we all want love/we all want honor
Part 17: war is not freedom
"Should I ask myself in the water, what a warrior would do?"
- Christina Aguilera, "Loyal Brave True"
After escaping Wan Shi Tong's library, Sokka had decided they needed to head directly to Ba Sing Se. Aang had protested, knowing he still needed an earthbending teacher, but Sokka and Katara had both thought he'd have no trouble finding a suitable teacher somewhere in the walled city.
(Aang didn't want to go to Ba Sing Se. The things the monks had said... well, that was one place he hoped had changed in the past hundred years.)
The information Sokka had gotten from that calendar had to be delivered to the Earth King so he could supply them with troops for the invasion. (And didn't that just send shivers down Aang's spine. It was one thing to free captured earthbenders or push back a siege, but an invasion? The Air Nomads had raised him to take the path of nonviolence. Invading another country was just about the opposite of that.) (He didn't bother saying anything to Sokka- the older boy would probably say that the Fire Nation had killed his people in an invasion, but that wouldn't make it better. Revenge was a two-headed rat-viper Aang did not want near him.)
So they'd flown off- and then immediately been thrown off course by an awful storm and ended up stuck in the forest near Gaipan. (Thankfully, nowhere near Jet's camp, none of them wanted to run into him anytime soon.)
They'd taken shelter in a cave, only to find that it was already occupied- by Suki, of all people. (Aang hadn't recognized her with her make-up off.) They hadn't been the only one thrown off course by the storm; apparently she'd gone to meet the other Kyoshi warriors for a training session before the rain had gotten to her.
Katara had been super excited to see her- if the Kyoshi warriors were around, maybe they would be able to help with the invasion! (Or so the waterbender claimed- Aang suspected she was mostly just glad for some female company after spending so much time around him and Sokka.)
Sokka had not liked that idea. He and Suki had spent the entire day arguing about it. He said it was way too dangerous, she told him she could take care of herself, and Aang had tried (with little success) to mediate between the two of them.
Sokka said it wasn't safe, and Suki said that he didn't respect her skills as a warrior (which Aang knew wasn't true), and when they'd all gone to bed, Aang thought their friendship seemed so damaged that he feared they might never speak again.
But then he'd heard them talking after they'd thought he'd fallen asleep, and Sokka mentioned Yue, and Aang had felt just horrible, he hadn't realized his friend was suffering so much when the whole thing had been his fault for not saving the Moon Spirit in time. (What kind of Spirit Bridge was he?)
The next morning, the sky had been clear and Suki had gone off to find the other warriors, and Sokka had told her he'd be honored to fight by her side when the invasion came, and her eyes had lit up and she'd grabbed his face and-
Aang had looked away, knowing the moment was meant to be private.
(He'd stomped down the tiny hint of jealousy he felt at the other boy's luck. Sokka had already managed to get two girlfriends, and Aang couldn't even figure out how to tell Katara how he felt.)
But after that, they'd finally managed to reach Ba Sing Se- only to be nearly shot down. There were rules in Ba Sing Se, people couldn't just come flying into the city on giant fluffy monsters, blablabla.
Eventually, they were allowed in, as long as they left Appa outside of the main city. Aang had not liked that idea, but Sokka and Katara had pointed out that his bison would still be inside the wall, and he could fly off to see him whenever he wanted, and they needed to get to the upper ring.
And now they were here, in the heart of the biggest city in the world, with that creepy Joo Dee watching over their every move. All they had to do now was get an audience with the Earth King and find Aang a teacher. Couldn't be too hard, right?
"Will I be stronger, or will I be weak, when you're not with me?"
- Christina Aguilera, "Loyal Brave True"