5. Can We Keep Him?
"I should've been down there," Toph complained, putting her feet up on her console. "I could have told you if he was lying about anything." The Shu girl had a unique talent of sensing vibrations - such as a liar's racing heartbeat - through metal; it was something to do with the resonance of her own stone body. It made her an invaluable asset, which is why no one but Aang, Sokka, and Katara knew about it. She didn't want her parents to use her for their own political ends, and the fewer people who knew about her gift, the better.
"You'll be able to talk to him soon, he's almost healed," Katara said. "I think the Agni Kai may have some regenerative ability - he's healing frighteningly fast."
"Cool," said Toph. "What's his name, again?"
"Zuko," Katara reported. Sokka frowned.
"Katara, have you heard that name before? It sounds familiar." She furrowed her brow, thinking.
"Can't say I have - it might be a common Agni Kai name, though. Why?"
"I can't remember! You're the one who always knows stuff!" Sokka protested.
"Sokka, you can't just count on me to remember everything for you," she started, exasperated.
"Guys," Toph interrupted, a warning in her voice. She jerked her head toward the cockpit entrance. A moment later, Zuko appeared. He was very pale, but otherwise looked fine. He'd changed out of his bloody uniform and had put on one of the blue jumpsuits that Katara had left for him.
"You're up," Katara said, rather stupidly.
"Where are we going?" he asked, ignoring her.
"Nowhere, for now," Sokka said, swinging around in his pilot's chair to face the newcomer. If possible, the Agni Kai man's face went even paler.
"You! You're the - " Then he clamped his mouth shut. They all stared at him.
"I'm the what?" Sokka asked in a dangerously calm voice. Toph took her feet off her console. Zuko didn't answer. Aang straightened up quietly.
"Answer the question," said Toph.
"He's the Water Tribe heir," Zuko said. "So you," he continued, gesturing at Katara, "are the Water Tribe diplomatic liaison with the Ba Sing Se Cluster and you," he said, pointing a shaky finger toward Toph, "are the daughter of the leaders of the majority party in the Parliament." He slid down against the wall. "They're all just kids," he mumbled to himself.
"Hey!" said Sokka, who had sharp ears. "I'm twenty, thank you!"
"You can't be much older than we are," Aang said, frowning slightly.
"How do you know all of this?" Toph demanded, seizing the Agni Kai soldier by the shoulders and slamming him up against the bulkhead. He coughed.
"Careful," Katara warned, her alarm at being recognized warring with her healer's instincts.
"How do you know?" Toph yelled, switching her grip from his shoulders to hold him by the throat.
"Basic - military - strategy - " he choked. "Know - important - figures - "
"Let him down," Sokka said. Toph released him; Zuko collapsed to the deck.
"What was your position again?" Toph asked.
"Midshipman aboard the Blue Spirit," Zuko replied.
"Liar," she said. "Try again." Zuko's face tightened. Katara frowned. Sokka folded his arms over his chest.
"Fine," Zuko growled. "Captain."
"Captain? Of a ship like that?" Sokka exclaimed. Zuko grimaced.
"Yes."
"How'd you run into the pirates?" Aang asked.
Zuko sighed. "They set us up with a mock-injured freighter - we were honor-bound to offer them assistance. Once we got them near the border, they hit us with a stealth ship and boarded us. You can probably figure out the rest."
"Bastards," said Toph coldly. "Pulling a trick like that." Zuko gave her a surprised look.
The nav-computer pinged. Katara looked over at it. "We've got incoming," she said. "Unknown ship approaching, 150 klicks."
"Aang, get them on comms," Sokka ordered. "You, stay out of sight," he added, jerking his head at Zuko, who slipped onto the ladder leading up to the cockpit; he was out of sight but not out of earshot.
"It's a freighter," Aang reported, "Sensors are showing that much. But no response yet." Zuko's head reappeared at the top of the ladder.
"Let me see it," he ordered. The A'pa boy moved to the side so Zuko could get a look at the screen. Katara watched as some of the tension left his shoulders. "It's not the same one," he said, sounding relieved.
"You think the pirates were monitoring your ship?" Sokka asked, still waiting for a reply from the other ship.
"It would be foolish not to," Zuko said, stepping back down the ladder.
"Toph, head down to the turret," Sokka said.
"Yessir," she grinned. "Outta my way, Cap," she added to Zuko, jumping out of the cockpit over him.
The comm unit crackled. "This is Ba Sing Se freighter Elephant Koi. Why are you hailing us?" The voice sounded annoyed, like he had better things to be doing.
"Hey, Elephant Koi, this is Water Tribe ship Penguin Runner. Just wanted to let you know that there's a rogue freighter running around that's crewed by pirates, possibly in this area," Sokka said cheerfully, as if trying to annoy them more.
There was a pause while the freighter's crew digested this. "What's its call sign?" the captain finally asked.
"Ba Sing Se freighter Heart of Glass," Zuko whispered to Katara, who relayed it to her brother.
"Ba Sing Se freighter Heart of Glass," Sokka repeated.
"Acknowledged." the Elephant Koi's captain replied. "Thank you, Penguin Runner. Recommend you advise the Ba Sing Se Defense Force of the situation. Elephant Koi out." The comm crackled off.
"Oh, yeah! The Defense Force!" Sokka exclaimed. "I forgot about them!" Aang slapped a palm to his forehead. "Hey, Toph," Sokka continued, keying the intercom. "You can come back up now."
"You're no fun," she grumbled. The intercom clicked off.
"Aang, get the Defense Force's vid-frequency," Sokka said. "They should know about the rogue freighter."
"Don't mention me," Zuko ordered, coming back up into the cockpit. Sokka turned to look at him.
"Why not?"
"It'll be better if the pirates think there were no survivors," the Agni Kai man said, folding his arms over his chest. "Say that I must have managed to get the ship's ID into my ship's log before dying."
"You want me to lie to the Defense Force?" Sokka said, raising an eyebrow.
"It'll make you less of a target if the pirates find out," Zuko said with a shrug.
"Putting in a vid-call to the Defense Force now," Sokka said slowly. "Get back down out of sight."
"Thank you," said Zuko, and disappeared down the ladder once again. Aang slipped out of the co-pilot's seat as Toph climbed back into the cockpit.
The vid-screen flickered to life, showing an Oma girl with chin-length auburn hair and a blank expression. "You've reached the Ba Sing Se Defense Force flagship, Kyoshi's Sword," she said. "Please state your coordinates and your reason for contacting us." Then she blinked and looked at them more closely. "Sokka?" she asked, mouth falling open.
"Hey! Long time no see - it's Suki, right? Anyway, we're at 85x, 33y, 29z - " The screen shut off. Sokka stared at it, jaw hanging. "Did she just hang up on us?"
"I don't think she's forgiven you for that tour yet," Katara said, biting back a laugh. Two years ago, Sokka had visited the Ba Sing Se Cluster in his official capacity as heir to the Water Tribe clans. This had included a tour of Kyoshi's Sword. Sokka had been distracted by the ship's weaponry and had wandered down to the torpedo bay, which was a restricted area. Their guide for the day, Suki, whom Sokka had been flirting with the whole time, had gotten a reprimand from her superior officer and had been furious with Sokka. Apparently she still held a grudge.
The vid-screen flicked back on. "Sorry, could you repeat your coordinates?" a Shu man with marbled skin asked.
"85x, 33y, 29z," Sokka said, crossing his arms over his chest. "What happened to Suki?"
"She is currently unavailable," the Shu said, his mouth twitching slightly, as if trying to suppress a smile. "State your issue, please."
"We ran across a gutted Agni Kai destroyer at 67x, 92y, 3z," Sokka reported. "On further investigation, we discovered there were no survivors, but that the captain had managed to record the incident in the ship's log before he died. They were set up by a pirate ship posing as a freighter, call sign Ba Sing Se ship Heart of Glass. The ship may still be around those coordinates."
"Noted," the Shu man said, a grave expression on his face.
"A pirate stealth ship was also mentioned," Sokka added.
"Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention," the Shu replied, nodding. "We will notify the Agni Kai Armada as well. This will be dealt with swiftly." The vid-screen clicked off.
"I still can't believe she hung up on me," Sokka grumbled. Toph grinned maliciously, sensing fodder for a whole new world of sly remarks.
"Did I hear something about the Armada?" Zuko asked, coming back into the cockpit.
"The Defense Force said they would notify them of the attack," said Katara. A pained look crossed the young man's scarred face.
"I suppose it would have happened eventually," he said cryptically.
"I have a question," started Aang in a thoughtful tone. "Why did they go to that much trouble to lure you out? Setting the whole thing up with the freighter and the stealth ship - that's a lot of fuel used on one ship that was already in Agni Kai territory. Why the big effort?"
"They were hired to kill me," Zuko said carefully. "I have… many enemies."
"Because you're so young for a captain?" Sokka asked. Zuko shrugged.
"So you don't know who did it?" Katara asked with a frown.
"I'll let you know when I narrow it down," he replied dryly. "Where are we going now?"
"I assume you need a ride home?" Sokka said, raising an eyebrow, but the Agni Kai man shook his head.
"They'll all think I'm dead, and I want keep it that way for now. It'll make it easier to investigate."
"You're welcome to stay on with us as long as you need to," said Katara, lapsing into what Sokka called her "gracious-diplomat mode". Zuko looked surprised, then bowed deeply with his hands in front of him, one in a fist, one open.
"Your hospitality does you honor," he said, his voice slipping into a more formal tone. Behind him, Aang's eyebrows shot up.
"Well, someone has manners," Toph commented. "We should keep him."
A/N: I believe Millie commented on the lack of recognition between people who are all major players in galactic politics? So, I was kind of thinking, Just wait until the this chapter, but I do believe a bit more background is in order, because I have all of this in my head, but I haven't told you guys yet!
Since I'm a nerd, I went and basically designed a unique system of government for each of my four "nations" and so we have the Ba Sing Se Parliament, the Water Tribe clans (which are basically self-governing, but all answer to Hakoda - sort of like a federal system), and the Agni Kai empire (ruled by Ozai and his four generals - more on that later).
The thing about the Agni Kai, however, is that they have been spectacularly isolationist under the last few Fire Lords (a bit like Imperial Japan in the 1600's, but more strict). They have spies out in the galaxy, of course, that keep the Fire Lord informed, but Agni Kai don't leave the empire, and certainly no one comes in, which has been the case for at least a century. This is why Katara and Sokka have never actually seen an Agni Kai, and Zuko has never seen an A'pa, in person.
Also due to this isolationism, leaders in the rest of the galaxy know the identity of the Fire Lord and the General (also called Dragon) of the Agni Kai Armada - that's who the Defense Force will be calling - but they don't know the identity of the crown prince, for security reasons. Not that it seems to have helped Zuko.
I hope that helped clear a few things up?
Millie, I think you also mentioned ages. Sokka is twenty, as we find out in this chapter :) Katara is 19, which is young for a diplomat, but she's the best there is at what she does - usually. Her dad's also in charge of the Water Tribe clans, though. We'll get into that more later. Aang and Toph are 17. Zuko is 21. Basically, I just aged them up a bit from the show - they're still the same distance apart.
So, yeah! Tell me if that makes a bit more sense, and thank you for pointing out my plot gaps, it really is helpful.