Ch 10 the awakening
"Why are we on a fire nation ship?" Aang asked.
"Gee, the city fell. Fire nation controls the world. What else could we have done?" Olivier coldly asked.
"You got hurt real bad." Katara said, ignoring Olivier's cold remark.
Aang said nothing, but felt the bandages on his stomach.
"I like your hair." Katara said.
"I have hair!?" Aang asked, completely surprised. "How long was I out?"
"Several weeks." Katara said.
"Is everything alright?" Hakoda asked, walking up to them.
"Everything's fine, dad." Katara curtly said, not looking at him.
Aang looked between the two of them, confused.
"I'm Hakoda, Katara and Sokka's father." Hakoda said, shaking Aang's hand.
"Pleased to meet you." Aang said, shaking his hand.
"Okay, you met. Can you leave us alone?" Katara asked, glowering at his father.
"Alright." Hakoda said.
Olivier observed the situation. It reminded her of the relation between her, and her brother. Somewhat. But Olivier could give Katara some leeway. She was still young, and forced to take on so much responsibility. Of course she'd be angry. Then again, the war has lasted for 100 years. Wouldn't she be happy to see her father again? Instead of angry?
Funny. After the Ishval war, I was pissed at Alex, because he failed his duty in the military. Here, Katara's angry at her father for being gone so long. Doesn't she understand? He went to fight for the earth kingdom to stop the fire nation.
She put those thoughts away, and watched as Katara and Aang went inside for another healing session.
"So what's the plan? We don't have the armies of Ba Sing Se." Olivier said.
"It's a modified version of the invasion plan. We'll gather some friends and allies from the earth kingdom, and strike on the day of black sun." Sokka said.
Olivier only shook her head.
"It's gonna fail. You don't have the forces necessary to pull this off. But, I'll help with it. No promises on victory." Olivier said.
"All we need is to break thru the defenses. Aang will take out the fire lord." Sokka said.
Olivier scoffed and walked away. It was always on Aang. The kid was gonna burn himself out. If everyone else trained themselves to be better, they'd have a higher chance of survival. This really was going to fail.
"You know, you're dumping everything on the kid. Why don't you pick up some of the slack? If you trained and prepared yourself to be stronger and better fighters, you'd have a higher chance of survival. What happens if Aang gets killed on the battlefield? Everyone throws down their weapons and surrenders?" Olivier asked.
"No. It's nothing like that." Hakoda said.
"Really? It sure as hell seems otherwise." Olivier spat.
Aang was healed enough to hear the new plans by Sokka and Hakoda.
Olivier watched as Sokka broke news to Aang, which wasn't good news for Aang.
"We have a secret. You" Sokka said.
"Me?" Aang asked.
"Yup. The whole world thinks you're dead." Sokka said cheerfully, spreading his arms out.
"The world thinks I'm dead?" Aang asked, horrified.
"Yep. The fire nation won't be expecting you, and that means they won't be hunting us down." Sokka said.
Olivier admitted, that was a good point. If your enemy thought their main enemy was dead, when he was actually alive, said enemy could be free to do whatever they wanted.
"Fire nation ship!" someone shouted, pointing to another cruiser on an intercept course.
"I'll handle this. The avatar is back." Aang said, opening his glider.
He was still healing. What was he thinking?
"Aang, stop. Dad and Bato can handle this." Katara said.
"Fine." Aang said, scowling.
Olivier had a look of disgust. The kid just barely escaped death, thanks to Katara. And he was still being a brat? How he survived this long in the war, was a mystery to Olivier. The sooner he faced reality, the better.
"Commander, what are you doing? All western fleets are supposed to report to Ba Sing Se." the leader said.
"We're from the eastern fleet. We've been sent to deliver some cargo." Hakoda said, bluffing.
The enemy captain bought it. For a minute, things were going smooth. But Olivier noticed that the captain was being talked to one of his guards.
Olivier didn't hear anything, but Toph yelled her suspicions.
"They know!" Toph yelled. She metal bended the metal bridge and threw the enemy captain and his guards into the sea. Katara unleashed a massive water wave, separating both warships.
The fire nation cruiser chases the imposter ship, firing fire balls and damaging the engines.
"How are things?" Toph asked.
"Things couldn't get much worse." Sokka said.
Suddenly, the giant serpent rose out of the water.
"Aw shit." Olivier said.
"The universe just loves proving me wrong, doesn't it?" Sokka asked.
"You make it to easy." Toph replied.
The fire benders on the other ship then attacked the serpent, drawing the large creature to attack their own ship.
Later, Katara carried a tray of food to Aang's room and found he wasn't there. Olivier snorted when she found the news.
"Guess the bastard didn't learn. He's still a whiny bitch, refusing to see reality. He'll die before he reaches the fire nation." Olivier spat.
"You don't have much faith in Aang, do you?" Katara asked.
"None. First, he leaves us to die in the desert. Now, he leaves us to go after the fire nation by himself. I couldn't care less if he dies or not. Besides, with all of you depending on him and putting all this pressure on him, no wonder he snapped. How blind and stupid could all of you be? You should make plans to end the war without the avatar. Be prepared if that happens." Olivier said.
"We're going after him." Katara said.
They found the avatar washed up on an island with a volcano on it. Olivier wondered what would have happened if the volcano had erupted before they arrived. These kids were relying on dumb blind luck. Now they were inside enemy territory. If this kept up, they wouldn't live long enough for the invasion.
"If we're going to be in the fire nation, no-one needs to know I'm here." Aang said, as he stabbed his ruined glider into a flow of lava, destroying it.