"If someone was captured by the Fire Nation, where would they be taken?" Sokka asks as soon as she gets Zuko away from the group.
"What do you mean?"Zuko immediately questions. "Who was captured?"
"When the invasion plan failed, some of our troops were taken." Sokka explains. "I just want to know where they might be."
"I can't tell you." Zuko says.
"What?" Sokka narrows her eyes. "Why not?"
"Trust me. Knowing would just make you feel worse." Zuko turns to leave.
Sokka grabs his arm. "It's my dad. He was captured too. I need to know what I put him through."
"It's not good, Sokka." Zuko tries to tell her.
"Please." Sokka begs.
"My guess is, they were taken to the Boiling Rock." Zuko finally admits.
Sokka gets Zuko to tell her a little more, but the fire bender seems to start to suspect her plans so she decides to cut the conversation short.
"Not up to anything, huh?"
Zuko's presence surprises Sokka and she falls off of Appa. "Fine, you caught me. I'm gonna rescue my dad. You happy now?"
"I'm never happy." Zuko says.
Sokka rolls her eyes as she starts to pick up the things that fell out of her bag. "Look, I have to do this. The invasion plan was my idea, it was my decision to stay when things were going wrong." Zuko jumps off of Appa. "It's my mistake, and it's my job to fix it. I have to regain my honor. You can't stop me, Zuko."
"You need to regain your honor? Believe me, I get it." Zuko stays on the ground while Sokka climbs up on Appa. "I'm going with you."
"No." Sokka says setting her bag sown. "I have to do this alone."
"How are you going to get there? On Appa? Last time I checked, prisons don't have bison daycares." Sokka sighs and grabs her stuff to jump down. Zuko starts walking in a certain direction. "We'll take my war balloon."
Sokka's a few steps behind Zuko when she hears him do something that almost sounds like a laugh. "What?" Sokka asks, trying to figure out if he's laughing at her plan.
"One of the first things you said to be was about how I'd never get you into a Fire Nation prison. And then you kicked me off the side of my ship." Zuko says.
"You remember that?" Sokka asks, disbelievingly.
"You're pretty hard to forget." Zuko says. "I just can't believe we're where we are now."
"Yeah…" Sokka says, surprised at Zuko's comment.
"I think your uncle would be proud of you." Sokka can't believe she's trying to make Zuko feel better. "Leaving your home to come help us? That's hard."
"It wasn't that hard." Zuko admits.
"Really?" Sokka asks. "You didn't leave behind anyone you cared about?"
"Well, I did have a girlfriend, Mai."
Sokka smiles and looks at Zuko with interest. "The gloomy girl who sighs a lot?"
"Yeah." Zuko smiles. "Everyone in the Fire Nation thinks I'm a traitor. I couldn't drag her into it."
"She's really pretty." Sokka admits. "I mean, the girl in pink with the magic fingers is cute, but I could see why you'd be more interested in Mai."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Zuko says, sounding insulted.
"Last night you said, and I quote, 'I'm never happy'. It's like you were made for each other." Sokka says with a grin.
Zuko bristles."Thanks… I guess? What about you?"
"What about me?" Sokka leans out over the side of the balloon looking at the sea below them.
"Have you dated anyone?" Zuko asks and Sokka snorts.
"I went on this one date with this really cute guy in Ba Sing Se. His name was Lee." Zuko starts to blush. "I never found out what happened to him."
"So that's it. One date with this Lee guy?" Zuko runs a hand through his hair.
"Well, aside from Lee, there were two others, but both of them died after I kissed them." Sokka explains.
"They died?!" Zuko exclaims. "You do know to take time to breathe, right?"
"Okay, no insulting my kissing technique." Sokka says angrily. "And their deaths had very little to do with my kissing."
"But it was still involved a little?" Zuko teased.
"Not really." Sokka defends. "The first one was Princess Yue, and she sacrificed herself to save all water benders. She became the moon."
"That's rough." Zuko says. "So you kissed a girl?"
"Did more than that." Sokka says with a nasty grin. Zuko blushes. "The other one was the leader of the Freedom Fighters. The first time he kissed me was not really welcome. He was trying to trick me into believing him." Sokka sighed. "But the next time was different. Jet had bee-"
"Jet?" Zuko looked at Sokka. "Dark hair, uses hook swords?"
"Yeah." Sokka says with a grin. "You know him?"
"Lee did. Jet wanted him to join his gang." Zuko explains.
"You would've made a great Freedom Fighter." Sokka says with a grin.
"Well once he found out I was a fire bender he retracted the offer." Zuko explains.
"That's rough," Sokka says copying Zuko from earlier, 'buddy."
"There it is!" Zuko yells, which wakes Sokka up. "There's plenty of steam to keep us covered. As long as we're quiet, we should be able to navigate through it without being caught."
Zuko's wrong. The steam causes the balloon to not work anymore. They end up crash landing, and Zuko's unhappy to learn that Sokka planned for the balloon to just be a one way ticket. Sokka gets rid of the evidence that they are there and then they break into a supply room that has prison guard uniforms. Then they start looking for Sokka's dad.
Or at least they try to. Some bully who became a prison guard is harassing one of the prisoners. The guard ends up having Sokka help him escort the prisoner to something called the cooler. When Sokka puts Chit Sang, the prisoner, into the cooler she quickly observes the thing. It feels like the Southern Water Tribe in there with how cold it is. Eventually the Warden shows up. He seems like a very hard man to work for.
Later Zuko finds Sokka in the yard. He informs her that there are no Water Tribe prisoners there. Sokka pounds her fist on the wall in frustration. She feels so frustrated with herself. Zuko starts rambling about something, but Sokka stops listening. She recognizes Suki in the yard.
Sokka enters Suki's cell almost as soon as she finds out where it is. "What is it?" Suki says angrily. "Did I do something wrong?"
Sokka crosses her arms. "You mean you don't recognize me?"
Suki glares at her. "You people all look the same to me."
Sokka huffs. "After all we've been through, I put on a helmet and you forget all about me." Sokka sniffs pretending she's sad. "I recognized you without makeup." Sokka pulls her helmet off.
"Sokka!" Suki runs up and hugs the Water Tribe girl. "It's you!"
They hug for awhile before Sokka asks, "The other Kyoshi Warriors, are they here?"
Suki shakes her head. "I don't know where they are. They locked me in here because I'm the leader."
"Well you won't be here for long." Sokka says confidently. "I'm gonna help you bust out."
It is easily said, but not easily done. Zuko tries to keep Sokka from getting in trouble and gets himself caught. On top of that, it takes awhile for Sokka to even come up with a plan to break out. When she finally figures it out, she rushes to find Suki and Zuko. They're both mopping, and the three go to hide behind a staircase. Sokka explains her plan, but Chit Sang overhears. They end up having to include him in the plan. Chit Sang helps get Zuko into the cooler.
"I can take you back to your cell if you've learned your lesson." Sokka says when she opens the cooler.
"Yes, I have…" Zuko shows Sokka the screws. "Completely."
Sokka smiles and lifts her visor. "I got Suki and Chit Sang out of their cells a few minutes ago." Sokka whispers. "They'll be waiting for us at the shore."
"Someone's coming!" Zuko grabs Sokka and pulls her against him into the cooler. Zuko shuts the door and the two are left chest to chest.
The two can hear two other guards outside the cooler talking about new prisoners coming. In the end one mentions how there are some war prisoners coming.
"War prisoners." Zuko mentions once they are gone. "It could be your father."
"I know." Sokka says.
"Well, what should we do?" Zuko asks. "Are we going ahead with the plan or are we waiting another night?"
"I don't know! Is it right for me to risk Suki's freedom, all of our freedom on the slim chance that my dad is gonna show up?" Sokka asks, wanting to pull her hair out. It's then when she realizes how close the two of them are.
"It's your call, Sokka." Zuko says, seeming like he's not even bothered by how close they are to each other. They wait awhile longer just to make sure that there are no other guards coming. "So, uh," Zuko starts to say quietly. "Is Suki your girlfriend?"
Sokka giggles. "I wish. She's the most amazing girl I know. But she doesn't like girls. But I'm sure I'll find someone eventually." Sokka pauses. "Not at this prison though. Ready to break out?" She grins.
Sokka plans to just leave, but before everyone can get into the cooler, Zuko asks again about her father. He mentions the honor part and she regrets ever saying the word. Sokka tries to say that she should just quit before she fails, but Zuko won't accept it.
"Look Sokka, you're going to fail a lot before things work out."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Sokka moves away from Zuko.
"Even though you'll probably fail over and over and over again…" Zuko goes on.
"Seriously, not helping." Sokka says glaring.
Zuko grabs her shoulder. "You have to try every time. You can't quit because you're afraid you might fail."
Chit Sang tries to rush them, but Sokka decides to stay behind. Sokka tries to get Suki to leave, but she refuses to leave Sokka behind. Zuko stays behind too.
It ends up being a good idea to not use the original escape plan, because the next day Chit Sang and his little crew get caught. That causes a lockdown to happen. Sokka barely pays attention, watching the gondola instead. Suki holds her hand to try and keep Sokka's nerves from getting too overwhelmed.
At first it seems like Hakoda isn't there, but soon someone is yelling at one of the prisoner's to get out of the gondola. Hakoda steps out.
"Dad…" Sokka says shocked.