A. N. : Cassandra was cursed to always make accurate prophecies and never be believed if she told them. I wonder what would happen if she didn't tell ? Also fun fact, in French, a "cassandre" is someone who nags and worries endlessly, often in an over-the-top way (with the implicit idea being that they're kinda wrong to be like that). Why is French like this.

Two months, three weeks, seven days.

Two months and four weeks, and Suki has been brought out of the Boiling Rock. They bound her hands behind her back, made her walk to the gondola where the Princess was waiting with two men dressed in green.

Earthbenders. The Princess and two earthbenders, and one of them added some sort of weird rock hand to Suki's bounds.

Not the opportunity Suki was waiting for. But she knew that already, the day between her realization and this was nerve-wrecking and terrible, spent training to exhaustion and walking in circles in a cell that felt like it kept growing smaller with each moment spent inside it.

Learning what her fate will be could almost be a relief.

Almost.

The Princess looked at her terribly during the trip to that flying thing, her smile all teeth and no warmth, cruelty at her lips, death in her words – and it's not that Suki minds dying, not really, not at all, she is a Kyoshi Warrior, dying in battle is a honor –

An execution isn't a battle. Isn't what she wants. And she could – she could take that power from the Princess. Could take her own life back.

They didn't gag her. The Princess wanted to hear her argue and deny and despair, and Suki wasn't gagged. All it would take is an instant, but –

Suki closes her eyes, lets her head rest against the metallic wall behind her, exhales, tries to shake off the tension in her shoulders and jaw. Her teeth are clenched so hard it hurts.

She is weaker than she thought. Weaker than she should.

But maybe that's not a bad thing. If she tries hard enough, she can even find reasons not to get this small victory over the Princess.

One of them is in front of her, sitting on a metal bench the same as her, hands bound to it, chains on his feet, something of a muzzle on his face. They think, whoever this old man is, is more dangerous than her. And yet they're taking the risk of transporting him, instead of keeping him imprisoned, or killing him wherever it was they kept him before.

They need him alive until the day of the execution, probably even more than Suki. Both of them are bait – and it's Suki's fault in the first place, her fault she is here and not at the Boiling Rock, her fault the Princess thought to use her this way – but so long as one is alive, the trap will work.

Right now, rebellion is useless.

And maybe, maybe when the day comes and Sokka with it, she can fight too, help him, atone for the guilt of bringing him in harm's way. That is another reason she can give to try and forgive her own weakness.

She wonders who the old man is, how someone from the Fire Nation – his eyes are too gold to be anything else – grew to be so important to Sokka and the others that he would make better bait than her. That his life matters more than Suki's.

Why else would he be muzzled and not her ? The Princess left some time ago, to rest in the small room that seems to be her quarters, she can't taunt Suki from here, can't take joy at her defeat – unless it was a mistake ?

It would be nice if that was the case. One mistake could be the first, and later ones could maybe offer an opportunity for something.

If. Could. Maybe. Empty words that don't weigh anything against the two months and four weeks of holding on for nothing – how long has it been since she stepped inside that flying thing, how long until the four days the Princess gave her run out, how long until she is finally free, one way or another ?

Suki looks at the old man across the room. Surely he too knows with absolute certainty that someone will come for them. That they will not be left to die. That Sokka and Katara and Aang's hearts are too big to let that happen, no matter the cost.

Sokka will come for her. Suki is sure of that.

She wishes he didn't.