Sokka and Suki were in the courtyard of their home in the upper ring of Ba Sing Se, sparring. Appa looked on, munching contentedly on some hay.
"Can you believe that Katara said that?" Suki said, as Sokka got up off the floor again having just been knocked down. He supposed that the fact he had just been downed by a girl might have once bothered him, but now he didn't mind (especially since Suki was so good).
"I don't know," Sokka replied thoughtfully. "She saw her best friend die in front of her, and had to bring him back. She feels sad and confused and alone and she lashed out. I know my sister and I'm certain she didn't mean it."
Suki visibly calmed down at that. "I suppose you're right. She just needs a while."
Sokka readied his club again. Suki smiled, and lunged. Sokka managed to bat away one war fan and duck the other, before rolling and swinging his club at Suki's stomach. The Kyoshi Warrior jumped backwards to avoid it and brought both her fans swinging towards Sokka's head from opposite sides; he managed to just get under them and watched both fans pass harmlessly centimetres above his nose. He then scrambled up and engaged in a series of quick blows, his one weapon working overtime to parry Suki's two.
Sokka had improved a lot since he had begun travelling with the Avatar- but Suki was still better. She managed to knock his club aside with one fan and brought the other down on his head, stopping just before she would have knocked him out.
"You're getting better."
"Of course. I have this great teacher!"
Suki laughed. "And humble too!"
"Plus I have a natural aptitude for it."
"And there it is."
Suki kissed him, but as she pulled away her eyes went to something behind him and her laugh died in her throat. Sokka turned around to see several enormous columns of smoke coming from the lower ring. Sokka was pretty sure that was the side of the city facing the Fire Nation's Siege Camp.
"Do you think they somehow got in?" He asked, not having to specify who "they" were.
Suki only nodded, and they dashed inside.
"Katara! Toph!" Sokka shouted, as Suki ran into her room. "The Fire Nation has breached the walls!"
Toph shot out of her room immediately, but Katara stayed put. "You go. I'm needed here."
Sokka decided it wasn't worth it to argue. "Fine."
He turned to Toph. "They've breached the lower ring and it's probably too late for the middle ring too, but if we act fast we might be able to hold the upper ring."
"I'll get my warriors," Suki said, re-emerging from her room. She had put on her armour and the distinctive golden headdress that marked her as the leader of the Kyoshi warriors, but had not put her face paint on because this was extremely short notice. Together, the three of them dashed out of the house.
It turned out that Suki didn't need to rally her warriors, because they were already waiting for her, along with Hakoda and his water tribesmen. The Earth King's patronage had again come in useful for the Warriors, for he had helped them to procure new weapons to replace the ones the Fire Nation had taken from them.
"I take it you've seen that", one of Suki's lieutenants said.
"It's a bit difficult to miss."
"We hold the inner ring", Sokka repeated his plan.
Their group made its way to the gateway between the inner and middle rings, and there they waited.
It was an agonising few minutes. Sokka could hear the sounds of screams getting louder, and there was a steady stream of people fleeing into the upper ring. Nobody in Sokka's group tried to stop them. The smoke got closer too, a sign that the firebenders were steadily burning down more and more of the city as they came.
And then the first firebender came into view. There was only one of them, and as soon as he saw them he immediately ducked back around the corner. Soon enough, he had returned with friends. A lot of friends.
Suki signalled, and the Kyoshi warriors formed a shield-wall. Behind them, the water tribesmen levelled spears, their blades sticking out in front of the shields to create a formation that no self-respecting fire nation soldier would want to run into if they valued their personal safety.
Sokka knew that this kind of formation was not normally how the water tribes fought, but they were adaptable enough to adopt it when the need called for it.
The Fire Soldiers stopped. They did vastly outnumber their opponents, but nobody really wanted to run into a wall of spears and shields.
So they shot fire at it instead. The flames hit the shields, forcing the water tribesmen, who were taller, to duck but leaving the Kyoshi warriors intact.
"Toph?" Sokka asked.
The Earthbender stepped forward and slammed her foot into the ground. A wave of earth shot forward from the impact and formed a wall to block further fire attacks, before proceeding to knock many of them over. However, to do this she had stepped in front of the shield wall and the soldiers saw an opportunity; they charged. Toph spread her hands and then brought them together; the ground rumbled as the entire street ripped itself free, the two rows of houses coming crashing together. Many Firebenders dodged Toph's attack by throwing themselves to the ground, but others weren't so fortunate. The remainder picked themselves up and continued the charge. Toph was forced to retreat back behind the formation, and then it was down to hand to hand combat.
As the water tribesmen stabbed repeatedly with their spears, the Kyoshi warriors blocked the firebenders from attacking them with their shields. The combat went on for what felt like hours.
Sokka threw his boomerang, which circled back around and smashed firebenders on the back of the head, knocking them out.
Eventually, the firebenders retreated. One of them, an officer judging by his uniform, pushed to the front.
"You have fought well, but you are only delaying the inevitable. Ba Sing Se has basically already fallen; look around, the evidence is all around you. Surrender now, and you will be treated leniently. Fail to do so and-ah!
A tsunami of water flooded down the street, washing the officer and all his men away. Sokka turned around to find Katara, her arms raised above her head. "Katara!" He and Hakoda both cried out in joy.
"We haven't got long," Katara responded.
"I know you're not going to want to hear this, but we should evacuate the city." Hakoda said.
Sokka was horrified. "Evacuate?! The city needs us!"
"The world needs you, Sokka. Ba Sing Se has already fallen, and you will not save the world by falling with it. Take Aang and go."
"And what will you do?"
"We heard of a secret tunnel that leads under the palace and out to the sea, where our ships are waiting. We'll go that way. And we'll bring the Earth along with us; better we have him than the Fire Nation does."
Sokka and Katara hugged him deeply, unwilling to be separated again after so short a time, but eventually broke off.
"We'll go with you." Suki said.
"Wait" one of the other warriors said. She turned to address Katara. "Will the Avatar survive?"
Katara looked angry for a second, but replied "yes."
The warrior turned back to Suki. "Then he'll need his combat teacher. Go with them."
Suki looked at Sokka, Toph and Katara. Katara nodded, and Suki went to stand next to Sokka.
"Welcome to Team Avatar, I guess," he whispered to her.
"Take care of them, Mingzhu," she called.
"I will."
And with that, the four of them turned and ran back towards the house. They dashed in, and began throwing their essentials into Appa's saddle. A few things had to be left, but sacrifices had to be made. Sokka and Suki carried Aang's body and lifted him in, under strict supervision from Katara.
"Where are we going?" Toph asked.
"I don't know. Out of here".
And with that, the Sky-bison took off, soaring into a smoke-filled sky, the carnage of the sack behind them and an uncertain future ahead.
Author's note: And so my alternate book two comes to an end, with a much more violent fall of Ba Sing Se. I was able to churn Book Two out so quickly because I had a plan for the vast majority of it right from the beginning; the same cannot be said for Book Three, which I am also planning to do. I know what I want to do with the characters of Azula, Zuko, Mai and Ty Lee going forward, but not much else as of yet. As ever, if you have enjoyed it so far, please review. And if you have reviewed so far, thank you.