Ch 13 Sokka's master
Olivier sat on her back, watching a meteor shower with her 'friends'. She didn't consider them friends that much.
"Kinda makes you realize how insignificant we are." Sokka said.
Olivier tossed the boy a glance. She saw some really freaky shit when Father almost killed everyone on the promised day. A meteor shower was nothing.
She watched as one large meteor flew just over their skulls and crashed into the ground. It sounded at lot like an atom bomb going off. Getting on Appa, they flew towards the crash site, and saw a large fire erupting.
"That fire's gonna destroy the town." Katara cried.
"Wow. Thanks for your great powers of observation. I never knew that was possible. I didn't think that the giant flames that could scorch us in right now were such a lethal threat." Olivier sarcastically said.
Ignoring her comment, they set to put out the fire. More like Katara, Aang, and Toph doing all of the work.
Next morning they were talking about the fire they put out.
"These people have no idea how close they were to being toast." Aang said.
"I know. And the worst part of being in disguise is that you don't get the hero worship anymore. I miss the love." Toph said.
Olivier softly scoffed in response. They weren't in disguise. They simply changed clothes. They didn't get reconstructive surgery to change their eyes. They just changed clothes for fucks sake!
"Boohoo, poor heroes." Sokka sarcastically said.
The tone in his voice caught Olivier's attention. She had never seen Sokka down in the dumps.
"What's your problem, you haven't even touched your smoked sea slug." Katara said.
Olivier looked at the… food sitting next to Sokka. It didn't even look like food. It looked like someone had half-hazardly cooked some road kill they found. She was sure that some deadly virus was still in there, just waiting to come out and kill someone.
"All you guys can do this awesome bending stuff. Like putting out forest fires and flying around. Even Olivier isn't a bender, yet she fought Azula one-on-one. And came close to killing her. I can't do anything remotely close to that." Sokka lamented.
"That's not true. No-one can read a map like you." Katara said.
"I can't read at all." Toph added.
"Yeah. And who keeps us laughing with sarcastic comments all the time?" Aang asked.
In Olivier's opinion, there chattering wasn't making Sokka happier. It only made it worse.
"Look, I appreciate the effort. The fact is, each of you is so amazing and so special. And I'm not." Sokka said.
Katara sat down with her brother and talked to him.
"I'm sorry you're feeling down on yourself. But I hope you know that none of us see you that way." She said.
"I know something that's gonna make you feel better." Katara said with newfound enthusiasm.
"You do?" Sokka asked.
Quicker than Olivier could blink, they were inside a weapons store.
"Shopping!" Sokka said.
Note to self. Do not allow children near dangerous weaponry. Especially if their name is Sokka. Olivier thought, as she went thru the multiple weapons the store had.
It became clear to Olivier that Sokka had no weapons training what so ever, as he failed to properly hold several weapons, even using a dagger as a toothpick. Great way to cut your tongue out.
Everyone gathered with Sokka as he examined a sword.
"That's what you needed all along, Sokka." Aang exclaimed, not noticing that Olivier was right behind him.
Yeah. He was gonna die long before he faced the fire lord.
"A sword?" Sokka asked.
"No. A master. We've all had masters to teach us. You should train with Pinadao,"
Olivier raised an eyebrow. They were on a tight schedule. Shouldn't they have trained and prepared for all of this before they set out?
And if this Piandao was as good as they thought he was, wouldn't he have a long list of people wanting to learn? Sokka wouldn't get in. He didn't even have the most basic fundamentals of weapons training.
Surprisingly, Sokka was accepted as a student. With him spending his time in learning swordsmanship, the group was grounded. That bugged Olivier a bit. They kids wouldn't last 5 seconds at Briggs fortress. There was a reason the northern army was a force to be reckoned with. They could operate without their commanding officer. Olivier made sure of that.
Olivier pulled out a map and figured out the distance between them and the fire nation capital. They were heading in a general direction, but a little too slow in Olivier's mind.
Sokka soon came back and asked them to help carry the giant meteorite to the mansion. Olivier looked at the mansion, and was slightly impressed. Despite their technological backwardness the fire nation was, they still made some impressive buildings. And weapons.
"Who are these?" Piando asked.
"Just some friends. Some good friends from the fire nation." Sokka said.
Olivier watched Piandao's eyes watch over them, and she got the impression that the sword master knew they weren't fire nation. Still, he let them inside the mansion.
Days passed, as the sword was ready for combat. Piandao gathered everyone in a room, where he would present Sokka' sword.
The meeting was going well, until Sokka confessed the truth. Everyone except Olivier winced in horror. Olivier only had respect for Sokka. That took balls.
"I'm sorry too." Piandao said, before pulling his own sword. Everyone jumped to save Sokka, but he waved them down.
"This is my fight." Sokka said.
The sword master only smirked in response.
"Great." Olivier said.
"What's great?" Katara asked.
"Sokka's dead, and I'll have to kill the sword master to hide out identity. Maybe everyone in the mansion to leave no witnesses." Olivier said.
They watched as the fight progressed. It became to Olivier that Piandao wasn't going to kill Sokka. The fight was lasting too long, and Sokka would have been dead by now. Also, the fact that Piandao was giving Sokka advice in combat while actively fighting him.
She had to suppress a chuckle as Sokka ran into the courtyard screaming. Sokka was forced to duck as Piandao swung his sword in a decapitating motion. How he moved that fast against his younger opponent was beyond Olivier's mind at the moment.
Sokka temporarily blinded his opponent, and silently moved to the side to try and escape, only to step on a twig that appeared out of nowhere. Olivier suspected that Piandao booby-trapped the entire courtyard and its surroundings. Just when it seemed that Sokka was doomed to certain death, Piandao pulled back.
"Excellent work, Sokka." Piandao said, putting his sword away. "I'm a little old to be fighting the avatar, and another sword master."
"How'd you know I'm the avatar?" Aang asked.
"I've been around. You pick things up after a while. Of course I knew none of you were from the fire nation or its colonies from the very beginning. Your friend here was suspicious of me from the beginning." Piandao said.
"You might want to use a better fire nation cover name. Try Lee. There's a million Lees around." Piandao said.
"Why would agree to train someone from the water tribe?" Katara asked.
"The way of the sword doesn't belong to one nation. Just like knowledge doesn't belong to one nation." Piandao said.
"Were you even going to hurt Sokka?" Aang asked.
"No. Your friend knew that." Piandao said.
"If you were trying, Sokka would have been dead within the first 10 seconds." Olivier said.
Pinadao only nodded in response.
"How about a duel?" he asked.
"You're on." Olivier said, pulling out her Dao Swords.
"Interesting words you put on the blades." Piandao said, reading the words Olivier had scripted on the blade.
Piandao swung his sword and clashed with Olivier's blade, knocking one of the Dao swords way. Olivier had to quickly change her tactics. She spent most of the time her fighting benders. Now she was fighting a skilled non bender, wielding the same weapon she had.
Olivier cartwheeled away as Piandao continued his attacks.
"Excellent. Use your strengths against your enemy's weaknesses." Piandao said.
Piandao held his sword ready for another fight. Olivier raised her sword above her head. Both blades clashed and Olivier knocked Piandao's sword away and quickly kicked him in the nuts, hard. Piandao groaned in pain, clutching his genitals.
"Great improvising." He said. He threw his sword away and forfeited the fight.
"Why'd you kick him in the nuts?" Katara asked.
"If it wins a fight, I'd go with it." Toph said.
"Exactly. You want to win a fight, let alone a war, you have to fight dirty." Olivier said.