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...

343. Chapter 343: The North's Aftermath 2

A/N:

As some of you might remember/realize, we've reached a new milestone: Gladiator's Eleventh Anniversary. Wild, indeed, that we've kept going strong for this long and we will continue, as far as I'm concerned, until the story's actual conclusion.

Feel free to visit my T/U/M/B/L/R or my P/A/T/R/E/O/N to see the artworks I've made for this occasion. My life's taken one hell of a turn over the past six months, which means I can't really afford to do my typically ambitious projects, but I do hope that those pieces still are enjoyable enough for readers, even if it's not a full-blown video as I've done in the past years. Some of the artworks are reminders of older times… but most of them are actually spoilery territory regarding future events of our story. For those of you who don't care for spoilers, naturally, stay clear… those of you who want hope for a brighter future for our main pair, probably drop by to check it out, as it might be a relief among so much chaos in the story.

Worth noting, too, that I'm still writing in advance, around 40 chapters ahead… and I'm close to writing the story's actual conclusion by now. So, yeah, as much as Gladiator's been the ride of my life thus far, it does have a slated ending and I'm still working towards it. It will take us a while to get there, but hey, if we've been here eleven years, what's one or two more, right? :'D

Things are absolutely complicated and chaotic in our story right now… they constantly seem to get worse, don't they? It's the problem when you build up to a climax of proportions that should match the story's ambitious nature, haha. I really hope the resolution will make everything worth it. So, as always, thanks for reading Gladiator, if you're still here at this point, I really hope you enjoy everything that's coming in future chapters.

The North's Aftermath

2

The damage against the Northern Water Tribe was still difficult to quantify, as long as a week later. The material damage to buildings would have been quickly amended by waterbenders, if only so many of them hadn't perished during the Fire Nation's latest assault. Only a handful of survivors, as well as the youngest recruits who hadn't joined the battle due to their inexperience, could work to rebuild what had been lost in the flames of destruction.

The Avatar could have helped in such regards, but he had remained distant across that week, difficult to track down or talk to. He would go on lone trips constantly, only taking his sky bison on occasion. The few times he crossed paths with his friends, he kept them at a distance. The sorrow that clung to him was too overpowering to forsake.

Such was his state of anguish that he hadn't visited his friends in the healing ward. Neither Kino nor Katara appeared to hold that against him, but his evasive behavior certainly unsettled Yue.

She had wound up crossing paths often with the two available members of the group that saved her. After aiding in the recovery efforts, and saving a handful of injured Water Tribe warriors, Kino was almost always found in the healing ward, sitting and waiting for Zuko to wake up, talking with Sokka instead whenever the Gladiator was conscious. Katara had joined the rebuilding efforts personally, and as much as they were still strangers in many regards, she always greeted Yue amicably, with a sincerity that led the Princess to believe that they might have been through too much together by now to not become friends, even if that bond had been established far more quickly than expected.

Even so, Yue had endeavored to keep a certain, diplomatic distance from them. A week had gone by, and while she understood what their skills were, and perhaps a few basic things – such as that Kino was a former soldier, Zuko a banished Fire Nation prince, and Sokka was 'the Gladiator' –, the truth was that Yue didn't understand nearly enough about who they were yet. Their association with the elusive Order of the White Lotus, as confirmed by the letter sent by Jeong Jeong, didn't change that for the better: she understood nothing about the Order either, naturally.

She wasn't the only one who wanted answers, though – let alone was she the most determined person to seek them. Still, she had become a manner of liaison between the newcomers – even if she didn't interact much with the group of firebenders, who had been given a few rooms of their own in the Palace, namely so they wouldn't get in the way of the city's repairs – and the Northern Water Tribe's leadership. That strange status was the reason why she had approached the healing ward on that day…

As much as she had meant to find him, though, Yue was startled once she laid eyes upon Sokka, for he wasn't resting on his assigned bed this time: he sat by Zuko's bedside, alone, back hunched, elbows on his knees.

"Oh…" Yue spoke, startling him – had he been dozing off?

"Princess Yue," Sokka said, his voice slightly strained as he raised his head towards her. "Guess you came by to check on us?"

"I did, but I didn't expect to find you sitting up just yet," Yue said, with a weak smile. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah, somehow. Your people's healers are beyond impressive," Sokka said, raising his eyebrows. "I doubt the damage I suffered would have been fixed at all without their help… not that I'm at full health just yet, but the fact that I could climb off that bed and sit here is nothing short of a miracle, considering I couldn't even feel my body before."

"The healing arts are quite mysterious," Yue said, with a kindly smile. "As a non-bender, I truly don't know enough about them… but as someone connected with the Moon Spirit, I know there's a certain mystical power to waterbending that defies logical explanations. It's no less powerful because of that."

"Guess so," Sokka said, with a pained grin. Yue bit her lip.

"How well are you feeling?" she asked. "I actually came here because… well, everything indicates that you're the leader of your group. Is that correct?"

"It is," Sokka said, though he didn't feel much pride upon acknowledging that – his leadership had certainly proven to be terribly flawed over the last few days.

"Then… would you be able to explain details on what's happening in the rest of the world?" Yue asked. "And also details that might explain why you and your allies arrived when you did. While the letter Master Pakku received had some valuable information, I'm afraid it's not enough for us just yet."

"Figures," Sokka said, breathing deeply. "I can't imagine Jeong Jeong was keen on explaining everything… especially things that made him uncomfortable."

"Should anything about you make him uncomfortable…?" Yue asked. Sokka smiled and shrugged.

"At a certain point in time, everything did," he said. Yue's perplexity increased further. "But then… you want answers?"

"Not just me," Yue clarified. Sokka raised an eyebrow. "I'm here on my father's behalf. He wished to speak with you as soon as you were able to come to his private rooms. It's not too far away, only one flight of stairs above us…"

"Oh," Sokka said, frowning but nodding. "I could use the exercise anyway."

"I'll let Yagoda know, then," Yue said, with a gentle smile. "And my father. I'll come fetch you once I'm done with that."

"Alright. Guess I'll prepare myself for it," Sokka said, swallowing hard.

Moving around too much might be challenging in his current state, but Yagoda provided him with crutches he could use to climb the stairs once he was ready to get going. By the time Yue returned from speaking with her father, she bumped into someone else who had just entered the healing ward.

"Ah! Princess Yue," Kino blinked blankly, inching away from her and deeper into the ward – he had been speaking with Sokka, perhaps only just learning about what Sokka would be doing next.

"Good day," Yue said, smiling kindly at him.

"You'll stay by Zuko, then?" Sokka asked. Kino nodded promptly. "Might be he'll wake up soon, after all the healing he has received…"

"I hope so," Kino said, gritting his teeth and approaching Zuko's bed.

Sokka and Yue watched as Kino took his seat, all his casual behavior fleeing immediately. The stricken, dark expression on his face didn't suit him at all… but he settled by Zuko's bedside firmly, silently, and he waited. Sokka sighed, glancing at Yue.

"Lead the way."

Sokka's walking rhythm was slow, but Yue kept up without complaint. He took breaks at the stairs, catching his breath before carrying on upwards, and Yue kept him company quietly, even though she had countless questions worth asking. She didn't do it, though, choosing instead to leave it to her father once they reached his rooms.

"Ah, welcome, welcome," Arnook smiled as his daughter and his guest crossed the threshold into his rooms. "I see you are on your feet today, young man. I'm pleased to know you are recovering."

"Thanks," Sokka smiled, wishing he weren't so short of breath after a simple climb up a set of stairs. As helpful as the healing might have been, his body needed more rest than a week, it seemed.

"Oh, come, come. Have a seat," Arnook said, spreading an arm towards a small table. Furs around it would serve as cushions, and Sokka sighed in relief as he approached them.

"Pakku will join us as well, he wanted to be here for this conversation," Arnook explained, as he and Yue stepped up to the table too. "I've already sent word for him to be retrieved. He should be here shortly."

"Good," Sokka nodded, breathing deeply and closing his eyes as he shrank on the furs.

He flinched over the occasional burst of pain. Finding a comfortable position wasn't easy, but he settled for one that didn't seem to cause that much stress over his spine, arms resting over the table. He breathed deeply and offered Arnook a weak smile… but the grin faded quickly once he noticed Princess Yue appeared to take up a seat by the wall, rather than at the table.

"Why're you sitting there?" Sokka asked – he didn't have a good feeling about the answer his question was likely to receive.

"Oh… I always do," Yue said, with a reassuring smile. "Whenever I'm part of any of these meetings I… o-or would you rather I left?"

"I'd rather you sat at the same table as everyone else," Sokka said, curtly, cutting off the misunderstanding at once. Yue froze up. "Don't see why you shouldn't."

"Well, it's tradition," Arnook smiled awkwardly. "It doesn't mean anything more than that…"

"If it has no meaning, all the more reason why she can sit at the table."

Arnook's smile waned as he stared at the headstrong, stubborn man with confusion. How he spoke of tradition with such flippancy, how he dared question royals even if he was under their care… who was he, truly? Why was he so assertive about whatever was on his mind, or so quick to deliver a crucial, killer blow in an argument?

"It's no trouble…" Yue said. Sokka hummed, staring at her skeptically.

"If you're happy not sitting near anyone else, that's up to you. But considering that I'll likely talk about things that you should have a say over, things that concern you personally… I don't think it's appropriate for you to sit back there."

Yue remained perplexed. She exchanged a confused glance with her father – clearly, the Gladiator had very different customs than they did.

"Is that how they do it in the South?" Yue asked. Sokka shrugged.

"These days? Yeah. It wasn't always like this, no," Sokka said. "But I know for sure that it is nowadays."

"Well… I suppose, if you insist, perhaps you could take your seat beside me, Yue," Arnook said. Yue stiffened.

"I… should I?" she asked. Arnook smiled.

"He brings up a good point. Why is it this way? I… I do not know, either. Besides, it would be fitting for you to sit closer so that together we may thank him for saving you when he did."

"Uh, well, you don't have to worry about thanking me, I wasn't the only one who had a say upon that…" Sokka said, awkward – to his relief, though, Yue rose to her feet and approached her father carefully. Arnook smiled and welcomed her by his side.

"I do not understand the full circumstances at all… but you and your allies saved my daughter just when she believed the time had come for her to settle her debt to the Moon Spirit," Arnook said. Sokka crooked an eyebrow.

"Debt?" he repeated.

"My daughter was born severely ill," Arnook explained. Sokka frowned. "She couldn't breathe. Desperate, her mother and I dipped her in the waters of the oasis's pond, hoping that it might save her… and the Moon Spirit touched her. Her hair changed from its dark hue to pure white like the snow, like the moon itself, and she cried. She was breathing again."

"The Moon Spirit granted me its own life's essence," Yue said. "It allowed me to grow up, to live my life, but it was clear all along that this gift is not eternal. The day was supposed to come when I would return that favor to the Moon Spirit… and it seemed likely that Admiral Zhao would make it happen when he threatened to kill Tui. That's what you and your friends prevented when you arrived as you did: Admiral Zhao failed to attack the Moon Spirit, and he failed to kill me. He intended to do both things."

"That's what he meant to do… hell," Sokka said, shaking his head. "I'm glad we stepped in when we did, even though we had no idea what was going on."

"The Moon Spirit's loss would have been devastating for our world," said Yue, gazing at Sokka helplessly. "You must have noticed it briefly… Zhao captured the Moon Spirit to coerce me into filling the waterskin for him. When he did, the skies turned red…"

"I did notice that," Sokka frowned. Arnook blinked blankly. "It was strange, but we didn't really understand what was happening…"

"It was but a taste of what would have happened if the Moon Spirit had been slain. All waterbenders lost their connection to their element for that moment," Yue said, breathing deeply and shaking her head. "It wasn't only about my life. The Ocean Spirit would have rampaged, most likely, to claim vengeance… it only would have been stopped if the Moon Spirit was returned, in a new form, to the pond. So…"

"So that's what you were ready to do. It's why you were in that place at all," Sokka said, eyeing her compassionately. "Well… I'm glad you didn't die. Though…"

"Though countless others did," Yue said, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "The devastation the Fire Nation is capable of defies all reason…"

"They were worse on this battle than ever before," Sokka said, gritting his teeth. "We had hoped to warn you of what was coming… we were too late."

"If you had been too late, none of us would be here for this meeting. Tardy, indeed, but not too late."

Sokka raised his head to find the last arrival was finally here. The oldest man in the room, Pakku, carried himself with a confidence reminiscent of Jeong Jeong's, though there was something arrogant to him, perhaps, that made him more human to Sokka's eyes than the old firebender had been.

"Pakku, I'm sorry we couldn't give you more warning," Arnook smiled, as the older man stepped up and took his seat unceremoniously – though he shot a confused glance at Yue, who blushed under his scrutiny.

"Sitting at the table today?" he asked.

"Is that a problem?" Sokka asked, cuttingly. Pakku raised an eyebrow.

"I suppose not," he concluded, sizing up Sokka with his blue gaze. "You're her brother, aren't you? The waterbending girl's…"

"Yeah," Sokka said. Pakku breathed deeply.

"I suppose values in the South Pole aren't like ours, but we didn't come here to discuss our cultural differences, did we?" he said. "Jeong Jeong sent a letter through you and your friends. As I understand, you're… General Sokka, the Gladiator?"

Sokka breathed deeply and nodded. Pakku raised an eyebrow.

"Care to explain any of the events that landed you in such a position?" he asked. "I'm not attempting to be dismissive, but the circumstances of your arrival remain as confusing as they were fortuitous. You're a total stranger, I certainly had never heard anything about you…"

"Your communication network with the White Lotus isn't very thorough nowadays, is it?" Sokka said. Pakku shook his head.

"It certainly isn't," Pakku said. Sokka bit his lip.

"It's not going to be easy, explaining so much so quickly… but I guess I'll give you a general overview and go into detail later, if you need me to. Doesn't look like I'll be going anywhere for a while, anyway," Sokka said, his voice charged with remorse as he spoke. With another deep breath, though, he prepared to launch into his explanations. "Alright… I'm a warrior from the Southern Water Tribe. My father is Hakoda, the Tribe's Chief…"

"Oh! Yagoda did say something along those lines…" Arnook said, and Pakku shot him a dirty glare.

"Yagoda figured it out through the girl, I take it? And you didn't think to tell me?"

"It slipped my mind, Pakku, what with everything going on…" Arnook groaned. Pakku shook his head and glanced at Sokka with curiosity.

"Still… Chief Hakoda's son?" he said. "I admit, that connection serves as some manner of explanation as to how you've achieved everything you have. Your father is certainly a strong-willed man. Had I heard that he had brought the Fire Nation to heel, as Jeong Jeong says you have, I wouldn't have been too shocked… but that you're the one doing it surely fills him with pride."

"I can only hope so, though I doubt he'd be too proud of how things turned out this time," Sokka said, shaking his head. "I'm glad we stopped the Fire Nation, of course, but I wish we'd done it sooner. Anyway… yeah, that's my dad. He raised me as a warrior, and I took that training seriously all my life. After he came home from fighting in the war, I tried to help my dad and the Tribe with fending off a group of Fire Nation soldiers that invaded the South Pole and established a settlement at the shores. On one occasion, I attempted a more complex operation upon learning important representatives of Ozai's army would visit the settlement… I didn't know the Fire Nation Princess would be one of them, though."

"The Fire Nation Princess? In the South Pole?" asked Arnook, perplexed.

"They thought it would be a simple, protocol mission for her," Sokka said. "I made it more difficult than that… but not for long. I attacked, she fought back, and eventually, she defeated me. My men managed to escape, but I didn't. She spared my life, though… but she determined to inflict a punishment upon me regardless, and that was slavery."

"You… you were a slave, then? Truly?" Pakku frowned. "This whole thing about being a gladiator… it's true?"

"It is," Sokka said, firmly. "I was in the Amateur League at first… the lowest version of the Gladiator Business, where people are merely entertained by watching slaves kill each other. I survived that for two years… the Princess found me again by then. She needed a gladiator, she decided I was a good candidate for the job and offered it to me. At first I refused… but when I realized I could profit off that deal, I thought about it more thoroughly. She agreed to take me back to the Southern Water Tribe once I succeeded at becoming the best gladiator in the Superior League…"

"Is that… another version of the Gladiator Business?" Yue asked, frowning.

"It was. Still deadly when it wanted to be, but fights weren't determined to the death in the Superior League. Gladiators had followings, fans… it was an entire section of the Fire Nation's economy," Sokka said, running a hand over his hair. "And it was where nobles fought each other through their gladiators over whatever trouble brewed between them. In Azula's case… she was forced into an engagement with someone she didn't wish to marry."

Yue froze. The concept was terribly familiar for her, and Arnook tensed up upon hearing of it as well. He gazed at her with remorse, and Yue stretched a hand towards his, squeezing it gently.

"Was she… allowed to fight back against something like that?" Yue asked. Sokka shrugged.

"I don't think the word 'allowed' is the correct one, frankly," he said. "But she knew how to play her father, how to persuade him of things that he might not have agreed to if anyone but her had brought them up. He gave her one chance to prove her suitor wasn't appropriate for her: as that suitor's only noteworthy trait was sponsoring a relatively successful gladiator, she sought me out and hired me so that I'd defeat him… but it didn't end there. She wanted me to be the best gladiator in the League… easier said than done, of course. But she promised that, once I achieved that, she would take me home. Thinking back on it… it's kind of twisted that it's exactly how things turned out in the end, no matter how many things changed in the middle of it all."

"You became the best gladiator?" Arnook asked. "Well, you are Hakoda's son, I'm sure your prowess as a warrior is no joking matter…"

"Well… I guess so, but it wasn't remotely as simple or straightforward as it might sound," Sokka said, breathing deeply. "I can't really go into detail with everything Azula and I went through across our partnership… safe to say, I never imagined how far we'd go when we first struck that deal. I didn't trust her at all when things started out, but as time went by, we had each other's backs, and we developed a manner of mutual respect amid all the bickering over our different views of the world. She was far too smart to truly believe all the Fire Nation's ideological drivel, we argued about it quite a few times… but before I knew it, I realized she was actually listening to what I had to say. She'd quote my advice to others, as though to teach them how to properly respect the people under their command. Even if I was a slave, it often didn't feel like I was one at all. I had a much better life than I thought possible… it has to sound insane to hear it, but it's the truth."

"Then… the Fire Lord's daughter was capable of treating her slaves as actual people?" Pakku said, skeptical. "If so, she should have granted you your freedom."

"She did," Sokka said, startling the waterbender. "Not in the way you might think… not as soon as she could have, I guess. But ultimately… she did."

Pakku frowned still, but he said nothing this time. Sokka sighed – the man was already starting to suspect the direction the story would take, of course.

"Even at the start, Azula wasn't quite what I expected from a Fire Nation citizen," Sokka said. "Much less what I expected from the Fire Lord's daughter. Eventually I got to know Zuko too, once he came home after his trip… safe to say he wasn't what I expected from the Fire Lord's son either. Both had their own frustrations with their circumstances, with their nation: in Zuko's case, it led him to defect from the Fire Nation in due time, after he confronted Ozai about a lot of things, from what I know. He fled with a girl from Kyoshi Island with whom he started a relationship, Suki… she was a gladiator too, for a time, but she wasn't fighting anymore by the time they left together. Of all places, they wound up in the South Pole due to a sailing accident… and that's how he met my sister, my father, as well as Aang and Kino.

"From what they've explained to me, Katara was training one day when she cracked the ice in such a way that she found Aang within it, frozen inside the ice along with his sky bison. She realized he was an Air Nomad at first, and she only understood he was the Avatar shortly afterwards. As for Kino, he's a deserter from the Fire Nation's armies. He had been stationed in the settlement too, and once the place was vacated, he chose to stay behind and join the Water Tribe…"

"This settlement, the same one you mentioned before, was emptied?" Arnook repeated, crooking an eyebrow. "Why is that?"

"Oh… well, that's another complicated part of the story," Sokka said, gritting his teeth. "At one point, there was trouble in the Fire Nation Capital caused by White Lotus agents. Some of their people were captured by the Domestic Forces, and then other agents broke out the prisoners. At the time, I knew next to nothing about the White Lotus… and the first impression I got from them was not good. You see, Azula, the Princess, had been erratic that day because she had a pretty bad cold. She wasn't exactly of her soundest mind when she realized there was something going on in the city, so she went to the Palace instead of staying put at my house…"

"You didn't live in the Palace?" Yue asked, puzzled. Sokka shook his head.

"No, and frankly, I didn't want to. It's an unsettling place," Sokka said. "You get used to it after a while, but… I never truly felt at ease there, and I sure didn't back then. Even so, I went to find her, and when I finally caught up with her, she was helpless while two White Lotus agents were ready to take her captive. They told me they meant to use her to take revenge against the Fire Nation by enslaving her, next, pretty much. At that point in time, well… Azula and I had already been through enough things together, she had talked me through a dark moment merely a few days earlier, helped me feel better about who I was and my possibilities of changing the world for the better. So the very notion of letting her fall into their hands when I knew nothing about them, other than that they wanted to use me as some pawn somehow… it felt wrong. So… I opposed them. I fought them. That's how my contentious relationship with the White Lotus began."

"But they… sent you here," Pakku frowned. Sokka shook his head.

"I chose to come here. They agreed with the course of action," Sokka said: the firmness of his declaration of authority surprised everyone else within the room. "But anyway, to make matters worse yet for my case, I actually assisted the Fire Nation's army in capturing all those agents on that day. At first… well, considering what kind of nonsense they spouted and how they acted around me, I didn't feel so bad about it. But it didn't take too long for me to realize what I had condemned them to… so, when Ozai had a word with me to thank me for saving his daughter and his nation, I took advantage of that opportunity."

"He thanked you?" Pakku scoffed. "The Fire Lord thanked you?"

"Indeed, as hollow as it sounds. The man is as twisted as they come, so his occasional non-harmful behavior feels shocking," Sokka said, with a sardonic grin. "I didn't let it get to my head, though. In exchange for having saved Azula's life… I had him vow not to torture or kill the White Lotus prisoners. It's not likely that he fulfilled that promise, let alone after things took the turn they did eventually… but at least for a time, he did. So… about a month later, Aang revealed himself as a waterbender to the settlement's occupants just as they staged an attack on the Water Tribe: Ozai called a war meeting, intent on destroying the Southern Water Tribe."

"Did he realize he was facing the Avatar?" Arnook asked. Sokka shook his head.

"No. Aang managed to keep his airbending hidden," he said. "Azula talked Ozai down in the meeting, arguing that the South Pole had nothing of value, I think, and that there was no need to rally troops to fight two waterbenders… but she confessed to me, right after the meeting was done, that her father was likely to send those troops anyways, even if the council agreed that it was a pointless expense. Thus… I spoke to him personally: in exchange for what I'd done to preserve his nation's safety, he'd vacate the settlement and my Tribe would be at peace again. That was my original intent, you know, back when I first met Azula… it took me around three or four years to succeed, but the settlement was emptied and the South Pole was safe in the Southern Water Tribe's control once more."

"He agreed to that?" Pakku asked. "For good? You guarantee it?"

"If you don't believe me, feel free to ask Kino," Sokka said, with a shrug. "He met Katara and Aang because they were questioning him about why the settlement hadn't done anything new to attack the tribe after their thwarted attempt… when everyone left, he stayed because he had developed a friendship with them and felt at greater ease in the Water Tribe than in the Fire Nation. So… that's the story of how those four got to know each other. Zuko and Suki, the Kyoshi Island girl I mentioned, got married and had two kids in the Southern Water Tribe. The Fire Lord had no idea that was where his exiled son was."

"I see," Pakku frowned, perplexed. "And you eventually returned to the Southern Water Tribe and joined forces with them…?"

"Yeah, but only years later," Sokka said, hands balled into fists over his lap as memories of the circumstances of his return came to mind. "Alright… I doubt any of you will find this agreeable, palatable, whatever word you want to use, but I get the feeling you already know where this story is going."

Pakku's eyes narrowed… the disapproving glare spoke for itself. Arnook didn't appear to understand, but Yue seemed to have some idea of what Sokka meant, at the very least, and she voiced as much after a prolonged silence.

"You fell in love with the Fire Nation Princess, didn't you?"

Arnook froze. Yue grimaced. Pakku scowled.

Sokka nodded.

"Back when I first realized it… I might have been ashamed to admit it to my people, or my sister tribe," Sokka said. "Now… as difficult as my path has been, as many hardships as I've faced, the truth of how I feel about her remains unchanged. Doesn't matter how I explain it to you, you're not likely to understand it… but of all people I've known, no one has ever been worthier than Azula."

"That's hard to believe… but I'll take your word for it," Pakku said, with a dramatic sigh.

"She turned you into a slave, though…" Arnook said. "You truly could develop feelings for her after an experience as harrowing as that?"

"Well… when I first started feeling what I did, I told myself everything you're thinking now," Sokka said, with a skeptical smile. "I was in denial, I refused to accept it… I caused a lot of chaos between us because of that. But as time went by and I understood Azula better, I came to see her true value and I couldn't help but fall deeper in love with her. That she was feeling the same way about me didn't help matters either…"

"She loved you back?" Yue said, eyes wide. "Even when…?"

"When I was a slave, and she a Princess?" Sokka finished for her, nodding firmly. "Yep. And that's why things turned out the way they did."

"Ah, youth. You're terribly whimsical if this is the case…" Pakku said, shaking his head.

"I guess you could say that," Sokka said – as much as they seemed confused, the others appeared to accept his relationship with Azula far more easily than he anticipated. "Azula and I… well, we began a secret relationship eventually. Even though there were so many drawbacks, and so many reasons to fear the consequences of it all, we dared do it. It meant we were risking many things, many lives beyond ours, but we didn't do so poorly at hiding the truth for well over two years. We faced other hardships by then, though… including an attempt at revenge for what I did to the White Lotus in the Capital. It's almost funny that I met Jeong Jeong because he tried to kill me…"

"He tried to…?" Pakku frowned. "Well, that seems extreme. Jeong Jeong wouldn't be moved to attempt an assassination on someone like you without cause…"

"He thought my participation in the capture of his agents was cause enough. Well, that and the fact that Piandao was my sword master, who taught me everything I learned about sword fighting, and as far as he was concerned, I was betraying him, I guess," Sokka said. Pakku raised his eyebrows.

"Oh… I see," Pakku frowned again. "But then… did he attempt to recruit you? Piandao, I mean, back when he trained you…"

"He didn't," Sokka said. Pakku remained perplexed. "He left without any explanation, left behind a White Lotus tile… and he never conveyed its meaning. I was left to figure out my bearings on my own after he vanished suddenly: I had only trained with him for three months. It wasn't until a few months ago that I met him again, but even so, he had talked to the White Lotus about my potential as Azula's close advisor, it seems. When I made the choices I did that night, some people in the White Lotus, such as Jeong Jeong, decided that I wasn't trustworthy after all, and that Piandao was mistaken about my potential. So, Jeong Jeong hunted me down. Azula, Rui Shi and I attempted to shake him off… and when he caught up with me, he nearly killed me. Well, not really him, it was actually a shirshu that did it instead, but those details aren't that important here…

"Point is, Azula saved me when I was bleeding my guts out in the middle of a forest in the Earth Kingdom. Her firebending was always extraordinary… but she had already pushed bending's boundaries by discovering blue and gold fire."

"What does that mean?" Arnook asked.

"Blue fire is… well, refined especially for combat," Sokka explained. "It's hotter than regular fire, for starters, but it's also more controlled while being more damaging too. Gold fire, however… is its opposite, in a sense. Not only is it a powerful kind of fire that's easier to condense and use as a shield against an opponent's attacks, but it also had healing qualities. It wasn't quite like your waterbending healing, no… but it saved my life that night by cauterizing my wound safely. Without that… well, I'd be many years dead by now. It's not the one time I faced deadly peril, of course… but it did feel like the most hopeless of them until almost a year ago. Anyway… that was my first impression of Jeong Jeong. Sometime after that, Ozai started a disturbing campaign to uproot the White Lotus agents in the Fire Nation capital."

"How?" Pakku frowned. "That's not something as easily done as that. Most spies and agents of the White Lotus are hidden in plain sight…"

"I don't know if he sent his assassin to question the captured White Lotus agents or what," Sokka said, shaking his head. "But it seems he found out about a meeting location for the White Lotus agents... and I suppose, over time, the assassin tracked down all the people who attended those meetings."

"An assassin?" Arnook inquired.

"A man with… well, I don't know how to explain it. Corrupt firebending, maybe?" Sokka said, rubbing his brow with his fingertips. "He could turn himself invisible, seemingly manipulating light to do so… and he could quickly corrode anything with his firebending. We know it was fire because Azula could feel his inner fire with her resonating skills, she tracked him down in due time and we figured out the truth about the spree of assassinations in the Fire Nation Capital. She confronted her father about the murders… about the White Lotus agents who had been slain unlawfully, with no chance to actually learn if any of them were truly agents or not. He didn't care to hear any of it… it was a bad spat between them. She stopped living in the Palace for a while after that."

"She was defending the White Lotus agents?" Yue asked. "Or was she simply outraged by the Fire Lord's choices…?"

"Both," Sokka shrugged. "She was outraged too when Ozai executed a group of slaves to make an example of them after a group of gladiators from an Amateur Arena dared to riot. I personally helped the rioting gladiators in their escape, took them to safety… they didn't deserve to die after what they'd been through, nobody would. But Ozai, being the piece of shit he is, executed others in their place, pretending they were the culprits of the riot, all be it to send a message of intimidation to anyone who might have dared rebel against him."

"That certainly sounds more like the Ozai I've heard of than the one who thanked you for anything," Pakku said, shaking his head. "The merciless bastard…"

"He's never been a good person. I never deceived myself into thinking so," Sokka said, breathing deeply. "But I did believe in her. Azula had every instinct, every plan to change the Fire Nation into a better place… she started to do it after the riot, too. She wrote the Fire Nation's so-far unwritten slavery laws, making them as strict against the slave masters as she possibly could, regulating their trade, creating a whole branch of the Fire Nation armed forces devoted to this task… a branch chiefly comprised by women."

Yue's eyes widened. It didn't truly surprise Sokka that she would be so startled by the notion that the Princess had pushed against the restrictions of tradition against women the way she had… but he couldn't help but wonder if Yue herself had felt as trapped as Azula had been. If so, the likelihood was that Yue might begin to admire Azula, perhaps inspired by her to defy the traditions that held her back in the Water Tribe.

"She was going to gain power over the entire Earth Kingdom, too," Sokka said, bitterly. Arnook and Pakku glanced at him in confusion. "I know how that sounds… but it would have been much easier to fight this war if it had happened. Ozai was going to name her High Governor of the Colonies… she gained quite a lot of popularity there during our years of partnership. She helped thwart a conspiracy between the Rough Rhinos, a group of Fire Nation brigands, and the Dai Li, a corrupt former police force of Ba Sing Se… she visited their cities far more often than Ozai ever did, of course. With me by her side, she gained more renown through the Gladiator League, we even won a few events abroad… but that's more stuff I probably don't need to go in-depth with anyway. Point is, when Ozai offered her that possibility, we pondered an alliance with the White Lotus to strike back at Ozai once everything was ready. Azula didn't want to start a civil war, but even so, she knew that her father needed to be stopped, and she was ready to make the difficult decisions to see it done… but that's when things got complicated for us.

"I… well, damn. I never thought about bringing this up. I don't even want to, I know he got banished from the North and he certainly deserved it," Sokka said, snarling and shaking his head. "But… maybe the three of you would remember a boy called Rhone?"

Yue gasped, covering her mouth with a hand. Both Pakku and Arnook frowned.

"The kinslayer," Pakku hissed. "What about him?"

"I killed him," Sokka said. All three at the table froze on the spot, eyes widening over Sokka's blunt admission. "If you feared he's still out there, trying to terrorize people or kill everyone he gets his hands on… rest assured, that's not the case. But he certainly did try to do that, armed with an otherworldly weapon that could have slain the Fire Nation capital's entire population if Azula hadn't destroyed it when we fought him. She took a bad wound, though… and the weapon's spiritual corruption caused a serious, life-threatening chi corruption to spread in her body."

"What?" Pakku frowned, staring at Sokka in disbelief. "I've never heard of such a thing. Chi corruption? What does that mean?"

"I wish I knew exactly how to explain it, but basically, her life force was sapped, she lost a lot of blood, she… she could have died," Sokka snarled, fist tight over his lap again. "I killed Rhone for that… he had been trying to destroy the Fire Nation for years, but that was the one time he had an actual opportunity to do it. And he just so happened to target Azula with his damn spear… the very person who might have redeemed the Fire Nation and corrected its course. As dead as he is… I refuse to forgive him for what he did. Because… on top of it all, that he did something so terrible is what caused Azula to be in no fit shape to fight back by the time… by the time our relationship was revealed to the Fire Lord."

Yue covered her mouth with her hands. Both Pakku and Arnook gaped at him in confusion. Sokka gritted his teeth, shaking his head as he trembled with fury over the developments he hardly wanted to acknowledge…

"It'll soon be a year since then…" he said. "In about a month, I guess. Anyway… I managed to prevail in a gladiator fight against my most important opponent. She was sponsored by Iroh, the Fire Lord's brother."

"And member of the Order," Pakku pointed out. Sokka frowned and nodded.

"Indeed… member of the Order," he said, bitterly. "This member of the Order, of course, had his own plans in mind. Chief among them, that Zuko had to become Fire Lord, and that Azula was an obstacle on her brother's path to the throne. While Zuko and Azula were at each other's throats over the throne when I first met them, the two of them learned to leave that edge of their sibling rivalry behind over time. Neither one saw the other as a hazard or a threat anymore by the time Zuko left, or even the one time they met each other by mere chance in Whaletail Island, when I happened to have a fight there. But Iroh… well, he saw things differently. He was certain that Azula was up to no good because Ozai favored her, and upon first gaining reasons to suspect that she and I had an illicit relationship, he attempted to uncover the truth. Azula fought back as best she could, lying to Iroh in every conceivable way to convince him that there was no relationship at all… by pretending to be a terrible person, who had only ever made choices for her own benefit. Iroh, though… he ate up all those lies. And I suppose that, due to those lies, as well as his outrage when his gladiator was defeated… once he learned enough to confirm our relationship was happening, and hell knows how he did that, Iroh had no better idea than to tell his brother the truth."

"Iroh…? Iroh did it?" Pakku frowned. "That's… well, it's hardly like I'd put my hand in a fireplace to attest to his virtue, but of all people, him?"

"If you ever have a chance to meet him again, I'm sure he'll be thrilled to give you his best miserable grimace and admit to his wrongs," Sokka said, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. "That's all he ever did afterwards, the piece of shit. Anyway… we were discovered. I was beaten to a pulp and thrown in prison… Azula was subjected to a purity test, which she failed. I was supposed to be executed… somehow, the manner of that execution wound up being slightly more twisted than expected: years earlier, Azula established a procedure where all her would-be-suitors had to prove their worth by having their gladiators defeat me to earn the right to court her. The few times it happened, I defeated them successfully. Ozai, being the twisted bastard he is, decided he wanted Zhao, of all people, to marry Azula."

"Admiral Zhao? The bastard who tried to kill my daughter and who has led the war against the north for the last ten years?" Arnook hissed. Sokka gritted his teeth and nodded.

"He and Ozai were close friends since they were kids," Sokka said. "From what I could guess, if I try to stay levelheaded… Ozai simply wanted to do damage control. To force Azula into what he would consider an appropriate marriage, with someone he now trusted far more than he trusted her, since she trampled about with a savage such as me. Of course, Azula didn't want this… she didn't want me to die at all, evidently, but nothing she did, no amount of defiance against Ozai, would pay off. In the end, somehow, they decided to follow the old procedure I mentioned, where her suitor's gladiator had to defeat me. Hence, my execution was set to be delivered by Zhao's gladiator, Combustion Man… the strongest gladiator of the Superior League. No one thought he could be defeated. He never had been… until that day."

"You… you actually beat him?" Arnook asked. Sokka sighed.

"Almost didn't. Kind of thought we'd both die, actually. And I only managed to defeat him because… well, that's another thing I have to explain: an Earth Kingdom inventor known as the Mechanist was forced to work on technological developments for the Fire Nation at one point, and Ozai demanded that I joined him at it," Sokka said, rolling his eyes. "I tried to sabotage the process, but I didn't really know the full picture: Ozai wanted bombs with which to destroy the Northern Water Tribe, and I was hellbent on failing at that task so that he'd never get them. I genuinely sabotaged the bombs, but one of the things I did to that effect was focusing on another project the Mechanist hadn't finished… a project I had no idea was also for the Fire Nation armies. And that was the hot-air balloon… which the Mechanist eventually expanded too into the airships that attacked your Tribe."

"You… you were forced to create those things?" Arnook frowned. "Surely you had to suspect the Fire Lord meant to use them for evil purposes…"

"Not the hot-air balloons," Sokka said, gritting his teeth. "I had no idea it was anything other than a simple, personal project by the Mechanist, he never told me otherwise. I only realized the truth when I caught him mailing the blueprints to the Fire Lord… afterwards, Azula helped stop Ozai from using the airships immediately. This happened years ago, they didn't have the incorporated weapons that you saw a week ago… Azula argued that losing this important technology would be too costly to justify, which convinced Ozai to not use the airships and hot-air balloons on actual battlefronts for around three years. That's why you weren't attacked with airborne vehicles for all this time."

"And what's that to do with how you defeated this Combustion Man…?" asked Pakku.

"It's related because of how I did it… which, again, connects with what you suffered this time," Sokka said, gritting his teeth. "As much as he didn't give them to the Fire Lord, the Mechanist still developed the bombs we were supposed to work on. He gave them to me instead, thinking I might be able to develop a less harmful use for the gas one day… but the gas was inside bomb canisters anyway, and that's why I could use it to drive Combustion Man's fire out of control to the point where it consumed him… though the entire Arena caught fire."

"Wait… with you inside it?" Arnook gasped. "You were ready to die…?"

"I didn't think there was much of a chance that I wouldn't, frankly," Sokka admitted, with a shrug. "But Azula… well, that's yet another thing I didn't talk about: she tamed a dragon, early in our partnership."

"Tamed a…?" Pakku repeated. "That's not possible. Let alone from someone of her heritage…"

"Funny how that's the one part you find unbelievable…"

"Oh, no. Not the one part, but that one bends my belief further than it should," Pakku frowned, eyeing Sokka judgmentally. "You're quite sure?"

"I've ridden that dragon countless times," Sokka said, with a sigh. "I didn't hallucinate that, let alone everything else that happened with that crazy dragon. He's called Xin Long… and he saved our lives plenty of times, including that one. He flew in through the Arena's broken glass dome, Azula jumped on his saddle, then she pulled me out of the inferno before it could kill us too. After that… she took me home."

"To the Southern Water Tribe?" Yue asked. Sokka nodded.

"I didn't oppose the notion at first… not until she told me she wouldn't stay there with me," he said. Yue covered her mouth with a hand. "She meant to go back to the Fire Nation. I argued with her about it, I tried to convince her not to… it made no matter. She dropped me off… and she sailed back to be captured by her father's troops. I… I haven't seen her since."

"But is she back in the Fire Nation indeed? Have you confirmed it?" Arnook asked. Sokka nodded.

"I have. Ozai went back on his word… forced her to marry Zhao anyway, even when I killed his gladiator," Sokka said, his voice dark with anger. "I learned about that later. The Southern Water Tribe was attacked by the Fire Nation about two months after I returned. I helped prepare defenses and strategies to repeal their assault, and we were successful even if we took some losses…"

"How many troops did Ozai send?" Pakku asked.

"We don't know the exact numbers. Around fifty ships, though," Sokka said.

"No small fleet," Pakku reasoned. "And you defeated them all?"

"There were only a handful of survivors," Sokka said, nodding. "Our plans to stop them paid off. We sent a message to Ozai, a message that looked like it was written by his troops, pretending the battle was at a stalemate but that I'd been slain, so he wouldn't feel the need to send any reinforcements. As far as I know, the tactic worked. It allowed me to travel with Katara, Aang, Kino and Zuko to find the White Lotus's Fortress. As they didn't trust me, unsurprisingly, I figured I had to prove myself with a feat they couldn't downplay… so I led my group, as well as a few friends who had been with the White Lotus, and they helped me take back Omashu. Ba Sing Se followed, but I did have the White Lotus's army's support by then. We fought off the Fire Nation in the Northern Air Temple next… that's where the Mechanist used to live. He was coerced into developing the weapons for the airships, he'd only installed them in six airships when we arrived. We rescued him, we defeated the Fire Nation's forces, then we returned to Ba Sing Se and began our next plans of attack. At this moment, Gaoling might be in our control as well. Jeong Jeong will be leading a force west, to take back Yu Dao next. Me and my group, we came to the North Pole in the assumption that we would be able to give you information regarding the Fire Nation's resources and how to defeat their forces, but as you know, things were too far along by the time we arrived.

"So… that's the gist of it," Sokka said, breathing deeply. Arnook reached back for a jar of water, pouring a cup for the Gladiator. "Though… there's a few other details that might be worth sharing anyway."

"Please do share anything you consider important, Gladiator," Pakku said.

"Azula…" Sokka said, with a snarl. "She's been trapped by Ozai. She has no choice but to do his bidding even if she doesn't want to. And I'm sure she doesn't want to. As far as I've understood, he captured her dragon and holds him under threat of death. It's likely that he has threatened other friends and allies she made during the years of our partnership. Whatever she's doing right now… I believe she's done it to protect other people from Ozai's wrath. It's what she wanted to do when she set out back to the Fire Nation. Unfortunately…"

"It's not likely to be a good idea," Pakku said, with a scowl. "If the girl is as capable and impressive as you have described her so far… then she's but a weapon for the Fire Lord. He won't think twice before forcing her to do his bidding, whatever it may be… who knows, perhaps included fighting against you."

"I fear as much," Sokka said, after sipping his water. "There's… one more reason why she may have agreed to that damnable marriage too: by the time I reached the White Lotus, it was officially announced that she was with child."

"She was?" Yue asked, eyes wide. "But was it…?"

"I didn't want to cling to this belief too tightly," Sokka said, breathing out slowly. "But everything indicates the child is mine. Zhao himself believed that to be the case… which means she married him to have a legitimate smokescreen to hide behind while biding her time until the child was born. I believe it's been born by now, too. I don't know what she might be planning, if she's planning anything to begin with, but…"

"In circumstances such as those, it's possible that she's only preoccupied with survival for the time being," Arnook said, with a sigh. "She sacrificed herself for your sake, though, did she? Returning home in order to shield you and your people from the Fire Lord's wrath…"

"It might have helped," Sokka admitted, with a shrug. "But by the time we took Ba Sing Se, the deceit about my death ended. There would be no way to keep the truth from Ozai by then. He only started the development of the weapons for the airships by then, though frankly, I don't think we'll have to worry much about that in the future."

"Really? You seem confident of that notion," Pakku said.

"The only useful thing Rhone ever did…" Sokka said, breathing deeply, "was directing his allies to sabotage the airship factory. I don't know if he did it on purpose or if it happened by mere chance… either way, he rendered it unusable, so Ozai can't build more airships all that quickly. He's spent at least a year with no progress on that front, I expect. Doesn't mean other weapons aren't within his reach… but his airship fleet is gone, as are most the hot-air balloons that came with them. It was a considerable blow against their forces..."

"Much as it was one against ours, too," Pakku pointed out. Sokka grimaced but nodded.

"I know. I understand the toll this took on you," he said. "Part of why I wished to come here, other than to alert you of the danger, was to recruit whoever might have wanted to join us on the final push against the Fire Nation."

"Jeong Jeong's letter suggested as much, yes…" Pakku frowned.

"You truly believe the final push is that close by?" asked Arnook, raising his eyebrows. "That seems…"

"Bold? Reckless? Maybe it is," Sokka admitted, with a sad smile. "I wanted to go as quickly as possible… to be done with the war well before the child was born. I failed at that, though… might fail even more if I rush things and force my allies to do things they're not ready for just yet. We needed ships to help transport our troops… I don't suppose you'll have any to spare for the time being, huh?"

"Ships? We still have a few. We didn't lose them all, I believe," Pakku said, arms crossed over his chest. "Able-bodied crewmembers, though? That is a whole other matter."

"Of course," Sokka said, grimacing.

"Younger warriors can be trained to sail the more complex ships," said Arnook. "And retired ones surely wouldn't turn down a chance to help deal a final blow to Ozai's regime…"

"That may be so, but we have much to occupy ourselves with right now. Rebuilding the city is going to be a monumental effort… we cannot commit our forces, or our ships, to a venture such as this one," Pakku said, glancing at Sokka with determination. Sokka gritted his teeth. "At least, not right away. You say you understand the difficulty in our situation? If you're willing to wait two months, perhaps… then we may discuss the potential alliance of our forces with yours, Gladiator. By then, I would expect our prospects would be much clearer."

"Two months?" Sokka repeated, with a pained grimace. He breathed deeply and sighed. "Well… all things considered, that's very generous already. But when you say we'll discuss the possibilities again, you simply mean you might decide to refuse me too, right?"

"Unfortunately so," Pakku said. "The gravity of this situation cannot be dismissed. I do not intend to disregard the part the Northern Water Tribe may yet play in toppling the Fire Lord's tyranny, but we cannot commit to this cause blindly."

"I understand… but I do hope you keep in mind that the Fire Nation's forces have been crippled immensely by Aang's actions," Sokka said. Pakku's eyes narrowed. "I'm not saying the Water Tribe can be left undefended, I certainly refused to do that with the Southern Water Tribe as well, once I left it. Merely… the Fire Nation is at its weakest now. The Air Force was their best bet at victory. They'll be vulnerable without it, without the Mechanist's brilliance too. The sooner we make a move, the more likely we will be to succeed at stopping their army's potential rebuilding. I don't mean to rush you to make a decision, not when I understand how much your people have sacrificed already… but I have to say that, if there's ever been a moment where the Fire Nation's regime might be stopped, where Ozai's control over the world could be broken, this is it. Letting this window slip past us might just be the worst mistake we could make."

"It might be. But giving you any positive answers now could be terribly irresponsible if we backtrack on them later. Much can happen over two months," Pakku said, breathing deeply and glancing at Arnook and Yue. "Is there any other pressing matter you'd like to discuss?"

"Well… there's the matter of the firebenders," Arnook said, eyeing Sokka with a crooked eyebrow. "Your allies, to be precise. I can't presume to understand where they came from, or why…"

"Sorry… I rushed the story, I should have mentioned them more extensively," Sokka said, with a grimace. "Rui Shi and some of the firebenders in that group were Azula's former Royal Guards. They helped us escape, back when everything fell apart. Rui Shi always helped the two of us, he was the captain of her guards, he knew about our secret all along. The others always supported us too, even though they didn't know the truth until the end. By the time things fell apart, they helped us get away by stealing Azula's Royal Barge and bringing me all the way to the South Pole. By the time they left, Azula convinced them to leave her at sea as well, for the Fire Nation would capture her eventually and she refused to let them die at the hands of Ozai's forces if that happened. Months later, after we took Ba Sing Se, Rui Shi and the other guards came to the Outer Wall of the city and reached out to me. You could say I recruited them, but they volunteered, really. As they're deserters and former soldiers of the Fire Nation, they're completely supportive of our cause and have been working with us ever since they found me again. As for the other firebenders, they're either Fire Nation people who turned against the Fire Lord, or firebenders born in the Earth Kingdom, who feel greater loyalty to the Earth Kingdom than towards the Fire Nation. In short… they're not bad people. I understand your apprehension, but they're safe, reliable allies."

"Hmm," Arnook said, arms folded over his chest. "How did they join the battle? I'm still confused about that."

"Hot-air balloons," Sokka said. "We stole some from the Fire Nation in the Northern Air Temple, there were a few others at our disposal in Ba Sing Se. My plan was for their group to scout the enemy forces and figure out what kind of threat we were dealing with. They were to report back to me once we had settled the safety of our alliance with you… of course, none of that happened because they had to join the fray directly, but that's what they were there for. I know it's hard to trust a firebender after everything that has happened over the past years… but if any of them act out in any way, I take full responsibility for it."

"Such is the trust you place in them," Pakku reasoned. "I suppose we'll take your word for it."

"Then they're rebels against the Fire Lord. Very well, then," Arnook said, nodding in Sokka's direction. "I believe, if anything else comes up later, I'll ask. For now, though… thank you for the information you've given us. I'll reach out anew should it be necessary."

"Thank you," Sokka said, nodding. "I, uh, have one small thing to ask. I don't know if… if his family is safe after everything that happened, but in case it were, could any of you find Anorak's family and give them a letter he wrote for them?"

"Ah!" Pakku gasped. "Then… well, of course you'd know Anorak, of course. How is he faring these days? Has Jeong Jeong driven him entirely mad yet, or is the poor lad still as loyal and obedient as he ever was?"

"I'm afraid he's at a standstill between either thing, I suppose," Sokka said, with a weak grin. "He didn't care for me one bit at first, but due to some unfortunate developments for him, he wound up being part of my group when we retook Omashu from the Fire Nation. Strange as it was to count him as an ally that day, he's been a steadfast one ever since. He'll join Jeong Jeong in liberating Yu Dao."

"Hmm, then I can only hope all goes well for him," Pakku said, with a slight smile. "He was always one of my best students. I expect he shall continue to excel in service of your army. Then… yes, I can deliver this letter. His parents and brother were in the caverns… fortunately, I would dare say. The boy is a rarity, born to a family of non-benders… his father never truly took an interest in combat, and his brother was too young to join the warriors in this battle. Though, with the situation being what it is, the boy might have to be part of your final push, should it come to that."

"Right," Sokka said, gritting his teeth – he would much rather not bring any teenagers or children with him, no matter how desperate the situation might be.

"I can accompany him back to the healing ward," Yue said, smiling at her father and Pakku. "Maybe I could ask his friend to give me that letter for Anorak's family, too?"

"Kino?" Sokka asked. Yue nodded. "He gave you guys Jeong Jeong's letter already, didn't he?"

"Indeed," Pakku said. "Strange how the boy seems to be an underwhelming nobody… but it appears he fought fiercely on the battle. I suppose his greatest skill is being underestimated, isn't it?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Sokka said, with a weak smile.

None of them had truly gotten to know Kino at his usual state… none of them knew the careless, chatty, cheerful man who could be wise in one moment and entirely foolish the next. All they'd seen was his serious side in the middle of a crisis… as well as an even darker side, one that might even resemble Sokka's, that had been triggered by Zuko's injury. It felt like that darkness wouldn't diminish until Kino saw Zuko opening his eyes again.

"Then thank you very much for everything, General Sokka," Arnook said, as everyone rose to their feet – Sokka did so slowly, supporting himself on the table, reaching for his crutches right away. "Make sure to rest plenty now, too. You may just achieve a full recovery soon…you've made fair progress thus far."

"Yeah… I hope you're right," Sokka said, with a weak grin.

He bowed and bid farewell to Chief Arnook – Pakku stayed behind to discuss something regarding the restoration of certain buildings of the city while Sokka and Yue left the room. He breathed heavily, feeling as though he'd exerted himself far more with everything he'd spoken about rather than by walking with those crutches…

"Thank you for sharing everything you did," Yue said, as they began their slow progress through the hallways. "I suppose… a fair number of things about that day made more sense now that you spoke of your experiences. Your hatred for Admiral Zhao… it's not that I questioned that he deserved it, a man as cruel as him most likely had earned all the animosity sent his way. But it seemed…"

"Too personal, huh?" Sokka said, with a dry grin. "I'm afraid it was. What makes it worse is… he wasn't always that twisted towards me. He didn't treat me that poorly for the most part, even if he didn't care for me at first. But I don't know what the hell Ozai has done… how Zhao ended up deciding that Azula and I schemed together so everything would turn out the way it did. If I had been smart enough to plan all this from a prison cell after being beaten half to death, I sure as hell would have figured out a way to keep her with me all along."

"I imagine you would have," Yue said, with a compassionate smile. "Learning of your relationship with her surprised me a bit, but… you truly love her, don't you?"

"I always will," Sokka said, firmly. Yue smiled.

"She's lucky," she said. Sokka raised an eyebrow. "I mean… having a husband that devoted to you? It's not something that every woman… u-uh, wait, I'm sorry. I know you two couldn't have married… it was a slip of tongue. I'm just not used to, well, thinking of relationships out of wedlock. I'm sorry."

"Well, apology accepted, but… you're not that wrong, actually," Sokka said, with a pained smile. "We… we eloped, at one point. Married in secret… under false identities, too. By all means… in my heart she's always going to be my wife, regardless of what Fire Nation law dictates."

"I see," said Yue, with a kindly smile. "Though, right now, she's, uh… not really married according to their laws anymore, provided Admiral Zhao did die in that fire, as it seems he did."

Sokka frowned: somehow, the reality of Zhao's death, the implications of it, hadn't fully dawned on him so far. He was gone… and that meant Azula was no longer married to him, if simply because he was dead: Azula would be Crown Princess once again.

Whether Zhao's absence was a good or bad development, Sokka couldn't quite decide it just yet. On impulse, based on pure selfishness, it meant no one else could claim the role of Azula's husband anymore… but at the same time, Azula was bound to be forced into the role of her father's second-in-command now that his favorite officer was gone. Not that Sokka truly believed he had been Ozai's favorite still, not if Zhao's vicious declarations of that night amounted to anything. He seemed to want Ozai dead, somehow... a concept Sokka would have never imagined possible between those two. But even in that circumstance, Zhao had been Ozai's Crown Prince. Now, if Azula was forced into that position again…

With Xin Long under captivity, with so many people Azula needed to protect, Ozai would be even more likely to take advantage of all those hostages to force her cooperation further than he already had.

Sokka gritted his teeth as he stopped. Yue eyed him worriedly, and Sokka shook his head as he rested with a hand on the fur-pelted wall.

"Sorry. I just… needed a moment," he said. Yue nodded.

"I understand," she said. "At any rate, I… I hope your mission pays off. It's clear you wish to return to her, and you truly believe she can bring good changes to the Fire Nation. It's hard to fathom without quite knowing her, but… you're no ordinary man. I'm sure the woman you love has to be extraordinary too."

"More than you can imagine, yeah," Sokka said, nodding as he breathed deeply. "Far more than I am, that's for sure."

"She defied the Fire Lord in many ways…" Yue said. "I can't quite imagine what it's like to have a father as cruel as the Fire Lord. I don't know what I'd have done if my father had been anything like him."

"I suppose you think so, but unfortunately, your fathers do share one thing in common that neither you nor Azula should ever forgive them for," Sokka said. Yue eyed him, perplexed.

"What… what do you mean?"

"Arranged marriages," Sokka said, simply.

Yue gritted her teeth, her face hardening as she nodded. While she hadn't expected him to bring that up, it seemed the thought wasn't quite so difficult to fathom.

"Of course," she said. "Well, in truth… I did hope to ask you for more details about Hahn. If you knew anything else, of course… Admiral Zhao taunted me about him, though it didn't really work. I never had much of an emotional attachment to Hahn… I only married him because it was my duty."

"Not the best reason to marry someone," Sokka said, eyeing her compassionately. "Was he ever decent to you?"

"I don't know what exactly you mean by 'decent', but I suspect he didn't qualify as that word by any means," Yue said, with a huff of frustration. "He was interested in the marriage solely for the political power, for the comfort… for the chance to boast about his position. I don't know if he cheated on me… I expect he did, but he kept it quiet as best as he was able. In a sense… he brought me to a point of despising him so much that I preferred that he would. Better them than me, I thought…"

"Were girls really so foolish as to be swept up by him?" Sokka asked. Yue shrugged.

"Maybe some weren't. Maybe he forced himself on others. I wouldn't put it past him," she said. Sokka snarled, shaking his head. "He betrayed me in more ways than that, so… I'm afraid that would be but one more factor among many worse ones, too. That he would have told Zhao about… about my story, about my experience in the oasis? Giving him that information for the sake of gaining power in the Fire Nation? What's worse is… I know he'll think it was worth it. I know it because… because that's who he was. Who he always has been."

"You know…" Sokka said, eyeing her earnestly. "Whatever happens when the war ends, the likelihood is that Ozai will be deposed, one way or another. Azula or Zuko will be likely to succeed him, provided nothing else gets in the way, and I damn hope nothing does. My point is… either of them could be convinced to turn Hahn in to the Northern Water Tribe."

Yue raised her eyebrows. Her blue eyes were suddenly clear, brighter than before… who knew the pristine princess of the Northern Water Tribe had a vindictive streak of her own? Not that Sokka blamed her for it…

"You believe so?" Yue asked.

"I think your people have every right to pass judgment over him," Sokka said. "The betrayal he committed is unforgivable. In itself, betraying the Tribe is unthinkable… but that the betrayer happened to be married to the Princess is even worse. I know there will be a lot of things to deal with… but I'll talk to whoever winds up in charge when all is said and done. I doubt it will be a difficult decision, provided you guys would want to do this…"

"Absolutely," Yue said, her voice charged with emotion, a fist trembling. "Thank you, General Sokka."

"You're welcome," he said, with a weak smile – hearing people address him with that title still felt rather strange, out of place at times…

"Though, Zhao said… that Hahn had married someone else in the Fire Nation?" Yue asked, frowning.

"Oh, yeah… he met his match, you could say," Sokka said, shaking his head. "A disgusting, predatorial woman obsessed with Water Tribe men. I have no idea if they were ever happy together… I hope not, frankly. They were both such heinous people that they deserved to make each other miserable forever… though after everything that happened a week ago, I'm certain that Hahn was the worse one, considering what he did to his own people. Still… that just means it's a good thing that Hina was always such a disturbing person. Hopefully she's serving as his divine punishment for everything awful he's ever done…"

"Hopefully," said Yue, with a weak smile. "You know more about these details than I expected…"

"Well… Azula and I kind of worked together to mess up those two and bring them together," Sokka said, with a dry grin. "Hina started out being obsessed with me, Hahn wanted to marry Azula simply for the sake of power. After a few awful choices by the two of them, including Hahn's harassment of… of Zhao's daughter, well, things boiled over to a point where the two of them had to be taken down."

"Zhao's… daughter. I suppose it stands to reason that he was old enough to be a father," Yue said, eyeing Sokka with uncertainty.

"I don't know the girl," Sokka said, biting his lower lip. "I… I only hope she's a good person. Azula… from what I've heard, she has taken her under her wing while we've been apart. Adopted her, even, so…"

"Has she?" Yue said, eyeing Sokka with uncertainty. He chuckled, shaking his head.

"I wish I knew how to feel about any of that. I don't think half of what I've heard Azula has been through will feel real until I talk to her again," he said, his forced smile fading from his face quickly. Yue nodded.

"Everything feels so distant and obscure when you're so far away from her, I'm sure," she said. "I know they may not have said encouraging things about joining forces with you today… but I'm sure my father and Master Pakku understand the opportunity you're providing the world. After what I saw for myself… I believe you and your friends can achieve the unthinkable. And once it's done… I'm sure she'll be truly grateful to see you again."

Sokka smiled, his heart paining him upon hearing the words: he hoped so. He truly hoped that Azula wouldn't be so cross with him as to hate him for all the choices he had made… that she would understand, just as he did his best to understand why she had made her own difficult choices. The world they wanted to build wouldn't be out of their reach… it was still possible. He had worked across the past months to ensure that would be the case.

"As I'll be grateful to be by her side," Sokka said, nodding. "Anyway… we should keep going. Sorry that I stopped like that…"

"It's no trouble," Yue said, smiling kindly and rejoining Sokka on their way downstairs.

Kino hadn't moved at all from his seat once they arrived: he raised his gaze and smiled a little, if not too sincerely, once they crossed the room's threshold.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

Sokka nodded as he approached his assigned bed, separated from Zuko's by a fabric that they could pull back to speak comfortably. Yue pulled it herself, and Sokka breathed deeply as he settled down – as much as he had done his best to endure the exhaustion and pain so far, it was starting to take its toll on him once more, especially on his lower back.

"Well, my bones hurt… but other than that, yeah," Sokka said, lying on his stomach and breathing out slowly. "Don't ever fall off an airship like I did, Kino. It's an unhealthy lifestyle…"

"Uh, yeah. I'll try to avoid it," Kino said, with a weak smile.

"My father is pleased with General Sokka's explanations," Yue told him, and Kino smiled more earnestly upon hearing that.

"Though there's not much chance we'll be moving out until… well… I don't know. At least, it's not happening for the next two months," Sokka said. Kino grimaced.

"Guess it can't be helped. At least the Fire Nation suffered plenty of damage too…" he said, eyes saddened at the thought of the chaotic battle where Sokka and Zuko had almost died. "I'm glad you straightened things out anyway."

"If I may, though…" Yue said. Kino blinked a few times before realizing she was addressing him personally. "There's another letter, right? One meant for Anorak's family…"

"Oh. Shit, I forgot about that," Kino admitted, with an awkward smile. "You need me to fetch it?"

"Well, I could accompany you in finding it," Yue said, with a gentle grin. "I'm sure General Sokka must want his rest, and I'd rather not disturb him."

"I'm sure General Sokka doesn't find you disturbing…" Kino said, shooting Sokka a sideways glare. "Or does he?"

"You're more likely to disturb my rest than her," Sokka said, bluntly. Kino flinched at the harsh answer, though Sokka smirked afterwards. "Though I don't know if that means you're disturbing, but still…"

"Hey, now. Are you trying to fill in for Zuko or something? Here I thought you were on my side on most things…" Kino pouted, rising to his feet. "Well, I'll be back soon. Try not to go too far overboard by thinking of cruel comebacks to throw at me, Sokka…"

"Sure, sure…" Sokka said, eyes closed as he relaxed on the bed. He might actually fall asleep, but he'd hope to remain sufficiently conscious to notice if Zuko woke up at all.

Kino and Yue left the healing ward, marching to the rooms that had been assigned to their group. Kino had organized their belongings properly, sorting them into the rooms even if they hadn't been used – as was Sokka and Zuko's case, as well as Aang's, apparently. Thus, it was easy for him to lead Yue into Sokka's assigned room: the letter was bound to be in his luggage.

"So… uh, did you know Anorak well?" Kino blurted out, seemingly unable to bear with remaining silent for much longer.

"Oh. I wouldn't quite say that I did," Yue said, with a weak smile. "He was sent to the White Lotus a long time ago. I do know who he is, though I know his family far better than I knew him. So perhaps you're better acquainted with him than I ever was."

"Oh. Heh, maybe," Kino said, with an awkward grin as he returned to his work.

A set of footsteps stopped by the room's threshold then. Yue glanced back and smiled more earnestly once she recognized the person by the door.

"I was about to start panicking about who was rummaging through my brother's things…" Katara said, grinning back at Yue. "But I guess it's okay if it's you two."

"We're just looking for Anorak's letter…" Kino explained, pouting slightly as he continued searching the packs.

"I hope you're doing well today," Yue told Katara. She smiled and nodded.

"Likewise. I was getting some more rest just now, but… well, is there any chance that you've seen Aang today, Kino?"

"Unfortunately, no," Kino said, frowning. "As far as I know, he's just… taking Appa and flying back and forth across the city's cliffs and the bay. I don't know what he's doing, but whatever it is…"

"He's feeling guilty about everything that happened," Katara reasoned, frowning. "Maybe… maybe he doesn't even want to visit Zuko or Sokka until they're fully better because he blames himself for what they went through. You know, something like your situation, but the other way around."

Kino winced, shooting Katara a pouting glare. She smiled and shrugged.

"You're not going to pretend that's not what's going on with you, are you?" she said. "I already told you, Kino: it's not your fault. None of it was. Zuko and I could have died if you hadn't intervened when you did."

"Well, you say that, but still…" Kino sighed, shaking his head before returning to Sokka's pack. "Ugh, never mind. I think it has to be around… here! Paper! There we go!"

He withdrew the letter, checking it over lightly just to confirm it was indeed Anorak's letter, and he smiled once he did. He pushed himself up to his feet, handing the letter over to Yue.

"There you are. Hope his family will be happy for it," Kino said.

"Surely they will be," Yue smiled warmly, though there was a hint of melancholy in her eyes as she held the letter gently.

"Princess?" asked Katara. "Are you alright?"

"U-uh, I… yes, I'm fine. You don't have to worry, Lady Katara…"

"Woah! Lady Katara? You got promoted to some sort of noble position when I wasn't paying attention?" Kino asked, glancing at his blushing friend in confusion.

"N-no, that's… a misunderstanding! W-what do you mean by Lady Katara?" she asked, looking at the perplex Yue with wide eyes.

"Is that incorrect?" Yue asked. "I… I thought perhaps that was the better term, but I may have been arrogant without my awareness. Since I was always told there was no strict monarchy in the Southern Water Tribe, well… but then, Princess Katara…"

"What?! No! That's even…! Weirder!" Katara exclaimed, even more flustered. By then, Yue's cheeks were tinged red too as Kino covered his mouth with a hand… failing, however, to stifle the cackle that spilled from his lips. "Would you stop laughing?! It's fine if she doesn't know how to address me, you don't have to be so dumb about it, Kino!"

"I'm not being dumb…! I'm not being dumb, please don't smite me somehow, Your Majesty…!"

"I will rip you a new one, you…!" Katara roared, wrapping an arm around Kino's neck and grinding her fist against his temple: even then, half-choked and being hurt by Katara's knuckles, Kino couldn't seem to stop laughing.

"I-I… I'm sorry. Oh, goodness, I didn't mean to misunderstand matters…"

Katara stopped, still holding Kino's by the neck. Both of them slowed down their laughter, immediately shaken at the sight of Yue's evident fluster…

"W-wait, wait, there's no need to be embarrassed!" Kino exclaimed, breaking from Katara's hold. "Sorry, Princess! I wasn't making fun of you, just of Katara, but not of you…!"

"What'd you mean, just of Katara, you…?" Katara hissed, rolling her eyes and glancing at Yue again. "I understand that you're… well, very polite. Perhaps you're the nicest person we've met in this entire journey, come to think of it…!"

"I am?" Yue's eyes widened.

"You are! And because of that, I think it's better if I clarify… none of us really need you to use any titles to refer to us," Katara said, with a kind smile. "I'm just Katara, and Kino is just Kino. Please, never call him lord Kino or he's going to cling to that for the rest of his life…"

"Heeey, I'm sure I'd get over it after about, uh, give or take two weeks…" Kino pouted. Katara shot him a skeptical glare.

"As for Sokka, same thing. He's not exactly eager to be called 'the Gladiator' or 'General Sokka', as far as I've noticed. So just Sokka is fine," Katara shrugged. "And Zuko… well, he's a banished prince as it is, so almost nobody other than Kino calls him prince, but that's just because Zuko is Kino's favorite person in the whole wide world, and not because Zuko wants him to do that…"

"Why do you say it like it's a bad thing…?" Kino pouted.

"And… well, Aang is the Avatar, but I think he usually prefers to be treated as another normal person, so using his name would be for the better," Katara said, her tone slightly more serious then. Still, she shook her head and smiled at Yue. "So… that's that. No need to worry about addressing us with so much grandeur, it's not necessary at all."

"You're sure, then…?" Yue said, though she smiled with more enthusiasm after she processed Katara's words. "If so… then all of you can simply call me Yue."

She seemed so innocently excited over that prospect that she was genuinely taken aback by Katara and Kino's reactions. She blinked blankly as they froze in place, staring at her as if her request were entirely unthinkable… hadn't they just done the exact same thing, though?

"B-but you're an actual princess, unlike Katara…" Kino mumbled. Katara swallowed hard.

"I mean, you could argue in some way that I'm a princess too, but… damn. I'm, uh, not sure how to go about this…"

"Bet if she told that to Sokka he'd do it pretty easily. He's used to dealing with royals in their own turf…" Kino reasoned. "If I can't stop doing it with Zuko and he's been banished for as long as I've known him, it's difficult that I'd be able to stop with you…"

"Really? Uh… do I make you uncomfortable, then…?" Yue asked: again, Katara and Kino flinched.

"No!" Katara exclaimed.

"How could you ever make anyone uncomfortable?!" Kino whimpered.

"Sorry, we…! Oh, goodness, we'll do our best," Katara said, gritting her teeth and bowing her head towards the perplex Yue. "We're idiots, sorry. It's just… rare, really, speaking to someone of your standing and, well, you're from the Northern Water Tribe, so I actually can respect you as a royal. It's a lot harder with the Fire Nation ones…"

"Was it really?" Yue asked, eyeing Katara with uncertainty. "Is it fine with Sokka that you feel that way?"

"Huh…?" Katara blinked blankly.

"I just came back from a meeting with him, my father and Master Pakku," Yue explained. Katara frowned slightly. "He explained his circumstances and… well, safe to say most of you aren't quite so mysterious anymore, thanks to that. He had a relationship with the Fire Nation Princess, though…"

"Oh, that's what you meant… well, I hated her for the longest time, so it wouldn't have been too difficult to disrespect her if I felt like it," Katara said, with an awkward smile.

"But… you don't hate her anymore?" Kino asked, wiggling his eyebrows. "Or do you have a death wish, by any chance?"

"I don't, but apparently you do, questioning stuff like that," Katara huffed. "It took me a while to wrap my head around Sokka's relationship with her, but… the more I've learned about her, and what she's going through right now, the harder it is to hate her, even after everything she did ages ago. I won't pretend that I'm completely sure that we'll get along if we ever meet again… but I don't think I'll feel anywhere near as hostile towards her as I once did."

"Then, you won't call her Princess Azula but just… regular Azula?" Kino said, raising an eyebrow. Katara shrugged.

"Beats me. Guess we'll know when we get there," she said, with a weak smile. "But… if I really should do it for you, Princess Yue, then… u-uh… Yue. I should've started from there, huh?"

"It's fine to make the effort whenever you can," Yue giggled, smiling kindly at her. "I owe you and your friends my life, so… I don't think any pretensions of monarchic arrogance could ever have any place in our relationship. I'm really grateful to the two of you for helping save my Tribe."

"W-well… we wish we'd done better. Arrived sooner, too," Kino admitted, but he smiled. "Still… we're glad we could help in whatever way we did."

"We are," Katara agreed, breathing deeply. "Was that meeting alright, though? I was resting, I had no idea that was happening…"

"Oh, yes. He couldn't go into details about most things, but I think he explained the most vital elements of his story," Yue said. "Though some of it was very vague. As I understand, you found the Avatar frozen in the South Pole…?"

"Ah, yeah. It was several years ago," Katara smiled awkwardly. "I guess I could explain things some more…"

"I would love to hear it," Yue smiled. "As much as it's certainly out of place for me to think so… the lives you have led seem to be rife with adventure of the likes I'd never heard of. It mustn't have been easy, though… so if anything was challenging or painful, don't feel obligated to talk about it. As long as you're comfortable sharing…"

"Should I share too? I have lots of funny stories I could offer, many of them about Katara herself…" Kino said, with a wicked grin he shot at his friend – Katara, of course, responded with a huff and a sharp glare. Yue, however, giggled softly.

"Whatever you wish to share, I'll be happy to hear it," she said. "Though I may not have much more time for it right now, I should probably get going for the day. You need your rest, after all, and I should be…"

"Mom! Mom! Amarok, I found her!"

Yue tensed up, turning towards the door quickly: a little girl, around four years of age, stood there with a wide grin, though it dimmed once she realized her mother wasn't alone.

Two boys followed her down the hallway: the oldest appeared to be around seven or eight-years-old, while the youngest was only three, holding his brother's hand as his little legs struggled to keep up with him. Even so, the younger child's face lit up with glee once he recognized his parent.

"Mama!" he exclaimed, rushing in and hugging Yue's leg.

Both Katara and Kino fell entirely silent as they exchanged confused glances: Yue knelt before the youngest of her kids, and her daughter giggled and leapt forward, wrapping her arms around her neck too. The oldest, though, stood in place and stared at them accusingly, no doubt disturbed by the presence of total strangers near his mother…

Strangers who, until that moment, had no idea the three kids existed at all.

"Okay… wow," Katara said, with a slow smile. Kino's eyes remained entirely wide.

"Oh, sorry!" Yue smiled awkwardly over her shoulder, rising to her feet while reaching down her hands towards her two closest children. "I haven't introduced you yet… though these three weren't supposed to run amok in the Palace until everything was well enough in order, were they?"

"I'm sorry, Mom…" Amarok said, lowering his head, but it seemed his siblings didn't care to apologize. Yue smiled, shaking her head.

"It's okay. I suppose things have calmed down enough after all," she said, reaching out a hand to caress her firstborn's head. "At any rate… these two are members of the group of heroes who saved the Water Tribe a week ago."

"H-heroes…?" Kino repeated, cheeks flushing at the very notion. Katara smiled slightly as the three kids stared at them in confusion.

"And these three, as I'm sure you've already figured out, are my kids," Yue said, smiling at her progeny. "The oldest is Amarok, the girl is Shina, she's the second-born, and the youngest is Kallik. As for them… the girl is Katara, and the boy is Kino."

"Katara… your name is pretty," Shina said, grinning and stepping up to her.

"Shina…" her older brother called her, as a warning. Shina shot him a glance over her shoulder.

"What?"

Despite everything, though, Amarok's wary stare wasn't directed at Katara: instead, those blue eyes scowled at the much more foreign Kino.

The former Fire Nation soldier felt the blood curdle in his body upon being at the receiving end of such a glare. He was a child, he wasn't even ten… and yet the boy knew too much of the Fire Nation's dark conquest. He knew to recognize anyone who came from the Fire Nation, even if they wore Water Tribe clothes, as Kino did on that day…

He had never been a stranger to the dark truths pertaining the way his people were perceived by the world. He hadn't cared, at first… then, he had wished he had been born to the Southern Water Tribe all along, so he wouldn't have to carry the burden of being part of the nation that wanted to destroy his new home. But now…

"Amarok," Yue said, smiling kindly and reassuringly at the boy – he stopped glaring at once, shifting his attention towards Yue diligently. "It's okay. He's… a friend."

"A friend?" Amarok repeated, glancing at Kino warily. "But… he's Fire Nation."

"He was born Fire Nation, yes," Yue said: Shina gasped in surprise upon hearing her mother confirm that. "But he fought to defend our city from his people. He's a good man, Amarok. He's a friend to the Water Tribe."

Amarok still seemed wary, but he nodded before glancing at Kino reproachfully again. The former soldier's stomach sank under the child's scrutiny, but he smiled as best he could, hoping not to cause any trouble to Yue by acting foolishly.

"It's okay, I understand…" Kino said, smiling as kindly as he could at Amarok. "I don't like Fire Nation people any more than you do."

"You… you don't?" asked Amarok, wary.

"Yeah… a lot of them are just terrible," Kino sighed, shaking his head. "Not everyone is a lost cause, no, but… the ones with the most power are. Anyway, uh, I'll do my best not to cause you any distress, okay? I'm here to help the Water Tribe, not to harm it. I promise."

Katara smiled proudly at Kino, surprised at seeing him handle that conversation with the boy without causing any trouble. Amarok didn't seem completely comfortable yet, but he nodded respectfully towards Kino anyway.

"I'm not from around here either, actually," Katara said, hoping to intervene and help ease the tension. The kids gawked at her in surprise. "I'm from the Southern Water Tribe."

"Really?" Amarok's previous wariness appeared to have been fully replaced by curiosity now.

"Yep. Born and raised," Katara grinned. "It's a bit like your own home, but we don't have a city quite as big as this one… we do have otter-penguins, though. Guess if any of you ever want to go visit the South Pole, I could help you ride one…"

"Ride an otter-penguin?!" Shina exclaimed, eyes bright with amazement. Katara chuckled and nodded. "Mommy, mommy! Can I try? Can I?"

"Well, you won't be going to the South Pole anytime soon, but…" Yue said, glancing at Katara. "Is it, uh, safe?"

"If a waterbender's nearby to keep watch over your kids, definitely," Katara grinned. Yue chuckled and shrugged.

"If so… then we shall trust Katara to keep you safe if you do try it, Shina," Yue said, wrapping an arm around her waist and kissing her daughter's brow gently.

"You're a waterbender…?" Amarok asked, astonished. "W-what kind of waterbender? Do you, uh, heal…?"

"Well, I can heal, but I'm not as good at it as your tribe's healers," Katara said, with a shrug. "I've mainly trained for combat. I'm so good at it… that whenever we have snowball fights, everyone demands that I don't use my bending because they know they'll lose otherwise."

"Snowball fights?" asked Amarok, puzzled. Katara raised an eyebrow.

"Wait… you've never had a snowball fight? That's not possible…"

"Well… uh, it's not that such things don't happen in the Tribe," Yue said, with a sad smile. Katara glanced at her in confusion. "But, well… they're part of the monarchy. So…"

"Uh… huh. That doesn't sound right to me at all. Does it sound right to you, Kino?" Katara asked, glancing at her friend. He shook his head.

"Prince Zuko's been dragged into snowball fights before… I actually was his partner in one, not too long ago," he announced, proudly. "And we were absolutely terrible at it! He was very upset at my failure to defend him and his fireplace, actually…"

"A fireplace?" Yue asked. Katara chuckled.

"Let's just say that was a new, very strange method of snowball fighting that a friend came up with… but that's not relevant right now," Katara said, glancing at the kids and grinning mischievously at them. "What do you say if we have a snowball fight right now? I can teach you the basics… and then you can throw all sorts of snowballs at Kino!"

"W-wait, why me?!" Kino winced, as Katara giggled deviously. Amarok bit his lower lip, failing to stifle a smile.

"At Amarok!" Shina exclaimed, and Amarok's amusement faded quickly after that.

"Hey! Why do you always want to fight me…?" Amarok pouted, cheeks flushed.

"Amarok!" Kallik exclaimed too, grinning as he and his sister leapt in place. Katara snorted, shaking her head.

"Kino is a much more fun target, you'll see, you'll see!"

"Wait, are we really doing this right now? Katara…?" Kino smiled awkwardly: as usual, Katara swept these kids up effortlessly with her energy, and they followed her with delight out of the room, thrilled by the prospect of learning a new, apparently inappropriate game.

"Uh… goodness," Yue smiled, glancing at him with uncertainty. "I suppose I'll deliver the letter afterwards."

"Yeah, well… you could go already. That way you won't watch as your kids humiliate me…" Kino sighed dramatically, before frowning. "Unless… you want to watch them humiliate me?!"

"I-I wouldn't…!" Yue gasped, cheeks flushed. Kino snorted and smiled.

"I was only teasing, don't fret," he said. "You're really…"

Yue blinked blankly as Kino's words faltered. He suddenly slowed down in his tracks, it seemed… and he realized just who he was talking to only then. She raised an eyebrow, and he answered it with an awkward smile.

"I'm really… what?" she asked. His cheeks flushed – as much as she was too kind, permissive and willing to get to know them better personally, it was difficult to forget that Princess Yue was in fact a royal…

"I was just… going to say you're really sweet," Kino confessed, with a grimace. "And, uh, I guess this is the part where you throw up, tell me I'm being an idiot, that I went overboard, that I'm disgusting…"

To his surprise, no such remarks arrived. Instead, Yue stood in the room still, cheeks lightly flushed. He blinked blankly.

"You… think I'm sweet?" she asked. Kino huffed.

"Did you not hear what Katara just got your kids up to?" he said. "That's what I'm used to, basically. I mean, some people are nicer than others, but you're, well… way nicer than even the nicest people I know! So, uh… yeah. I said that. Maybe I shouldn't have. Maybe it's inappropriate…"

"It's… flattering, I suppose," Yue said, with a gentle grin. Kino blinked blankly.

"It… it is? You sure?" he asked. Yue smiled and shrugged.

"Maybe," she said, simply. Kino's eyes widened.

She walked towards the door by then, and he was quick to follow, his heart speeding up in ways it really shouldn't have – the rude awakening caused by Zuko's injury was terribly potent inside his mind still. Things he had longed for once no longer held the same appeal as before, and yet…

And yet the woman beside him, taller than him, pristine, as good as a goddess in human form, hadn't been disgusted by his compliments. Was that the first time anyone had responded positively to his… flirting? Had he even been flirting? He wasn't sure, even now…

He was, however, sure of one thing. Two things, actually: the first was something he had realized over the course of the past week, something that explained why he found the Princess familiar somehow. The second, though, was that unpleasant revelation that had seemingly turned his life around, ever since that dark moment when Zuko nearly lost his life… he wasn't awake yet, hadn't come back to his senses in so much longer than Kino imagined possible, or likely…

But those realizations didn't mean that talking to Yue was out of bounds for him. He would simply chat with her, entertain her, perhaps, while they caught up with Katara and her kids…

"So, uh… I had no idea you had kids, actually," Kino said, with an awkward smile. Yue glanced at him sideways.

"It did look like that caught both you and Katara by surprise…" she said. "Was it not common knowledge?"

"Hmm… maybe it just wasn't considered knowledge we'd need?" Kino reasoned, folding his arms over his chest as they began climbing down the stairs. "I don't know, frankly. But they seem to be good kids. Though… I really shouldn't be prying, I know that, but… are they all, well, from that guy? The one Sokka beat up?"

"You mean… Hahn?" Yue asked, her smile fading. Kino gritted his teeth.

"Yeah, well… I guess I wondered if maybe you had another husband after him, then it could be better for you if the kids were his, instead…"

"I'm not married right now," Yue said. Kino raised an eyebrow. "So, yes, all three of them are Hahn's children. Kallik never even met him. He left the Tribe when I was still pregnant."

"Woah, that's shitty," Kino said, scowling. Yue shrugged.

"It truly is," she said. "I've long accepted that I'll never forgive him for what he did. Whether the spirits take pity on him or not, I know I never will."

"Well, I think you're right to hold a grudge," Kino said, stubbornly. "Or, uh, well… I guess that's not what I mean exactly. More like… it's okay to hate him? He earned it? But maybe a grudge would be too much, because if it's a grudge, it might just start eating at you from the inside and it would drive you crazy…"

"Fair," Yue said, with a gentle smile. "I'd rather avoid that. Either way, I've done my best to raise them safely. My father helps a lot, of course… as does Master Pakku, on occasion. I know it would be ideal if they had a father, but…"

"They have a great mother, and it shows," Kino said, smiling. "I'm not saying it's a good thing that you don't have someone else to help you with them, but… something tells me that guy wasn't much help even when he was around, huh?"

"Certainly not," Yue sighed.

They stepped outside the Palace's building by then, and Yue gasped at the sight of her children: while it hadn't snowed over the course of the last few days, Katara had quickly crafted snow out of the available ice and it seemed that she had taught Shina far too well already. Amarok stumbled back after the first snowball struck him, and he pouted at his sister, who giggled carelessly.

"No, no, no need to attack your brother when you have a better candidate right there!" Katara smiled, gesturing at Kino: he froze up, an awkward smile on his face.

"Oh. She was serious about that, was she?" he asked.

"Attack Kino! All the snowballs at him!"

Kallik didn't seem to fully understand what was happening, but he gathered snow and tossed it in Kino's direction by following the example set by his older siblings: Kino squealed, shielding himself awkwardly by making himself a smaller target… and then he heard a gasp next to him: one of the snowballs had veered off course and struck Yue's arm instead.

"What?! How dare you! Attacking your own Princess Mother! This is shameful behavior!" Kino exclaimed, startling the kids. "Now, you'd better apologize and learn to focus your fire on me, or else…!"

A snowball, courtesy of Katara, struck him in the forehead and silenced him effectively.

The kids snorted and laughed at the comical way in which Kino had stumbled back awkwardly, a hand on his forehead. Yue gasped again, taking him by the arm to ensure he wouldn't topple over.

"Are you alright?" she asked him.

"Eeeh… Well, good thing you're pretty because I see two of you now. Hehe," Kino said, staring at her with a groggy grin. As much as his words should have been worrisome, the unnecessary compliment caught Yue by surprise nonetheless.

"Hey! What's that about, Kino? Got a crush on Princess Yue, do you?" Katara smirked deviously. Amarok gasped, outraged by the notion, while Shina and Kallik stared at her in confusion. "Oh, you don't know what that means?"

"Is he going to crush mommy…?" asked Shina, perplex.

"No, that's not it," Katara chuckled. "It means… he's in love with your mom!"

"Woah! I said she was pretty, I didn't say I loved her! Katara, stop making them hate me!" Kino exclaimed, immediately panicking as Amarok scowled in his direction… Shina, apparently, found the notion quite intriguing, while Kallik hardly seemed to understand what it meant.

"You…!" Amarok exclaimed, picking up a snowball and tossing it at him.

"Hey! No need for all that animosity, kid! I'm entirely harmless, I am…!" Kino said, with an awkward smile as he dodged the first and second snowballs by the little boy. "Come on, can't we all be friends…!"

"Oh, no. Not right now! We've got a snowball fight to see through to the end!" Katara laughed. "Go on, kids! Show Kino what you're made of!"

"Oh, goodness…" Yue said, watching as her children began gathering ammo once more.

"Well… whatever happens, I'll protect you, Princess!" Kino exclaimed, standing in front of her.

"But… maybe protecting me isn't enough," Yue said, with a weak grin. "Maybe you should fight back."

"Wait… huh. If I take out the brains of the operation…!" Kino said, glaring at the smirking Katara. "Oh, Princess, you are a genius! Let's team up and take her down!"

"Uh, well, I didn't quite mean… but very well, I suppose?" Yue blinked blankly: Kino's eyes sharpened as he prepared himself, taking a defensive stance before Yue, ready to contest the snowballs that the kids began flinging at them.

Unfortunately, his plan didn't quite pay off: the snowballs crumbled when he stopped them with his hands, and as they fell apart so easily, the resulting snow was too loose and difficult to amass before the kids gathered another snowball – provided by Katara, of course, who was constantly supplying the children with more snow for their purposes.

The one positive factor in their game, however, was that Yue remained on his side. Eventually, once the snow piled up sufficiently, Yue began fighting back too, and once she did, even Amarok seemed to forget about Katara's insinuations about Kino's alleged feelings for Yue. The courtyard rang with laughter within a few hours, a short, welcome respite amid the pain and hardships the Water Tribe had faced across the past week.

After around an hour, Yue and her children took their leave, for it was time for their next meal. Yue smiled kindly as she thanked the two of them for the game, and as much as he had been so hostile towards him, Amarok stepped forward and offered Kino an honorable greeting by clasping his forearm, the gesture Kino had grown used to in the Southern Water Tribe, even if not many people had addressed it to him before.

"Because… you didn't let the snowballs hit her," Amarok explained, cheeks flushed before stepping away, closer to his mother.

Kino smiled, watching as the family marched back indoors: the kids took to recounting their favorite moments from their game, and Yue laughed affably as she encouraged them to continue sharing their thoughts. Kino sighed once they were gone, though… the laughter of those kids had certainly been helpful at chasing away darker thoughts.

"I was only teasing, you know, but if you keep sighing that way once she's gone, I'll start thinking you're actually interested in her…" Katara broke his ruminations, smiling a little at him. Kino's cheeks flushed.

"Well… I'm interested enough. She's way pretty. So damn pretty," Kino sighed, hanging his head and slumping his body.

"So… why would she ever like a guy like you?" Katara recited, with a sing-song voice. Kino pouted.

"If I'm not even of her height, literally, it sounds a little unlikely that I'd ever be in her league, figuratively," he said. "Besides… well, I know what I was like before, Katara, but it's probably time that I, uh… stop."

"Stop? Stop what?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Chasing after girls and trying to get their attention?" Kino said, with a shrug. "Longing for experiencing a relationship without really caring about what kind of relationship it is? Wanting to be loved, I guess...?"

"Kino… where's this coming from?" Katara frowned, her amusement well and truly gone by then. Kino sighed heavily.

"Look… after what happened a week ago, something inside me kind of snapped," Kino admitted. "I don't mind clowning about to make people smile… that's always been something I'm happy to do for people I care about. But the truth is, I… I guess that battle made me realize I'm disposable, in a sense."

"Wait, what?" Katara scoffed. Kino grimaced.

"You know, all of you are really important people in the grand scheme of things, Katara," Kino said, averting his gaze from hers. "You all have people to fight for, big relationships in your lives, family… I have none of that. When I saw Zuko taking that arrow, I… I thought it should've been me. If someone was supposed to… to face deadly peril? It had to be the guy with the least to lose. Not him. Not… not a great father and husband like him."

"Kino, that you don't have those things yet doesn't mean you never will," Katara said, staring at him sternly. "And hell, I don't know if Princess Yue would ever humor you, it's possible that wouldn't happen since, well…"

"I'm Fire Nation, she's Water Tribe, I'm a nobody, she's royalty…" Kino recited, rolling his eyes. "She might just not be used to being complimented at random. I'll try to keep myself in check and not make her uncomfortable, though. It just slipped my mind today. But I mean, she really is way too pretty…"

"Right," Katara sighed. "But Kino… you're going about this wrong, okay? You're not less valuable than the rest of us because you have less to lose or whatever you said, okay? Zuko is still alive, even if he's very weak right now. I'm sure that, if he were awake, he'd be the first to tell you that you're being ridiculous for thinking of yourself that way. We want you to find love and happiness too, Kino…"

"And if I don't want to find them?"

Katara frowned. Kino met her stern eyes with his fragile gaze.

"If… if she actually wanted me?" he said. "What would that accomplish if I go out there on our next mission and get a little less lucky than I did this time? If… if everything went swimmingly and her children decided I could be… w-well, their stepfather? Then I'd just… I'd just go to fight in the war again later anyway. And if I died then… what good would that do to the kids? How hurt would Yue be, if she truly grew to care about me?"

"Well, she'd be devastated… but she probably would feel that way even if you don't act on your potential feelings, "Katara said, raising an eyebrow. Kino grimaced. "She seems to think highly of us all… I don't know if you're special or if you're just like the rest of us in her eyes. But if you ever become special for her? Being in a relationship or not wouldn't really change the way she feels about you."

"Huh. Guess you're speaking from experience?" Kino asked. Katara sighed, shaking her head.

"We were… going to figure things out," Katara said, with a sad smile. "After this was over, supposedly… we'd talk things through. We'd make a decision about our relationship. And now, well… such is my luck. He's had to make the biggest sacrifice he ever has, and he can't begin to unravel how to live with himself. But I love Aang, Kino, even if he's not right here, right now. I do, even if our relationship doesn't go any further ever again. We slowed things down because I thought the situation would require our full focus… but after a few months, I couldn't help but think I was making a stupid mistake. So… think twice on whatever you decide to do about her. Whether you want to pursue this or not in order to spare her feelings… your needs matter too, Kino. Even if it's hard to believe sometimes."

"Heh… I guess it's more like most times," Kino sighed.

Katara wrapped an arm around his shoulders, hugging him against her flank. Kino sighed, hanging his head before smiling weakly at her.

"But thanks for hearing me out and saying what you've said. Not that it helps much because I'm stubborn, but it's nice to know you care," he said. Katara scoffed, rolling her eyes as she led him back inside the building.

"If I had to pick an annoying Fire Nation deserter to talk to and have snowball fights with, I'd choose you every time. I promise," Katara said. Kino snorted and laughed at her words.

"Well, being someone's first option is kind of nice, for a change. Thank you, Katara."

Cheering each other up in the wake of the chaos from the last battle wouldn't prove easy: Kino's dark misery wouldn't let up fully, much like Sokka's own strife would dwell in his heart, and Katara's own in hers, too. But leisure moments, the ones that would be crystallized into beautiful memories, were always worth protecting.

Days and nights didn't quite flow as smoothly in the Water Tribe as they did anywhere else: by the next morning, even in a land where it was perpetually morning, Appa groaned and landed in the Palace's courtyard for the first time in several days.

On his neck sat Avatar Aang.

The humorless Avatar leapt off the bison's body, stepping through the hallways of the Palace unopposed, on his way to the Chief's quarters: he was already awake, discussing something important with Pakku while they walked down a hallway, when they stopped short upon glimpsing the drained gaze of the man who couldn't be anyone other than the Avatar.

"Avatar Aang…?" Arnook said, swallowing hard. "Do you require anything? There's much we would like to discuss with you, but…"

"I won't discuss anything… until I know I have fulfilled my duty," Aang said, his melancholic, nonchalant gaze chilled even the waterbender. "I have spent days working to… to retrieve all the bodies of those who have been killed."

"You… you what? Goodness, that's not possible. There were so many…" said Arnook, staring at him in disbelief.

"I have gathered the Water Tribe casualties. You can hold proper funerary rites for them. Their bodies can be sent off with the honor they deserved, provided it's possible. But…"

"But?" Pakku frowned. "What is it, Avatar?"

"I didn't only gather the Water Tribe's casualties."

Both Arnook and Pakku froze. The vacancy in the Avatar's dark eyes disturbed them: he had truly gone overboard, fighting as best he could to save as many people as possible… only to then mourn the hundreds, thousands, that his choices had condemned…

He had done it as a manner of repentance. As an exercise in remorse. As an act of contrition.

His unsettling thoughts remained as dark as they ever had been. He continued to torture himself with the reality of what his actions had resulted in… what he, personally, was guilty of. This act for the dignity of the deceased was but one small glimmer of the profound anguish that thundered over Aang's heart… an anguish that only seemed poised to convince him that the spirits had been wrong. That the Air Nomads who had encouraged him so many years ago had also been wrong. That everyone who cared for him was wrong too…

For he was the Avatar. But now, more than ever, he wished that the power of all elements, the burdens of being the spiritual guide of a world as corrupt as this one, had never been granted to a man capable of slaying thousands of lives the way he had on the darkest day in the Northern Water Tribe's history.