Responses to Reviews:

RonaldM40196867: Yue, the version of Yue in canon as well as Avatar Yue the main character of this story, has to be up there.

Zigzagdoublezee: They've just been plunged into a war they're not really prepared for, it is to be expected that their firefighting techniques may not be the best.

As Always, Please Review!

Yue's pronouncement was met with outrage from her friends.

"You can't possibly be considering that," Katara stood up so fast she spilled the water she had been using to heal with. "That's just giving them what they want!"

"I know," Yue said. "But if it means they leave you alone..."

"It probably doesn't!" Katara pointed out angrily. "Did you miss the part where they launched a surprise attack on your home, unprovoked, to kill you for no reason? Their word means nothing!"

"Maybe," Yue shrugged. "But they'll have to go through the motions at least or I'll just threaten to do the glowy thing again."

"Can you do the glowy thing?" Sokka asked.

"Not on command," Yue answered. "But there's no reason for them to know that."

"So they'll kill you," Katara stated. "They'll finish what they started in the north and you're just going to let them do it?"

"Maybe," Yue shrugged. "I don't see what choice I have though. We can't run, we can't fight, we don't have time for reinforcements or air nomads. I can't allow the refugees to fall into enemy hands. Besides, I don't think he will kill me."

"Why?"

"He wants glory," Yue said. "He wants to drag me back to the Fire Nation and show me off to Ozai."

"And then Ozai will just kill you instead," Sokka interjected.

"But if he does that, a new Avatar will be born in the Earth Kingdom and they have to find them all over again."

"OK, but they'll still lock you up," Rinzen told her. "The best case scenario for you if you do this is life in prison."

Yue sighed. She knew she had to do this, whatever her friends said. She also knew they would probably manage to talk her out of it if she stayed much longer.

"I must go," she said. "People are counting on me."

She turned and began walking towards the wall.

"People are counting on you!" Sokka followed her. "People across the world! You may be saving this fort but you're abandoning everyone else! And what if they do kill you? Yes, there will be another Avatar but the world doesn't need the next Avatar right now! What the world needs is you, Yue!"

This caused Yue to stop. Sokka's plea was so heartfelt that for a moment she didn't know what to say. She felt the first tears beginning to prick.

"I must do this," she said again. "I know there is a chance the Fire Nation will betray their word. But if I can just delay them, give the refugees time to leave, the soldiers time to rebuild the wall, or reinforcements time to arrive, then it will have been worth it."

"No!" Sokka replied, outraged. "Nothing is worth this!"

"You are worth it!" Yue retorted.

"If this is about me, I don't want your sacrifice, I want you alive and here!"

"It's about all of you! And if only that were possible!"

"It is possible!" Sokka shouted. "We don't have to play their game! We can still find some way of knocking over the board!"

"Alright, what's your idea then?" Yue turned on him and jabbed her finger at him. "Go on, I would love to hear it. Do you think I want to do this? That I'm just desperate to give myself up as a prisoner to a country that wants me dead?"

She gestured angrily.

"I'm scared, Sokka," she admitted. "More than I've ever been. But there is no alternative, so I will do what must be done. That is the way it has always been for me."

"But it doesn't have to be," Sokka told her quietly. "Not any more."

"I'm afraid it does," Yue shook her head. "Now, more than ever."

She took a step towards him.

"Please don't argue," she said. "Because if you do, you might succeed. And all of these people depend on that not happening."

She stared into his eyes. They looked back, full of questions and pleading for her to stay.

She leaned in and kissed him, to the surprise of them both. Sokka's eyes widened for a moment, and then he closed his eyes and leaned in. It was the first time Yue had kissed anyone, and she wasn't sure where it had come from but it felt good and it seemed she wasn't going to get more chances after this. But only a second later, she was standing back.

"Sorry about this," she said. "Think of it as something to remember me by. Goodbye, Sokka. And you're welcome."

Sokka nodded, dazed. Yue gave him one more sad look and then turned and walked away. It was then she realized that her private moment with Sokka had in fact been in public and observed by about a hundred people. They stared at her, shocked. She raised her head high in defiance and carried on walking, grabbing a long stick and tearing off a large piece of white fabric from the nearest bedsheet in the laundry building as she went.

As she fiddled about trying to attach them, she tried not to think about the rising tide of fear. She really didn't want to do this.

There was still a gap in the section of wall that had been knocked down by enemy artillery, big enough for her to fit through. Workmen shouted at her to stop as she approached, but she gestured to the white flag in her hands and they seemed to understand. They stood aside to let her through, and then she was on the other side of the wall. Nothing now stood between her and the Fire Nation siege lines except for open ground.

She took one last look back at the walls, at the fort where her friends were, at safety. If she allowed herself to linger now, then she wouldn't be able to do it. That was why she had had to rush through everything since she had been forced to accept the necessity of surrender.

The Avatar took a step forward, and then another, telling herself that she was doing this for a cause bigger than herself. It wasn't much of a consolation.

As long as I can delay them by even a few hours, she thought, that will be enough.

It will be enough.