I'm really trying to get this finished :) Currently I stand at about 100,000 words total, so I figure I can finish in 120k. We'll see!
I am not entirely happy with Katara, but, well, I'm trying. She's actually one of the only characters I have extremely difficulty writing, to be honest.
Hope you're all having a fantastic evening!
CHAPTER FOUR: FALSE
Sokka spotted her from across the room.
"Suki!" he called, stunned.
From the back, he had assumed she was Suki – she had the same short brown hair, but when she turned around he realized she was completely different. Her nose was bigger, her eyes smaller, and her mouth wasn't quite so fierce-yet-easily-kissed looking. Her armour was missing, as was the elaborate gold pieces on her headband. He tried to think of her name.
"Aah... wait for it..." He racked his brain for her name. Why did they all have such elusive names? Sheesh. "Uh... you're..."
"Sokka," she said, clearly, and she stood up and started towards him. Sokka let out a grin and a sound of relief at being recognized, but it was short-lived. The barkeep had finished with his customers and turned, looking his way. A man at the bar turned, too, at the sound of the loud teenagers, and Sokka belatedly realized they were the same men that had thrown his party out a week before.
"Hey, that's him," the man said. "I told you he'd been skulking around town!"
"Throw him out, Bokko, and take care of him," the barkeep growled, and Sokka knew he was in for a rougher time. He made a beeline for the Kyoshi warrior, and he had barely made it five steps when Bokko caught up with him.
He felt himself get hoisted up by the collar, and within a moment, men from Bokko's party were rising up with him. Sokka could barely prevent it, though he struggled to stay routed in the ground. He put up a good fight, but within a moment, he was being dragged out, regardless of his protests.
This time, despite his complaints and wild struggling, there was no being left at the door.
"We took mercy on you last time," Bokko growled as he hefted Sokka up against the side of the building. Sokka tried to recall what he had been taught about grabs and holds, and he didn't waste energy on trying to get free. Instead, he took ahold of Bokko's wrist, to better support his own weight, instead of letting his shirt carry him by the armpits.
The other men had followed them out, and a few were stripping off their over jackets or stretching their arms. Sokka eyed them all apprehensively, and he said, sharply, "Yeah, so? I'm just looking for a friend, I'm not here to hurt anyone."
"Oh yeah? I thought we told you to never come back, no matter what," Bokko replied, and Sokka turned his eyes on Bokko with a grimace.
"A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do," he replied, feeling appropriately cool. He remembered what Suki had told him, months and months and months ago, and he lifted his legs and put all his strength into kicking Bokko straight in the chest.
It did exactly what Suki said it would –– it threw Bokko down like a sack of rocks, for one, and because Sokka was being held up by said sack of rocks, he went down too. The impact left his tailbone sore as Bokko doubled, lying on the ground, and Sokka picked himself up quickly.
He was still in a circle of men ready to kick the shit out of him, or kill him, for supposedly being Fire nation. Sokka shrugged off the drop and pulled his club from the strap on his back. Even if it was cheap to fight unarmed people with weapons, well... they were still a group of thugs out to get him. Things Suki had taught him about turning the strength of others against themselves floated to mind, but he knew he had a better chance with a club than trying to go one-on-thug with a bunch of guys with only his hands.
To say Sokka was at a disadvantage was an understatement, as there were seven sets of arms to his club and his free hand, and he couldn't really use his boomerang effectively in such close quarters. The men closed in, and despite being able to deliver a smack to one in the head, knocking him right out, and breaking the shoulder of another, Sokka was face-down on the ground in mere minutes, with a foot on the small of his back and a set of strong hands holding his arms behind his back.
Bokko wasn't down for long, and despite a nasty blow to the ribcage, he was on his feet again and standing over Sokka with a nasty look on his face. Sokka felt his lip oozing blood.
"Think you're hot stuff, boy? Why don't you firebend your way outta this one, eh?" he was told, bluntly, and Sokka felt the continuing need to argue.
"Firebend?! I can't even waterbend, how the hell would I know that?" he said, and was replied with a foot pressuring down on the back of his head, pushing his face against the dirt.
"A usual excuse," was the rough reply.
"He's not a firebender," a girl said, suddenly, and Sokka grit his teeth, unable to turn his head. Even so, he knew who it was: the Kyoshi warrior had managed to get herself out of the tavern and involved, and he only wondered why it had taken her so long. "Let him up!"
"What's it to you?" Bokko replied.
"He's a friend of mine, and no Kyoshi warrior would ever make friends with a Fire nation. We're loyal Earth kingdom subjects, and we've been protecting your borders for months and months now," she said.
Bokko sneered, and said, "Let 'im up."
Sokka felt the hands and feet leave him, but a firm hand take ahold of his wolftail. He was half-jerked to his knees, climbing the rest of the way himself, and he looked up at the girl gratefully. Thank heavens for the Kyoshi warriors and kick ass girls.
"Hey, thanks, let go of my hair," Sokka demanded, and Bokko gave him a jerk.
"Not so fast. If she's your friend, what's her name?"
The girl looked at him straight in the eyes, and he didn't even bother trying to remember her name. He said, immediately, "Her name's Suki. She's my girlfriend."
"And he's Sokka," the girl said, as soon as Bokko's eyes moved to her, suspiciously. She was trying hard not to smile. "My... boyfriend."
"Yeah," Sokka said, quickly. Bokka looked skeptical, but the girl wasn't going to relent, even if, in Sokka's opinion, she didn't look terribly confident. There was an odd nervousness to her, when she made demands.
"Is this how the Earth kingdom acts?" she demanded, "Turning against each other out of fear? Let him go, we'll leave, I promise."
She reached out her hand to Sokka and he took it, and his hair was released almost instantly. He glanced over his shoulder at the men as he rose to his feet, his head throbbing with pain. The girl sidled up to him.
Bokko seemed ready to say something else, but after a second he just sneered and waved them off with a scoff. "Just stay the hell out of this town, troublemaker."
"Gladly," Sokka said, linking his arm with the Kyoshi warrior's and pushing past two of the men and marching her off, even if his kneecaps burned when he walked. He paused as he stepped over the body of one he had knocked out, and he added, even if he wasn't particularly remorseful, "Sorry about that."
And the two of them walked right out of town, waiting until they were well out of earshot to talk. Sokka tried to open up earlier than that, of course, but he would start, fumble, and shut up, desperate to talk to her but unwilling to do it in front of the rest of the village. She was much shorter than Suki, and lacked Suki's long, confident strides. Sokka had to purposely slow his own long steps so that she could keep up with him.
When they neared the big frog rock, Sokka pulled them to the side, and said, "C'mon. Our secret hideout's this way, Katara and Toph are up there, er...?"
He waited for a name.
"My name's Tama," she said, as he tried to give her a hand around the rock, despite the fact that she didn't really need it –– she easily did it herself, and then reached over to help him. Kyoshi warriors were capable girls, Sokka knew that well, but he couldn't help being a gentleman, even when he had just been beaten.
"Nice to meet you, Tama, I'm..."
"Sokka," she finished. And then, stifling another giggle, she added, "My boyfriend, right?"
He flushed and felt flustered, but there were more important things on his mind, and Suki was one of them. "Hey, it was the first thing that came to mind."
"I understand. I'm sorry for not jumping to save you immediately," she said, with a smile, "They intervened and blocked me at the door. Are you alright? Suki was right, you do hold up a great fight."
Sokka cracked his neck experimentally, and cringed. Pain shot along his shoulders and neck, and he uncomfortably tested his jaw. He said, "No problem. I was outnumbered, but I'm okay."
"Okay? Your face is bleeding in four places," she said, and he politely pulled his arm from her grip. She asked, "Are you sure?"
"Er," Sokka trailed, and he wiped off his chin with his wrist. He glanced at the smear, and decided he wasn't bleeding too badly. It hardly bothered him, as he had found a Kyoshi warrior and had much more important things to demand of her, rather than help. "Yeah, I'm fine. Katara will fix me up." He kept walking, and she followed suite, and he ignored the sting in his legs by asking, "What happened with the Fire nation girls? Where's Suki? Is she okay?"
Tama turned her head to look at him and she gave a horrible grimace, the type that made Sokka's heart sink.
"I..." she trailed, and then she said, bluntly, "I don't know."
"What do you mean, you don't know?" Sokka demanded.
"I haven't been able to go after her," she admitted.
Sokka stopped dead in his tracks, and could hardly contain his shock. He choked out an embarrassingly high-pitched "What?!"
Tama seemed embarrassed, and she looked away while Sokka had a small spastic fit out of frustration. She said, awkwardly, "I'll explain when we're at your house, okay?"
He grimaced and resisted the urge to scowl. He was grateful for her being here, but his hope and brief optimism had decided to take a vacation for however long, and it chewed at his good mood.
"Fine."
"Sokka," Katara said, with a smile, but her smile faded when she saw his face.
Somehow, Katara couldn't continue that right away. When she turned, she saw his face up close. His left eye was blackened, and there was an ugly gash across his lip, and his cheeks were red. Sokka seemed like he had been smacked around at least a little bit, and he knew it.
"What did you do?" she demanded, and Sokka's determination faded rapidly, to some sort of fleeting ashamed look. When he didn't reply, she grabbed his arm and demanded, louder, "What did you do?!"
"I was down at the tavern, and I got into a fight with a bunch of the soldiers. Look, Katara, I'm fine," Sokka said, "This is more important. Meet Tama."
Katara's eyes shifted off of Sokka's face and onto the Kyoshi warrior girl with surprise. It was if, at first, she thought it was Suki, too, but that was because the clothes were so similar. Tama herself looked nothing like Suki up close. But under all the make-up and robes, Sokka supposed someone who hadn't spent much time with any of the girls wouldn't be able to do such a good job at telling them apart.
Not that he could either, but he knew Suki.
"Tama! Pleased to meet you," Katara said, with a polite bow her head. She glanced at Sokka questioningly, and then asked Tama, "Where are the rest of the Kyoshi warriors?" There was a slight pause, and perhaps realizing how awkward it was to care more about that than the individual, Katara added, swiftly, "But come in! Let's go inside and I'll make tea and whatnot…"
Tama smiled and Sokka rolled his eyes, and they both followed Katara inside. Katara took Sokka by the arm and marched him over to the table, and she sat him down with little gentleness. He cringed at being jerked around, and complained about it loudly.
"Can't a guy get beat up and NOT be thrown around?" he asked, and Katara opened up her water pack to stream some out. It fluttered in Sokka's face, and he leant back, but she was faster.
It was the weirdest thing, to be healed by water, and in the past, Katara had rarely been allowed to healed him. Sokka wasn't one for stupid magic, and he usually liked to let nature heal him. Sure, sometimes he was left with stupid injuries, like a sore tailbone after falling off of Appa and straight onto a rock, or skinned knees after trying to slide across the waxed floors in their place in Ba Sing Se, but never was he going to be pansy enough to get Katara to heal things like that for him. A broken bone? Sure. But otherwise, Sokka was man enough to let nature take its course, even if it left scars.
"Stop that," he said to Katara, but it was too late: he was speaking into a water bubble, and he felt his skin crawl with what was supposed to be a healing sensation. Seconds later, his skin felt tight and stretched, but admittedly, it wasn't sore or bleeding anymore. He grumbled his thanks, and Tama laughed.
"He held his own rather well," she said, mostly to Katara, "Suki'd be impressed, I think."
"You think?" Sokka said, "Nah, she'd beat me for a few hours and tease me forever, but yeah, maybe be a bit impressed, but not mention it. But I'd know."
Katara raised an eyebrow and Tama laughed again.
"He still got hurt, though," Katara replied, and Sokka shrugged, folding his arms.
"Whatever, Katara," Sokka said, "This is Tama, and she's a Kyoshi warrior, and she knows what happened to everyone else, but she didn't want to tell me until we got here."
Toph continued, "Who?"
"Tama," Sokka said.
"Nice to meet you, Toph," Tama said, with a curt bow. Toph replied likewise, minus the bow, and Tama sat down with the rest of them.
"I'm so glad I found Sokka," she said, "if I didn't, there might be problems."
"Where's Suki? Why couldn't you go after her? What happened to you guys?" Sokka demanding, focusing immediately on the Kyoshi warriors. He went on, endlessly, listing off questions that were getting more and more irrelevant, until Tama reached across the table and forcibly closed his flapping mouth.
"Sorry," she apologized, "but be quiet."
She let go, and Sokka resumed his position on tenterhooks. Katara looked concerned but mildly excited, and Toph leant against the table. Tama took a long breath, and launched into an explanation about encountering Appa and caring for him, and then encountering Azula and her team in the forest.
"I figured that from the place, I found where you fought," Sokka said, "How long ago?"
"That was two months ago," Tama said, "Azula was there. Her friends made short work of us, and she personally fought Suki."
Sokka clambered to his feet and demanded, "Is she alright?!"
Tama raised her hands in the air, in defense, in surrender, and she said, quickly, "She was alive when I last saw her!"
Katara grabbed him by the arm and jerked him to sit down again, and he opted to kneel on the ground and hold the edge of the table, as if ready to spring back up at any moment. Tama let out a long breath and she continued, slowly, "Azula fought with Suki..."
They faced off again.
"I'm Suki, leader of the Kyoshi warriors," the girl announced, without being invited.
Azula, for the most part, ignored her. She didn't care about names, or warriors, or intentions. She only cared about results, and as long as there was a group of irritating girls blocking her way, she didn't give a damn about the girl's identity. Her focus was entirely placed on eliminating whatever was barricading her way, and if this girl was talking, she couldn't do that, unless she attacked her mid-sentence. That wasn't an option, perhaps: the girl was a friend of the Avatar, and Azula couldn't go destroying those people before she got information.
Her heart was set solely on the act of destroying, and it brought her a tremendous inner peace and calmness.
"Charmed, I'm sure," Azula replied, almost flippantly.
"And your name?" the girl demanded.
"I'm sure you already know," Azula said, sinking into a fighting pose, lifting her arms and preparing to rush. The girl just lifted her chin and her fans again, the golden metal glinting in the light.
"Of course," the girl replied, and Azula snorted. "But it's only polite and honourable to introduce yourself, as well."
"Then don't try to distract me with words," Azula replied, "and do battle, like an honourable warrior––"
The girl didn't let her finish. She sprinted forward, surprisingly agile for someone clad in such heavy robes, and Azula shot off a stream of lightning that razed and burned the grass in thick ropes, each one missing the intended target by fractions. The Kyoshi warriors weren't exactly hard hitters, but even Azula had to admit their cunning and use of defense.
She shot a last stream. The lightning was absorbed into the metal of the fan, and disappeared, but the edges of the metal glowed red hot, and in her thick gloves, the Kyoshi warrior wasn't harmed by it at all. Azula had to duck when the girl brought the fan up in front of her face and struck forward, and although the hot metal didn't touch her, she felt its heat near her skin.
Another close blow didn't ensure her victory.
Azula let out a snort and dashed forward, but as her foot and rush of flames neared the girl, her eyesight went completely white for an instant, and her eyeballs burned. She had to close her eyes, even as she brought her foot towards the girl's head, but she felt no contact made. By time she had them open, and clear of the pain she wasn't expecting, she saw that the girl was no longer within smashing range: she had dropped low, and she swung her weight around, sweeping Azula right off her standing foot.
Azula crashed down, and the girl sprung up and forward with the fans. Azula could only dodge, and she rolled instinctively. It was hardly a graceful and masterful motion, but she rolled right onto her feet afterwards, leaving Suki in the dust.
Her eyes drifted to the fans in the girl's hands as she prepared for another round, and she realized, immediately, that the girl was angling them to blind her. Sure enough, a second later, Suki had turned the fans over, and Azula had the lights clear in her eyes.
She moved and brought her fingers to her lips, and blew.
The gust of fire was enormous, and it blackened the trees around them without catching, as flash-fire was neither lasting nor reliable, but it created an immense heat and rolled off everything as it went. It was suitable for stunning, and stun it did – the girl was frozen in place, her eyes clamped shut, but she didn't falter when Azula moved to take advantage of it.
The girl cut up with the fan, and Azula ducked with only fractions of a second to spare. She felt her shoulder pauldrons scratch against it, just skimming the surface, and Azula realized, quite angrily, that she would have had the joint of her shoulder smashed, had it connected.
Her fury doubled, and doubled again, as she hurled her body into a spinning kick and lashed at the girl with great arcs of lightning-fire, the flames burning on the path her body left. She struck hard and fast, with great bursts of flash-fire that scorched what it touched and then shriveled away. Azula's opponent was strong; she knew that much, given her extraordinary resilience, but the girl's face was red beneath her war paint. Azula could see it on her delicate throat, on the way her eyes squinted.
"Child's play," she hissed, on the final thrust of her palm, fire singing and scorching, and as the girl let out a pained gasp. Azula felt victory on her lips, hot and delicious, and she flung the girl to the ground with a kick to the head.
The body crumpled and landed, stunned, on the grass. Azula bounced off her palms and to her feet, with a perfect landing. She straightened up, gave a smirk, and paced over to the body.
She rolled it over with a push of her boot, the curved tip hooking under the girl's side. The body lurched over, and Azula stood over it, not bothering to lean down. Ty Lee sauntered up beside her and crouched down, resting her elbows on her knees.
"She's the leader?" Ty Lee replied. She glanced up at Azula and said, "Woah, are you breaking a sweat, Azula? That went quicker than I thought. I thought it'd take longer to get her down, but I guess you got a lucky strike, huh?"
Azula did not break sweats, and Azula did not win on lucky notes. She absently lifted a hand to her brow and, when she felt the slickness of her skin, she let out an irritated breath and ignored Ty Lee's comment, and merely said, "Apparently, she is."
"Keroppi warriors, huh?" Ty Lee said, frowning. "Considerin' they're cool enough to have their own name, I'd think they'd have a lot more cool moves."
Azula rolled her shoulders, perfectly aware of the soreness in her limbs as she did, but she ignored it and corrected, "Kyoshi Warriors. They're named for the Avatar."
"Right!" Ty Lee replied. She sprung to her feet and clapped her hands once, hard. "Do you think there's a connection?!"
"They had the Avatar's bison," Azula said, impatiently.
Ty Lee's round face lit up with delight and wonder, and she said, "Ooh! That's riiight!"
Azula turned her attention away from Ty Lee and reached down to grab the unconscious girl by the collar. The fabric bunched and pulled up from the bodice of the armour, and Azula moved her grip to the shoulder straps. She hoisted the body up, the head lolling back, and she lifted her palm experimentally.
"Azula!" Ty Lee said, almost admonishing, but Mai shushed her with one long finger pressed against her lips.
Azula couldn't hold the body up by the collar for long, as she just didn't possess the upper body strength. The warrior's knees hit the ground soundlessly, cushioned by the grass. But she could hold her upright, at least, where Azula could keep her positioned for marking.
She was in a mood, certainly, enraged at herself for making such a stupid mistake. The body was alive, of course, but that wasn't the problem. The problem at hand was that the girl in her grip was unconscious, and Azula knew she couldn't do it right if she didn't have the ability to deliver a victory speech first. Her father and his generals had always given victory speeches before marking their victims, before burning their faces, so they'd never forget their loss.
Her blood boiled with rage at the idea of not getting it right yet once more. She lifted her hand anyway, and the flames surged before her palm. Azula struggled to keep it strong, and to keep it constant, but the flames didn't twist in a sphere like it was supposed to. Instead, they flickered back and forth, swirling in different directions, and the heat failed to intensify. It never had in the past, and it still didn't now, but it was better than before.
It'd never leave a worthy mark, but Azula refused to give up. She drove it into the girl's forehead, just below the hairline, and when the flames subsided, she was angry to see it barely left what would be a first-degree burn. Not even the acrid stench of burning hair and skin could possibly comfort her failure.
She was about to throw the body aside when Mai interrupted, calmly.
"Azula," she said, "are we going to do something or play with bodies all day?"
Azula glanced over, and let her face twist into a sneer, one eyebrow dipping and the corner of her mouth curling in contempt. She dropped the body and it crumpled in the grass and dirt, amongst the ashes falling from the trees above, falling like rain from the smouldering trees. The fires had burnt out relatively quickly on the fresh trees, mostly smoking until they went out. The only exception was the large log, which had been from a tree that was dead, and its dry, brittle wood still seared with flames.
"Are any alive?" Azula asked, crisply.
"Well, yeah, but only one's gonna be chatty."
Ty Lee gave a grin and gestured over her shoulder. Besides the numerous green-clad bodies lying about amongst the trees, there was one girl still conscious, mostly unharmed. The shoulders and sleeves of her coat had been pinned to the tree with a deadly accuracy, and her limbs hung from her body like a stationary marionette's, useless and immobile. Ty Lee gave a celebratory cheer and did a backflip.
"One caught and ready to be questioned, courtesy the Ty Lee and Mai Tree-Pinning and Pressure-Poking Brigade!" she cheered, and Mai rolled her eyes. Azula ignored the nonsense and walked up between them, stopping to stand a few feet away from the prisoner. She folded her arms and stared the girl down with vicious, golden eyes.
"So," Azula said, "if that one over there is the leader, who are you?"
The girl gritted her teeth, and said, defiantly, "A Kyoshi warrior."
Azula wasn't impressed by this answer. She strode forward, and she put her palm against the bark of the tree, right under the girl's arm. The bark heated rapidly, tendrils of smoke curling off of it in wisps. The girl looked down at it, frantically, and Azula asked again.
"What's your name?" Azula demanded.
"I'm a Kyoshi warrior!" the girl repeated, though her voice was higher and less sure of itself. Before Azula could ask again, the girl repeated, yet again, "I'm a Kyoshi warrior! That's our code!"
"Kyoshi Island," Azula replied, calmly. "Where Avatar Kyoshi was born. I've heard of it many times... off the southern peninsula, isn't it? Just a pathetic fishing village? Is it worth sending Fire nation there?"
"Don't you dare," the girl hissed, and Azula only gave a vague smile as the girl tried to reign herself in. It was like trying to spread a thin cloth over a gaping wound: it worked, to some extent, but the blood still flowed like wine.
"What is your connection to the Avatar?" Azula asked.
"Kill me, I won't say a word," the girl spat, but when Azula lifted two fingers to the girl's face, she squirmed her upper body and said, swiftly, "I won't say!"
Azula recognized the girl's fear of death, despite her insistence. She supposed that, under the pressure of the Fire nation's ruthless princess, that any would crumble, even beg for death, be it for the Avatar's good or her own.
"It's truly a shame to rid the world of female warriors, as pathetic as you are," Azula stated, "Seldom have I seen women in the Earth kingdom stand up on their own feet. It seems that strength amongst women is a trait unique to the Fire nation."
"Better one of few than a tyrant woman of a nation once-honest and once-loved!" was the snapped reply, fearful and defensive, and Azula struck.
The lightning that shot from her fingertips was hot and rapid, white-blue with heat and intense all the way through. It struck the girl in the face, as she was unable to move, and she died instantly. Azula turned her eyes away, almost bored and discontent, her temper rolling inside of her like a tempest, and she turned her eyes on her companions.
Ty Lee chirped a pleasant, "Wow, this is intense!"
Azula glanced at Ty Lee, and considered speaking to her, but she instead turned to Mai. Mai blinked once, and then again, and Azula said, "I have a task for you." She took a glance around the fallen young women, as if taking inventory, and her eyes narrowed.
"Yes?"
"Go to the nearest village with Fire nation occupation –– I believe there's one six li from here. Find the commanding officer, and demand he make room for four prisoners. Not from the resistance –– friends of the Avatar. I want them kept in condition for questioning."
She paused and looked about again, and then to Ty Lee, suspiciously, "Weren't there six, including the one on the tree?"
Ty Lee glanced about, and shrugged.
"Guess not! Four plus Tree."
Azula didn't reply, either verbally or expressively, and she looked down at the body of the leader with a distinct discontent.
"And where were you?" Sokka demanded.
Tama looked down, awkwardly, and she replied, "The one who touches an opponents pressure points to immobilize them... she and I fought, and my body fell into a patch of bushes. I couldn't move, my legs and arms were completely frozen. The leader before Suki, she had taught us how to do that, but we hadn't seen that technique in a long, long time. I couldn't move, so I didn't speak, and they didn't realize I was still there."
"You're lucky," Katara said, "they're ruthless... if they found you..."
Sokka glanced at Katara sidelong, still looking angry, and she looked away pointedly. Tama sighed and continued.
"So I knew where they were going, but there wasn't much I could do. Once they were gone and my mobility was back, I considered going after them, but I was too weak and all alone. Kyoshi warriors are made to work as a unit, and I knew that rushing in alone to fight all those Fire nation soldiers, plus Azula and her girls, was a stupid thing. So I waited to see what I could learn."
"Did you hear anything?" Sokka pressed, "So they are still alive, right? Maybe a bit banged up, but if they're just in prison, right? We can go and bust them out."
"I don't think it'll be that easy," Tama replied, "plus, we don't even know that for sure."
"Then let's go and find out," Sokka said, rising to his feet again. He moved towards the cupboard to his pack, as if he was going to set out in the next ten minutes. Katara's eyebrows furrowed and Tama frowned.
She hesitated a second, and then said, "Sokka, stop."
He held onto his sleeping bag and looked over at the girls, and frowned, too. He said, "Why? We have to save Suki and the rest of them!"
"That might be impossible!" Tama replied, and Sokka was unable to resist his aggravation. He pitched the sleeping bag at her like he would pitch a rock, and while Katara ducked, Tama lifted her arm and knocked it right out of the air and over behind her, harmlessly. Sokka let out a hard breath.
"You're a coward," he snapped, "you're a coward. You hid to avoid getting caught with them, you deserted them, and that makes you a yellow-bellied weakling."
"She wouldn't be here if she didn't, Sokka," Katara argued, rising on her knees.
"I don't care," Sokka replied. He really did care. "She deserted Suki and everyone else, and now she's too chicken to make an effort to save them! The Kyoshi warrior code is her duty and she's throwing it away like a sissy! She's here, free, while they might not even be alive, and she refuses to help them. She has no honour if she's not even willing to try!"
Tama just stared, unable to argue, it seemed. There was an awkward pause, and Sokka just went on being annoyed, although his anger was pretty much wasted on his venting. Tama put a hand to her face for a moment, covering her eyes, and eventually, she lifted her head again with a sigh. Sokka went on frowning, until she spoke.
"Point taken, Sokka. You're right, I should do something. I'm going to go down to the Fire detention center, in the colony. It's about sixteen li from here, so I can probably make it there by tomorrow. I'll find out what I can about the place, and then come back here and let you know. And… I'm really sorry," Tama said, tentatively, "but… I don't think I'll have any good news for you, Sokka. Please don't get your hopes up too high."
He strode over to them again and rounded the table so he was nearer to her.
"I want to go with you," Sokka said, immediately, "I have to know, Tama. I have to know for myself, I can't stand waiting in this place anymore."
"Sokka," Katara said, testily, laying a hand on his shoulder with a concerned look, and Sokka shook her off.
He knelt down in front of Tama and dipped his head down, and asked, "Please, take me with you."
Tama seemed to honestly consider him for a moment, but the polite smile on her face slipped away reluctantly. She said, "I'm sorry, Sokka, but Katara and Aang, and Toph, they all need you. If Aang wakes up, you won't be here, and you'll need to be. I'm sorry I can't offer you a better reason to stay behind, but it's safer if I go alone."
Sokka lifted his head and protested, "But why didn't you go before? Why now, alone still?"
"Because it's my duty," Tama replied, simply, and Sokka almost winced at the hypocrisy of it all.
"But..." he trailed off, unable to disagree. It was her duty, and Katara, Toph and Aang did need him, even if he harboured little optimism of Aang waking so soon. The monk's state hadn't changed at all in weeks, and he didn't have Katara's unyielding hope.
"I understand," he said finally, and then added, "We'll get you everything you need for the journey, though, and then you have to come back. You have to promise."
Tama smiled again, and gave a clipped laugh that lacked honesty. She said, "Alright, Sokka. I promise."
"Thank you," Sokka said. He was a bit embarrassed by now relieved and needy he sounded, but he swallowed it bitterly. He didn't quite understand, but a step forward was a step regardless.
That morning, Sokka rose to see her off, and he silently walked with her as far as the village. There, at the end of the lane, she pressed a sisterly kiss to his cheek, and she said, sadly, "For both of our sakes, I hope she's alive. I can't imagine being led into battle by anyone else."
He just nodded and they exchanged "See you"s and "good luck"s, and then she was gone, and if Sokka wasn't tethered to his family by an invisible chain, he'd be racing to keep up with her.
Anything, really, to get to Suki.
When Sokka saw someone who wasn't Tama coming up the hill, he didn't hesitate: he raced back to the house, and shouted at Katara, "We have to leave RIGHT now."
"Why?" Katara said, surprised, looking up from the cauldron she was cooking in. He was busy dragging the giant leafy blanket he had made right over Appa, to shield him from view, though the house did a great job of that already.
"It doesn't matter now," he said, firmly, "Just... we have to go! Or we have to run! Or something! Pretend to be Fire nationers!"
"We can't move Aang, why do we have to run?" Katara insisted, and Sokka crossed the room. He shoved open the chest and rifled through it madly, throwing bits of clothing everywhere. Two scrolls bounced to the floor and rolled away.
"I was looking around, and there are Fire soldiers coming up this way. They're coming up to find us and they could be here any minute, please, Katara, please, just wake up Toph and get Aang and we'll go..."
"You want us to move him?! We can't move him! He could die!" Katara said, loudly, and Sokka cringed, visibly. Toph, despite being able to sleep like a rock, was groggily stirring, suddenly.
"Would you rather they find out what he is?" Sokka demanded, with his back to her still. He flung his old bag across the room, and it hit the wall and fell to the floor. "We just need to... I dunno, get out of sight and earshot, or..."
"What are you yelling about?" Toph asked, sleepily, turning towards the sound of their voices.
"Fire soldiers are coming," Katara said, heavily, and Toph was up on her hands and knees in a flash. Toph scrambled to get off her bedding, and pressed her palms to the tatami. After a second, she gave an angry scoff, and she groped for the edge of the mat she was on. Lifting up the corner, Toph slid her hands to the bare earth underneath, and "listened".
Sokka turned around suddenly, with a triumphant grin, and he held up a bundle of red clothes.
"Where did you get those?" Katara demanded, and Sokka tossed a set at her.
"It doesn't matter," he said, bluntly, as he threw another set at Toph. They bounced off her head, and she complained. Sokka ignored her and continued, as he yanked off his shirt, "Put 'em on, we'll pretend to be, er... recent converters."
There was a fuss from Katara immediately.
"What about Aang?" Her hands were on her hips, the clothes draped over one wrist. She said, "everyone knows what the arrow markings mean. They'll know it's him, even if they don't recognize us."
As Sokka dragged the red pants over his blue ones, despite their being too big, Toph said, loudly, "Do you guys completely forget things?! Sokka, go hold them off, they're close, we'll finish here..."
"What?"
"Just go," Toph snapped.
Sokka gave her an annoyed look, his eyebrows lifting and his mouth twisting into a pout at being ordered around, and he took off out the still-open door, fumbling with the ties on his pants.
"Wait!" Katara called, "Take your hair down! Just in case!"
He tried to take his hair down and hold his pants up at the same time. The wolftail went down and he forked his fingers through it, and the red pants threatened to slip down to his knees. They likely would have, if he hadn't seized them and shoved the front into the waistband of his regular pants. He left his shirt un-tucked.
Sokka knew he'd look smooth, anyway.
The soldiers were coming up over the edge of the hill at a jog, sending little avalanches of loose stone and dirt tumbling off the bottoms of their shoes as they ran. Sokka jogged towards them, casual as possible, to put as much space between them and the cabin as possible. When he reached them, he put on a grin.
"What can I do for you guys?" he asked, casually, and his winning look faded when the leading soldier –– a captain, Sokka knew, based off of the shape of his shoulder pauldrons and chest armour –– gave him a withering look.
"We're looking for a bunch of kids," he said, sternly. His hand rested on the hilt of his sword, and he eyed Sokka up and down. "We were told by the villagers that a bunch of weird kids connected to the Avatar lived up here, and we saw someone come off the path. Figured we'd check it out."
"You made that long walk just to come see us?" Sokka said, and then added, quickly and in his best serious voice, "I don't know about Avatars, though. I mean, it's just us up here, nothing weird at all, we just... live alone. Yeah."
He grinned again, and the captain did not look convinced in the slightest. Sokka paused to rethink, and then he continued, "Yeah, I'd invite you guys in for tea, but we have none, so... will you be going now?"
"We'll be going when we're finished business here, boy," said the captain, and a few of the foot-soldiers snickered behind his back. Sokka frowned, and the captain took a step closer, only to continue, "You don't look Fire nation. Why are you wearing their clothes?"
Sokka wasn't sure what to make of that, given his and Katara's different skin-tones and facial features, and he knew straight-up admitting there were people from the Water tribes here was stupid. They were so few and far-between in the Earth kingdom that any idiot would recognize that there were some traveling with the Avatar. So, all he could do is say, "We're––er, were, Earth nation, but we understand the Fire nation's goal, sir."
"Funny," said the captain, with the slightest mocking twinge. "You don't look Earth nation, either."
Sokka could continue without hesitation here, because Toph had been drilling this into his head for the past weeks nonstop, like river cycle: "Earth is the biggest nation, with the biggest variety of people. Kind of like, well... the earth."
"I see," drawled the captain. He did not supply more.
"Yeah," Sokka said.
"Inspect the place," the captain ordered. There was a hiss of breath through the masks of the foot-soldiers, and they fell out of rank, breezing by Sokka, who didn't hesitate to tail them.
"Wait," he said, "wait, don't go in!"
They didn't stop, and he thought on his toes, supplying the excuse immediately.
"My sister's changing in there!"
Again, they didn't stop, and the nearest one forced open the sliding door with little gentleness. Sokka caught up quick, and leaned around the crowding soldiers to see Katara in the door-frame, in the red pants, although her shirt wasn't done up. She fumbled with the shoulder of it. Her hair was down, except for the top, which had been drawn into the typical Fire-nation style.
She let out a loud, protesting growl, and said, "Excuse me, what do you think you're doing?"
Sokka thought, helplessly, as he approached the door and squeezed between two sets of nasty shoulder armour, that maybe she shouldn't be picking fights with them. It really just wasn't the time.
"Sister," he said, bluntly, "they just want to inspect. They're looking for the kids traveling with the Avatar. Silly, huh?"
He looked at her dead in the eyes as he said it, though he tried to look casual. Katara kept her gaze locked on her brother's for a mere moment, and then she said to the approaching captain, with great gusto, "You're not welcome to barge into our home."
The look on the captain's face darkened, and Sokka saw his hand stray to his hip, to the hilt of a broadsword. He acted fast.
"Hey," Sokka said, louder, "they run us now, don't they? It'll only take a minute, stop being so rebellious. Do as I say, I'm in charge, just let 'em by."
Katara gave him a dark look, but she didn't protest anymore. The captain let out a chuckle, and he placed his hand on her shoulder to push her aside, but Katara shrugged it off and moved herself. The soldiers passed through, and Sokka eagerly followed, and Katara elbowed him in the ribs as he went. He hid his cringe.
Aang was nowhere in sight, and Toph was sitting on her bedding with her legs tucked under her, hair up in the Fire-nation ponytail like Katara's. She stared straight ahead, blindly, and she gave a weak turn of her head at the sound of their entrance. Her posture was immaculate.
"Who's here?" Toph asked.
"She's our companion. She's blind," Sokka explained, and he glanced around the room casually, looking for Aang. When he didn't find him, he looked questioningly to Katara, who was shadowing the captain and ignoring Sokka.
"What do you want?" Katara asked.
"Don't you listen? We're looking for the Avatar's friends, on Princess Azula's orders," the captain said, walking over to stand over Toph. She didn't move an inch. "The Avatar's body disappeared, and the Princess wants it. We're trying to locate it."
The soldiers split apart across the room, opening the closets and cupboards, throwing the hastily-repacked trunk apart. Sokka watched them with baited breath, sure they would find Aang's clothes, or the Water-style clothing, or the scrolls, but somehow, they didn't emerge from the trunk. He glanced at Katara, full of questions, but she just kept her eyes on the captain. She gave the slightest shake of her head, barely moving.
After a moment, content that they had not found anything remotely Avatar-related, the soldiers returned to the captain with directions.
"Nothing, sir," they all chorused.
"Very well," the captain said, relenting with an irritated sigh. He cast his eyes about the room, scanning Sokka and Katara for answers, and they both stayed calm. But as his eyes passed between them, they stopped and focused. "What's that?"
Katara and Sokka turned as one, and Sokka felt his chest constrict when he saw Aang's glider. One of the soldiers started towards it to take it, but Sokka sprang forward, seizing it first.
"It's just a stick," he said, "it's a walking stick."
"Really?" the captain said, and held his hand out, "let me see it."
Sokka hesitated.
"What's wrong?" the captain said. "Hand it over."
Sokka looked to his sister, who gave him a blank, helpless look. She held her breath, and the captain started to implore again, so he held out the glider hesitantly.
The captain took it, harshly, his large hands easily wrapping around the wood with considerable ease. He held in both hands, parallel to the floor, and his eyes ran down the length of the body.
Sokka, with his never-ending interest in machinery and mechanics, had examined the glider on many occasions, whenever he could convince Aang to let him have a look. It was made with a hollow panel on each side, where the spring-loaded glider wings would fold down, and Sokka knew they couldn't be opened without airbending. He had tried on many, many occasions to get it open and take a look at those mechanics, but Aang never seemed too keen on letting him try to take it off the nearest high ledge.
Turning it over in his hands, the captain certainly found the creases in the wood, and he could see where the joints were that supported the crossbar when it was open, but he couldn't seem to open it, no matter how he tried.
"What is this, boy?" he demanded, after a moment of fruitless prying. Sokka felt a moment of smugness.
"It's a walking stick, like I said," he confirmed, feeling plenty more confident. The captain frowned more, and Sokka relaxed, folding his arms in front of his chest. Katara looked mildly hopeful.
"Hmph," the captain snorted, and he put one end of it on the floor, holding it upright. After another moment of inspection, he finally deemed it useless, and he said, "Then you won't miss it."
Both Sokka and Katara tried to stop it, and Toph's mouth dropped open, but before anyone could make any respectable movement, the captain had brought his knee up and snapped the glider's spine over it, in one smooth movement. He dropped the pieces to the floor, a few splinters still binding the pieces together, a long split cracked through it at an ugly angle.
"I suppose we're done here, men," the captain said, and he strode to the door. The soldiers began to follow, and knotted at the doorframe, where the captain stopped to look at Sokka over his shoulders. "Any funny business and we'll be up here in a second, boy. And treat your sister with respect – she isn't chattel, you Earth kingdom men should learn to respect your women."
Sokka seemed like he was going to pick a fight, to either deny having ever been disrespectful, or insist he did have the right to order her around because he was her older brother, but Katara was giving him warning looks. He let them go, and closed the door behind them.
The three waited in silence for many minutes, just to be sure the Fire nationers were gone, before they dared move. Katara slipped to the window, finally, and looked out. When she saw nothing, she grew braver and opened the door, and when she saw no one, she breathed a sigh of relief.
"They're gone," she said. Sokka sank to the floor with a long breath, and dropped his head back, staring up at the ceiling. Toph clutched her cheeks in her hands, uncomfortable, and then dropped them.
"That was a disaster," she said, grumpily, and Sokka, now laying on the floor outright, feeling as if his heart would burst, heartily agreed.
And then, when it had settled in, he sat bolt upright and demanded, "Where's Aang? And our Water tribe stuff?"
Katara moved away from the door and crossed the room to her sleeping bag. She dragged it away, and peeled back the tatami to expose the dirt once more. There was a neat round hole in the hard-packed dirt and earth, and Sokka could not see inside. Toph slid forward and lifted her hands, making a pulling gesture through the air with her fists. The earth shifted in one long, rumbling motion, and the covering slid away, revealing a dug cavity. Sokka stood up and approached it.
Inside was Aang, bundled on Sokka's parka, his eyes closed and his chest gently rising and falling, just as he had been for the past weeks. Hastily thrown down beside him were their clothes.
With the panic over Aang's whereabouts gone, Sokka settled on throwing a fit over the current issue: "My parka's gonna have dirt all over it!"
Katara raised an eyebrow at him, and she replied with the gentle sarcasm she always reserved for him and a select few others. "Oh no," she said, dramatically, "a bit of dirt? Sorry, next time we have to avoid that sort of thing, I'll be sure to put the tarp down first!"
Sokka made a face at her and settled on ignoring her. He turned to Toph and asked, "Where the heck did you hide the dirt to make that thing?"
She gave an expression that said she was completely and utterly annoyed at his lack of culture, or so Sokka assumed. He saw that face often, and he was sure that was what it meant, though he couldn't be sure. Toph tended to make incorrect or downright confusing facial expressions, and it boggled him on a constant basis.
"What?" Sokka said.
"ALL Earth kingdom houses have them already," she said, matter-of-factly. Sokka couldn't avoid the sheer amount of superiority she let drip from her voice, he practically drowned in it on a daily basis, and coming from a twelve year old, it was even more degrading. "We keep them for emergencies. What, don't you guys drill holes in the ice or something?"
"No!" Sokka protested, "Why would we do that?! It'd be cold! And no one's crazy enough for anyone to need a magic hole-in-the-ground hide-away!"
"We're not crazy," Toph argued, and Sokka folded his arms and scowled.
"Right."
"Hey, break it up," Katara said, loudly. "Look, we've got a bigger problem now."
"No we don't," Sokka said, eyes still on Toph, rife with challenge. He said, loudly, "She's being a brat."
Katara's eyes narrowed, and he stopped there. Toph scoffed, and Katara said, sharply, "The Fire nation knows where we are. Maybe it's time to find a new place."
"We can't," Sokka shot back, "Tama's coming back HERE, we can't just leave that."
Katara opened her mouth to continue the argument, and then she nodded and closed her mouth. She turned back to Aang, and ran her hand over his forehead, fondly, and didn't say another word.
Sokka just breathed a sigh of relief.
Sokka was up a tree, literally, keeping watch.
He was crammed into the nook between the trunk and a branch jutting out of the tree at a right angle. He had his boomerang in his hand. He was ready to kill the first animal that strayed in his path, because Sokka wanted dinner something fierce. Everything that moved, he registered, he knew it was coming from hundreds of metres away. The rustle in the bushes over there? A deerabbit too small to bother with. The kerfuffle behind those trees? Just a bird.
And still, still, a Kyoshi warrior got the jump on him. She shouted, from behind him, "Sokka!" and he fell out of that tree much like raindrops fell from the sky, he was so surprised.
He hit the ground on his feet, as it wasn't too far, but he sank to his butt rather fast, and he groaned when Tama stepped out from the trees and flashed him a raised eyebrow.
She said, "Suki'd laugh at you right now, you know that?"
"Tama, at this point, I would gladly listen to her read from bending scrolls, I am so beyond caring," Sokka said, slightly irked, but he was looking up at Tama, so he couldn't be mad. He said, as he climbed to his feet, "She's not with you. Did you find her?"
"I know where she is, if she's alive," Tama replied, and she paused, when Sokka just stared her down, inexplicable. She said, "I don't know. She's in a facility. Azula's personal guard last night, and apparently she left behind a few prisoners she intended to send for later. If Suki's alive, she's there, but maybe not for long."
"Where is Azula going?"
"Home to the Fire nation," Tama said.
"How do you know this sort of stuff?" Sokka said, rather surprised, "Do they honestly just tell you all sorts of information like this?"
"Drinks," Tama replied, and when Sokka raised an eyebrow, Tama said, "Trust me, when you live on the Island of Kyoshi, you learn plenty. The port is drunk central, they're easy to manipulate."
"So you got a bunch of guards drunk and they told you?"
Tama nodded, and Sokka shrugged and smiled. He picked up his boomerang and said, rather rapidly, "Let's go get Toph and Katara, then, and tell them what's up. And we'll leave as soon as we can!"
As they headed back towards the house, Sokka's gut twisted in his stomach. Was Suki okay? Was she alive? Were they going in there on a hopeless cause?
At the house, Katara frowned, almost concerned, and although she was happy that there was a chance for them to save Suki, she seemed worried all the same. She sat them down with dinner, and agreed they would set out at the crack of dawn. When Sokka protested this and wanted to go out immediately, Katara rebuffed him with a worried, "We'd best be rested and fed before we go."
She went off to heal Aang for a bit, leaving Sokka to mull things over.
He hated it.
Katara brushed her fingertips over Aang's forehead, ruffling his hair. It had been a gradual thing, that hair, first coarse brown stubble, and then just enough to mask the colour of his scalp, and now it was so thick she could run her fingers through it, soft and brown.
She hadn't seen his grey eyes in so many weeks, and someone else had replaced the Aang she knew – laughing, bubbly, grey-eyed and bald-headed. This boy she cared for was sleeping still, he had brown hair and no voice, and his pale eyelids hid any life.
She couldn't tell Sokka, but her hope was dwindling too. She was reminded of the elderly, in that way, really – she was sitting there waiting for a miracle, and after a hundred years, hope was remarkably scarce. When Sokka told her Suki could be alive, she had just thought of Aang all alone and maybe dead, and maybe never waking up, and she just didn't care about anything else. Why didn't he understand that Aang was the Avatar, and the one thing that could save everyone, even Suki?
That terrified her.
Tears slipped down her cheeks, and she bent over Aang's unconscious form. She pulled his torso into her lap, cradling his head in the crook of one arm, and she cried. He was so slack, that was nothing new after all these weeks, but she began to wonder if he really was going to sleep forever, just like Sokka's dark prediction.
Katara cried, and cried, and Aang still didn't wake up, though she desperately wanted him to, even with her tears dripping onto his face.
"Please," she begged.
Nothing happened.
"Please!" she begged again.
It was slowly becoming a fool's hope.
"Where's Sokka?" Katara asked, dry-eyed, as she stepped out of the secret room Toph had made for Aang and looked around, only to see him completely out of sight. Tama had dozed off by the fire, and Toph rolled over on the tatami mats, stretching her arms out. Katara felt a childish desire to do the same: she had been working on healing Aang's extensive wounds for hour after hour, until she hadn't even realized hours had passed.
Toph wiggled her toes and fingers, closing her eyes, and she splayed her palms out against the floor, so close to the cold earth.
"He left for a while," she replied. "He's okay, though, he's out in the yard now. I can feel a gap where the rain isn't hitting the ground... he's just standing there like an idiot. I don't know what he's doing."
Katara crossed the tiny room and slid open the door. She stepped out onto the porch and closed the door behind her, and neared the edge of the overhang. Sure enough, there was Sokka, standing in the rain. His shoulders were sloped and his arms hanging listlessly at his sides, and his hair was out of its ponytail.
Something about seeing her brother so solemn was crushing. He had been listless ever since they had discovered the news about Suki, and the knowledge that she was alive and in the Fire nation's captivity had done nothing to ease that.
"Sokka," she called. He didn't even look over. She called again, and when he ignored her still, she lifted one hand and walked forward. The rain bent around her, as if it was rolling off a large bubble, and she crossed the yard to stand behind her older brother.
"Hey," she said, softly, bending the rain off of him, under their invisible umbrella. He let out a long sigh, and she continued, "Sokka, come inside. You'll get sick if you stay out here."
"I have to go rescue her, Katara," Sokka said. His voice was hollow and deeply rutted with something like anger. "I can't stay here when she's their prisoner. If she's there..."
She could easily doubt any success. The layer of Fire that had washed over the Earth nation was thick, and it seeped into almost every crack. As she had seen with Haru and his people before, she saw the Earth nation bowing as one, submitting to the hostile rule without fight, nor question. And resistance was stamped out quickly, and there were few who could withstand Fire for long. It scorched the Earth, scorched the Earth's people, and broke any chance of recreation.
The Earth kingdom was dying at the feet of a cruel, merciless master.
"I'm sorry, Sokka," Katara said. "I'm so sorry. I know it's hard to accept." He averted his eyes and she pulled him into a tight hug, and she continued, "First Yue, now Suki..."
"No," he said, quite abruptly, and sternly. She let go and looked up at him questioningly, feeling a deep pang of sympathy for him. He continued, "Suki... Suki isn't dead. Nor is Yue."
Katara hesitated. It occurred to her that she still had never really talked to her brother about Yue, because he floated around the subject and clearly avoided it. True, Yue hadn't died, per se, and she supposed that it was easier for him to pretend she had gone, rather than died, but... delusions about it weren't good for him. And while she desperately wanted Suki to be alive, there was nothing she could do.
"Sokka," she said, delicately, "the Fire nation is ruthless. Azula is ruthless... no matter what Tama says, she could be dead."
"Tama said there was a chance," Sokka insisted.
"The Fire nation has never kept prisoners before," Katara replied, reasonably. "Sokka, it could be a trap to lure us out, and we could walk right into it, even if Aang isn't with us. Pretending to be Fire nation won't get us that far, this time... civilians aren't allowed within the military areas. We'll be stopped before we even get near it."
"That's why we have Fire nation clothes," Sokka said, and Katara frowned.
"We're still don't know if it's a trap," she said, pointedly.
Sokka turned to look at her, suddenly, and he said, impatiently, "It couldn't be!"
"When has Azula ever shown mercy?" Katara asked. "She exploited her own brother, she tried to kill her own uncle, she toppled Ba Sing Se through lies and deceit. Somehow, Sokka, I don't think anyone who fought Azula would end up in a cell."
"You heard Tama," Sokka replied sharply, and Katara cut him off.
"Sokka, the Fire nation knows who we are, and they know who Aang travels with. They don't know Aang's been unconscious, we know they've been searching extensively for his body... for all they knew, he vanished into thin air with us. They want to lure us out, and if they find out Aang's alive––"
"So what if they do?!" Sokka shot back. "They could still have Suki. We have to go save her, and if you won't come with me, I'll go alone."
"Sokka, don't be stupid," Katara said, "even if you get a uniform, you don't look Fire nation. You're Water tribe. It doesn't matter if I wear red clothing, or Fire nation jewelry, I still don't look like them."
She gestured down at her clothes, the billowy red pants and the single-strapped crop top, all the gold jewelry bright against her dark skin. She continued, seriously, "It'd be impossible. You don't know the layout, you don't know the people, you don't know anything about the place, and you expect that a uniform will get you all the way in!"
Sokka bristled, and his shoulders squared. He rounded on her, taking a step forward and getting right into her face, and he said, "What's wrong with you, Katara? In the past, whenever someone was in trouble, you were the first to go riding into danger. Getting yourself arrested, going right up against the enemy without any hesitation. Why now? Is Aang, who hasn't gone anywhere or done anything in eons, the only reason? Without him here, are you just going to sit here while the Fire nation destroys everything we're fighting to keep?!"
She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Hadn't she been striving to keep him alive for everything? Keeping Aang alive was the only hope they had, and if he died, there would be nothing. The fire engulfing their entire world would grow hotter and hotter, and she had willingly kept herself trapped inside, to keep Aang safe, even when her heart longed to reach out to the Earth kingdom and help it as best she could.
How could Sokka not understand that?
"That's unfair," Katara protested, "Are you saying I'm a coward for sitting here trying to keep Aang alive?! What am I supposed to do, Sokka, leave Aang here while we go try to win Ba Sing Se back, or stomp out the Fire nation?"
"The end of the summer is coming anyway, Katara, whether Aang's here or not! You've changed because he's gone, and yes, you are acting like a coward! What happened to protecting people? What, do you think we can't do it without Aang?!"
He gave a hard and infuriated breath, and he shouted, "You just keep turning your back on people, that's what you're doing!"
Katara took this like a smack in the face. Her mouth dropped open and her eyebrows furrowed in shock and anger, and she didn't back down. Balling her hands into fists, she shouted at him, "I will NEVER turn my back on people who need me!"
Why couldn't he understand that Aang needed her just as much as everyone else? How she couldn't leave? How not just Aang, but the Avatar, needed her? Katara was doing this under the impression that he, the Avatar, would awaken in time for them to go to the Fire nation and overthrow the Fire lord.
She didn't want to consider what would happen if he didn't.
"Then why are you waiting here?!" Sokka demanded.
"Aang needs us!"
Her eyes were full of angry tears, she could feel them stinging and clouding her vision.
"Aang is gone, Katara," he snapped, "it doesn't matter how long you sit over his bedside crying, he's going to stay unconscious until he wakes up. Stay if you want, I'm going to help Suki, I'm leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow. And if you have problems with that, fine."
Katara didn't reply, she just let out a long breath and stopped keeping the rain off them. It splashed down on their heads and she stared him down angrily.
"Fine," she said, turning on her heel and marching towards the house. "Go, then!"
Sokka didn't stop her, and he stomped his foot against the ground in anger, and after a moment, stormed into the house to get his things ready. Katara pointedly ignored him.
Sokka pulled on the Fire nation armor he had 'liberated' from a soldier in the village earlier in the week with some sort of solemn duty.
"Are you alright?" Toph asked him, "I can feel your heart beating without even being close to you. It's practically shaking you."
Sokka was fumbling with the clasps on the shoulder pauldrons, to hold them to the chest-piece. He said, defensively, "I'm only putting on this uniform to save Suki. I feel horrible wearing it anyway."
"We do what we have to," Toph said, noncommittally. "Don't worry about it. I hate it too."
She was wearing a pair of red robes they had found. They were a bit small for her, so they were tighter than what she was used to, so she had complained about it quite some bit. Katara was far more comfortable, even if she found the short shirt awkward to wear in public.
(That was the drawback of growing up in a society where a simple long-sleeved shirt was scandalously naked, if only because you could freeze to death pretty fast that way.)
Sokka buckled up the belt on the fauld and moved his legs about, experimentally. He rolled his shoulders and reached towards the ceiling, and then touched his toes. When he was completely satisfied – not exactly impressed, but at least satisfied – with his mobility, he joined Tama on the porch. Toph followed. Tama tucked her fans into the sash of the Fire nation clothes she was wearing. They didn't say a word to each other, though Sokka felt the urge to apologize again for his behaviour.
"Sokka," Katara said, as he stepped off the porch.
He turned and looked at her, and he glanced up and down her. He wasn't sure if she was still wearing the Fire nation clothes because it was laundry day soon or if she intended on coming with them, but then she said, "I'm sorry about yesterday. I'm coming with you."
He smiled at her, and said, "I'm sorry, too. Come on, let's go."
She smiled, and so did Tama. Toph sort of scoffed, but she smiled too, and blew her bangs up. Sokka pulled Katara into a quick hug, and off they went.
The four of them set off at dawn, figuring that by time night fell, they'd be at the prison, and prepared to launch their invasion. The entire journey went by rather quickly, as all of them were far more focused on walking than on talking, though they had the odd argument over attack plans. Sokka couldn't really make out an invasion technique until he saw the place for himself, and Tama had never been inside, so she hadn't exactly been able to lay it out for him beforehand.
Their journey went relatively unnoticed, too – they passed a small brigade of Fire nation soldiers on the road, and later, a caravan of Fire nation settlers. From the caravan, they got an interesting tidbit of news – Ba Sing Se had been crushed entirely, and the outer walls were being stripped down with the help of captured Earthbenders, despite a resistance from many of the surviving civilians. The resistance, the man leading the caravan explained, had been stomped out, "thank the Fire Lord", and that maybe now the world would be "more civilized".
It was very, very hard for all of them to resist beating this man black and blue, and in the end, when the caravan started moving and all attention was turned back to the road, Sokka discreetly pulled a bolt from one of their wagon's wheels as he walked past.
"That won't hurt them, will it?" Katara asked, and Sokka shook his head.
"The wheel'll fall off when they run over uneven ground. They'll be fine, it'll just make more work for them."
Katara giggled, and Sokka put on a smile, just for her sake, before they both returned to the stony determination and silence.
When they reached the building and slipped into the compound, Sokka could feel his heart pounding with every step.
The guards didn't seem to find them out of sorts -- Sokka dismissed the man at the door, an obviously stupid fellow tired from standing out in the sun, by saying he was escorting these three daughters of the General, and "how dare you stand in our way?" and they were in. They kept out of sight of guards as much as they could, anyway, because some looked at them with suspicion.
There was an odd sort of thing in his heart that twisted his conscience like a closed fist, with every step he took. It wasn't one that told him he was doing something immoral or wrong, but rather, that he wasn't doing enough. He was wandering the halls of a Fire nation building, a prison, and with every step, he could imagine who had walked these miserable halls, but he couldn't attack.
The Fire nation was evil, purest evil, and he was sneaking amongst them, shamefully wearing their clothes, instead of getting rid of them. Who could tell what each of them would do? As he passed soundlessly by two guards, Toph, Katara and Tama trailing behind him just as quietly, he wondered who would be effected by those guards. He was nearly by them when he considered that maybe someone's mother would die because of them. He was five steps away when he considered the someone's girlfriend could be taken because of them. And Sokka, quiet and calm under his helmet, was ten steps away when he considered that he could stop that merely by killing them, and he stopped dead in his tracks to look over his shoulder at them.
Katara nearly bumped into him and she said, "Keep going."
Sokka glanced at her, and back to the soldiers, and started to reach for the handle of the broadsword at his hip, but Katara grabbed his wrist with ice-cold grip. He let go of the hilt as if burned, his skin freezing.
"Don't," she hissed, and Sokka reluctantly kept going, but he eventually lifted his eyes and turned them on the path ahead with his determination.
It was hard to leave the bastards alive, especially with all the things they'd done, but he was no Fire nation native. He wasn't going to do that to himself, and he wasn't going to sink to their pathetic level. Not when Suki needed him, not when his team needed him. Sokka was ready for this.
They wandered about for an hour, growing more worried by the moment.
"You there," a voice said, and Sokka turned his head. There were three men behind them, coming up fast, and they were firebenders, by the look of their armor. He glanced at them calmly.
"Yes?" he replied. The nearest took the face piece from his armour and walked closer, and stopped within a few feet of him. Sokka stepped up, too, straightening his shoulders.
"What are these kids doing here?"
Sokka said, as seriously as he could, "They're guests from the colonies. Their father works here."
There wasn't anywhere he could go with this, and both he and the guards knew it, especially as he was asked "Who is their father?" in a sneer. Sokka glanced up at the speaking soldier, who was first and foremost their enemy, and there was a moment of panic between every one of them.
"Uh," Sokka trailed, "It's confidential."
"What? Don't make me laugh, newbie," the soldier said, laughing already, and he took a step forward, and grabbed Sokka's shoulder. He said, "Just answer the question."
Sokka didn't know what to say, or lie about, seeing as they were close to being caught anyway. He sized up the firebenders, and found they weren't too much bigger than he was, not to mention the fact that he had Katara, Tama and Toph on his side.
He said, "It's you!" just for the sake of it, and then delivered a hook to the bender in the temple. He went down like a sack of potatoes, right out of it, and that was when everything swung into unknown territory. Everyone was still for a moment, and then the real battle started.
The two remaining firebenders came to them with the intention of battle. Instantly, Katara was at the helm of the group, and Tama was opening her fans with a metallic ring. Sokka grabbed his club and boomerang and he brought them up for battle, and in the back, Toph adopted the horse stance.
The battle was not swift, like the four expected, even against only two of them. While the element of surprise had ensured them the first, the other two were well alert and prepared to go out of the way. Katara did her best, the water evaporating into great bursts of steam, and she cooled and compressed it again and again, back into water. Tama deflected fire with great sweeps of her fans, the air pushing the fire back, but she could not get close without getting burned. Sokka knocked the two a few good ones when he caught their helmets with his boomerang, but otherwise, his inability to get close due to the flames stopped him from causing any serious damage.
Besides, it was hard to fight when you could barely see what you were doing. The firebenders had created a thick wall of fire that obscured their vision and rose the heat until Sokka could feel the sweat gluing the fabric of his shirt to his skin, clinging with every motion. Sweat poured down Katara's forehead and she bended it off more by accident than intention, and Toph was flinging what little stone she could find up in waves. Through the wall of fire, she was the only one that could "see", but with so little to work with, it was of little use.
When fire lashed out and Katara fell back with a shout, Sokka couldn't blindly fight anymore. He lashed out, fast and violent. No one brought down his sister.
Sokka took the slightest of pauses, taking the time to allow his heart one last cowardly beat, and then he surged forward, fast as he could. He let out a war cry as he charged towards the wall of fire, and he felt the heat even as he drew close, let alone when he plunged through. He heard Katara scream, but Sokka ploughed right on through, feeling his skin stinging with the heat.
But once he was through, it vanished. It left him faintly warmed, and he kept going, lifting his club to strike the benders. The first went down like a sack of potatoes, and the second followed two seconds later, landing on top of his partner. Sokka breathed over them, for a second, and the fire shriveled up into nothing, clouds of smoke rising on the air.
He looked down at the body, glanced back at where the wall was, and then back to the benders' bodies. Having realized what triumph he had done, he let out a whoop of victory and excitement, and threw his club in the air. He caught it, spun the handle in his palm, and shouldered it, feeling incredibly cool.
"Yeah!" Sokka cheered, "Sokka, one, Firebenders, nothing!"
Katara ran up behind him and grabbed him by the shoulder, and she slugged him in the ribs, though she didn't put much force into it. He let out a grunt of pain and she shouted right in his face, "Don't you ever take a risk like that again, Sokka!"
"Katara, I just went through a wall of fire, could you please not beat me to death?" Sokka replied, clutching his ribs for a second, and then he looked to the bodies again. He pulled away from Katara and knelt by the bodies, and after a moment of hesitation, he dug around in their pockets. His fingers closed around something small, metal, and jingly.
From a pocket he pulled a small ring of keys. He let out another cheer.
"Keys! Keys, Katara, keys," he said, and she let out a relieved sigh, though her tension didn't leave. Toph came towards them, and Tama smiled. Sokka said, "We can get anywhere."
"No," Toph replied, "You can get anywhere they let us go."
"Same thing," Sokka replied, with a grin. He approached the nearest door and turned the handle. When it opened, he moved to the next, seemingly looking for one that was locked. When he found one that wouldn't budge, he started working on each individual key, until he managed to unlock it.
When the door was unlocked, Katara folded her arms and couldn't resist a smile as Sokka kicked it open anyway. The thing swung open wildly, hitting the doorstop and soundlessly bouncing off. Sokka grinned and gestured they follow.
"What's inside?" Katara asked.
Sokka fell silent, and he looked at her over his shoulder, with a bright, "There are thousands of confiscated things here."
Sure enough, it was a storeroom, of sorts, mostly clothes and assorted foreign weapons. Sokka picked up a Water tribe spear and admired it for a half-second, and decided to keep it, and Katara found a lot of water satchels, most with bits of water inside. She took an extra one and shouldered it, and harvested all the random bits of water remaining in them all.
"Need anything?" Sokka asked Toph, as he grabbed a pair of gloves that weren't worn through in the palms.
"No," Toph said, "I still don't get your obsession with material objects, all of you."
Tama said, as she lashed the scabbard of a new katana to her back, "I guess we're good, then? Let's keep going, before someone finds us."
Katara nodded, but Sokka let out a gasp. His eyes had fallen on a Water tribe warrior's tunic, and he let out a strangled sound of surprise. Rushing over and seizing it by the shoulders, he admired it for a second. The fur trim, made from wolf fur, was soft and undamaged, and the top, the skin of a wolf's head, ears and all, made an excellent hood. Grinning wildly, Sokka began fumbling with the buckles on his armor. Katara said, bossily, "Sokka! Don't worry about that, let's just go."
Sokka stopped, glanced at her, and then stopped fumbling with the buckles. Katara didn't complain when he pulled on the tunic over his armour. It fit a bit tightly, but he didn't mind – without the Fire nation armour it'd be fine. He pulled the hood up and it was comfortable. He followed the others out of the room, spear in one hand, and club in the other.
"Wouldn't it be wiser to look like a Fire nation soldier, here?" Katara said, concerned.
"No," Sokka said, "I want them to know who, exactly, is getting revenge, here."
Katara didn't reply, and settled on just running. Sokka shrugged it off and broke into a run, too, falling into step beside Tama and keeping his attention behind them, in case they were ambushed. They weren't, and other than a lone guard in an alcove that was dispatched in mere seconds, things were quiet.
It was eerie, but no one could complain about the lack of resistance. The four teenagers kept going, and Sokka eventually moved up to take the lead from Katara. He had a better idea of where to go, and through all the winding paths, he could get an idea of where they were going, not to mention make a mental map of every direction they turned.
They came to a part where the halls disappeared and were replaced by catwalks, solid steel and suspended over a large drop. When they moved onto them, Toph frowned, obviously feeling the thinness of the walk between her bare feet and the open air. But Sokka was much relieved, for through the dark, he could see that down below, there were spirals and spirals of pathways, all lined with cells.
"All of this was carved by earthbenders, there's no way the Fire nation could create a fortress here that didn't have earth in it," Toph said, suspiciously. "I can't feel it… is there stone here?"
"The walls," Sokka said, "and all the cells… they seem to be made of rock, I can see it, but they have steel bars and doors on the fronts."
"Then they can't be keeping earthbenders as prisoners," Toph said, suspicious still. Tama looked oddly relieved, simply because no one they were here for was an earthbender. Katara shook her head.
"They can be," she said, "they just have to restrict their legs and arms so they can't do the motions."
"Right," Toph said.
"Keep your voices down," Sokka said, and he headed down the path, jumping down the entire set of small stairs rather than walking them. He turned to help Toph, but she seemed to recognize their presence after she had stumbled down the first. The four continued, picking up the pace. The pathways forked and moved into staircases and ramps down to the next level, and Sokka examined them all before taking a route. He could see a ramp down to the stone levels not too far away; he just had to get to that ramp.
"Pick up the pace, Sokka," Tama nagged, "We don't have all day, we don't want to be here when they all get back."
"I know," Sokka said, "stop nagging me. I'm working on it." He saw it. He let out a triumphant, "A-ha! That way!"
On they went, running as fast as they could without tripping, and Sokka ended up taking Toph's hand and running with her, simply because she was having trouble on the metal catwalks with all the vibrations. She shook his hand off almost immediately, seemingly out of indignation at being helped, and he didn't try to take it again. Her face was going red, though he was pretty sure that was from all the exercise they were getting.
"Alright," Sokka said, as they hit the first level. He ran to the nearest cell and he grabbed the door by the barred window, and he lifted himself up to look in. He saw nothing, but he said, loudly, "Anyone in here? Suki?"
No reply. He moved onto the next door, but Katara said, seriously, "Open it anyway. If there's someone in there, we shouldn't leave him or her behind."
"There are at least two hundred cells here," Sokka replied, just as serious, "You don't seriously think—"
"We're going to save as many people as we can," Katara said, firmly. Sokka softened and almost smiled, and he fished the keys out of his pocket and unlocked it. Luckily, the keys worked, and the door swung open.
"Think they all use the same key?" Tama asked, concerned, and Toph shrugged.
"Probably, why have two hundred different keys? Either way, I'm a metalbender, I can open the cells up from the side OR the front."
"Actually, that's a better idea," Katara said, "If we go in from the side, we don't have to make it look like any of the cells were broken out of. We can just work along like a chain, going from cell to cell."
"Sounds like a good idea," Toph said, and she grinned wickedly and rubbed her hands together. "Where would you numbskulls be without me, huh?"
"Unlocking individual cells one by one, which takes a lot less effort, but okay," Sokka replied, and he urged, "Let's do it, then."
"Alright," Toph said. She cracked her knuckles and pushed past Sokka to go into the cell, and she promptly stepped over something, something that was decidedly human. She said, "There's someone in here, but I think he's dead."
Katara went over to a rack on the wall and picked up a torch. She lit it from one of the flaming lanterns, and handed it to Sokka, who stepped into the cell. His heart sank when he saw it, though he was incredibly relieved it wasn't Suki, in the end.
At first glance, he looked like he was just sleeping, but Sokka could see the way the skin was sagging, the way the face was hanging. He'd never seen a dead body so close, not since his mother, and it made a knot appear in his throat, heavy and unmovable. The man was young, perhaps in his early twenties, and a mess of dark brown hair fell around his neck in tatters. His clothes were scum-covered. There was a ratmouse perched on his knee, chewing on something, and Sokka cringed when he realized it was a finger.
He covered his mouth and gagged. Katara knelt down by the body, looking decidedly upset, and she let out a sad breath. Tama fidgeted in place, looking away.
"He's dead," Katara replied, and Sokka commended her bravery for touching his pallid skin for a pulse. It was rather disgusting.
"Okay," Toph said, and she paused and turned towards the wall. She placed her palms down again the flat of the wall, brought them back and then moved to shove, but Katara grabbed her by the shoulder. Annoyed, Toph snapped, "What?"
"What if there's someone there and you crush him or her?" she asked, obviously rethinking her plan. Toph hesitated.
"I can pull the wall this way, then. Get out of the way," she ordered, and Katara stepped off to the side, pulling Sokka with her. Tama waited in the doorway. Toph lifted her arms, and turned her hands so that the backs of them were against the wall. After a second, she gave a tremendous pulling motion, and all the rock was seized and hurtled back, conveniently landing around her feet in two solid masses.
Toph grinned triumphantly and stepped into the cell. She took inventory before Katara could even follow. She said, "Two men. Both are alive."
Katara scrambled even faster, and Sokka said, "Alright, next wall, take it down." He paused, and then he said, "Let's just unlock them all. Really, it's faster, rather than fumbling around with all this rock."
"One second," Toph said, "geez, someone's impatient."
Tama and Katara unlocked the men and helped them up, exchanging a few brief words as they got them out of the way. Then, rapidly, Toph said, "Someone's coming. Get back."
They all scrambled to the back of the cell, and Katara doused the flame of the torch against the wall. Sokka felt himself crammed with Toph nestled against his chest, and one of the men against his back, and he felt Toph cling to his wrist. All six of them watched the Fire nation soldier walk past the cells, not really bothering to stop and check any of them. Sokka was thankful that the cells were dark, for the first time.
After about ten minutes, Toph whispered, "He's back on the ramps. Let's go."
"Hey, I'm the leader, stop giving me orders," Sokka said. He glanced at the men and asked, "Know anything about a group of girls here?"
One of the men didn't seem able to speak, but the other did, in an ashy old voice. He said, "Three of them, otherwise, all women have been sent elsewhere. They were young, your age, maybe a bit older. Guards yap about them a lot."
Sokka grinned, clapped the man on the shoulder so hard the man nearly shook – he seemed frail as it was – and said, "That's what I like to hear. Any idea where?"
"I've been in this cell for weeks," the man grumbled, "I don't know."
"Right, sorry," Sokka apologized.
"Are YOU going to keep yapping or can we continue?" Toph said, bossily, and Sokka scooted out of the way so she could continue their wall-crushing mission.
They progressed slowly, as quietly as possible. Many cells brought another man or two to their growing group, until they were leading a couple dozen men. Some cells had people too weak to move, and some of the younger, stronger men they saved offered to carry those too old or weak to keep up. They moved through the cells rapidly, and word started spreading that they were coming, so people were waiting for them to come.
With more earthbenders, it was faster. Toph wasn't exactly seamless when working with people other than Aang, as she had trained with him long enough to work in tandem with him, but they got along fine.
When one wall came down, they found a girl. In the dim lights, with only a torch or two they had picked up from outside the cells along the way, Sokka had thought it was Suki, and he had moved forward to hug her, but the girl got to Tama first.
"Jia-Li!" Tama said, enthusiastically, and the girl broke down crying on her shoulder. Sokka almost cringed. Tama said, "Are you alright?!"
"No," Jia-Li said, "Thank everything, you're alright. When you didn't come in with us, we thought Azula had killed you off in the fight. Where's Yin?"
"Yin's dead," Tama said, "where are Suki and Qiao?"
There was a pause, a very pregnant pause, and Sokka held the torch closer, to see them better. He cringed when he saw Jia-Li in close relief – she was rather battered, and worst of all, she had a long red burn across her jaw.
"I haven't seen either since we were brought in, but one of them is dead," Jia-Li said, frustrated through tears, "I don't know, the guards don't tell me anything, but one of them died and they wouldn't tell me which."
Sokka froze, and Katara tried to catch his eye, her hand drifting to his shoulder. He refused to make eye contact, and he looked at the floor, stubbornly, and then closed his eyes tightly. After a moment of worry, he lifted his head and said, "Suki's here. Suki is here. And we're going to save her. Come on."
He took the keys from Katara and reached around the bars to unlock the cell they were in, to get out, rather than walking all the way around the loop to the first one. Katara followed, quietly shouting "Sokka! SOKKA!" after him. He ignored her, and went to the bars of the next.
"Keep moving," he told her, "I'm going to go ahead and see if I can find her."
He took off down the rows, calling Suki's name between the bars, and Toph climbed out of the cell. She said, "Katara, you keep moving with those guys, and I'll help Sokka find Suki."
Sokka glanced at Toph, almost surprised, and then he managed a smile. He said, "Thanks, Toph."
"Well, otherwise, you might run right by her," Toph said. "Check this one, I can feel the person moving."
"Right."
It was no luck, anyway. Katara's team was moving just as fast as they were, and men were being released at the same speed as Sokka and Toph could determine that Suki wasn't in the cell ahead of them. Then they reached the last one, Sokka clung to the bars and said, hopefully, "Suki?! Suki, are you there?!"
There was no reply, and Toph said, "This one's empty."
Sokka clung to the bars anyway, and he said, desperately, "Are you sure?"
Toph paused, and then said, "I'm sure."
"Oh," was Sokka's dejected reply, and he let go of the bars slowly, stepping back. He didn't have much time to mourn over this – when he turned, he saw there was a soldier up on the catwalks, and he was struck by inspiration.
The man opened his mouth to shout, but Sokka lunged and grabbed him by the collar, hurtling him down to the ground like a sack of potatoes, putting his hand over the man's mouth hard.
"Don't struggle," Sokka said, and the soldier held still only when Sokka grabbed his boomerang and pressed its metal edge to the man's neck. When he had his demands met, Sokka demanded, "Are there any other prisoners than the ones you have here?"
The soldier couldn't have been a day older than seventeen. He shook under Sokka's grip, and he said, "Yes."
"Where?" Sokka demanded.
"Down that ramp and to the left," the boy said, voice cracking, "Please don't kill me."
"Who's there?" Sokka pressured.
"People held for questioning," the boy said, and he was almost in tears, out of sheer terror. "Please don't kill me, my dad made me join the military, but I didn't want to…"
"Okay," Sokka said. He climbed off the guy but held him still, anyway, and he said, "Toph?"
"Gotcha," Toph said, and Sokka moved. Toph brought her hands straight up, and a rock prison surrounded the boy, top and all. She let out a triumphant laugh, and Sokka offered her a smile she couldn't see.
"Great, now let's keep going," Sokka said, and Katara, the two Kyoshi warriors, and the men had joined them. He filled Katara in, and took off as he went. She followed.
The hall was fairly short, with only a dozen or so doors, and the one at the end was open, leading towards what looked like more halls. Each door was metal and had a small flap at the bottom, and a tiny barred window at the top. Sokka immediately started calling Suki's name, though Katara hissed at him to be quiet.
"There's someone in the first one, Katara," Toph said, suddenly, stopping. Her hand was against the floor, her jaw clenched. "I can only barely tell."
She straightened up and Katara moved to the door immediately. She looked up at its length for a moment, and she said, "This one? Alright."
Toph said, "Er, whichever is to my left."
"Yeah," Katara said, and then jostled the lock. The metal rattled, and she held her hand out to Sokka. "The key?"
He had continued to walk, and he turned back and dropped it into her hand, impatiently, and then went back to going to doors and asking for Suki. Katara unlocked it and pocketed the key, pushing open the door.
"Don't be long, we have to get to them..."
But Katara was frozen in the doorway. Sokka watched her reaction to whatever was in the darkness with a growing sense of fear, because Katara's head was turning to him slowly. The look in her eyes was wide, fear-struck, and she opened her mouth. No sound came out, and then she rushed into the cell, carrying her torch.
That was the tell-tale sign of danger and serious shock, and Sokka followed her without a second thought. What he saw shattered his calmness.
There was a girl, barely recognizable as his Suki.
Her body was ragged in that beaten sort of way, and she was so caked in dirt that her skintone seemed purple-blue, though that may have been the heavy bruising. He could see the jutting angle of her hip bones, sharp ridges that were her ribs and knees. Overall, her body just seemed twisted in some way, and she was almost completely naked, other than a scrapped-up kimono top that hung from her shoulders like a loose drape. Maybe, once upon a time, the shirt had been white, but now it was covered in grime and dried blood, and it hung off her rail-like shoulders like a baggy, tattered sheet. She wore no pants, and there was a nasty-looking manacle clamped around one of her ankles and one of her wrists, chained at a short length to the wall.
Sokka moved faster than he ever had in his life, and as he neared her, she lifted her head and stared at him with wide eyes. He wasn't sure whether her knees gave out or if she dropped to the floor in an attempt to get away from him, but she pulled her knees up to her chest and pressed against the wall, and he stared down at her, stunned.
"Suki?"
She let out a terrified sort of noise, and he knelt down.
"Who are you?" she asked, under her breath, and Sokka froze, confused and horrified.
"Your hood," Katara said, and Sokka ripped the wolf-hood down off his head faster than he ever had in his life. Suki's eyes focused on him, on his face, and she let out an odd, surprised breath, and he locked his arms around her.
She shuddered in his arms.
He mumbled her name against the top of her head pointlessly, just for the security of confirming to himself that it was her. Her hair was unkempt and disheveled, and her skin was clammy against his. His arms wrapped around her tighter, and she remained stiff as a board in his grip. There was no relaxation, no acknowledgment, just a continued stare of shock and mixed terror.
That's when he realized she wasn't entirely Suki –– she was a shell of Suki.
"I hate them," he said, quietly, fingers raking through her hair, gently, pushing it from her eyes. Her fingers, wrapped around the collar of his shirt, tightened. "I hate them more than I can explain."
He felt the bitter sting of tears in his eyes, and he heard Katara breathe in sharply, the rattle of her voice struck with horror. But Sokka, for the most part, ignored his sister, and the way she was covering her mouth with her hand, and how she seemed so stunned that the Fire Nation would go this far. Katara even voiced it.
Why did she ever think they wouldn't?
Obviously, they were always this bad. Obviously, hate was a thing ingrained in them from birth, perhaps even from before birth. A hundred years had burnt up all their compassion and humanity, left them with nothing but ashes and a glowing sense of arrogance and sadism. Of course the Fire nation would do this.
They slaughtered his mother, they ripped his father from home, they stole his first love, they hurt his friends and family on a daily basis. They had taken his powerful, strong girlfriend and turned her into an empty shell. Why would this stun anyone?
"They're monsters," Sokka replied loudly, and his voice cracked. He screwed up his face to keep it straight, to keep himself from breaking down, but Suki was clutching his shirt as if she wanted to keep him away, not hold him close. Suki. His Suki. Afraid of him like he was the one who had done this.
A few hot tears slipped and he shifted angrily, pulling her with him. He said, furiously, "I'm going to kill everyone in this damn place."
"Sokka," Katara said, kneeling down with them and pulling out the key, taking the manacles off of Suki with a well-practiced speed. "We have to go, we can't just kill everyone. We have to go now."
The urgency in her voice didn't touch him at all. Instead, he just braced himself against the wall and held her tighter, and Katara moved to start down the hall, but she stopped and looked back, desperately.
"Sokka, please," she said.
He clenched his jaw and heaved Suki up with him. Although she seemed to be conscious enough to react, her feet did nothing for her, and she merely fell against him. If she had been content to cling to him, to cry against his chest, and let him save her, it might have been easy, but instead, she let out a strangled half-cry, and threw herself away from him. He only barely caught her, and her arms flailed to escape.
The only way to prevent either of them harm was to pin her arms to her sides and hug her to his chest, nose against her forehead, and wait for her to calm. It took a moment, and she did, but her breathing remained terrified and racked, like a cornered animal.
"SOKKA," Katara shouted, waking him from his distraction. There was a rush of fire past the door, and he heard the whip of a stream of water, and Toph shouting. "SOKKA, come ON!"
"Suki," Sokka said, carefully, "you have to let me take you, alright? It's the only way. Come on. I can save you, everything's just going to be fine. I'm Sokka, right?"
He held up, carefully, her knees bent awkwardly and her weight up against him, her head lolling back on her neck, as if she was too weak to support it. Her eyes fluttered once, twice, and then the tears poured faster than his own.
"Sokka," she breathed, and her legs gave out entirely. Sokka had to struggle to keep her up so suddenly. In the background, there were more whips, more flames, and hurried screams. Suki's lips, bruised and parched, moved soundlessly.
"Yeah, I'm going to save you," was his determined reply, hard and resolute. "I'm going to put you over my shoulders, okay? Then we're going to get out of here, okay?"
"Sokka!" Katara called urgently, "We need your help, here!"
He hesitated on picking Suki up, and stood up to go help, furious. Suki's eyes widened, and he hastened himself. He didn't even pull out a weapon as he moved past Toph and right by Katara, who was fending off a soldier with whips of water and ice.
Sokka seemed to have abandoned all use for weapons. In fact, when they came at him, he stepped up to the plate without drawing his sword, prepared to give them whatever they offered bare-handed. He lifted his fists, anger clear on his face, and they rushed him.
The first came quickly, drawing his arm back to slash wide into Sokka's chest, but Sokka was faster. While his initial reaction was to hold up his hands and save his body from the attack, his warrior instincts stepped into gear rapidly. He lifted one foot, and kicked the guy in the gut before the soldier could bring his sword forward.
And then Sokka pivoted to take on the next. This one had a spear, long but with a relatively short blade, and he was nearly on Sokka when Sokka twisted to sock him in the face with his left fist. He was completely detached from the way Katara let out a surprised gasp, and plowed on.
The third went down rapidly, with a simple kick to the chest, and when he didn't quite fall but rather stumble right in Sokka's direction, Sokka grabbed him by the neck and shoved him away. As he was moving forward still, the man ended up on the ground behind him.
The fourth was a bit harder. Sokka had to dodge a few nasty swoops of a blade, and even then, he almost lost a couple fingers. He jumped back each time, and then would lunge forward, only to be forced back again. But the second he had an opening, he took it: he punched the man in the face, and it stunned his opponent long enough for Sokka to shake off the blow, himself. He'd probably split a knuckle or two in the process.
It didn't matter, though, because that guy went down anyway.
Sokka's anger and confidence awakened a lot of improvisation and impulse-based skill, and as he took on the fifth, he wasn't even wary of the fact that this one had firebending, too. Sokka faced that man down like he was invincible, and he delivered a smashing punch and a kick to the man, sending the enemy backwards before a single lick of fire could touch him.
Katara shouted something along the lines of, "Sokka, you're a reckless idiot!"
Sokka just caught his breath, used his foot to roll a body out of his way, and he shrugged. For an instant, he felt bad, because Katara looked afraid, but he'd done it to save them.
Didn't mean he had to be so reckless, but he had done it nonetheless.
"No congratulations?" he said, as he went back over to her and knelt with her and Suki.
"Well... yeah," Katara said, "Nice one, Sokka."
Sokka didn't really know what to do, but Katara was good at putting together a plan when his head was too constrained with emotion to think. He paused, long and hard, face against the top of Suki's head, and Katara said, "We're going to catch up with the others. Sokka, I'll take the front, and Toph can take the back, you just take care of Suki…"
"Then let's go," Toph said, impatiently, and Sokka gathered Suki up into his arms. She didn't seem to be able to resist as he pulled Katara's cloak around her, and he picked her up.
"You came," Suki mumbled, and Sokka nodded, and pressed a kiss to her nose, because he was afraid of touching the burn on her forehead. She didn't react at all to that, and Sokka didn't care. He had to run.
Off they went, Katara taking out sweeps of firebenders with her water before they could even let off the slightest flare, and Toph trapping their feet with metal-bending once they were on the winding stairs. Up and up they went, Sokka struggling to keep up a fast pace with Suki in his arms. It was difficult, to accommodate her weight, but she was alarmingly light compared to what your average teenager should have been.
So they ran, and ran, and fought when they could afford the time. Toph worked wonders, bending walls together to block passages. They met up with the group of prisoners and Tama when they were going down the long hall where Sokka had burst through the wall of fire, as Tama's group was moving remarkably slow, as it was bigger.
And at the same time, the call started up: "Prison break, code black." It was shouted down the halls, relayed between soldiers, and it flew over their heads as they ran towards a couple firebenders blocking their exit into the main hall. They were so close.
It was all too easy to figure out what code black was when the lights went out.
"What do we do?" Tama shouted to Sokka, over the wails of alarm, and he let out one long breath.
"Keep going. If you see a light, kill it, it's a fire bender," he said. And it was true within seconds – lights appeared out of a doorway, and with great haste, a few of the earthbenders, useless without their element, beat the men out.
They broke down the door blocking their way into the entrance hall, and Sokka, Katara and Toph moved into the lead of the group, Tama shortly behind them, followed by the prisoners. They ran. They ran like it was there only call to freedom, and Toph bent the great metal doors to the outside open with a violent wave of her hands. Sokka could see the moonlight filtering in, the only light in the darkness, the thing that would safely guide them out. What would guide Suki out.
And the instant that Sokka carried Suki over that threshold, that was exactly when the scream of "CODE AZULA" went up, and Suki said something frantic about execution orders. Katara looked behind them. Sokka wasn't sure what she saw, to prompt her to stop, but she shouted, "We have to save them!" and turned around to run back towards the group.
Sokka could barely see Suki in his arms, let alone see the line of firebenders. He couldn't chase his sister, but he whirled in her direction to scream, "Katara, no!"
He saw it before she did, and seconds later, all he could see was Katara's silhouette up against the biggest bonfire he had ever seen in his life. Screams erupted from the group of prisoners behind them, consumed by flame, and it was sick on the air and loud.
Sokka could do nothing but seize Katara's arm as the flames reached clear up to the ceiling and billowed towards them, intending on swallowing them up, too, and he kept his other arm around Suki like an iron clamp. Suki's arms swung like a rag doll's, and she barely reacted to the flames surging up behind them.
Sokka just choked, "We have to run!" He was terrified, angry, and upset all at once. Katara had tears streaming down her face, Toph was shouting at them to run, it was too late, and finally, as the firebenders started moving forwards, all they could do was run, Toph making great walls of metal and earth behind them, stopping any pursuers dead in their tracks, giving them ample time to get far, far away.
Suki had slipped out of consciousness at some point, and Katara helped maneuver her onto Sokka's back, so she'd be easier to carry. Sokka, in some weird way, was glad she wasn't awake: the surviving members of the Kyoshi warriors had died trying to escape, and she was the one who had to keep living.
"Those poor people," Katara said, worried. She kept looking over her shoulder, as if they could have followed them for hours and hours, and only just now caught up. Sokka put up with her concerns with ebbing patience, and though he couldn't erase the giddiness in the back of his mind at having Suki back alive, his frustration still took first priority in his head. He was exhausted. He was angry at the Fire nation. Suki's breath was shallow on his neck, and Toph kept making exasperated noises.
"They're dead, Katara," Sokka said, sharply. Tama weighed on his subconscious horribly, and he didn't even want to think of breaking that news to Suki. "Suki's alive and the living matter most."
Suki was slumped over so her arms bumped against his chest listlessly. She didn't even seem to react to him, or anything he said.
Katara let out a funny sigh and she said, "Aang's alive, too."
Sokka almost stopped when she said it, partially out of worry over her tone and partially because Suki was sliding down his back, and it was rather hard to walk with a semi-conscious girl drooping off one's behind.
"How much longer will it be?" Toph asked.
"We're almost near that place with the three big rocks put into an arch," Katara said, vaguely. "Then we'll be home."
Toph made a face and asked, with growing frustration, "So how much longer is that?"
Katara paused for a second, and replied, "An hour."
Toph grumbled a thanks and Sokka picked up his pace to be on speed with the two of them. Suki shifted as he did so, one of her arms drifting across his neck to hold tight for a second, and then falling limp again. He craned his neck to look at her, careful not to bump her face, worried that something had gone wrong, but he could still feel her breath on his neck, and that was fine.
Katara asked how Suki was, and Sokka replied that he didn't know. They paused so Katara could give her a once-over, and the conclusion was that Suki was doing okay, physically, at least. She was out, but she came around eventually.
"Put me down," Suki demanded, suddenly, albeit quietly. When Sokka didn't do so, she said it louder, with more of an urgent tone. Sokka snapped into it and came to a halt, and slowly sank down, unhooking his arm from under her knees. She scrambled off faster than he let go, and almost stumbled. He straightened up as soon as she was standing on her own, and he offered her an arm to hold onto, as she still seemed wobbly. She stood barefoot in the dirt for a moment, breathing hard.
"Are you alright?" he asked, and she kept on breathing as if she had just run a marathon or two. She didn't take his arm, and tried taking a step forward. She only barely did it, her knees bending awkwardly as she did so.
"I'm... fine," she said, breathily, "l just... don't want to ride on your back anymore."
"Alright," Sokka replied, and he slipped his arm behind her back, intending to pick her up bridal-style and continue carrying her. Suki reacted badly, weakly scrambling to get herself out of his grip. He stopped trying after a second, and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Just don't carry me," Suki said, bluntly. She used him as a support, but she seemed to be leaning on him more out of necessity than desire to, and Sokka felt vaguely confused and mostly hurt.
"You want to walk?" he said, doubtfully, and she nodded. Her eyes were only half-open, and her lips stayed parted, like she was drowsy and half-asleep. Though, Sokka figured, perhaps she was.
"Yes," she replied.
She was still barefoot, as they didn't exactly have a second pair of shoes handy, and wearing nothing but the tattered old kimono top and the red cape bundled around her. She seemed to sink under the weight of the fabric alone, never-mind be able to carry herself at a decent pace.
"... You sure?" Sokka trailed. He glanced down at her feet and said, "You don't have shoes, Suki, and no offense or anything, but you're really not in the condition to be walking for an hour."
Something in her didn't seem keen on arguing, but she could protest anyhow by moving on. She took a few awkward, horribly weakened steps, almost hobbled. Sokka went with her, supporting almost all her weight on his arm. She grimaced with every step, and Sokka felt himself cringe with every single movement she made. Her face would contort into a look of complete discomfort. It was intense, and Katara watched apprehensively.
"Suki?" Katara said, delicately, after a dozen shaky steps.
There was a glazed look in Suki's eyes, and before Sokka could ask, she pitched ground-wards. He caught her under the arms immediately, with his honed reflexes, but her legs twisted oddly and she almost struck the ground anyway. Her head lolled, and Sokka knelt immediately, hauling her weight up into his lap, almost panicking.
"Suki?" he said, loudly, and Katara rushed over, fingers flying to the side of Suki's throat to find a pulse, pulling her water out of her pouch with the other hand. Toph stopped dead in her tracks and turned around, touching her fingertips to the ground.
"She's alive, I can feel her," Toph said, and Katara breathed a sigh of relief.
"I feel it too. She's just unconscious, not dead."
Sokka let out a similar sigh and carefully picked her up again. Katara helped, adjusting the red cape so it covered Suki better. Sokka could feel Suki's ribs through his armor, and that was a very disconcerting thought, but they still had two or so li to go.
Suki meandered in and out of consciousness while Sokka grew more and more exhausted. By time they had reached the hills and were starting up the steep incline, he felt his body starting to give out on him, his footing getting harder and harder to hold. When he had made it up a third of the way, Toph let out an annoyed sigh, having stumbled for the umpteenth time, and she bended them a slab of earth to stand on like an escalator, and it lasted an all of five minutes before she got tired. Katara thanked her for trying, and Toph was far too tired to bother snarking back.
They conquered the hill with zero enthusiasm, but by the time they reached the top, it was really pointless to feel tired. Instead, Sokka adopted a numbness he characterized as a complete lack of sleep, and Katara said something about exhaustion reaching a threshold.
But no matter how much he wanted to sleep, Sokka knew he wouldn't be. He did, after all, have Suki to look after, and he would gladly take her over sleep any moment.
Katara opened the door for him, and Sokka strode in without waiting for her to light the lamps. In his haste to get to the futons, he nearly tripped over Momo, who had scampered to the door to see them, but thankfully, he kept a firm hold on his precious load and managed to keep his balance.
"Careful," Katara hissed at him, anyway, and Toph stepped over Momo neatly, with a calm, "Klutz." Sokka barely heard her. They had made it. They were home and safe. Suki would be safe. They'd all be safe. Everything was fine.
The lamp flares went up, flashing brightly before dimming to the usual brightness. Sokka waited as Katara unfolded one of the futons and then he set Suki down with all the tenderness he could manage. As her head fell back into the pillow, her eyes opened, but just barely. Her breathing was shallow, still, but she was very much alive. Sokka couldn't help but smile down at her, as he knelt by her side.
"Sokka," she said in a parched voice, and Sokka placed his hand over hers. Her fingers twitched, under his, and then relaxed, and she turned her head slightly, her eyes opening wide.
"Hey, Suki," he said, smiling still, so full of relief, "How are you?"
It was a stupid question, he knew, and she confirmed it by informing him of it. He only shook his head and laughed, awkwardly, and couldn't bear to break eye-contact with her. There was a moment of undignified pity, for both her and himself, in that look. He hadn't protected Suki, and she had almost died, even when he knew she could take care of herself. She was battered more than he could have ever imagined, and there were places on her skin that were bruises that were livid red, which Sokka recognized as recent. Some were yellowing, old, and some of the wounds had long healed over, fresh scars already present. Sokka felt a surge of immense gratitude to Katara suddenly: Suki would be healed and free of all this soon.
Suki had survived, she was a strong, hardy woman. Suki was alive and that was all that mattered to him.
She stared at him, blankly, and she mumbled, "Where am I?"
"Hideout," Sokka replied, proudly, "We've been hiding here while Aang's been out... when he wakes up, we're going to take the Fire nation out!"
Toph settled down on the floor with a strained look, and Katara went over to the cupboards and started rummaging for her things. She pulled a bucket out and filled it from the tap.
Sokka was possessed by an optimism he hadn't felt in months. Suki only looked confused, and despite the fact that her eyes were glassy, Sokka waved it off with a bright, "Katara'll fix you up, and then it'll all be good, right?"
He pulled her into a hug.
Suki seemed to be putting all her weight against his arms, her palms flat against his chest, and she pushed backwards as if she were trying to get away from him. While she hesitated there for a second, she started to get noticeably agitated.
"Let go," she said, urgently, and he did so, though he kept his hands on her forearms to support her. Katara moved in close, placing the bucket down knelt next to Suki to put a supportive arm around her. Suki said, "Sokka, get out."
He was confused, but his smile didn't leave her face, and he said, "What?"
"Get out," she repeated, a bit more urgently. She tensed up against Katara's brace, her shoulders knitting up and her legs drawing up to her chest. When Sokka didn't move at all, Suki snarled, louder, "Get out!"
"Why?" he asked, the smile fading from his face in an instant the second her voice lifted. He even edged back a bit, her eyebrows dipping into a frown. She shook her head furiously.
"It doesn't matter, just get out!" she demanded, her eyes swelling with tears. She looked away for a second, and though she made brief eye contact again, she seemed to have trouble looking at him in the eyes. Her eyes focused either somewhere over his shoulder or somewhere around his throat. Her entire body was set into a defensive posture.
"What? Suki, what's wrong?" he asked, and she looked right away, shrinking against Katara and out of his grip.
Suki snarled at him, downright feral, "GET OUT!"
"Why?"
Suki dissolved into tears, and she thumped her fist against his chest, hard, enough to make Sokka wince, but he didn't let go of her. She screamed, "I gave up on you, Sokka! I gave up! I knew you'd see Azula and that you'd realize something was wrong, and that you'd come for me, but you didn't! For months, you didn't! I gave up on you!"
She was to the point of shrieking at him, and Sokka just stared at her in horror and shame, and he didn't even realize he was so upset his eyes were welling up, too. He just stared, and stuttered a helpless, "Suki, I tried to, I really––"
"Just get the hell out of here!" she shouted, "Get out! I hate you, get out! I never want to see your pathetic face again!"
"Suki!" he replied, as she shoved at him and seemed repulsed by his very presence. Even as weak as she was, she put up a vicious fight against him. He tried again, desperately, "Suki, I tried, I swear I did, please!"
He was rightly freaked out and confused. He had never been more freaked out and hurt in his life by anything anyone had done to him, and Katara just said, before Suki could hurt herself any more, "Sokka, go."
Sokka moved his eyes from Suki to Katara, in disbelief and confusion. Surely Katara would back him up? Surely she would side with him and convince Suki to let him stay, or explain to her that he wasn't the enemy here?
But Katara failed him. She bit her lip for a fraction of a second, teeth ghosting over her lip hard, and then she said again, "Sokka, just go, okay?"
It was like everyone there was against him, and Suki had tears rolling freely down her cheeks, and he reluctantly backed off to rest on his heels, though he didn't go. Suki let out a choked sob and rested her forehead against Katara's shoulder.
"Suki, I tried," he said, hurt, and Katara didn't look at him. She was looking down at Suki, only the slightest bit bewildered, and she ran her hand over the back of Suki's head comfortingly.
"Just go, Sokka," Katara said. Sokka started to demand a reason, again, when Katara continued, wearily, "We're all tired, it's… it's going to be easier. Just take your sleeping bag and crash on the porch tonight, okay?"
Sokka stared at her, and he rose to his feet. His eyes moved to Suki, but she had her face against Katara's shoulder, and she was shaking with sobs. He could see the ridge of her spine so clearly against the rest of her body, and it scared him, in that light. He hesitated still, and Katara started to implore again, but before she could, he turned on his heel and headed to the door, forgetting his sleeping bag entirely.
From there, he paused to open it, and he gave Katara one last pleading, almost desperate look over his shoulder, but she was more focused on Suki. Sokka sighed, shoulders drooping, and he left.
He slammed the door shut behind him, like any common child would have, and it banged against the track loudly, the wood scraping violently. That was a bit embarrassing, but he didn't care at the time.
He flung himself up against the wall and slid down it to sit. Folding his arms across his chest, he let his head hang, struggling to keep himself calm.
What was wrong with her?!
They had just gone through hell to save her, he had fought for the chance to save her, and he had climbed into that hated Fire nation uniform for the opportunity. And then he had brought her back here, risking being caught or collapsing under exhaustion, and all he wanted was to be happy and make sure she was going to be okay. If he could have saved her from Azula the second she showed up, he would have done it, but he didn't know! And he wanted to help her, the second he realized something was up: but he couldn't, he didn't know anything, and she had sworn to him she could protect herself!
And she was shouting and crying at him as if he had been the one to put her through everything she had been through. And that stung more than anything else – the fact that maybe she didn't want to be saved, or that she honestly didn't like him. But that made no sense, all the same.
Nothing made sense. Sokka cradled his pounding head in his arms, wanting to sleep, but he could hear Suki crying through the door and it nagged in his head. Katara was talking softly, and Suki was choking things out, things Sokka felt he should have been allowed to hear. Sokka tried to tune it out of his mind, but he couldn't stop himself from straining his ears to hear.
Didn't he matter? Suki was the number one concern, but why couldn't he help out? He wasn't a healer, but he knew Suki more than anyone else in that room. He liked her more than anyone else in that room. By rational logic, he should have been the first choice to stay, but they were letting Toph stay, over him.
He let out a frustrated sigh, his eyes sluggishly blinking back angry tears, and he pressed the backs of his wrists against the tears, to block them from leaving his eyes. It worked, but it hurt. It annoyed him. He hated feeling like such a crybaby, though he had good reason to. It just seemed so weak, and he was a Water nation man.
The door opened, suddenly, and Sokka was halfway to his feet in a flash, thinking he was allowed to come back in. Thinking that, perhaps, it had been ten minutes of girl-talk, and Suki had come to her sense, and nothing more than that, but he stopped climbing to his feet when he realized it was Toph. She closed the door behind her and stared straight ahead of her, as usual, and Sokka sat back down. The instant he moved, she turned in his direction, and she walked his way.
It only took a step or two, and she sat down neatly beside him, cross-legged. Sokka tried to relax, but couldn't. Toph hung her own head. Her fingers fanned over the worn edge of the stone porch, and Sokka watched the surface of it grow smooth under her touch. He leaned back on his palms, and he closed his eyes with an angry sigh.
Toph said, "Feeling kind of kicked out, huh?"
He looked at her, with some sort of ridiculous frustration, struggling to find the right words to tell her she was stating the painfully obvious, but finding none. Sokka settled on some sort of undignified whine of protest.
"Yeah," he said, finally, when he worked his way out of his initial irritation at her. Not that she could tell by looking at his face, anyway, and that was good. He was making some pretty upset, angry faces right then.
"I don't blame you, but I don't blame her either," Toph said roughly, "I don't like her, sorry, she's just kind of snotty to me, but something real bad happened to her. Not just 'cause you keep getting upset, or because Katara has said it a million times, or because of what Suki says. I just feel it. And she is hurt."
Sokka glanced over at her, and she continued, "I don't have to even be near her, I can feel her shaking and vibrating the earth... I've never felt something like that from a person before, it's honestly kind of creepy. She's more like a cornered animal than a person, she's so bad."
Sokka was not heartened, and in fact, Toph really only served to depress him more. His high had deteriorated rapidly, replaced by an unyielding, overwhelming self-disgust. Had he really assumed Suki was alright, and able to just climb over this as if it were nothing? Had he even for a second considered that perhaps something worse than that had happened here,
He'd seen a lot in his past year. He'd seen misery and famine, sickness and broken hearts, but he'd never seen something quite like this. His naive little Water village had been nothing like this, and not even the Southern citadel had been like this before its fall. There never had never been a confrontation like this in his childhood's world, and nor had it come along to him so far in his manhood.
There were a lot of psychological implications to torture that he had assumed, but never quite considered, let alone applied to Suki.
"I couldn't stay in there," she said. Sokka bristled more, angry that she'd leave by choice when he was forced to be out here. Toph let out an exhausted sigh and she said, "I can't listen to that sort of stuff."
That sort of stuff.
"What happened?" Sokka asked, and was too distracted to notice how embarrassingly worried his voice was. He did, however, work on brushing away all the wetness from his eyes, despite the fact that she obviously couldn't know how close he was to tears.
Toph fidgeted in her seat and eventually settled on slumping against the wall with her arms folded, body rigid. She said, bluntly, "I don't want to talk about it."
"Toph!" he protested, angrily.
"You don't want to know," she said, even more blunt. "You really don't."
"Of course I do," Sokka snapped, "It's pretty obvious a lot of things happened, she looks like she was put through hell, Toph. I want to know what happened! Obviously she really needed me!"
Toph seemed to ignore him, pointedly, and when he started to demand it from her again, she snapped back, "You think these walls are sound-proof, blockhead? Shut up, they'll hear you! Ask Katara or Suki herself later, I don't want to think about it, let alone repeat it."
Sokka recoiled. He looked away, angrily, and wiped at his eyes again, and Toph put her hand on the ground between them, and waited. He willed to keep himself completely still, but couldn't. After a moment, she pulled her hand away with something like embarrassment, and she seemed to pause, suddenly. She made an odd, instinctive face.
"Hey…" she trailed. Sokka tried to ignore her, knowing full well she couldn't see him putting his hands over his ears. She said something about him being upset.
Toph was bad at apologizing, he already knew it, and as much as he would have laughed good-naturedly at her any other time, right now he wasn't in the mood. He felt horrible. Every fragment of optimism and joy he'd felt over her being alive was utterly shattered and missing, as if it had never really been there. At that time, he should have been rejoicing, and instead, he was miserable.
Sokka's heart twisted in his chest and wrenched. Toph's hand tensed on the stone, and she said, "Don't feel so bad."
"How can I not?!" he snapped, without reigning himself in. "Toph, Suki kicked me out when something's seriously wrong! She hates me! I failed her! We always depend on each other! Always!"
"In the, what, two times you've been together?" Toph said, always quick to fight anger with anger. "Get real, Sokka. Stop whining, she has issues!"
"Then stop acting all high and mighty," he demanded, "And don't pretend you know Suki and I so well! You don't!"
Toph elbowed him hard, and he let out a grunt of pain and a protest, and she spoke over it with a stubborn, "I saw how you acted with her over the Serpent's Pass! You're close, sure, but isn't it kind of stupid to think that you're all magical and special together? So maybe she really cared about you, to the point of dreaming about you saving her, but you're hardly star-crossed lovers or some garbage like that!"
He could hardly contain himself. He didn't want to fight her, and the exhaustion and frustration in him were combining into a dangerous mix of ferocity. Toph seemed to be the same, and Sokka had no way of diffusing of this situation, and nor did he really want to. His anger was present and almost palpable on the air, and he was just about to offer to kick her butt on Suki's behalf for how she was acting when a small but extremely cold and random tidal wave engulfed them both.
Katara was standing at the door, leaning out of with anger livid on her face through all the streaks of tears, and both Toph and Sokka stared at her in a mix of surprise and indignation.
She said, violently, "Stop it, both of you!" She drew back the water, out of their clothes and the ground and into a large sphere that bobbed in her air behind her, and she continued brusquely, "Just go to bed before someone gets killed!"
Turning on her heel and bringing her bubble inside, she slammed the door with a very sincere and apologetic, "I'm sorry, Suki, hopefully they'll be quiet now..."
Sokka stared at the door for a second, and he felt his anger soften, only to be replaced by a very, very heavy sense of weariness. With great shame he glanced at Toph and grumbled a "Sorry", and she just nodded and replied ditto, and suggested they "just hit the hay".
Toph would probably give Katara hell tomorrow for it, he figured.
Sokka didn't think he'd ever sleep, and figured Toph wouldn't either, but after about five minutes of uncomfortable silence punctuated by sobs and over-loud apologies and gasps from inside, Toph slumped over against him, fast asleep. Her shoulder dug against his arm, and her head was heavy against his shoulder, but he barely noticed.
Sleep eventually claimed him, but not until a few painful hours of personal contemplation had passed, under the fading moon and the heavy blush of dawn.
