Responses to Reviews:

RonaldM40196867: No. But a lot of it is.

Zigzagdoublezee: Hakoda is a huge bargaining chip for the Fire Nation, and I don't think his family will react well to his present condition!

As Always, Please Review!

The alarm went up across the city as soon as people realised what was happening, and the South Pole rushed to defend itself. The group dashed into the Palace, and Sokka dived into his room, commanding a servant to bring him his armour. Then he knelt down in front of a mirror, and began ritually applying his war-paint like his father had taught him, grey with patches of black around his eyes and hair, and white around his jaw.

He was about halfway through this process, trying to go as fast as possible while also doing it properly, when his armour was brought in, made of padded dark blue leather worn over the upper body. It was reinforced with a white metal disk set into the middle to better protect the chest area while still being light enough to fight in. The insignia of the Southern Water Tribe, a crescent moon and three wavy lines representing the ocean, was painted onto the disk. Two other items were brought in; a grey helmet in the shape of a wolf's head, with more leather which hung down from it to protect his neck, and a small leather mask, which was to be worn over the mouth and nose, giving off a strong, sweet smell.

The mask was to be used in conjunction with projectiles filled with skunk- fish, which when fired onto the deck of an enemy ship from a ballista shattered and gave off a smell so terrible that the crew could not stand to remain there. This gave a great advantage to Water Tribe marines, who could pass freely thanks to the masks. These were not the only types of Water Tribe ammunition though; Artillerymen had the choice of solid stone balls, containers full of vines to tangle the propellers of steam-driven ships, and even explosive shells filled with blasting jelly.

Sokka looped it around his neck, stood up and picked up his weapons, his club and his boomerang. He clipped them to his belt and went over to the weapons display above his fireplace, considering whether to take some of them as well. His eyes particularly fell on a long, thin, slightly curved blade with a slight red tint to the metal; a gift from the Fire Nation. He briefly considered taking it to carry into battle. It would have been a nice irony. But he decided against it; he was not a trained swordsman, so it would only be extra weight.

Finally, he turned back to the mirror, and swelled. He looked every bit the warrior prince, majestic and powerful, the mighty defender of his people. Now, if only he could feel like that too, he would be set.

Rinzen was waiting for him by the door.

"Apparently your lookouts can see the Fire Nation ships now!" He said.

"What? They're that close?" Sokka asked, unnerved. "Do we have enough time to get ready? Where's mum? And Yue? And Katara?"

"They went that way," Rinzen gestured towards where their rooms were.

Sokka ran towards the entrance, passing soldiers and officials who were dashing around in what looked like panic. He threw the door open and looked towards the sea.

Gratifyingly, he could see men perched on top of the forest of masts that rose above the buildings, and as he watched the first sails were unfurled, dropping down until they caught the wind and billowed.

Rinzen looked towards the ocean, seeing that the first ships were beginning to move.

"We won't get there in time," he said. "I'll get Gembul, stay there!"

And the Nomad dashed away, towards the bison pens where his companion had spent the time since their arrival.

"Sokka!"

He turned to find Yue rushing towards him. She was wearing a clearly borrowed armour piece over the top of her regular white outfit, although it did go relatively seamlessly with the other dark blue highlights on her waist and wrists. She had not painted her face, or put on a helmet.

She gave him a nervous smile, which he returned, equally nervously.

"It seems we're out of time," she said. "No more running."

"The running was my favourite part," Sokka replied. Then he took a deep breath.

"Especially with you."

"Especially with you," Yue repeated, smiling. But their moment was interrupted by Katara, clutching several scrolls. She was not wearing any armour, just the same clothes she had been wearing since that morning.

"I found them!" She called in triumph. "Training scrolls, enough to make us masters!"

"That's nice," Yue replied. Sokka's muttered, indignant "Katara!" Went unheard.

A shadow fell over them, and a moment later Gembul landed in front of them, sliding a few feet before coming to a halt. He narrowly avoided bowling a column of soldiers over, and they shouted indignantly as Rinzen apologised.

Rinzen waved at them from the saddle.

"If you must fight, get on!" He called. "Otherwise you'll miss your boat!"

Sokka dashed over and scrambled up into the saddle, followed a moment later by Yue and Katara, who stashed her scrolls in one of the saddlebags.

"Isn't that stealing?" Sokka asked.

"Why? I'm going to return it," Katara retorted. "If we win."

"Wait for me!" A voice rose over the din, straining to make itself heard. Sokka turned back to find his mother racing down the steps towards them.

She was also wearing full armour.

It was obviously her husband's, for it was clearly a little too big for her, but she still carried it off well. She was dressed almost identically to Sokka, the only difference being the lack of face paint and the fact everything was slightly larger. By her side hung one of Hakoda's war-clubs, made of jagged bone, and she held Hakoda's imposing wolf's-head helmet under her arm.

"I'm coming with you."

"Why?" Sokka asked.

Kya got up into the saddle and immediately pulled him into a hug, grabbing Katara a moment later.

"I got my children back," she said. "I thought I had lost you, but you came back. Now I face losing you again to war. I'm not letting you do it alone."

She turned to Rinzen.

"Take us to the fleet," she commanded.

Rinzen gave a sarcastic salute and snapped the reins. Gembul roared and jumped into the air, the buildings receding below them until they had a clear view of the sea. Only a few water tribe ships had managed to leave the harbour, and none of the giant ice ships were among them. The few galleys and wooden sailing ships that could formed a horizontal line, opposite the mass of black iron ships, under their cloud of ash and smoke, sailing towards the city. Their fleet stretched as far as the eye could see.

"Tui and La..." Kya whispered, in wonder and in horror.

A solitary black shape raced ahead of the main body of the Fire Navy, a smaller, faster speedboat. As Gembul flew closer, Sokka could see that it was flying several banners, most of them red but the largest pure white.

"I think they want to talk," Yue said.

"It's a trick," Katara warned. Even though Sokka agreed, he still shook his head, gesturing at the struggles their own fleet was facing trying to leave the harbour at short notice.

"We need more time," he said. "We should see what they have to say."

"Nothing good," Rinzen called back.

"I'm counting on it," said Sokka. "Take us down, please."

Gembul swooped down towards the small boat.