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Prologue:
Aang never runs away. When the Fire Nation attacks the Air Temples, he dies alongside his mentor.
The cycle moves to water, a young woman born in the Southern Water Tribe named Hama. Unfortunately before she is even aware of her powers, she is captured by Fire Nation raids and spends decades alone and in increasing madness in jail. Her mind is too fractured for her past lives to reach her. When she passes, the cycle turns to Earth.
Seventeen years later, Prince Zuko, banished and is still seeking the hiding Avatar. Never knowing about Hama, he searches the Water Tribes for clues. He makes a stop to question the peasants in one of the last dying villages at the South Pole. He succeeds in nothing but terrorizing a bunch of women and children before leaving in disgust, empty handed.
It’s the last straw to break the arctic camel back for Sokka and Katara. Sokka wants to join his father fighting the Fire Nation, and Katara wants to really learn waterbending. With their Gran-Gran’s blessing, they take Sokka’s best canoe and head towards the Earth Kingdom.
The journey is long and takes weeks, but is cut short when they are caught in a storm. The spirits of the Ocean and Moon must take pity on fools that day, for they find themselves washed ashore on Earth Kingdom soil at the edge of a broadleaf forest.
Sokka’s natural leader instincts tell him to walk straight through the forest, where they almost directly run into a Fire Nation camp… and are rescued by a bunch of kids.
The oldest is a boy only two years older than Sokka, a talented earthbender with a charming smile. He introduces himself as Jet, these are his Freedom Fighters, and by the way (with a wink at Katara) he’s also the Avatar.
Sokka is automatically suspicious, and has to work to keep his jaw from dropping right down to the forest floor when Jet actually airbends himself up to his tree-house hideout. The normals have to use ropes and ladders.
“I’ve taught myself what I can,” Jet says with smooth modesty. Then he smiles at Katara, “But I’d really like to get started with waterbending.”
It’s not long before Jet picks up what little Katara has to teach him. Working together, they learn even more. They grow… close in a way that makes Sokka want to sharpen his boomerang, but he’s never seen his sister happier. For the first time since Dad left them, she has hope.
She’s practically glowing after she and Jet work through the afternoon to refill a reservoir which had gone dry thanks to the drought.
… And she sobs on Sokka’s shoulder when the dam fails, not three days later, washing the nearby village of Gaipan and all its inhabitants, away.
Jet looks just as stricken. “I’m sorry, Katara. I knew there were Fire Nation spies in the town, but I never thought they’d go this far to try to wipe everyone out.”
It doesn’t make sense to Sokka. “But the Fire Nation was using the town as a military outpost. Why would they kill their own people?”
“They’re animals. They don’t care how many of their own die, as long as the Earth Kingdom is down one more village.” Jet’s face twists and the fire behind him flares briefly, red like blood. “I can’t believe I was one of them in my past lives. It makes me feel dirty.” He spits to the side.
It doesn’t escape Sokka’s notice that Jet can bend earth, air, and water, but he never bothers with fire. Oh well, fire is a stupid element anyway.
So okay, Jet’s not actively playing with fire, but it’s clear the local heat is too much. They have to move on before the Fire Nation realizes they didn’t kill all the Earth Kingdom refugees in the flood. Since Jet spends almost every moment making heart eyes at Katara, it comes to no surprise when he announces the Freedom Fighters will be traveling to the North Pole so they can both learn waterbending.
It’s only then that Sokka realizes he’s somehow become one of Jet’s Freedom Fighters, too.
That’s fine. That’s great, actually. His father’s off fighting the war, and now Sokka’s doing his part, too. With the Avatar, no less. So it’s good. It’s all good. Yeah.
He’s so busy telling himself that all this is a good thing that it’s really easy to miss the red flags planted here and there. Like how whenever Jet talks about the dam, the explanation for it failing changes ever so slightly. Until a few weeks later he’s talking about it as if the Fire Nation did it to wipe the Avatar and the Freedom Fighters out, which… makes even less sense, in hindsight, then destroying a conquered, productive town. No one in the town had even known Jet was the Avatar.
Or when Katara mentioned it, laughingly, and Jet completely blew up at her, then iced her out, pretending she wasn’t even in the same room with him. That was not cool. Sokka tried talking to him about it, man-to-man, and he seemed shamefaced. He had a lot on his plate—there were a lot of expectations on his shoulders and he needed his girlfriend and his best friend (Meaning Sokka. When had he become Jet’s best friend? What about Long Shot and Smellerbee?) to know that they had his back, no matter what.
Sokka felt himself giving in. He knew Jet was a good guy, at heart. “I know you’re under a lot of pressure, buddy. But I need to know you’re treating my sister right.”
“I do.” Jet met his eyes. “I love her.”
Well, Dad always said that love was the glue that held lives together. Sokka backed off.
Like the spirits had it out for them, they almost immediately ran into the Prince who had attacked Katara and Sokka’s village. It was bad luck all around. The dinky little Fire Nation ship was tied up at a river port, loading supplies.
The second Katara points the guy out, who he was and what he’d done, Jet goes insane. He called down his Freedom Fighters with a whistled command, perfected during their time in the forest.
With the Avatar leading the way with hook swords in hand, they start the attack.
The way Jet refuses to even consider mercy was a memory that sticks with Sokka for the rest of his life. The shipmen were Fire Nation, but they’d been busy loading up supplies, minding their own business, and had been caught flat-footed. The kids, led by Long Shot’s archery, knocked crew members off the side of the ship and into the river, where Jet froze them. Under the water.
With a howl of rage, the Fire Nation Prince attacksJet head on with two swords. Jet fights back with his own hooked blades. The fight takes them up and down the length of the ship. Clashing and spectacular.
And a moment Sokka stands there, boomerang in hand. He knows he could let it fly. At this distance, he’d have a good shot at knocking the Prince for a loop. But… but he’s defending his people—people who’d been attacked without any warning, who’d been drowned right in front of him, and…
“Jet!” Katara screams as the Prince gets the upper hand and kicks out with a crescent of fire, knocking Jet off the gangplank they’d fighting on. Jet lands hard on the ground, winded.
It was Katara’s scream that did it. Sokka threw and Boomerang hits true. The Prince falls to his knees, clutching his head.
Jet rose, earth trembling to his call, wind blowing his hair in every direction. A literal wave of rock rises up at his command, curling forward over the Prince. It’s about to crash down and bury him alive—
A fire bolt in strength Sokka has never seen before lances through the earthen wave, exploding it into dust and molten pebbles. Sokka catches a flash of red as an overweight, gray haired man rushs to the Prince’s side—he was the one who had shot the fire—yelling his name. “Zuko!” And the tone of his voice is every bit as frightened as Katara’s had been: Full of love and desperate terror.
Nobody should see a loved one die.
Boomerang had returned to Sokka’s hand. He held on for an extra few seconds until he was sure Prince Zuko and the older man were out of sight. Only then did Sokka throw it into the cloud of dust after him. He’s glad when it hit nothing.
Not like he liked the guy. He had threatened his grandmother, but still… to be buried alive like that…
Sokka turns to Jet to say something, but found him in his sister’s arms. Looks like they were making up from their fight. Big time.
Rolling his eyes, Sokka turns away.
The surviving Fire Nation crew were quickly dealt with by the rest of the Freedom Fighters, Jet locates the blasting jelly and sinks the ship right there in the harbor as a warning to other Fire Nation vessels. But not before Jet finds the manifest records and logbook.
When the local Earth Kingdom militia came to investigate, Jet uses his authority as Avatar to speak with the official in charge.
“The Fire Nation will think twice before docking here again,” Jet says and hands the scrolls and logbooks over to the man. “Here is evidence of collaborators working with our enemies. Looks like most of these goods came from Gaoling.”
The official frowns and flicks through the scrolls before nodding and bowing low. “How may we assist the Avatar?”
Jet smiles winningly.
And that was how the whole army of Freedom Fighters, now grown to include members of the local Earth Kingdom militia, got passage up to the North Pole—on a ship bought and paid for by the local governor, as thanks to the Avatar for liberating the harbor.
Some of the private concerns Sokka has about Jet and Katara are washed away when, the day after arriving, Jet challenges fussy-pants Master Pakku to waterbending challenge.
“Katara is my girlfriend and she’ll learn waterbending by my side,” he declares, standing up before the Chief and everyone.
“But women don’t learn waterbending,” Arnook explains.
Jet grins, and although Sokka was on his side and knew he was right, he still felt a cold shiver down his spine. “And I am the Avatar, and I say when your tradition changes.”
Pakku is a master, but Jet fights with air, water, and swords, and at the end of the day, no one wants to hurt the last hope of the world. Jet wins and Katara throws herself in his arms, laughing.
“I’m going to be a waterbender!” she exclaims in triumph.
But you already were, Sokka thinks.
So Jet and Katara learn waterbending from Pakku. It goes well. Katara’s natural ambition takes her far, but Sokka catches disquieting talk from some of the other waterbending masters.
Jet is talented, but vicious. He can only spar with Pakku, because he can’t stand to be shown up in class. Other kids get hurt…
Well, duh, Sokka thinks. The Northern Water Tribe have been safe behind their walls for too long. They don’t really get that they’re in war. Waterbending is more than sinking and floating and making pretty ice sculptures. Of course Jet is training to fight. That’s the whole reason they are there!
… Only, even he has to admit that waterbending can be pretty. He and Princess Yue like to walk around the royal galleries featuring all the artist made ice sculptures. He really likes the way the ice reflects in her brilliant blue eyes.
Later, Jet throws a companionable arm around Sokka’s shoulders and says, “You know, I can throw in a good word with Chief Arnook about you and Yue.”
YES, his heart yells.
“No, I’m good,” he hears himself say. “I got a plan for winning her over. You know… Sokka-style.” And once he figured out that plan, he would totally do it.
Jet laughs, rubs the top of his head just enough to mess up Sokka’s wolf-tail, but backs off. “All right. Offer’s open, though.”
“Thanks, man.”
The next day, black snow starts to fall from the sky.
Word had finally gotten to the Fire Nation about who the Avatar was and where he was hiding. Their response is to send the entire compliment of their navy—the largest armada the world had ever seen—to take them out.
Jet’s reply was to travel to the spirit world for guidance, only to return and merge with the Spirit of the Ocean as the first Fire Navy ships pull up to the great ice wall.
Sokka had seen tsunami’s before, but never so high and never one after another after another. The Spirit of the Ocean, under Jet’s direction, dragged ships down like child’s toys. The Fire Navy didn’t have a chance.
“What was it like?” Sokka heard Katara ask Jet, in a quiet moment between the feasting and celebration and sense of hope that had sent the entire Northern Water Tribe into a frenzy of celebration. Maybe if they drank enough, they wouldn’t have to think about what they saw. That was Sokka’s plan, at least.
“What? Being the Ocean?”
“No, in the spirit world. Did you see… did you see your parents?”
Did you see my mom? she didn’t say, but Sokka heard it anyway.
Jet was silent for a moment. Then, “I met my past lives.”
“Oh? What—”
“They are fools,” he snarls, suddenly vicious. “They don’t know. They don’t understand. You know what it’s like to have a little airbender kid lecture you about forgiveness? Forgiveness? They didn’t even have families to lose. They couldn’t fight for themselves, and he had the nerve to… And the waterbender was insane, but at least she had the right idea about how to deal with the Fire Nation. And the Firebender…” he muttered a curse too low for Sokka to hear, “I didn’t bother listening to what he had to say.”
“Jet…” She sounds shocked. “I’m sorry.”
Then there were the sounds of kissing. Sokka quickly put some distance between himself and them.
Later, during the end of the celebration feast, Chief Arnook stands to praise the Avatar and asks how the Northern Water Tribe can assist his cause.
Jet stands, looking dashing in his borrowed blue. He praises the strength of the Northern Water Tribe warriors and its waterbenders, and tells them that he’ll need all their bravery and courage for the war to come.
“The world will need to be united under one banner,” he continues, “And as a symbol of that unity I decree tonight that Princess Yue should be married to my second in command, Sokka, son of Chief Hakoda. Let the strength of their union repair the bonds that were split between the North and the South.”
Sokka sort of wants to hug Jet and sort of wants to strangle him, and from the look on Arnook’s face he’d like to kick both Jet and Sokka off the nearest iceberg… but Jet chose his moment perfectly. He’s the hero of the day, the Avatar, and Sokka does come from a good family… if you ignore the fact the North thinks the South are all peasants.
Arnook agrees (even if it is through gritted teeth), and Smellerbee is laughing, pushing Sokka up to the front to join with Yue. It’s hard to tell who is blushing redder. Hahn’s engagement necklace is still around her throat, and Sokka doesn’t even have a necklace for her—this is all wrong—but he also doesn’t care.
He leans over to peck her on the lips and the crowd bursts into wild applause.
Sokka is still riding high from that night as he joins Jet leaving the North Pole. He and Yue are still both too young for marriage (no matter what Jet teased) and she agrees to stay North while he fought the war. For the first time in 100 years, the Fire Nation is on the defense, and Jet wants to take advantage of it.
With the addition of Arnook’s men and the Earth Kingdom militia, his Freedom Fighters have become an army. They sweep down like one, too, upon the first Earth Kingdom Colony they can reach.
Earth Kingdom cities are freed, one after the other. The problems come when Jet learns that quite a few have mixed families of both Earth and Fire.
“That is disgusting. They’re traitors, just as bad as the Fire Nation,” Jet says.
“Some are children!” Katara protests. “They can’t help who their parents are.”
He swings back to her. “I was just a child when the Fire Nation killed my family. You were just a child when the Fire Nation killed your mother. Don’t tell me that they care about children, Katara. They don’t.”
Smellerbee and Pipsqueak, and even General Fong who’d joined them on their first campaign nod along with him. Exchanging a horrified look with Katara, Sokka steps in. “Jet, we have to be better than them. We can’t kill children—”
He would have finished, but the earth shifted unexpectedly under his feet, making him fall on his butt. Jet looms over him, fists clenched and the wind whipping air all though the tent. The last time Sokka saw Jet like this was when he’d been about to bury Zuko alive.
“I’m not a monster!” Jet snarls, and the grinding of rocks seems too snarl along with him. “You don’t think it tears me up inside? I hate this, Sokka. I hate this! But my destiny is to bring back balance to the world. It’s been tipped towards the Fire Nation for one-hundred years, and… and every night my own past lives yell at me, do this, don’t do that. You don’t think it’s hard? I know the right way going forward. I am the Avatar, not you and not them. You have to trust me!” He looks like he’s on the verge of tears.
Although Sokka hasn’t been struck, he feels winded. Jet looks… unhinged.
“Jet…” Katara places her hand on his arm. Brave move. Anyone with sense had already backed several steps away.
He closed his eyes, shoulders relaxing. Then, opening them, he nods and turns to Fong.
“Non-firebending families and citizens can keep their children and their homes only if they disavow the Fire Nation and swear loyalty to me.”
Unsaid is what will happen to the firebenders. Everyone knows what the standing orders are for them.
Fong doesn’t bother to hide his disappointment. “And what of those who’ve voluntarily worked alongside with the Fire Nation? The soldiers report spies collaborators in nearly every town.”
Jet’s eyes harden. “Then they will be given a traitor’s death.” He glances at Katara in apology and then adds, “You will order your men to stay professional. Keep it quick.”
It’s a win. Sokka isn’t blind to the fact that throwing the Fire Nation out of the Earth Kingdom isn’t easy. Jet’s doing his best, and even if Sokka might have better ideas… the Spirits didn’t choose him as Avatar.
So why does this win feel so bad?
“At once, Avatar Jet.” Fong bowed and strode out. Most of the compliment of the tent went with him.
Only Katara stayed behind to help Sokka back up to his feet. She’s trembling. They both are.
“It’s going to be okay,” Sokka finds himself saying. “He’s a good guy, but he’s been asked to make hard decisions. Jet… As long as we’re with him, we can keep him on the right path.”
Katara speaks so low that even though Sokka is right beside her, he has trouble hearing. “He’s the Avatar. Shouldn’t he already know what the right path is?”
The days after losing his ship and his crew were some of the worst in Zuko’s life, and that’s saying a lot.
He and Uncle cut off their topknots. Zuko, out of shame ( He failed in his quest. He’d been to slow to find the Avatar before he learned the elements… And Zuko’s not even a master of one.) Uncle… Zuko isn’t quite sure why Uncle cut his topknot off. Solidarity, perhaps. He can’t bring it in himself to ask.
Either way, Zuko can’t go home. He hasn’t given up, but he simply doesn’t know what the next step is. He has no ship, no crew, no resources, and if rumors are correct the Avatar is already far out of reach up in the North Pole.
It’s Uncle who suggests fleeing to Ba Sing Se. It is the largest city in the world, dwarfing even Caldera City. Surely the Avatar would find his way there, eventually.
They catch rumors of a great battle in the North Pole. The Ocean Spirit himself turned against human beings in a way never seen before while under the Avatar’s power, and the great Fire Navy sunk to the depths. They say not one man or woman in red returned back to home soil.
At first Zuko thinks these are exaggerations, perpetuated by peasant imaginations. Except no matter where they go, the rumors are the same. Uncle strokes his beard thoughtfully, but does not offer an opinion. However, his expression is troubled when he thinks Zuko is not watching him.
When they encounter the first Earth Kingdom city under siege—Earth Kingdom soldiers who have turned from the front lines and have started arresting their own people under suspicion of being “traitors” to the Avatar’s cause—he doesn’t understand why Uncle goes gray with shock. Or why they have to suddenly find an establishment so he can have a seat and play Pai Sho.
“Nephew, I must insist,” with an edge to his voice Zuko hasn’t heard since Lu Ten was alive.
For once, Pai Sho does not help his Uncle’s mood. He’s even more pensive coming out of the seedy bar than going in.
They travel on.
The next small city, Gaoling, is even worse. It’s long been under Fire Nation economic rule, if not exactly ruled by name. The Avatar’s return has turned the tide of war. Those who made deals with the enemy to keep themselves and their lands safe are now put under arrest. And those who have found to have profited are dealt with by mob justice.
They find the girl in a prison. Or actually, the Blue Spirit does. Zuko had heard that the Avatar’s justice had come through there, and he didn’t think any Fire Nation citizens would be given a fair trial.
The girl was a daughter of rich merchants. It was said her parents had sold weapons and supplies to the Fire Nation—probably saved Gaoling from becoming a colony in bargain, but none of that had mattered to an angry mob fueled by Avatar righteousness.
Fortunately, they’d had not been maddened enough kill a blind little girl. Probably because she turned out to be an Earthbender with a surprising amount of skill. Instead, after killing per parents in front of her, they’d thrown her in a metal box—a makeshift jail.
Zuko broke her free mostly out of pity. The second Toph’s bare feet hit solid earth, she proceeded to completely trounce him, then the every guard who came to investigate. Only afterward, once she got the worst of it out of her system, she returned to carry his sorry carcass back to Uncle when it became clear he couldn’t make it out himself.
Then Toph stuck around, probably out of spite, Zuko thought. Or maybe the weeks in the metal box had traumatized her. (Who wasn’t traumatized by the war? Get in line, kid.) It couldn’t possibly be love of Iroh’s tea.
As the war rages on the countryside around them, as the Avatar’s army grows in strength and whispers become louder of him preparing to confront the Fire Lord himself, Zuko realizes they have to change their plans.
“Father doesn’t know what’s coming for him. He refuses my letters—they all think they’re safe in the Home Island.” Zuko paces around the small rented room they’ve taken as shelter. His hair has grown out, and he resists the urge to tear at it in frustration. Why can’t anyone see what he can see? “He doesn’t understand. Once the Avatar masses his army, they’ll be sitting turtle-ducks.”
“Nephew,” Iroh said. “Sit. Have some tea.”
“I don’t want any calming tea!”
“Yes, you do.” Toph doesn’t speak much, but when she does, she’s forceful and to the point. One tap of a foot brings a stone pillar from the dirt floor (the girl has screaming nightmares if she’s kept long from the ground. Now Iroh and Zuko only rent ground level rooms) to create a new seat at the table. She points one finger at it. Zuko glares, but sits. His bruises have bruises from not listening to her.
Zuko drinks his tea. He does not feel calmer.
“I do not disagree with you,” Iroh says. “But the world has become a more dangerous place. We must plan carefully.”
This earns a grudging smile. “You always tell me I never think things through.”
“Most young people do not,” Iroh agrees, sitting back. “I have never found a way to get through to my brother when he does not want to listen.”
“The Avatar hates the Fire Nation,” Zuko says bleakly. He’d seen it in the boy’s eyes while fighting—the same fierce joy and wish for violence he’d once seen on Admiral Zhao’s face.
“I’m afraid it’s worse than that,” Iroh said.
“Uncle?” Toph asks.
“There are those among his own allies who are growing concerned. The Avatar learns different styles of bending, but only enough to fight with. Never the lessons behind them.”
Zuko scowls. “What lessons?”
Iroh points. “Passion and determination from fire,” his finger moves to Toph, “Stolidness and patience from earth.” The finger drops. “Freedom and joy from air, and creativity and change from Water. This Avatar cares for none of that.”
“I don’t either,” Zuko mutters. He’s always hated silly philosophical riddles. Then his heart drops. “But I was meant to rule the Fire Nation… not the world.”
“The Avatar was never meant to rule the world,” Iroh says. “Only to bring balance to it.”
If his heart had felt like it dropped before, now it was sinking through the floor. Zuko groans, rubbing at his temples. This was bad. This was really, really bad. “Does this Avatar know that?”
The silence in the room speaks volumes.
Zuko breaths in and out, forcing himself through the first breaths of meditation. Toph has been known to react badly to panicked heartbeats.
“We have no resources,” he hears himself saying. “I can’t go home—I know that, but maybe we can save what’s left.” He’s not giving up. He’s not. But a retreat can be honorable, in its own way.
“Will this help?” Toph pulls a heavy sack of coins and jewels from her shapeless tunic and thunks it on the table between them.
Both Iroh and Zuko stare at her.
“Back when the mob was beating in on the door. My mom gave it to me, at the end. She thought it would help keep me safe… in case.” Her voice wobbled only slightly before she lifted her chin, glaring at them with sightless eyes.
“But we’re Fire Nation,” Zuko says slowly. Toph had attached herself to them, but they’d never spoken of an alliance out loud. “We’re planning to oppose the Avatar.”
“He’s supposed to be an earthbender, right?” Toph asks bluntly. “Well, he’s not better than me. No one is. Anyway, I’m the daughter of a merchant, and it sounds like your little venture needs some capitol.” She nodded at the bag of jewels. “This is me, buying in.”
Iroh and Zuko exchange a look. Zuko nods.
“You are gracious, Lady Bei Fong,” Iroh says, “And this will no doubt help.” He pauses. “I, too, have something that may help.”
Now both children are looking at him. Or at least, Toph’s attention becomes sharply pointed.
Iroh smiles, a sad, bitter smile. “There is a group—a very secretive group who do not belong to one nation. For years we have waited for the Avatar’s return. Now, if all we are hearing is true, the world may wish he had stayed hidden.”
It’s General Fong who suggests they use some of the captured war criminals as firebending instructors. Fight or die—Jet’s always learned best on the fly.
Over the past few weeks Sokka has really grown to hate Fong and his bloodlust. He gets a great satisfaction in watching Jet instantly shoot him down.
“No,” Jet says firmly. “Fire is the element that nearly ruined the world. I will never learn it.”
Fong tries one more time. “With all due respect, you will never enter the Avatar state without mastering the four elements.”
“I’ve gotten this far without the four elements or the Avatar state,” Jet says, but doesn’t elaborate. “Besides, “ he sweeps his arms to include all of his supporters sitting around the council table, and flicks his fingers to indicate the armies he now command’s outside the tent. “With my true friends and family behind me, why would I ever need fire?”
This earns him smiles all around. Forget bending, Jet’s true talent is to bring people together.
Because that’s the thing about Jet: He’s a natural leader. Generous, and loyal, no matter how many supporters he collects. And no matter how many full grown adults bow, he remembers who got him there. Smellerbee has a place at the table beside men three times her age. Sokka and Katara have pride of place at Jet’s left and right side.
We’re all doing good work here, Sokka reminds himself. He seems to be having to do that a lot.
Long Shot falls thanks to a Yu Yan arrow. The archer had been aiming for Jet but Long Shot had seen what none of them had, and stepped in the way.
Jet goes into the Avatar state for the first time.
He might have sworn off fire, but the Avatar spirit never seemed to have gotten the message. Worse, he’s smack in the middle of his own army.
It’s Katara who jumps in, who tries to calm him down. Eyes glowing, Jet swats her away with a wall of rock.
If it weren’t for the Northern Water Tribe healers…
Later, after he’s calm, Jet stays by her side in the healing hut. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so, sorry,” he says, holding her hand. She smiles up at him, but doesn’t move. Even with waterbending healing, it’ll take weeks to recover.
“Promise me,” Jet says, kissing her hand, “Promise me next time you won’t get in my way.”
It’s Sokka who finds out about the Day of the Black Sun.
He’s been sort of avoiding Jet since the whole Avatar freakout a few weeks ago—afraid if he gets too close he’ll punch him in his smug, stupid face and cause another one. Instead, he’s been volunteering for cleanup duty, going through homes of firebenders who once ruled the colonies.
Sokka doesn’t like to think about what happened to the families he sees hung on the portraits. This one hadn’t even been a firebender, but he had been the governor of New Ozai—once more Omashu. They were a dour looking family, especially the girl. The baby boy was young enough to be adopted into an Earth Kingdom family… as long as he didn’t show the spark of a firebender.
He finds the records, sun-maps, and explanation of the eclipse hidden in a concealed desk drawer.
He strides right into a meeting (why wasn’t he invited?) interrupting Fong as he’s advising Jet about how Ba Sing Se still wasn’t responding to the Avatar’s call for war.
Sokka pushes past Fong and slams the records down on the table. He looks Jet right in the eye. “We don’t need Ba Sing Se. We have a chance to stop the war, three weeks from now.”
And now, for the first time in one-hundred years of war it’s the Fire Nation who is on the defense—shoring up their own country while the combined forces of the Earth Kingdom, Water Tribes, and whoever is old enough to grab a spear or bend a rock swoops down on them during the Day of Black Sun.
Sokka and Katara reunite with their father’s fleet. Dad says he’s so very proud of them both, and for a moment everything they’d been through seems worth it.
The invasion of the Fire Nation begins.
It’s harder than Sokka could ever imagine. He and Katara fight at Jet’s side, any hard feelings set aside. Jet’s not yet a master of any element, but with his friends and a literal army behind him, it doesn’t matter.
And for eight sweet minutes the Fire Lord cannot bend.
Jet kills him with a hook sword. It takes Katara, Sokka, and General Fong to take down Ozai’s crazed daughter.
Then it’s over. It’s finally, finally over.
Weirdly, Sokka feels a lump grow in his throat. I can go home. I don’t ever have to hurt anyone ever again.
They hold the celebration on the steps of what used to be the Fire Lord’s palace. There, Jet gets on one knee and presents an engagement necklace to Katara. She accepts, tears in her eyes.
Sokka remembers the first time he sort of wanted to hug Jet and sort of wanted to strangle him. He’s feeling that all over again.
He sets it aside—he’s become a master at setting things aside. They should call him Sifu Ignores-Red-Flags—and joins in the world-wide rejoicing. The celebrations dwarfs the victory at the North Pole, and that says something.
But life goes on. Generations years of war has left the world broken. A lot of the older people talk about balance. It’s too late for the old Air Nomads, but…
Jet laughs and says their work isn’t done yet. They have to make sure a war like this never, ever happen again.
Katara stands, her engagement necklace gleaming on her throat. “What are you saying?”
“The best way to deal with fire is to stamp it out.” He aims a charming grin at Katara, “Or drown it before it spreads.”
Sokka doesn’t know why he’s surprised. All the signs were there. He had fooled himself into thinking that the worst would be over once the Fire Lord was dead.
“This is the Fire Nation,” Sokka says desperately, suddenly facing a wall of disapproving faces. “They need fire here.”
Jet slams his hand down on the table, making everyone jump. “No one needs fire anywhere.”
“You’re talking about extermination!” Katara cries.
“No,” Jet says, “I’m talking about balance. Earth and Water. It’s all the world has ever needed.”
She stares at him for a long moment. Her expression is terrible, like she’s truly seeing him for the first time. “That dam in Gaipan… the Fire Nation didn’t cause it to fail. You did.”
Oh, no.
“I did what had to be done,” Jet says.
She yanks off her necklace off her throat with a snap of breaking cord and throws it on the table. Then she walks out. Sokka follows.
They get further than he thinks they would. Nearly to the edge of the camp before they are arrested. It’s treason, of course.
Jet’s last mercy to old friends is not to have them killed, but thrown in prison. Far, far away. The guards make Sokka and Katara kneel and thank the Avatar for his gift. Jet accepts, graciously.
“I think,” Sokka says when they are left alone in chains, “we tried so hard to save the world, we accidentally helped destroy it.”
“It’s not over yet,” Katara replies, but she seems as fresh out of ideas as her brother.
Only on the way to be incarcerated for life, their prison ship is way-laid. A lone Fire Nation cruiser, one of the last of its kind boards the ship and captures the crew.
Sokka and Katara are set free by a tiny twelve-year-old girl who can somehow bend metal. They are brought to the top deck where their rescuers wait. Even dressed in a new uniform of blue and white, it’s easy to recognize the leader.
Sokka groans. “Of course. It’s you again.”
The scar-faced Prince glares at him. Around him are somewhat familiar faces discussed in Jet’s council—Several high ranking Fire Nation officials, including the deserter Jeong Jeong, and Earth Kingdom refugees who’d ended up in Jet’s bad books for “collaboration”.
“Finally figured out that the Avatar isn’t what he’s supposed to be?” Zuko snaps back. “Took you long enough.”
“Why are you helping us?” Katara asks boldly. “You’re Fire Nation.”
“There isn’t a Fire Nation anymore,” Zuko replies. There’s a weariness in his gold eyes that Sokka feels in his own heart. “And we intend to stop the Avatar. Are you with us?”