"Yeah, about that mission I set myself to find Azula... I found her," Sokka began, forcing a smile.
Suki sat bolt upright.
"Azula told me you were dead! She has your sword!"
"Ah. Well, as you can see, she was lying about the first thing. Are you sure it was Space Sword?" He questioned.
Despite the circumstances, Suki couldn't help bursting into laughter.
"What?" Sokka asked, confused.
"I'm sorry, do you call it Space Sword?" Suki asked, in between gales of laughter.
Sokka crossed his arms, a frown on his face. "Well, I think it's a perfectly good name for a sword. I forged that weapon myself, under the direction of Master Piandao. I think I earned the right to name it. And you didn't answer my question."
"Oh, sorry," Suki gasped, trying her best to calm down. "Yes, I'm sure. It had a black blade, and it made the same sound when it clashed with my sword."
Sokka cursed, clearly unhappy with this revelation.
"Do you know where we are?"
"We're at the top of a tower that overlooks the sea," Sokka replied, pointing above her head. Sure enough, Suki looked up to find a window, with faint light coming through it. "But apart from that, I don't know."
Suki stood up and looked through the window. A large natural harbour was visible below them. She could make out the figures of three ships in the water below them, one big one and two smaller ones, which she had an unfortunate feeling were the Kyoshi and the Tui.
"Did you see what happened to my crew?"
"They are alive, or at least they were when I saw them last. I saw Azula return this morning. She took all your crew away in chains, and then came and threw you in here. I think because you're the captain."
Suki leaned back against the wall, relieved. Her crew, at least, lived. That was something.
"How did she get you?" Sokka asked. When she shot a glare at him, he shrugged. "Hey, I was caught too. I'll tell if you will."
"Fine. She pretended to be a ship in distress, then surprised and attacked us once we got close to help them. We were overwhelmed, I was forced to surrender to save the lives of my crew, then she knocked me out and I woke up here."
Sokka shook his head sympathetically. "Yeah, she just loves to play dirty, it seems." he replied. "She was waiting for us just as we left port. We tried to fight but were overwhelmed. I wasn't knocked out, which meant the entire journey here I was locked somewhere below decks with no sunlight and I had to endure her visiting and being... creepy." He shivered.
"How?"
"She kept complimenting me on what a nice sword I had, for one. It's probably not surprising that she took it after that. She then spouted some rubbish about Fire Nation battleships. I don't know, all I know is I don't want to be alone in a room with her."
"I'm not sure I blame you. Did she tell you anything else?" Suki asked, curious.
"Well, she told me why we're here."
"...and?"
Behind them, the door clanked.
"Because I need you as leverage," Azula stepped into the room. Sure enough, Space Sword (Suki still couldn't get over the fact that Sokka had chosen such a stupid name for such a good weapon) hung by her side, but she had changed out of her armour into robes, clothes probably deliberately designed to emulate those the Firelord wore. Her eyes, though, were as hard as ever.
"I'm glad to see you've woken up," she told Suki.
"Leverage?" Suki repeated.
"Yes, leverage. As long as I have you, the Water Tribes or the Earth King won't be persuaded to move against me."
"And how do you know that?"
"For starters the Earth Navy is pathetic," Azula replied. "You have, what, six ships in what for some reason you insist on calling your Grand Fleet? You couldn't fight your way out of a wet paper bag, and it doesn't help that your element is hilariously unsuited to naval warfare. If the Earth Navy came for me, I would crush them. You're just here so they don't get any ideas. Never let it be said I don't try to avoid unnecessary casualties."
Suki doubted that last statement very much, but chose instead a different line of questioning.
"Alright, if that's the reason you're so confident, then why did you take him?"
Azula looked around to Sokka, and laughed, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"It's simple. The Water Chief won't act rashly when he finds out his own children's lives are on the line," she replied.
The words hit Suki like a tonne of bricks. Sokka was the son of the Southern Water Chief? That was one of the men responsible for the whole war in the first place.
"Anyway, I just came up here to tell you that you're hostages to me now. Your lives are valuable to me, so please don't act up, and we might even be able to come to some kind of understanding."
As she said that, she looked at Sokka, who sent a look that clearly meant send help in Suki's direction.
"Of course if you don't..."
Azula let the implied threat hang in the air for a second. Suki understood the implication all too well; Azula had said nothing of the well being of her crew, or Sokka's for that matter.
"Anyway, enjoy your stay. You had better, because you may be here for quite a while."
With that, Azula turned and left, no doubt Suki supposed to go and kick baby sabre-toothed moose lions or do something else suitably villainous. Suki waited until her footsteps had receded, and then moved towards Sokka. The closer they were together, the easier it would be to plot.
She sat down next to him.
"We need to get out of here," she whispered, once they were sure Azula was far enough away.
"I agree."
"Why didn't you tell me who you and Katara were? Why didn't you mention it to the Firelord?"
"It never really came up! Not including this conversation, you and I have spent a grand total of about five minutes altogether. At least half that time was us trying to kill each other with swords. And I am not about to go up to someone, someone who is meant to be my enemy no less, and introduce myself as 'the chief's son' after knowing them for so little time. It makes me sound both like I'm trying to show off and like I have no actual achievements of my own to show off about, and neither of those things are true."
Suki found she had no response to that. Another silence fell over them, until Sokka broke it.
"So... I don't suppose you've given any more thought to my offer?"
"Your offer?"
"To work together to bring down Azula. If anything can cross the divides of war, surely this has to be it."
"How are we going to bring down Azula? I don't know if you noticed, but we're in prison at the moment."
Sokka scowled at her for a second. "Yes, thank you for that, I'm aware. But I think she underestimates us."
"How?"
"I'm not a bender. I'm pretty sure you're not a bender."
"How do you know?" Suki challenged.
"If you were an Earthbender we would be out of here by now."
"Good point."
"Azula is a Firebender, and a good one according to the Firelord. She was also very dismissive of me on the voyage, and this cell isn't exactly the Boiling Rock. She underestimates us."
"We can exploit that. Any ideas?"
"There's only one guard, and she doesn't exactly pay attention to us," Sokka whispered. "If we can get out of here, free our crews before the pirates realise what we're up to, convince them to work together, and get our weapons back, we should have the numbers we need to defeat the Pirates and get out of here."
Suki laughed. "So it's easy then. There were a lot of 'ifs' in that plan. Persuading them to forget past grudges might not be easy."
"Why? Surely it worked for us?" Sokka questioned her.
"It did, but that's different."
"How is it different?"
Suki opened her mouth to speak, and then stopped. What could she tell him? She supposed there might be something, but this was neither the time nor the place for that.
Sokka took her silence as proof that he was right, and so ploughed on.
"I'm sure that if the worst comes to the worst, we can just point out that we either work together or we don't escape. With a choice like that, well, it's not much of a choice is it?"
"I'm sure they will accept that. But we have to get out of this cell first."
"Alright..."
Sokka began a sentence and then rapidly tailed off. He turned to face Suki and looked at her intently.
"Alright what? I've just realised I don't actually know your name. You know mine, I remember telling you. But what is your name, mystery Earth Navy captain?"
"My name is Suki," she replied. "Now, shall we get out of here?"