Gladiator

by Seyary-Minamoto

In a world where the Avatar wasn't found, the Fire Nation took over two nations and they strive to overcome the last one. Water Tribe warrior Sokka seeks to fight for his people's rights, but he's captured by his enemies. His life is no longer in his hands as he fights as a Gladiator, and his fate will eventually depend on the Fire Nation Princess, who needs him for her own ends...

294. Chapter 294: WL Fortress-Loyalty 7

The White Lotus Fortress/Loyalty to the Disgraced

7

"Stand your ground! Stay put and FIGHT BACK!"

Such shouts had echoed in the landscape of the White Lotus Fortress for well over a month by now: a furious, frustrated groan always followed, accompanied by the rumbling of shattering rocks, flung across the air with next to no restraint.

That their training sessions so far had been so repetitive should have been a clear sign for the mentor and the apprentice that something wasn't working… but to Katara's utter horror, everything suggested that Aang and Toph were profoundly convinced that the other one was the problem, plain and simple:

"Stop throwing rocks like that, Toph! Stop it!"

"You're a wuss! QUIT RUNNING AWAY, DAMN YOU!"

It didn't matter how powerfully Toph hurled those rocks, Aang always dodged them even if just at the very last moment. Her every attempt to teach Aang how to control earth had gone so poorly that he still hadn't moved a single stone, for he had hadn't connected with the element in any significant way. Still, it was entirely possible that Aang's frequent complaints had a point: so far, most of Toph's attempts to make him bend earth had started with a simple order that he hadn't known how to fulfill. This eventually escalated as Toph's mood worsened, and she was quick to convince herself that Aang's whole problem was that nobody had challenged him enough in his life until she had: within three hours of the start of their training sessions, the earthbender would be hurling rocks at the Avatar, no doubt in an attempt to anger him so he would decide to return the blow… only, he never did that with earthbending. If he wanted Toph to leave him alone, he'd airbend at her. If he was particularly upset by whatever she was shouting, he'd firebend: he never would earthbend and Toph was clearly at her wits' end because of that.

Of course, Aang's willingness to follow Toph's orders dwindled further each day: where he had started off with some enthusiasm, his initial excitement had been pummeled out of him and even reminders that he and Toph allegedly were meant to be student and teacher, according to the swamp, had done nothing to improve his mood or motivate him to practice bending with the ferocious Blind Bandit.

Katara had attempted to mediate between them a few times so far, but she had quickly realized Toph had no respect either for her or for Aang: the earthbender made no secret of the fact that she was only attempting to train Aang, if it could even be called that, because Sokka wanted her to do it. Thus, Katara wondered if asking Sokka to tell Toph to tone down her teaching methods might be a good idea, as he appeared to be the sole person among their group that she'd listen to…

But Sokka had plenty of things on his plate as it was. His meetings with the White Lotus leaders kept him occupied from morning to evening, and it seemed they were as frustrating and infuriating for him as Toph and Aang's lessons were for each other. Slowly, before any of them had noticed it, the fast-paced adventure that started in the South Pole had slowed to what appeared to be a complete halt… and Katara shuddered to think of how much valuable, crucial time would be wasted due to the stubbornness of far too many residents of the White Lotus Fortress these days.

She heard footsteps trudging over the grass, and she knew that someone else had come to witness the training-turned-spat: she turned her head quickly to find Toph's friend, Jet, seemed to have brought some food from the kitchens. Katara didn't know whether he had taken it lawfully or not, and at this point, with so many bigger problems to deal with, she wasn't sure she cared.

"And here we go again," Jet smirked, stepping up next to her. "Exactly the same as yesterday?"

"And the day before. And the day before," Katara sighed, resigned.

"CUT IT OUT, TOPH!"

"IT'S SIFU TOPH FOR WIMPS LIKE YOU! NOW GET DOWN HERE AND FACE ME, YOU COWARD!"

Katara and Jet sighed simultaneously as Aang shot himself up into the sky with his airbending, a furious snarl on his face as Toph seemed to take his latest flight as a sign of target practice: spikes of earth flew at Aang repeatedly, and while he dodged them perfectly, the Avatar continued to refuse to bend earth altogether.

"She just loves making new friends," Jet said, with a sarcastic smile. Katara shook her head, eyes wide as plates.

"I seriously thought Sokka's stories about her were… slightly inflated. Exaggerated, maybe. Now I think he probably was toning things down, instead," Katara confessed, glancing at Jet helplessly. "But I suppose, if you brought food, we can try to break up the fight with that?"

"Better excuse than most, anyway," Jet said, with a shrug. "But if they keep this up, there's no way he's going to learn anything, not in a thousand years."

"And I have the feeling she's banking on that," Katara grimaced. "She didn't want to do this, right?"

"No, and if you think she's doing her best to prove she's a terrible teacher… well, that's not impossible," Jet acknowledged. "Though I do think she knows what's at stake. She just… doesn't know how to do this any differently. I know it's no excuse, of course, but she was taught by badgermoles, you see…"

"And they hurled rocks at her non-stop until she finally could bend them back at them?" Katara asked, skeptical. Jet chuckled.

"I doubt it, but I wouldn't be too surprised if that had been the case," he said.

"Aang just isn't responsive to this sort of training," Katara said, with certainty. "He needs… well, a different approach. And if she'd just listen to me for once, she'd finally understand he's never going to move even the smallest rock if this keeps going like it has."

"What's your plan?" Jet asked. "If you have one already, that is…"

"Well, I have two plans but the first one's not likely to work," Katara acknowledged. "Sokka's too busy to talk sense into Toph…"

"That's doomed to fail," Jet said. Katara eyed him skeptically again. "Look, I've tried to tell her to ease up on him some, and she just thinks I'm being a softie. I don't know if she'd listen to Sokka if he told her to go easy on the Avatar…"

"Not that I'm disparaging your relationship with her, but… it does look like she holds Sokka in higher esteem than everyone else around here," Katara said, with an awkward smile. Jet snorted and shrugged.

"The truth may sting, but it is what it is," he said. "What can I do, throw some jealous fit and demand she holds me as her top priority? Fact of the matter is, she might love Sokka, but she adores Princess Azula even more. I think they get along so well because they both love her beyond measure… and because they're pissed as fuck at everything that's happened to her. I can't blame them for that, not at all… but I'm not under any delusions that I'm the most important person in her life. The one who claimed that title… well, she isn't really in her life anymore."

"And I guess she's taking out her frustrations over that in every way she can?" Katara asked – she didn't really know why she felt a pang of empathy for Toph, but somehow, she did. She supposed she could blame Sokka for the gradual change of her perception of Azula… but that Toph cared so deeply about the Princess wasn't meaningless, either. The strong feelings the Fire Lord's daughter had awakened in many people spoke rather loudly pertaining how important she had become for those who had been part of her life…

"Probably, yeah," Jet said. "Better this way than by drinking, I'd say. She has been at it ever since she turned up at the fortress. I was on board with it at first, but if she kept it up, I think she would have finished all the rice wine supplies before the year was out."

"Sounds unhealthy," Katara said, eyeing Toph with uncertainty. "But considering she thought her best friends were either dead or beyond her reach, it's not too unreasonable that she'd act that way."

"Anyway… I think Aang's going to have to start taking those blows directly sooner than later," Jet pointed out: the Avatar had returned to solid ground only to leap away again, chased by Toph's relentless earthbending. "I know you're looking at it from his point of view, but… it's entirely possible that Toph has no idea what else to do to teach him anything."

"Then my Plan B will have to do," Katara said, breathing deeply before placing her hands at either side of her mouth. "Aang! Toph! Lunch!"

Toph's reactions to announcements of food always amused Katara: she stopped bending at once, her attention finally distracted from the earth she had been flinging at Aang so fiercely. Her head turned towards them, and she started sniffing the air in hopes to catch a whiff of her meal.

"That better not be more of Aang's rabbaroo food, Jet!" she shouted. Aang, about fifty feet away from her, dropped on the ground again and glared fiercely at her.

"It's vegetarian food, not rabbaroo food…!"

"Avatars who can't earthbend don't have a say on how I ridicule them!" Toph huffed, pulling a fist back towards her flank: Aang pirouetted away from a rock that protruded from the ground in his direction. "Though I think maybe calling you an Avatar when you can't earthbend is giving you too much credit."

"If I can bend every other element, it means I'm the Avatar!" Aang squeaked, face reddening with outrage.

Toph scoffed and waved a hand in his direction as she marched towards their captive audience. Their arguments seemed to be even more frequent than those between Katara and Zuko back in the day, something Katara found utterly surprising – never had she anticipated that anyone in the world would be so uniquely talented at pushing the buttons of the generally peaceful and empathetic Avatar.

"I'll believe it when I… sense it, I suppose," Toph said, with a shrug. "Though even then, it's going to take a good damn while for me to think you're worth being called an earthbender at all. And pushing earth or rocks around with airbending, by the way, is NOT earthbending."

Aang pouted and turned his face away from Toph: he had tried to dodge Toph's anger by airbending a rock into the air a few days ago, but his attempt to appease her had only frustrated his teacher even further. She had realized it was airbending immediately, and she had proceeded to torment Aang twice as much in retaliation for his mischief and attempted deceit.

At this rate, their lessons would only get worse and worse. Katara breathed deeply as she acknowledged that to herself… as she eyed Aang's frustrated pout as he hiked towards her and Jet.

"Say…" Katara smiled, biting her lip slightly. "Can I propose, uh, a different way to work your lessons?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Toph grimaced, brow furrowed. Jet handed her a picken leg, and Toph was quick to chomp on it right away.

"Well, it means…" Katara said, running a hand over her hair. "You guys aren't making any progress, we can all agree on that, right?"

"Right," for once, it seemed Toph and Aang weren't in conflict about something.

"It's quite likely, then, that… that you should change your approach to teaching earthbending, Toph?" Katara said, tentatively. The Blind Bandit scoffed, sucking the already clean picken leg before blurting out her opinion.

"See, you're just giving him exactly what he wants. The sugary sweet way of going about things," Toph hissed. "I'm not under any delusions that I'm a good teacher, but this guy's clearly some pacifist who would rather escape conflicts and violence if he has the chance. How's he going to be a good Avatar, how's he going to be of any use to us in a war, if he panics out of the way of danger ten times out of nine?"

"I don't…! I've stood my ground before, I keep standing it against you!" Aang huffed, hands on his hips. "And I've already helped in battles before…!"

"Well… you have," Katara said, nodding. Aang shot her an apprehensive glance upon sensing her tone might not be as favorable to him as he would have hoped. "But not quite the way Toph is suggesting, I suppose. You've been lots of help, no one knows that better than I do, but if you were in a life-or-death situation where you have to kill someone else to survive, or to save others… you'll likely look for a third solution."

"What's so bad about that, if there were a third solution?" Aang pouted. "I'm the Avatar: I have powers that should help me deal with… well, anything. I have more possibilities at the tips of my fingers than most people do. And I want to use that power for good. For peace. To stop violence rather than to encourage it."

"Riddle me this, then: what's your big plan on what you'll do with the big piece of shit Fire Lord, huh?" Toph asked. Aang winced. "You're just going to fall back and let Sokka or Zuko gut him? Then your conscience will be clear? Is that how it's going to be with just… anything in this war? You're dodging and avoiding and slipping past every crack you can find… and you don't face things head-on when you should."

"Well, still, I don't know if Aang's going about things the wrong way," Katara said, and Toph rolled her eyes. "I mean, I don't think there's just one way to live your life, one way to be the Avatar, one way to be a bender…"

"He's not just one bender, he's four in one, supposedly. And he can't make sense out of how to be an earthbender because he's going about it the wrong way," Toph said. "Yeah, I'm trying to piss him off so he'll retaliate when his patience runs out, but so far he just pouts and fumes and doesn't fight back. What am I going to have to do, put your friends in danger so you can respond to things directly rather than going around them? Because I really don't want to do that."

"You don't have to…" Aang mumbled. Katara nodded.

"No, she doesn't have to… because there's another way out of this," Katara declared, glancing at Aang intently. He raised an eyebrow. "Aang… we met the guru. We learned a lot of things about ourselves, each other and about the world we're in. I guess… maybe you're very attached to the way you go about things? And you don't like being told you should act any differently. But the Avatar cycle, much like many things in life… is about balance. You have to balance every element inside you, all your chakras…"

"The earth chakra…" Aang recited, frowning. "It was the one that dealt with survival, right?"

"Yeah: it's blocked by fear," Katara reminded him. Aang breathed deeply. "I'm not telling you to unravel what's blocking your earthbending right away… but I do think you should think about it as we did in the Southern Air Temple, Aang. Toph's approach isn't working… and I don't think she's the only one responsible for that. You need to figure out why it won't work, and what you need to learn and understand before you can earthbend. You might just… not have been ready to do it yet?"

"I guess I'm not… though my earth chakra is supposed to be open," Aang said, frowning as he placed a hand on his mostly empty stomach. He raised his gaze to meet Katara's a moment later. "Maybe I should meditate, then. If I think it through…"

"That's seriously your best idea?" Toph asked, grimacing.

"People are different. They respond to things differently," Katara said, with a dry grin: clearly, her own patience with Toph was also nearing its end. "Zuko was a rough teacher whenever he wanted to be, but even he gave Aang some time to reason with his own abilities and figure out how to make his bending process work better. So… sit back for a few hours until Aang's sorted things out, can you?"

Toph's disgruntled expression spoke for itself, but she stuck her hand in Jet's bag of food and pulled out another picken leg. She took a sharp bite before answering.

"You have one day, then," she decided. Aang let out a sigh of relief. "If you haven't figured out how to move at least a simple pebble by tomorrow with your meditative nonsense, I'll kick your ass for wasting our time again. Got it?"

"Uh, right, well… better to try something else than to keep fighting as we do, as far as I can tell," Aang said, with a dry grin. Toph scoffed.

"No: I keep fighting, you keep running. I'm waiting for you to finally fight back, damn it," Toph said. Aang blinked blankly. "So get on with it… and come back to show me what you've got when you finally talk with your chakra, whatever that means. Yeah, I'm gonna leave you battered and bruised by then… but you'd better learn a thing or two from it anyway."

"I hope I will," Aang said. He offered Toph a weak grin, then a much more grateful one to Katara before turning to Jet. "Is there any…?"

"Rabbaroo food in here?" Jet asked, amused, before flinging an ash-banana at Aang. "A couple of fruits, yeah, if you want to know…"

"I saw some farmers working on the apple orchards earlier this week," Katara smiled at Aang, whose face brightened at the prospect of eating apples. "Maybe they'll be ready to be eaten soon."

"I hope so," Aang grinned, pocketing the ash-bananas. "Well, I think I'm going to take off to commune with balance, elements, my chakras… I'll be back in a few hours!"

"Yeah, yeah, just get to it and learn to earthbend," Toph huffed, crossing her arms as Aang waved in their direction.

The Avatar created an air scooter, climbed on it and rushed off through the plains and hills of the terrains around the fortress, in hopes of finding a private place to meditate without interruption. Katara followed him with her gaze, smiling a little as a spark of pride bloomed in her heart: she had helped him, or at least, she hoped she had. Aang had been Katara's waterbending mentor and he certainly had no shortage of patience with her… even if Toph wasn't used to this sort of responsibility, her approach to teaching Aang seemed doomed to fail, as far as Katara could tell.

"Well, guess I'll have a day off now. I'd thank you for that if things weren't so damn urgent," Toph huffed, body angled towards Katara. Next to her, Jet raised an eyebrow.

"Are they?" he asked. "As far as I've been able to tell, the Blue Wolf isn't making much progress with the White Lotus so far. I mean, yeah, we should get out of here and get stuff done as fast as possible… but we're stuck here until he decides getting their help is pointless, right?"

"He's not bound to decide that," Katara sighed, grimacing as she turned her gaze towards the fortress. "But even I feel antsy about how long these talks are taking. We were rushing out of the South Pole as though we'd be at the Fire Lord's doorstep within weeks… maybe I was crazy to think we'd get that far that quickly, but Sokka seemed so tense and anxious about progress that it's hard to believe we're being held back by the White Lotus to this extent."

"He's pissed as fuck about it, though," Toph pointed out, frowning. "I am too, but he just had no idea what the White Lotus really was like. You think a month and a half here has felt like nothing's going on? I've felt like my whole fucking life's on a standstill ever since Iroh dragged me here."

"And it's awful that you feel that way, of course. The sooner Sokka is finished with their negotiations, the sooner you'll get out of that standstill," Katara said. "Though ironically, it's for the better when it comes to Aang that this standstill is taking as long as it is. You've been unable to teach him anything meaningful with earthbending so far…"

"And your approach had better help, but if it doesn't, it's just more symptoms of the same sickness," Toph huffed. "I know people are different, that not everyone's like me… but dodging and evading things isn't going to get him anywhere. He can't hide behind Sokka forever. I mean, he's the goddamn Avatar. Most people would think he's the one who should be guiding everyone, but instead he's following others about…?"

"At least they're worth following," Katara said. Toph shrugged.

"For now, but what about when things get sorted out, huh?" she asked. "What's he going to do when Sokka tears Ozai to shreds, sweeps in to save Azula from that hell, sets her free and they take off to live happily ever after? Tag along behind them and hope they need the Avatar for something? Or is he going to find someone else to hide behind, someone else to make the hard decisions and face the difficult shit he can't handle?"

"Or… will he step up and do all that himself?" Jet ventured. Toph nodded.

"That's what I think he should do. But so far, his best displays of willpower and strength are when he tells me he doesn't want to do something," she said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, quit babying him so much, Sugar Queen. He's not going to thank you for it when things get more intense and he finds no one else is there to take the fall and deal with the worst things in his place."

"I… Sugar Queen?" Katara repeated, blinking blankly. Toph shrugged.

"You're too sweet on him. Too sweet with him, too," she said. "And I have this feeling you and Spicy would butt heads about everything, kind of like how you butt heads with me, so I think it fits."

"Spicy… that's Azula?" Katara asked. Toph smirked and nodded.

"I called her Royal Jewel sometimes, too. Spicy Princess was the more fun one, though," she said, with a sigh that then turned into a shake of her head. "Anyway! Just quit cutting him so much slack, the Avatar doesn't need anyone spoiling him!"

She finished her words with a punch… that found nothing where Katara had been standing a moment ago. Toph scowled, drawing her fist back as Katara glared at her.

"Hell, you're as bad as Twinkle Toes over there," she hissed. "Dodging and escaping from everything that threatens you…"

"I didn't know what you were going to…! Oh, you know what? Do it again. Come on, do it again," Katara said, with a dangerous voice. Jet blinked blankly, eyes fluttering between the two women. "I've got a better idea than to dodge you now."

"You'd better not be bluffing…" Toph smirked: she raised her fist again…

Only to end up crying out in pain when another fist crashed painfully into hers.

Both Toph and Katara wound up clasping their hands against their chests, squirming in pain… and just as Jet was about to say something, the two women broke out in laughter.

"Okay…! Okay, I stand corrected, you're cooler than that scaredy-cat for sure…!" Toph cackled, standing upright again as Katara did the same.

"Did that earn me a little respect from you, at least?" she asked, smiling as she drew out some water from her waist's pouch. "I mean, I don't love jumping into fights either, but if you pick one with me…"

"You'll pick one right back?" Toph smiled as Katara healed herself quickly with one hand. "Fine, fine: I might just like you a little bit after all. Only interesting people respond to my punches in crazy ways."

"Hmm… I suppose I'm very uninteresting, aren't I?" Jet said, with a weak smile. Toph smirked.

"You take it when I punch you. Does you no favors, but it's nice that you're ready to bear with it," she said, tapping him gently with the knuckles of her uninjured hand just before Katara's water surrounded her other hand. "Woah! What's this for?"

"Waterbending healing. I bet you'd rather bear with the bruise for days, but you have to train Aang tomorrow and you're better off doing it without previous wounds… right?" Katara said, with a weak grin. Toph hummed.

"Hell… that's kinda handy. Thanks, Sugar Queen."

"No problem… uh, mean-spirited girl? That's… not a good one, is it?" she said. Toph snickered.

"Keep trying. Maybe you'll come up with one that sticks someday," she smirked. Katara smiled too: she and Toph hadn't talked personally too often so far, but doing it now brought her to realize that, as rough a teacher as she had been with Aang, maybe the Blind Bandit wasn't as bad as she had expected her to be.

Katara, Toph and Jet made their way back to the fortress after that last exchange: within it, in the central tower, three of the White Lotus's newest guests had spent most the day talking at leisure. There was nothing else for them to do until Sokka obtained the full support of the White Lotus, after all.

"… Then, out of nowhere, Mari suddenly coughed and Kino happened to be sitting mere inches away from her. He's always trying to get along with her, but it never works…"

"And it sure didn't that day!"

"She let sparks out by accident, right into Kino's hair, and he was screaming and flailing while calling for Aang… and Mari just started crying and screaming like she was the one on fire instead of Kino."

While the story was that of a child in tears and a man screaming in desperation as his hair burned, Zuko and Kino couldn't help but laugh as they retold it: Ursa smiled at every word, laughing quietly and gracefully as she pictured the scenes her son was sharing with her.

"I've always wondered if that was why she never liked me," Kino sighed dramatically, shaking his head as Zuko chuckled.

"I'm pretty sure that's just one more reason why she didn't, but she was pretty cold with you even before that," Zuko said. "Though she seemed to start to come around in those final days, right? When you listened to Sokka's stories together… she even played at being Princess Jing while you were Prince Piqi that last night, remember?"

"Right. But then we left and I bet she's going to be right back to thinking I suck when we meet again," Kino sighed dramatically, shaking his head. "I'm going to have to become some really great war hero for her to have even a tiny bit of respect for me, won't I…?"

"Jing… Princess Jing," Ursa said suddenly, startling them. She cocked her head to the side slightly. "You've mentioned that before, but I didn't quite ask… what is this tale of Princess Jing that your little Mari likes so much, Zuko?"

"O-oh, well, that's… that was Sokka's great idea to distract Mari when Suki was teaching combat skills to the women in the Tribe," Zuko said, with a weak smile. Ursa hummed as Zuko swallowed heavily. "I know you didn't really care much for combat and warfare, but…"

"I didn't, but everything suggests I was wrong not to," Ursa finished in Zuko's place, startling him. She offered him a weak smile. "If… if we lived in an ideal world, maybe I wouldn't have been all that wrong, I'd like to think, but… in this one, it's most likely better for both you and your wife to be able to defend yourselves. I'm glad you married someone like her… especially if she was generous and taught the others, too."

"She could give you a few lessons too when you meet her, if you wanted her to," Kino grinned. Ursa laughed in her graceful, restrained way, shaking her head.

"I might benefit from it, but perhaps I'm not ready for it yet," she said, smiling at the young soldier before turning the grin on her son. "And? What's the tale of Princess Jing? And Prince… Piqi, was it? A peculiar name…"

"Well, Sokka's an ass and that's what he picked that day," Zuko said, with a dry smile. Ursa blinked blankly as Kino snorted behind him. "Princess Jing, Mom, is… well, Princess Jing is Azula."

Ursa's amusement vanished. Her eyes glinted with amazement, with confusion, as she seemed even more eager to hear about Princess Jing than she already had been.

"Sokka was struggling badly when he came back to the Tribe, he could barely talk about her without breaking down…" Zuko explained. Ursa gritted her teeth but nodded, all too familiar with that sensation. "But when he asked Suki to teach the other women how to defend themselves, Suki told him she couldn't leave the girls unsupervised, and he said he'd take care of them. His grand idea to do it was to tell stories to keep Mari entertained… and he didn't know any stories better than he knew his own, I guess. But in order to tell the story he definitely… well, sanitized a lot of elements, otherwise I would've kicked his ass for telling any unsuitable stories to my kid. And he also changed the names of all the people he turned into characters. So…"

"Zuko became Prince Piqi," Kino finished. Zuko scowled and glared at him as Kino giggled and shrugged. "It's true! She'd have figured it out anyway…"

"Oh… I'm sorry, Zuko, dear," Ursa smiled sadly, caressing her son's hair gently. Zuko sighed and shook his head.

"I had to bear with it. Still do, for Mari's sake," he said, smiling at Ursa again. "It was a fun story, though. I guess, if Sokka ever has time off, you can ask him to share it… I can't pretend anyone else will be as good at telling that story as he is."

"Well, we did tell Mari some of it, remember? That final night," Kino pointed out. "And Sokka didn't complain."

"It was a digression, though," Zuko said, with a shrug. "I'm just saying, if she wants to hear about Azula's story… she's better off asking the guy who was there the whole time, right?"

"What do you mean with this about a digression?" Ursa asked. Zuko bit his lip.

"Well… heh, Mari wanted us to play with her, and of course she had to be Princess Jing. On that day, Kino had the honor of becoming Prince Piqi while I was Fire Lord… Wunao."

"W-Wunao…?" Ursa blinked blankly. Zuko smiled guiltily.

"If you really think about it, considering how strong a grudge Sokka has against him, Wunao is probably too tame compared to whatever must have crossed his mind when he was naming him…" Zuko said, with a sigh. "But anyway, I played at being Fire Lord Wunao that night. I did it sometimes, sort of being the wicked figure Jing had to rebel against, but Mari always laughed so much at my impressions of Fire Lord Wunao that I don't think I did a good job of it. Anyway, Suki didn't have a character to play, so Mari asked me about Princess Jing's mom, and… well, I got to name you and build up your character. I know you wish you'd been there to see everything yourself, but…"

"That you wish I'd been there too… that you included me in the stories you told your daughter means so much to me, my dear," Ursa said, with a sad smile. Zuko smiled back.

"Your name was Fire Lady Youmei!" Kino exclaimed, grinning. Ursa gasped, and Zuko's grin gained strength.

"Graceful…?" she asked. Zuko chuckled and nodded.

"I thought it fit. Better than Prince Temper, anyway…"

"Oh, no, Prince Temper suits you perfectly…!" Kino declared, and Zuko huffed in his direction. Kino grinned. "See?"

"Oh, be quiet," Zuko huffed stubbornly. Ursa laughed quietly as she clasped her son's hand. "Anyway… Suki was pretty good as Fire Lady Youmei, too. I didn't tell her a lot about you because… well, it hurt to think about you when I had no idea what might have happened to you. She never pushed me to talk about you either, so… s-so I guess I'm thinking, once all this is over, it would be nice if you could…"

"If I could…?" Ursa repeated when Zuko trailed off. His heart was beating hard and fast, and he barely knew why… but he finished his thought, regardless.

"If you could come back to the Tribe with me? T-to meet them?" he asked, with a small smile. "I bet Suki will love to know you personally, and the girls… Mari and Zi, I don't know how grown they will be by then, but they're bound to love you too. I mean, you're family, they'll understand that right away, and you're…"

"I'm… I'm your mother," Ursa said, with a gentle smile. Zuko smiled too and nodded. "And… their grandmother. I… I'm still digesting that, in truth. A grandmother… it's a beautiful notion, for sure. S-so… if you're sure, Zuko, I…"

"I'm absolutely sure," Zuko said, firmly. Ursa laughed quietly and squeezed his hand.

"Then… I'll be delighted to meet your family, once the time is right," she said. Zuko smiled warmly and nodded.

"You'll love them. I know you will," he said. Ursa nodded too, rubbing his knuckles with her thumb.

"I haven't met them yet and I suspect I already do," she said. Zuko chuckled in that shy way he still did sometimes, evoking the years when he had been an innocent, young boy whose greatest ambition in the world had been to bring a smile to his mother's face.

Kino truly hadn't expected Zuko would find any semblance of peace, let alone happiness, across this trip. Their encounter with Guru Pathik certainly had changed matters for the better, eased the Prince from many sorrows he barely knew he was carrying within himself, but even then Kino wouldn't have quite categorized him as 'happy'… and yet whenever he had a good conversation with Ursa he seemed to light up in that way he only ever did with his family, back in the Water Tribe. Some of his deepest fears had been dispelled upon reuniting so suddenly with his mother, going by the easy smiles on his no longer stern and moody face.

The door to their room swung open before Zuko could begin pondering the particulars of Ursa's eventual trip to the Southern Water Tribe. Their three sets of eyes rose towards Katara, Toph and Jet who had only just returned from training: the Avatar's absence brought a frown to Zuko's face.

"Where's…?" he started. Toph cut him off quickly.

"Meditating," she said. "Apparently, that's the way to get him to do things, or so says Katara. We'll see if that's true."

"He should come back sooner or later," said Katara, with a nervous smile. "Who knows… maybe he'll show up sooner than Sokka."

"Depends on how infuriating the White Lotus bigshots have been today, I guess," Toph said, dropping on an available cushion near the wall, opposite to where Zuko, Ursa and Kino sat.

Katara would take her seat with Toph shortly, but she cast a hopeless glance out of their room's door, towards the stairs that she knew led up to the main discussion room in the Fortress. Every day, Sokka would climb up those steps with a stern scowl and he'd come back with an even worse one. The weight on his shoulders only seemed to grow heavier ever since talks between him and the White Lotus had begun… because, so far, they had gone nowhere. What were the odds that her brother would have the chance to sway any of his detractors today…?

She'd only know the outcome of that meeting about five hours later: that was when Sokka's dwindling patience reached its end for that day.

"You've demanded that I give you a full, thorough proposal and I have. I came into this room six weeks ago, for the first time, and you were immediately predisposed to reject anything I said, on the basis that I had no solid plans, no true strategies to bring to your table," he said, snarling as he gestured at the very physical war table before them: a map of the world spread before them, dotted with flags and markers of strategic importance that they hadn't deemed worth explaining to Sokka, no matter if he could unravel their meaning easily. "Now that I've finally been coerced into giving out my full plan on what the next steps should be… you say no. You tell me it's going to fail. You think this isn't worth the risk."

"Your plan relies exclusively on White Lotus members sacrificing themselves by drawing out the enemy so you and your allies can play heroes," Anorak hissed. "You demand for trust and respect that you haven't earned…"

"Because you refuse to let me earn it, apparently," Sokka cut him off, arms folded over his chest. Anorak scoffed.

"Don't play the victim," Anorak said, stubbornly. "If your plan is not good enough for the Grand Lotus, it's up to you to fix it and make it suit our standards…"

"Well, you refuse to explain those standards to begin with, but I don't think this is all that far from your kind of strategy anyway," Sokka said, glaring at Jeong Jeong. "The group that serves as a distraction and bait wouldn't even get massacred the way the decoy group in Pohuai Stronghold was, to name one thing: I'm not asking any of you, grand members of the council, to dirty your hands, which also sounds exactly like your preferred course of action…"

"Do not call us cowards," Captain Shiju, sitting opposite to Anorak, glared at Sokka dispassionately. "It gains you no allies to insult anyone in this room."

"Nothing does, clearly," Sokka said, with a dry grin, eyes shifting towards Jeong Jeong again. "Not enough of them, anyway. Until Jeong Jeong decides I'm worth following, most of you won't stick your neck out for me, that much has been made clear since the start. But every proposal I make, every idea I bring up, you shoot it down right away… all be it so I find myself wasting my time pointlessly in these meetings, time that's vital and valuable in order to make the most of our one and only opening to strike at Ozai when he least expects it. What the hell are you playing at, really? Do you want my death to be revealed a sham, so that I have no choice but to run back home to the Water Tribe to stop a second attempted massacre, this time out of vengeance against me for deceiving him? Is that what you're trying to achieve?"

"Don't say that…" Piandao chimed in: somehow, Sokka could only interpret his words as a warning: if he gave Jeong Jeong such ideas, the man might just choose that as his course of action. Sokka scoffed, shaking his head as he rose to his feet.

"Once again, you abandon the negotiations table?" Jeong Jeong asked, staring at Sokka intently. "Your impatience is what makes you unreliable. You're reckless, desperate, and no man who's any of those things can pretend to be a strong leader, let alone one strong enough to lead armies. No, I don't believe your plans are remotely as iron-clad as you expect them to be. They are beyond the scope of your current resources and entrusting you with the bastions of White Lotus forces you demand for your schemes would be as foolhardy on my part as it would be on yours to enact such a reckless plan, one that's likely to fail and unleash the Fire Lord's fury even further upon the innocent."

"Then tell me: what holes do you see in my plans? What problems do I have to figure out solutions for? I'm pretty damn sure I've already…" Sokka started, but Jeong Jeong shook his head.

"Your plan is held together by a thread so thin I don't even understand how you can't see it falling apart after the first few stages," he said. "You're relying on every step going perfectly according to plan, and you have no contingency in mind in case something doesn't. The plan itself is shaky at best, impossible at worst…"

"I've pulled off far more unlikely strategies than the one I've proposed, if you really must know," Sokka said, glaring at Jeong Jeong firmly. "As have you. But I suppose your own rules only apply to you when it suits you, isn't that right?"

Jeong Jeong seemed to intend to say something for a moment, but then he closed his eyes, shut his mouth and shook his head in a dismissive manner, as a grandparent expressing grave disappointment. He was no grandparent of Sokka's, though, and Sokka had no doubt the mere notion would sicken the man: his disappointment meant nothing to a warrior who was far more disappointed in the older man sitting across him, at that large war table.

Without another word, Sokka stormed off towards the stairs. Shiju and Anorak watched him leave with glares – Iroh, with silent regret. General Fong appeared perplexed, though displeased to see the talks were getting nowhere, still: to this moment, the man appeared to firmly believe in Sokka, to trust in the gladiator's potential… but he also seemed unwilling to throw his full support behind the Blue Wolf if Jeong Jeong didn't do it first. The firebender, of course, was the one who kept the debate deadlocked, and the one who needed to be persuaded if anything was to change in the future… but Piandao suspected nothing would.

"He's one hell of a leader, walking out on meetings constantly," Anorak hissed, dismissively. "If things don't go his way, he'll throw a tantrum and fume about it forevermore?"

"It would seem unlikely," Jeong Jeong interjected. "Though he would be better off if that's what his reaction amounts to. A man like him, so desperate and reckless, can do much worse than a tantrum…"

"And that's exactly what you're expecting, isn't it?"

Piandao's question seemed to freeze over the discussion room. Everyone fell silent as his dark eyes fell upon Jeong Jeong's own.

"You have no plans of your own, that's what you're trying to convince Sokka of…" Piandao said. "But even if you haven't said so directly to me, I believe it's clear as day that you do have strategies in mind… strategies where he is the bait, and you the hero."

"You'll join your student in claiming I have some sort of savior complex?" Jeong Jeong asked. Piandao scoffed.

"You have something far worse than that, I'm afraid," he said, rising to his feet as well. "You're unwilling to broker a proper alliance with Sokka because you know that, if you don't, he'll still set out, still try to fight, and likely get himself killed in the process. If the Fire Lord is distracted trying to take down Sokka blindly, the White Lotus takes advantage of whatever openings Sokka can create for us with his sacrifice. But if you tell him this directly, he would never agree to such a plan. You know he doesn't care to become a martyr, he wants to see this war through and to save someone he prizes…"

"Someone who's not worth saving," hissed Anorak. Piandao shot the man a venomous glare before turning towards Jeong Jeong again.

"But you don't care to let him save her. He's more useful to you playing bait himself, in whatever capacity, while you reap the rewards… and yet you're upset when that's the very strategy he's proposed, if with reversed roles," Piandao said, folding his arms over his chest. "You're predictable. And he's upset… but he's no fool. He knows just what kind of man you are, always has… and he won't ever humor you with this wretched, silent plan of yours."

"A plan you have no evidence exists," Shiju said, glancing at Piandao nonchalantly. "Your suspicions are unnecessary… undeserved, even."

"A man who wants to end this war by any means necessary would be providing aid, ideas, resources to anyone willing to take the battle to the Fire Lord," Piandao growled, glaring at Shiju. "And that's what we're supposed to be doing here. If Sokka's plan needs more work, we can touch it up until it's doable… but all you do is reject it and shut it down. Clearly… clearly there's a reason for that. And I can't see one that fits your character better than this one, Grand Lotus Jeong Jeong."

His last words were charged with frustration as he stepped away from the table. Jeong Jeong remained unperturbed.

"I'm taking my leave," Piandao announced. "Feel free to continue discussing your grand ploys to turn Sokka into a mindless puppet while I'm gone, if you truly underestimate him so much as to think this strategy will pay off."

Anorak scowled, but he didn't say anything as Piandao marched towards the door Sokka had left through. Nobody spoke, though Piandao expected they would have plenty to say to each other once he was out of earshot… not that he cared much, anyway. He was starting to feel as outraged by Jeong Jeong's behavior as Sokka was.

He came across the Gladiator several flights downstairs, though not quite at the floor where he and his companions currently resided in. He had marched to a small balcony in the tower, hands clenched over the railing, shoulders squared in the perfect picture of tension and frustration as he glared at the horizon. Piandao drew in a deep breath as he approached him.

"Sokka…" he called him, softly. The Gladiator didn't respond. "I'm… I'm sorry. I know you're upset and frustrated…"

"That doesn't even begin to cut it," Sokka grunted. Piandao nodded as he stopped by Sokka's side. "I… I'm not stupid, though I bet they think I am. I'm doing this because I know every alternative is riskier or worse… but they refuse to take any risks at all. They want me to fail. They're counting on my failure, even. They don't think the ends justify the means, not when I'm the means… because I'm the treacherous guy who fell in love with the enemy, I suppose. Doesn't matter that I had no allegiance with the White Lotus to begin with…"

"I'm afraid you're correct," Piandao said, clasping Sokka's shoulder. "But a lot of people wouldn't deem you a traitor… that young man, Genta? He came to see you a week ago and he couldn't seem to stop thanking you for saving his life when you did…"

"But Genta is just one guy," Sokka said, glancing at Piandao firmly. "And he's not a warrior, not someone with the power to help me turn the tides on the Fire Nation. Even if there's a handful of people who don't despise me, enough of them do that they wouldn't rebel against Jeong Jeong. He's the problem: if I sway that bastard, the other two would have no choice but to fold. But he's going to keep pretending that I can't pull this off just because it's not convenient for him…"

"Quite possibly," Piandao conceded. Sokka scoffed, shaking his head. "You need to achieve something he couldn't take issue with, something he can't twist into a negative connotation…"

"And liberating Omashu isn't one of those things?" Sokka asked, bluntly. Piandao clenched his jaws and shrugged.

"It can be… in certain regards," he said. "You've already proposed one of the first places that needs to be taken under control is the Communications Office. If Fire Lord Ozai doesn't learn of what you've done, yet again, the downsides to this operation will be minimal. The battles could be chaotic, but you intend to free slaves and prisoners, rebels who would side with you…"

"Omashu is the most stubborn of Earth Kingdom cities, the one that hasn't allowed the Fire Nation to mold it to its liking," Sokka said. Piandao nodded.

"But there's one last thing that you could do… one thing so crucial that Jeong Jeong couldn't possibly twist into a negative thing, if you pull it off," Piandao said. Sokka frowned and eyed him with uncertainty. "You've been to Omashu before, haven't you?"

"Yeah. Twice," Sokka confirmed.

"Have you ever seen, or at least heard of King Bumi?" he asked. Sokka's eyes widened.

"The… the king in that coffin, dangling off Ozai's statue," Sokka answered. "If I free him… do you think Jeong Jeong will be silenced and convinced to join forces with me?"

"Bumi isn't bound to be in great shape, or a great help in the future. Not only is he terribly old…" Piandao said, drawing in a sharp breath. "But he has been stuck in that chi-blocking coffin for a little over a decade. I cannot pretend to know whether he'll live much longer or not… but he is a symbol of the fallen Earth Kingdom, one that could reignite and inspire a strong rebellion in the souls of Omashu's citizens, many of whom only ever wanted to answer to their king. All this is enough reason to free him, to make that one of your priorities when you assault the city… but the last reason is the one that would deal a true blow to Jeong Jeong's twisted narrative: King Bumi is a member of the Order."

Sokka's lips parted upon hearing that final revelation. Piandao was no joker, and the intensity in his gaze proved these weren't platitudes. A shudder shook Sokka's body as he tore his gaze off Piandao… and directed it towards the north. Towards where he knew Omashu stood.

"Then… the plan would still be more or less what I have in mind," Sokka said, swallowing hard. "Just, freeing King Bumi would be a priority, too. I… I never really did think the day would come when I'd have a chance to do that, but…"

"It's fitting that it would arrive," Piandao said, with a gentle smile. "I told you in the past, so long ago, that I believed your potential was limitless… and I have no doubts you'll continue to prove it in the coming months. I do believe you can succeed, Sokka… I do believe you can achieve what no one else has. You have the resources, you have the sharpness of mind, the strategies, the ability to think on your feet, too. You only need to put it together, to create that distraction you're looking for…"

"And the question is how to pull that off," Sokka said, frowning. Piandao's intensity dwindled then. "I can understand that feigning a frontal attack only to bait them is a dangerous gamble, but… I can't think of any other way to go about it. Sending anything to the outskirts of their city to cause them to turn their gazes out, beyond their walls rather than inside it, is the obvious plan, but… I don't know how to do it without Jeong Jeong's cooperation."

"You'll figure it out. I believe you will," Piandao said, breathing deeply. Sokka gritted his teeth.

"I'll have to give it more thought. But… I don't want to count on Jeong Jeong for it anymore. I think it's clear, yeah, that he wants me to be the bait. I have no doubts I'll be more effective as bait than anyone else, as far as catching Ozai's attention is concerned… but I can't trust Jeong Jeong to actually do anything good with that opportunity, not with the track record he's got. I just… don't trust him at all. I can't be his subordinate in any way…"

"And he refuses to be yours," Piandao pointed out. Sokka snarled. "But if you succeed with this, he will be forced to acknowledge you as an equal, at the very least. He won't have a choice but to concede and share power with you, the way he allegedly does with the rest of us… though he certainly shares very little of it when it comes to the ultimate direction of the White Lotus."

"Well, I'll figure it out, then. I… I have to try," Sokka said, gritting his teeth.

"Take it easy. Mull things over," Piandao said. "Take your time… even skip a few sessions if you need to in order to plan things better. A victory for you will be a victory for the world, for the Earth Kingdom… the first one this land will have seen since Sozin's Comet rained fire upon this continent."

Sokka nodded: the pressure only seemed to escalate further with those words, but he couldn't shirk it off. He had come this far for a purpose, and he wouldn't bail out now. Whether Jeong Jeong joined forces with him or not, he intended to see this war finished and this world transformed for the better.

"Now, then… if you've calmed down, it's time for dinner," Piandao said, patting Sokka's shoulder. "And we skipped lunch with that meeting, too."

"Right… we really did," Sokka said, only growing conscious of his growling stomach now. "I didn't even notice…"

"The Sokka from Shu Jing used to eat at all hours, I remember it clearly," Piandao smiled warmly. Sokka couldn't contain a weak grin of his own. "I suppose you might not have a great appetite today… but it's for the better if you get something to eat now, nonetheless."

"Thanks," Sokka nodded, following Piandao out of the balcony and down another flight of stairs.

He welcomed Piandao's support, but the manner in which it had arrived didn't cease to puzzle him: he had been younger, and quite more chaotic, when he had first met Piandao. The man had embodied a figure authority he had been happy to obey and respect… and now, to Sokka's utter surprise, it seemed that Piandao no longer wanted Sokka to see him as a figure of authority at all. He treated him as an equal… as more than that, perhaps. There was no intent in Piandao to claim Sokka's victories for himself, in virtue of being his former master… instead, he seemed to want Sokka to continue proving himself. He wanted to follow Sokka's leadership… he wanted to help Sokka rise higher and higher, as far as he might go.

Being admired by someone he looked up to shouldn't have come as a surprise to Sokka at this point… but it still did, perhaps because his image and understanding of Piandao were stuck in the very distant past when he had been his mentor. He didn't reject the change in their relationship… but it was clear that the days of looking to Piandao for guidance were well and truly over. He seemed to have taken a role of an advisor instead: he seemed to trust that Sokka was no longer the lost young man who had arrived at his doorstep so long ago, led there by a sharp Princess with grand ambitions and dreams that had changed profoundly throughout the years of their partnership.

Sokka stopped pondering such thoughts once they reached the assigned quarters for his group: even Aang was back by then, happily drinking a vegetable soup when Sokka and Piandao finally crossed the threshold into the crowded room.

"Finally!" Toph huffed. "Those stupid meetings last longer every day and you never have anything good to say about them, Sokka…"

"I wish I did this time, but…" Sokka said, letting out a frustrated breath as he hugged Katara with one arm: she embraced him to offer him some comfort, but he wouldn't find any until he had an answer for his current predicament.

"Still nothing?" Zuko asked, raising his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Jeong Jeong's whole game is to shoot down all my ideas by pretending they're not doable," Sokka said, marching into the room and to an available cushion. Katara was quick to hand him over a bowl of food that had been waiting for him so far. "Thanks, Katara…"

"Need tea?" Katara asked. "Or anything else to drink?"

"Anything you've got, yeah," Sokka sighed, getting started with his own bowl of soup, which fortunately sported an assortment of meat along with the vegetables.

"I'm sorry things aren't going well," Aang said, glancing at Sokka with unease. "If it makes you feel any better… I think I'm finally on my way to earthbending for the first time?"

"Really?" Sokka asked, raising an eyebrow. Aang smiled guiltily.

"I've meditated on it today, Katara told me to try that… and I guess a few things became clearer because of that," Aang admitted. "I don't think Toph's completely right…"

"Hey, now," the Blind Bandit scoffed, arms folded over her chest. Aang ignored her.

"But she has a point anyway. So… I'll give her approach a shot, little by little," Aang said, with a firm nod. "If it pays off, then at least I'll have learned earthbending, if just the basics…"

"Which will amount to some progress, at last," Sokka said, letting out a deep sigh. "Well, do your best, both of you. The sooner you learn how to earthbend, the better for all of us."

"Going by how dejected you look, though, it feels like Aang's still got plenty of time to figure out the workings of earthbending," Zuko said, frowning. "You said Jeong Jeong keeps shooting down your plans? Just him?"

"Him and his two goons," Sokka growled. "Evidently, your uncle's down for supporting whatever I choose to do, even hurl him into an erupting volcano if that helps him feel that he's atoning for the shit he caused. General Fong seems to think my ideas are fine, but he doesn't dare oppose Jeong Jeong, Master Piandao is willing to support me too… but not those three: Jeong Jeong, Anorak and Shiju."

"And there's no way to persuade the last two if Jeong Jeong isn't swayed first," Katara concluded. Sokka nodded. "They say the problem is your plans aren't doable, though… aren't they? Your ideas tend to be slightly crazy, admittedly…"

"That's an understatement," Toph blurted out. Everyone's eyes fell upon her as she smirked. "He's the first person who ever wounded me in an Arena because his ideas are crazy, alright. There's also that one time he tricked me in the Scavenger Hunt, tucked in a couple of those tokens inside his armor and then used Spicy's hairpiece to make me think he had the tokens in his hands…"

"Oh, that's when you stabbed that guy with the hairpiece, I remember that story," Katara said, as she looked at the slowly smiling Sokka. "You know, I asked her if that was true, after you told me about it in Whaletail Island… she still looked ready to puke because her hairpiece had been inside someone's bowels."

"She was so disgusted…" Sokka chuckled slightly, a hint of melancholy in the voice as he recalled those far easier days, the sheer outrage of his sponsor, who had trusted him completely with his wild schemes regardless of the consequences.

"And then there's the whole mess in the Pairs' Tournament… I actually wanted to knock him out and fight on my own but it was against the rules," Toph chuckled.

"And then you needed a potty break mid-battle, so the guy you wanted to knock out ended up saving the day," Sokka said, with a dry grin. Toph laughed louder yet: clearly, reminiscing on the good old days appeared the best way to improve their spirits.

"And you had the wild ideas about how to get inside the city after the Dai Li ran us out, then you came up with that crazy plan of jumping on the train's tracks to get away from them…" Toph chuckled. "So, no offense, but your plans are pretty damn batshit. They work, but they're crazy."

"Then what I need is people crazy enough to join forces with me and pledge to follow my crazy lead," Sokka concluded, with a shrug. "And Jeong Jeong clearly isn't one of them."

"What is the plan, though?" Zuko asked. "If you do have a firm idea in mind, it'd be a good idea for us to talk about it, right?"

Sokka breathed in before setting down his half-finished bowl of soup. He hadn't told them about his plans so far, but it was probably better if he discussed them with his friends rather than with tenuous allies like Jeong Jeong and his lot.

"If you really want to know…" he said, breathing in. "My plan is to take Omashu back from the Fire Nation."

A soft gasp, followed by silence, rang in the room. Sokka folded his arms over his chest before going into the specifics.

"My idea is predicated on taking the city when they're not paying attention," he said. "And the best way to achieve that is by having something, anything, in plain sight outside the city walls to keep their forces distracted. I thought White Lotus forces might do the trick, but to be fair, it might be a bad idea since the soldiers in Omashu might send word out to the Fire Lord before we can neutralize their Communications Office… which, as it was in the South Pole, is an absolute necessity. We can't allow the Fire Nation to find out what we're doing"

"That… won't be easy," Jet said, frowning. "Taking their Communications Office would only work if there's no one else to send messages… like the governor, or so."

"He'd have to be kept in check, him and his family," Sokka said, breathing deeply. "I know where his home is, I've been there before."

"Huh… you know, so far I have no idea how you're going to pull this off, but you do know that weird city pretty well, don't you?" Toph pointed out, frowning. Sokka sighed.

"Not well enough, I'm afraid. We'll also need to find the prison, I suspect we'll find rebels who have been resisting the occupation of their city for a decade… and I have no idea where it might be. And yeah, I know that setting everyone free is a hazard, who knows if some people kept behind bars actually are dangerous and deserve to be there? But seeing what Omashu looks like… the city's probably seen insurrections in the past, and the only way they likely keep things under control would be by imprisoning the people responsible for them."

"Or executing them…" Kino said, sadly. Sokka huffed.

"Possible, but they do like to keep prisoners in the Fire Nation," Sokka said. "Hostages are an effective way to keep others under control. If the rebels outside their grasp have reason to believe that further rebellion could cause the Fire Nation to execute these people, and take even more of them as prisoners later, they'll be easier to control. It's not impossible that they'd have killed them all, but checking the prison would still be necessary…"

"And you've said all that, but… how, exactly, is anyone going to get into the city?" Zuko said. "You mentioned a distraction of some sort, but you don't know what to do, to that end?"

"I don't," Sokka admitted, with a deep breath. "Which is the key problem in the end: without bait, none of us can get in there. But if we do find a reliable distraction, we can enter the city through an earthbending tunnel. Toph's done it before, we can climb down the chasm around the city and…"

"Oh! There's sewers there, Toph doesn't need to build anything at all!" Aang exclaimed, with a happy grin. Sokka blinked blankly and glanced at him, puzzled.

"You've… been in Omashu before?" he asked. Aang smiled and nodded.

"A long time ago. I had a really good friend there, though he was a few years younger than me. We used to ride the mail carts in the city, it was lots of fun. Kind of like penguin sledding, but more dangerous?" he explained, smiling weakly. Sokka blinked blankly.

"And you found a system of sewers with this friend of yours?" he asked. Aang nodded.

"It's a way to get inside the city, and I'm pretty sure the Fire Nation wouldn't have blocked it over all these years," he said. "It's probably still there, so… we can use that to get inside"

"And that way Toph saves her strength, which is probably going to be a good idea," Sokka said. Toph huffed proudly.

"Who'd you want me to throw a mountain on? I'm down for it, just gotta point me in the right direction…" she said. Sokka smiled and shook his head.

"Not sure if I'll need that much, but… I will need you to help us track down every place we need to find. I don't think I should go personally to find the governor… it's probably better if Zuko takes care of that."

"Me?" Zuko blinked blankly. "Why…?"

"It's Mai's family," Sokka said. Zuko froze in place, and Ursa gasped, a hand over her mouth. "You'll know exactly who they are, I can't really remember all their names, but…"

"Ukano, Michi… and Tom-Tom," Zuko said. Sokka nodded as Ursa glanced at Zuko with puzzlement.

"Tom-Tom? Who…?"

"Mai's younger brother," Zuko answered, with a small grin. "He's probably about twelve right now, I think…"

"Goodness," Ursa smiled too. "I never imagined Michi would… u-uh, I'm sorry for the interruption."

"It's fine," Sokka said, with a small smile. "So… you'd be okay with taking charge of that side of things, Zuko?"

"I think so," Zuko said, eyeing Sokka with uncertainty. "I'll keep them safe but also ensure they understand they're no longer going to be in power, I suppose?"

"He shouldn't do that alone…" Kino said, biting his lip. "What if they have lots of guards who try to hurt Prince Zuko?"

"Maybe I can go with him?" Jet proposed. Sokka frowned.

"We're short-staffed, all in all," he conceded. "It wouldn't be a bad idea for you to join him, but we need someone to deal with the Communications Office too. I ought to take care of the prisons and the slave markets, and I don't know if I should do that alone, either."

"What about me and Aang?" Katara asked. Sokka shook his head.

"You two will be tasked with fighting against the soldiers on the surface, once the opportunity arrives," he said. "With waterbending only, Aang, because if things somehow don't go according to plan, we can't let word reach the Fire Lord about who you really are. If you stick to waterbending, no matter how Air Nomad you look, they might not realize you're the Avatar."

"Huh… okay" Aang said. "And what about Kino? Can he go with you?"

"Our expert spy has a crucial part to play in this plan," Sokka said: Kino gasped, cheeks flushing with color upon hearing sudden praise from someone he admired. "He'll masquerade as a Fire Nation soldier, as he has done in the past. He'll be in charge of reaching out to the earthbender slaves who open the doors of Omashu: together with them, Katara and Aang would have a chance to strike while the soldiers are too busy expecting a threat from the distraction in the outskirts of the city to realize we've infiltrated Omashu."

"So… those earthbenders would be joining us," Katara said, blinking blankly. Kino winced.

"Y-you think I can persuade them to be our allies…?" he asked. Sokka nodded firmly.

"If Katara and Aang strike at the enemy first, they'll know we're no joke," he said. "Once things start to take a turn for the worse for the Fire Nation forces, it's entirely possible the Honorary Citizens who joined their armed forces, as well as those who are simply trying to get by, will turn their backs on them and join us, too. The rebels I'll be breaking out from the prisons, the strong enough slaves in the markets, if possible… all of them will aid us in gaining more manpower in order to thwart the control of the soldiers. Omashu is mainly a militarized city: the people living there are still proud of their roots and they will take any chance they find to stop the Fire Nation from syphoning away their culture and their lifestyle. It's nearby, only a few days of journey away from the Fortress, so it's the best city to reconquer first in the Earth Kingdom continent."

"Okay… okay. It sounds crazy, but okay," Kino said, biting his lip. "What will Toph do? Other than help locate things, of course…"

"Toph's got to set the king free," Sokka said. Toph hummed. "The guy seems to be important, not just because he's king, but because he's part of the White Lotus. You'll probably have a lot of foes to deal with on your way there, but I'd like to think that, if I give you free rein…"

"I'll wreck anyone who gets in my way? Sure thing," Toph smirked. Sokka smiled too.

"Then you'll be on duty with King Bumi and…"

"Wait… King Bumi?" Aang gasped, sitting upright, eyes wide as plates. Everyone turned to him, waiting for him to explain the reason behind his sudden outburst. "K-King Bumi is…! T-that's my friend's name: Bumi!"

"Wait… huh?" Sokka blinked blankly, glancing at Piandao. The man remained by the door, but he rubbed his short beard in deep thought as he stared at Aang. "Could it be the same guy?"

"Perhaps. By my understanding, King Bumi is around a hundred-and-twenty years of age…" Piandao explained.

"My friend was the king?!" Aang gasped, jaw dropping. Kino snorted.

"You've been making friends with royals since hundreds of years ago! Nice going!" Kino said, as Aang blinked himself out of his shock. Sokka smiled a little.

"If that's how it is, he ought to be one more White Lotus bigshot who would support us. Especially if we set him free," Sokka said. "I still think Toph's our best bet to break him out… but if you and Katara manage to settle things quickly, you can probably go help with Bumi later, Aang."

"Okay! I'll make sure to waterbend all those people out of the way as fast as possible so I can pull that off!" Aang said, nodding firmly. Sokka smiled approvingly.

"But… the first stage of the plan is still unclear," Zuko pointed out. Sokka nodded. "If you find some other way to pull it off, the whole distraction thing… we could do this without relying on the White Lotus, right? And… well, is Master Piandao going to help? Should I ask my uncle if…?"

"I don't think so," Sokka said, rubbing his brow. "I don't trust Iroh, no matter how sad and apologetic he is: I don't want him telling Jeong Jeong we intend to set something in motion just for him to send his goons to break our legs in our sleep or something. I do trust Master Piandao, but…"

"But if I vanished along with the rest of you, they could just as well claim I'm a traitor to their cause if anything goes wrong," Piandao said. Sokka breathed in and nodded.

"And you're our sole true advocate and ally in that damned council," Sokka said. "I don't trust anyone else in that room. So… it's for the best if you stay here."

"And I would stay too, I… I imagine?" Ursa asked. Sokka glanced at her with uncertainty as she shrugged. "I would be of very little use in this circumstance, I fear…"

"You might even alarm Ukano and his family enough that they might try to break out of Zuko's control to send word to Ozai of your presence…" Sokka reasoned. "That is, if you go with him, and I suspect that would be your safest bet in this situation."

"But you still don't know what to do to distract them and create the opportunity to see this done," Ursa said. Sokka nodded. "Is there, perhaps… an eclipse coming up? Maybe an atmospheric event? People are always quickly distracted by those…"

"Not that I'm aware of," Piandao said. Ursa bit her lip and lowered her head. Sokka breathed deeply and clasped his bowl again.

"Ultimately, it's pointless to plot all this without a way to take them by surprise," he said. "And nothing comes to mind. Nothing short of gaining the White Lotus's support, and the bastards aren't going to give it. Not until they think the benefits outdo the risks"

"Then we can all try to brainstorm to come up with an idea for this distraction," Kino said, hands on his hips. "I mean, there's a lot of us here, someone's bound to think of something…"

"I could always tear down their bridge again," Toph said, with a smirk. Sokka snorted. "Hey, that'd break off their commerce, and they'd be depressed because they'd have to build it again…"

"That's a plan B, at best," Sokka said, shaking his head. "I doubt everyone would rush out to see the fallen bridge, let alone after it fell that many times during the race…"

"I'm still baffled that they didn't make a bigger ruckus over that," Toph laughed. "I thought we'd have to pay for some pretentious earthbending architect to build it up from scratch…"

"It's not the most reliable distraction, though," Sokka said. "We're probably better off finding another solution."

"How about Appa?" Aang asked. "If he flies close to the city, the guards and soldiers are bound to come running to see him…"

"And they'll have enough time to communicate to the outer world that there's a sky bison in Omashu, when the only previous information about a flying creature of the sort was in the South Pole…?" Kino said. Aang grimaced.

"We can't risk anyone quite as crucial as Appa in this strategy," Sokka said. "At best, he'll bring us to the outskirts of Omashu, but that's it. The distraction has to be something else… and no, Momo isn't a good distraction either."

The lemur had spent most the day napping, but he was strolling carelessly inside the room right now: he turned his head towards Sokka questioningly before picking up some ornament of the room and testing if it was edible. Sokka sighed, shaking his head.

"I feel like… like there should be an easier answer but there isn't one. Like I should be waiting for the right opportunity, for something to show up, but…over a month has passed now and nothing has." Sokka said, shaking his head. "I just keep thinking…"

He trailed off, knowing he couldn't finish that sentence, not in front of everyone. He let out a deep breath and then gobbled down what was left of his food. The others discussed more ideas, but each concept was more outlandish than the ones they'd proposed earlier. It always meant risking things that shouldn't be risked, changing the plans somehow in order to accommodate the distraction better – something unreasonable, as the main plan was what needed to be ironclad, not the distraction – and the discussions were poised to continue for hours on end. By the time Sokka finished eating, his own, unfinished thought seemed to haunt him.

He had been miserable since they had arrived in the fortress. It wasn't entirely the White Lotus's fault, no… it was everything he'd learned while there, every truth that he still struggled to swallow and accept. It was easy to think of her sometimes, to let his mind wander back to happier times, as it happened when Toph recounted his wild plans from long ago… but then reality would return, hitting him like a ton of bricks to the head, forcing him to acknowledge that his concept of saving Azula had been too wishful and hopeful. Maybe the journey would be more dangerous, more harrowing and more heartbreaking than he had anticipated, and he already had been heartbroken to begin with. But every time he recalled Piandao's words…

He wanted to reach out to her again. To talk to her, the way he had in the swamp. To understand what had happened… to unravel what her circumstances truly were. To find out if the White Lotus leaders were deceiving him, somehow… if they had tried to deceive Piandao too, for he could have believed it possible, frankly. And yet…

What if it wasn't deceit? What if all the worst-case scenarios that seemed to be unfolding before them turned out to be the truth? That possibility couldn't shake his resolve, it couldn't turn his hopes to ashes… and yet it threatened to do so. It felt like plummeting down an endless abyss, with a tugging force in his stomach anticipating the ground that wouldn't arrive, pulling harder and harder as he waited for the blow that would break him…

He had to know. He needed to know the truth. He needed her help… he needed her to do what she always did: her brilliant mind would likely offer him an answer, one that would finally make sense. Where he faltered, she stepped up in his place. Whenever she lost her center, he helped her find it again. They'd constantly filled in for each other, providing what the other lacked… and right now, he lacked clarity. He lacked insight. He lacked strength of heart… and desperate as he was, he hoped to find them in her.

"Master…?" Sokka called Piandao, stopping him on the corridor, right before the man took off to his own room that night. Piandao raised an eyebrow upon finding the Gladiator had wanted a more private conversation with him while the others remained within the room. "You told me I could take breaks. That I could, maybe, take it easy for a few days and not attend a meeting that would get me nowhere… right?"

"Right," Piandao said. "I'd be happy to cover for you, should you need me to."

"Okay, but… would you really cover for me if I did something you might consider slightly stupid?" Sokka asked, with a nervous smile. Piandao raised an eyebrow.

"Stupid…?" he repeated. Sokka breathed deeply.

"I… I want to talk to her again," he said. "And I think the only way I can hope to do it is… within the swamp."

It was no surprise that Piandao's brow would draw together, that he would disapprove of that course of action right away. Sokka couldn't blame him for it…

"You communicated with her there, from my understanding," Piandao said. Sokka nodded. "But from what you've said… you attempted to do it again right after the bridge between you was cut short, and you failed. Pardon my skepticism, but do you truly expect a better outcome if you attempt it now?"

"I… I don't know," Sokka confessed, lowering his gaze. "I feel her, though. I know that… that there's a bond between us, so strong that I feel her very existence along with mine, even if it's difficult to understand it. It's why I could connect with her at all, and… it's what that guru told me I'd be able to do, too."

"That connection exists because the two of you built it," Piandao said. Sokka nodded. "But the connection doesn't depend on the swamp, of all places…"

"I guess not, but…"

"You're… talking about going to the swamp?"

Ursa seemed unsure of whether she should interrupt at all or not, but she had done it regardless, standing by the hallway's threshold. Sokka glanced at her with unease as the regal woman regarded Piandao with unmasked guilt. The man nodded before she spoke her mind.

"You wish to connect with Azula, again?" Ursa asked Sokka. He nodded weakly. "The swamp… it might allow you to reach out to her soul, but is it wise to attempt it?"

"You've tried to reach out to her for years to no avail, I know, but…" Sokka grimaced. "Look, I'm not pretending I'm different, or better…"

"You are, and that's not something to be ashamed of," Ursa said, without hesitation. Sokka swallowed hard.

"Well… thanks. But what I'm trying to get at is… I'm not strong enough spiritually to reach out to her on my own, as I am. Her sorrow, when she thought I was dead, was so strong it nearly suffocated me, but I couldn't connect to her right away, we couldn't communicate outside the swamp, and…" Sokka said, gritting his teeth as he ran a hand over his hair. "I'm not sure I can do it without something else to, well, enhance my spirituality, somehow?"

"I understand this, but the swamp shouldn't be your main option," Ursa said. Sokka grimaced. "I know, I'm a hypocrite for warning you to take caution with it… but I wasted years of my life lying to myself repeatedly in order to justify going there as often as I could. I refused to see reason and became obsessed with memories that weren't reality. I don't know if this could happen to you… but you should not risk it happening, Sokka. At best… do it if nothing else works. But…"

"So, I should only do it if I can't communicate with her otherwise? Or… do you think I should give up on trying to do that, altogether?" Sokka asked, frowning. Ursa shook her head.

"You can try other spiritual locations: there's a small temple, not far outside the fortress," she said. Sokka raised his eyebrows. "It may not be as spiritually charged as the swamp is… but I'd say you should start there. Attempt to reach out to her there. If it fails, if no solutions reach you… then perhaps attempt the trip to the swamp. The connection between you is strong, so strong that you truly saw her when you were there, rather than seeing dreams or delusions like my own. The swamp may have been but an enhancement for you… and it's possible a temple could offer a similar enhancement, since it's meant to be a place of spirituality."

"Huh… well, it's worth a shot," Sokka said, nodding in Ursa's direction. "Thank you."

She smiled and nodded. Ursa might have taken to blaming the swamp for her faulty grasp on reality and her dependence on it to reach out to those she loved… and she could easily see Sokka falling into that same wrong path, just as she had. But if he was to save Azula, if he was to fight this war, he couldn't falter. He couldn't distract himself with dreams and mirages… he needed to stay on task and find a solution for his current predicament as quickly as possible.

By dawn's break on the next morning, Sokka joined Piandao and Ursa on a small hike to the temple across the river by the fortress. The place was empty once they arrived, with no priests or visitors other than the three of them.

"Take your time, meditate, clear your mind as best as you can," Piandao said, clasping Sokka's shoulder with a warm hand. "We'll be out here once you're done."

"Good luck," Ursa said, smiling reassuringly at the Gladiator. He nodded in her direction.

"Thanks, both of you," Sokka said, before pushing the door open and sauntering his way past the threshold.

The temple was small, but cozy. It sported a long staircase that probably led to the local priest's quarters. Twin badgemole statues flanked the staircase, and the rest of the torches stood in twin lines next to a small altar, raised upon a dais. Sokka stepped across the smooth, amber-colored stone floors, which matched the walls in style and structure. His gaze traveled across the small, spiritually charged location: he knelt at the altar and drew in a deep breath.

He felt foolish, to a fault… but that had never stopped him in the past. If anything, if he succeeded at connecting with her, perhaps he'd bring a smile to her face upon letting her know just how silly this whole situation felt to him…

"Well… here I am. Reaching out to you again, somehow," he spoke out loud, closing his eyes so he could envision her with further ease. "I don't know if you can hear me… maybe you can't. At these hours, it's… it's probably crazy to even try to reach you, isn't it? You should be asleep right now, or about to be, right? Should be nighttime there, after all. Anyway, I just… I just have a lot of questions. I would love to hear your thoughts on countless things, to know how you're faring, this time far more thoroughly than before…"

He breathed in sharply, fists balling upon his lap as he shook his head.

"But I guess you didn't tell me about all of it for good reason, right? You… you didn't want me to panic. To act rashly. To play the fool, which I always seem to. I feel like a fool right now, talking to you in some forsaken temple… not knowing if you can hear me. But I keep forcing myself to think you can. To believe you're listening and… and that you'll be able to answer, too. Are you… are you eating well? Are you sleeping better? Is your heart… a little less troubled than before? Is… is the child alright? Have you both been healthy so far? I… I can only hope so. I can only hope so…"

He gritted his teeth when tears spilled out of his eyes: she wasn't listening. She wasn't speaking back, and this damn temple wasn't remotely as spiritual as the swamp…

But he had already started, and what was the point in stopping now?

"I miss you. I need to see you again so badly. I'm lost," he whispered. "I swore I'd come for you, didn't I? B-but instead, I… I've just bumped into this stupid, insurmountable wall that refuses to bend down for me. Whatever I say, whatever I do, it's never good enough for that bastard, for his people. And I want… I want to take the next step already. I hate wasting time the way I have… because I need to reach you. I need to find you and help you set the world on a proper course, the way we always swore we would… and I can't because they won't let me. I'm stuck, and it's… it's starting to drive me mad. I'm desperate, and desperate idiots can make terrible mistakes, right? B-but…I've also succeeded at the unthinkable when I've been at my most desperate. This plan should succeed too… but will it? I… I don't know. I really don't know… because I'm missing one crucial piece, and I know you won't be able to grant it to me. But can't you…? C-can't you, maybe, point me in the right direction? I swear… all I want is to set you free. All I want…"

He covered his face with his hands as he wept. This was clearly not the way to go about this, but he had no idea what else to do. He struggled to compose himself… to acknowledge what he hadn't wanted to acknowledge so far and ask another question that would go unanswered…

"Is he being kind to you?" he whispered, his voice frayed. "H-has he… has he helped you? Has he stayed true to… to the promise he made that day, in prison? I… I know you never wanted this, but… I don't want it to be an even worse burden on you than everything else already has been. If… if he's been good to you then… t-then I'll rest a little easier. I'll be able to breathe without feeling like… like my lungs are about to close down and refuse to take in more air. Because, if that's not the case and he hasn't been, and you're completely alone…"

He shuddered at the thought… and a gust of warm wind picked up and spilled inside the small temple, enveloping him suddenly.

He gasped, confused as to where the strange breeze had come from… confused upon wondering if it was an answer. Warmth… kindness? His heart clenched up: was she trying to tell him she wasn't alone after all? His hands shivered but he smiled slightly. Whether he was misunderstanding or not, he couldn't say… but if that was the meaning of such a strange, vague message, it was more than enough for him, for now.

"Okay… okay," he said, smiling slowly. "If that's how it is… then I'll calm down a little, yeah. I… thank you. It's not enough to reach out to you like this, it doesn't sort out my predicament, but…"

"… oh, it's a mess! It's a damn mess, that is!"

An unknown voice shouted outside the temple, startling Sokka out of his meditative stance and behavior. He frowned as he glanced over his shoulder: a man with a balding head and a thin mustache, wearing a fur coat that wouldn't be out of place in the Water Tribes, had approached the temple and seemed to speak to Piandao and Ursa outside. Sokka frowned, wondering if he was the priest… he breathed in and turned again, smiling a little as he evoked Azula's image in his heart and mind again.

"I'll… try to reach out to you once more, whenever I can," he said. "I love you. I'll always love you. Wait for me, okay?"

He wiped the last tears from his eyes before rising to his feet and performing a reverence, as though to thank the temple for providing him with what services it had. It was just a gust of wind, he knew it could have been entirely meaningless, but it had appeased him so profoundly… he smiled as he stepped outside to find that the stranger appeared to be distressed over something that had confused both Piandao and Ursa.

"W-what…? A herd of creatures is threatening the fortress?" Ursa asked. The man grimaced.

"It's dangerous!" he said. "A whole pack of those… what was their name? Big, brown, with antlers…?"

"What's going on?" Sokka frowned, stepping forward: the priest shot him a wary glance, the way most people in the fortress often did.

"It's only… w-well, I was off to find my breakfast and found out that some strange creatures are threatening our farmlands!" the priest said. "They might just pass through and get lost, but they're not supposed to dwell here! They're desert creatures, and they should just go right back to where they…"

"Desert creatures?" Sokka frowned. "Brown and with antlers? Are they big…?"

"So big!" the man exclaimed. Sokka's eyes widened.

"Y-you mean… no way. It's not possible," he said, with a small smile spreading over his face. Piandao blinked blankly, eyeing Sokka with confusion.

"Is something meaningful about this herd of… what, saber-tooth moose lions, by any chance?" Piandao asked. Sokka's smile gained strength upon hearing Piandao had reached the same conclusion he had.

"There might be something meaningful about them, yeah," he said, suddenly invigorated, strengthened…

For maybe, after reaching out to Azula, he had found answers that might have turned up coincidentally just when they had. And yet what were the odds that a possible solution would present itself right after he attempted to speak with her, after so many weeks of no progress? He smiled to himself: even without her full awareness, she seemed to offer him whatever he needed exactly when he had needed it. His broken heart would take long to mend yet… but it soared now, in all its pitiful pieces, as he raised his head towards the fortress, his eyes glancing past the building and into the horizon…

"I think an old friend might have just dropped by for a visit," Sokka smiled: the glow of a reckless idea, a way out of his current blockade, shone brightly in his azure eyes.