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RonaldM40196867: Either lightning or bloodbending. They both seem to have the most opportunities for it to go wrong and blow up in your face (quite literally, in the case of lightningbending.)

As Always, Please Review!

"Are you sure you can handle it, Sokka?"

Suki smirked as they trudged through the forest. Sokka scowled.

"Yes. And my name is not Sokka, it's Huxu."

"Whatever you say, Sokka."

Instead of her Kyoshi Warrior's uniform, Suki was now wearing her civilian clothes; robes dyed a light blue. She was not wearing her makeup. Sokka had seen that without it, she was quite pretty.

Sokka, meanwhile, as well as a borrowed set of similar robes that were just slightly too small for him, had put together an enormous fake beard, along with a cover story; he was Huxu, old man and respected pillar of the community in Suki's village. Suki had laughed at the beard and then pushed ahead, leading the way.

"If they catch us, they'll lock us up with the Avatar," Suki warned. "And the only way of preventing it may well be to act completely normal in all circumstances."

She glanced back at him.

"Especially if every fibre of your being is screaming at you to run or to fight back. If you do either, we're finished."

"I know," Sokka nodded. "I've had my share of run-ins with them."

"I'm sure you have. And a brave man like you must have dealt with it well."

Sokka stopped, noting the same sarcastic tone in her voice.

"That's the second time you've made a comment like that," he said. "Why?"

He had a feeling he knew why, he just wanted to hear her say it.

"A comment like what?" Suki asked innocently.

"You know perfectly well what," Sokka folded his arms. "Calling me a brave southern man while sounding incredibly sarcastic about it. And believe me, I'm an expert in incredibly sarcastic."

Suki stopped, her back to him.

"I would never be sarcastic about something like that," she said. "After all, isn't that what you Southerners genuinely believe? That we Kyoshi Islanders with our reliance on female warriors are weak?"

Sokka nodded. He wanted to deny it, to avoid the lecture that must surely follow, but she was correct. Besides, to deny it would probably just cause an argument instead, which would be worse.

"I've heard them say things like that."

"And do you join in?" Suki asked, whirling on him. She had seemed to take his agreement as an invitation. "I know what they say about us in the South. You're all stuck five hundred years in the past."

"Not all of us!"

"Enough of you! I've heard it all my life when your traders pass through my village. The sneering contempt for our traditions. The laughter, the jeers,the condescension."

She jabbed her finger painfully into his chest as she spoke, getting steadily angrier.

"And at least you go home and leave us alone after a while," she said. "I pity your own womenfolk, who are stuck with you."

"So that's what it is?" Sokka pushed her finger away, feeling himself getting defensive. "You think I'm a sexist?"

"I know your countrymen are," Suki countered. "Why should you be any different?"

"Let's see, shall we?" Sokka began counting off his fingers.

"One, the Avatar is a woman, in case you hadn't noticed. Two, I've been travelling with the Avatar, watching her learn to fight. I've never tried to stop her. I've encouraged it if anything."

"The Avatar is a special case," Suki said dismissively. "Even the most sexist southern traditionalist could probably do the mental gymnastics to justify training her, but not any other women."

"Three," Sokka carried on, ignoring her, "That's my sister back there, who has also been learning to fight. I haven't tried to stop her, either. In fact that's what we're going home to do!"

He threw his hands up. "I've been on the run with them for weeks now. I would have to be a massive idiot after all that time, after all the things I've seen both of them do, to not believe that women can fight. And I promise you, I'm not that big an idiot."

Suki frowned. She didn't seem quite so angry at him any more, which was progress.

"Even so," she sniffed. "You have your culture."

"I do," Sokka nodded. "But maybe it can change."

He had meant it as a grand statement to try to appeal to her, but Suki only stared at him for a couple of seconds and then burst out laughing. Sokka folded his arms grumpily.

"Brilliant," Suki managed, wiping away tears of laughter. "You're not going to change their minds, any more than they could change ours."

"No," Sokka agreed. "Yue and Katara will. Of course I'll help."

"Good luck to them," the Kyoshi Warrior stepped away from him. "They'll need it."

Sokka opened his mouth to speak but Suki silenced him with a gesture.

"Enough of that, anyway," she said. "The village is not far."

She pointed up, where the crest of a hill stood.

"From there we'll get the best view," she told him. Then she began scrambling up the slope. Sokka followed, clutching at any vegetation which might allow him to keep his footing. About halfway up, he grasped a branch which must have been rotten, because it came away in his hand; but he barely managed to avoid plunging humiliatingly back down the hill and reached the summit just behind Suki.

The village came into view, a collection of wooden houses mounted on stilts, with a large statue of a woman he guessed was Avatar Kyoshi in the middle. Villagers in blue kept their heads down as they tried to go on with their normal lives as much as possible, while soldiers in their red uniforms watched them idly.

But it was what lay beyond the village that truly alarmed him. Because sat in the bay, and stretching far out to sea, was a huge armada of Fire Navy warships, their imposing grey shapes bristling with mounted catapults. Their engines were all switched off though, which Sokka guessed was why no ash had fallen from the sky since they had been here. He tried to count them, but only got to about fifty before losing his place. And there were many more beyond that.

"Tui and La," he exclaimed under his breath.

"Do you see now what we're up against?" Suki asked.

"Where's the Avatar going to be in all that?" Sokka replied, ignoring her question.

"Wherever she is, we're probably not going to find out by standing up here all day," Suki stepped forwards again. "We have to go down there."

Sokka looked down at the guards and tried to contain his trepidation at the prospect.

"Remember what I told you," Suki looked at him again. She smiled reassuringly. "Look innocent."

"Let's do this," Sokka replied, and together they descended the slope towards the village.