Chapter 1: Kyoshis in the Colonies
"Okay we're here in the Fire Nation Colonies."
"I'm just glad to be off that boat" quipped Toph, she really hated sailing.
"Now all we need to do is find Azula, expose her corrupt Fire Nation Governors, and destroy her smuggling rings."
"How are you planning to do that?" asked Suki.
To be honest I had no idea. Personally I was surprised that Zuko wanted us to help find and stop Azula but when he explained that anyone in the Fire Nation could be one of her supporters I kinda understood. Anyway he asked Suki and me to get a team of the Kyoshi Warriors together to help. Toph, who'd been staying here on Kyoshi Island, eagerly agreed as she'd been bored since our last mission (though she didn't want to go off and have an adventure on her own). Unfortunately most of the Kyoshi Warriors didn't want to go to a war zone to hunt for an insane fire bender. However Ty Lee volunteered saying that we needed to stop Azula.
After that we packed our belongings and took a boat to the mainland (passenger boats from the Earth Kingdom to the Fire Nation are very rare), then waited for Aang, Katara, Appa, and Momo to arrive and take us to Ember Island (we used Zuko's beach house as a meeting point). On the way Katara explained how she and Aang had been travelling around the Western Earth Kingdom trying to resolve the problems. She told us that the problems were worse in the Southern areas because it was mainly made up of small areas of Fire Nation Colonies, Earth Kingdom towns, and land no one was currently using but that each side wanted to be theirs; rather than the Northern areas which was mostly Fire Nation, with a small Earth Kingdom region. She also explained that they were having trouble find those responsible in the south because they would attack Earth Kingdom towns and then retreat, so unless Aang was able to catch them attacking a town they couldn't find who'd attacked it. I could tell that this annoyed both of them, a lot.
We arrived at the beach house late in the evening. Shortly after arriving Aang left to get Zuko, along with some things we'd need for the mission. While he was gone we made something to eat (Zuko kept lots of food here, even meat). Once Aang return with Zuko, Zuko got straight into explaining what the problem was. Basically Azula had made contacts with the Nation Officers and Governors, and was trying to gather enough support to start a civil war while destroying the Earth Kingdom. Next Zuko explained our role. While Aang was trying to keep things calm in the South we'd head to the Fire Nation part of the Northern area to look for Azula and her smugglers. Zuko though she'd be in the North because it was more firmly under Fire Nation control, making it easier for corrupt Governors to hide her. We were also to investigate which Governors and Officers supported her, how she was co-ordinating attacks on the Earth Kingdom, how large her army was, and how she was financing this army. However Zuko made it clear that we were not to fight Azula unless she we had no choice because 1) she'd be well defended, 2) she could Fire bend and use lighting, 3) she was insane and very dangerous. Though we could destroy any smuggling ring we found (this made Toph happy).
After that we just talked about what we'd been doing. Though it was clear from the depressed moods of Aang, Katara, and Zuko that the whole situation was taking a heavy toll on them. So we all promised them we'd stop Azula together. After that Zuko gave us some money and Fire Nation clothes (anyone who didn't look Fire Nation was likely to be attacked). He also gave us a Messenger Hawk called Xiaohong that had trained to find Aang, so that we could contact him when we found Azula (the way he squawked reminded me of Hawky). Though Xiaohong couldn't find us, so we had to tell Aang which town to send it to.
Afterwards Aang took Zuko back to the Palace and the rest of us spent the night in Zuko's Beach House. Aang and Katara left early next morning because they'd be spending most of the day flying on Appa. Since we were going in disguise we couldn't be seen riding Appa, so we were taking a boat. The only boat from Ember Island to the Colonies (a former Earth Kingdom city now called Dairen) didn't leave until the afternoon, so we just waited.
While on the boat Toph, Suki, Ty Lee, and me discussed what we should do. Toph wanted to find one of Azula's strongholds and attacks it, while Ty Lee wanted to try to convince Azula to surrender. Suki was more rational (that's why I love her), suggesting that we try to gather information from the smugglers about which Governors were corrupt, then force the Governors to tell us what they knew about Azula. Once we had all the information we needed Aang and Zuko could bring Azula down and her corrupt Governors down.
But the main problem was how to find the smugglers. In our previous mission in the Southern Earth Kingdom we'd been told who some of the smugglers were and had been able to tail them (using Toph's feet) to find their bases. This time we only had some Fire Nation reports but Zuko had said that there was no way to tell how accurate they were. After much debate we decided to try to find the black market and look for smugglers there.
However what had seemed a good idea on the boat was difficult to put into effect since we didn't know where the black market was. In the end we decided to go to an inn and rent some rooms and discuss our plan in private. Now we're all in the room Suki and I'm sharing. I said "Okay we're here in the Fire Nation Colonies", Toph quipped "I'm just glad to be off that boat" and I continued … wait there's no point in reminiscing over what just happened.
Given that Suki, Toph, and Ty Lee were all looking at me for answers I decided to take charge.
"First we need to find the black market. Let's split up and ask around the city where we can find a market that sells 'special items'. We'll meet back here in an hour to report what we've found."
"So we're just walking around, talking to people" Toph said in a bored manner.
"Sokka, what special items do we want" asked Ty Lee, she looked confused.
"Illegal ones" I replied.
We then set off to gather information; Suki, Xiaohong, and me in one team; Toph and Ty Lee in the other.
Notes:
Since Suki didn't do much in the series I don't know how to represent her character, other than Sokka's girlfriend.
Xiaohong: means 'little red/reddy' and is a common name for a bird in China, roughly equivalent to Polly.
Dairen is based on Dalian, China's northernmost ice-free port city.