Now, I like this chapter. I even feel good about my Ty Lee in it.
I also promised some culture clash. Sadly, there was only so much that I could showcase without it getting either tiring or gross. But just do the math, if you would? Twenty soldiers, twenty spouses, a dozen kids, a handful of elderly, in a village with about twelve buildings, each probably consisting of one room. Try to find some privacy.
Lastly, I'm quite amused with everybody's favorite bit of canon discontinuity.
"Are you sure its safe for her to be doing that?" Suki asked from her place in the saddle. Ty Lee didn't pay attention, instead pressed herself into the soft, white fur of Appa's rump as it slowly, almost lazily paddled the air. At first, flight had been exciting and exhilarating, but it quickly became peaceful and tranquil. Even with the wind, she still felt utterly confident to hold onto fur and move with the beast.
"Not really," Sokka said. He turned to his sister. "Remind me never, ever, to ride Appa bareback."
"If the situation arises, I'll try to remember to tell you," the waterbender said, looking ahead. Ty Lee finally got off the haunch of the ten ton flying magical bison and hopped back up into the saddle, putting a headlock hold onto two of the Warriors.
"So, why are the girls coming along?" she asked.
"I already told you," Suki said.
"Yeah, but... why would you bring them to Chin? That's, like, if a Chin the Great impersonator... impersonated Chin the Great in your house. They won't be happy to see the Kyoshi Warriors."
"Easily dealt with," Suki said. A smile came to her lips. "We won't be seen."
"We are masters of camouflage, misdirection, and stealth," Zhen pointed out.
"Oh, please. You couldn't sneak back stage at a second-rate play," another laughed.
"Girls?" Suki said. She turned to Sokka. "Would you mind taking the reins. I need to get changed.
"Hmm?" Sokka said, playing with a piece of wood he was whittling into a bent shape. Ty Lee couldn't see the point of it, it just looked like a block of wood. The girls from Kyoshi stared at him, and he just frowned. "What is it? What's the problem?"
"Do you really think I intend to get naked in front of a pubescent boy?" Suki asked pointedly. Sokka just didn't get the point. Not scandalized, or embarrased, he just sat there, a little confused.
"Why not?" he asked. "It won't be the first time I've seen a grown woman naked."
Suki shared a glance with Ty Lee, but she didn't see the scandal in it either. She got no sympathy there. It wasn't until Katara spoke up that the stand off was broken.
"Cut him a break, Suki," Katara said. "We're from the Southern Water Tribe. Ever since the waterbenders were killed off, we've had to house more and more people in smaller and smaller homes. NOTHING was private. Sokka, come here and take the reins."
Sokka rolled his eyes and replaced his sister, all the while muttering, "I just don't see what the big deal is."
As he got into a position where he could preserve Suki's decency – an hilarious notion, considering they were all warriors – Suki began to shrug out of her clothing and pulled out a robe of fine and ancient green and yellow silks. Ty Lee's eyes widened, but Katara spoke first.
"Wait, aren't those Kyoshi's robes?" Katara asked.
"They were. And since Zhuang isn't here, that means they belong to me. When I said that there is a spiritual bond between these relics and Kyoshi, I was not spouting mysticism," she affixed the headress in place, and pulled on a set of armor which was just a hair too big for her. "I have a blood link to Kyoshi, and these objects contain traces of her spirit. We were told never to utilize them without dire need. I believe the life and security of the Avatar qualifies."
"I do believe in the power of stuff," Sokka said from Appa's head.
"Thank you, young skeptic," Suki said. She turned to Ty Lee. "Was I ever that young?"
"Maybe about ten years ago," Ty Lee helpfully offered. Suki just chuckled and folded the war fans into their place.
"This is something very old, I'm told. Magic from ages that have fallen into myth."
"It's not magic. It's just a form of bending," Katara said.
"This is not bending. It does not utilize any force on this Earth," Kyoshi said. "This is something of the spirits. Something far older than bending itself. Fire- and waterbending are each a few tens of thousands years old, and they are the oldest styles. This predates them. It uses blood to form the bridge from the spirit world to the physical."
"So, it's kinda like... bloodbending?" Katara asked.
"Don't be ridic... There's no such thing as bloodbending," Suki said. "Just trust that if the time comes, I will be ready."
Ty Lee looked ahead. "I think I see Chin!" she declared.
"Good. Take us low over the city, as slow as you can. Girls, join the shadows. Show them that the Dai Li hold no monopoly on the unseen," Suki said. One by one, the girls jumped off of Appa's back, and vanished from the rooftops into the town. Finally, only Suki, the siblings, and Ty Lee remained. Suki turned to Ty Lee. "Now you stay out of trouble. This isn't your problem."
"Why not?" she asked.
Suki just shook her head and leaned to Sokka. "Take Appa beyond that shrine, like you did with the others. I'll wait for the proper moment."
The siblings brought the beast for a landing, and in a blink, Suki wasn't there anymore. The sky bison settled gently onto the stone promenade. A man with a ridiculous hat began to move forward. He was liver-spotted and had greasy hair. She focused on him a moment and beheld an weak aura. This was a man who compromised too often, and of the wrong things.
Katara once again cut off her brother. "Honorable mayor, we have prepared a solid defense for the Avatar. We did an investigation, and found some very strong evidence."
"Evidence?" the mayor scoffed derisively. Suddenly, Ty Lee didn't like this person. "That's not how our court system works."
"Then how can we prove Aang's innocence?" Sokka asked.
"Simple. I say what happened, then you say what happened, then I decide who's right," he said. Everybody stared at him, utterly gobsmacked. "That's why we call it 'justice'. Because it's 'just us'," and then he walked away, cackling in a way that made Ty Lee angry enough to punch him in the spine. Not to paralyze or negate his combat abilities; he just needed a good spine punching. Ty Lee wasn't used to being that angry at people. She was starting to see why people called these Earth Kingdom people savages. At least the Fire Nation had a fair court of law.
"What are we going to do?" Sokka asked, still stunned at how hopeless the situation seemed.
"Tell Aang about this. Then, we're going to find some way to prove him innocent. Despite everything, there's got to be a way," she said. Katara looked like a thunderhead of determination. Ty Lee pitied anybody dumb enough to get in the way of anything that waterbender wanted.
"What can I do?" Ty Lee asked.
"What? You're still here?" Katara asked. She made a dismissive wave. "Watch over Appa. Everything needs company."
Ty Lee sat down on one of Appa's feet and pouted. Just like back home, everybody was ignoring her. Only this time, she was all alone. She didn't have the justification that there were six others just like her to hog up the attention. Maybe she was just somebody who didn't deserve attention. As Sokka was walking away, he quickly turned around, and gave a shrug. For some reason, that brightened her up a bit.
She turned to Appa, who made a grunting sound. "What's wrong, big fella? Are you hungry?"
Appa let out a low bellow. She reached into her pocket and pulled out some rice from her bagged lunch. She held up up for it, and Appa's huge tongue swept it away, almost knocking her over in the process. Then, Appa coughed a few times, and spat out the rice.
"That's alright. It's sort of an acquired taste," Ty Lee said, before giving Appa's head a hug. He was very huggable. Time passed, with her forgotten except for a massive magical beast. Appa let out another groan, then rolled over onto its back, its six legs flopping down lazily. "You know, that looks comfortable," Ty Lee said, and she sprawled herself similarly on one of Appa's massive paws.
The clouds had scudded past and the sky started to turn a bit red by the time people began to file in. The landing place, the widest venue in the town, was an amphitheater which faced a precipice, with only that shrine between them and the edge of a very long drop. The people came, and the seats, cut into naked rock, filled almost completely. Finally, the unpleasant mayor returned, and with him, a bailiff escorting a pilloried boy. With a shaved head and the distinctive tattoos of an airbender, the blue arrow reaching over the crown of the head and pointing down to the bridge of the nose. Ty Lee sat bolt upright.
"Move this thing from the stadium at once!" the mayor demanded shrilly. Ty Lee rolled her eyes and patted Appa on the side of the head.
"Come on, big fella. We've got to make some space."
As Appa lazily made his way to edge, and then calmly walked off of it, Ty Lee took a seat beside the siblings. Sokka gave her a smile when she sat down, but Katara's eyes were locked on the boy. He didn't look very Avatar-y. Ty Lee focused on him for a moment, seeing if she could get a sense of his aura.
It almost made her throw up. She learned how to see auras as an unintended side-effect of Piandao's tutelage; all she had to do was focus on seeing the chi flowing through somebody else, and she could usually see the inherent color, clarity, and form of that chi. In essence, she could see their aura. And each person had, with a few notable exceptions, one color, pattern, and opaqueness pretty much forever, with only some changes for mood. Then there was the Avatar. He was every color. He was every pattern. He was transparently solid. There were no words to describe it and do it justice. She shut her eyes and tried very hard not to look that deep again.
"So, what's the plan?" Ty Lee asked.
"We try to give an argument that even he can't ignore," Katara said.
"And what about the... you know?"
"Haven't seen them," Sokka glanced into the distance for a moment. "But that's probably the whole point, right?"
"Gentlemen, the trial of the Avatar begins, anon," the mayor said. "Everyone loved Chin the Great, because he was so... great."
"He obviously wasn't chosen for stellar public speaking," Sokka muttered.
"Then, the Avatar showed up, and killed him," the mayor said with a flourish, then he folded his arms back into his sleeves. "And that's how it happened."
There was a brief silence, punctuated only by somebody in the audience coughing. "That's it?" Ty Lee asked.
"The accused will now present his case," the bailiff said before walking to one side.
"You can do this, Aang. Just remember the evidence," Sokka stage-whispered.
"Right, evidence," the Avatar said. He looked nervous for a moment, then did a flourish of his own in his stocks. Come to think of it, why did they even put those things on him? They were sized for a man twice as big as the Avatar, and hung off of him like a bad fashion statement. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm about to tell you what really happened, and I'll prove it all... with FACTS! Fact number one... umm..."
Obviously the Avatar wasn't chosen on stellar public speaking, either. Sokka leaned forward and whispered loudly again, this time in a language Ty Lee couldn't understand. The Avatar must have, though, because he perked back up.
"Oh, yeah. You see, I have very big... feet," he said, pointing down to his own dainty shoes. There was another pause. "Furthermore, your temple matches your statue. But... I was in a painting... at sunset," he glanced around. Even Ty Lee could tell he was sweating. "So there you have it. I'm not guilty!"
"Oh, this is not going well," Ty Lee said.
"Yeah, he's dead," Sokka said, even as he gave a hopeful gesture to the Avatar.
"Any ideas?"
"One, but it's kinda crazy," Katara said. "As in, its Sokka crazy."
"Oooh. I like those plans," Sokka said. "You're telling them."
"It was your idea."
"Remember the last time I tried to explain something to a group of people? They ended up lost four days in a blizzard, close enough to where we started to spit and hit the walls," Sokka shook his head. "Just save the Avatar, would 'ya?"
Katara shot up. "Mayor Tong, we have one more witness to this crime. We would like the audience to hear this testimony."
Tong threw up his liver-spotted hands. "I've already told you! It's just me, and the accused. You can't call any witnesses!"
"This isn't just any witness. I'm calling Avatar Kyoshi herself," she said. She then turned to Aang and said something in that language Ty Lee didn't speak. The Avatar nodded, then something strange happened. A great wind swept up from the prairie and drove all of the dust down into the peninsula. Visibility became almost nothing, and then, a great cyclone rose from where the Avatar stood. It whirled and raged for a long moment, then dissipated in a thunder crack. Standing where the Avatar once stood, was Kyoshi.
Ty Lee knew it wasn't Kyoshi. It couldn't be. It was just Suki wearing her ancestor's clothes and war-paint. But there was something strange about Suki. She didn't hold herself like a Kyoshi Warrior. She held herself... like a force of nature. Her eyes, normally a dark, muddy grey not unlike Ty Lee's own, now seemed to glow with an otherworldly fire. Blood dripped from her hands onto the cut stone; when it landed, it sizzled and smoked. And when she spoke, it reverberated in her skull like two voices, so similar, but so different, speaking in the exact same moment.
"I am Avatar Kyoshi," Suki said. Or perhaps it really was Kyoshi. "I killed Chin the Conqueror."
"Well, so much for that plan," Katara said.
"I slew a horrible tyrant. Chin was expanding his empire to all corners of the continent. He drove every culture into subservience to his, every peoples slaves for his empire. He swept across the whole of the East Continent like a plague. When he came to the neck of the peninsula where we lived, he demanded our immediate surrender. But I knew the truth. Even as before the words ceased echoing in the air, he would have destroyed our people, if not with the knife, then with the cold, grinding pressure of generations of slavery. I warned him that I would not sit passively as he destroyed my people."
That strange Kyoshi/Suki gestalt made one threatening stomp forward, causing Tong to flee squeeling like a flying bore with its rump on fire. "But he did not back down," Kyoshi/Suki said. "He readied his armies to destroy everything I cared for. I warned him. He didn't listen. On that day, we split from the mainland. He claimed that he would conquer every cun of ground that touched the Great Stone. So, I removed myself from it. I considered it the kindest gesture I could make. He did not see it that way. He was an earthbender. He tried to resist me. As I altered the face of this Earth, he stood against me. And when his stubborn pride spelled his demise in the boiling waters below, it was his folly which brought him there. He chose to die, but I chose to destroy him," Kyoshi/Suki staggered a little as she made another stomping stride. "I created Kyoshi Island so my people would have a place safe from invaders..."
Whatever she had to say after that was cut off as she fell to one knee. The whirlwind rose up again, enveloping her once more. When it slowly split apart, Aang was back where she had been standing, holding his stocks in one hand as though he had just not quite had enough time to get back into them.
"So..." Ty Lee asked. "What just happened?"
"Kyoshi kinda... confessed," Sokka said, obviously as in the dark about what Kyoshi was going to say as she was. Tong moved forward again.
"The Avatar has confessed to the crime!" Tong shouted. The people began to mill loudly, and he was about to launch into another spiel, but he was forestalled as he looked at the ground behind Aang. Ty Lee stood, and saw what he was looking at: the blood Suki left. It still sat on the ground, and a trail lead to shrine. "What trickery is this?" he demanded.
"It's... Avatar Magic!" Aang protested.
"It doesn't matter. You have admitted you slew Chin the Great. You are culpable for everything which came after. Bring forth the Wheel of Punishment!"
There was a shocked gasp, and the bailiff slowly moved to Tong's side. "Uh, the wheel's broken."
"How could it be broken?"
"Wheels break, sometimes."
Tong huffed, then turned to Aang. "Very well, as the mayor of this town, prelate of its archives, and steward of the Jade Throne, I pronounce you guilty, and that you will be sent to death, by boiling oil!"
"Okay, this is getting out of hand," Ty Lee said, waving her hands. "You can't kill the Avatar!"
Sokka and Katara said something rapidly in their native tongue, then both rose. Katara reached to her side, where she kept a water skin. Ty Lee looked around, trying to see where the attack would come from. Instead, she was surprised by an explosion somewhere in the distance, where the gates would have been. The crowd recoiled as one, and the soldiers overlooking the proceedings turned. She felt a rumbling in the ground. Grunting calls tore through the air. Ty Lee remembered that sound, an animal native only to the Fire Nation. Rhinos. And by the sounds of it, a lot of them.
"What's going on?" Sokka asked.
"I think we're under attack," Ty Lee answered, turning to face the pathway that ran down the arena. In less than a minute, the first of the rhinos crested the decline and made its rampaging way down the path as the locals dived out of the way. It came to a halt in front of Tong, and a man stared down at him. He was huge, his head mostly shaved. Hoop earrings adorned not just his ears but his nose, and he carried no weapon. She didn't even need to check to know he was a firebender.
"We've come to claim this town in the name of the Fire Lord. Now, show us your leader, so I may," he turned away from Tong to the statue of Chin which stood behind him. A flick of his fingers emitted a narrow, greenish flame, which cut through the marble statue like a sword through paper. The statue toppled and shattered against the arena ground, "dethrone him."
The guards glanced amongst themselves, then all of them answered in a ragged chorus, "That's him. Mayor Tong. Right there."
Tong let out a squeak, and tried to hide behind the Avatar. "You! Avatar! DO SOMETHING!"
Aang smirked. "I would love to help, but I'm supposed to get boiled in oil."
"I'll drop the charges! Please, just help us!"
Explosions and gouts of flames rose up from the town. The people huddled together in the stands, having nowhere else to go except over the very cliffs which killed Chin four centuries ago. Aang gave a measured glance, then turned to Tong, "So, Kyoshi was not guilty?"
"Completely innocent!"
Aang smiled. "Good. Suki!"
Suki stepped out of the forest of columns of the temple, flicking open her fans with red-bandaged hands. She moved forward as the two rhinos who had held position at the top of the arena reared up and fled, their riders mysteriously vanished. A flash of green brought a smile to Ty Lee's face. The Kyoshi Warriors had joined the fight. And so had Aang. He leapt forward with a wide sweep of wind slamming the rider off of his mount and sending him toward the cliff face. The firebender sent an explosion of flames behind him, checking his momentum and dropping him onto the very edge. He started to grin an insane grin. He reached up and let a massively tall stream of fire shoot straight up. "You've just killed this town, Avatar," he said.
"Get these people to safety," Aang ordered, as he went into battle with the master firebender in the grounds of the arena. Suki nodded and ran forward, gathering Ty Lee and the siblings together.
"We push these people up the neck, back through the walls. Then, my girls will deal with the rhinos."
Ty Lee's eyes bugged at that. "But there's, like, fifty of those things back there! You'd be outnumbered eight to one!"
"Eight to one, eh?" Suki said, a mischievous look on her face. It was very strange, and an expression she didn't use often. "I guess I'll tell Zhen to sit this one out, so it'll be a fair fight. Now let's move!"
Suki moved forward, driving the civilians forward and away from the airbender and his opponent. The crowd was like koala sheep; easily driven and easily directed. And Suki must not have been joking, because by the time they reached the rear walls of Chin, they came across three more riderless rhinos. The town would be a problem. It was the rhino's ideal terrain; cluttered, close, and full of things the soldiers didn't mind destroying. The crowd dissolved quickly, leaving the outsiders to face the threat. Ty Lee suddenly felt more than a little stupid.
A meteor hammer shot past Ty Lee, trying to bind her waist. Luckily, in the time that it took to whip back around, she had already contorted herself out of its coil. It recoiled and lashed out again, coiling Sokka against a support timber. Katara shouted something, and made a broad gesture. The water burst forth from her waterskin... and splattered onto the floor. The soldier smirked, an pulled out a crossbow, firing a shot at the helpless Tribesman. Suki flashed into the way, deflecting it with her fans.
"Katara! Focus!" Suki shouted. Katara might not have even heard it, though, because she was already fixated on the water. A turn of her wrists brought the water back up again, wrapping the chain in undulating water, then wrenching and tearing it apart. Sokka shrugged his way out of the sundered chain, and ran, grabbing Ty Lee's arm as he did, "Come on! You've got to get somewhere safe!"
"Excuse me?" Ty Lee asked as she easily pulled away from his grasp. Katara, still holding the chain, bound the rider in them and used her bending to cut him off of his saddle and leave him bound and helpless on the ground. "I'm still useful!"
"Can you do that fist-y thing when they're wearing armor?" Sokka asked.
"I'm... not sure."
"Then you'd be most useful getting people out of the city," Sokka said. "It's a big job, but I'm sure you can handle it. Run. Now!"
Ty Lee looked at Sokka for a moment, before grabbing his wide ears and planting a big kiss on him. He looked shocked for a moment. "Thanks for believing in me," she said. Then, she ran off, toward the burning buildings, on a mission to defeat her own nation. There was something fundamentally absurd about that, but she couldn't take the time to parse it out. People needed help.
She was a flash in pale blue as she ran through the streets, when they took her where she wanted them to. And she was a flash on the rooftops, when they did not. Her path took her across unmounted, shackled soldiers, the subtle and invisible work of the Kyoshi Warriors. One, though was still going strong. He hurled small bombs about, calmly walking away as they burst and tore down buildings. Ty Lee felt a sting of shame. He was potentially killing innocent people! She leapt off of the roof, trying to deliver a paralyzing jab, but the strike ended painfully on the bombardier's armor. The bomber turned and struck Ty Lee to the street. She took a moment to clear the stars from her eyes, and when she did, there was a hissing sound next to her.
Her eyes widened as she saw the bomb. Acting fast enough to make an Azuli assassin blink, she grabbed and hurled the bomb at its source, and it detonated half way there. Still, close enough to spook the rhino and send the rider out of his saddle. The rider was still on the ground for a moment, then slowly got to his well armored feet. Ty Lee looked around. In that much metal, she had no way to get at him. A rhino's grunt alerted her to another threat, and another rider raced around a corner, swinging at Ty Lee with a nodachi. She flipped backward, smacking the bare hands of this one, sending them into crippled numbness. When she landed, it was behind him in the saddle.
"What in the Hell? Where is she?" he shouted.
"She's right behind you!" the bombardier shouted. The voice was quite high, for a man. Or normal for a woman. Ty Lee didn't have time to deal with that, as she pulled up the armored skirt of the man's uniform and gave him two sharp jabs in his lower spine, then another one in the side of his neck. Boneless as pudding, he flopped out of the saddle.
"Now what to do about you," she said. She noticed something by her foot; a bag, filled with a bunch of unusual stuff. She looked back up and saw a chakram flying at her face, so she bent backwards and let her momentum carry her off the beast. She grabbed the bag as she fell. A grab inside located a weird, crooked piece of metal. She shrugged, then hurled it at the bombardier, who was readying another small bomb. It cut easily through the air, and spanged off the soldier's helmet, but did nothing more than make him flub lighting the bomb. Not good enough.
As Ty Lee dug through other things; a whale-tooth knife, a back-curved bone blade, both too deadly; a soapstone club, not much use against that completely armored fighter. She heard a cutting sound again, and that chunk of metal almost hit her in the head. She ducked, and it embedded into a wooden beam next to her. Huh. That seemed like just the thing. Slinging the bag over her shoulder, she ran forward, kicking a bomb thrown at her into a hay-stack, where it was a lot less destructive. A leap, dragging the gauntlet off the arm in the crook of the metal thing, exposing a vulnerable wrist. A jab neutralized it. Even before she was over the soldier's head, she had the thing hooked under the helmet, tearing it off. The soldier got to his feet, and turned, showing that he was a she.
A woman bombardier. It ought not have been surprising; when it came to explosives, men were keen, but women were cautious. And cautious tended to last longer. Ty Lee brandished the weapon, and the woman made a placating gesture. "Just put the weapon down and this'll be a lot easier for both of us."
Ty Lee shook her head. "I don't think so. You're betraying the ideals you're fighting for."
The bombardier was taken aback. "Wait a minute. You speak–" and she was cut off by Ty Lee hurling the crook at her again. It struck her in the head, knocking her back, before arcing up and toward Ty Lee. She snatched it out of the air. The bombardier was out on the ground, concussed but still breathing. Ty Lee experimentally threw the crook again, and once again, it boomeranged back to her.
"Wow, that's kinda neat," she said. Heads began to peek out of doorframes. Ty Lee glanced at them, and motioned wide. "Come on! It's not safe here!"
The people didn't need a lot of cajoling. She moved, the rhinos in the distance, and the crowd growing behind her. She moved slowly, steadily toward the gates, as the town of Chin burned. Finally, she arrived in a plaza. Suki dominated the scene. Four soldiers, two of them still mounted, were trying to pin her down, but she flowed through them like air around a lattice. And she struck like a stone from the heavens. One soldier tried to grab her arm, as though she were some dainty maiden. She disabused him by pulling him low and uppercutting him with her off-hand. She paused just long enough to give Ty Lee a thumbs up, before moving to engage the remaining three.
The Avatar leapt into the open area, a bound which did Ty Lee jealous. From another street, the waterbender ran in, waving a blob of water as big as she was. "Where is he?" she shouted. The answer came when two rhinos charged in after the Avatar. She swept her water out, wrapping the two beasts. A blast of air from the Avatar froze them in place, helpless. By the time that happened, Suki had already dismounted the last of her opponents, and gave the rhino a slap on the rump to send it running.
"The girls are keeping on the battalion's heels. They're in full retreat," Suki said. She paused, looking at Ty Lee. "I'm pretty sure Sokka' going to want those."
"I'm going to want what?" Sokka's voice came from Ty Lee's side. She turned, and gave a start, as she had to look up to see him. He was wearing a hilariously ill-fitting rhino-rider helmet and astride one of the beasts, back straight and proud like a man on parade. Suki burst into laughter at the sight.
"What is that on your head?" Suki asked.
"And why are you riding a rhino?" Aang added
"And how are you riding a rhino?" Katara finished.
"That's..." Sokka shrugged, "...kind of a long story."
Sokka hopped down, and the rhino, with no directions, began ambling away from the noise, through the gates. It would probably merrily munch on local grass and terrify local wildlife until some other Fire Nation force collected it. Sokka, not content to munch on grass or terrify animals, gaped at Ty Lee for a moment. "I know. I got hundreds of them out!"
"BOOMERANG!" he shouted, sweeping the weapon from her grasp. "You do always come back!" Ty Lee pouted for a moment, but only a moment, because Sokka pulled her into a platypus-bear-hug and spun her about. "I thought I'd lost all of this stuff! Oh, you don't know what this means to me."
"You're welcome, you're welcome... you're smothering me," she said. It wasn't true, but it got him to let go and turn to Suki with a goofy grin on his face.
"What's going on?"
"The riders are in full retreat," Suki explained. "To hear them say it, my girls outnumbered them ten to one. At least, that'll be the story they take back to leadership. The rest, they'll probably be imprisoned until the Fire Nation ransoms them back," she paused for a moment, an unreadable expression on her face. "Pity their leader got away. It would have been good to have somebody high-ranking to use as a bartering chip."
"So it's over?"
"All done but the crying," she said. She glanced at the sun. "And before sunset, even. I must say, I am impressed, gang."
"Do you think we should stick around for Tong to congratulate us?" Aang asked.
"Maybe if you live to see a century," Suki answered.
"Techincally, I am a hundred and thirteen years old," the Avatar pointed out. Suki rolled her eyes. Suiting action to his words, Tong came slinking out of the bedlam, his hat still smoldering and his robes of office filthy with soot and grime. Weird how those sorts of things seemed to happen when the Avatar was around.
"You've saved the town," Tong said, his voice joyous. "How can we ever repay you?"
"Stop burning statues of the Avatars, to start," Aang said. Suki brushed him aside, and loomed over Tong. He gulped.
"We were never here," she said. Tong glanced around. "The Avatar and his friends repulsed an attack by a battalion of rhinos. The Kyoshi Warriors have never stepped foot in Chin. Is that perfectly clear?"
"But... I don't understand," Tong stammered. Suki rolled her eyes, and said something which sounded like a profanity, but in a form of argot, Embiar Huojian. "Who would ask? And the people won't want to talk about being saved by our enemies."
"Good. Stress that. Because Chin has been out of the war until now because it was useless. No port, no mines, no worthwhile crops. But with this defeat, you're going to get a lot of attention. And if I hear you sent any of it to my home, then you're just going to not wake up one morning," Suki said.
"Hey, wait just one minute there..." the Avatar said.
"Fine! You weren't here! It was just the three teenagers."
"Four teenagers!" Ty Lee said. Again, they were ignoring her.
"Four teenagers. I won't say a word. I swear," Tong was sweating. Suki smiled.
"Good. If anybody presses, make something up," Tong ran away, leaving what remained of his dignity in the dirt of the gate plaza. she turned to the Avatar. "What?"
"You can't just go around threatening people," Aang said. "Fear is no way to control people."
"I'm not controlling them. In truth, I never intend to step foot in this town again. But he thinks I do, and that means I can do what I need to. Zhen!" she waited for a few seconds, and Zhen almost magically appeared in the conversation circle. Sokka let out a loud yelp and brandished his boomerang at her for a moment before he clued in. "You're heading home."
"What?" Zhen asked, the confusion clear on her face, because most of her paint had been rubbed off in the battle. "I thought you were going to..."
"Zhen, you're the most skilled and well-rounded fighter left. And, with me gone, you'll be the closest blood relative of Kyoshi on that island who is still old enough to carry a sword and fan. Keep the girls together. Keep my home safe." Zhen looked up at Suki for a long moment, then nodded. Suki then turned to Ty Lee. She almost began talking, but then had to clear her throat and try again. "You could come with me, you know? I could use somebody like you where I'm going."
"Where are you – what in the Hell is wrong with your spine?" Sokka asked, finally turning to Ty Lee. She just stared up at him, her chin balanced on her hands, her feet on the stone in front of her face. She moved her legs up for a moment.
"What? Is something wrong? Did my shirt split again?" she asked. It was a tragedy that these people didn't know how to make proper silk clothing, the kind that moves with one's body and doesn't bind or constrict. Instead, she had to make due with local stock. It finally occurred to Ty Lee that they might be referring to the fact that she was almost sitting on her own head.
"She does that, sometimes," Suki said, "when she thinks nobody's paying attention."
"I'm sorry, but I can't. I made a promise, and I'm going to see it through," Ty lee said.
"It's already been a year," Suki said.
"I know. But still, I'm going to be there when they come back," she got up and gave Suki a hug. "Good luck finding your sister," she said.
"How do you know she's looking for her sister?" the Avatar asked. Ty Lee gave an incredulous look.
"How do you not?" She shook her head. "Zhen, I'll be headed back to Kyoshi with you."
"I figured as much. Come on. Somebody out there is about to have a boat mysteriously disappear," Zhen said. As Ty Lee walked away, she heard Suki behind her.
"Let me guess. Now you're going to take issue with thievery?" Suki asked.
"No, we're fine with it," Sokka said.
"Yup, fine," his sister agreed.
"As long as it's from pirates or bad guys," the Avatar chimed in.
Ty Lee looked back one more time at her friend, the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors. She tried to imprint the woman into her mind, just in case she never saw her again. She focused a bit more, and almost missed a step. Suki's aura was a dark green, solid, and smooth. It always had bin. But now, there was another, a rainbow of colors weaving around it, making its shape indistinct. It was like she suddenly grew another soul. And Ty Lee didn't know what to make of that.
"So where will you go?" Suki asked.
"Well, we're going to have to fly past the Great Divide on our way north," Sokka said.
"Biggest canyon in the world; do you think we should stop and take a look at it?" Aang asked.
The siblings shared a glance, then turned back to the Avatar, saying in unison "Just keep flying."
Recently edited because I'm a frickin' moron who can't keep his continuity straight. Also, feel free to leave a review.