AN: Sorry for the delay, I ended up scrapping the original version of this chapter and completely re-writing it. Hopefully a surprise Sokka POV chapter is enough to barter for your forgiveness. In other news, we're only three chapters from the end, and as of this chapter we're official over 100k words, so that's cool!

Chapter 19: Sokka

Sokka spent most of his life running on dreams. Dreams were the blank pages that innovation was built from, at least that's what he told himself. But his guileless optimism was hard earned. Sokka grew up on the ice, the spirits brought them harsh summers and even harsher winters. You had to be a little bit wishful, a little glass half full, to survive in such a place.

Admittedly, however, sometimes things weren't quite so glass half full. Like when a Fire Nation Naval ship ascended on the shores of his tribe. Sokka was too young to remember the last time the Southern Water Tribe had been met with foreign naval forces, but the stories of what happened when the snow turned black weren't the kind forgotten in a single generation.

Isolated and small, news tended to travel rather slowly to the South Pole. They had just begun mourning the death of the Avatar. Avatar Aang had been a friend of the Southern Water Tribe for most of his life. The tribe had protected him as a child, keeping him safe in the early days of war, and eventually stood with him as he defeated Fire Lord Sozin all those years ago. The war had not come without a price. The eldest in their tribe remembered a time when Aang called the Southern Water Tribe home, and they mourned him as one of their own.

So to be sort of frank, Sokka didn't really have room for any more problems. His problems, however, didn't seem to give a spider-rat's butt about that. So when Fire Nation Naval forces arrived on their shores, offering their 'regrets' about recent events (events for which Sokka and the tribe had not yet heard of, but the Fire Nation seemed to assume they had) in regards to the now dubbed assassination by now deceased Prince Zuko, and the subsequent, inevitable dissolution of 'Princess Katara's' marriage, Sokka found himself at his wit's end. Fucking forgive him if he couldn't handle one more problem.

His father at least was more capable of keeping it together. All those years of meeting with international diplomats and negotiating with foreign tyrants left Hakoda with the kind of tact needed to handle some random Fire Nation admiral showing up on your shores to tell you 'so sorry, but your son in law killed the Avatar'.

Sokka hadn't believed that story for a single moment, by the way. It's not that he didn't think Zuko was capable of murder, only that he didn't think Zuko was capable of murder. And sure, he'd only met the guy for a few days and at least one of those days they'd both been disgustingly inebriated for. But still, Sokka had an intuition for that kind of thing. And Zuko wasn't. The murder-y kind, that is. Sure, he had been a little moody and the first few letters Katara had sent were spent subtly bashing the Prince for being an 'insufferable, arrogant, brat' but things had gotten better. Katara had seemed more than pleased about their arrangement and honestly, Zuko didn't exactly seem smart enough to manipulate anyone into anything (guy was the definition of broadcasting your emotions, Sokka doubted he could be subtle about his feelings if he tried, let alone hide a murder). Nevermind that Zuko had been the one to invite the Avatar to the Fire Nation in the first place, nevermind that his marriage had been the one to bring them together, nevermind that he was a heartless ash breather. Sokka was certain he hadn't done it (well, okay he was 90% sure Zuko hadn't done it. Okay maybe 75%, but he was still sure!)

Hakoda was less convinced. Furthermore, Sokka's father was better at holding his cards close to his chest. He played the part well in front of the Fire Nation 'guests', accepting all their half truths with a convincing elegance. But Sokka saw the signs: his father's anxiety over Katara's safety and animosity towards their uninvited guest leaked out in the privacy of their home. Hakoda didn't see a good night's rest until Katara's letter arrived from the Northern Water Tribe, in her familiar script. Katara was safe, she was in the North, and the Fire Nation could absolutely not be trusted.

And yet, they just kept coming. Lamented as the Water Tribe's new 'friends', the Fire Nation's presence was a delicate predicament. Hakoda had entered into a tense and delicate political battle with the visitors. He watched them closely, and in return, the Fire Nation watched Hakoda back. It made private correspondence with the surrounding territories near impossible. Developing contingency plans and preparing for impending battles was hindered if not stopped all together.

So Sokka left. He packed himself up in his canoe and set sail in the dead of night. If the Fire Nation was going to play dirty, they would play dirty right back. Sokka could go to the southern coast of the Earth Kingdom himself and continue developing plans there. Hakoda didn't exactly approve of Sokka's decision to set sail across the ocean in his little boat all alone, but Sokka didn't exactly need his permission.

Kyoshi Island was a long standing ally to the South Pole. One of the rare independent states from the Earth Kingdom, it existed as a rare, neutral waystation between the two nations. Still, they were a small and militant group, and more than a bit skeptical of strange travelers appearing on their shores in the dead of night. Sokka had been quickly apprehended mere moments after hauling his canoe onto its sandy shores.

They'd brought him to a makeshift jail cell (they'd tied him to a chair in a dojo) and left him there until the first light of morning.

"Anyone willing to sail a paddle boat through unagi infested waters in the dead of night, is either stupid or desperate. So which are you." Suki said to him, looking half annoyed at being woken up at dawn to deal with him, and half impressed with his arrival. He'd met the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors three times before, twice while on trading business with his father and once at an international summit in Patola. She tended to regard him with cautious disdain and Sokka couldn't say he was her biggest fan. She was curt and serious (and a little bit terrifying) which clashed awkwardly with his tendency to make an utter ass of himself at every moment. But, they were both the same age and slated leaders for their people which built some sort of mutual understanding between them. Not quite friends, but allies.

"I'm going to go with both." Sokka answered, which pleased her. Humility looked good on him, she told him so later when he got done recounting his plight to her.

Kyoshi Island didn't want to get involved.

Sokka would say he was disappointed, but you didn't get a reputation for neutrality by involving yourself in foreign affairs. "We survived last time by staying out of it." Suki had told him. It was true, they hadn't gotten involved in the Ten Year War, and were all the better for it. He'd disapprove more if he didn't admit that it was an attractive option. If the South Pole had an option to stay out of it he'd certainly take it. Still, Sokka seemed to endear himself to the people of Kyoshi enough to allow him to stay, and operated reconnaissance from their island.

A week later the Avatar's daughter touched down on Kyoshi Island on a great, dusty gray bison with news from the Western Air Temple. She came with the same news that had been shared in Katara's letter weeks ago. Sokka was more than a little relieved to know Katara was safely tucked away in the Western Air Temple. Relieved that there were more witnesses than just the reports from the Fire Nation who had seen her alive and well (or as well as could be expected).

The Air Temples had been working to organize and mobilize the Earth Kingdom, and warn them of potential attacks. But it had proven difficult. The Earth Kingdom was disorganized, each province operated autonomously, but were hesitant to take action without consulting each other. The hands of power seemed to change from city to city, each leader insisting that 'that other guy' was the right person to ask. And the Capital was even less helpful. Ba Sing Se existed only for itself, seldom troubling itself with the ongoings of the world outside its walls. Rumor was it could take up to two years to seek an audience with King Kuei. The rumor so far seemed to be substantiated by the Air Nation's inability to contact him.

"What do you want us to do, Sokka? The Fire Nation hasn't done anything." Other than kill the Avatar, which Sokka couldn't exactly prove.

Suki was right. Sokka had been antsy, finding himself barging into Suki's living room in the late hours of the night, invigorated with an anxious energy, muttering about all the time they were wasting, and how they needed a plan. But there was no plan to be had, only waiting: waiting for news, waiting for first strike. The longer Sokka waited the more he felt like he was hiding.

It was out of their hands. Suki told him. They had done everything they could to warn the Earth Kingdom, it was up to them to protect themselves. The Earth Kingdom was more than capable of defending themselves and if they refused to, there was nothing Sokka and his lone canoe could do to help the Earth Kingdom.

"They're looking for the new Avatar." Suki said one afternoon. Sokka had been fretting over the newest letter smuggled from his father. The Kyoshi Warriors may not want to play an active role, but sneaking information in and out of the South Pole was within their limits. They weren't spies, Suki had insisted.

"That's why the Fire Nation hasn't made a move in the South. They want to establish a foothold in the tribe so that they can get control over them."

"They're playing the long game." Sokka agreed. Maybe that had been the plan all along. The treaty, Avatar Aang. All of it. He'd heard Avatar Aang used to be friends with Fire Lord Azulon. Maybe Aang wasn't working with their interests anymore, so Azulon decided to get rid of him, start over with the next. Someone they could control from the start.

Suki grimaced, "What kind of monster kills their oldest friend?"

"It wouldn't be the first time." Sokka sighed, the reminder of the first war hung over them all. The last time the Fire Nation had attacked they had hit hard, with no warning and no mercy.

Suki got up abruptly, she didn't like talking about history. "Come on, let's go spar."

…

A Fire Nation ship approached the shores of Kyoshi Island. There was no ashen snow this time, no early warning. By the time the ship had been sighted and news brought back to the village, the ship had drifted into the bay. The ship waved no flag, donned no military regalia.

The Kyoshi Warriors were quick. Sokka had spent his life admiring the strong warriors of his home tribe; they were celebrated for their strength and spirit. And yet in all his time he had never seen anything like the Kyoshi Warriors. They were so fast and accurate it seemed like they could defeat an enemy without moving at all. Invisible and untouchable, like a force of nature, like the wind. Sokka had wondered more than once if they were secretly airbenders.

But more than anything they were a team. Sokka had barely swallowed the news of the ship sighting by the time Suki had organized her warriors all down to the beach. He probably should have stayed in the village. Suki and the others were more than capable of handling whoever had arrived on their shores. But Sokka had never been one to leave the action to others, so he found himself jogging down to the beach behind him.

Sokka hung back, waiting for the Kyoshi Warriors to make a move. The Fire nation vessel had beached rather gracelessly, riding up on the sandy shore. Sokka could distantly see one of the warriors, maybe Suki, sneak aboard the ship. Within moments there were shouts, too distant for him to make out distinct words. A blast of fire shot up from the ship, bright blue and followed by hues of orange and red. A firebender leaped over the edge of the ship, landing on the sand. One of the girls, Sokka couldn't tell them apart from this far away, followed the firebender over the side and the two broke out in combat. The Firebender was slight and nimble, but they fought ferociously, their blue flame burning fast and strong.

There was still commotion up above on the deck of the ship. Another figure came tumbling over the side of the boat, and the sea came up to catch them, freezing into an icy ramp that slid into the beach. A waterbender. What was a waterbender doing on a Fire Nation ship? The only waterbenders Sokka knew of were holstered away in the Northern Water Tribe. With one exception. There was only one person Sokka could think of who might be sailing the sea with firebenders.

Sokka broke out in a sprint. The waterbender had gotten between the firebender and the warrior, attempting to break up the fight, but finding themself engaged in battle on both ends. As Sokka gained on them he became certain of her identity.

"Katara!" Sokka shouted, her attention snapped to him.

"Sokka!" Katara exclaimed, and the warrior looked up at Sokka as well. From closer up Sokka could see that it was Suki.

"Suki stop!" Thankfully she did. Katara was also running, slamming into him, he caught her in a tight embrace. Relief crashed over him. He hadn't even realized how worried he'd been for his sister.

"What are you doing here?" Katara smiled, but her eyes were misty.

"Me? What are you doing here? How are you doing here? Are you alright, injured?" Sokka looked her over, grabbing at her arms and face. She was more weathered than when he'd last seen her. Her face was gaunt and large dark circles rested beneath her eyes. Her hair was tied back tightly, like how she wore it as a kid, but pieces were pulling loose either from the sea breeze or the recent fight. All in all however, she looked unharmed. Relief welled in him: she was alright.

"I'm fine, I- can't believe you're here?" Katara batted away his inspecting hands.

"Long story, it's- Suki" Sokka yelled and the warrior Katara fought looked up. "There Okay, this is my sister Ka-"

"Katara, yeah I got that."

"Sorry about the ambush, I'm Suki." The warrior- Suki, held out a peace offering hand.

"It's okay, I understand." Suki called up to the warriors on the boat, stopping the above battle.

"Not that I'm not happy to see you." Sokka started, "but what's going on Katara?" Another person came sliding down Katara's ice ramp. He wore a dark red tunic and had messy cropped black hair. A large burn mark stained the right side of his face. Recognition spread over Sokka slowly, as he matched the person before him with the prince from his memories.

"Zuko?"

"Hi, Sokka." Zuko said meekly, smiling like he was embarrassed to have been noticed. Sokka blinked in shock. He had prepared for a lot of different scenarios. When Katara said she was certain Zuko hadn't killed the Avatar (or himself) he never would have guessed just how certain she had been. This changed things. This changed everything. A bitterness welled up within him: Katara could have told him, the Air Nomads could have. He was trustworthy, he could have helped, if he had known the whole situation. Sokka squashed the feeling for now, he needed to regather his thoughts.

"We should talk. Let's get back to the village."

…

Suki, at least, had taken this new information in stride. She quickly gathered her warriors and allowed for the rest of the visitors to disembark, leading into them up to the village meeting hall. The journey was a bit awkward. Sokka didn't know what to say. Or rather, he wanted to say everything, wanted to demand answers. Instead he said nothing, and Katara said nothing, and they walked in awkward silence with a trail of firebenders behind them.

The prospect of having half of the Fire Nation royal court lounging around the island didn't thrill Sokka, or Suki for that matter. Prince Iroh, luckily, was a charismatic and calming enough presence to set everyone more or less at ease. Still, the tension in the room was taught.

Suki had sent the other warriors away, so it was just the two of them piled into a room with Katara, three members of the Fire Nation Royal family, and random Air Nomad. There had been others on the ship, a Fire Nation captain and his crew, but they didn't seem to think they would be sticking around long, and were already preparing the ship to set sail again.

Katara recounted her story to Sokka and Suki. She explained how she and Zuko had discovered Ozai had murdered the Avatar, and their subsequent plan to flee the Fire Nation. The plan didn't go accordingly, and she had thought Zuko was dead. Sokka already knew this part of the story, and was mildly pleased that Katara hadn't been intentionally misleading him in her letter. Everyone had thought Zuko was dead. Apparently, some secret organization had orchestrated his escape from the Fire Nation, though no one was eager to go into detail on that part of the story. Eventually, Katara and Iroh found Zuko and they'd gone to Omashu to gather intel on the Fire Nation's next move, instead ending up acquiring two girls of Fire Nation nobility. The blue flame girl was Princess Azula, (who Sokka supposedly met at Katara's wedding but honestly he couldn't remember one way or the other) and the tall, frowning one was Mai, whose father was an ambassador in Omashu. Sokka wasn't quite so sure why the airbender was with them, they had picked him up during their stint in the Western Air Temple, but it was unclear why he was traveling with them. Perhaps he was their guide, though Sokka got the impression that he might just be along for the ride.

"Why stop here?" Suki asked them, her voice harsh and skeptical. Sokka could imagine her beratement later, this was exactly the kind of thing her people had been trying to avoid.

"We were going to go straight through but we didn't know if we'd run into other Fire Nation ships." Katara said. "We wanted to gather stock of the situation before we charged right in." Katara had her hands crossed tightly across her chest, leaning against one of the pillars in the room (no one was sitting). Her voice had a stiff edge to it that Sokka didn't remember her having before. More serious and solemn than before, it reminded Sokka of their father, when he was conducting business.

"Well it's a good thing you did. It's not safe at home." Sokka said.

"That's exactly why we need to go. If they're looking for the next Avatar that puts our most vulnerable people in danger."

"Katara's worried my daddy isn't above killing babies." Azula said idly, "And he's not. So…" She trailed off, sounding much too amused for Sokka's liking.

"This isn't a joke, Azula."

"What? I was agreeing with you." Azula shrugged.

"Our people need our help, we can't just leave them!" Katara's voice pinched high and thin.

"I agree with you Katara. But what are you going to do to stop them? You can't go up against an entire Fire Nation fleet." Though by the murderous look in her eyes Sokka wasn't so sure that was true. The airbender put his hand on Katara's shoulder.

"Maybe Sokka's right. We can't charge in with brute force. We'll only provoke them." His voice was gentle but Sokka half expected Katara to shove his hand off, she didn't.

"Well we can't do nothing."

"No one's saying that." Sokka said. "But you need a plan." Sokka was willing to bet that the Fire Nation was goading Katara to return home, or waiting her out. Going home now would be the worst decision to keep her safe.

Sokka sighed. "Look, let's all just take a breather, I'm sure you're all tired from being on the open water for so long. Why don't we all get some rest and then we can start coming up with an actual plan, okay?" Katara's jaw was set tight, like she wanted to argue otherwise. Instead she huffed and dropped her arms.

"Fine, we'll regroup in a few hours. I'm going to go help the crew unload the ship." Katara said, and was out the door before anyone could protest. The airbender, Tenzen? No- Tenji, made an apologetic glance around the room before trailing behind her.

"There's visitor quarters above my dojo you all can stay in. Sokka, can you take them? I need to go talk to Ojiya." Suki directed him. Sokka doubted her conversation with the village leader would go over any more smoothly. Ojiya was a kind man, but fiercely protective of the town. If Suki hadn't been pleased with the presence of Fire Nation visitors, Ojiya would be worse.

Sokka led them down the road to the dojo. The space above the dojo was decidedly not a living space. Rather a mostly empty floor of unutilized rooms. When Sokka arrived Suki had stuck him up there with a spare tatami mat and a towel. Sokka tried to ignore the unimpressed and tired look on the fire girl's faces when he provided them with the same amenities.

"Really? This is where we're sleeping?" The tall one, Mai, said.

"I know, it's not the best, but the village doesn't have an inn or anything. I could ask around and see if anyone has a spare room in their house."

"That's okay, this is more than accommodating." Zuko said, Sokka wondered if he'd always been that polite. He didn't think so.

"Speak for yourself." Azula grumbled.

"You can always go sleep on the boat." Zuko snapped.

"I'd rather sleep on the boat than on the floor like peasants."

"Whatever, do whatever you want Azula." Zuko frowned then turned from the room.

"Um, just let me know if you need anything." Sokka followed Zuko out.

"There's two other rooms, you can stay in the same one as me, or if you- you probably want to share with Katara-erm" Sokka stumbled over his words, forgetting that Zuko and his sister were married. The concept felt bizarre.

"That's -um, it doesn't really matter.' Zuko said, his walking slowed to a pause. "Katara probably wants her own space."

"Right, no problem. We're just through here then." Sokka slid open the door to his humble room, which was cluttered with clothes strewn about. He hadn't exactly been maintaining the best housekeeping practices since arriving on Kyoshi Island.

"Sorry about the mess." Zuko shrugged in response and began unrolling his own sleeping mat.

"If it's alright with you, I'm going to take a nap, I've been mildly seasick for the past week." Zuko said, lying down.

"Yeah, no problem, I'll just…" Sokka trailed off and left the room. He'd go check on Katara, or scrounge up some food, maybe look over that intel Katara had gathered.

Find some way to make himself useful.

AN: Please let me know what you think, I wasn't super confident about this chapter so all constructive feedback is appreciated.