![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
squirrellysemanticsModern military AU
Fandom: Avatar:The Last Airbender
I do not own ATLA and make no money from this.
Chapter 25
Pairing: Sokka/Zuko
slash warning. much angst, much violence
R this chapter
So this is a big one. A chapter I've had in my head for the better part of a year. Hope it makes sense to you guys. Feedback is greatly appreciated.
Summary: Deep in enemy territory, two soldiers struggle to make it home alive.
Needs to be read in order to make ANY sense whatsoever.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24
Small noises became big ones from the echo off roughly hewn stone walls of their cell. Every movement was explosively loud and Sokka was sure anyone could hear him breathe from a mile away, hear his heart trying to hammer its way out of his chest in the next town over. He felt too exposed standing in the middle of the room as he was but he was ready. Toying with the old lantern in his hand, he tried to make it eke out just a little more light for their meager surroundings. A quick inspection confirmed their cell held little of anything but rock, rock and more rock.
Though if the approaching sounds were any indication, this was about to change.
Zuko had his back flush against the stone that framed the entrance, listening to the guard’s approach with every ounce of being. When the time was right, gold eyes flashed Sokka's way. An exchange of terse nods and Sokka responded by blacking out their only source of light.
Just outside the entrance, those footsteps turned cautious at the sudden change. A beam from a small flashlight appeared, cutting through the blackness to sweep through the room. The beam unerringly went to where two prisoners should have been.
“Sanga?” came the startled voice out of the dark, light whipping back and forth as the guard fairly ran into the cell to search for what had been lost.
Sokka squinted as the harsh light fell square across his face. He made sure he was every ounce a casual man. "How's it goin'?"
Half blinded, there was no way Sokka could make out what happened next. His ears told him everything he needed to know: the cut off gurgle of someone being struck just as they began to yell. A scuffle and the flashlight managed to extinguish itself once it hit the floor. Another thump, much heavier this time, told him something joined it there.
He coaxed the ancient lantern in his hand to life. A rush of relief ran through him at the sight of Zuko standing over a limp form. "You good?" Sokka whispered.
"Better than this guy." Zuko looked up, flush with success. "He'll have one nasty headache when he wakes up.”
Sokka made an awkward hop to the door, listening for any hint of discovery as Zuko went through the guard’s pockets. "Anything useful?" he asked at Zuko’s grumbling.
“A whole lot of nothing.” Zuko sliced the dilapidated rifle strapped to the unconscious man’s back with the blade of the multitool. “And what is this bullshit?” With a snap to quickly fold it, he tossed the multitool to Sokka to better examine the rifle. Slinging back a handle, he ejected a spent bullet casing to the floor before adding a fresh bullet to the chamber. ”Fucking bolt action. Straight out of World War Two.”
“Shitty reload time.” Sokka pursed his lips in disdain. “It’d be faster to throw bullets at people but it’s a better weapon than this thing.” He waggled the multitool before stowing it away. “Let's go.”
Fuck. Moving on his injured leg ranked somewhere between taking a blowtorch to his calf and a swift shot to the balls but Sokka could move faster with the bandage offering torn muscles and nerves some support. Zuko no longer had to bear all of his weight as they steadily made their way through the darkness and that was all that mattered.
The sheer insanity of what they were attempting was not something either was willing to dwell on for long. Picking through a labyrinth with only a vague idea of the way out? Underneath a mountain that was stuffed to the gills with a fuck ton of explosives? Yeah. Best not to be distracted by a few gaps in their plan when the alternative ended up with them dead or worse.
They forged ahead, Sokka counting each step, replaying the path they'd taken over and over in his head. Left here. Ten paces. Right…. no, left again. God damn it. Dehydration had Sokka's head throbbing. What little water they'd been given had turned into sweat far too quickly. So hard to think. Too easy to get turned around and getting lost meant a death sentence.
Tension grew with each step they took, both sure at any moment a patrol of unfriendlies would come out of nowhere. One close call had them scrambling back into the dark, both men not so much as risking a breath when they were passed by more than a few murky shadows.
Those who passed were deep in conversation, not particularly vigilant in their search if you could call it that. Had the escape gone unnoticed? Unlikely, but every second of freedom before all hell broke loose was precious no matter what the reason.
“We've got to get out of these tunnels,” Zuko whispered with a haggard breath.
“Almost there,” was Sokka's answer. There was only one exit that they knew of for sure and it lay up ahead. At least, he hoped it was up ahead.
One more turn and there was a hint of natural light. Zuko flew towards it, dismissing the crates of artillery shells that had so horrified them what seemed a lifetime ago. He scooted down, inspecting what he could see of the outside world. “Nobody out there.” Zuko was tight lipped and grim. “The patrols will probably concentrate on the tunnels so we'll be in the clear out once we’re topside.”
This sounded dubious at best. Sokka tried to wet his lips but his mouth was far too dry for that. “You really think so?”
"No." Zuko's determination crumbled into a weak smile. “But what choice do we have?”
Good god, the man was so much hope and hopelessness inextricably wound together; it made Sokka ache down to the marrow of his bones. He ignored Zuko’s expectant look to shuffle to the crates unaided. "C'mon,” he muttered to himself as he desperately searched above, behind and below. “C'mon!"
"What are you doing?" Zuko asked with open concern. "Let’s go. We don't have much time."
"You think they’d only keep these shells in here?" Sokka muttered as he delicately lowered a box to the floor. "There's got to be something more than just this stuff. Some water. Food, even. How much storage space can there be inside a mountain? Maybe there’s a gun that doesn’t take ten minutes to reload or… or a radio-"
Haphazardly rearranging the crates only revealed more of the same. Mounting frustration had Sokka being less careful with the heavy shells until-
A small box instantly had all of his attention. It would have been a shiny red if it weren’t caked in a layer of dirt.
Breathlessly, Sokka pulled the small container to him, so distinctly different from everything else around him that every sense he had fixated on it. He popped open the clasp, lid springing open as if it had been eagerly awaiting for someone to do so.
"Fuck," was all he could manage.
At his shoulder, Zuko craned his neck to look. “What? What is it?”
There were wires. Lots and lots of wires, each connected to long, thin cylinders of metal that looked almost like they could be bullets but not quite; detonators. Fuses. With these were an assortment of digital timers; the cheap kind that little kids used to wear as wristwatches. All of it packed away neatly, waiting to be put to use.
“Jesus,” Zuko whispered, echoing Sokka's own unease. The components looked so simple, so innocent, yet their presence was fully ominous. “They could assemble a few thousand IEDs from all this, easily.”
“Yeah, about that,” Sokka answered, unable to take his eyes from what was in his hands. “How ‘bout we give it a try?”
“What?” The question shot out of Zuko much louder than he intended. “There is no fucking way I'm going to help you put together a bomb!”
“Why not? We’ve seen enough of these in action to build one,” Sokka asked softly, the words coming from his own mouth sounding like they were being said by someone else. “Even if it's a dud, it'll keep them plenty busy if it looks halfway convincing.” He pulled out a detonator with trembling fingers. “If it does work, there’ll be a chain reaction and every single shell in here goes off. They'll have bigger things to worry about than us.”
“What if it works too well?” Zuko hissed out his anger, what little sweat he could manage beading up on his forehead. “Ending up a bloody stain under a pile of rubble isn’t a good escape plan!”
Sokka met Zuko's fury with a chilling finality. “We need this.” His whole body was numb, the logical part of his brain forcing these clinical thoughts out into the open. “You know we do. We have to even up the odds somehow or this whole thing will be over before we know it.”
A wordless noise clawed its way from deep within Zuko’s chest. Too much like a wounded animal. Full of anger and despair, anguish and frustration, his calm exterior shattered as Zuko threw a naked fist at the wall. Once more and his knuckles were bleeding freely.
Sokka moved to offer what comfort he could but Zuko had already composed himself, fast as lightning.
“Okay,” Zuko finally said with no small tremor to his voice. “Where do we start?”
As one, they pieced together what fragments they knew from memory. Zuko prepared one of the shells as Sokka tore open one of the watches. A few wires and the detonator in the right place and they were ready. It seemed frighteningly simple but they’d been warned this was the case. It was why this had become the tool for when one required lethal results.
They sat and stared at this brand new bomb, perched atop the pile of death that still managed to look wholly innocuous.
There was one last question that needed asking and it stuck in the back of Sokka’s throat. “How much time?”
How much time did they need to run like hell?
Zuko blanched at the thought. “Thirty minutes? Enough time to clear out, not so much that if they catch us that we end up back here.”
A few pushes of the timer’s plain buttons. They both held their breath and Sokka gave one final press.
30:00
29:59
29:58
“Thank god,” Sokka exhaled in one long shaky sigh. “Phase one of not blowing ourselves up complete. Let’s work on phase two-“
A crunch of dirt underfoot let them know they were no longer alone.
Zuko snapped to attention, rifle at his shoulder, taking a bead on the wide eyed man who stood frozen at the room’s entrance.
The man was young, his youth hidden under his long beard. Couldn’t have been more than seventeen for fuck’s sake. Barely a man. Fright radiated off of him as his eyes wavered between the gun aimed at his chest and the timer that continued its countdown.
29:45
29:44
“Hey!” Sokka shouted, waving the young man down. “You understand English?”
The man began to babble in Pashto, his words running together in a jumble.
Fuck. Guess that meant ‘no’.
“Listen!” Sokka barked back in desperation. The man fell into silence. “See that?”
Terrified eyes followed the gesture Sokka made towards the IED.
Sokka prayed his voice wouldn’t crack. “There are ten of these-“ He held out both hands, fingers splayed wide. “Scattered all over this mountain.”
Eyes didn’t blink as Sokka waved his hand through the air.
“You’ve got a little over twenty minutes!” Sokka flashed his hands twice more. “Twenty minutes before this place goes boom! Got it?”
28:45
28:44
Apparently there were some things that transcended all languages because the young man took off at a sprint, calls of alarm echoing through the tunnels.
Zuko let out a lungful of air. “You’re a brilliant, lying bastard.”
“I love you too,” Sokka said, almost laughing in delirium. “Let’s get moving.”
The crack in the earth was a lot easier to crawl through when they had no equipment weighing them down. On the outside, there was a whole lot of furious yelling and moving of vehicles. Sounded like the two soldiers weren’t the only ones fleeing the area, though they elected to head in the opposite direction from all the noise and bluster.
They moved carefully, methodically, knowing full well that these first few minutes of an escape attempt were critical. Completely unshielded from the desert sun, they sprinted from cover to cover, just as much to reach some shade as to remain undetected. Squawking radios gave away the positions of sentries, easy to dodge when order after order was being shouted at those who would otherwise have remained silent.
Evening would be a long time coming with the midday heat inexorably pressing down on them with a brutal hand. With that, the treacherous terrain was both a help and a hindrance. Every rock, every outcropping, every boulder meant the perfect hiding spot for themselves but would have been just as useful for anyone else in need of stealth. It was hard to not feel like eyes weren’t watching them with every step but they forged ahead anyway.
They had to.
Head pounding, Sokka peeked around his hiding spot for as long as he dared. “There’s a canyon entrance up ahead. Might be a better place to hole up until nightfall.”
Zuko looked just as exhausted as Sokka felt, both of them flush faced and panting in the unrelenting heat. “Sounds good.” Continuing on ahead, Zuko scanned the skyline for more sentries. “How much time do we have left?
Sokka snuck a look down at his watch. “A little under nine minutes.” He reached for the rocky outcropping next to him with a laugh, using the support to move himself along. “It’ll be kind of funny if it turns out to be a dud and they evacuated for noth-“
There was a world of pain as something came down hard on Sokka- right where the bandage wrapped his calf.
Fire raced up his injured leg, muscles burning from the inside out. It was too much like an electrical charge shooting up his spinal cord and Sokka collapsed to the ground with a low moan. Self preservation forced him to swallow his scream. Helplessly, he collapsed on all fours, blinking his tears away enough to see a shadow looming over him.
“You’ve. Ruined. Everything!”
Azula.
No. This was not Azula.
No longer the calm, cool girl that barely batted an eyelash when she aimed to kill. Not even the glimpse of something damaged that they’d seen when she’d had come to them demanding answers could have prepared him for this.
This was some snarling, spitting beast.
“Months, years.. a lifetime of sacrifice for nothing! Nothing!” she howled.
Her booted heel came down on Sokka’s leg again with surgical precision and there was no way that he could keep from crying out that time. Agony made his vision turn grey around the edges.
“Azula!” Zuko was rough and raw as he called out his sister’s name. The rifle in his hands, however, didn’t waver. “Get away from him!”
“Zuko.” The seething animal disappeared, replaced with doe eyed softness with mercurial speed. “You wouldn’t hurt your sister, would you?” Azula was pitch perfect as she added a note of horror. “We’re family!”
“Stop it! Stop talking!” he snapped back, face screwed up in misery. “Just back away from him! Now!”
“Of course,” she said, meekly taking a few steps back. “Whatever you say.”
That alone set alarm bells ringing, but there was no time to react. With that same lightning speed that Sokka had witnessed once before, here he was for the second time in his life staring down the barrel of Azula’s gun.
Sokka felt a cold shiver crawl up his spine at the maelstrom that lay behind her eyes.
“Hmm,” she mused breezily as if Sokka wasn’t there. “You might still be useful.”
Azula’s whole demeanor changed, any sign of weakness evaporating into nothing.
“Drop your weapon, Zuzu!” she said curtly. “We don’t need any accidents.”
Silence reigned for what seemed like hours before Sokka shattered it. “Zuko! Don’t do it! You have to-“
The muzzle that jabbed against Sokka’s sunburned forehead was painfully hot.
“Quiet,” Azula murmured just within the range of his hearing, not easing up on the gun’s pressure agains his skin one little bit.
Didn’t dare move, didn’t dare breath. Sokka just sat there, feeling every second pass, becoming a full minute and then-
“Good boy,” whispered Azula.
Sokka thought her words were meant for him until his heart sank at the sound of a rifle being tossed to the ground. There was a dent in his forehead from the gun that stayed with him even as Azula smoothly backed away.
“Over here please.” She gave the order as if to a disobedient child. “I’d like to keep my eye on both of you.”
Shuffling forward with great reluctance, Zuko brushed a gentle hand against Sokka’s shoulder. “You good?”
“Yeah.” Still on his knees, Sokka looked up with a bitter smile. “You?”
Zuko let out a puff of air. “Could be better. How much time is left?”
Sokka took his time musing on this. “Ten seconds. Maybe less.”
“What.. what are you two little lovebird going on about?” Azula demanded, suddenly cross. She backed even further away from them, radiating suspicion. “What have you done?”
“We’ll all find out soon enough,” Zuko said with no trace of humor.
“They were whining about it over the radio. You made a bomb…” Her voice cracked. “It was real?”
There was something soft, indefinable; a low rumble in the distance. It began to build. And build.
And build.
Sokka could feel the vibrations underneath him as the earth moved.
Great big billowing clouds of dust blew out of every crack, every hole that had been hidden in the hillside. Air forced its way out through the path of least resistance, turning what they breathed into a choking, sooty mess. The sound of the mountain rending itself in two was both terrible and awesome to hear and in a cascade that was impossible to fathom, the side of the mountain caved in like a sandcastle that had been struck by a wave.
“Whoa,” Sokka whispered and turned wide-eyed to Zuko. “I guess it worked.”
But Zuko wasn’t there.
Somehow the jaw dropping devastation hadn’t caught the man’s attention at all the man at all. Zuko was instead edging nearer to his sister as she stood watching, aghast. Sokka was following his lead, hoping to help. What could he use? All he had was the goddamned multitool. Fuck, if she didn’t notice, in a second they’d get close enough to jump her and-
Somehow, she noticed.
Maybe it was from Azula working on animal instinct, because as she turned there was very little humanity left in her. She bared her teeth at them, the explosion awakening something fierce and feral. “Back! Back! Get back!” She was nimble on her feet, springing away from her brother’s lunge with a powerful move that would have been called elegant in any other circumstance.
Her gun came to bear but not at Zuko and with none of the steadiness it once had.
“This can still work!” she shouted at Sokka, tears streaming down her twisted up face. There was no where he could go that her gun wouldn’t follow. “You’ve just made a little mess I need to clean up.”
Zuko spoke with the tone one would use on a frightened horse. “Don’t do this. Please.”
She continued on as if he hadn’t said a thing. Sokka still had all of her attention. “One dead soldier! That’s all I need. Kill one of their own and the grunts that find you won’t look twice before scorching the earth for miles around!”
“You’re going to trick the Army into bombing this place? Destroy the evidence…” Zuko asked before he realized he was even doing so. “But those men… you faked the raid. You brought them the weapons from the Pakistani warehouse-“
“Oh, Zuzu. Always two steps behind,” she sighed, as if noticing him for the first time. “You weren’t supposed to get this far. You were supposed to die a hero.” Her tears continued to fall, even though she was almost wistful. “So Father could be proud of you for once. “
There was no way Sokka could let that go unchallenged. “She arranged the embassy bombing,” he said softly. “She thought I was you.”
“I told you to be quiet!” she roared back with murder in her eyes.
Head pounding, Sokka forced himself to his feet. No way would he let himself die on his knees. “I’m not afraid of you,” he said, desperate to keep the tremor from his voice.
Azula laughed as if this were the funniest joke in the world. “Well, that’s another mistake I can fix right now.”
Jesus, fuck- the last thing Sokka ever expected was to be in this situation again.
Looking down the end of a gun.
Life in the hands of a sociopath.
No armor this time. No luck from the looks of it either.
God, time had slowed so much, he could see her squeezing the trigger.
A wave of calm swept through him. At least now there was one regret he wouldn’t have. Hell, he’d say it one last time. “I love you, Z-“
Suddenly, impossibly, there was someone blocking the path right in front of him and before Sokka could do anything at all the gun sounded.
It was so very, very loud.
“Zuko,” Sokka finished softly, his heart breaking into a thousand little pieces.
There was none of the recoil, no getting thrown backwards when someone got shot. That was bullshit. That was what happened in the movies. No. There was none of that. What happened when someone got shot was what happened now. The body Sokka knew with aching familiarity- that had shielded him, protected him, saved him- simply collapsed into his arms.
A dead weight.
No! Not dead! Can’t be dead!
Gun still smoking in her hand, Azula stared at them; face full of shock and confusion.
There was no way for Sokka to support a full grown man, not with his leg. Together, the two soldiers tumbled to the ground, Sokka rolling into the fall to stop anything worse happening to the unresponsive form he clung to so desperately.
The routine had been ingrained in Sokka and right now he didn’t give a flying fuck what Azula would do. Even with the pounding pain in his skull, in his chest, in his heart he did it.
Get Zuko on his back. Done. Check pulse. Weak, thready. Was Zuko breathing?
A hint of blood appeared at the corner of the man’s mouth.
Fuck!
Fuck!
He knew he shouldn’t, but Sokka looked up. Azula was still watching them, though for the first time she looked very much her youthful age.
“Why?” he demanded in a broken sob, head swimming. “Why do any of this?”
“Chaos,” she answered with a hint of surprise, as if this should have been obvious. “War has kept this region from becoming a threat. The global balance of power would be completely disrupted if they succeeded in setting aside their petty ethnic differences.” Her words came almost by rote. This speech had been asked of her many times before.
“So that’s it?” he asked in disbelief. “You work both sides to keep this country in a never-ending war?”
She looked pleased at his revelation, happy that someone finally understood. “Of course. It’s worked for us for nearly half a century. Governments are too complacent or turn a blind eye. That’s where we come in. No law of consequence, no treaty binds us. We are strong so we do what needs doing.”
Sokka wanted to retch, not from his dizziness but from the evangelical light in her eyes. “That’s insane!”
Good lord, but that was the wrong thing to say. Azula went from calm to wild eyed in the blink of an eye. “If that’s the case, it won’t be a concern of yours anymore, now will it?”
The gun that had settled at her side was raised again and Sokka didn’t care.
“Wadarega!”
The last thing Sokka expected to see popped up behind the girl with the gun.
“Aang!” he choked out in disbelief. Was he hallucinating? “How…. Get the fuck out of here!”
Azula quickly recovered from her shock. “The little street rat! He came back to find you. That’s so cute!” She took aim at the small, scruffy boy with no hesitation. “And convenient too.”
A surprise blast of wind stirred up the dirt between them. Sokka was on all fours, throwing himself over Zuko’s too-still form as the harsh sand tore into unprotected skin.
The young boy hopped from rock to rock with the ease of a mountain goat, unphased by the miniature sandstorm.
“Hold still, you little brat!” Azula hissed, wind tearing at her hair. She inadvertently danced within Sokka’s reach, bringing her weapon to bear on Aang once more.
Before he even knew he had done it, before he could even process such a thing, the multitool was open in Sokka’s hand and he rose up to plunge its blade into her thigh.
Azula screamed- not in pain, but fury- as her shot went wide and Aang flitted away unharmed.
There was a spray of blood as Sokka drew the blade out to try again but his reactions were slow, the heat and dehydration hitting him hard. He didn’t see the kick coming but he felt it, swift and hard to the side of his head.
Dizziness ramped up a hundred fold. The world was spinning as Sokka flopped onto his back.
“No more!” Azula roared, towering over him, blood leaving a messy trail down her pant leg. “We’re ending this now!”
Sokka fought to concentration but his feet were tingling. Fuck. Was that sunstroke? Dehydration?
Did it matter?
He could see the gun in her hand.
Another shot. Weird. It sounded like it came from far away.
And he was still alive. Also weird.
Azula was screaming in full frenzy, clutching at her bloodied hand.
Wait. She was the one who’d been shot?
Sokka struggled to sit up and holy crap, he must have been hallucinating because the tallest woman he’d ever seen in his life appeared out of nowhere. The woman was well over six foot tall with massive feet that would have done any Ranger proud. That is if a Ranger decided to dress like a six foot plus Kuchi woman.
She went up to Azula with no fear though why would she? The raging girl looked like a tiny child as the woman bound Azula’s wrists behind her back.
They all watched for a moment, wondering if after a brief struggle the girl would settle but it was not to be. She continued to thrash as if this might somehow set her free. “No,” was the only word Sokka could understand and Azula said it over and over again. “No!”
With his attacker contained, Aang ran to the Kuchi woman in delight. “Kyoshi!
The big woman broke into an even bigger smile, making Aang stumble as she patted him on the back with one huge hand. It turned to a small frown though as she looked past them all.
“Roku!” the giant woman called out into the distance. “Wasla dee parmzaka kegda!” She waved a big hand in summons. “Delta raasha!”
Her invitation was answered by an old man, tall and willowy. Paler than the average Kuchi too, but they were nomads right? A flowing white beard went with his flowing white hair. The wizened man held the bolt action rifle in his hands and he ejected the spent cartridge inside it with expert efficiency.
His hallucination woman kneeled at Sokka’s side, passing him a canteen of water. “Moong delta raghlee yu che staase sara maresta wukru.”
Sokka was not so bad that he couldn’t process some of what she was saying. “Here to help,” he whispered back to her then- “Zuko! You have to help Zuko!”
Too disoriented to stand, Sokka crawled on hands and knees to where Zuko still lay motionless. Uncaring as he wiped the blood on the blade away on his sleeve, he sliced through the tough fabric of Zuko’s jacket.
Something about the motion made Zuko cough and Sokka was elated to hear some sign of life. “Zuko? Stay with me. Please. You have to hold on.”
“Eeehh!” This was from the old man as he peered into the distance, his binoculars almost as old as he was. “Komak raara segee!”
Sokka wasn’t paying attention. The bullet hole in the jacket was plain as day as he peeled what was left of it away and he expected to find a pool of blood underneath.
But there was none.
Blood wasn’t the only thing missing. The shirt. The not-so-fancy-shirt that he’d teased Zuko for wearing had no bullet hole.
Running his hands over the not-so-fancy shirt in amazement, Sokka was horrified at the grind of bone on bone. Many bones on bones. Sokka jumped back in alarm at Zuko’s soft moan of pain.
Much more gently this time, he tried again; he had to see what was underneath. Sokka lifted the edge of his shirt to slice it away as delicately as he could.
The little multitool, the one that had cut through rope and flesh with equal ease, couldn’t cut into a simple t-shirt. Not at all. Sokka sawed at it and got nowhere, his head throbbing in his confusion.
“Komak raara segee!” The old man repeated this with a thump to Sokka’s shoulder.
In a daze, he looked up.
There was a helicopter. The best fucking helicopter in the whole wide world, patterned with its tans and greens; it was on the move and heading their way fast.
Aang was bouncing up and down as if calling the rescue team to him, waving like a maniac with the radio Sokka had given him in his hand.
Komak raara segee
Slumping to the ground, Sokka breathed a sigh of relief. Vision turning grey around the edges, he looked to Zuko.
Help is on the way.
There was the tiniest of tiny breaths as he watched Zuko’s shattered ribs rise and fall and Sokka smiled.
Help is on the way.
Unconsciousness proved too hard to resist.
--------
Sanga? How?
Wasla dee parmzaka kegda- put down your weapon
delta raasha- come here
moong delta raghlee yu che staase sara maresta wukru- We are here to help you.
komak raara segee- help is on the way
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-03-24 02:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-24 03:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-24 12:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-24 03:37 am (UTC)ok. so i'm going to read again and then offer you comprehensible feedback.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-24 10:31 am (UTC)edit: this chapter was a complete bear so I'm totally neurotic about it
no subject
Date: 2011-03-24 04:11 am (UTC)This was fantastic! Loved it (especially giant Kyoshi, dunno why. Just sounded really awesome.)
<3 <3
no subject
Date: 2011-03-24 10:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-27 08:25 pm (UTC)Anyway, awesome chapter! And yea! for the previous Avatars making appearances as nomads - so awesome. XD Kyoshi would be such a friggin' awesome nomad.
The shirt, damn but was that an awesome shirt. Iroh's gifts really are the best in the world!
no subject
Date: 2011-03-27 08:34 pm (UTC)I'm really glad you liked it! This chapter had me on pins and needles to try and bring everything together.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-20 12:22 am (UTC)----
why wouldn't he just shoot her- if not to kill- to wound bad enough to stop her. after what she's already proved herself capable of- why would he warn her, give her chance to fight back or take hostage- was he stupid enough to think she'd surrender. he was willing to risk his and sokka's life on it after all they'd been through and all he knows her capable of. that doesn't seem so smart.
---------------------------------------------------------------
i was also surprised that they didn't use the very big distraction of the mountain crumbling and the dust cloud to try to escape-because they knew it was coming and azula didn't- and azula was definitely distracted from what you wrote.
-----------------p------------------------------------------
this was an exciting chapter. it was interesting as well- we discover the evil family plan to let chaos reign and make money selling weapons to both sides, etc.
thanks for sharing another chapter
no subject
Date: 2011-04-20 01:18 am (UTC)As far as why Zuko doesn't simply kill his sister, well... she is in fact his sister. I really don't think he would ever be able to pull the trigger. If we go by what we see in the actual Agni Kai in the series, Zuko's moves are often defensive and meant to contain. While he knows he must do what it takes to eliminate her as a threat, his actions show that he most definitely is looking for the least harmful way to do this. This story is meant to be a retelling of what goes on in ATLA after all. The most expeditious thing would have been for Zuko and Katara to kill Azula in the finale yet they do not.
As for the explosion and dust cloud,the survival training the modern military drills into all its members the world over has been mentioned in this story several times previously- Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape. Realistically I tried to convey that the boys had no idea what would actually occur and with them both exhausted, suffering from heat stroke and Sokka injured, I didn't think it was at all unreasonable for them to realize that running would be a terrible idea especially with the very real possibility of Azula putting a bullet in both their backs. It didn't seem too big of a stretch for Zuko to think he might be able to successfully overpower his sister rather than run.
I guess I'll be retouching on the company's plans in the Middle East but it was never really about money but the balance of power as Azula says.
Sorry this sort of stuff wasn't clearer! I'll see what I can do to improve on it next time.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 08:27 pm (UTC)First off, Jet. He's a kooky little bugger and the way you wrote him was just marvelous. I loved to see him so trigger-happy and after reading the warning for that chapter I could only go 'Whelp, that's gonna be Jet. He always dies :C' And what a way to go! The little part with Longshot was really touching (Though I'll admit that having his actual name be Jenkins made me giggle at how right it seemed. Only he could pull off such a casual name.) The way he got his nickname was touching.
The little bits of information you looked up and small details you added were astounding. The camps, sleeping arrangements, Sex Ed with Song, the little bits in another language and not just English with the '<' or '>' brackets - it's really the little things that make fics like these amazing.
All the little canon secondary characters you've put in are really fun to read. Zhao, for one, and Hakoda for another were really fun to see.
I really enjoyed reading this and am going to be following along on FF.Net since I keep forgetting I even have a LJ account XD
no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 10:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 09:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 11:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-20 01:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-20 01:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 11:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-08 04:47 am (UTC)I just read all that you have posted! Its !!! Really I'm just useless at leaving comments! But write more!!
no subject
Date: 2011-06-08 12:08 pm (UTC)