"How much are you writing, Sokka?" asked Katara, curious about her brother.
"Nothing," replied Sokka as he put away the scroll he was holding.
A few hours earlier, they had arrived at a meadow in the Earth Kingdom. From the map, Sokka figured it was the village where Haru lived, and a short solo expedition confirmed it.
About ten kilometers from where they were camping, there were three Fire Nation camps, each with barely ten men. Sokka went alone, eliminated them all, and set the place on fire, not without taking the money first.
The soldiers were carrying a good amount: at least ten thousand Earth Kingdom coins, which Sokka assumed they had stolen from local merchants.
However, the "Team Avatar's" attention shifted when several loud rumbles shook the area. Sokka had expected those noises, and when they went to investigate, they found a young earthbender: Haru.
He ran away as soon as Katara, excited, tried to talk to him and ask about his earthbending.
"You know, little sister, maybe you shouldn't go so excitedly asking anyone about their bending. They'll think we're Fire Nation soldiers," Sokka mocked.
Katara shot him a glare and ran after Haru, followed by her brother and Aang.
On the way, they saw several houses around them burned down and the villagers looking tired and malnourished.
"They need hope, they need the Avatar..." said Aang sadly.
"They need food and to get rid of the Fire Army, which are two completely different things," Sokka replied flatly.
"I think he went into that house," Katara pointed at a house with a small barn.
"Good morning, ma'am, we're looking for a young earthbender!"
The woman was alarmed to hear and see that young man entering her home directly. Her concern for her son grew when she heard they were looking for an earthbender.
"There's no one like that here," she answered firmly.
"You have nothing to fear, ma'am," Sokka replied with a kind smile. "We're recruiting people to stop the Fire Nation's tyranny, and for that, we need earthbenders. And here we have the Avatar himself." He said, pulling Aang into view.
Haru's mother looked at him cautiously, doubting his words.
"H-hi, I'm Aang..." the boy greeted, a bit shy.
Sokka made a face of annoyance when he heard him and pulled him behind him. "As I said, he's the Avatar, but he's still new at this. That's why I say you shouldn't fear us."
"Mom, I want to go with them," Haru interrupted, determined.
"Absolutely not, Haru! Look what happened to your father!" his mother replied, distressed.
"He fought and was captured for protecting us. We must end this war and free him," Haru insisted.
Sokka listened to everything with a wide smile while pulling out a scroll.
"Dear ma'am, I completely understand your concerns," he said, holding the scroll with a reassuring gesture that, however, gave the woman a bad feeling. "But I can help you: I propose a contract."
Haru's mother looked at him, confused, as he offered her the scroll with that strangely kind smile.
Pov Sokka.
"If you sign this contract, I'll free the prisoners," I explained, handing it to Haru and his mother.
They both read it carefully: in that document I made it clear that I would take care of freeing the Fire Nation's prisoners and, in return, I would keep the ship and forty percent of all the money and supplies I found. Also, any earthbender or villager could join the resistance, and if they did, they would have to go to the Southern Water Tribe. There they would train freely and fight wherever I ordered.
The mother hesitated, holding the paper in her trembling hands.
"Sokka, why a contract and not just free them?" asked Aang, puzzled.
I leaned toward him, lowering my voice: "Even if she doesn't sign it, I'm still going to free them. But this..." I said, pointing at the contract, "this makes it better for them in the long run." I wasn't going to explain politics to a kid, not yet.
The woman looked at me, searching for something in my eyes that would convince her.
"If I sign it, you'll free them? And you'll protect them?"
"I promise you," I said, with all the firmness I could gather. "But to keep them safe, they have to go to the Southern Water Tribe. There are no invasions or Fire soldiers there. They can train in peace, with their families safe."
I saw how her desperation broke through her doubts. I knew she wanted to believe me. Finally, her hand signed.
"Perfect. Keep it safe, ma'am," I said, giving her a small bow.
She folded it carefully, as if it were her family's last hope. As I left the house, I took a deep breath. The first step was done.
I walked through the village until I saw two bored Fire soldiers leaning against a wall.
"Now, Katara, watch how a real rescue plan is done," I murmured with a smile.
My sister, confused, barely had time to see me when I lunged at one of the guards and punched him straight in the helmet.
"Earthbending strike!" I yelled, just for show.
Katara was stunned. When they arrested me for "illegal earthbending," I could almost hear her swallow a gasp of disbelief. What a bunch of idiots...
"That's it, Katara. Play dumb. Stick to the plan," I told her as they dragged me away amid insults.
"What plan?" Aang blurted out, not understanding anything.
Katara shook her head. She didn't either.
The boat taking me to the prison ship rocked gently on the water. Two firebenders escorted me, convinced I was trapped. Poor fools.
I had a faster way to ignite the spark in the earthbenders. And this time there would be no mine accident, no saved old man, no snitch. According to my calculations, we arrived a week earlier than in the original story.
"Did they teach you to be tyrants, or does it just come naturally?" I said to them, bored. I didn't expect an answer, just wanted to plant the seed.
When I boarded the ship, some soldiers half-heartedly searched me. They didn't even notice the knives well hidden in my clothes. They were looking for rocks, not steel.
Before pushing me onto the deck with the others, the warden gave me a satisfied smile. He thought he had caught another earthbender. Fool.
I stepped onto the deck in my normal clothes and a simple brown apron. I looked for a man with a thick beard and a balding crown. Tyro. Haru's father.
But before I could find him, a hand rested on my shoulder.
"Hey, kid. Sit with us."
I looked at him and smiled. "You must be Tyro, right?"
His eyebrows arched. "How do you know that?"
"I'm Sokka, chief of the Southern Water Tribe. I came to get you out of here. Your wife and son asked me for help."
Tyro let out a quiet laugh. "The chief of the South Pole, here? No one escapes this ship. We have no earth to bend, we have nothing."
I looked around. His companions nodded. They had all accepted defeat, resigned without a fight. They outnumbered the soldiers, but their will was as rusty as the chains that bound them.
I took a deep breath, stood up. I wanted an orderly mutiny. But improvisation was my specialty.
"You're cowards!"
My voice thundered across the deck. Everyone turned. Even the warden appeared, curious. Several guards approached, but he stopped them with a gesture. He wanted to see what I would do.
"You hide behind your resignation! You think being locked up here protects your families!"
"Our families are safe!" Tyro spat, furious. "And here we can't do anything. Sit down."
"Safe?" I laughed, cold as the southern ice. "What do you think these bastards will do next? What will stop them from entering your homes, taking your wives, your daughters? Violating them? Killing them when they get bored?"
I saw the horror on their faces. There was the spark.
"No one will protect them!" I roared. "You are their only defense! Fight! Rise up! Take back your freedom! Take back your dignity!"
I didn't need to say more. A roar rose among the prisoners. They charged at the guards.
I moved like lightning. Two silver flashes: my knives sank into the arms of two firebenders before they could react. I saw the warden fleeing amid the chaos on deck. I twisted my wrist, threw a knife. I saw it lodge in his knee. He fell with a hoarse scream.
And then, the spear. A dry whistle; I don't know if it was because of its speed or pure luck, but it didn't trigger my danger sense. I stepped back just in time to avoid it piercing my neck. I felt the blade graze my skin.
In front of me, a soldier with a spear: firm stance, sharp gaze, the tip of his weapon spinning with steady control. A veteran, judging by how he moved his feet.
"You really have good luck, huh?" I said, gauging his reaction.
"I always have. Bets always pay well," he replied, sure of himself.
"Let's see how long that lasts you," I muttered.
I lunged. Feint, knife low, knee high. My blade grazed his side, but he stepped just right to shift his center of gravity: a defensive step, well-trained... and a bit of luck. The cut wasn't deep.
He spun the spear. I had to back off. Each spin was clean, controlled, but now and then something saved him from my blows. A slight slip on the deck that deflected my punch, a bad footing of mine when I should have closed the distance.
I pressed again. We traded blows: my knife slashed the air, his spear whistled close to my abdomen. A slash opened my shirt and the skin on my side. Sparks flew when I blocked with the blade. My breathing was fast, heavy. His was calm.
I tried to force him toward a barrel. I cornered him, feinted a punch to the jaw and spun to stab the knife into his shoulder. He shifted his stance — not by perfect reflex, but because his foot slipped slightly — and my blade scraped his armor without really hurting him. Damn it.
I clenched my jaw. A quick thrust from him: I felt another cut burning on my arm. The guy smiled, confident. His spear moved like it could read my intentions.
I took a deep breath, measuring his rhythm. Experience, yes. Technique, yes. And that bit of luck tipping the balance in his favor. But everything ends.
I saw his guard drop slightly when he tried to spin the tip to finish me off. Time compressed. I stepped firmly. My fist crashed into his jaw. It cracked. A guttural roar escaped his throat. I gave him no respite: elbow to the plexus, felt ribs cave in. A straight punch to the chest broke his collarbone. I grabbed his wrist, twisted the spear out of his hand. My kick bent his knee the wrong way.
I grabbed him by the neck. His eyes, wide open, blinked in fear.
While I looked into his eyes, I focused on his chi flow. A bright spot more than any other in him: it was his luck, bright and big, a clear contrast to mine, pale gray, dim.
I directed my chi toward that place and began to take it from him. His wounded body writhed in pain with desperate moans. This is why I usually took chi and luck from the freshly dead: to spare them the pain. But this guy had really annoyed me.
I quickly absorbed and assimilated his luck with mine. Now it shone brighter than this dying man's.
"I'm really sorry," I said before snapping his neck.
Katara and Aang would probably despise this, but they weren't here. And in these kinds of fights there are always casualties.
Their sons murdered and their wives violated. No man could handle that kind of emotion, and now they embodied what they always kept under control. Especially warriors like them, used to wielding power.
The earthbenders' eyes turned to the fallen guard and advanced to tear him apart, but Sokka stopped them. He crouched in front of the warden, who was still writhing in pain, and pulled the knife from his knee mercilessly. The man whimpered, tears streaming down his face. The same knife pressed against his throat.
"Please! Please, forgive me!" the warden begged between snot and sobs.
"I won't kill you," Sokka whispered to him.
As soon as he heard that, a repulsive smile spread across his face. But it vanished immediately when the blade pressed into his neck and opened a thin line of blood.
"As long as you do what I say, you'll live," Sokka said in his ear. He grabbed his hair, lifted him up, and turned him toward the door. "If you don't open the doors in three seconds, I'll slit your dear warden's throat!"
The earthbenders, tense, burned with contained rage. Sokka felt it: they were still drunk on the spark of victory. They would do anything as long as freedom shone on the other side.
"Three... two..." he counted, letting the blade sink a little more with each number. "One..."
"Bastards! Open the door!" the warden shrieked. The gate gave way with a metallic creak. Sokka struck him on the back of the neck with the knife's pommel; the man fell like a sack, his head hitting the ground with a dull thud. He tossed him aside, out of the way.
He raised the bloodstained knife. "Men! It's time to take freedom into your own hands!"
A roar rose like the fury of a beast unleashed. The earthbenders charged without mercy. Sokka advanced at the front, dodging fire and arrows as if he could see the future. His [Danger Sense] buzzed at his nape, saving him from each deadly spark. A soldier fell; Sokka ripped the spear from his hands and, with each slash, his strength and speed adjusted to his wounds. He was a monster of flesh and bone.
The earthbenders saw him and followed him like a pack. Sokka cut through fire, broke spears, reduced enemies to puddles of blood. The Fire Nation soldiers broke ranks, fear chilling them to the bone.
When they tried to regroup, Sokka swung the spear. The wind whistled, lifting the flames to the sky. His feet dented the metal deck as he repeated and perfected the lancer's stance: pure savagery.
Then the soldiers felt absolute desperation seep into their bones. No one wanted to die; they all had families, children, wives, and parents waiting for their return. The simple instinct for survival crushed any spark of courage. Maybe, if they had kept fighting, they might have had a slim chance: they knew the terrain, Sokka didn't. But in their minds, the battle was already lost; the pig couldn't fight the butcher.
Sokka understood immediately. For an instant, he considered wiping them all out, leaving a message engraved in fire and viscera. But he knew that would only bring problems, even fractures within the group. Katara would follow him, she always did: that's family. But Aang's pacifist nature might break.
All those thoughts flashed through his mind in a blink. He was about to decapitate a soldier crawling on the ground when, with a sharp twist, he buried the spear in the metal deck.
The echo boomed like a steel gong!
With that, the battle fell silent like a ghost town. The earthbenders, panting, couldn't believe they had won without their elemental control. Sokka stood tall like a tiger, his gaze hard.
"Everyone! The battle is won!"
The silence broke with trembling murmurs.
"Is this real or a dream?"
"We won without earthbending..."
Some earthbenders fell to their knees, tears pouring freely. Looking at their hands, they felt freedom burn their chests like a fire they would never let die. Sokka looked at them with a tense smile, then turned his gaze to the Fire Nation.
Without even realizing it, Sokka had become a demon and a savior, two sides of the same coin.
He won this fight without a single loss.
He sighed and raised his spear like a banner of victory. This victory would have been impossible without some of his abilities. Despite his short real battle experience, gifts like his Danger Sense filled any gap.
In the end, the surviving Fire Nation soldiers were locked up and the corpses burned in the coal factories.
Sokka, with his own hands, gathered the belongings of the fallen and ordered them to be returned to their families once the war was over. He had to get ahead of any resentment. War was a monster, yes. But even in this situation, you can sow something new if you know how to plant the right seed.
He would not forgive anyone who got in his way. But he would not demonize the enemy unnecessarily either: they were human too. And Sokka knew well how humans hold grudges. His gesture was pragmatic: a small wall so no one would come hunting him for revenge.
Thus, as the smoke from the furnaces rose into the sky, Sokka walked among free men. Among ghosts. Among a people who once again believed they had the right to fight.
His part was done, and now it was their turn.
Sokka called Tyro and other men to the navigation cabin.
It took him a bit of time to adapt to the old controls, but he managed and taught those men how to steer the ship to shore.
On the way, Sokka told them about the contract he had made with Tyro's wife. He explained that, even if she hadn't signed it, he would have come to free them anyway, and he detailed how all of this would benefit them.
Haru's father stood in front of Sokka with a serious expression. "That contract, those reward clauses... Just thinking that you'll give us sixty percent of the provinces, money, and tools..." He couldn't finish the sentence.
Sokka watched his hard expression. He feared they would be upset about the contract, even though it favored them greatly.
"Just thinking that you give us such rewards when we should be giving you everything... makes me sick," Tyro said, leaving Sokka surprised, though a smile of relief spread across his face.
"We had lost the will to fight. We lied to ourselves and let our families suffer. You gave us back our will to fight. For this, Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, we will go wherever you say, fight wherever you command, and follow you with loyalty."
At his words, all the men nodded with determination. In their hearts they knew that, if not for Sokka, everything would have been worse. They had never felt true loyalty to their Earth King, but with Sokka it was different. His leadership, so firm despite his youth, convinced them to follow him.
Sokka forced a restrained smile, but inside he felt a genuine satisfaction spreading through him. His plan to take these people to the Southern Water Tribe to work and grow stronger together had turned out better than he expected. He had anticipated resistance, but the result exceeded any prediction.
When they reached the shore, they were greeted by Katara, Aang, Haru, and his mother.
Aang and Sokka's sister had planned to board the ship to help, but seeing them come down laughing and joking, their hearts felt at ease.
Katara looked worriedly at her brother's bleeding wounds while Aang watched everyone with a slight smile. The atmosphere they brought filled the village with hope—and both knew it was Sokka who had restored it.
Haru and his mother hugged Tyro with tears of emotion, while Katara wrapped her brother in a tight embrace.
"Katara, today you'll practice healing with waterbending," said Sokka with a hint of annoyance at his wounds.
Katara looked at him, surprised. She had never believed such an ability was possible; no one had ever mentioned it to her before.
In a small pond, Sokka submerged himself while Katara placed her hands in the water.
"Just calm your mind. Your chi will know what to do if your intention is to ease the pain," he explained.
Katara obeyed and focused on healing her brother. Within seconds, the water began to glow with blue tones. Sokka felt the coolness as his wounds closed while Aang commented,
"When you were taken, Haru showed Katara his earthbending. The villagers saw him and some alerted the only two Fire Nation soldiers left. We managed to capture them along with the villagers who betrayed him," he added with some discomfort.
"They are traitors to their people, Aang. Don't feel guilty for capturing them," Sokka replied firmly.
Aang nodded, keeping those words in his mind before changing the subject, a bit uneasy.
"How did you know about water healing?"
Sokka looked at him seriously. It sounded like an interrogation.
"As chief of the tribe, I have access to the old archives and records. Several writings mention this ability, though they don't explain how to use it. I just deduced how it works," he answered neutrally.
Katara looked at him cautiously; she still wasn't used to how Sokka hid his master side.
When he was completely healed and dry, they rejoined the others from the village. The traitorous soldiers and villagers were locked up in the ship's cells.
An improvised feast was held on the shore. Sokka brought out meat and fish from the small storage spirit without anyone noticing and began roasting them while singing cheerful songs. Katara danced with Haru, and the whole atmosphere reminded her of the feasts and banquets Sokka organized in the Southern Water Tribe. Aang smiled, warmed by the scene, and a tear of joy crossed his cheek. Seeing how these people regained their hope thanks to Sokka moved him deeply. He wished he could achieve the same. His respect for Sokka grew, forgetting any past friction.
At dawn, Team Avatar prepared to leave while Sokka spoke with Tyro.
"I already took the 40% that was mine. Here," he said, handing him a paper and a cloth. "These are the coordinates of the tribe. Don't let anyone, absolutely no one except you and the navigators, know them. The cloth has my scent: it will make sure my beasts don't attack you."
"I understand," Tyro replied, nodding.
"On the way I want you to interrogate the soldiers and the warden. Get all the information you can and send it to me with a tracking bird," Sokka instructed, while pulling out a sizable bag of money and handing it over. "Here's enough to buy wood, seeds, and tools. I trust there won't be any problems with the accounts."
Tyro let out a hearty laugh.
"You don't have to worry. I would never betray your trust."
"Good," Sokka replied with a smile. He turned to give the final instructions. "You need to deliver the contract and the scrolls in that bag to two women named Gran-Gran and Tiga. They're in charge while I'm away."
"Understood. We'll leave in a week, once all the families are ready."
Sokka nodded in satisfaction and offered his hand. Tyro took it firmly. A new future was taking shape be
tween the two peoples.