they can board the ferry. Explaining that their tickets and the rest of their belongings had been stolen, they plead with Aang to help them to Ba Sing Se. In a mildly infuriating reversal of events, Aang decides that they will be taking the Serpent's Pass across the lake.

"I can't believe we gave up our tickets, and now we're going through the Serpent's Pass," Sokka moans as they start up the first incline of the deadly route as though it hadn't been his idea to take it in the first place.

Walking behind him with Momo perched on her shoulder, Toph snarks back, "I can't believe you're still complaining about it."

Suki, who'd changed from her guard uniform into her Kyoshi Warrior garb, laughs from where she's walking beside him. "I like this girl," she remarks, and Sokka can practically see Toph preening at the praise.

Toph only gets more compliments as they go on, saving people from falling off of crumbling ledges or being crushed by rockslides. By the time they set up camp for the night, she's negotiated herself the second biggest helping of their rations—the first going to the pregnant mother, Ying, from the family they're escorting.

Sokka sets up his sleeping roll next to Suki's, hoping to catch up with her. Last they met, he'd had the feeling that she may have had a crush on him, but from their interactions since meeting at Full Moon Bay, he doubts that's still the case. She's been nothing but friendly to him, and he doesn't want to make it awkward by bringing it up anyway.

"So," he says, breaking the silence that had taken hold as they'd been seated together, looking up at the night's gibbous moon.

"So," she replies, a sparkle in her eyes. From her expression, he can tell she's reveling in his discomfort. "You wanna know if I got over my crush on you."

Eyebrows shooting up to his hairline, Sokka reels back. Suki cackles with glee as he sits across from her, gob-smacked and with his mouth open. "Hey," he protests after a moment. "How did you know I was thinking about that?"

Giggles subsiding, she answers, "Because you've been weirdly distant all day! Every time I tried to talk to you, you found an excuse to chat with Aang or ask Katara a question."

Sputtering, he defends himself, "I came over here to talk to you!"

"And you're doing a great job," she sarcastically tells him, her laughter returning.

"Come on," he groans, leaning back as the tension finally leaves his shoulders. Eventually, her laughter peters out, Sokka throwing in an errant chuckle or two as it does. Afterward, he cheekily asks her, "Well, did you get over your crush?"

"Yes," she responds in much the same way. A little hesitantly, she adds, "I met my soulmate."

"Really," Sokka asks, brow raised to convey his surprise. During the brief conversation about soulmates they'd had when first they'd met, Suki had expressed her lack of interest in learning who her soulmate was to him. As far as she had been concerned, she had more pressing matters to which to attend, namely protecting Kyoshi Island. As such, Sokka finds it unexpected—to say the least—that finding her soulmate seems to have changed things for Suki. Then again, considering her priorities as he'd known them, he wouldn't have expected to find her so far from home either.

Suki ducks her head to hide her blush. "Yeah," she mumbles, pretending to inspect her cuticles. "We met during my journey to Full Moon Bay. She works in this small village on the other side of the Si-Wong Desert as a medic for the war."

Sokka nods along, considering how fitting it is that a warrior is fated to be with a battle medic. "What's her name?"

"Jenan," she answers quietly. After a moment, she adds, "Her eyes are blue, only a little bit darker than yours."

Briefly, the awkwardness from before he'd known her crush on him was gone returns, prompting him to blurt out, "I met my soulmate, too."

Suki's gaze snaps up from where it had been trained to the ground beneath her feet, curiosity gleaming in her eyes. "Really?"

Laughing at how similar their patterns of speech are, he nods. "Actually, I met him before we did."

Grimacing in confusion, she shoots him a glare as she works out that Sokka had lied to her when they'd met. "But you told me you didn't know who your soulmate was when you visited Kyoshi."

He shrugs, confessing, "I didn't want you to know the truth."

At his admission, she visibly relaxes, manifestly understanding that he considers the truth—whatever she thinks it may be—to be shameful. Still, despite her curiosity, she waits until he's ready to divulge the truth to her.

Blowing out a long breath, he turns his gaze from her to the moon's reflection on the lake and finally admits, "It's Prince Zuko."

"What," she responds, dipping forward to push herself into his line of sight and force his attention back to her. Her brows are pinched together over a furious glare, and her mouth is pursed angrily. "The guy who destroyed my village?"

"Hey, I tried to stop him," he asserts, protesting his being on the receiving end of her anger as a result of his involuntary association with Zuko. Deciding to point that out, he adds, "Besides, it's not like there's anything between us. I'll have you know that I'm engaged-to-be-engaged to the beautiful Princess Yue of the Northern Water Tribe."

Suki tries and fails to maintain her glare, shock and amusement coalescing over her face at once. Taking the even newer information in stride, she quips, "Wow, and your soulmate is the prince of the Fire Nation? Someone really reaches beyond his means."

Mildly offended, he lets out a squawk of indignation, "Hey!"

Suki laughs good-naturedly, prompting Sokka to join in despite himself. Thereafter, they talk until their throats run dry and their visions grow bleary from keeping their eyes open too long, at which point they decide to retire for the night.

---

Team Avatar leaves behind Suki upon reaching Ba Sing Se and escorts Ying, her husband, and their two daughters —one of which is brand new and squishy—into the city. In that same afternoon, they handle the crisis at the city's outer wall with the Fire Nation's drill and narrowly avoid being captured by Azula. Suffice it to say, it's a very taxing day, at the end of which all they want is to speak to the earth king. Naturally, this doesn't happen.

At the top of the steps to their temporary home in the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se, Sokka is incredulous as Joo Dee tells them how long they'll have to wait for an audience with the earth king. "A month," he cries.

Her creepy, manufactured smile still in place, Joo Dee amends her statement. "Six to eight weeks, actually."

She ignores him and ushers them all inside the house, which Sokka will admit is certainly glamorous. It's embellished with golden roofing and emerald fixtures, conveying an image of affluence and wealth. Stepping into the foyer, Toph looks distinctly unimpressed, convincing Sokka that the house isn't as great as it may seem.

Once they've all filed in, Joo Dee tries to distract them by pointing out various decorations adorning the walls and furniture. However, not one to be diverted by anything other than a good feast, Sokka cuts in, "I think we'd enjoy the house more if we weren't staying so long. Can't we see the king any sooner?"

Serenely, Joo Dee responds, "The earth king is very busy running the finest city in the world, but he will see you as soon as time permits."

Aang interjects from where he'd been glaring at the city through the window. "If we're gonna be here for a month, we should spend our time looking for Appa."

Happy to ignore Sokka once more in favor of the avatar, Joo Dee turns to Aang, bowing at the waist as she tells him, "I'll be happy to escort you anywhere you'd like to go."

Toph, sitting next to Katara on a pair of steps leading into a living room, butts in. "We don't need a babysitter."

Though, babysit Joo Dee does as they begin their first day of pointlessly scouring the city in search of Appa. Out of the corner of his eye, Sokka watches as she subtly discourages from speaking nearly every shopkeeper, student, and civilian who they question about Appa's whereabouts.

After a few days, they grow tired of her interference. Rather than allow her to drag them around town on another needless excursion, they opt to sneak into the earth king's ball at the palace. This way, they'll be able to speak to the king before the month is out and possibly get a lead on Appa in the process.

Toph dresses up Katara as her companion to the ball after making a few scathing remarks on Aang and Sokka's demeanor, calling them commoners, and flicking a booger onto Sokka's face. After they head in as guests, Aang and Sokka sneak in as waiters.

Once inside, they look for the girls whilst offering hors d'oeuvres to the real guests, who have come to the earth king's function decked out in their finest silks, fancy jewelry, and way too much eyeshadow.

Unfortunately, as soon as they find the girls—or more accurately, the girls find them—Joo Dee finds them, too. Then, in another disastrous sequence of events, Aang manages to reveal himself as the avatar. Sokka tries to use this development in their favor, directing Aang to distract the party guests while he looks for the earth king, but by the time the earth king arrives, Sokka hasn't even made it halfway across the room before two men wearing dark Earth Kingdom uniforms and stone gloves are apprehending him.

They take him to a dark, uncomfortably warm library in which he's gradually joined by his friends and a terribly suspicious man named Long Feng, who tells them they ought to leave the earth king alone and keep quiet about the war with the Fire Nation if they want any hope of retrieving Appa. To top off the weirdness of the man's statements about the war and Ba Sing Se's oh-so-great cultural heritage, he calls in a strange woman claiming to be Joo Dee to escort them home.

From that point on, everything they do has consequences. Long Feng's henchmen, better known as the Dai Li, watch their every move. Their neighbors avoid them like the plague. Worst of all, Katara tells Sokka he can't go out alone at night anymore lest the Dai Li kidnap him, so that puts an end to his late-night excursions to the poetry club. It's a real shame, too—he'd only just been getting the hang of the art of the haiku, which he's been putting to use in making Yue's necklace. Hopefully, he can make do with what he knows now.

"Hey, Toph," he ventures, laying on his stomach next to the girl. She lies on her back beside him with Momo making a nest in her unbound hair, picking at the dirt under her nails. "Does 'ocean' have two or three syllables?"

It's only the two of them in the house at the moment. They'd decided that until they left the city, they had to be in pairs at all times, both to have two eyewitnesses—footwitness in Toph's case—in case of any weird behavior or Appa sightings, and to avoid being kidnapped. Right now, Katara and Aang are out asking around for information on Appa.

"Two," she answers succinctly. Momo chirps twice as though to confirm her answer.

Sokka chews on the brush he's using to write, his words slurring around it as he responds, "But what if you pronounce it 'oh-shee-an?'"

"Two," she repeats. Rolling over towards him, she scrunches up her nose as she asks, "Why d'you wanna know anyway?"

Pondering on what word to add to the line he's working on, he absentmindedly replies, "I'm thinking about carving a haiku on the back of Yue's necklace." In all the time he's had to think of a design for the betrothal necklace, nothing significant or meaningful enough to their relationship has come to mind. His best bet at this point is putting his feelings into words and hoping that he can think up some imagery to go with it to be carved on the front of the pendant later.

Snorting, Toph asks, "You sure you wanna put a haiku onto your fiancée's necklace considering your little soulmate situation?"

Properly distracted, Sokka narrows his eyes as he glances over at her. "What do you mean?"

She shrugs, saying, "Oh, nothing. It's just that haikus originate from the Fire Nation, y'know, just like your soulmate, who Yue totally knows about."

He pushes up to his knees, blood rushing to his head as he considers what Toph is saying. Would Yue really connect a love poem he wrote to her with Zuko? It's not like Sokka knew—or would have known, damn it, Toph—about the connection between haikus and the Fire Nation.

Does this relate, he wonders, to the idea he'd had about engraving a rough sketch of the Northern Water Tribe's spirit oasis? Originally, the thought had come to his mind because the oasis had been the first place that he and Yue held hands. However, just as he'd grabbed his whittle to start the engraving, he'd realized that the oasis was also where Zuko had kissed him, and he'd immediately struck the idea from his mind. Could the poem be another thing that actually ties him closer to Zuko than to Yue?

No, don't go there, he decides. The poem would be about his emotional connection to Yue, not Zuko, with whom he definitely does not have any sort of connection. Sure, Zuko has great hair now, and his face is all symmetrical—or it would have been if not for the fire lord's sadistic parenting style—and he's tall, and he's definitely got a soft spot for the people he cares about, and—The point is that there is no connection, he firmly tells himself, cutting off that errant train of thought.

"See," Toph says, interrupting his spiraling thoughts. She waves a flippant hand through the air. "This is why I'm glad that I don't have any soulmate drama."

Momentarily misled, Sokka points out that she wouldn't really know if she had soulmate drama or not because she can't see.

"I can still feel their pain, doofus," she rebuts.

Sokka nearly smacks himself upside the head. Of course, colors aren't the only way to know one's soulmate. "Have you met them," he asks.

"Nah." She goes on, explaining, "Part of the reason my parents never let me out of the house was so that no one could show up and claim that they could only see the muted green color of my eyes." She makes a gagging sound to punctuate her statement as though to suggest that the potential romance of such a situation was gross. Despite her efforts, however, her mood has grown dour, and Sokka suspects that the matter of her unexplored soulmate bond may have added to her resentment of her parents.

"Well," he replies, drawing out the vowel in an attempt to lighten the mood. "Are you looking forward to meeting them?"

Tone growing both exasperated and defensive, she responds, "Why should I be? The world will never 'light up in color' or whatever other crud people always say. All my soulmate will every be for me is someone to cause me pain."

Shuffling closer, he puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. "C'mon, don't say that."

She shrugs him off. "Why not? Everyone's soulmate situation sucks. Katara hates hers, whoever he is, which bums out Aang because all he wants is for Katara to be his soulmate, but he'll never have one. And your soulmate is the prince of the Fire Nation. Everyone loses."

He stutters a bit as he searches for the right words to respond to her, eventually settling on saying, "That's an oversimplification." The way he sees it, they're all still so young, and eventually things will calm down and work themselves out. He's not sure quite how that will happen, but he's optimistic nonetheless. Then again, perhaps he only thinks so because he has his relationship with Yue to which to look forward.

Toph stands up and turns away from him, manifestly having had enough of their conversation. "Whatever. I'm gonna go take a nap."

Feeling bad for having prodded her too much on the subject, Sokka lets her go. For another hour or so, he tries to work at his poem from another angle, trying to no avail to remember the forms of the poems Gran-Gran used to read to him when he was younger. Eventually, he opts for a nap, as well, thinking it better than continuing the three-way tug-of-war happening in his brain as he attempts to recall poetry structure, think of romantic things to say about Yue, and decidedly not think about Zuko.

---

After having been in Ba Sing Se for several weeks, Joo Dee—the real one, who's returned from a mysterious trip to some place called Lake Laogai—tells them they can't distribute flyers with Appa's likeness and their contact information. Unsurprisingly given how much time and emotional strain has gone into their search for Appa at this point, this sets off Aang. He screams in Joo Dee's face and crowds her out the front door.

"That might come back to bite us in the blubber," Sokka points out, already dreading the Dai Li agents who will undoubtedly come knocking down their door and carting them off to jail.

"I don't care," Aang declares, face still red in anger. "From now on, we do whatever it takes to find Appa."

Toph joins in, throwing up her hands and cheering, "Yeah, let's break some rules!" With that, she blasts a hole through the side of the house, causing the walls and floor to crumble onto the ground outside. Again, Sokka gets a visualization of what their arrests are going to be like, but he walks out the door after his friends anyway.

They spend an hour or so putting up posters and passing out flyers around the city before they run into trouble. When Sokka finds out exactly what kind of trouble, he wishes it'd been the Dai Li.

They're in the lower ring when he hears Katara's shouts accompanied by roaring water and clanging metal. He and Toph run towards the sound, expecting to find Aang and Katara fighting off the Dai Li, only to see her cornering Jet of all people in an alley.

A burst of resentment fires off in Sokka's chest at seeing Jet. He's pinned against the wall at the end of the alley by an array of icy spikes, no doubt courtesy of Katara. She's glaring at him with a vengeance, as though daring him to speak out of turn if only so she can spear him with another lance of ice. Sokka matches her glare and slides into his intimidating-older-brother pose.

When Aang arrives from wherever he'd been, Katara's shouting, "I don't care why you're here, Jet, but—"

"I'm here to help you find Appa," he interrupts, slipping one of their flyers out of his pocket.

"Katara, we have to give him a chance," Aang implores. In response, she crosses her arms and intensifies the glare she's been giving Jet, who clearly won't be having any luck with her any time soon.

Nonetheless, Jet tries to smooth things over with her again. "I swear, I've changed." He launches into a whole speech about how he came to Ba Sing Se on a journey of self-improvement, having found a job in the city and having left behind the other Freedom Fighters. Toph verifies everything he says with her earthbender lie-detector powers that she's been keeping from everyone for some reason—probably so that she can catch them all in any lies they tell and blackmail them later, Sokka would wager—and they set off to find Appa with Jet's lead.

It's not long, though, before they come upon two Freedom Fighters: Smellerbee and Longshot.

Upon spotting them, Katara turns to Jet and accusatorily snaps, "I thought you said you didn't have your gang anymore."

On the end of a one-sided embrace from Smellerbee, he says, "I don't."

"We were so worried," Smellerbee says as though Katara hadn't spoken, smushing her face into Jet's chest. Pulling back to hold him at arm's length, she asks, "How did you get away from the Dai Li?"

"The Dai Li," Katara exclaims, flinching backwards in shock. Her face darkens as she looks on at Jet as he attempts to deny what Smellerbee has said. Smellerbee only doubles down, however, and when Toph steps in to discern the truth, everyone grows more confused as she pronounces that they're both telling the truth.

Everyone but Sokka, that is. He's able to quickly get to the real truth of the matter, going off of a rumor he'd heard about the Dai Li a few weeks beforehand. A few civilians around town had mentioned people behaving differently after returning from detention by the Dai Li. The ordeal with the two Joo Dees that Long Feng had thrown at them, too—not to mention the way Joo Dee behaves on her own—stinks of some fishy conduct by the Dai Li. The only explanation he can come to given the information he has is sinister indoctrination.

"Jet's been brainwashed," he shares with the group. By way of reaction, Jet presses on with his fervent denials, whereas everyone else converges on him so as to take him somewhere safe to investigate the issue further.

They use the small house in which Smellerbee and Longshot have been staying in the Lower Ring to pull some answers out of Jet, both to figure out where the Dai Li's unofficial headquarters are and where they're hiding Appa. After several minutes of not-so-careful needling from everyone—they're teenagers, not psychologists—Jet breaks into a sweat and manages to remember the location of the Dai Li's hideout: Lake Laogai.

In hindsight, the answer should've been obvious, Sokka thinks. However, as they approach the secret entranceway Toph discovers upon arriving at Lake Laogai, he figures that it doesn't matter considering they ended up in the right place in the end.

Momo heads down the entrance first, and each of them follows down the ladder one-by-one until they've all reached the bottom. Once inside, Toph seals up the exit again to cover their tracks. Starting down the dimly-lit, damp corridors, they spot Dai Li agents participating in all sorts of illicit behavior: whispering secretively amongst themselves, stowing away clearly stolen goods, and hypnotizing Joo Dees.

Leading the way with his swords held aloft, Jet whispers, "I think there might be a cell big enough to hold Appa up ahead." Quietly, the group creeps after him, Aang at his side, eager to see Appa, and Sokka holding up the back and checking for anyone who might have caught onto their presence.

Soon enough, they come upon an oddly-shaped door, evidently designed so that it can only be opened by earthbenders. With that in mind, Toph steps up to move it aside, and they slowly shuffle into the room it reveals. The room is big—cavernous, really—just as Jet predicted, but there's no sign of Appa.

Suspicious of the eerily empty room, Sokka draws his boomerang from his side. He has it clenched in his hand as he strides through the door and tightens his grip on it when the door suddenly slides shuts behind them. In time with the entranceway being blocked off, the crystals lining the walls flare up, illuminating figures hanging on chains above them. With the increased light in the room, Sokka makes out about a dozen of Long Feng's lackeys dangling from the ceiling. Instinctively, he takes a step closer to Katara, concerned about the disadvantage she may experience being underground with only the water at her waist at her disposal.

The man himself, Long Feng, stands across from them with two Dai Li agents at either side. Staring daggers right at Aang, he states, "You have made yourselves enemies of the state." Without moving his gaze, he directs his underlings, "Take them into custody."

The Dai Li agents hanging from the ceiling take this as their cue to attack, dropping down from the ceiling to surround them in a loose circle. Immediately, two of them fire off the stone gloves they wear at them, but Toph blows them apart with only half a step. At this point, the rest of their group goes on the defensive, the benders with their elements and the non-benders with their weapons.

Two Dai Li agents try to strike at Katara and Sokka with their gloves, but they cut through them with a few swipes of their arms. Unfortunately, however, when their backs are turned, another two agents manage to grab them by the backs of their collars. Without any time to react, they find themselves being dragged backwards, stopped only when Toph intervenes to chase off their opponents.

At some point in the skirmish, Long Feng makes to slip from the room, but Aang is quick to point this out. Soon, all of them—save for Toph, who stays behind to finish off the rest of the Dai Li—are in heavy pursuit of him with Aang and Jet at the lead. The sound of running water echoes around them, but it's cut off just before the rest of the group turns into the dark hallway that Long Feng, Aang, and Jet had gone down. There's a door at the end, sealed shut by what Sokka can only assume was Long Feng's earthbending. For several long, nerve-racking minutes, they wait behind it as none of their efforts are effective in getting it to budge.

Sokka makes to swing at the door with his axe again when Katara suddenly lets out a horrible, gut-wrenching sound, "Neungh!"

"Katara," he yells, turning around to face her. She is crouched on the ground, Smellerbee trying to hold her up by one arm. Her hands are pressed into her chest, and her breathing comes fast and heavy as she blinks tears out of her eyes. "Katara, are you okay," he asks urgently.

She shakes her head. "Jet," she gasps. It is all she says, but the rest of them get the message loud and clear.

Before they can ruminate over this new development for long, Toph arrives. She doesn't stop to ask what is wrong, simply raising her hand over her head to open the door. As soon as they enter the room, the sound of running water roars in their ears again with several ducts situated around the room. This hardly captures Sokka's attention, however, as at the center of the room, Jet lies prone before a stretch of stone irregularly drawn out of the ground. Aang is kneeling by his side, the younger boy manifestly distressed and seemingly hesitant of putting his hands anywhere near Jet's chest.

The healer in Katara comes out in full force upon taking in the scene, and she shoves past the rest of them to get to Jet. In partial disbelief, Sokka watches as she stumbles to his side, pulls the vial of spirit water Pakku had given her from where it's hidden under her dress, and uncorks the plug. She summons the water from inside the capsule hanging from the cord around her neck, and brings her hands to Jet's ribcage. As she heals him, his breath slowly turns from choppy and labored to even and easy, and her own body relaxes, too.

As she recorks the empty vial, Sokka pushes down his feelings of guilt at the thought that they've wasted the spirit water when it could have been put to better use later. It's a vile thought, he knows. After all, what could be more important than saving a life?

Saving the life of someone necessary to defeat the Fire Nation, his mind answers, his eyes cutting to Aang before snapping back to Jet, who's shakily getting to his feet.

"Thanks, Katara," Jet whispers to her while she supports him on her shoulder.

Sokka swallows the urge to sneer at the dopey look on Jet's face, opting instead to say, "If we're done here, we should keep looking for Appa. It won't be long before Long Feng is back with reinforcements."

With that, the group sets off again, albeit at a slower pace as a result of Jet's injuries. Given the lack of interference from the Dai Li this time, however, they make good time as they search the rest of the hideout, sweeping hallways, caverns, and an endless series of empty rooms.

At last, they come upon a room much like the one in which they were ambushed by the Dai Li. Toph earthbends the door open, and they enter to find a large set of opened shackles strewn about the stone floor.

"Appa's gone," Aang exclaims, his voice conveying both his surprise that they found any evidence of Appa having been here and his disappointment that they were too late to rescue him from Long Feng's clutches. "Long Feng beat us here," he realizes, resigned.

"If we keep moving, maybe we can catch up with them," Sokka suggests, and they hustle from the room. Toph leads them to an exit closer but different from the one through which they'd entered the hideout. She bends a ramp up to its opening, and they make a run for it until they reach the sun-beaten shoreline of the lake outside.

They must have made some commotion during their escape, Sokka assumes as he notices the Dai Li agents pouring out from the exit behind them. "Do you think we can outrun them," he asks Aang, glancing back to watch Smellerbee and Longshot prop up Jet between them as they all continue their mad dash in the other direction.

"I don't think it's gonna matter," Aang replies, looking ahead to where Long Feng has boxed them in with the reinforcements Sokka had known were coming.

The Dai Li agents bend up massive walls of earth to trap them on the side of the lake, situating themselves and Long Feng on top. Sokka makes to tap Katara on the arm and gesture for her to bend a path of ice across the lake's surface, but before he gets the chance. Momo sweeps around them and then soars straight past Long Feng, pulling everyone's attention. Not a moment later, a great, hulking figure swoops down from the sky, blocking the Sun's light.

"Appa," Aang shouts in delight, his face shining as a smile of pure delight runs across it. Sokka feels his own lips mirror the expression, and he whoops for joy as Appa blasts through the wall on which Long Feng had been perched.

Appa demolishes the other wall behind them, as well, while Toph and Aang dispense with the rest of the Dai Li. Appa continues rumbling as he floats around them, coming to land directly in front of Long Feng, to whom he growls menacingly.

Apparently not one to be intimidated, Long Feng moves to face Appa head-on, though he's quickly done away with as Appa chows down on his leg and tosses him into the water.

After spitting out Long Feng's shoe, Appa turns his attention to the four of them. They take it as a signal to rush the bison for a big, cuddly mush-fest, each of them collapsing into Appa's abundant, soft fur that they've missed so much and hugging it out with their giant, furry friend.

"I missed you, buddy," Sokka hears Aang tearfully whisper.

Before long, they decide it best to make their getaway before Long Feng and the Dai Li can reassemble their forces, so all seven of them pile onto Appa's saddleless back and make their way to an island at the center of Lake Laogai.

After landing, the group goes back and forth on a plan to continue their good-luck streak of the day by storming the earth king's palace and demanding an audience with the king. With Aang on his side, Sokka manages to convince Katara and Toph of his plan to persuade the earth king to help them invade the Fire Nation.

Working quickly so as to avoid any possible further dissent, Sokka starts making plans. "Okay, we can drop you guys off," addressing the Freedom Fighters, "but it'll have to be in the Upper Ring." He turns to Aang, Katara, and Toph, and makes to continue, "Then—"

Jet interrupts, standing from where he'd been sitting beside his friends on shaky legs. "Why do you have to drop us off? We could help."

Sokka tries to phrase his rejection in the nicest way possible. "Look, I don't want to have to account for additional fighters, especially since you're already injured. It's nothing personal."

Jet doesn't back down. "I think it is personal. I think you don't want us to come because you don't like me."

Sokka rolls his eyes and throws up his hands in exasperation. "Everybody already knows I don't like you, Jet! Now, you can either let us drop you off in the Upper Ring, or we can leave you here."

"Sokka," Katara lightly admonishes, but there's no heat behind her voice. He can tell she's fed up with having Jet around and anxious to get a move on, too.

With the matter settled, Sokka proceeds with describing the rest of the plan to storm the palace and get to the earth king. The seven of them hop on Appa and take off, leaving Lake Laogai behind. They take a brief detour to drop off the Freedom Fighters as planned, and then make for the palace.

As they approach the palace grounds, they meet steep resistance. A dozen or so surface-to-air rocks are shot up at them by the small army that guards the palace. Appa manages to dodge most of them, and Aang blows apart any others that get too close.

As they near the ground, a battalion forms to stand against them, but Aang does away with it by jumping down ahead of Appa's landing and bending the ground out from underneath the soldiers. Once the earth has settled, Appa touches down, and Toph, Katara, and Sokka disembark from his back to run alongside Aang toward the palace steps.

More soldiers pore out to face them as they get closer. It's mostly Aang and Toph who do the work of fighting them off, Katara occasionally chipping in with a water whip—following up her strikes with apologies—and Sokka engaging in close-quarters combat with his machete when someone gets too close to them.

After narrowly avoiding being crushed by two giant statues that the palace guards had tossed at them, Toph makes a second display of her extraordinary earthbending prowess for the day, bending each and every one of the palace steps down so that they have a ramp up which to bend themselves. Soldiers slide down the ramp on either side of them, and feeling a little bad at this point, Sokka finds himself echoing Katara's earlier sentiment of remorse.

At the top of the stairs, they blow away another two dozen of their opponents and head into the palace. Once inside, Sokka opens every door in sight as his friends continue to fight off the earth king's guards. He stumbles on a few unsuspecting people along the way, throwing out haphazard apologies as they scream at him to get out.

Finally, they come upon a long hall with a very impressive set of doors, to which he runs up and tries to budge open. In the middle of his doing so, Aang comes along to blow the doors open with a gust of wind, and both the doors and Sokka go flying into the throne room. "A little warning next time," he complains, rubbing the back of his head.

His attention is quickly drawn by the earth king, who sits calmly and quietly on his throne behind five Dai Li agents and Long Feng, all of whom look as though they've only just arrived. Sokka curses their previous indecision on that island; if they'd made a decision sooner, they could have beaten Long Feng here.

They stand with their weapons raised against the Dai Li, trying to appear as severe as possible. This is their only chance to speak to the king. If he doesn't take them seriously, they'll likely be arrested, and they'll have no chance of invading the Fire Nation with his help.

"We need to talk to you," Aang tells him, voice low and steady.

Without missing a beat, Long Feng turns to the king. Gesturing to their group, he says, "They're here to overthrow you."

The deception throws Sokka for a loop. Long Feng's voice is chilling in his conviction, as though he's done it a million times before and knows it will work. They're up against a true sociopath, he realizes.

"No, we're on your side," he counters, trying to be just as convincing and a lot less creepy. "We're here to help."

"You have to trust us," Katara chimes in from beside him, though it seems as though it was the wrong thing to say as the king angrily gets to his feet.

Staring them down, he launches into a tirade, "You invade my palace, lay waste to all my guards, break down my fancy door, and you expect me to trust you?"

From the side of her mouth, Toph mutters, "He has a good point." Sokka resists the urge to shush her.

"If you're on my side," the king continues. "Then drop your weapons and stand down."

Exchanging silent, meaningful glances amongst themselves, their group chooses to grant the king's request. Aang drops his staff, and rest of them follow in laying down their own weapons.

Smiling wide, Aang gives an exaggerated shrug and says, "See? We're friends, Your Earthiness!" He laughs nervously at the end, but no one thinks what he's said is funny.

With a single gesture, Long Feng has the Dai Li restraining them with their stone gloves. For a terrifying moment, Sokka fears that Long Feng will succeed in subduing and arresting them, but the deceitful man turns out to be the maker of his own misfortune as he inadvertently reveals that Aang is the avatar, which piques the king's interest. The next nail in the coffin, interestingly enough, is that the king's bear, Bosco, takes a liking to Aang. For whatever reason, this prompts the king to grant them an audience.

Not one to squander the opportunity, Aang steps forward to explain the happenings of the war with the Fire Nation—about which the king had somehow known nothing—as well as the part that the Dai Li and Long Feng have been playing in suppressing talk of the war within the walls of Ba Sing Se. It takes a little convincing to sway the king's trust from his advisor, but when they explain that he'd kept Appa hostage and use the bite mark left of his ankle by Appa's teeth as proof, the king seems more willing to believe their story about the war.

They take him to Lake Laogai to show him the Dai Li's underwater headquarters, only to find that all the evidence of it even existing is gone. A little discouraged but not having given up, they entice the king to come with them to the outer wall to see the Fire Nation's drill by giving him a ride on Appa. Luckily, the drill does the trick in convincing him that the war is real and the Dai Li had been keeping it secret as a giant conspiracy. Thankfully, nothing Long Feng says can sway the king from the new information he's learned, and he's soon arrested by his own forces. Their group tries to keep the cheering to a minimum when this happens.

Later that night, back at the earth king's palace, the king thanks them for revealing the truth about the war and his city to him. With his good will on their side, they manage to convince him to help them with their plan to invade the Fire Nation on the Day of Black Sun. This time, they don't hold back in their celebrating.

The night only gets better when one of the king's generals discovers letters that Long Feng had stolen from them. Among them are a letter from a guru for Aang, a letter from Toph's mom, and an intelligence report that reveals the location of Katara and Sokka's father and his fleet. With all this new information, Katara suggests that the group split up with her staying behind to help the Earth Kingdom plan for the attack on the Fire Nation while Sokka goes off to visit their father. Aang and Toph are quick to agree, leaving the room together as they making plans for their respective journeys, Aang's to the Eastern Air Temple and Toph's to a different neighborhood in the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se.

Before Katara can join them, Sokka stops her. "Listen, I think you should go to Chameleon Bay as see Dad instead of me."

Taken aback, her face goes slack as she processes his words. He certainly understands her confusion. Normally, he'd be jumping at the chance to go see his dad, eager to show him all he's learned over the past two and a half years. However, with the knowledge that Bato had probably told Hakoda all about Zuko, he's in no rush to go to Chameleon Bay. It's not as though he thinks his dad will be mad at him or anything, but he definitely doesn't want to see the look of disappointment on his face or hear any of his half-hearted assurances that everything will work out okay in the end. He especially doesn't want to have to talk to him about his weird, conflicting feelings about Zuko and Yue.

Katara seems to follow his line of thinking. "Are you sure? If you think Dad will really care about the whole soulmate thing, I don't think—"

"No, no," he stops her, having already made up his mind. "I know he won't really care per se, but I'm just not ready to talk to him about it." She nods at his explanation, but doesn't look particularly convinced, so he adds, "Besides, don't you want to show him how great you've gotten at waterbending?"

Chewing her lip with hesitation written all over her face, she admits, "I do, but—"

"But nothing," he finishes for her, giving her a reassuring smile. "You should go. I'll be more than fine here."

Satisfied at last, Katara nods decisively and returns his smile. They spend the rest of the night deciding which of her new waterbending moves she'll show their dad first.

The next day, Sokka sends off his friends with a bittersweet farewell. His next few weeks are certainly going to be the most boring out of the four of them, especially since he promised Katara he'd check up on Jet. Nonetheless, he's excited to start working out solid plans for the invasion, so he keeps that in his mind as he waves at Katara and Aang from where they sit atop Appa and slowly disappear along the horizon.

---

Living on his own in the big city, Sokka's first mistake isn't getting caught by a homicidal princess from a foreign land who's masquerading as one of his closest friends. No, his first mistake is deciding to take a load off by grabbing a nice, hot cup of tea.

He'd just finished up a long strategy meeting with the generals from the Council of Five, all of whom had given him a hard time over his invasion plan despite the fact that in all their years of generalizing, they hadn't come up with anything as close to as effective in defeating the Fire Nation. As such, he'd decided to stop by the Jasmine Dragon on his way home. The small shop had been getting a lot of attention since it'd opened a few weeks ago, and he'd heard nothing but rave reviews.

The moment he'd stepped into the shop, he'd regretted it.

With Momo on his shoulder, he'd asked one of the hostesses for a table for one. Momo had chattered in his ear angrily at his request, but he'd held fast, hissing back, "You're a flying lemur. You don't need a seat."

Before the hostess—who was looking at him as though he'd sprouted a second head at this point—could so much as step forward to lead him to a table, one of the servers had called back to the kitchens, "Uncle, I need two jasmine, one green, and one lychee!"

Sokka's attention had snapped to the server at the sound of his voice, knowing he'd recognize it no matter where in the world he was. As such, the sight that greeted him had not surprised him, but rather had confirmed his suspicions.

Dressed like a common Earth Kingdom citizen in a brown and yellow server's uniform, Zuko was standing near the back of the tea shop, speaking to General Iroh, who was holding a tray of teacups and responding to his nephew in kind. Perhaps more disturbing than the fact that Zuko and Iroh were in Ba Sing Se masquerading as waiters, Zuko had been giving his uncle a warm, serene smile, causing Sokka's heart to lurch as he forced himself to turn and flee from the scene before he could be spotted.

He'd run straight to the earth king, hoping to find him in his throne room. All the while, he'd tried to get the image of Zuko with longer hair and civilian attire out of his mind. He needed to stop thinking about Zuko as anything other than dangerous and off-limits; why had it been so much easier when Zuko'd had that awful haircut and always worn that severe-looking battle armor?

When he'd finally arrived in the throne room, he'd found not the king, but the Kyoshi Warriors, who he'd been told were arriving in the city a few weeks beforehand. A little dismayed but relieved to find friendly faces all the same, he'd told who he'd thought was Suki that Zuko and Iroh were in the city.

Unfortunately for him, it had been Azula he'd been telling, and she and her friends were quick to apprehend him. The Dai Li, who Azula had somehow swayed to her side, had robbed him of his weapons and led him down to the crystal catacombs beneath the city.

He'd been dragged down a manmade tunnel into a condensed cavern lined with gray, stone walls and various clusters of glowing, green crystals. There were various natural tunnels that petered off from their location, and the sound of rushing water could be heard from some direction, though Sokka could not discern as to which.

Just before he'd been left there for who knows how long, Azula had taken hold of his chin and wrenched his face up so she could meet his eyes head-on. After a short moment of appraisal, during which he'd glared at her so hard his eyes had watered, a self-satisfied smirk had crawled its way onto her face, and she'd said, "I thought it was you. Your sister's eyes are too dark to match Zuzu's jewelry."

After the crushing realization that Azula knew about his connection to Zuko—which he knew meant that she probably wasn't going to let him out of her clutches anytime soon—he'd crumpled to the ground as the Dai Li agent who'd been holding him had released him. Azula and her new underlings had disappeared through the tunnel they'd bent through the earth then, leaving Sokka to wait for their return for the last several hours.

Growing restless, Sokka takes to pacing up and down the length of his prison. He pays mind to stay near the opening in the cavern wall where the Dai Li's tunnel starts, not wanting to get lost or possibly miss being fed—what he wouldn't do for a nice piece of meat right now. As such, he's nearby when the rumbling of earthbending starts up and the tunnel reopens. At its top, he spots two Dai Li agents, one of whom is restraining another prisoner. As the man tosses the other detainee down the tunnel, he taunts Sokka, "You've got company."

The other prisoner—a boy around his own age given his build and the sound of his voice—tumbles down the tunnel, grunting as his sides hit the hard ridges of the earthen passageway. Finally, he falls into a heap at Sokka's feet. Sokka goes to help him up at first, but upon closer inspection of the boy, he realizes that the person with whom he's trapped is the very person he'd been trying to escape earlier that day: Zuko. He's wearing the same clothes from earlier, and his scar, though partially concealed by his hair now, still leaves him easily identifiable.

Sokka takes a step back as Zuko clambers to his feet, wincing slightly as he puts his weight on one of his legs. Sokka had thought that his fall down the tunnel had been pretty rough, but realizing now that he hadn't felt any pain as Zuko had gone down, he feels a little less guilty for not helping him up.

As their eyes catch, Zuko nearly stumbles backwards as he realizes with whom he's imprisoned. "Sokka?"

Sounding more nonchalant than he feels, he greets, "Hey, Zuko."

Flustered, Zuko inquires, "Why are you here?"

"Oh, I heard there was a tea party down here, but I must've gotten lost," he sarcastically responds. He briefly rejoices in the displeasure that splashes across Zuko's face at his answer before he shouts, "Your psycho sister threw me down here! Why else would I be here?"

"I don't know," Zuko cries, matching him in both volume and aggression. Inwardly, Sokka breathes a sigh of relief. Seeing Zuko acting all measured and calm earlier had really freaked him out, so witnessing his usual abrasive behavior now is oddly soothing.

Shaking his head, Sokka mutters, "Whatever." Misery may love company, but he certainly doesn't want to spend any alone time with Zuko. He already spends enough time thinking about him when his mind should be on other, more important things, so he doesn't need to spend the next few hours with nothing to stare at but Zuko's dumb, perfect hair or his stupid, beautiful face.

With that last, unbidden thought in mind, Sokka shakes his head harder a second time and moves to sit as far away from Zuko as possible without loosing sight of the hidden entrance to the tunnel. Desperately, he tries to think of anything but Zuko. Preferably, he'd like to think of something productive, like how to get out of the catacombs. Despite his best efforts, though, his gaze returns to Zuko every few minutes.

After a while, Zuko calls him on it. "What," he barks, shooting Sokka one of his less severe glares.

Sokka glares right back at him, feeling oddly affronted at Zuko's audacious demeanor. It should be Sokka demanding an explanation from him, not the other way around. Maybe then he'd finally figure out why he hasn't been able to keep Zuko from his mind all these months, or why he can't think of any ideas for Yue's betrothal necklace, or—

"Why did you kiss me at the North Pole," he abruptly shouts, surprising the both of them.

"What," Zuko says again, this rendition of the word coming out far more soft-spoken and confused.

Fists clenched, Sokka gets to his feet and marches over to Zuko, who greets him by standing, as well. "I said, why did you kiss me? I haven't been able to stop thinking about it ever since!"

Redness rushing to his face, Zuko asks, "You haven't?"

"No," Sokka shouts, though he's not really sure as to why at this point. Why is he divulging any of this to Zuko? He barely admits to Katara or himself his thoughts about him and Zuko, so why is he telling Zuko of all people? "And I'm trying to think of other stuff, so I'd really like to stop!"

Awkwardly, Zuko shifts his weight from one foot to the other, dropping his gaze from Sokka's enraged face. It's the meekest Sokka has ever seen him, and he's not quite sure how he feels about it. "Okay," Zuko finally mutters, looking back up at him. "What do you want to do about it?"

For a moment, Sokka doesn't respond as he finds himself distracted by the way the dim, green light of the crystals glints off of Zuko's eyelashes. As though through a cloud of fog, he hears himself suggesting, "Maybe we should kiss again."

"What," Zuko asks yet again, though Sokka barely registers his response as his gaze drops to Zuko's downward-turned lips.

Sokka comes out from the fog, and still, it sounds like a great idea. This time, he figures, the kiss won't evoke any weird, mind-consuming feelings in him because he'll have been expecting it, and he'll never have to think about it again. That makes sense, right?

Sokka explains his logic to Zuko, who shrugs, willing to go along with Sokka's plan.

At this point, Sokka draws a blank. He's never had to initiate a kiss before. Then again, Zuko had done it in spite of all his emotional constipation, so it's probably instinctual.

With that in mind, he takes a step closer to Zuko, bringing them nearly chest-to-chest. Dipping forward, he molds his lips to Zuko's, trying to find just the right pressure. Zuko moves to fully reciprocate the kiss, opening his mouth against Sokka's lips and bringing his hands up to grip Sokka's waist.

As the kiss turns more enthusiastic, Sokka feels his heart swell and thump out of beat in his chest. With his limited experience, this is by far the longest and most involved kiss Sokka has ever had, and he finds himself wishing for it to never stop.

Startled by his train of thought, Sokka pulls back from the kiss, and their lips come apart with a smacking sound made uncomfortably loud by the echo caused by the structure of the catacombs.

Both of them breathe loudly in the silence that seems to be crowding them together, though it's broken when Zuko gruffly whispers, "For the record, I missed you, too."

Sokka's heart thumps out of beat again, and the ridiculous idea of kissing Zuko a third time springs to his mind. Furthermore, all the unbidden thoughts he'd had about Zuko over the past few months come back in full force, swimming around in his conscious rather than floating away as he'd thought they would. Swallowing roughly, he admits, "This maybe didn't work as I thought it would."

Before Zuko can so much as think of a response, a section of the cavern wall across from them blows apart, and out pours Aang, Katara, and Iroh. Zuko and Sokka jump apart from one another, both of them too dazed to say anything as their respective companions rush to embrace them.

As Katara and Aang pull back from him, Sokka plasters on a grin he hopes doesn't look too exaggerated, cheering, "Alright, Team Avatar for the rescue!"

"We're glad you're okay, Sokka," Katara says, rubbing a soothing stripe up his arm. Looking over his shoulder, she puts on a glare and adds, "I'm just glad we got here before anything happened."

"What's that supposed to mean," Zuko barks at her, managing a single step towards them before Iroh blocks his path.

In a compelling tone, Iroh says, "Zuko, it's time we talked." Turning to the three of them, he tells them, "Go help your other friends. We'll catch up with you."

Aang and Katara both smile at Iroh, each giving him a light bow before turning to run down one of the many crystal-laden tunnels. Following after them, Sokka turns back to get one last look at Zuko. Sokka catches his eye before the walls of the cavern make him disappear from view, sending him a small smile, which he returns.

Heartbeat sounding louder in his ears, Sokka runs to catch up with his friends. Along the way, he wonders how it is that they knew to return to Ba Sing Se. Did Katara receive a missive from someone while she was with their dad, or did Aang have some sort of spooky avatar vision telling him that Sokka was in trouble? Moreover, whom of their other friends are they going to help? Toph? The Freedom Fighters?

He doesn't have much time to dwell on what at present is extraneous information, though, as he comes out into a vast cavern that houses what looks to be an abandoned, underground city. The ruins peeking out of the cavern walls between large swaths of glowing crystals must be the old city of Ba Sing Se, buried after all this time. There's a disconnected pool not far from where Sokka finally catches up with Aang and Katara, being fed by a waterfall and running off on either side of the cavern.

Just as he joins them, Katara opens her mouth to impart some sentiment, but her words are lost as heat flares up behind their backs. They turn to spot Azula advancing on them, her gaze set with deadly intensity. Aang protects them from her blast of blue fire with some quick earthbending, and Katara runs out from behind their protective barrier to bend a large current of water from the pool at Azula, who uses her flame to evaporate most of it.

Steam sweeps out from where Azula had been standing, obscuring Sokka's view. He looks to the ends of the slowly dissipating cloud for any movement, spotting Azula just as she makes to jump over a section of the pool.

"There," he shouts, pointing her out to Aang and Katara. Azula fires off two quick blasts in their direction, but they block it by bending up some water in front of them.

Azula lands on a section of rock jutting up from the ground, though she's forced to move as Aang destabilizes it. She jumps off, landing shakily between Katara and Aang. The three of them raise their arms and shift into defensive stances. They engage in a stand-off, no one quite sure who will attack first. Sokka stands not far from Katara's back, shielded from a direct hit in case Azula were to choose to attack their most vulnerable player, which Sokka hates to admit is him in this instance.

Without anyone moving, a bright, orange arc of fire sweeps in from off of Aang's left side, striking the ground between Aang and Azula. The four of them turn to see Zuko entering the fray, his arms held up to strike again. He shifts into position not far from Aang, his palm pointed toward his sister, who looks thoroughly unhappy to see him standing against her.

Sokka, on the other hand, is very happy to see Zuko on their side. Maybe the Great Spirits had been right to pair them up, after all—

Just as the thought that he may have judged his soulmate too harshly occurs to Sokka, Zuko shifts minutely and punches a torrent of fire towards Aang, who pulls a current of air around himself to block the blast. Sokka can feel the color drain from his face at the sight of Zuko's betrayal, having been foolish enough to believe that because of some stupid kiss and a pep-talk from his uncle that Zuko had changed.

Feeling stung, Sokka backs away as the benders begin fighting in earnest, not particularly in the mood to get blasted by a wave of fire. Zuko continue to advance on Aang, whilst the girls go after each other. Usually, Sokka would use his distance from the fight to his advantage, striking from afar with his boomerang. This time, however, he's without his weaponry.

He's completely useless, he realizes, tasting ash on his tongue despite the fact that nothing has started burning yet.

Looking back to the way from which Zuko came, Sokka reasons that his best chance at helping his friends right now is by finding Iroh, who he can only hope is on their side given that he's not with Zuko. With his resolution in mind, he runs from the cavern as though in a dream, his legs pushing through dense waves of doubt—doubt that they'll win this fight, and worse yet, doubt that their plans to invade the Fire Nation haven't been compromised.

Upon reaching the spot in which they'd left Zuko and Iroh behind earlier, Sokka finds Iroh struggling to free himself from a patch of crystals that had evidently been bent up from the ground to trap him. Looking around, he doesn't see any Dai Li agents posing as guards, so he assumes it safe to step out and make his presence known.

Iroh spots him immediately. He ceases struggling for a moment, calling out, "Sokka, my boy, it's good to see you. Am I to assume that Zuko is fighting alongside Princess Azula?"

Mouth twisted downward in despair, Sokka nods.

"Then, we must act quickly if we want to help your friends," Iroh continues, gazing at him with a confidence that Sokka is finding difficult to bring out in himself. "Quickly, see if there is something you could use to break through the crystals."

Nodding again, Sokka fervently searches the ground for any fragments of earth dislodged from all the frequent earthbending that could help him free Iroh. Ideally, he'd like to find something big enough to be able to break through crystal, though not so heavy that he can't lift it.

Unfortunately, he doesn't have any luck in finding something that fits such a description. Rather, he comes upon a flat, small rock with a sharp edge. Running over to Iroh with the stone in hand, he positions it between two rods of crystal that intersect on Iroh's right side. Hopefully, with enough force, the stone will be able to push the crystals far enough apart so that Iroh can blast the rest of the way out.

After telling Iroh his plan and being given the go-ahead, he climbs up along the nearest wall. Hanging off a thatch of crystals poking out from the roof of the cavern, he puts all his weight into a kick against the back of the stone, crying out in victory when it successfully dips between the crystals, moving them away from one another.

Sokka scurries away before Iroh sets off a fire blast to release himself, ducking behind a wall to avoid being struck by any flaming debris. When he comes out from hiding, it's to see Iroh quickly striding his way, no longer encumbered by the crystals.

Damn, Sokka thinks, a surge of grudging respect coursing through him. Can't keep Uncle Iroh down.

"Here," Iroh says to Sokka when he reaches him, pressing the flat, sharp rock that he'd found into his hand. "You might need to use this again."

With that, Iroh and Sokka rush back to the fight, arriving just in time to find that the Dai Li, Azula, and Zuko have surrounded and separated Katara and Aang, who's encased himself in crystals for some unknown reason. A fresh wave of fear and anxiety sweeps over Sokka as he takes in the state of the battle before him. The Fire Nation has the clear tactical advantage, and unless Aang had managed to fix his problem with the Avatar State when he'd gone to visit that guru, Sokka doesn't see a way for them to get out of this unscathed.

Just as Sokka is about to call out to Katara and ask what Aang is doing, the tent Aang had made from the crystals begins to glow, illuminating the waterfall behind it. Zuko and the Dai Li fall back as the tent bursts open, Aang floating up from it with his eyes and tattoos glowing from the power of the Avatar State.

Before Sokka can rejoice, however, he spots something amiss in the periphery of his line of sight. Whilst everyone else's attention is captured by Aang's glowing form, Sokka takes notice of Azula gearing up to shoot lighting. Her movements are calculated as she sways from side to side, her arms coming up to form an arc as she moves to strike—

Moving entirely on instinct, Sokka takes aim with the rock he's kept clenched in his hand. He tosses it at Azula with all his might, hoping that all his years of practice with his boomerang will translate into a solid hit to the back of Azula's head.

Not off the mark entirely, the rock clips her on her right shoulder blade, effectively throwing her off-balance as she fires at Aang. Sokka gives a half-aborted shout of glee at his partial success, believing that his strike will cause her to completely miss Aang, only for it to come out as a howl of terror when lightning makes contact with Aang's shoulder. The younger boy's body convulses from the electric shock all while he remains levitating in the Avatar State.

No, Aang! And the reincarnation cycle—

Devastation wrenching through his body and soul, Sokka finds himself growing close to hyperventilation as he is forced to watch from a distance made insurmountable by the Dai Li in his way as his friend's body plummets to the ground. Katara, on the other hand, makes her way past the adversaries blocking her path to Aang by riding a wave that crashes around her and over her opponents.

Katara catches Aang's burnt form just before he would have hit the ground. Seeing him in her arms, scraped up and unconscious though he may be, Sokka calms, his breathing slowly returning to normal. He reasons that with the spirit water from Pakku, she'll be able to—

No, she already used it on Jet, he remembers, horror and bile creeping up his throat.

Unmoved by the scene of Katara clutching Aang with tears streaming down her face before them, soulless and evil as they clearly are—Sokka doesn't understand how he could have been so blind to it, even for a moment—Zuko and Azula advance on the fallen heroes. Sokka tries to make it mast the Dai Li so that he can come to his friends' aid, but he doesn't make it very far. Within seconds, one Dai Li agent has him on the ground with his cheek against the cold, wet stone as another binds his hands behind his back.

Thankfully, Iroh manages to cover for them, sending out a wave of flame to block Zuko and Azula's path and he runs around the Dai Li's forces. He comes to a stop in front of Katara, shielding her and Aang from his niece and nephew.

Iroh shouts at Katara to leave, telling her that he'll hold off Zuko, Azula, and the Dai Li as long as he can, but she doesn't budge. Through all the madness, Katara manages to spot Sokka where he's being held down. She mouths his name across the distance, as though begging him to get up and join her and Aang in their escape.

Sokka can only think to send her an encouraging nod, scraping his face against the ground in the process. He tries to convey that he'll be okay if she leaves without him, feeling very much as he did when Zuko first arrived in the South Pole to steal away Aang and him. Again, he's restrained and without his boomerang or any other weapons, but he fears that he has no hope of being rescued this time.

With Aang laying limp in Katara's arms as they climb the waterfall and escape out into the night, their hopes of winning the war feel farther away than ever before.