disclaimer: Mike and Bryan own the ATLA universe; Mariko belongs to me (: enjoy!
Forsaking Hope
Once the door had been opened to showcase the port carved out from a cave, she felt her stomach knot at seeing the many faces of people that had been uprooted by the war.
Mariko suppressed a shiver of something she could only assume was shame, and she hated for one moment that it was because of her nation, because of the soldiers much like her father, that these people were suffering.
Katara noticed the darkening in her friend's expression and nudged her gently, seeing her amber eyes glance at her; she smiled warmly at the despondent firebender, seeing her smile back, albeit faintly.
"We're all looking for a better life, safe behind the walls of Ba Sing Se." The voice of Than said near them, his wife Ying and he also surveying the scene with slightly sad eyes.
The two groups parted ways shortly after and as Aang led the way to a ticket booth that had a surprisingly short line of buyers, Mariko lifted a brow in mild curiosity as a short graying man was denied a ticket because of his cabbage ware; she sweatdropped when the ticket lady yelled out 'Security!' and a hulking platypus-bear dressed ridiculously in the green guard uniform rose up on its haunches and swung a thick paw onto the stand of greenery, destroying the man's livelihood in seconds flat.
It took two guards to kindly usher the cracked vendor out of line, therein letting their group shuffle forward to the front with Aang in the lead when the woman at the booth snapped, "NEXT!"
"Um, five tickets for the ferry to Ba Sing Se, please," Aang requested, hesitant to get on this lady's bad side (even though the firebender had a sinking feeling this lady had never had a good side).
"Passports."
"Noone told us we had to have passports..."
Sokka stepped forward, "Don't you know who this is? He's the Avatar!"
The squat grouchy woman didn't seem impressed in the slightest, scribbling down on something, "Ah, I see fifty Avatars a day, and by the way, not a very impressive costume." She said dismissively, gesturing to the side to at least six look-a-likes of said airbender, earning a couple of looks from the teens. "Besides, no animals allowed… do I need to call security?"
Aang regarded the platypus-bear munching on a ruined cabbage to the side and gulped, shaking his head, "that won't be necessary."
"Next!" She hollered, but before the group could shuffle out of the line, Toph strode forward to the booth and muttered to them, "I'll take care of this."
Slapping a shiny green slip with a gold seal on the front onto the slab, the earthbender informed, "My name is Toph Beifong, and I'll need five tickets."
The woman's eyes widened in shock, gaping, "Oh, the Golden Seal of the Flying Boar! It is my pleasure to help anyone of the Beifong family." She said, bowing respectfully.
"It is your pleasure," Toph huffed snobbishly, gesturing to the quartet behind her, "As you can see, I am blind and these four imbeciles are my valets." She didn't see the death glare briefly shot in her direction from the firebender.
"But the animal…"
"… Is my seeing-eye lemur."
Hook, line and sinker. "Well, normally it's only one ticket per passport, buut, this document is so official… I guess it's worth five tickets." She stamped the approval onto five tickets and laid them out for the earthbender who took them with a smug "Thank you very much".
"What was with that 'imbecile' bit?" Mariko grumbled, elbowing the blind girl as she tucked her ticket into her tunic's folds.
Toph rolled her eyes, elbowing back, "Like she'd believe me if I said you lot were competent, loyal servants… Besides, you woulda said the same if you wanted to scrape by without getting killed by their security." She returned.
Mariko pursed her lips in reluctant defeat, pinching the bridge of her nose. "True…"
"We still scammed that lady good!" Sokka cheered behind them before someone jerked on his collar from behind and brought him to a halt. The giddy smile dropped from his face as he was met with the pretty face of a security guard with auburn hair and cobalt eyes.
"Tickets and passports, please," the girl said firmly, holding a hand out.
"Is there a problem?" Sokka asked confusedly, blinking once, as the quartet turned to assess the occurrence (Mariko had to tug on Toph's sleeve to get her to turn).
"Yeah, I've got a problem with you!" The girl snapped, an index finger poking him in the chest as she continued bitingly, "I've seen your type before; probably sarcastic, think you're hilarious, and let me guess… you're traveling with the Avatar."
The pieces started to connect. "Do I know you?"
"You mean you don't remember?" She scoffed, grabbing the front of his collar and tugging him closer, "maybe you remember this…" She leaned in to kiss his cheek.
Mariko sweatdropped, starting to feel like she was missing something…
"Suki!" Sokka cried happily before pulling her into an embrace she returned just as quickly.
"Is this the girl you told me cowed Sokka on Kyoshi Island?" Mariko lightly nudged the waterbender.
Katara nodded, chuckling at the slightly perplexed expression on the older girl's face. "Yup."
Seeing as they were blocking traffic, the group moved to reconnect and give a couple of intros regarding Toph and Mariko in one of the waiting areas over the turrets.
"You look so different without your makeup, and the new outfit," Katara commented.
Suki shrugged, mildly glancing in the direction of the ticket booths, "That crabby lady makes all the security guards wear them," she explained, shooting another approving look in Sokka's direction, smiling at him, "And look at you, sleeveless guy; been working out?"
"I'll grab a tree branch and do a few chin touches every now and then; nothing major," Sokka said smugly, flexing his arms.
Mariko rolled her eyes, flicking his ear and smirking when he pouted in her direction, crossing her arms. "Aside from his head swelling to the size of a glacier, a little birdie told me you cowed him when you first met… My congratulations." She looked at the brunette girl and nodded her head in approval.
"Thanks; I imagine Katara hasn't been the only one to keep this guy in check, then," Suki chuckled.
"Nope." Mariko chuckled with her.
"Are the other Kyoshi Warriors around?" Aang broke in curiously, if only to change topic.
Suki said, "Yeah; after you left Kyoshi, we wanted to find a way to help people. We ended up escorting some refugees, and we've been here ever since." She looked at the camp again and smiled when Momo hopped onto her shoulder, "Hi Momo, good to see you too… So why're you guys getting tickets for the ferry? Wouldn't you just fly across on Appa?"
A somber vibe settled over the five teens before Katara answered for the group, "Appa is missing, and we hope to find him in Ba Sing Se."
"I'm so sorry to hear that," Suki said in sympathy, looking at the airbender, "Are you doing okay?"
"I'm doing fine, would everyone stop worrying about me?" Aang answered curtly, scowling from her to his friends.
Mariko thought to put a hand on his shoulder but she decided otherwise and instead refolded her arms over her chest, lowering her gaze to her boots.
::::::::dOb::::::::
Taking the ferry seemed a thousand times easier than crossing such a narrow path.
"The Fire Nation controls the western lake; rumor has it that they're working on something big on the other side, and they don't want anyone to find out what it is." Suki noted aloud from walking infront of her, taking a look at the passerby navy ship in the distance on the left of the narrow cliff range.
Mariko scowled slightly as she followed her gaze, gripping the strap of her katana's scabbard reflexively. "That wouldn't surprise me; anything to conquer and share their nation's prosperity with the rest of the world." Just like something my father would say.
A low rumbling sounded behind them, and the patch of cliff Than was walking on crumbled so he dropped from walking between Ying and Sokka; a quick save from Toph brought him back up, and he said in relief, "I'm okay!"
Her blood ran cold when hearing the patch of rock he'd almost fallen with crashed in the waters below the jagged pass. "Not for long; they spotted us!" She alerted, loud nasal sirens going off from the passerby ship and she jerked her gaze sharply onto the ship to see the soldiers scrambling on the front deck to load up a catapult with a flaming boulder; "Let's go, let's go!" Sokka exclaimed, hurrying everyone forward as Aang streaked outward to meet the oncoming flaming projectile, swinging his staff sharply to send the boulder crashing into one of the towers on the ship. Another boulder screamed past him to crash into a taller ridge overhead, sending rocks to crash downward and break apart the path; Sokka was almost caught in the crossfire if Toph didn't destroy the oncoming projectiles with an overhead slab of earth.
"Suki are you okay?" Instead of thanking the earthbender, he hurried to check on the older girl and lift her to her feet, "You have to be more careful, c'mon!" Sokka scolded, dragging her after his lead at a sprint.
"'Thanks for saving my life, Toph'; yeah, no problem, Sokka." Toph muttered annoyedly as Mariko was at her side.
Mariko rolled her eyes, shaking her head and nudging her, "C'mon." Both girls sprinted to catch up with Aang tailing them; she glanced back at the burning ship and narrowed her eyes, continuing on her way.
The angered, shrill screeches from the hulking serpent (which was coincidentally the namesake of their jagged terrain passage) rang in her ears as she hurried after the others down the ice path to the safer side of the path rising up from the submerged portion they had intended to walk earlier.
Both Aang and Katara were busy fending off the giant beast and it took Sokka's beckon to the earthbender still glued to the slab of rock she'd lifted to jerk her attention away from watching the spectacle.
Mariko bolted past him onto the ice path and skidded to a halt when she set foot on the slab. "Toph, c'mon, take my hand." She urged, glancing to see the two waterbenders driving the beast back; damn, it was coming closer to the slab, and fast. "Toph!" She snapped alertly, cringing when the serpent snarled in pain when its long neck crashed with the major portion of the slab, slightly yelping when the younger girl jumped and inadvertently clawed into her shoulders out of surprise. Hooking an arm around her back, the firebender dragged her friend down the path at a sprint, ignoring the tightened grasp on her shoulders she warranted.
"Do you know how stupid that was!?" Sokka barked, relieved and annoyed with both girls at the same time as they threw themselves onto the safer part of the path.
Suki shook her head and lightly whacked the back of his head. "You should thank Mariko for rushing in when you obviously didn't!" She scolded pointedly, cobalt eyes scowling at him before she stooped to help the blind girl to her feet as the firebender stood shortly after, dusting herself off.
Mariko looked from her to the boy who had the expression of a kicked puppy-cub, her face softening before she waved it off with a hand. "It's okay, Suki; thanks anyway, for sticking up for me." She smiled at the female warrior.
It was at least another two hours until they made it to the more even part of the Serpent's Pass, and she, for one, was glad for it. It was funny how before Appa had been taken, time wasn't measured so slow as it was now that he was absent.
Irony.
"There's the wall!" Stirred from her thoughts, Mariko looked at where the Water Tribe boy was pointing and she focused her sights on the towering wall in the distance; so close, yet so far away… "Now it's nothing but smooth sailing to Ba Sing Se…!"
"Oh no!" A gasp of pain came from Ying, cutting off his jovial exclamation.
Mariko slugged the boy with a groan, "You had to open your mouth, didn't you?"
Sokka rubbed his arm gingerly, looking at the pained woman with slight apprehension, "What's wrong?"
"The baby's coming!" Ying exclaimed.
::::::::dOb::::::::
"Aang, what're you doing here? I thought you were looking for Appa." Katara asked in confusion she, Mariko, Toph and Sokka shared at seeing the airbender returned shortly from his excursion to the wall.
In that amount of time, they'd said their goodbyes to Suki who had returned to Full Moon Bay and had continued with Than and his new family trailing behind them.
Aang dropped to land expertly infront of the group, a grim look on his young face. "I was, but something stopped me… something big."
Studying the grim expression on his face, she also noted there was a flash of determination gaining strength in his gray eyes; Mariko frowned.
A/N: niice, second cliffhanger in the story. lol hopefully i didn't disappoint.. and yes, after next chap the Ba Sing Se arc begins and i'm loving how it's coming out so far. there's another couple of twists i'm going to put, but other than that? i'm not spoiling anything for you lot~. fufufu
preview for the next chapter:
'If the Earth King was employing men like General Sung to such an esteemed rank, she might have to owe Fire Lord Ozai an apology.'