As Gladiator draws to a close, I've spent the past year working on my next project: an original story, unlike anything I've ever written until now!
Set in the year of 9432, humanity has one final opportunity to save a dying Earth: across the entire galaxy, only two pilots can fulfill the mission that may finally revitalize the planet... but there are complex forces at play that may just alter the course of destiny before that mission is fulfilled. And perhaps said forces have already changed fate once before...
Feel free to read more about 7KLYA on this free Patreon post! I'll be posting more about it in the months to come!
A/N: Welp. This is undeniably the story I'm most nervous to post in the history of my fanfiction writing career :'D
The reason for that might be obvious if you read the summary: this is a very big, very complex setting, far removed from my usual areas of expertise. I've become an avid researcher, as a writer... but nothing I'd done before compares to the work I've put into researching and developing this setting, and I'm sure I didn't get everything right anyway but hey, it's fiction! I'm allowed to ignore reality and the laws of physics if I want to! xD
I have altered a handful of story elements in order to adjust them better to Avatar as a whole, including changing the names of many important OCs so that you guys won't find them too jarring after being used to Asian names all the time. I've also kept the codenames for exoplanets based on their stars instead of using the new names I've come up with for them :'D it's worth noting, a few planets you'll see in this story either don't exist or haven't been discovered yet, but all the stars that will be mentioned are very real! Feel free to look up more info about exoplanets as you read this story, if you're curious about them :D
Ultimately... this story is a companion piece and major contribution to the very complicated original setting I've been working on across this year, for around seven months now, give or take. To put it simply, this story is both useful practice so I can get even more immersed in this setting, and it's my attempt to test the waters to see through you guys if the worldbuilding comes across correctly and isn't too convoluted to follow.
I can certainly say that TDWC will have some familiar beats based on our usual dorks, Sokka and Azula and their many chaotic adventures... just as it's going to break some of my personal rules in fanfiction writing, particularly the one where I try not to make OCs look like bigger deals than the characters from the fandom I'm writing for... you'll have to forgive me for that one but, technically, this entire setting spawned because of a very prominent female OC you'll meet throughout this story and I simply cannot diminish her importance :'D alas, I hope I wrote the OC in question carefully enough that her participation in the story isn't overwhelming nor offputting for you all.
Oooooookay, then! I'll try to make my big nerves to calm down, I hope you guys enjoy, and I'll see you on the other side of Sokkla Saturdays!
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The public's deafening cheers started well before the greatly publicized ceremony did: sky laser projectors cast countless lights that poured out of the large plaza, conditioned for that day's celebratory event. Azula's father had secured a privileged position for their family to observe the spectacle, ensuring that they wouldn't wind up squeezed by the masses that were still pouring into the venue, eager and desperate for a glimpse of the most notorious galactic hero in human history.
Used to Earth's landscape, to its gravity and atmosphere, the change of scenery from that blue planet to its notoriously red neighbor didn't agree entirely with the fifteen-year-old girl… those blue sunsets instead of red or orange felt out of place still, but in all fairness, growing used to Mars after a mere week since her arrival might have been too much to hope for. Inevitably, Azula pondered how different other human settlements might be, such as the booming moon in Jupiter's orbit, Europa. A lot of people had traveled to Mars from Europa and many other solar system locations, in fact, to witness today's memorable event… Azula herself had come here with her family from Earth. Ursa was rather stoked to witness and support Zuko's participation in the military parade… Ozai, on the other hand, seemed far more pleased over his own successful efforts at gaining a foothold in the Stellar Council Chairman's Inner Circle.
Azula watched the relentless crowd through the windows of the grand hotel right by the plaza, where all the high-profile guests resided while awaiting the arrival of the very last of them… the guest around whom this entire event had been planned. Azula's parents had told her to be as polite and proper as possible, a feat she normally wouldn't struggle with, but it had been much harder to do so across that week. Spending time around so many people with far too much power and far too little intelligence would grind anyone's gears… the height of the Stellar Council's power was, perhaps, the biggest collection of power-hungry idiots Azula had ever come across.
But the time for the celebration to begin approached: the aforementioned group of power-hungry idiots were finally ready to take up their privileged positions at the dais around the plaza.
Ozai wore his finest suit, with its tall collar and sober colors that contrasted spectacularly with the ostentatious, shameless shades worn by his brand-new friend: the Stellar Council's Chairman, Liu Lijun, had arrived only the previous day and boasted of a rather unsavory reputation, just as he had a grand following of sycophants who hoped to accrue his favor… much as they hoped to claim, through him, the closest thing to eternal life humanity had ever experienced. Azula knew, of course, that her father only endured the unpleasant Chairman and humored his every whim for that reason alone. A man as lacking in patience, as curt and blunt as Ozai, would not share so many drinks, or join so many social outings with Liu if he had nothing to gain from it.
Azula and Ursa walked through the inner passageways of the hotel as they marched towards the brand new footbridge, recently crafted to link the hotel with the plaza. They remained several strides behind Ozai, Liu Lijun, and all the other bootlickers that crowded around the stout, blond man.
"Say… does Father intend to take the Chairman's seat for himself?" Azula asked her mother carelessly, as she focused on her surroundings: her neural chip, implanted in the back of her neck, supplied instant information upon recognizing the people surrounding her father.
Neural chips enhanced the human experience on every level: information would appear before their eyes pertaining to any given subject, just as any music or game could be played within someone's mind at the drop of a hat. Neural chips also allowed what, in other age, might have been deemed telepathy, where people could communicate through their minds alone, if they sought privacy. Azula, however, didn't bother hiding her rather treasonous words this time…
"Curses, Azula… don't say anything like that out loud," Ursa hissed. Azula smirked slightly. "Do you want to get your father in trouble?"
"Is security truly that tight here in Mars that I can't just indulge in a little harmless treason?" Azula asked, glancing about herself – two, three cameras in this hallway alone. She snorted. "I thought this was paradise compared to Earth. Crime is nearly non-existent, people are so very friendly and kind…!"
"I doubt security is like this all the time," Ursa admitted. "It's just because Chairman Liu is here, and… well, because of all the important people who will be here too, of course."
"And it's not because of the Clones, of course. Not at all," Azula said, casually. Ursa stiffened. "Seems like a terribly foolish event to stage when your greatest political threat is supposedly oh so scary…"
"Liu Lijun means to prove he's not scared, in fact."
Azula stiffened at once: perhaps her mother had a point regarding her casual conversation about such delicate subjects.
Even so, the tension deflated quickly when a tall, bulky man approached them from down the hall with a gentle smile. His dark uniform, highlighted with the blue hues and golden arrows signaling his rank of Battle Master of the Stellar Fleet, featured several medals upon his left lapel as well: he was Ren Jiahao, the most popular member of the Fleet, the gold standard by which members of the Council's military branch were ever measured, and a friend of Ozai's since a few years back.
"Oh, Ren," Ursa laughed. Ren hushed her playfully with a finger over his mouth. "Azula didn't mean to… she's a teenager. Speaks her mind when she shouldn't…!"
"Ah, well. That doesn't have to be a bad thing. Someone has to say what we're all thinking," Ren smiled down at Azula: the teenager in question was ever daunted by the man's considerable height, as he was well over six feet tall and boasting of a strong, sturdy muscular build. "Your brother would likely join the battle, should the clones attack… but rest assured, we're ready to defend Mars from any threats we may face, be it today or whenever. Your family will be safe."
"Are you sure?" Ursa asked, biting her lip.
"Absolutely. I wouldn't have brought my own family here if I thought otherwise," Ren smiled, glancing back over his shoulder: his wife Xiaoyan rushed towards him, carrying their six-year-old boy in her arms. "I know it's hard to relax when we're at war with the clones, but… rest assured, Mrs. Homura. The Stellar Fleet will undo any threat to humanity's expansion across the galaxy."
Azula frowned: she had heard of the brewing conflict between humanity and the clones all her life… it had started long before her birth. The idea that anything could threaten humanity's expansion and space exploration seemed so utterly absurd, for no intelligent life had been found anywhere in over a hundred exoplanets they'd explored so far…
It made perfect sense, of course, that the worst threat humanity would face would happen to be the one they had developed and mismanaged themselves. Her father had been the first to tell her as much, back when he had been critical and harsh towards the establishment he now shacked up to… it sickened Azula to see him reduced to yet another of Liu's sycophants, even if Ozai believed that was necessary for their family's long-term survival.
"Now, then… are you ready for the ceremony?" Ren asked, with an eager smile. They all resumed the walk, with Ren keeping an arm around his wife as Azula and Ursa marched at his other side. "It's going to be her biggest public sighting in… heh. I don't know. Probably ever?"
"And we're sure she's going to be there?" Ursa asked, her voice betraying her excitement. "Most people have only heard about her in school, or on the news on occasion… it's hard to believe we'll meet Captain Takei in person."
"Most people haven't, sure," Ren said, with a smug smile. His wife elbowed him lightly. "Hey! Why do you always get so worked up about her? There's never been anything going on between her and me, Xiaoyan! It's just empty rumors."
"I don't like the way you talk about her," Xiaoyan responded, stubbornly. Ren sighed and rolled his eyes. Ursa chuckled at the marriage's argument, offering Ren a sympathetic smile.
"I've met her like… thrice, and she thinks we're having an affair. As if that were even possible," Ren said, eyes wide. "I doubt she's in anyone's league, to begin with… her entire life is about biocatalyzing planets: nothing more, nothing less."
Azula couldn't help but perk up after hearing that: humanity had achieved extraordinary feats across the past thousands of years, as technology advanced enough to enable stellarflights, trips across the galaxy at lightspeed. But where many, such as Liu Lijun, relied on such technology merely to extend their lifespans by jumping across the galaxy, the Stellar Fleet's Cosmic Forces would utilize the technology for far more crucial duties that revolved around one of the greatest miracles humanity had crafted: the Lifeseed.
Lifeseeds were bombs of organic matter that would be launched into a planet's nucleus. The impact triggered a massive terraforming shift across the celestial body, enhancing the existing atmosphere and providing it with the necessary elements for humanity to survive within the planet's premises. Along with that, the bomb would jumpstart the creation of a biosphere through accelerated evolution of plants and animals suited to the environment… it would, in short, condition a planet for humanity to exist on it without needing special suits or masks to breathe. The process was officially called Stellar Body Biocatalysis, and at this point, it had been performed successfully in over a hundred celestial bodies, be it within Earth's Solar System or beyond it, through stellarflights.
Mars's current condition as an inhabitable planet was the product of the second-ever successfully planted Lifeseed, almost three thousand years ago – the first had been done on the Moon, the first attempt failed but the second one had done the trick. Human society had expanded and boomed in the planet across that time, just as the same had happened in the moons of Europa, by Jupiter, in Enceladus, of Saturn, and many other moons that suited all parameters for human survival.
Every child grew up dreaming of becoming a Stellar Fleet pilot, and the boldest of them wished to be core pod pilots, the heroes who would plant a miraculous Lifeseed and succeed at biocatalyzing a planet. Only a handful of them succeeded at graduating from the Stellar Fleet's Academy, and even less of them would become core pod pilots. And even then, with as much training as they received, success wasn't guaranteed: if a pilot failed to fly out of the carved tunnel to the nucleus on time, the subsequent explosion of the Lifeseed would quite likely kill the pilot, a tragedy that had already occurred several times across three thousand years of thorough space exploration.
Anyone who survived a biocatalysis mission would become a hero of humanity: someone who had done it fifty times across her career in the Stellar Fleet was more akin to a living myth, instead.
That was the person Ren spoke of, the one his wife seemed so apprehensive over… the same one that the massive crowd waited to see once she finally landed on Mars for the very first time in her career: the legendary core pod pilot, Captain-…
"Ren! Ah, there you were! Having too much fun with the missus last night and overslept, did you?"
Liu Lijun's laughter boomed through the halls when he turned around to spot Ren alongside Azula and Ursa.
Ren tensed up and smiled awkwardly, letting go of his wife and speeding up to greet the ridiculous man with bleached blond hair, dressed in a purple crop-top with partitioned sleeves, with a red undershirt and a massive gold belt, furnished with a buckle bearing the emblem of the Stellar Council. Covered in trite jewelry and dressed in what he would surely deem casual wear, Liu Lijun's two-day stubble, empty and genetically modified green eyes, and perpetual smile, had unnerved Azula all her life, even back when he had only been a distant figure she would see in her school documents about meaningful historical figures, or in media news reels.
"I didn't oversleep, no… I'm sorry if I made you wait too long, Liu," Ren said, bowing his head and raising his left fist to his chest: he extended his middle and index fingers, pressing against his right pectoral, the respectful greeting for a superior authority figure.
"Oh, pssht, don't be so dramatic!" Liu Lijun laughed, looking over at the others who arrived with Ren. "Ah… this is your woman, Ozai?"
"Yes, this is… my wife, Ursa," Ozai said, categorically. Azula couldn't help but notice the twitch of his fist, as he suppressed the natural reactions he felt towards Liu Lijun… to think he put up with all of it, all be it for the chance of clutching power someday, or for the sake of prolonging his lifespan unnaturally.
"Huh," Liu Lijun said, his voice dismissive… then, his eyes fell upon Azula, instead.
The snakes that crawled inside her stomach warned her to keep her distance from the man, to refuse any attempt at friendliness he might offer… not that she truly expected any. But she would not play the sycophant, no matter if her father glared at her threateningly, urging her to contain her revulsion…
"And this your kid?" Liu Lijun said: he eyed her up and down, repeatedly. "Hmm. Well. Give it a few years, give or take…"
Bile rose in Azula's throat upon hearing those words: wasn't her father going to do something? Wasn't her mother…? Ursa moved, hand rising to clasp her wrist. She seemed to want to step in front of her, protectively…
Then, Liu Lijun snorted and cackled.
"Nah, never mind. She's not my type!"
His laughter boomed across the hallway, and the other men and women surrounding him, besides Ozai, laughed with him. Ozai breathed deeply, offended, outraged… Azula stared at him in chagrin, only for her father to tighten his lips in a line and turn towards Liu Lijun once more.
"Now, now, no sour faces, Ozai! Just joking, just joking…!" he said, patting Ozai's back. Ozai cast a remorseful glance at the two women of his family…
But even so, he marched ahead with Liu Lijun, whose interest in Ren and his company had waned as quickly as it had arrived. They started crossing the temporary footbridge that connected the hotel and the plaza, a commodity that had been added in a hurry to the location, by Liu Lijun's demand. From there, him and his group would enter the rows of best seats without so much as needing to approach the general crowd.
The only one among Liu Lijun's favorites who didn't follow him right away was Ren, who turned towards Azula with an apologetic grimace.
"Don't… don't take it too seriously," Ren said, softly. Azula scowled at him. "He's like a child. Doesn't measure anything he says or does…"
"And clearly, nobody's going to measure it for him," Azula hissed. Ren sighed, then frowned.
"What do you say if, well, I help you stay away from him?" he suggested. Ursa glanced at him in surprise. "The Task Master of the Terrestrial Forces of Mars will have his family here too. Xiaoyan and Tai will sit near them… you could join them, if you'd like. No need to be anywhere near Liu Lijun that way."
"That… that would be for the best," Ursa said, breathing deeply and hugging Azula. "Fuck… fuck, I'm sorry."
"At least you are," Azula said, bitterly: her father had been her hero long ago… but Liu Lijun's attention had turned him into everything he had always claimed to be above of. Her heart burned with rage, her throat thick with tears of frustration…
How could a man be so utterly bereft of shame and decency, so deeply disconnected from any sign of self-awareness…? Had power turned him into this sickening wretch? Was it the lightspeed travels he resorted to, to extend his lifespan for as long as he might, or had Liu Lijun been like this all along?
Whatever the case, Azula despised the Chairman profoundly. She had found him unnerving before… by now, her resentment had been bolstered all the more upon confirming that her initial judgment of the man had been accurate all along.
They crossed the footbridge too, and Ursa accompanied Azula to the seat Ren had offered her: the plaza, lined with rows upon rows of cheering spectators, seemed to acclaim Liu Lijun once he stepped out into view, waving at the audience and blowing kisses in their direction. Azula would have gladly ignored anything he did, but unfortunately, screens lining the entire place ensured that the Chairman's presence could not be overlooked… at least, not through natural means. Azula instructed her neural chip to supply a replacement feed of information and audio to block out the Chairman: an old childhood TV show started playing across those screens instead, if just for Azula's private enjoyment.
"Here?" Ursa asked Ren, who nodded as they reached the seats he had suggested. "Okay… okay. Stay here, Azula. I'll go sit with your father, and…"
"Can you kick him in the shin for me?" Azula asked, with a slight smile.
"Later, surely. We don't want to make a scene now," Ursa said, with a sigh. Azula rolled her eyes. "You'll be safe over here, dear. I promise."
"Whatever," Azula said, stepping towards the half-empty bench that Xiaoyan was already sitting at with her son. Azula made certain to sit as far as possible from the ornate balcony that Liu Lijun, Ren and her parents would be sitting at.
She dropped in place, scowling heavily at the masses below: fools like these gave power to undeserving buffoons, following their every whim, feeling whatever emotions they were expected to while in the presence of a man as despicable as the Chairman. And she was supposed to be one of them, to play her part as another cog in the Stellar Council's pointless machine, much like her brother already was part of the Stellar Fleet…
She couldn't even see him among the military rows displayed at either side of the long walkway in the plaza, even though she knew he was one of the recruits standing in position to welcome the grand hero of the Stellar Fleet on that day. Her eyes scanned the area, finding that the Cosmic Forces and Mars's Terrestrial Forces were mixed among each other, with the latter's burgundy uniform highlighted among the dark grey of the former.
"Uh… hi. Sorry, but… you're in my seat?"
Azula turned her scowl towards the newest arrival: a young man, at most two years older than herself, with dark hair and a tan skin color… he carried an armful of snacks, and he was dressed in Mars's celebratory paraphernalia pertaining the appointment of their brand-new Premier.
"Oh… uh, you know what? I can just… sit here. Sure," the young man winced over the killer glare Azula shot in his direction. "Katara? You want to sit next to this friendly Earthling here, or…?"
"Are all Martians so cowardly, or is it just you?" Azula blurted out: the words hit the boy's pride quite effectively, and he turned towards her with outrage plain across his features. "Well?"
"I'm… not cowardly. You are sneaky and taking people's seats when they left for ten minutes to get snacks!" the guy exclaimed, pouting. Azula couldn't help but smirk at his reaction.
"Too bad. I was told by Battle Master Ren Jiahao to sit here, though, so… tough luck," Azula said, stretching back: it was disgusting, she knew, to reap the advantage of having powerful friends, much as her father did… but she was in a bad enough mood to wave Ren around as a threat. His name might just allow her to do as she pleased to no consequences.
"Well, I was told by my father, Task Master Hakoda Harkin, to sit here, so… tough luck to you," the guy retorted, dropping on the seat beside her unceremoniously.
The young woman who followed him was carrying just as many sweets and candy as he was carrying spicy and salty snacks: she seemed younger than him, and going by their familiarity, it was easy enough for Azula to conclude they were siblings, more so when the girl kicked the guy's rear.
"Scooch over, Sokka!" she exclaimed.
"There's no more room!" he squeaked. "You go find another seat…!"
"Oh, sure, so you can hit on that girl without me being there to ruin it for you? Not a chance," the girl said, pushing her way into the bench: Azula gasped as she wound up pressed against the balcony's railing, with the boy nearly atop her. "There!"
"Katara, stop that!"
"Quit being so whiny, Sokka. Or I'll keep all the Terra Bars for myself!"
"Hey, you can't eat all of them, we bought so many…! Come on, Katara!"
Azula huffed and shoved back: the two siblings nearly dropped their snacks again, and this time it seemed they'd ally against her rather than bickering with each other.
"Well, that's a feisty one," Katara huffed.
"An asshole, rather," Sokka remarked, pouting. "I'd have offered you some salted nuts, Earthling, but if you're gonna be that way…!"
"Why would you offer me salted nuts when you don't even know me?" Azula hissed, looking at him skeptically.
It was quite annoying, Azula realized, to find that the irritating young man was easy on the eyes… but that wouldn't change her animosity one bit, nor would it keep her from defying him with her golden glare. Sokka grunted, Azula's eyes narrowed…
But a deafening noise interrupted the promising beginning of a lifelong feud: the speakers across the plaza lit up, as did the screens, with images of a lean, smooth stellarship breaching Mars's atmosphere… Azula stopped her replacement feed right away, catching a glimpse of what riled up the crowd so much
"Oh, shit… she's almost here!" Katara exclaimed, squealing as she grabbed her brother's arm. Sokka bit his lip but smiled, too.
"Good. The sooner it's over, the sooner we can all go home," Azula huffed.
"Why're you here if you don't want to be, anyway?" Sokka growled. "This is a big day for Mars, alright? If you don't care for it, you could've skipped the trip."
"I would have, if my parents hadn't dragged me here and sent me to sit where I am now because…" Azula started, but then stopped: she had no idea if this foolish boy was also some kind of Liu Lijun enthusiast… in her experience, most people pretended to be, if just for the sake of basking in the man's fame and fortune, if the opportunity arose. "Oh, whatever. I'll be out of here as soon as it's over."
"Heh… then at least try to enjoy it until it is, right?" Sokka said, with a slight smile. "I wasn't any nicer to you just now, sorry for that, but… you look like you're in a bad mood and you shouldn't be. This is a happy day, unless… wait, is it you wanted her to be Earth's Premier, instead?!"
"Hmm. Can't say I'd mind if that were the case. Anything's better than what we've got right now," Azula said, rolling her eyes.
"Oh? You don't like Liu Lijun?" Katara asked, as she snacked on a chocolate bar happily. "He seems like a very cheerful guy…"
"Oh, sure. He's very cheerful, and he hasn't had a singular intelligent thought in… what, four hundred years? How long has that loser been around at this point?" Sokka said: Azula perked up upon hearing that.
"You… think he's a moron?" Azula asked. Sokka snorted.
"Everyone does. I'm just the only one who'll say it outright, apparently," he said.
He froze on the spot, however, upon finding the dangerous-looking, angry girl was smiling at him.
"U-uh… am I in trouble? Or is that your sincere smile…?" he asked, his voice small.
To his relief, Azula laughed and sighed, closing her eyes as she rejoiced in knowing that, if nothing else, there was one more person close to her age who could see through Liu Lijun as easily as that.
"It's nothing. Just… thank you. I feel a little less alone in the universe all of a sudden," she said.
Sokka perked up at that. He raised his eyebrows, eyed Katara, and his sister scowled meaningfully at him.
"Sokka, don't be such a…"
Sokka cleared his throat, then, and offered a bag of chips to Azula.
"Well, if that's how it is, uh… maybe not nuts. But maybe you can have some of my chips? If, uh, if you want any, of course," he said, attempting nonchalance and failing at it utterly as his cheeks flushed.
Azula stared at him pointedly, her amusement freezing. He grimaced, immediately wary of her sudden silence…
Azula reached for the bag, opened it, and started to gobble down chips.
Sokka smiled brightly and turned towards Katara, making a celebratory gesture. Katara rolled her eyes, shaking her head.
"Weren't you ready to pick a fight with her like thirty seconds ago?"
"Sure, but that was thirty seconds ago!"
Despite herself, Azula actually smiled upon hearing the siblings' bickering. She hadn't come to Mars with the intent to meet anyone new… but she seemed to have been lucky enough to wind up sitting by amusing people, despite their rocky beginnings.
Azula was halfway through her bag of chips, and Sokka and Katara were in the middle of arguing over their personal tier lists of the best Martian snacks, when the crowd stirred once more. Azula tensed up, raising her gaze towards the sky: sure enough, among the reddened clouds, the pointy hull of the stellarship they'd seen on the screens earlier finally made its appearance. It was sleek and large, a far more advanced model than the stellarship Azula had boarded to come to Mars earlier that week. Power poured from the thrusters until the ship landed smoothly in its assigned landing platform, at the very end of the plaza…
The crowd was utterly beyond hope at this point. The loud celebratory music, the cheers, the screams, the holographic signs, the laser beams of all colors: Azula hadn't seen a reaction so visceral and enthusiastic over anything ever before.
"Woah, boy. You ready, Katara?" Sokka nearly had to shout for his sister to hear him. Katara smiled.
"It could be our only sighting, but… it won't be, right?" Katara reasoned. "She's going to be our Premier now. Meaning… she's going to stick around for quite a bit, right?"
"Probably… hopefully," Sokka said, with a shrug. "I mean, as long as she's good at the job…"
"You're talking about Atsuko Takei, Sokka. She's good at everything!"
It was the name every child grew up hearing, for it was heralded and lauded as the name of the most extraordinary pilot humanity had ever seen. Of course, if any human was trained in the arts of piloting and granted a ship of such remarkable quality and build, they, too, might seem extraordinary, Azula reasoned… she sighed as she stared at the landed ship, guessing it wouldn't be long before the legendary pilot stepped into view. As she waited, she pulled up information on the famous pilot in her neural chip, hoping to glean more about who she was beyond her fame and legend… her available biography wasn't particularly thorough, however.
"No birth date?" Azula whispered to herself, scrolling through the documents that appeared in her mind. Most information was far too recent for someone of such renown and importance in human culture at large. Had someone scrubbed the available information about Atsuko Takei, for some reason?
By then, Liu Lijun, Ren, even her father and a few other chosen members of Liu's group, had climbed down from their seats: they now stood at the ceremonial stage instead… and along with them stood Arun Yooyen, a man of pale complexion in his mid-sixties, who bore the ceremonial scepter of Mars in his hands: he was the current Premier, set to be replaced on that very day by the new arrival. Going by what the screens showed, the man appeared perfectly relaxed, perhaps ready to abandon power… though there was a sadness to his gaze that Azula couldn't help but notice after she dismissed her brief investigation into Takei.
"Was he a good Premier?" Azula asked. Sokka shrugged.
"I mean, sure. Mars's a lot better off than Earth, as everyone knows…" he said, with a smug smirk. Azula rolled her eyes.
"I'm not picking a fight. I'm just asking… did he do a decent job?" she said. Sokka smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, yeah. He was alright, but… I guess, if Katara's hero is better, we'll all forget about Old Arun pretty quickly."
Perhaps only the annals of history would remember Arun's name indeed, for no achievement he had to his name could possibly measure up to being the predecessor of the legendary Atsuko Takei's tenure as Premier of Mars… as proven by the even louder ruckus once the aforementioned pilot stepped out of her stellarship, at last.
All cameras focused on her. Every single pair of eyes was glued to the Stellar Fleet's captain… a built, tall woman of around forty years of age, dressed in her regular service uniform rather than the formal one that all present military forces wore on that day. Along with that, Azula couldn't help but notice that the woman's long, black hair was disheveled, careless, as though she hadn't bothered styling it for years – considering how often Atsuko Takei traveled at lightspeed between exoplanets, perhaps it would be accurate to say she hadn't brushed it for over a decade indeed.
Her skin was pale, and the bags under her eyes matched the rest of her unkempt, informal appearance. But something about the Captain's energy, something about the way she carried herself, held an effortless charisma that turned her into the center of attention in any room she set foot in.
Perhaps the most striking of her features, though, would be her dark eyes: the cameras that zoomed in on her face showed a woman who, far from being flattered or delighted by this reception, appeared confused and annoyed by it, instead.
"Woah… looks like someone crapped on your hero's cereals this morning, Katara," Sokka said, grimacing.
"What the…? Shut up!" Katara hissed, smacking her brother's leg lightly. "It's Atsuko Takei you're talking about! Show some respect!"
"I'm just saying…" Sokka said, raising his hands defensively.
The Captain glared at her surroundings in silence: everything about her body language screamed tension, and that didn't change as she marched with long strides towards the ceremonial dais where Liu Lijun and his posse awaited her.
"One would think she'd be happier to get the job of a lifetime, right?" Sokka continued, after munching on his snacks some more.
"Wrong," Azula stated. Sokka froze, looking at her in surprise. "Core pilots have the job of many lifetimes. If I were her? Becoming a Premier, being stuck governing a planet until death or demotion, would feel like a downgrade instead."
"W-well…! C'mon, who wants to keep jumping across space for thousands and thousands of years anyway," Sokka said, blushing. "And she could do a lot worse than Mars! This is a great place to be a Premier of, I don't see why she'd have a problem with it…"
Sokka continued to mumble in protest as the loud music dwindled clumsily: Atsuko's long strides had brought her to the dais far faster than expected. Liu Lijun cleared his throat as the microphone-drone hovering over him amplified his voice…
"Welcome, everyone, and of course, welcome, our dear Captain Takei! Us representatives from the Stellar Council, we're…!"
"What the hell is this?"
Atsuko's harsh voice almost sounded like it hadn't been used in several weeks, but its strength was beyond question, amplified too by the microphone-drone: something was definitely wrong, and the Stellar Fleet's captain clearly would not stand for it.
Azula frowned, though, processing the woman's question, as well as its disrespectful tone… she didn't speak to the Chairman as though he were an authority she was obligated to answer to.
"Why… I'm sure Battle Master Jiahao explained when he summoned you," said Liu Lijun, with a nervous chuckle. "Or didn't he?"
"He didn't tell me shit," Atsuko rebuffed: she turned a meaningful glare on the tall man, as though his military rank weren't higher than her own. "Nothing other than that some Chairman wanted to see me. Guess that's you?"
"I… yes. I've been Chairman for the past three hundred years," Liu Lijun pointed out, with an awkward smile: his patience wasn't extensive, and it was already running out after receiving no manner of respect from the woman for whom he had staged this grand event. "You must have heard of me: I'm Liu Lijun. Ring any bells, Captain?"
Liu Lijun chuckled, glancing about his sycophants as though expecting them to support him. They laughed with him, naturally… but their nervousness could not be more apparent, more so as Atsuko crooked an unamused eyebrow. Liu Lijun's false smile faltered immediately.
"Can't say it does," Atsuko said, bluntly.
A few chuckles echoed, scattered, across the large plaza. None left Azula's lips… but she leaned forward, staring intently… for the biggest drag of her life had become the most entertaining spectacle instead in a matter of moments.
Liu Lijun's displeasure showed in spades, but as he stood in a public venue, filled to the brim with witnesses, he attempted to contain his childish reaction… to a fault. He let out a disbelieving, forced laugh as he stared at Atsuko with blistering frustration.
"Well, if you truly don't remember, it was me who called you back into active service after your stunt in…!"
He stopped talking when Ren dropped a hand on his shoulder: was it a warning? A threat? Whatever the case, for once it seemed that Liu Lijun would hold his tongue instead of jumping at the chance to humiliate someone. Atsuko didn't react in any visible manner to his tirade, nor to Ren's intervention… but Azula frowned upon hearing those words: the lack of information about Takei returned to mind. Was she right to suspect much of it had been scrapped? Why? Who had done it… and who benefited from such a thing?
"Let's… let's start over, shall we? I summoned you here so that I might reward you for your great services to the Stellar Council and the Cosmic Forces of the Stellar Fleet across your career," Liu Lijun said, his voice harsh at first, but gradually smoother and kinder, as his false smile returned. "It's not every day that a pilot successfully biocatalyzes no less than fifty planets, am I right? Am I right?!"
His words, his gestures, resulted in a cheer from the audience… and a deeper frown from Atsuko.
"As a result… on this day, I shall officially promote you to Task Master," Liu Lijun said, embracing his showmanship fully once more. "Doesn't that sound good, everyone? Give it up… for Task Master Atsuko Takei!"
Still no response from the woman receiving the acclaim and accolades. If anything, the glare she fixed on Liu Lijun seemed sharper than a burning laser at this point.
"It's like she wants to blow up his head," Sokka said, swallowing hard.
"Can't say I'd mind it if she did," Azula remarked, with a smirk: Sokka winced at her reaction.
"But it'd splatter everywhere, you know? It'd be so gross…"
"Could you guys just… be normal? For two seconds?" Katara huffed: Xiaoyan, at Katara's other side, shushed them and shook her head in disapproval at their chatter.
"And?"
Atsuko's next word echoed through the plaza anew. Liu Lijun winced, uncomfortable yet again as the celebratory cheers died down.
"What, I'm supposed to believe you made this fuss over a mere promotion? You got a big party like this when you got promoted, Ren?" Atsuko barked at the man, who gritted his teeth before looking at her meaningfully. "What the hell is this?"
"Look, just have some patience, alright?" Ren said: Atsuko actually seemed far more willing to listen to him than to Liu Lijun. "The truth is, you were called here because…"
"Because your greatest honor and reward for your career's achievements will be the position of Premier of Mars!" Liu Lijun blurted out, unwilling to allow Ren to be at the center of attention for a moment longer.
Now Atsuko reacted… with wide eyes, and parting lips. She even took a step back, as though Liu Lijun had pushed her violently with his sudden statement.
She hadn't known.
The Chairman had ambushed the grand cosmic hero with a job she hadn't agreed to or wanted…
"On this day, the current Premier of Mars, Arun Yooyen, is delighted to pass on the responsibility of governing this planet to you," Liu Lijun said, his smile sardonic and wicked. "Isn't that right, Arun?"
"Y-yes, yes, I… it has been an honor to govern Mars until today. I'm sure you'll do a… a fine job of it, Task Master Takei," said Arun, bowing his head towards her.
Atsuko's eyes shifted between the people on that stage, with her. While shooting the worst of the glares at Liu Lijun and Ren, she soon turned fully towards Arun, stepping in his direction: he instinctively raised the Premier's Scepter, offering it to her…
Liu Lijun took it first, smirking before pointing it at Atsuko.
"A great honor, he says, so… I advise you accept the job, Task Master Takei. As commander-in-chief of the Stellar Fleet, by virtue of being Chairman… you are in no position to refuse any appointment I give you. It's, in fact, your duty to accept it… as any active, respected member of the Stellar Fleet would."
Atsuko scowled. She glanced at Arun again…
Then, she raised a hand and clasped the scepter, taking it from Liu with a violent swipe.
The gesture represented acceptance of the role: even if she taken it so dismissively, ignoring all protocols that ought have been followed… whoever took possession of that scepter was, indeed, Premier of Mars.
The crowd launched in joyful celebration… though the sounds were far more restrained than upon Atsuko's earlier arrival. Clearly, the crowd was not immune to the tension and discomfort shown by their hero. Azula watched the reaction with a crooked eyebrow as Sokka, beside her, crossed his arms over his chest.
"And here I thought she'd actually appreciate it a bit," Sokka said.
"I already told you… she's a core pod pilot. This is… like throwing her in prison, or so," Azula stated. "Why would she abandon a career where she could keep piloting for the rest of her days just for your planet? For any planet?"
"I mean, her job is about fixing planets?" Sokka said, with a dry grin. "If she cares enough about them to plant Lifeseeds throughout hundreds of years, she probably ought to…"
The crowd quieted down after a sudden, new and unintelligible phrase in Atsuko's voice echoed across the plaza. Whatever she had said, it was addressed at Arun: the man cleared his throat.
"E-excuse me, what was that, i-if I may…?"
"How long were you Premier of this planet?"
"Oh, uh… six years, give or take," Arun said.
"Were you any good at it?" Atsuko asked. Arun froze. "Well, never mind. Shouldn't ask you: was he any good at governing your planet?!"
Atsuko turned around, addressing her words to the crowd: that she would finally acknowledge them resulted in a much wilder reaction than anticipated. It was hard to gauge whether the excitement was a positive or negative reaction to her question, for if anything, it seemed people were merely pleased that she had spoken to them at all. She sighed, rubbing her forehead with her fingertips.
"I'm going to ask you one last time!" she roared: her voice, stern and firm, sufficed to quiet the audience again. "If Arun Yooyen was any good as your Premier… cheer now!"
The initial reaction was quite meek… slowly, though, the shouts and cheers climbed in intensity and strength. Soon, the entire crowd appeared to be clapping or cheering: even Sokka, with a slight smile, started clapping too.
"Hey, the guy deserves his dues. He wasn't that bad," he said, as Katara stared at him with amusement.
"Well, I suppose that's true," she said, clapping politely as well. "Just seems odd of you to show appreciation like this…"
"Well, why would it be?! What's that supposed to mean, huh?!"
The loud cheers quieted down once Atsuko turned to face Arun again: the man's eyes were full of tears, and a grateful smile spread over his lips.
"T-thank you. I… thank you for that, Premier. I…"
"You still liked this job?" Atsuko asked him. Arun let out a soft, nervous laugh. "Just answer the question."
"I… I did, yes. I… I thought it was my calling to serve the people of Mars, but I can serve in many ways, of course I can. So…"
"Sure you can. How does Interim Premier sound to you?"
Silence. Utter, unfathomable silence spread across the stage, the crowd, everywhere after those words echoed through the magnified voice system.
"W-wait. Wait, you can't just appoint an interim without having served a single day as…!" Liu Lijun exclaimed: Atsuko shot a glare at him, her abrasive demeanor returning with a vengeance when she regarded him.
"Watch me."
She didn't even hesitate to flip the scepter: it twirled until it fell, yet again, in Arun's hands.
"I'll come back for that… someday," Atsuko said, with a dry grin. "Appoint a successor whenever you're sick of the job, or when you're about to die, if you happen to hold office until then. Good luck running your planet, Interim Premier Yooyen… and farewell."
She turned on her heels and marched down the long stretch of the plaza, right back to where she had landed her stellarship.
"D-did she just…?!" Katara gasped, eyes wide with horror.
"She rejected the… she rejected the job?" Sokka said: easygoing and calm as he had been so far, his face was suddenly a mask of seriousness… of displeasure.
"She accepted it… on her terms," Azula reasoned, watching Atsuko marching off, head held high, hair riding freely in the wind. "I mean, she had no warning she was getting this role, and that bastard wanted her to accept it because it suited his purposes, whatever they might be. She… she did the right thing, she…"
She had stood up to Liu Lijun.
More than that… she had humiliated the man before the largest audience to ever crowd around him.
The strange, inexplicable charisma that graced Atsuko Takei only seemed bolstered further as she abandoned the stage and crossed the plaza without so much as acknowledging anyone else: Azula noticed her father's utter shock, the uncertainty of what to do in this scenario… but her eyes shifted towards Atsuko anew, watching the woman leave as unexpected admiration blossomed in her chest: Azula had never heard of anyone from the Stellar Council with the guts to rise against Liu Lijun, unafraid of the consequences.
And why should she be afraid? A woman with fifty biocatalyzed planets to her name, who had risen through the Fleet's ranks through nothing but hard work and devotion to the Stellar Council's cause, could see Liu Lijun for the empty shell he was… and the Chairman certainly didn't take well to that.
"Hey! Hey!" he shrieked, forgetting his audience completely by now as he called for Atsuko, foregoing any manner of dignity. "I'm the Chairman! Get back here! We're not done, you…! Take another step and I'll strip away your titles! I'll decommission your ship if you keep walking, I…!"
Atsuko turned around.
The fear in Liu Lijun's face was palpable, immediate. He fell silent as the legendary pilot raised her fisted left hand to her chest, extending her index and middle fingers in the respectful salute, intended for a figure of authority…
Then, she raised the same hand and lowered her index finger, aiming a historic obscene gesture directly at Liu Lijun.
The gasp of horror and astonishment that ran through the crowd was unlike anything Azula had heard before… but she didn't join it.
No, Azula burst with surprisingly loud laughter, instead.
Sokka and Katara looked at her in chagrin as she shrank in her seat, unable to withhold the laughter: whether Atsuko happened to hear her or not, she'd never know… the woman continued to walk, turning around, still showing her middle finger at Liu Lijun until she reached her stellarship.
Within two minutes, Atsuko Takei had flown out of Mars's atmosphere, and no one left behind in the chaotic fiasco of her Premier appointment ceremony knew if they'd see her again in their lifetimes.
"What a bitch," Sokka said, blinking blankly. Azula, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, looked at him in disbelief.
"Why, because she gave that self-important blister the reality check he deserves?" Azula asked. "That was amazing…"
"Oh, please! She can make a Lifeseed off his ass, for all I care," Sokka huffed. "But… Mars is a pretty damn cool planet! She didn't just tell him to fuck off, she also told all of us she's too good for us!"
"Come on, that's not what she did," Azula said. Sokka scoffed.
"You saw it as well as I did!"
"This is so sad…" Katara groaned, pouting as she watched the pandemonium arising by the stage, and in the general audience. "I didn't think she'd just… leave! It's not fair…"
"It sounded like they were trying to corral her anyway," Azula said. "She had no idea what she had come here for… and she didn't let them make her choices for her. She… she didn't give a damn about their designs and made her own decisions."
The smile gracing her features only seemed stronger by the minute: Azula had never imagined this strange trip, her first one outside of Earth's atmosphere, would wind up becoming an eye-opening experience… but after witnessing such a shocking turn of events, a wildfire of purpose and determination had taken root in her heart.
Unbeknownst to her, the same was true for Sokka: inverse resolve arose within them as the pandemonium continued, as the uncontested control that Liu Lijun held across the Stellar Council threatened to quake and crumble in a way it never had before.
"He's beside himself," Ozai said an hour later, as he guided Ursa and Azula back to their suite in the hotel. "No one has ever slighted him in this way, I…"
"Was about time someone did," Azula said, curtly: that Ozai didn't respond to her blunt statement proved his awareness of his own hypocrisy… of his failings as a father upon allowing Liu Lijun to speak to Azula as he had, earlier.
"Is this going to be any trouble for you?" Ursa asked Ozai. He shook his head.
"No, if anything I'll make the most of this opportunity. We need to keep things contained and quiet. All records and accounts of what happened today will be deleted," he said. "Though… she is, legally, the Premier still. We will merely pretend the ceremony happened in a private affair, and the public announcement will be that she surrendered the job to Yooyen due to her sense of duty to humanity."
"Isn't that what she did?" Azula asked, raising her eyebrows. "She thinks her destiny is somewhere among the stars, not stuck in this meek planet… who thought a pilot would be any good as a politician, anyway?"
"Liu Lijun, I suppose," Ursa sighed.
"He doesn't care about that," Ozai hissed. "He… he wanted her out of the way. Fifty planets… we've barely biocatalyzed a hundred and twelve at this point, and almost half of them were her doing. Some… voices complain about wanting a chance to partake on missions like hers, so that resources are devoted to other pilots, not only to her. They looked forward to breaking her records once she retired, too, but…"
"Is that really what's important? Records? I wouldn't think that's why humanity is expanding across the galaxy, or is it?" Ursa sighed, as they entered the room and closed the door behind themselves. "At any rate, we'll go home tomorrow and leave all this madness behind. And… Liu Lijun won't get any closer to Azula. Understood?"
"Wouldn't dream of it," Ozai said, sighing and looking at his daughter remorsefully. "This being said… I need you to control your temper, Azula. I understand your distaste, you know I share it, but…"
"I don't know that you do," Azula scoffed. "You used to mock people doing what you're doing now. I know Uncle's… situation caused you to rethink some things in life, but…"
"You'll understand when you're old enough," Ozai said, curtly. Azula frowned. "For now… just remember you're in no position to do what Takei did. So don't even consider mocking him or doing anything that could jeopardize our family's position. Understood?"
The vitriol in his voice almost amused Azula. She stared at him skeptically for it, folding her arms over her chest.
"So… in short, I'm not getting away with ever speaking my mind to the Chairman or standing up for myself around him because I'm not Atsuko Takei. That's what you're saying?" Azula repeated. Ozai scowled.
"Exactly. Understood?"
"Perfectly," Azula said, biting her lip and smiling. "Oh… by the way? I've had about, uh, an hour to rethink my plans for the future. You know, about my career and such?"
"Azula…" Ursa eyed her meaningfully…
But Azula smirked proudly as she looked at her parents, who knew, before she spoke, that whatever she was about to say would only complicate their lives further. Azula had made up her mind by now, and the stubborn teenager would not change it, no matter what:
"Once we get back home, I'll enroll in the Academy and join the Stellar Fleet."
The Academy sent a congratulatory note to Ozai and Ursa when Azula passed the entrance exam with full marks, the best new recruit on Earth to join the Stellar Fleet. An honor Zuko hadn't boasted of, and one that he was noticeably uncomfortable with once he came across his sister in the recruits' barracks, two days after her class settled in the grand, silver building in the Asian branch headquarters of the Fleet, in Shenzhen, China.
"You never wanted to join the Fleet, though. What changed?" Zuko asked her, by the door of the female quarters. Azula shrugged, as several girls giggled upon walking past her, eyeing Zuko without any attempt to be discreet about their swooning. He failed to notice them, focused on his sister as he was.
"I'd say… that day in Mars. You were there, too… somewhere in the sea of cadets, standing in the sun, waiting to finally greet the hero that stuck around for five minutes and left, just like that," Azula said, with a happy sigh. "Good times, wasn't it?"
"It was a disaster. It's been months and people are still… oh, who cares," Zuko sighed, shaking his head. "Why did that make you want to join, though? I don't see how…"
"You don't have to. Point is I'd rather be here, get myself proper training to become… someone who won't be disrespected by any fools our father knocks elbows with," Azula said, bitterly. Zuko frowned.
"Did something happen…?"
"No. But I'm not about to sit tight and wait until something does," Azula said. "He's losing it, Zuzu. All because of Uncle…"
"Because of Lu Ten," Zuko said, his voice charged with sadness. "He inspired me to do this, to join the Fleet, and… well. I just hope your own choice to join the Fleet is cemented on something stronger than mine."
"What? You've been in the Academy for three years now," Azula said, staring at her brother in confusion. "You're doubting yourself? Zuko…"
"I'm not… not anymore," Zuko said, with a small smile. "I was, but… I got help. I know I'm doing the right thing now, and I will… in Lu Ten and Uncle Iroh's honor. I promise."
Azula raised an eyebrow, perplexed by Zuko's strange solemnity: she had no chance to ask any further questions, though, for someone was quick to intrude upon their conversation.
"Ah, Zuko! There you are," a young woman approached him, beaming. Her auburn hair and violet eyes made for a striking combination, though her smile waned when her gaze fell upon Azula. "Oh, uh… wait. Is this your sister?"
"Yeah," Zuko smiled, immediately perked up in this girl's presence. "This is Azula. Azula, this is… my piloting partner, Suki."
Azula raised her eyebrows upon hearing that. Suki grinned, bowing her head respectfully towards Azula, who offered her the same courtesy.
"You have a partner?" Azula asked, perplexed. "Really?"
"It's a mandatory practice. Most people can't go it alone out there, in space," Suki said, with a shrug. "Stellarflights are long… pilot madness is absolutely a risk, and the Stellar Council has started taking it far more seriously these days."
"And they expect to resolve that by sending people in pairs?" Azula asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Team-ups are selected based on skill compatibility," Zuko said. "Emotional and personality compatibility as well, of course. Suki and I… we were a pretty good match. So…"
"You seem like one. You sound more put-together today than across our entire childhood, if nothing else," Azula said, with a smirk. Suki giggled and Zuko pouted.
"You just can't help yourself, can you?" he sighed, shaking his head. "Anyway, as much as I doubt you'll like having a partner, you'd better get ready. By your third year here, one will be assigned to you."
"That partner could come from anywhere in the solar system, mind you," Suki pointed out. "My family has been based in Enceladus for about sixty years… but when the results came in, it was clear that Zuko and I matched better than I did with anyone in my local academy. So… I relocated."
"Why didn't Zuko do it instead?" Azula asked, smirking. "Not very polite of you, Zuzu…"
"Don't…!" Zuko squealed: Suki gasped, covering her mouth with a hand. "No. No, don't…! Don't call me that! Not you! Damn it, Azula!"
"Y-you call him Zuzu?!" Suki gasped, breathless. Azula laughed, and Zuko groaned as he smacked his head against the wall, desperate to erase that last exchange, all be it to prevent his long-term partner from using that teasing nickname for him.
The first two years of Azula's training in the Academy were smoother than she anticipated: she took to following orders without issue, to studying strategy, tactics and science beyond what the academy was already teaching her. She had been in good physical shape already, and it improved further through the training drills, all intended to ensure she would be ready to face the strain, not only of life without gravity, but of the severe consequences of lightspeed traveling. Naturally, her favorite classes were related to piloting: at this point, she understood the theory perfectly and had successfully flown several simulations of stellarship flights, even a first flight in a core pod: her heart raced at the thought of doing as much for a living, of getting used to the thrills of crossing space, or diving throughout the entrails of a planet before triggering a miracle of life within its depths… she knew she could do it. Her dream seemed to be closer to her reach than ever.
Many other recruits dropped out, but Azula remained at the top of her class, with the highest possible marks, all the way to her third year. By then, Zuko and Suki took off on their first test stellarflight, the routinary trip to the closest exoplanet. They'd graduate officially upon their return, provided everything went smoothly.
Azula had been summoned by the Academy's Quarter Master to his office on the first day of her third year: the man spoke with great pride of her academic record, stating they had seldom seen any students as brilliant as her.
"So, with that in mind… it was obvious that finding you the right partner would not be easy."
Azula's proud smile waned upon hearing that. Her heart sank, and soared, all at once.
"Perhaps… I can do it by myself?" she said, voicing her vain hope to not need to rely on any other recruit. The Quarter Master grunted in such a way as to make it apparent that she would not be quite so lucky. "I know it's not ideal, but… Atsuko Takei doesn't have a partner, does she?"
"Biocatalyze fifty planets and maybe you'll be able to convince the Council that you can fly alone," said the Quarter Master, dismissively. Azula grimaced. "I'm afraid you need to be a very special case to become an exception to our rules. And she is… well, as good as a magical creature, at this point. Rules don't apply to her, but they apply to the rest of us. So… you're getting a partner, Recruit Homura. Not much to be done about that."
"But if nobody's suitable…"
"I didn't say nobody was suitable. Just… that this wouldn't be easy," the Quarter Master sighed. "Look, there's a considerable gap between you and any other recruit across the solar system with one exception. And that exception is… well, someone who has been granted some special privileges."
"Oh? Is that person a magical creature as well?" Azula asked, sardonically. The Quarter Master shook his head. "Huh. Well, then… what kinds of privileges?"
"He, uh… isn't expected to come to Earth for training. In fact, when the idea was floated by him, he refused to do so."
"He… refused?" Azula repeated, with a scowl. "So… what, I have to go to wherever he is instead because he's a spoiled brat?"
"Well… he is Task Master Harkin's son," the Quarter Master said: Azula's eyes narrowed. "And apparently the Interim Premier of Mars thinks too highly of that family to apply any pressure on them. There's some story about Harkin having left the system recently on a favor to Interim Premier Yooyen, too? Anyway…"
"Wait. Wait a moment, you're telling me that my perfect, fated partner is…?" Azula said, closing her eyes as she evoked that name again… the sister's voice returned to her mind, and with it, those two syllables… "Sokka. Sokka Harkin?"
The Quarter Master smiled. The corners of Azula's lips turned downwards, instead.
The holo-sign with Azula's name wasn't hard to track among the groups of people expecting new arrivals at Mars's land-based Spaceport: in the three years since she first met him, Sokka Harkin had grown taller, and more handsome, to her mild chagrin – but she could certainly ignore that and remain professional. He looked wary, nervous, and even though he tried to offer her a friendly smile, the tension didn't decrease, not entirely.
"There you are, heh… hi," Sokka said, swallowing hard as he lowered the sign. Azula stepped up to him, her considerable luggage following her closely on a hovering platform. "Had a nice flight?"
"You have some nerve," Azula said, with a dry grin. Sokka sighed. "Forcing me to come here by opposing, categorically, to move to Earth… and you ask if I had a nice flight?"
"Well… I could've not asked. That'd be worse, right?" Sokka said. Azula rolled her eyes and stepped past him.
"It was a fine flight. Better than any you're bound to pilot, judging by how experienced you seem to be at traversing space. Scared of a little time in the void, are you? Is that why you refused to relocate to Earth?" she asked, sardonically.
"Think they'd have assigned me as your partner, if that were the case?" Sokka asked, firing back in all cylinders as he kept pace with her, the luggage platform hovering behind them. Azula scowled, and he finally returned a dry grin in her direction. "They told me you're the only person who matched my level of skill. Beats me if it's true, but…"
"I don't believe it is. It's more like… I outdo your skills, and you're the next best thing," Azula said, simply. Sokka scoffed. "The only reason why I agreed to this nonsense is because I, allegedly, can't hope to be particularly compatible with anyone but you… not in this galaxy or solar system, anyway. I'll just cross my fingers and hope that someone better than you exists somewhere in the exoplanets we've already colonized."
"Tough luck finding someone who suits your particular demands," Sokka scoffed. "But… sure. I can agree to being your partner until we get to Proxima Centauri b…"
"It's still going to be two more years of work before we're ready to get there, though, and they'll only allow it if you and I somehow manage to convince them that we can work together to some degree of effectiveness," Azula hissed. Sokka pouted. "There's a whole protocol that needs to be followed, and… I just don't understand why you're even in the Cosmic Forces, to begin with. Shouldn't you be in the Terrestrial ones like your father? More so if you won't even considering living on Earth…"
"What, you think I don't want to be there because of pride?" Sokka asked. Azula eyed him skeptically.
"Am I supposed to think anything else?"
Sokka sighed, staring forward with a frown: Azula eyed him, picking up on his reaction's meaning all too quickly.
"You have… some kind of reason to stay?" she asked, before snorting. "What, found a girlfriend and you can't bear the thought of leaving her behind? Mind you, you're better off forsaking anything of that nature if…"
"That's not what's bothering me, and not the reason why I didn't want to leave Mars. But… come on, you're making such a fuss about it. This place is way better than Earth, you'll realize that in no time," Sokka said, proudly. Azula glared at him coldly. "Or… not. Look, what you did was a big sacrifice, I get that, and… I'm sorry I made you make it without explaining my problems, okay? But, if we're not going to be a team in the long run, do I even need to explain at all?"
"Heh. Good point. I'm not even sure why I thought I cared," Azula said, raising her eyebrows dismissively. Sokka huffed.
"Great. Well… I'll show you to the barracks," he said. "You'll find someone else to tour you around the academy once you get there, right?"
"Oh, so you're not sticking around?" Azula asked, perplexed. "I thought it'd be the least you could do, considering you were so courteous as to force me to move here against my will…"
"I'll work with you whenever we need to. You'll do the same with me. No need to make any bigger promises than that," Sokka said, looking at Azula pointedly. "I don't live in the barracks, myself. That's why it's probably better if someone more local shows you the place, see?"
"Wait, you don't even…?" Azula snorted, staring at him in disbelief. Sokka froze. "How on Earth are you such a special case, exactly? Is it because of your father?"
"Well, aren't you a special case because of yours, too?" Sokka growled. "Overseer of Energy, isn't he? Isn't that why you were at the failed ceremony that time, to begin with?"
"I didn't get as far as I have in the academy merely on my father's reputation and connections," Azula hissed. Sokka snorted.
"And yet you assume I did, so…"
"I never got away with not living in the barracks, and I was expressly told to come here for your sake!" Azula retorted. "Clearly, one of us is getting the short end of the stick here, and if you so much as dare pretend it's you…!"
"You're not getting the short end of anything by living in Mars instead of Earth, I can tell you that much…"
"Oh, you're unreal," Azula huffed, as Sokka called for a hover-vehicle, by the spaceport's exit gates. "You know what? Just get me to the barracks. Galaxies help me, having to put up with a partner like you…"
"You can complain all you like right now, but… we'll do fine," Sokka said, matter-of-factly. "Enough to succeed at your goal of swapping partners in due time anyway."
"How reassuring," Azula hissed. Sokka smiled, shaking his head as the hovervehicle stopped before them.
"You know, you're in the middle of an adventure right now, in your own way," Sokka said. "Least you can do is enjoy the ride."
Azula scowled at him but said nothing as she climbed on the hovervehicle's passenger seat. Sokka took the hint quickly, seating at the front next to the driver, who sped away quickly, through the aerial route that his car's OS, connected to the driver's neural chip, determined for their destination.
Azula kept her silence across the trip, glaring pointedly and quietly through the window: she hadn't wanted to return here… but more than anything, she hadn't wanted to acquiesce to anyone else's terms when it came to her career in the Stellar Fleet. The dream of independence, of freedom, of not needing anyone's say-so, of walking away from Liu Lijun while flipping him out with a nonchalant middle finger… all of it seemed a million light years away, and it was hard to understand how, exactly, Atsuko Takei had achieved any of it, more so when information on the woman's past seemed to be entirely redacted. Had she gotten rid of her assigned partner, maybe? Had her legend grown so much she could dismiss whoever she was assigned in the academy once the time was right, or had she gone about it in far darker ways…?
Sokka at least managed to look somewhat guilty after pawning Azula off to the local academy's Quarter Master: Azula shot him a glare before focusing anew on her new circumstances, intent on disregarding all thoughts of the young man as she made the best she could of living in Mars's Stellar Fleet barracks…
Not that it was too different, truth be told, from Earth's own branch of the Fleet, where Azula had been forced to bunk up with several other recruits, many of whom snored very loudly through the night, while others got up to rather private affairs without any discretion. It came as no surprise that Sokka would have slipped out of having to live among strangers who might lock themselves in the bathroom for hours just to be alone, unconcerned about who else might need it, who took other people's belongings whether by mistake or intentionally, and who seemed utterly bereft of the ability to relate to anyone else, reacting harshly whenever someone confronted them for their bad behavior. So much as calling for a superior officer to resolve disputes would turn someone into a pariah, too… so the Academy was, as on Earth, a boiling pot of chaos waiting to burst, and Azula didn't intend to be involved in said explosion.
Thus, Azula activated her neural chip's functions to ensure she would get proper sleep, waking up on time with the alarm of her chip's OS, and she did her best to keep her belongings safe and sound at all times. You could never be too careful around a whole new set of recruits, most of whom had no idea who she was. She had earned enough respect on Earth after some time, to the point where they would know better than to pick any kind of fight with her… she'd have to take her time to do the same here, she feared.
Her first class was, to her delight, a piloting simulation: while many other subjects appealed to her, that one never failed to get her gears running. Only… there was a catch in the assignment, this time.
"In order to foster your bond with your assigned partner, you will each hold control of half the piloting panel. There are multiple courses you'll need to complete in this manner, alternating sides until you can pull it off as seamlessly as possible," the instructor explained. Azula's eyes widened: she cast a glance over the heads of the other recruits until she spotted Sokka, at the other end of the room. He grimaced at her, sighing heavily. "So… team up and get ready!"
The simulation pods mimicked the seats of either the core pods or the stellarships: on this particular occasion, their assignment was for the flight of stellarships. Rare as the sight was, there were two seats instead of one before the control panel, which stood at arm's length before a large screen: it appeared wider than usual for the sake of this particular exercise. Levers sat on either side of the console, meant for manual piloting in case of any emergency, and pedals remained at the base for the sake of acceleration and slowing down. Stellarships were easier to navigate in many regards than core pods, which pilots often drove based on instinct, observation and immediate interpretation of the information feed transmitted through the screen and to each pilot's neural chip. While the core pod flights were practiced frequently through simulations, all pilots needed to be ready to improvise and adapt to the challenges along the way.
But as they were working with a stellarship instead, this would be, thus, a simulated jump towards another exoplanet. A simple enough mission, Azula hoped, as she approached her simulation pod with a reluctant Sokka.
"You prefer left or right?" Sokka asked: Azula moved towards the left without saying a word. He sighed and slipped towards the right seat, himself.
"This doesn't feel right," Azula said, frowning: the acceleration buttons were on Sokka's side… the brakes on hers. Half the keyboard was in either domain. If the levers were moved in an incoherent way, the ship would fail to interpret the task given, which could result in the ship stopping in midair or, at worst, being severely damaged and requiring extensive repairs.
"It's just an exercise. Nobody's ever going to fly this way," Sokka said, frowning as he changed the positioning of his seat for comfort's sake. "Okay, well…. We'll start when you're ready."
"I am," Azula said. Sokka gritted his teeth.
"Alright, then…" he said, breathing deeply.
So much as selecting the course was a chore, with Sokka handling the pointer while Azula had to confirm any choices: after about two minutes, they were ready to start the first course.
"We're supposed to be very compatible, so… let's just try it our own way. You know, no adjustments, see how it works out?" Sokka said. Azula grimaced.
"I suspect that's not going to go well… but suit yourself," she said: she nudged him, and Sokka accelerated their ship.
What would have been an easy flight simulation under any other circumstances became a rather twisted one, instead: the ship angled wrong, steered in such a way that they went down rather than towards the asteroid field they were meant to navigate.
"Hey! Up, up, get it up!" Sokka exclaimed. Azula huffed, pulling the manual lever and reaching for her joystick to swerve differently.
"You do yours! I can't fix it alone!" Azula snapped.
"Wait, too much, too much…!"
An explosion blasted through the screen: Sokka whimpered as Azula stared, in chagrin, at the report on their failed mission, the first she had seen in a very long time… she scowled at Sokka, who grimaced and shook his head.
"Slower, this time?"
They tried, multiple times, over and over, switching between manual and automatic controls, relying on programming more than their own instincts just to make matters work: the exercise, however, would disable automatic flight intentionally after a certain checkpoint, forcing the recruits to fly freely, properly, following their instincts instead of allowing the machine to take the wheel. And every attempt, thus, ended in failure.
Azula groaned after the fifteenth try: nothing seemed to pay off. Sokka tried mapping the asteroids, she proposed giving out commands for proper communication depending on what they'd do… but the simulation also featured enough chaos within its programming to ensure that the rocks would, if just on occasion, drift in unexpected ways, causing more than one crash due to their unpredictable locations.
"This is impossible," Sokka said, shaking his head.
"You know what? I'm going to do the whole course myself," Azula said. Sokka scoffed.
"That's not fair, not the assignment, and… woah!" Sokka squeaked, as Azula pushed him off his chair with her rear and hips.
"You'll watch! And then you'll imitate what I do!"
Now, with full control, the star pilot of Earth's Academy rushed through the asteroid field at full speed, dodging and flying past every possible hurdle with no greater struggle than ensuring her hands and feet could reach the right pedals at any given moment.
She finished the course in less than four minutes. Sokka gaped at her in disbelief as the instructor rushed in, intent on congratulating them… only to find Sokka standing by, instead of seating in the simulated pod.
"What…? Hey! You're not supposed to do it by yourself!" the man exclaimed.
"This was a test run," Azula said, with a dry grin. "I'm making sure it can be done by a singular pilot… and showing him how I'd go about it. Now that he knows, he can follow my lead."
"I can't…! Half of what you did looked like pure instinct! I've never done tricks like those," Sokka said. Azula huffed, scooting over to her original seat.
"Then best get to learning them or we'll never get through this," Azula said. "We'll be done soon. He just needs to wrap his head around the challenge."
"You'd better not do another race without following the instructions. I'll report it, if you do," the instructor said. Azula scowled as the man walked away.
"As if there was anything wrong with doing things this way. Almost like they don't want us to find a solution," Azula said, shaking her head as Sokka sat down again. "Well?"
"I'll try, alright, but… this is not going to be easy," he said.
"Nobody joins the Stellar Fleet hoping it'll be easy. But with enough self-discipline and ambition you can make it far," Azula said, firmly.
"Do you just spend all day, every day, running through simulations?" Sokka asked.
"And why wouldn't I?" Azula asked, with a crooked smile. "That's my purpose. Be it stellarflights or core runs, I intend to run as many simulations as I can until I'm ready. You'd best do the same thing if you're taking this seriously."
"Well, I am, but… I have other things to do, at times," he said. Azula rolled her eyes.
"Whatever that means," she hissed. "Get going. We don't have all day."
Sokka sighed but nodded: again, they tried, and this time they made it a greater distance than before… only to falter, again. Moments later, another team, not far behind them, rejoiced in their success.
Azula flinched as she glanced past her tall seat: two men, maybe a couple years older than her, were laughing and clapping each other in the back. The instructor appeared pleased.
"Magnificent job. Now… course two!"
The rejoicing men groaned in protest, but they were forced to sit at the simulation pod once more, despite it all. Azula huffed, shaking her head.
"This exercise makes no sense, and… and it's been ages since I wasn't the first to finish an exercise in a group. Fantastic," she said, dryly.
"Is that so important?" Sokka asked: Azula glanced at him to find him snacking on a candy bar. "What? Want one?"
"No! Just… focus on our work here?"
"I'm getting hungry. I pilot worse when I'm hungry," Sokka explained, mashing the remaining bar inside his mouth before taking position. "Okay, okay…"
Azula rolled her eyes as Sokka swallowed heavily: the simulation began, and yet again, they failed it.
Her first proper day in Mars's Academy was, thus, miserable. Even after the session at the simulation room ended, Azula couldn't get it out of her mind as she attended the next class, pertaining map reading, as well as exercises on distance calculations and the level of fuel reserves required for each jump. Pilot simulation shouldn't be that hard… two other groups had succeeded at the first level before the class ended. She and Sokka had to be able to do it too… or else all her hopes for her career would be dashed and destroyed for good. How on Earth had Zuko succeeded at it with Suki? It baffled her…
She meant to return to the simulation room that night to get in more practice, to route a proper method to reach the next stage so she could hammer it into Sokka's head by the next session… but upon arriving, she realized she hadn't been the only one with that idea. And the other person, clearly, hadn't been subtle about his scheme, either…
"You can't simply sneak into the simulation room after hours, Harkin. You know that," the instructor scolded him: Sokka sighed as he stepped outside, head hung.
"It's too difficult, and… she's too good, okay?" Sokka said: Azula's heart leapt upon hearing him acknowledge that. "I don't think I can keep up."
"That's the issue: no one can," the instructor said, firmly. "Out of the entire solar system, you're the only one who, with enough effort, might just succeed where everyone else won't cut it. But you have to try, Harkin…"
"And what if I do and it's not enough?" Sokka asked. "What if my very best is only her most mediocre? I… I'm a liability for her. I already caused her so much trouble… the Academy should make an exception for her. I'm serious, I… I can't be the reason someone's career goes to shit. Please…"
"I get your concerns, but… I can't do much more than this, Harkin," the instructor said, shaking his head. "Practice in your own time. And take your damn time, too. Getting it right immediately isn't the only way to succeed at a mission. You can do it."
The instructor closed the door, and Sokka sighed as he watched him leave down the hallway. He turned around in the opposite direction, though… and stopped, abruptly, upon finding Azula standing there, staring at him with unreadable eyes.
"Uh… shit. It's you," Sokka said.
"Seems like I keep surprising you in a bad way," Azula said, watching him carefully.
"You overheard all that?" Sokka asked, gritting his teeth. "You know, it's considered rude to…"
"Then I was rude. Yes, I overheard, and…" she said, before breathing in and shaking her head. "I think we need to talk."
"I don't have the power to change our circumstances," Sokka groaned. "What do you need to talk with me about?"
"I guess about you, outright," Azula said, jerking her head towards the exit. "C'mon. Just… take me someplace decent for dinner. My treat."
"Wait, really?"
Sokka perked up at that suggestion. Azula raised her eyebrows meaningfully, and he smiled brightly at the sight of it.
Within moments, the pair wound up at the bench of a public park, with bags of snacks along with fast food that Sokka had insisted was the best of all the planet. Azula remained skeptical, but she gave the burger a shot, regardless.
"It's going to be weird once we stop eating as much," Sokka said, after finishing his first burger. He reached for the second quickly, to Azula's utter disbelief. "What?"
"I'm not entirely sure you'll be equipped to handle nutrition shots instead of… ten tons of food on a daily basis," Azula said. Sokka pouted. "Most active members of the Fleet only take the shots and eat no real food, you know…"
"I'm aware. So I'll eat and eat until I'm spent, or beyond that point, so that I can cherish food properly before that day comes," Sokka sighed dramatically. "Anyway… you wanted to talk?"
"I… heard you telling the instructor to make me an exception," Azula said, glancing at him warily. "You're not trying to hold me back, are you?"
"Of course not," Sokka said, frowning.
"No, of course not," Azula repeated, closing her eyes. "But you don't know that you can reach my level just out of practicing and training non-stop, is it?"
"As far as I can tell, you're some kind of prodigy," Sokka said, with a heavy sigh. "And pairing me up with you is a ton of pressure. Made worse by the fact that I, yeah, pulled you away from your family and forced you to move here, and…"
"You didn't pull me away from them," Azula said, matter-of-factly. "I simply enjoy Earth better, sure, but… my family's out of reach for me anyway."
"Wait… huh?" Sokka raised his eyebrows.
"My parents, now that they're in great terms with Liu Lijun, took off on a trip to Ross 128 b with him, not long ago," Azula said, scowling. "It'll be twenty-two years before they come back to Earth, at best. And they'd have brought me along, too, it seems… if I hadn't enrolled in the academy and chosen a life as a pilot. My brother is on his way to Proxima Centauri b himself right now, so… it's just me."
"Well… shit," Sokka grimaced. "I'm sorry. You must miss them…"
"Not as much as you might assume. They're family, but… they're cumbersome in their own ways," Azula said, with a frown. "My father has become Liu's favorite sycophant, my mother tags along because she has no choice… and I've never been too close with my brother. If we spend too much time together, the likelihood is we'll end up trying to strangle each other, so…"
"Heh. Understandable," Sokka smiled. "I have a sister too, remember?"
"I remember," Azula smiled a little, too. "In any case, I merely disliked that you'd force me to move without so much as consulting first, no compromise made, just… forcing it because, unless I agreed to it, my career would be over. I don't like this system of pairs and teams and whatnot… it's a pain. Clearly, some pilots out there are doing just great without partners."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Sokka said. Azula glanced at him. "Rumors abound, you know? About her. Task Master Takei?"
"What about her?" Azula said, trying not to feel particularly defensive of someone who, truthfully, she knew nothing about.
"Some people are convinced she was stung by space madness," Sokka said. Azula snorted and shook her head. "You know how hard it is to find any information about her, right? Not the same with the other bigshots of the Fleet. Why's she such a mystery?"
"Someone who caught space madness would be confined to the asylum planet, TRAPPIST-1 d, and would stay there for as long as they live," Azula said, with a dry grin. "If she's still flying, it means she's been cleared to do so by the Fleet's authorities."
"I know, but… you have to admit it's strange," Sokka said. "Some people think that's the real reason why she gave up all Premier duties immediately…"
"That's just Martian coping," Azula said, with a dry grin. Sokka glared at her sideways. "What? You guys are terribly sensitive about any slights against your planet. Not her fault that's the case…"
"You know, one of the reasons why I chose the Stellar Fleet rather than the Terrestrial Forces was so I could one day cross paths with her again and give her a piece of my mind," Sokka said. Azula smiled. "What? Think it's funny?"
"Yeah. Not only am I sure she won't care… but she's the reason why I decided to do this, too," Azula said, breathing deeply. "Answering to no one, like her… doing what you please, alone, without having to drag any dead weights along? Sounds like a dream come true."
"Heh. Am I a dead weight?" Sokka asked. Azula tensed up. "That's, ultimately, why I didn't want to be your partner anymore if I can help it. I… I don't want to inconvenience you. And I get it, alright? I'm not exactly perfection incarnate… I'm not as good a pilot as you. But… there's more to it than that. I… I do have a family here. My sister, and my mom. My dad's currently on his way to Proxima Centauri b…"
"Same as my brother," Azula pointed out. Sokka nodded.
"He's going there to find a balancing dose that works on my mom."
The words stopped Azula cold, as she was reaching for fries in the food bag. Sokka had stopped eating too, and he drew in a deep breath.
"It's autoimmune. The current tech in our solar system can't fix that… her body doesn't respond well to the balancing doses we have on Mars, or anywhere within the solar system," Sokka explained. "The Premier gave my father an authorization to travel and find the dose my mom needs… only, we don't know if it'll be ready, or if it'll work. Situation's fucked up all across the board, and… well, that's why I didn't want to leave Mars. Also why I live at home, not the barracks, because… I want to keep an eye on her. Make sure she's okay, as best I can."
"That's…" Azula's eyes widened. Sokka bit his lip and glanced at her with uncertainty. "I never imagined… shit. I… I'm sorry. I thought you were just spoiled, but…"
"We all have our stories," Sokka said, with an awkward smile. "But… yeah. If things got complicated with mom, I… I can't even promise I'll be able to fly out of the solar system at all. I need to be there for her, for my sister too… at least, until dad comes home. But that's its own set of problems, of course… he's coming back to find mom is eight years older than how she was when he left."
Sokka smiled again, this time sardonically. The pain across his face was so apparent…
Azula surprised even herself when she reached for his hand, squeezing it slightly. Sokka froze on the spot.
"I'm… sorry," she said: she didn't break the contact until after saying the words. "That's a messed-up situation, no matter how you look at it."
"Eh, I'll live. I just… hope everyone else does, too," he said, with a sigh. "On the bright side, your family is traveling through space at lightspeed so you won't have to worry about their wellbeing for a bit, right?"
"Well, sure, but… if you want to compare family tragedies, I have one of my own," Azula said. Sokka grimaced. "My cousin, Lu Ten… he was training to be a core pod pilot. Allegedly, he was a good one. But… he died on his mission to biocatalyze Titan, in Saturn. Not exactly uncommon, of course, but… his father didn't take it well. Maybe you've heard of it? Iroh Homura…?"
"Iroh…? Wait, shit. I… I didn't think you'd be family," Sokka's eyes widened. Azula smiled dryly. "He's the Paladin who flew into a moon, on a suicidal mission to biocatalyze it…?"
"To honor his son… to die in the same place that stole him away," Azula finished. Sokka gritted his teeth. "It was a mess. My father didn't take it particularly well… he had a crisis over how ephemeral our lives would be, how easily we'd just… die. The average crisis upon becoming too aware of his own mortality, I guess."
"So… what Liu's been having across four-hundred years or so," Sokka concluded. Azula hummed and nodded. "He wants to be Chairman forever, from the feel of it. Just jumping from exoplanet to exoplanet, extending his lifespan as much as he can…"
"While everyone else does the heavy work and he just basks in luxuries and his undeserved title, yes," Azula said, scowling. "Beats me how he got it in the first place. Bet it's yet another redacted thing that got erased from the annals of history."
"Right," Sokka said, with a small smile. "Do you think that happens often? Erased history?"
"From the looks of it, yeah," Azula shrugged. "Who knows what kinds of important stuff the Stellar Council wants to keep under wraps and away from public awareness? Control is a very useful method to retain power."
"Doesn't sound right to me," Sokka said.
"Do you expect them to be hiding something important?" Azula asked. Sokka shrugged.
"I guess… it's weird," Sokka sighed. "But I'm a bit weird, all around, so…"
"Sure you are, but in what sense do you mean?" Azula asked, amused. Sokka smiled.
"Just… I sometimes get the feeling that some things have happened before, I guess. Even if it makes no sense. But I don't get that feeling with you," Sokka said, looking at her intently. "Didn't get it at the Premier ceremony, either. But a few other things, like my mom's disease… my dad leaving? I can't help but feel like I know exactly how those things are going to turn out."
"What are you expecting?" Azula asked, no longer smiling. "Do you think he'll fail?"
"No… he'll succeed. She will be saved, or at least, the sickness will be kept at bay, but… the reality of those eight years apart is going to take a toll on them," Sokka reasoned, frowning. "I'm a bit worried, too, about joining the Fleet because of that. Leaving it all behind… what will it look like, when I come back?"
"I guess… maybe that's the real reason why people get partnered up in missions," Azula concluded. "Even if all else fails… that one person will still be there. And maybe for some people, that's enough."
"Maybe," Sokka said, meeting her gaze with a gentle smile.
The breeze blew between them, causing Azula's fringe to dance in the wind, same as Sokka's fastened bun above his undercut. It should have been cold, for Mars was inherently colder than Earth regardless of the Lifeseed's effect, rejuvenating and conditioning the planet for humanity's survival… but warmth suddenly surged in Azula's chest as they met each other's gazes. As she pondered if having someone at her side might indeed be the one way to avoid being consumed by loneliness in the depths of space.
"Anyway… uh, this is what you wanted to talk about?" Sokka asked, nervous. Azula cleared her throat and nodded, aware of the sudden reddening of her cheeks.
"I just… figured getting to understand each other better might help us succeed at this damnable task," she said. "We're basically strangers still… this is the third day we've been around each other, you realize?"
"True," Sokka smiled a little. "You feel like that will give us an edge? Getting to know each other, rather than practicing non-stop?"
"Hopefully," Azula said, biting her lip. "Maybe… we should swap seats next time."
"Huh? Isn't that just going to be more confusing?" Sokka asked, amused.
"Maybe. But we'll walk in each other's shoes that way, to a fault," Azula smiled. "And when we see how the other flies… maybe we'll figure out what to adjust in our own flying techniques to match each other. How about it?"
Sokka raised his eyebrows… then, he smiled. Azula smirked right back at him as he raised a fist towards her.
"Don't know if this is going to work out, let alone long-term, but… might as well give it a shot, huh?" he said. Azula raised her own fist, touching knuckles with him lightly. "Alright. Let's try what you suggested… and try to be decent partners, at least until we graduate, right?"
"Right," Azula smiled. Sokka grinned right back.
The next day saw them returning to the simulation room with a wholly different disposition: they followed Azula's suggestion, swapping seats and experiencing the other half of the flight. But after five more tumbles, and another seat swap…
"Left! Now slow!" Sokka exclaimed.
"Boost to the right in three, two, one…"
"On it!"
"Incoming, from the top! Swerve…!"
"Right!"
That final choice to dodge a massive asteroid saw them bursting out of the field, at its other side, at long last: the pair gasped happily, then Sokka cheered and reached over to hug Azula… who, naturally, flinched and smacked his arm so he'd let her go. The instructor smirked, stepping up towards them to verify the result.
"A legitimate run this time. Great! Now…"
"Stage two?" Azula told him, with a knowing smirk. Sokka beamed, and they exchanged a proud smile. "Ready?"
"You bet!"
The instructor froze, astounded to find such determination where there had only been dejection merely one day ago. He smiled and shrugged, patting the back of their seats before returning to the other recruits. The two most prodigious pilots in the Academy had finally found their footing… and if that was the case, there'd be no stopping them until it was time for their graduation flight.
The change in the atmosphere between Azula and Sokka was palpable after their night out: the pair would now sit together at every class, work each assignment as a team, and while they would occasionally argue and bicker over the measliest nonsense, the smiles on their faces spoke for themselves pertaining the potential of their alliance. By the end of the day's classes, Azula was ready to say goodbye… but Sokka, it seemed, had another idea.
"Look… it might be crazy. I should ask my mom, in the first place, but…" he said, biting his lip. "How do you feel about taking up one of the empty rooms in my house?"
Azula's eyes widened. Sokka grinned reassuringly at her.
"I know you say you can be alone, but… you're not exactly alone in the barracks anyway," he said. Azula snorted.
"As far from alone as you can imagine. I have my neural chip hypnotize me to sleep every night to survive the chaos," Azula said. Sokka grinned.
"Then… what do you say?" he said. "I'll talk to the Quarter Master, tell him my family can handle it… and that way, we'll get to bolster our teamwork even in the most mundane of things!"
"You know, you might just grow sick of having me around all the time," Azula pointed out. Sokka laughed.
"Wouldn't dream of it," he said: the earnest tone of his voice caused Azula's heart to jump in her chest again. "You can stay in the barracks if you want, of course, but… I still figured I'd offer. That way… we both get special treatment, and not just me. See?"
He wiggled his eyebrows playfully, and Azula chuckled as she shook her head. Unfortunately, the young man before her had been charming all along, even when they had met many years prior… she couldn't help but acknowledge she was far from immune to his appeal. Now, as he extended a helping hand, offering a possibility to further bolster their bond, it seemed her dream to reach the stars was closer than ever.
"Well… I can't think of any reason to refuse. So… need me to join you in pleading with the Quarter Master?" Azula asked. Sokka snickered.
"If you'd like! Let's go!"
He threw a fist in the air before quickly contacting his mother through his neural chip, letting her know of his latest, unexpected offer to his piloting partner. Azula laughed at his chaotic improvisations, at the strange way in which things seemed to line up for them… at the start of a journey that, unbeknownst to her, would change her life for many centuries to come.
Soooooooo... this was very long, so much Tumblr told me it won't post it :'DDDD so go ahead and read over at either of the sites linked above, it's out of my hands xD excuse me for being as longwinded as always. I'll just post the author's note, I guess, for anyone who wants to see a bit more substance from me here...
That I somehow managed to write this entire story in 3 months is kind of a miracle. That's not to say I won't change/improve any elements in it whenever I get around doing a proper, thorough rewrite for it in the future… I suspect many things required extra context, there are probably scenes that would have been cathartic to expand on, and we had a lot of chaos going on in the final chapter so maybe it's worse and harder to follow than I realize!
… That being said.
This ridiculously big mess, written over this year's Sokkla Saturdays, is the introduction and stage setting, so to speak, for my hopefully-soon-to-be-written original project. Much as this story was VERY different from everything I'd done thus far, including my first unhappy ending EVER, the big original project is going to push me in directions and past boundaries I've never really crossed before, in a myriad of ways. In itself, sci-fi has never been my forte, which is why I've spent almost a year nursing these ideas, developing them gradually and building up ALL the world around it before jumping in to write, no matter how tempted I am to do so.
Azula and Sokka's characters will be part of the original project under different names. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out who they are when we get there, but they're not going to be the leading duo by then. As was probably quite obvious due to her fluctuating importance and how often she was featured here, our future main character is actually Atsuko Takei, who will take up another name too (one that SOME PEOPLE have already seen because I made one hell of a blunder when I posted chapter 7. Woopsies), and we'll have one more protagonist aside from her, one that was hinted at veeeeery briefly in this chapter.
Dark as this scenario is, fucked up as it appears in many ways… the project I'm working on has brought me an onslaught of inspiration unlike anything I've experienced since Gladiator. It most likely WON'T take me 12-13 years to write, at least I hope not, but I will say it's almost fully plotted at this stage, barring a few elements in the final climax of the entire saga :'D we're going to have many crazy things going on in our upcoming story: a journey to restore Earth! More clashing with authority! A very unsettling and deceptive AI entity! Time traveling and multiple timelines! Another messed up father-and-daughter relationship! Lots of poking the nest wasp of the foundation of human religion! Exploration of what it MEANS to be human! Two people developing and nurturing a bond so profound that it TRANSCENDS AND BREAKS TIME!
I am very excited about getting around to writing this, and I hope you guys will be looking forward to it as well. If you'd like to know more about 7KLYA (that's our new story's codename :)? Feel free to reach out to me on my other social media accounts for more information on it, where I'll be posting gradually in the days to come!
In the mean time… Gladiator's coming back in two weeks! Look forward to that! We're getting closer to the end of the line there, as is obvious, so… I really hope you guys will enjoy our final arcs!
As ever, thank you for reading this story and thank you for all your support!
Reality came back into its usual shape in the midst of a vast darkness, only interrupted by the bright red sun in the middle of Ross 128 b's system. Stars glowed in the distance… many of which she had visited by now. Countless others were far beyond her reach still, and she didn't expect she'd live long enough to visit most of them…
As the plasma drained, the thrumming headache that followed urged her to reach for the stability dose she kept by her pilot's seat: shrugging off her jacket, she jabbed the injection into her IV socket…
She breathed deep as the flood of tranquility rushed across her bloodstream. Little by little, the lingering unpleasant consequences of space travel receded completely.
With that, Atsuko Takei reclined her pilot's seat and relaxed for a moment, drifting knowingly, safely, towards the planet she was duty-bound to fly back to. She closed her eyes… then, she reached for her left pocket.
The conjoined rings met her fingers: the ones that buzzed with mysterious, potent energy, and the drained ones, dark and empty where the others were blue.
She lifted her old treasure from her pocket and raised it before her face: in the eyes of anyone, even her own upon finding it, the strange rings had appeared to be nothing but a child's toy. A set of twelve rings, linked together by a small bright blue orb: four of those rings were lined up horizontally, touching each other very lightly at each extreme. The next four, vertical. The last four, facing Atsuko herself. Four rings, oriented towards the three-dimensional, traditional axes: x, y and z…
Atsuko closed her eyes. Her neural chip – once a despised addition to her brain that she had rejected and refused to use – had become a reliable asset, over time… and she used it to trigger the most common function she ever utilized in it.
The familiar voices spoke, as always, repeating words she had heard countless times…
"You know I'm proud of you, don't you? That no father ever got so lucky as to have three wonderful kids like you, your brother, and sister… but, goodness, nothing prepared me for this. You always wanted to touch the stars, and I know you will. Of course you will, I just… it's hard to think that it'll be a while before I see you again. But, hey, it won't be for you! Bet for you it'll be the blink of an eye, my little girl. Don't make too much fun of me when you come back to find me all wrinkled and white-haired and so on… oh, I might even lose all my hair! You won't even recognize me! Oh, never mind me, Atsuko, dear. Just do your best out there. You know you can count on us, and we'll welcome you back home as the hero you already are. Just… come back when you can, will you?"
Even after the stability dose, the words struck her in a deep, dark place: it was the reaction she wanted, the sensation she chased… the punishment she inflicted upon herself, time after time. She trembled, clinging to the thread of emotion elicited by that voice, by those wishes and promises that had never been fulfilled as the next one started.
"Look, we had a bad run, I know that. I've always been a shitty brother, I… I wanted to be everything you could be and hell, goes without saying, I failed. But… you can't just walk away now. I know why you want to, but this family didn't fight so hard to get you to this point just for you to give up, or did we? What, want me to think I'd have been better off than you as a pilot, Alien? Yeah, didn't think so. If just to prove me wrong, you shithead… don't walk away. We'll be fine. Look, I… I met a girl the other day, alright? You can meet her when you come back. Yeah, this time I'm serious. I actually think she could be the one. Bet you're gonna say she's only with me because my little sister's going to be a spacefarer and all that shit. Well, maybe that's true! I don't even care! I'm getting laid so, you know, thanks for being my wingwoman, whether you like it or not, huh?"
Despite her better sense, that part always made her smile. Atsuko ran a hand over her hair and sighed as a new recording played in her head…
"Atsuko! Oh, I love you so much! You know that, right? You do! I'm your favorite sister for a reason – and don't damn say it's because you don't have another sister, because you DO have a brother, but, to be fair, he's not the nicest of brothers, huh? Oh, I wish Tatsu weren't late, he'd wanted to meet you all along… and yeah, he didn't know about you before we got together. Had no idea my sister was a bigshot astronaut! Yep, and then he found out and was terrified when he realized you're way bigger and stronger than him. You scare him more than our brother! Bet you're proud of that, aren't you? I know we don't see much of each other anymore and… well, we'll see even less now. But, hey, if Tatsu and I end up having kids, I'll name one of them after you! And if you get back here on time, you'll be the godmother too! How does that sound? Bet you'll love it! Bet… bet mom would've loved it, too. God, you have no idea how much I'm going to miss you. But you wanted this all along, so… go for it, okay? We're all rooting for you! Yep, even big brother, even if he tells you otherwise!"
A deep sigh at all those lost opportunities… at the painful awareness that she had never known if such a child existed or not. But the last recording was always the one that hurt the most.
"Oh, my sweet child… you know what you must do. The entire universe is out there, yours to explore, to discover! It was your dream all along… you can't forsake that just because of your old mother, can you? I know… I know we might never see each other again, I do, but I want to believe you'll still be out there once I'm gone. Maybe it's selfish of me… but I love looking up at the stars, knowing you'll be among them. My beautiful meteor… one day, we'll meet again beyond this life. You'll see… and by then, you'll tell me everything about your wonderful adventures! You'll tell me if you ever found love, if you made lifelong friends, if you fulfilled the dreams you always held onto, got answers for all your countless questions… this isn't the end, my darling child. I'll never stop believing that… just as I'll never stop believing in you, Atsuko. Fly as high and far as you will, my darling… and know that, until my last breath, I will always be thinking of you. I love you. I love you. I love you so much…"
The effects of the stability dose finished correcting her physical reactions: and as intended, the emotional stunting faded upon being countered fully by the recordings. Atsuko breathed deeply, dabbing at the tears as she allowed herself to reclaim whatever normalcy was within reach…
She raised the small cluster of rings again. Once more, the energy thrumming within didn't reveal any answers, providing no clarity, no truths regarding how, exactly, those recordings had wound up within the mysterious device.
She slid her fingers through the rings, seeking any visible changes, but there were none. Then, she sought any new software upgrades to her neural chip… surely something would be available. Just as those secret recordings had been unlocked once by an upgrade to her neural chip, whatever other secrets hid within those glowing rings might eventually be triggered by another one.
But after installing every new feature, no novel functions came up: the rings continued to be as hermetic as they ever were. She scoffed and rolled her eyes, tempted as she often was to toss it away. To forsake it for good, for maybe it had been the cause of her misfortunes, rather than any manner of salvation, or any sign that suggested she was meant for something greater, as she had often hoped in her youth.
"It's been thirty-two fucking years… or four thousand. Guess it depends on who you ask. And after all this time, you're still as immutable as the first time I found you," Atsuko hissed, glaring at the rings before stuffing the mysterious gadget in her pocket. She let out a sigh: it was enough. If there were no changes yet, there was nothing to be done about it. She had far more things to do than worry over the meaning of the warm energy looping endlessly within those rings.
Atsuko checked the predictable onslaught of messages and notifications next: returning after setting out 126 years earlier guaranteed an excessive influx of information that she wouldn't likely sort through fully. The automated systems were organized by priority, by familiarity, by rank…
There was a summons by Liu Lijun, demanding her immediate return to Earth.
Atsuko scowled at once: still alive, then. The wretch was worse than a cockroach. She shook her head, deleted the message, and instead switched to the board of available biocatalysis missions. GJ 463 c, another 60 light-years away… she could work with that. She sent a request for the mission: Ross 128 b's Command Center would likely approve of it quickly. Would Liu Lijun finally be dead by the time she returned…? How very unlikely. She rolled her eyes, rubbing her brow with her fingertips…
How many times would she need to do this until he was gone? Until a better leader took his place? The temptation to simply not accelerate out of the nucleus the next time she biocatalyzed a planet was terribly powerful, as of late…
She meant to power her way to Ross 128 b, to restock supplies and set out on her next mission, when a new message arrived.
Atsuko frowned as she tapped it open: a plea for help from…?
Her eyes widened.
Task Master.
Please reach out to us as soon as you're in the vicinity of Ross 128 b. We need to warn you about what awaits you on Earth, as well as inform you of the latest developments in its solar system. We have become renegades for the Fleet and we have no one else to rely on. Our team was torn apart. Only me and Quarter Master Harkin remain, along with a Lifeseed Specialist we've joined forces with… from TRAPPIST-1d.
We need your help. We don't know what to do. We have no one to turn to but you.
Please respond when you are able,
Captain Azula Homura.
Atsuko frowned heavily. She read the message one more time…
She activated her ship's tracking radar: only a moment after attaching the message sender's coordinates, Atsuko's vessel fired off at haste towards her new destination.
Hovering on a civilian vessel at a safe distance from Ross 128 b, sustaining themselves through nutrition shots across three weeks, had been challenging already.
Flying away from a Fleet's squad, hellbent on taking them down, had not been among the complications Sokka and Azula had anticipated for their current circumstances.
"Please! This is a civilian vessel! You have no need to do this!" Aang exclaimed into the communicator device: his cries fell on deaf ears, however, for rather obvious reasons…
"Rather skilled for a civilian, aren't you?! Shouting and piloting at the same time!" the Ensign on the other side of the communication feed exclaimed. "We are under orders to detain or dispatch you! Surrender yourself or face the consequences, Specialist Pathik!"
"Fucking bastards predicted we might come back here, huh?" Sokka growled, piloting as best he could. Azula huffed, glaring about herself.
"If we had any weapons, anything at all… I'm half-tempted to put on an exosuit and punch holes into their ships," Azula hissed. Sokka let out an unamused laugh.
"Only you would consider defeating a stellarship with your bare fists… worst part is you might actually beat them that way," Sokka said. Azula smiled slightly. "They can tell it's us. If they reach us…"
"Give up, or we'll open fire, now!"
"Fuck…!" Sokka hissed: he glanced at Azula warily, and she met his uneasy gaze. "Take over. You know how to dodge crazy stuff better than me…!"
The first beam fired towards their ship: Sokka swerved just enough to dodge it. Azula gritted her teeth and, startling him, jumped on his lap.
"Woah…!"
"No time for a proper seat swap! Strap on!" Azula shouted at Aang, who scrambled towards the nearest seats, but he failed to reach them before Azula pulled a far riskier twirl away from the weapons' trajectory.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…!" Sokka gritted his teeth, grasping the armrests of his chair tightly so as to avoid distracting Azula.
He rather welcomed having her on his lap on any given situation – they'd had no true chances to rekindle matters properly after their reunion… but this, of course, was far from the time to think of such things. He had to trust in his lover's extraordinary piloting talents, for if he didn't…
Azula took a harsher turn, spinning below and behind the other stellarships. She was pushing this simple vessel far too much, it was no core pod… she snarled, shifting the driving orbs, hoping to trick the pair of enemy stellarships into shooting each other…
There was no way of knowing what the new arrival's intent would be, regardless of the message Azula had sent her… was she here to reinforce the Council's orders? To hunt them down, all else be damned, regardless of Azula's plea…?
Or was she here to help them?
Azula swallowed hard and closed her eyes: Sokka's hand found hers over the steering orbs. Both their hearts raced at full speed as that ship loomed closer and closer, as the two ships they'd dodged turned around to fire again…
Their railguns, revved and ready to shoot, powered down moments before firing.
Azula's chest heaved as she glanced at the cameras: those cannons had been white-hot a second ago, and now…
The newcomer ship flew right above theirs, approaching the other two.
"What is she…? D-do you think she got them off us?" Sokka asked, his voice unusually shrill.
"I hope so. I… holy shit. Fuck, if she did…" Azula shivered, dropping her head as she breathed heavily. "We're never flying a ship without weapons again. Ever. Not after this."
"We'll need to find our old ship. Somehow," Sokka groaned. "Or something like it, I don't know… hey. Hey, they're leaving!"
The two ships pursuing them turned around: Azula raised her head, perking up as the cameras effectively showed the two vessels flying back to the Stellar Council's headquarters planet…
Moments later, the sleek, powerful stellarship piloted by Atsuko Takei appeared before them again: even across that distance, the legendary pilot could see them in the cockpit of their civilian ship… and she raised her eyebrows questioningly at the sight of the rather unorthodox position of the two pilots.
"Don't think they taught you that in the academy," were the first words she addressed to their ship through the open comms: Azula and Sokka blushed, and the former climbed off the latter's lap, unable to mask her guilt.
"Thank you for… for coming to our aid. I don't know what you did, but…" Azula started, only to be interrupted quickly.
"Pulled rank. Works like a charm when you're not actively pursued by the Stellar Fleet, I guess," Atsuko responded. "Mind explaining how the hell you landed yourself in a pickle of this magnitude, Homura?"
"It's a long story," Azula confessed. Atsuko hummed.
"Let's hope I bought you enough time to tell it, then."
Ten minutes later, the civilian stellarship had attached its airlock to that of Atsuko's ship: the overwhelmed, stressed trio entered the sleek vessel, finding it to be as top-of-the-line, sophisticated and potent as the very best stellarships could be. No expenses would ever be spared for the Council's great symbol, it seemed… Azula shivered as she walked through the hallways furnished with artificial gravity, climbing ramps with guiding lights that were leading her towards their superior officer.
She remained at the cockpit, albeit she had stepped off the pilot's seat, reclined against its backrest with arms folded over her chest instead. She regarded them silently, until her eyes drifted towards Aang.
"You," she said, growing even more tense at the sight of that familiar face. "Never thought I'd see you again."
"Uh… did you want to?" Aang asked, puzzled.
"Not particularly," Atsuko admitted. Aang smiled awkwardly and nodded, trying not to take the woman's honesty to heart. She turned her attention towards Azula and Sokka next, though. "Homura and Harkin. Not exactly what I anticipated for your future way back when. What exactly got you on Liu Lijun's bad side?"
"Liu Lijun's… Ren's," Azula said: that got a reaction out of Atsuko, whose eyebrows twitched noticeably. "I fucked up. In many ways I shouldn't have. But they wanted to use me, pull me in to fight in the war… they were exploiting my brother's death, or presumed death, to that end. Whether he's alive or not is anyone's guess, but…"
"Your brother?" Atsuko's dark eyes rarely showed compassion… but they did now. "What happened, did he…? I… I'm sorry, Homura."
"I am, too, whatever the truth may be," Azula hissed. "My brother was fighting in the battle for the Moon and was presumably killed there. My mother says there was no funeral, no sign of his body… while it's possible his corpse was lost in space, we suspect he may have been taken by the Exalted."
Atsuko didn't say anything at first. She blinked blankly, shaking her head as though to process the words.
"The Exalted…" she repeated, before huffing slightly. "That's a fucked-up scenario, Homura. And… unquestionably one the Council would take advantage of. Do you know if they did it on purpose? Sent your brother to a potential death just to… rile you up, so to speak?"
"I… I don't know," Azula said, uneasy. "My parents believed he went on the mission of his own volition, but… I don't know."
"Could be true. Or your parents lied, or they were lied to," Atsuko sighed, shaking her head. "And you decided not to play their game, is it?"
"She turned on Liu Lijun," Sokka said, firmly. "Just as he was trying to profit off… well, the information Azula gave him."
"I… I thought I'd help round up any clones that might have attempted to infiltrate the Fleet," Azula said, guilt permeating her every word. "Now I know that any who tried would've been developed differently, without signs that would give away that they were clones… but even before I realized as much, Liu Lijun started rounding up people he didn't like and accusing them of being traitors, threatening to mutilate them if that was what it took to get away with it. You… you were next in line."
Atsuko stared at Azula pointedly. She tapped her elbow for a moment… then nodded.
"Huh," she turned towards the ship's windows, namely those that showed Ross 128 b at a distance. "Explains the summons he sent me. Been a while since he tried that on me."
"You can't go," Azula said, uneasy.
"I won't. I don't visit Earth," Atsuko said, firmly. Aang sighed.
"Even now, you stand by that belief?" he said. "Do you really think you'll never return to…?"
"I have no reason to go back. Much less if there's a trap waiting for me there," Atsuko retorted. "But this is getting out of hand for you, Homura. So much as meeting with you might be grounds to have me persecuted too… and I can't say I'm keen on trying to survive in this hostile galaxy without the Council's support. Maybe there's a few biocatalyzed but abandoned planets out there somewhere, so distant that we could all retire and die there peacefully before anyone finds out where we are. But that's not what I intended to do with my life, and I suspect it isn't what you wanted to do with yours, either. So… what's your plan, other than warning me to stay away from Liu Lijun, which I'm more than happy to do?"
"We have to find Toph and Katara," Azula said, firmly. "Our two remaining team members. We don't know where they sent them… we had hopes that you could help us track them down."
"Easier said than done… but hopefully doable, provided they're not such a big secret that even I'm not allowed to learn of it," Atsuko reasoned. "And after that?"
"I don't know," Azula confessed, shivering. "We just came back from TRAPPIST-1d…"
"I suspected as much," she said, glaring at Aang. He lowered his gaze. "I'd wager a guess… they sent Harkin there?"
Sokka sighed but nodded. Atsuko scowled, tightening the grip of her arms around her torso.
"It's where they send everyone they want to get rid of. You'd have been a nuisance, someone who could have broken Homura out of the blinding rage they expected her to remain on over her brother. Good on you for not falling for it, Homura… for finding him before it was too late, too," Atsuko said, looking at Azula, who breathed deeply, placing a reassuring hand on Sokka's arm. "Did you reveal Liu Lijun's bullshit publicly, then? Gave him away in front of the entire domain, hopefully?"
"Everything was recorded in my neural chip," Azula said. "Before leaving for TRAPPIST-1d, I ensured to spread it across the Extranet. They couldn't have gotten rid of all the copies yet. Hopefully, it's been enough chaos to buy us some time… I wish it had been enough to get him ousted, but seeing how corrupt the Council appears to be, I doubt it."
"You've sown plenty of discord, then. Worrisome, if understandable. Good on you for giving Liu Lijun a reality check, though. Bastard deserves far more of those than he's faced all across his life," Atsuko sighed. "What of Ren? You mentioned him earlier…"
"He's the one who tore our team apart," Azula said. Atsuko scowled. "He lied to me, took me to Earth on his stellarship and pretended everyone else would join us there shortly… after three months, the lie couldn't stand on its own anymore. I confronted him… and just then, Katara sent me a VR circlet with information about where to find Sokka. Ah, if you've never seen a circlet, it's…"
"I'll go get one, it'll be easier to just show her," Sokka said.
Sokka patted Azula's shoulder, making his way back to their ship to retrieve them. Azula sighed, turning to Atsuko again.
"It's a device, high-tech, to reproduce simulations. Probably made for entertainment purposes, I'd guess," Azula said. "As far as I can tell, it's a project Katara had been doing on the side while working with us. She sent it as a gift, she disguised information about Sokka's situation there and I… I had to go find him."
"Of course you did," Atsuko said, softly. "And you stole this ship in TRAPPIST-1d…?"
"I helped procure it," Aang said. Atsuko hummed, eyeing him skeptically, as usual. "Did I do anything that bad to you, back in the day? You seem to think I'm some kind of…"
"You distress me. You bring back memories I'd rather not engage in," Atsuko said, pointedly. Aang grimaced. "My time in TRAPPIST-1d wasn't exactly the fun ride I was promised."
"I'm aware," Aang whispered.
"You weren't there all along… but I supposed I should thank you for stepping aside and letting me return to business when I did," Atsuko sighed. Azula eyed her warily.
"You wanted to go back?" she asked. Atsuko grunted.
"Not as much as I should have. But… something compelled me to. Felt like my job wasn't done," she said: her hand slipped inside her pocket… she squeezed the cluster of conjoined rings and breathed deeply. "Problem is, it feels like it never is. Like I'm lying to myself about how much I'm supposed to achieve someday… like at this point I'll outlast humanity and still not find whatever damnable destiny I thought the stars were holding for me."
She glanced towards Ross 128 b again, a begrudging glare across her face. She sighed before turning towards Azula.
"The truth is… you're in a shitty spot, Homura. If I'm the one person who can save your ass… that's not a good position to be in," Atsuko said. "I'm hardly ever around, I actually took on a new mission as soon as I got here so I could continue avoiding Liu Lijun's bullshit summons… I meant to restock on fuel and jump out again shortly. It'll be about 120 light-years before I'm back here again. And I can't exactly point you towards anyone who can help, because… I don't really have much of a safety net to fall back on, myself. There's not a lot of people I rely on, these days."
"I suppose you may have thought Ren was reliable, but…" Azula said. Atsuko snorted.
"I've clung to no delusions about him, if that makes you feel any better," she said.
"I remember you rejected his offer to… join him? Team up with him?" Azula said, eyeing her with uncertainty. "Did you already realize how fucked up he was, back then?"
"Heh. I wouldn't exactly say that," Atsuko raised her eyebrows. "I just… I've been alone for a long time, Homura. I'm used to it. I don't have to deal with anyone's baggage but my own… and Ren brings about a lot of baggage. Made worse by the way he just…"
Atsuko sighed, shaking her head.
"I don't know what he really wants from me, is all," she admitted. "And I don't trust he's remotely as idealistic as he pretends to be. A stupid part of me wonders if I made a mistake shooting him down… I say it's stupid because I know I didn't, also because it's too late to take it back, even if I had. But I work better alone. If the day ever comes when I meet someone suitable to be my long-term partner, well… that's going to be quite the miracle."
"Then… does that mean you never had a partner, back when you started out as a pilot?" Azula asked. Atsuko shook her head.
"I'm older than any such regulations. Things were very different when I first traveled to Proxima Centauri b," Atsuko said. "Once the new rules about piloting were implemented, I'd already biocatalyzed enough planets to be an outlier and an exception to such rules. I argued a partner would hinder me… I still stand by it, more so if it's Ren. I don't feel comfortable with the idea of working with him constantly. There's just something about him that I've never been able to trust fully."
"As far as I can tell, he wants to win the war at all costs," Azula sighed: Sokka returned then, and Azula glanced back at him appreciatively as he patted her back. "And I worry about what he intends to do to achieve that result."
"His heart is in the right place…" Atsuko recited, sarcastically. "Problem is how many wrong things he gets away with while claiming as much, of course. Anyway… that thing is how you found out where he was?"
"It's Katara's new simulation hardware, yeah," Azula said, as Sokka handed it over to Atsuko. "If that one's mine, feel free to keep it if you want to…"
"It's mine, actually. And she can keep it anyway," Sokka said, an arm around Azula's shoulders. "I don't think I'm going to need it as much anymore."
Azula sighed, pressing her face to his chest. Atsuko continued studying the circlet, though she did raise an eyebrow slowly as she glanced in their direction.
"Your current circumstances weren't caused by this, uh, likely clandestine relationship between you two, were they?" she asked.
"Not really. Council doesn't know we're married," Sokka said, bluntly: Azula stiffened, looking up at him in disbelief. Sokka smiled and shrugged. "Hey, we're already being hunted by the Fleet. Why would it matter if we break a few more rules at this point?"
"Will matter if you expect to ever return to the fold, of course… not that I'll run around to reveal it to the first person I see, of course, but you'd better be careful with the public displays of affection anyway," Atsuko remarked, running a thumb over the circlet. "This is… very smooth technology."
"It's the best simulation tech I've ever seen. Turns TRAPPIST-1d into an even more miserable hallucination," Sokka said. "I could… see my parents. I knew they weren't there, yeah, but it didn't stop me from going back to the same scenes, over and over again…"
"Wait… it reproduces reality? Memories?" Atsuko asked, puzzled.
"Not quite? As far as I understand, it takes data, existing data, of just about whatever has taken place in a given location," Sokka said, running a hand over his hair. "Neural chips are invasive as hell, but… the amount of information that can be taken from each one, and then transformed into realistic simulations, is much more fucked up than I reasoned with. The way things are, we could probably reproduce this very conversation, five years from now, and every aspect of it would be accurate… provided the information is fed correctly into the system, of course."
Atsuko trailed her fingers over the brass circlet: her eyes betrayed confusion… but intrigue, too.
"If… if you'll let me have this, why, I… I'll owe you quite a bit," Atsuko whispered.
"You don't owe us a thing. You came here to help us, when you could've turned on us or just abandoned us to our fate," Sokka said. "We're grateful for that."
"Heh," Atsuko raised her eyebrows. "If you're sure. But I will pay you back regardless… or, if you will, consider this your own means to pay me for taking responsibility for your actions."
Her words startled them. Even Aang, who had been resigned to remain silent, glanced at her in confusion now.
"There's no other way out of this for you. I'm of higher rank… I'm a lot less disposable than your group," Atsuko said, simply. "They want certain things from me… Ren does, at least. I guess that, if I offer to do as he asks…"
"You can't!" Azula said, eyes wide with panic. "You just said it yourself, he's a bastard that cannot be trusted! You don't know what he's going to ask of you!"
"As a matter of fact… I'm quite sure I do," Atsuko said. "It's the same bullshit he always eggs me on about: join the war effort, take an active role on the battlefield…"
"You can't risk it," Sokka said. "After what happened to Azula's brother…"
"Liu Lijun wants you dead," Azula hissed. "You can't give him the satisfaction."
"I don't intend to," Atsuko said, folding her arms over her chest. "As usual… I'll have to go about this by doing something or another to secure my position in a public manner. I hate playing politics… but if I have to do it, I will. More so since that may be the only way I can do a damn thing about you lot. I'm offering this opportunity to you with no certainty that it will result in the outcome we seek… but I offer it regardless because I can't think of a better solution for your group. Remaining as renegades only makes you the perfect targets for the Exalted: if they ever find you, they'll waste no time stealing your bodies and transforming you into whatever they want you to be."
"Maybe… maybe that's it, then."
All humans turned towards the sole clone within the ship. Aang bit his lip, raising his gaze towards them.
"We can infiltrate them. We could do exactly what you feared the Exalted were doing to the Stellar Fleet," Aang said, looking at Azula. "If we're the ones who pretend to be in the outs with the Council, if you offer to join the Exalted…!"
"I wouldn't do such a thing," Azula hissed.
"You'd be able to strike from within," Aang said, looking at her desperately. "You could get into Exalsyn that way! As much as I understand why you'd refuse… the truth is it takes at least one year, if not longer, to fully craft a compatible clone's body. They won't be able to turn you into one of them right away."
"And you know this… how?" Atsuko said, pointedly, raising an eyebrow at Aang. He swallowed hard. His silence, of course, revealed enough, and the Task Master huffed before running a hand over her hair. "Well, what a team you've racked up here. Two renegades from the Stellar Fleet… and a renegade Exalted, too? Been a spy since I first met you, or is this a newer development, Lifeseed guy?"
"I… I've been a sleeper agent for longer than we've known each other, yes," Aang admitted. Atsuko scoffed.
"Well, fuck me," she sighed, looking at Azula skeptically. "When did you learn about that?"
"Just before coming here," Azula admitted, without meeting her superior officer's gaze.
"Fantastic," Atsuko said, before rolling her eyes. "Well. What Ren doesn't know won't hurt him, I suppose… provided you're certain that this guy can be trusted. Are you?"
"He refused to feed Sokka to a Lifeseed when he could have. Maybe I should get better evidence of his innocence than that, but…" Azula said, softly. Atsuko frowned.
"Hmm. Fair point. Didn't do it to me either. Bet Liu Lijun would've given him a big reward for it too, if he had," Atsuko reasoned. "Guess you're a pretty upstanding fellow, aren't you?"
"I try to be, but… I know my situation isn't sustainable and I understand there will be consequences," Aang said, closing his eyes firmly. "I have about five years left in this body. If Eun-u Cho realizes I've betrayed him… my time will be up rather quickly."
"Then let's try to finish this war in less than five years," Atsuko said, breathing deeply and looking at Azula again. "It's, unfortunately for you, a convincing plan. One the Council might go for. Want me to push things in that direction? I can claim you'll make up for your wrongdoings by infiltrating Exalsyn when you're done gathering your crew again… you'll have your chance to find your brother that way, if he's there at all. And if Liu Lijun and Ren decide that consequences are warranted anyhow, I'll shield you as much as I can, at least until you're done spying on the Exalted."
"And… you'll join the war effort actively to mitigate matters too?" Azula asked, uneasy. Atsuko shrugged.
"Don't have a better idea in mind. Much less one that will appease Ren," she said. "Liu Lijun's a piece of shit, but Ren's far more willful than him. If he thinks he's going to get what he wants… Liu Lijun's tantrums won't stop him from seizing any victories that are there for the taking. Otherwise, I would've lost all my medals and rank, let alone flying authorization, a long time ago."
"You think Liu Lijun would've taken all of that from you? Ren protected you from that fate?" Sokka asked. Atsuko shrugged.
"Hard to imagine anything else that explains how I'm still an active officer in the Fleet. I don't exactly have anyone else protecting me or watching out for me," she said. "Most higher-ups in the Council and Fleet would do anything to suck up to Liu Lijun: if he wanted me dead, their sole question would've been whether he wanted me buried in a distant planet or if he preferred my ashes scattered into a black hole. Whether Ren did it out of some ridiculous sentimentality, or because he thought I was more useful to him alive… it's simply the likeliest possibility, after I did what I did to Liu Lijun's ego."
"You never wanted to be part of the war effort," Azula said, eyeing her warily. "Can I ask… why?"
"Do you need to?" Atsuko said, hands in her pockets. "This is not my war. It's not humanity's war either. It's the clones' war: they're fighting so their existence is considered as valid as that of humans. But more than anything… it's the war between Eun-u Cho and Liu Lijun. A war between two men who, whether for good or ill, have decided they're fine with whatever debacle is needed until they get the outcome they want. I never signed up for this shit. I was not a fighter, no matter if I spent ten years in TRAPPIST-1d honing my combat skills… I only did combat training there because it was the best way to clear my mind, reclaim any of my focus. But I didn't join the Fleet because of this… hell, I was serving in space long before there even was a Stellar Fleet. I was a mere astronaut, nothing more, nothing less, flying for the space agency that turned into the Stellar Council while I wasn't mid-jump. My job, from the very beginning, was to biocatalyze planets. I never set out to fight any wars, much less theirs."
"You do understand what Lifeseeds are made of, don't you?" Sokka asked. Atsuko raised her eyebrows.
"Of course I do. It was no secret before," she said. Azula's eyes widened. "It was a controversial matter back in the day, don't get me wrong, but… the Council is the one that decided to hide the truth."
"And it doesn't… doesn't deter you?" Azula asked. "As I am, I almost want to walk away from the very notion of biocatalysis for good. I don't know what else to do with myself, sure, but…"
"As things stand now, as long as you're aligned with the Council, you can either biocatalyze or join the battlefronts. And if you don't want to do either thing… well, you're free to go back to TRAPPIST-1d. Feels like the clones don't particularly want to kill the veterans there anyway, seeing as they sent someone to infiltrate that place eons ago to no severe consequences."
Atsuko stared at Aang for a moment, as though to scrutinize him thoroughly. She sighed, however, shaking her head in disbelief.
"The fact that no one ever picked up on who you were… I didn't. Had no reason to," she said. "Moreover, unless you're hiding a body count none of us can fathom, everything suggests you've got better morals than the bulk of the Council, anyhow."
"Well, you could say I do have one, based on how many Lifeseeds I've made, but… I swear, I only ever turned life energy into Lifeseeds for those who were ready and willing," Aang said.
"Think we're both proof of that," Sokka said, glancing at Atsuko. "I begged him to do it."
"Hmm. I begged him not to," Atsuko admitted. "Probably makes me a bigger coward than anyone expects, but… I just wanted to vanish for good. Didn't expect my life's energy could be of any worth for whatever planet it was recycled into."
"Heh. So… you were even more self-deprecating than I am. Good to know," Sokka said: Azula nudged him with an elbow and he shrugged. "What?"
"Good sense was never your forte," Azula sighed, shaking her head before glancing at Atsuko. "Do you truly think you can trust Ren to take you as part of the war effort now? That he won't try to… outsmart you, or screw you over, one way or another? After what he did to our team, I…"
"He's not as bold with me as he may have been with you. In fact, after what you pulled, it's likely that he'll treat you with more respect or caution, going forward," Atsuko reasoned. "He will see you as a potential threat, which isn't a harmless thing, of course… but you have to consider that, if you continue to work for the Fleet, be it under my direct command or not, you'll likely end up serving Ren. He will give you orders, much as he gives them to me. I can't promise anything else, he's a Paladin…"
"Elite Paladin now," Azula said: Atsuko scowled.
"Right. Even worse," she said, with a heavy sigh. "Bastard will go all the way to Paragon before any of us knows it, and by then… well, all bets will be off. Doubt he's going to listen to reason much more than he does nowadays once he has uncontested power over the entire Fleet. I can try to stand up to him, to a certain extent, but you'd best watch yourself around him. Ren is not the type to forget he's been slighted. Sleep with one eye open, if you sleep at all."
"Well, I'm not keen on sleeping myself, so feel free to relax, Azula," Sokka whispered, shaking his head. "I'll keep watch."
"You can't just never sleep anyway. I know your dreams have been bad, but…" Azula said, before frowning and glancing at Atsuko again. "Have you ever had any dreams? Prophetic ones, sort of? It happens to Sokka at times… a lot more often, these days. Happened to him when he first visited Earth, and ever since…"
"When he first visited… Earth?" Atsuko repeated, eyeing Sokka warily. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Means I'm from Mars, so I'd never…?"
"No, you… why would you have weird dreams about Earth?" Atsuko said, scowling heavily. "More so if you're not even from that planet. What exactly happens in that dream of yours?"
"Eh… I don't really know. Long story short? Feels like the planet's annihilated," Sokka said, softly. Atsuko's eyes widened. "It's a big battle and… I don't know. It's like some kind of bubble breaks… I get the feeling that everything burns down, but it all turns black for me after a while, so I'm not exactly sure of what went down in the dream, anyway."
"A bubble?" Atsuko repeated. "You… do you know when that sort of thing is supposed to happen? Are there any visual cues, any signs of what year it is?"
"Uh… no. I mean, it's a dream, so…" Sokka said: Aang cleared his throat, and Sokka sighed. "Or, at least, it's what I thought it was until Aang started saying that it might be something else."
"Oh?" Atsuko stared at the Lifeseed Specialist. He gritted his teeth.
"I don't know if you've ever had the feeling, Task Master, that… things are happening a second time around? That this isn't quite the first time any of this has come to pass? The first time we've lived through this?"
Atsuko scrutinized Aang for a long moment, her brow furrowed. Where Azula suspected she might just dismiss the notion, though, she surprised them by pulling something out of her pocket.
"Is this familiar to you? Does it… trigger that sensation for you?"
All three stared at the strange, conjoined rings resting on their superior's palm. Sokka's lips parted, and Azula shuddered at the sensation the strange device elicited inside her: it was almost alive, somehow, with that eerie blue glow… she couldn't hope to put her finger on it, of course, but something unsettled her about the item.
"What is that?" she asked, looking at Atsuko in confusion. The woman shrugged.
"I've spent my entire life trying to answer that question. To no avail," she said, meeting Azula's gaze. "Thought… if this has happened before, according to your friend here, maybe his clone mind can shed light where ours can't. I don't know."
"I… I'm sorry. I've never seen anything like that before," Aang admitted. "It's intriguing, but… I don't know what it is."
Atsuko didn't hide her disappointment, even if she didn't voice it either.
"I've never seen anything like that," Azula said.
"Nor have I," Atsuko whispered. "Found it as a child. I thought… well, it wasn't just me who thought it looked like an alien device, most people around me also assumed it was one. It played no small part in my choice to become what I am now… but to this day, I've found no answers about whatever the hell it's supposed to be. Something about it feels like what he described, a familiar sensation from another time, maybe… but I don't understand it either."
"Have scientists studied it?" Sokka asked.
"Many did, but very long ago. I haven't handed it over for anyone else to study it in many years," Atsuko admitted. "It responded to some new technology in neural chips once… unlocked some hidden information within it. But after that… nothing."
Azula stared at the device pointedly: part of it appeared inactive, for whatever reason. Why Atsuko would wonder if it had any connection with Aang's claims of multiple versions of reality, she didn't know… but the strange item certainly didn't seem human, or at least, of their time. It was simultaneously simple, yet mysterious and convoluted in ways Azula suspected they'd never understand.
"Doesn't matter. What you're saying about Earth is disturbing on its own anyway, whether things have happened before or not," Atsuko concluded, tucking the strange device back in her pocket: she had returned to full determination, as fierce as she ever showed herself. "I don't particularly want to go back, but… that doesn't mean I wouldn't care if it was destroyed, be it over Eun-u Cho's actions or Liu Lijun's bullshit."
"Do you think that this is… a real vision of the future? That there's any way to prevent it?" Sokka asked, warily. Atsuko shrugged.
"Considering how bad the war's gotten, we're better off assuming anything is possible, at this point," Atsuko stated. "I'm not one for believing in supernatural things, usually, but… there's been enough weird shit in my life as it is. Your future sight ability, if it's that at all, will hopefully serve us well rather than hinder us. If we consider your visions a warning, we know what to fight against and what to prepare for. If you have any other such dreams, make sure to write down every single detail once you wake up. Send a file about it to me as soon as you can… I know it'll likely take me hundreds of years to receive it, but it still might help."
"I wasn't in those visions of yours," Azula pointed out, looking at Sokka. He gritted his teeth and nodded. "If we go back to Earth, I won't let anyone or anything tear me away from you. If just for that reason, things are going to change, if this vision of yours is truly from the future."
"That's good," Atsuko said. "Could mean there's a way to change… well, whatever's supposed to be destiny. Not that I believe in that shit anyway, haven't for ages, but if there's any truth to those visions, the best thing we can do is try to disrupt them."
"I'd ask if maybe changing things could make the ultimate outcome of matters worse, but… what could be worse than the destruction of a planet anyway?" Sokka asked, gritting his teeth. Azula clasped his hand and squeezed it gently. "So, uh… can we recap what our new plan is, going forward?"
"Plan will be for you lot to come to Ross 128 b with me, I'll settle whatever ruffled feathers I come across, send word to Ren about the new assignment I've given you, and you'll have to obey it thoroughly in order to prove yourselves to the Fleet again," Atsuko sighed. "I know it sounds like selling your souls to the devil, sure… but if you'd like a peaceful life, I'm afraid I have no idea how to provide it. TRAPPIST-1d is always an option to forget reality… but if you literally just came from there, it sounds to me like you'd rather spend your lives making a difference rather than running away."
"I'm not exactly compelled to fight alongside the Fleet again," Azula said, frowning. "Part of me worries that the clones might have better motives to fight than we do. What if they do, and we end up joining up with them for real once we reach Exalsyn?"
"If that happens, I'll just hope you're making the right choice and that we won't meet in a battlefield in the future. Wouldn't enjoy having to fight you," Atsuko said, with a sigh. "What moves you, Homura? What brought you this far?"
Azula frowned: originally, Atsuko herself was the reason for it. She was the beacon she had followed, the example she had wanted to obey… but she glanced at Sokka, knowing her motivations had changed somewhere along the way. He had become her partner, her lover, the one person she couldn't do without. Where she had longed for individuality and independence, now she refused to abide by a world where she wasn't by his side…
"Those I care for. Doing right by them," Azula whispered, squeezing Sokka's hand gently. "My friends, my allies… my family."
"Then let that be your guide," Atsuko said, pushing herself upright and looking at her compassionately. "And if that means the Fleet is wrong and must be defeated… then I wish you luck. Send word to me if possible and I might just end up throwing my lot with you, provided you're convincing enough. But for the time being… my loyalty remains with humanity. I've fought for this long to bring it as far as it has come… I have no true conflict with the clones, myself, and if they merely wanted Liu Lijun's head on a spike, I'd gladly giftwrap it for them. But as long as they're fighting mankind, targeting civilians, making innocents into clones against their will, I can't throw my lot in with them blindly."
"I don't expect I will, either. Much less if they stole my brother's life, in whatever sense they did," Azula said. Atsuko nodded.
"Then let's get going. We have no more time to waste: you need to track down your teammates and I need to get Ren off your back somehow," Atsuko concluded, slipping into her pilot's seat. "Harkin, follow my ship to Ross 128 b. I'll secure you clearance to enter the planet."
"Thank you," Sokka said.
"I… is it alright if I ride with you all the way there?" Azula asked Atsuko. The Task Master shrugged, though she glanced back at the other pilot warily: Sokka raised his eyebrows questioningly, and Azula reached to squeeze his hand again. "I just have some things I want to ask her about. I'll be with you again as soon as we land."
"You'll also stay in comms with me the whole time, right?" Sokka asked, pouting. Azula smiled.
"I'm yours. You know that," she said. Despite himself, Sokka smiled a little and nodded.
"Call me crazy but… six months without you have made sure I can barely stand a second away from you," he said, reeling her in to kiss the top of her head. "Alright, then. I'll… see you when we land?"
"You will," Azula promised, hugging him tightly.
The protocolar copilot's seat in Atsuko's ship had never been used before, a fact Azula noticed as she sat across it to find it bent in an awkward position, for it had never been adjusted. She shifted it until she could sit properly, and she lingered in silence until Sokka and Aang detached their ship from Atsuko's successfully.
"Keep up, Harkin," Atsuko said to Sokka through the comms.
"Aye aye, sir," was his response. Azula smiled slightly, though the grin faded from her face quickly.
"I… I nearly lost him for good," Azula whispered, once Atsuko cut the comms again.
"Good thing you didn't," Atsuko said. "Made the right choice to go back to him when you did. You were damn lucky, too… the light-years that it takes to travel to TRAPPIST-1d from Ross 128 b, and Earth, are surprisingly close. Doesn't work out that way as often as one would like."
"I guess you know that better than anyone," Azula concluded, eyeing Atsuko with uncertainty. "You said you never had a partner, but… you still lost someone, didn't you?"
Atsuko didn't answer right away. Her jaw tensed visibly as she piloted the ship, steering towards Ross 128 b at a reasonable pace.
"I lost… everyone."
Azula gritted her teeth. Atsuko offered her a dishonest smile, leaning back on her seat.
"I knew the cost would be great. Thought I could afford it anyway. Eight years, between Proxima Centauri b and Earth… just the one trip. I'd do it for the sake of it. Didn't think I'd be the core pod pilot, hell knows how come I was the only pilot in any condition to fly by the time the mission was ready to go. I nearly died doing it, too. But I returned and… it'd started already. Changes, losses… people I couldn't say goodbye to. I took to making mistakes upon mistakes, letting my grief take the wheel because I couldn't confront reality anymore… I flew again, and again, and again. Next thing I knew… everyone I'd ever loved was gone. And I couldn't take any of it back."
Azula gritted her teeth. Atsuko's downcast gaze fell upon the steering orbs again.
"Last time I met you… I could tell you didn't have it yet. But you do now, don't you? Space madness," Atsuko said, glancing at Azula. She gritted her teeth. "Probably because of your brother… maybe because of other things, too."
"Sokka's family. We… we saw his parents in TRAPPIST-1d. They're gone now," Azula said. Atsuko breathed deeply and nodded. "Makes you wonder why the hell we do any of what we do."
"In your case, beats me. In mine? I… have nothing better to do. Nowhere else to go. No home to speak of besides a stellarship," Atsuko whispered. "You have him, though. If you two wanted to walk away, or fly away, as the case may be… I wouldn't stop you."
"I won't pretend I'm not tempted. You… you don't mind, that him and I are…?" Azula asked. "I know it's hardly professional, or proper, but…"
"Your personal life is yours to manage. I'm not your guardian in that sense, nor anyone else's. I don't really care who's sleeping with whom," Atsuko said, bluntly. Azula's cheeks flushed.
"Well… thank you," Azula said. "But the Council's not likely to take it very well, if it's known…"
"Up to you to keep it quiet, then. I'll have it easy enough pretending I don't know anything, anyway. Don't make a habit of talking about my own personal life, much less someone else's," Atsuko said. "You have a lot more to lose than I ever did because he's with you. Make the right choices… keep him safe. You could've lost him if things had gone Ren's way and you'd traveled anywhere but to TRAPPIST-1d in your previous journey. Don't ever take that risk again."
"I won't," Azula said, breathing deeply. "I think… the only way I can keep the madness at bay is through him. I don't know what I'd do if I ever truly lost him, and I don't want to know either. But you… you say you have no bonds of the sort. People speculated about nonsense, such as, well, you and Ren…"
"Not a chance," Atsuko said, simply. "Beats me if that's what he wants from me… but if it is, bastard's married to begin with. If he's ready to throw that away out of some nonsensical fixation on me, I'm certainly not going to humor him."
"How, then, do you keep it at bay yourself?" Azula asked. Atsuko raised her eyebrows. "Or is it you…?"
"Not to be an asshole…well, I tend to be one, nothing new under the stars. But… what part of my current lifestyle suggests I'm keeping my space madness at bay, exactly?"
Azula's stomach sank at that. Atsuko smiled slightly, shaking her head.
"Stability doses are my best bet when it gets truly bad. In fact… I ought to give you some of those. I have enough to spare, can stock up on more in Ross 128 b once we get there," Atsuko said, gesturing at a small cabinet by the steering orbs. "I don't know what your situation will be, once you find your allies again… much less once you infiltrate Exalsyn. Taking a dose will stunt your emotions, which isn't always great… but it'll keep you from being too sick after jumps. That was its main purpose. Make sure to take them if the situation calls for it."
"But you take them for more reasons than just overcoming the physical consequences of stellarflights, then?" Azula asked. Atsuko nodded. "Is that… allowed? Acceptable?"
"Nope. Benefits of being a renowned bigshot in the Fleet, I guess," Atsuko said, casually. Azula smiled a little. "I get as much of it as I want or need and no one asks any questions. Keeps me focused, helps me keep the misery quiet and calm for a bit…"
"How about if you… find likeminded people? People who understand what you went through, at least to some extent?" Azula asked. "I know it might sound insane, but… you could join us, maybe. My team… we could work for you directly. Maybe you wouldn't need to use stability doses all the time if you have someone else to rely on, and… it could help with the madness."
"Having friends will save me…?" Atsuko recited, her voice almost playful. She smiled and leaned back on her seat again. "Don't know if that suits me, Homura. You only like me because you haven't spent that much time with me. In case you forgot… I'm a notorious asshole."
"In case you forgot, that's the reason why I liked you in the first place."
Atsuko actually laughed at that. Azula smiled slightly, surprised by the sound. She only realized then that she'd never heard her laughing in earnest ever before…
"I'll have to think hard about it, but… don't get your hopes up," Atsuko said. Azula nodded. "Truth is… I don't know how to be part of a team. You and your crew certainly have me beat in that regard. But… I wouldn't mind it if I could occasionally communicate casually with someone on the regular. Not that I know how to have a casual conversation anymore… we don't exactly discuss the weather much, in this day and age."
"And I doubt you're interested in updates about my relationship with Sokka," Azula said, with a small smile. "Can't pretend there's going to be any updates at this point, either… after all this time, it doesn't feel likely that we'll have children."
"Didn't do the Harvest?" Atsuko asked.
"We did, but… it doesn't feel like we live lives meant for that sort of thing," Azula reasoned. Atsuko hummed.
"Understandable. Well, we'll have to find something else to talk about, then. No weather, no children… not that I have any of my own, evidently, so that would've been a rather one-sided topic anyhow, if you ever had some, yourself."
Azula couldn't help but chuckle: the fact that her long-time hero was smiling, and not in a strained manner, should've caught her by surprise. She should have been starstruck by experiencing such an unexpected, simple moment amid so much chaos and the harsh complications of their current lives… but it might just have been the first time that it felt like Atsuko Takei was no mystery to be solved, for she, herself, wanted answers beyond her reach. For once, she was but another human being, and most surprising of all, she was someone she could consider a friend, of all things.
"With any luck, we'll figure something out," Azula said. "At worst, we can always badmouth Ren and Liu Lijun, though…"
"Ah, now you're speaking my language. Good call," Atsuko smirked. Azula chuckled again, gripping the armrests harder as the pilot finally angled to enter the atmosphere of Ross 128 b.
The whirlwind that followed upon their arrival in Ross 128 b would've left anyone dizzy, but Azula did her best to keep up with it: Atsuko indeed took responsibility for the actions of her underlings, claiming Azula's punishment was hers to determine for her irresponsible behavior back on Earth – the protests by the seating Paladin in Ross 128 b fell on deaf ears, no matter if he outranked Atsuko considerably. It was easy to tell what her deepest intent was… but when she played her final card, all worries pertaining rank fell to the wayside:
Task Master Takei gambled away her own freedom, agreeing to join the warfront after her next biocatalysis mission, provided Azula's crew was granted a full pardon for their alleged treason.
"To think she's had to do that when most of us didn't do shit," Sokka hissed four days later, as he and Azula finished stocking up their newest ship, granted to them by virtue of their connection with Atsuko. "Hell, what you did wasn't even a crime, either…"
"Well, I did inflict physical violence upon the Chairman. You can't really pretend it wasn't a crime," Azula argued, with a slight smile.
"Come on, the real crime is what they did to us!" Sokka growled, closing one of the cabinets in the ship's main deck. "They broke us away from each other, split the group to ensure we'd never join up again… and we're supposed to be fine with that? Fuck them, seriously. There's no forgiving this shit."
"You'll have to set it aside for now," Azula said, taking his hand and squeezing it gently. "I know we have a lot of big decisions to make in the coming years, and we will. I don't even know if I want to do this anymore and I suspect neither do you. But… we have to find your sister, and Toph, before we do anything else."
"We will," Sokka said, unable to suppress a shudder. "Whatever… whatever it takes. Whatever it entails."
"Are you ready to face it if…?"
"No. But I won't be ready for bad news no matter when we set out anyway. Time is always running out," Sokka hissed, turning towards her and hugging her tightly. "If I have to face my sister's gravestone, so be it… but I'll be damned if I don't try to find her, regardless."
Azula sighed and hugged him back: she understood his feelings all too well…
"How are you feeling?" Azula whispered, pulling back and cupping his face. Sokka gritted his teeth. "I thought you'd gotten more sleep last night, but if you didn't, I can pilot instead…"
"I'll do it," Sokka whispered. Azula sighed.
"Atsuko gave me some of her stability doses. Could be they'll come in handy if you're not feeling particularly well," she said. Sokka hummed.
"We're on first-name terms now with her, are we?" he asked, amused. Azula's cheeks flushed. "Kind of crazy to think we're the only people she's ever done that much for. Even if she pretends otherwise, we owe her a ton for what she's doing."
"That we do," Azula said, biting her lip. "I wasn't wrong to choose her as a role model, after all. I just… I can't help but think she's too lonely. Worst part is she doesn't seem to want that to change for the better. I suspect she's just scared of losing whatever bonds she may build. Can't let anyone too close or else it'll destroy her if she loses them too."
"Hmm. Understandable," Sokka said, breathing deeply but smiling at Azula. "But if I learned something after those horrible months, Azula, it's… I would do it all over again. I would choose you, time after time, and I don't care how many light-years it takes, I'd always be ready to find you anew. This life has only been worth it at all because you're in it."
Azula smiled sadly at him: Sokka leaned in, kissing her thoroughly, prompting her to push herself to the tips of her toes to deepen the exchange. They'd had no time, no true opportunity for privacy… they likely would find very little of it in the coming days, too. This was as good as it would get for the time being, for they'd be forced to travel at haste, between Ross 128 b and the planets where, with any luck, they might just find Toph and Katara…
It was a serious challenge, with an unpredictable outcome: they'd acquired information about the last journeys Toph and Katara had taken off into by now, namely through new simulations that turned up in Katara's VR circlets. Should they fail to track down either one of them, they'd need to return to Ross 128 b and set out again to whatever new location Toph or Katara had wound up at. And with every trip, the risk of losing them for good would only worsen…
They needed the encouragement, the blood pumping in their veins… the certainty that, whatever might come next, they would not walk this path on their own. The eager kisses offered them relief, easing their heavy hearts, promising that whatever might lie beyond the horizon, after their upcoming mission to infiltrate Exalsyn, would set them free from the burdens they had been carrying. From the moment they innocently set out from Mars, they'd known they'd be on the adventure of a lifetime… but they had remained unaware of how dangerous and corrupt their galaxy would become across a thousand years of spacefaring.
"Oh, uh… sorry to interrupt."
Aang's voice was unwelcome, but Azula and Sokka didn't overreact to it: they held each other for one more moment, sharing one last, gentle kiss, one last moment of losing themselves in each other's eyes.
The Lifeseeed Specialist swallowed hard as he made his way to his assigned cabin in the new stellarship, past the main deck in which the Captain and Quarter Master remained: the ship would be large enough for five, furnished with the weaponry that had become mandatory for the Fleet's vessels. Outwardly, it resembled Atsuko's own ship, if slightly smaller, with a sleek design that seemed as flexible as it was sturdy. The rings utilized for stellarflights would emerge far more quickly and securely than ever before – the technology seemed to improve constantly, even if the bounds of lightspeed travel had yet to be overcome.
"You ready, Aang?" Sokka called after him, still holding Azula closely.
"As good as ready!" he said: Azula sighed, dropping her head on Sokka's chest.
"Why does it feel like everything that lies ahead is… terrifying?" she whispered.
"Probably because things only ever seem to get worse? But… we'll face it together. Whatever comes next," Sokka said, rubbing her back gently.
He was the one who tensed up when someone else stepped into view, climbing the ramp of their ship: his eyes found Atsuko Takei's firm scowl, one she had worn across her face quite persistently during the past four days.
"You're all set?" she asked: Azula pulled back from Sokka reluctantly to face her, and she nodded promptly. "Tucked away the stability doses safely, Homura?"
"I did," Azula assured her. Atsuko nodded. "I… I know you'll say we owe you nothing, but that's not true. The sacrifices you're making in order to keep us alive and breathing are nothing to scoff at. Whatever you may need from us…"
"Can't think of anything so far. Maybe I will in the future, who knows," Atsuko sighed, hands in her pockets. "I don't think we'll see each other again anytime soon. I'm going to join the war effort after I'm done in GJ 463 c, so… all I can say now is good luck to you both. May you find your way to whatever future you're fighting for."
"You too," Azula said, softly. Atsuko's pained grimace suggested she had no idea what said future would look like for her, to begin with.
"I… wanted to apologize, by the way," Sokka said, turning towards Atsuko. She raised an eyebrow. "The way I acted, back when we first spoke, I… I was out of line. Azula rightfully chewed me out for it too, and… you've proven to be every bit the leader I thought you could be. Mars would've done better under your care than you'll ever accept, I'm sure… but you're not wrong to think you should've been given a choice, of course. I just… wanted to say it, for the record."
"Well, that's… thank you, I suppose, Harkin," Atsuko said, uneasy. "If you're really coming around on me to that extent, then… I guess I have something to say to you after all."
"Oh?" Sokka raised his eyebrows… and Atsuko jerked her head towards Azula.
"You take care of her. Don't ever let her go," she said, earnestly. Sokka's cheeks flushed, as did Azula's… their hands linked, if gently. "If you need a new calling in life? Make it her happiness and safety. If anything happens to her… well, I'll be the one chewing you out in that circumstance. But… it won't come to that, will it?"
Sokka smiled: to his surprise, Atsuko smiled back.
"Good. Then… consider us even, provided you fulfill that request," she said.
"Won't ask the same from me?" Azula asked, uneasy. Atsuko snorted.
"Nah. I like you better than him," Atsuko said, straightforwardly. Sokka laughed, and Azula smiled a little.
"Well, get in line if you ever want to be Azula's biggest fan. I got there first!" Sokka declared, squeezing Azula against his flank. Atsuko smiled and nodded.
"I'm fine with second place. Just do right by each other, then… no need to accuse me of playing favorites, even if I do it so blatantly," Atsuko said. "Watch out with the Specialist. He might be everything he says he is, but… remember he's one of them, willingly or no. Eun-u Cho is still bound to have power over him, and he will do whatever he pleases with him, if he decides to do so."
"We'll make sure to keep him in check," Azula promised. Atsuko breathed out heavily.
"Then… go on and find the allies and destiny you're looking for, renegades," she said, nodding her head towards them. "Good luck, and farewell."
Azula gritted her teeth and nodded… before bringing her fist to her heart. She extended two fingers in the respectful salute that Atsuko had once twisted into an insult, aimed at Liu Lijun…
"Good luck, Task Master… and safe flight," Azula said. Sokka, beside her, followed her example.
Atsuko smiled: Azula half expected her to dismiss the gesture… but she raised her hand to her chest just as well, and this time, she didn't shift her hand to show her middle finger. The thought brought a smile to Azula's face… as she and Sokka joined the ranks of the very few people to receive a greeting of respect from the legendary pilot.
The ramp closed again once Atsuko climbed off it, on her way to set up her own journey. Azula breathed deeply, taking Sokka's hand… meeting his eyes, knowing they'd both need to be at their best for what was to come.
"Doesn't sound wrong, does it?" Sokka remarked, raising his eyebrows. "Renegades, she called us… we could be Team Renegade. Or the Renegade Squad…"
"Must you give us a name?" Azula smiled. Sokka yelped.
"It's long overdue, if anything, Captain Renegade!"
"Oh, come on. Enough silly teasing: let's take off, shall we?"
"Fine, fine. Let's get started," Sokka smiled.
Azula cupped his cheek, and with one more kiss, one that didn't go interrupted this time, the two pilots moved to the cockpit, ready to take to the stars once more.
Of all things, winding up planting regular seeds and harvesting food had never been among Toph's main expectations in life, but such was the way things turned out for her upon landing, five years ago, in LHS 1140 b. A planet suitable for farming, forty-nine years away from Ross 128 b, placid, peaceful, quiet save for the groans and cries of the creatures they produced food from, through their DNA…
… Naturally, Toph despised every second in that place, while lacking any means to get out.
It was her third planet after being ejected from Ross 128 b, unceremoniously, a couple weeks after Sokka vanished. She had stowed away on two stellarships, sending word through the Extranet about her next whereabouts to Katara, hoping she'd be able to send the codified message ahead, or reunite with her somehow. But so far, nothing had happened and Toph was forced to reckon with the possibility that she'd be stuck like this, driving that gigantic harvest machine, waiting for a new chance to stow away, for her friends might just never fly in this direction…
She had started looking into the next scheduled stellarships expected to leave the planet when a sudden message popped to life in her neural chip.
Answer ASAP: where are you? Send your coordinates. We'll get there in ten.
Toph sat upright on her vehicle: it didn't take her long to identify the message's origin…
Azula's neural chip.
No one across that planet, populated by a mere 200 people, had ever heard screams of joy as cheerful as the ones that left Toph's throat that day: she continued to rejoice as openly and shamelessly once the stellarship arrived, ready to pick her up.
"See you never, suckers!" Toph laughed maniacally as she raced towards the open ramp that awaited her, as the stellarship touched down amid the large stretches of harvesting lands.
She leapt aboard and rushed to the cockpit immediately: Azula smiled at the sight of her, and was notoriously startled when the slightly older Toph jumped forth and hugged her, recklessly so.
"You're back, you little shit, you…! Fuck, yes!" Toph laughed, hoisting Azula off the ground with her enthusiasm.
"You're…! Way buffer, damn!" Azula gasped, as Toph spun her in circles happily.
"You two idiots finally came back for me! Damn, I was already thinking I'd have to go somewhere else!" she laughed, setting Azula down again before rushing to the pilot's seat. "Sokka!"
"Now, stay put!" Sokka warned her: he was already maneuvering to get them out of the planet's atmosphere anew, but the reckless, cheerful digger hugged him over the backrest of his chair anyway. "Yes, I'm glad to see you too, Toph…!"
"Fuck, yes!" Toph roared happily, beaming still…
And then the smile faded as soon as she laid eyes on Aang. He smiled, sitting in a corner, and Toph's eyebrow twitched.
"What the hell's this guy doing here?"
"It's… a long, complicated story. Might as well tell it on our way back to Ross 128 b," Azula sighed. "We'll need fuel once we get there, and… we'll need to confirm Katara's location. We're coming for her next."
"Oh, fuck, yes. Getting the gang back together!" Toph grinned, clapping Azula's arm.
"We are, but… you do have the chance to choose what you want to do, going forward," Azula said, warily. Toph blinked a couple times.
"Biocatalysis isn't really on the menu anymore," Sokka said.
"Well, sure. I'm not gonna complain too much about that, not after what we learned from this dipshit," Toph said, gesturing at Aang. "But why do you guys make it sound like whatever you're planning is, well, worse?"
The answer to that question was quite plain, of course: Toph stiffened, wary at once, as Azula offered her an uneasy smile.
"Do you have any pending business to sort out here before we leave this system?" Sokka asked.
"Not really," Toph said.
"Then mail in your farming resignation and let's go," Sokka said, powering the stellarship again, out of the planet and into the sky.
There were many revelations for Toph to learn about after they returned to Ross 128 b to refuel and confirm their next destination. She found most news quite disagreeable – particularly those pertaining Aang. But upon understanding what their ultimate mission would be, the digger was nothing but the picture of determination.
"Don't know how we're gonna go about it… don't really care: if you guys are ready to attack that ship, I'm with you," she said, firmly, before the group got started with restocking their fuel supplies – Azula and Sokka remained paranoid, throughout, over potentially receiving contradictory orders and being banned from flying anew, in case anyone with higher authority over Atsuko decided they were better off imprisoned instead.
"Well, we're not ready to do it yet, but we will be after we get Katara," Sokka said, breathing deeply. "From what I've seen in the latest logs… she set out from Ross 128 b merely a couple months ago."
"Wait, she's out and about like nobody's business?" Toph asked, raising her eyebrows. "Officially, with the Fleet's approval?"
"She is a renowned programmer, has been for a long time," Azula reasoned, breathing deeply. "Which works in our favor. They can't afford to lose her, so… she's bound to be within our reach. Provided she wants to rejoin us, that is…"
Sokka nodded: a part of him feared Katara would be better off staying away from their group… but he wouldn't forgive himself, were roles reversed, if he didn't give his sister the chance to choose.
Thus, as soon as the ship was ready, they took off into space: the planet Epsilon Indi A c stood forty-three light-years away, and it was the last of Katara's reported destinations throughout her own travels.
They couldn't know for sure if she would be around the same age anymore. Toph was older, but perhaps Katara had dodged aging far more successfully, in virtue of being as important for the Fleet as she was…
"It's been two-hundred and fifty years," Sokka whispered, trembling before beginning the acceleration. Azula, beside him, reached to touch his hand. "But if she took off just before we did, she'll be alright. She… she'll still be alive."
"We're only a few months behind her. It won't take us that long to catch up to your sister," Azula said, as reassuringly as she could. Katara had traveled much throughout the past years… how often? How far? No one could know…
Sokka swallowed hard and pushed the orbs for acceleration: the process was far smoother and faster than when they'd first set out: after what seemed like an instant, plasma filled their ship and they powered their way across the stars.
Ren's scrutiny didn't suffice to break Atsuko's stubborn front: his silent glares met their match in hers, no matter if she stood before him in alleged submission.
"After all this time, all my pleading… this is when you give out," Ren hissed. "I would've held Homura for ransom much sooner if I'd known she was your weakness. Beats me why, though… what does that foolish girl mean to you? Why?"
"Why does that matter?" Atsuko responded, bluntly. "You're getting what you've asked for, finally: I'll join your war. Isn't that enough?"
"When it comes to you? I'm not sure anything is," Ren growled, stepping closer.
Atsuko glared at him from below: as tall as she had always been, Ren towered over her ever since they'd first met in that nightmarish situation, as he jabbed nutrition shots and balancing doses into her IV socket, to restore her body as best as possible before a light-speed jump, back to Ross 128 b…
She wasn't sure yet whether he had changed, or if she had. Atsuko felt no different, on any given day… but maybe Ren wasn't any different either. Maybe time had simply brought his worst features to the fore, no matter how determined he was to succeed at saving humanity.
"You'll fly with my division. You'll follow my orders," Ren said. "You'll abide by every command I give…"
"If the commands are worth following, sure."
"This is not a game!"
Ren roared the words, slamming a fist against the wall behind Atsuko. She didn't flinch, glaring into his dark eyes with her own.
"I guess I don't trust your leadership as much as I would like to, Ren," she recited the words slowly, as though to drive across that his attempt to intimidate her had failed, utterly. Ren snarled, punching the wall again before walking away from her.
"You drive me mad," he hissed. "I can't decide whether you're wiser and seeing beyond anything I can see… or if you're just a stubborn, irresponsible asshole who has no business serving in the Fleet whatsoever."
"Guess I'll have to make the most of your indecision while it lasts," Atsuko said, frowning. "Just leave Homura's team be. Make the right decisions and I'll follow. But throw lives away for the sake of an easier victory and you'll regret asking me to join you at all. I have no idea how much use I'll be to you in combat… but if nothing else, I volunteer to find other pathways to victory if you can't find a decent one yourself."
"Sounds easy enough… and yet I can't trust you anymore than you trust me," Ren hissed. "More so with what you're asking for. Homura's group should never be allowed to fly again…"
"Not even if they successfully infiltrate and strike against Exalsyn?"
Ren froze. He glanced at Atsuko with wide eyes, lips parting upon hearing those words.
"What…?"
"They're public enemies. Got very little to lose, as far as public opinion goes," Atsuko said. "And Homura wants to find out if Eun-u Cho's killed her brother… or done worse than that. Do you know if he did?"
Ren trembled and Atsuko scowled: she rather suspected the answer to her question was written all over his face.
"She will find him there… won't she?"
"I… I don't know how many she'll find. How many of ours they've…" Ren admitted: for once, it seemed he was overcome with guilt, with grief… he raised his gaze towards Atsuko, desperate: "It can't go on like this. So many dead, so many transformed… we have to defeat them. This war cannot end with their victory. So many sacrifices cannot go unpunished."
"The more we fight, the more chances they'll have to take our people into their control," Atsuko said. "Things are only going to get harder. Victory's not going to be within reach easily and, even once it is, the work to recompose humanity and help it heal will be far more arduous than anything you've ever faced. You're ready for that, Ren?"
Ren gritted his teeth. He shivered before looking at her pleadingly.
"Not alone."
Atsuko gritted her teeth. She met his eyes, finding that very unnerving sensation in them… her foolish heart pumped blood faster, as though to overwhelm her mind with childish thoughts of what could be. Of a future beyond her grasp, of a life shared with someone who would understand her burdens and toil…
No such person existed. Not even Homura.
Ren certainly wasn't that person, either.
"We will work towards that goal. For as long as we must," Atsuko said, firmly. Ren gritted his teeth. "But don't misunderstand the terms of our…"
"I wouldn't," Ren growled: that surging, strange sensation, the glimpse of vulnerability in him, faded in the blink of an eye. "We both get what we want: Homura will have her chance for redemption… but you? You fly with me. Prepare yourself, Takei. All intel indicates that the Exalted's next target will be Proxima Centauri b."
Atsuko snarled: the first planet she had biocatalyzed… a risky target, and a significant one in which they might deal a severe blow to humanity. Eun-u Cho hadn't dared send his fleet that far beyond humanity's home solar system… finally, it seemed, he was ready to strike beyond its boundaries.
That did not bode well for the Stellar Fleet.
"I'll be ready," she said, firmly, eyes steeled with fierce determination.
For now, this would suffice. Whatever baggage and turmoil she had yet to resolve between herself and Ren would be dealt with in the future.
She had bought Homura time… enough, she hoped, for her to finish collecting her allies and to set out on the dangerous mission that awaited her team, in the depths of the Exalted's deadly base.
Epsilon Indi A c had become, across the past centuries, one of the most advanced technological bastions within the Council's domain: it was a suitable place for Katara to travel to and stay temporarily, while awaiting any kind of news from her brother and the others. Deep down, she hoped they'd turn up before she outdid her brother by twenty more years… for the time being, several jumps across many planets had staved off her aging, but as she finished that day's dissertation at the Technological Institute she had started working at, Katara could only wonder if she'd need to move on again before long to prevent that.
She had sent the circlets to all three of her teammates, hoping particularly to help Azula return to Sokka as soon as possible – there'd be no escaping TRAPPIST-1d for him, so it was entirely on her to find him. As for Toph, Katara wasn't even sure her VR circlet had reached her, for it seemed she had moved on from her first destination before it reached her.
Katara hadn't laid roots in this place, and she didn't mean to do so at all: as much as she was appreciated, and her work as a programmer was highly regarded, she wanted to be ready to go as soon as they turned up. If they ever turned up. Whenever that happened…
Another day gone by, another return to her new home with a heavy heart. She boarded her hover-vehicle, drove it above the smooth city with colorful, beautiful lights, as many other vehicles flew past her…
Save for a rather sizable one that dipped below the clouds, drifting towards the planet.
"Woah!" Katara nearly screamed, glancing back at the stellarship in question: it was unknown but large. Perhaps just the right size… "No way. No way…!"
Her neural chip alerted her: an incoming call from her brother.
Moments later, the ship was powering its way out of Epsilon Indi A c: Katara would send her resignation to her post after she was done screaming for joy as she hugged Sokka and Toph, tears spilling down her cheeks after having entered the ship with her hover-vehicle, through its airlock.
"Got a cool ride there!" Toph laughed, as Katara squeezed her tightly.
"I'm so glad…! I thought you guys wouldn't turn up anytime soon!" Katara laughed, looking at her brother in deep relief. "You're not that old yet… haven't caught up to me so far!"
"But you don't look different, so… didn't outdo me by too much either," Sokka smiled sadly, hugging his sister again. "Katara… we're off to a pretty fucked up mission from here. It's not going to be easy. If… if you'd like to stay in Epsilon Indi A c instead, we'd understand."
"What're you talking about?" Katara smiled, looking at him in disbelief. "What're you going to do, sneak into Exalsyn to murder Eun-u Cho in cold blood?"
"I mean, don't know that the boss will have it in her to just straight-up murder the guy, but the other part's not that far from the truth," Toph said: Katara's jaw dropped.
"We're infiltrating Exalsyn. With… Aang's help," Sokka said, swallowing hard. "We'll explain more of that later, if you want, but the sooner we're out of here…"
"You're infiltrating Exalsyn, attacking Eun-u Cho directly… and you somehow think you can get away with that without my help?" Katara asked. Sokka smiled sadly. "Don't count on it. I'm with you, that's final!"
"If you're sure," Sokka smiled sadly. "Things are getting really messed up, Katara. We're not exactly in the best of standings with the Council these days…"
"Oh, I'm aware. I made sure to circulate a certain video of a bold and brazen Captain, striking the Chairman after he tried to pull a very shameful stunt on her," Katara smiled, glancing in the direction of the cockpit. "Left her driving, did you?"
"For now, yeah," Sokka nodded. "Then you know…?"
"I know you guys are in trouble. Doesn't matter. My reputation with the Council might just help clear your names further," Katara said, hugging her brother again. "And I don't plan on being away from you lot anymore, not if I can help it."
"Good. Thank you," Sokka whispered, pressing his face to the top of her head.
Azula awaited by the cockpit: the others rejoined her there shortly, and while Katara rushed in to hug her sister-in-law, she regarded Aang with caution – albeit she didn't react to his presence as poorly as Toph always did.
"Team's all back together now," Sokka said, as Azula slowed the ship to a halt and rose out of her seat: they hovered right beyond Epsilon Indi A c's stratosphere, orbiting the planet temporarily before setting out to their next destination.
"Time to set the record straight pertaining what comes next," Azula said, with a deep breath. "We'll strike against Exalsyn after restocking in Ross 128 b, yes… but I'd advise we split up for it."
"Wait… split? What the…? We just got the team together again!" Sokka squeaked. Azula placed a hand on his arm to ease him.
"It will be back together anew soon enough. But the one person in serious trouble with the Fleet here is me," Azula pointed out. "Thus, I'm the main one that can argue she wants to join the Exalted… I'll claim I'll become one of them. Aang can bring me in, pretend I asked him to do it…"
"I could try, but… it's not going to be easy," Aang pointed out, frowning slightly. "Eun-u Cho's bound to react really poorly to seeing me again after I've staved off his demands for so long…"
"We'll have to figure something out to help you with that," Azula said, glancing at Katara. "Have you ever tinkered with Exalted tech?"
"Uh… no? Why? What does he have to do with Eun-u Cho?" Katara said, looking at Aang in confusion. He smiled sadly.
"He's one of them," Toph growled. "A renegade Exalted, apparently. Much like we're all renegades now, too…"
"Team Renegade, for sure," Sokka said, nodding sagely. Azula rolled her eyes: Katara's jaw dropped as she stared at Aang.
"You… you were one of them all along? Seriously?" she asked. Aang sighed but nodded. "I didn't see that one coming…"
"Eh, you should know better than to trust creepy guys who make Lifeseeds," Toph scowled. "But then… he's your way into Exalsyn? And, what, the three of us are supposed to wait on the sidelines for you to get things going?"
"I don't like the sound of that," Sokka said, eyeing Azula meaningfully. She sighed, reaching over to clasp his arm.
"We keep saying we're never going to be apart and I want that to be the case… but I can't risk you falling into their hands too. It'll be hard enough for me to escape with one, maybe two Exalted, if Zuko and his partner were both transformed. Five people escaping will be that much worse… provided Aang comes with me, of course."
"It won't be easy," Aang admitted, lowering his gaze. "As it is, Eun-u Cho won't take it well when I turn up, no matter how important you may be, Captain Homura. I haven't done his bidding… and heavens know why he hasn't done anything to me in consequence. I can't promise I'll be able to escape with you. My mind might not be my own anymore once I'm near him."
"Maybe that's where I'll come in," Katara suggested. Aang crooked an eyebrow. "How much time will we have?"
"In Ross 128 b, for preparations? Not that long," Azula admitted. "I'm not exactly welcome around those parts, these days."
"Well, I am. I'll make sure they won't be a bother," Katara determined, breathing deeply. "I'll develop some method to keep your mind safe, Aang, but… you'll probably have to pretend you're under his thrall, even so."
"If you can make that into some manner of device, a signal, I don't know… it could come in handy for me," Azula said. "If I can reach Zuko, he might need to be broken out of Eun-u Cho's control."
"And what if he's not around?" Toph asked.
"I'll try to figure out where he is instead, if he's still alive at all, to begin with," Azula said, firmly.
"Alright, say that you and Aang head in there after all, and you find your brother: what comes next?" Sokka asked, frowning. "What's my role in all of this? Toph's?"
Azula breathed deeply: she cast a wary glance at Aang, who sighed and nodded.
"I shouldn't hear this, should I?" he said.
"We can't know whether Eun-u Cho will check through your logs to find out what we're doing. He might even figure us out without that," Azula said. Aang nodded, stepping away from the group.
"I'll head to my cabin while you discuss your plans," he said, raising a hand. "And I'll be playing music very loudly until you're done so I don't overhear anything."
"Good call," Katara smiled sadly at him, though she turned towards Azula and Sokka again quickly once Aang was gone. "Well? Do you have an actual plan, or…?"
"I'll need information. Lots of it," Azula whispered. "I will need time to acquire it. And time is also needed to make this whole scheme believable. So… you'll have to wait for a couple of days before following us, Sokka. Set a tracker on Aang, Katara, so you won't have any trouble following us to Exalsyn's exact location. He's the only one who can get us in there. So… your job will be to hover nearby, at most start a distraction, if need be. Once I send you a signal through our rings, Sokka, you'll know I'm ready to go. I'll seek some escape pod and rejoin you in the ship as soon as possible."
"You're sure?" Sokka asked, frowning. "I know this is what Takei told us to do, but… Azula, it's a major risk. The biggest one we've ever taken."
"I know," Azula said, squeezing his hand gently. "And I'm sorry that it's come to this. I wish I could think of a way to do it without ever parting ways, but… it's probably better for both of us to pilot different ships for the whole team, right?"
"Right. Then… you and Aang will leave on a different one, and I'll take this one?" Sokka asked. Azula nodded. "Well… shit. I don't like this."
"I don't like it much, either. It's very risky, but I can't think of a better alternative," Azula repeated, pressing her brow to his shoulder. "With any luck, it'll be the last time we have to play at infiltrating such a dangerous place."
"Let's hope so," Sokka sighed, reeling her into a tight hug.
Their trip back to Ross 128 b resumed after that: the jump had never felt so foreboding. Katara took her time to work with Aang's systems across almost two weeks and a half… a far longer period of downtime than any they'd gotten as of late.
It allowed the other three to spend time in the Council's Headquarters, to which they were confined, particularly Azula, until the leaders of the Fleet decreed otherwise. While Azula had never met the seating Paragon, it seemed the chief officer leading the Fleet was currently back on Earth, building up defenses for a potential attack by the Exalted. Information allowed Azula to discover, too, that many things had transpired while they were out searching for Toph and Katara…
"She's been busy," Sokka remarked, reading the same holoscreen Azula was studying… with current information pertaining the Fleet's grand hero:
"In a stroke of genius, Task Master Atsuko Takei struck the rearguard of the Exalted fleet, dealing a massive blow that broke the siege of Proxima Centauri b. In the aftermath of the battle, she was promoted to the position of Battle Master. She joined the battle for Luyten b: her leadership and battle prowess aided in preventing worse losses than the Stellar Fleet was ready to sustain. Unfortunately, the battle resulted in a defeat for the Stellar Fleet. She has joined Elite Paladin Ren Jiahao on a new battle in GJ 581 f."
"Got promoted, even. I hope she's not working her ass off just to bail us out," Azula gritted her teeth.
"Well, if she's getting promoted while protecting us… it means she can pull even more rank to help us, right?" Sokka said. Azula sighed and shrugged.
"Let's hope so," she said. "It feels like things are only getting worse. If even she can't turn the tide in every battle…"
"Doesn't feel like that's a reasonable expectation," Sokka grimaced. "As cool as your hero may be… she is but one woman, in the end."
"The best pilot the Fleet's ever known, though."
"I beg to differ."
Azula met Sokka's gaze, gentle and kind as it was. She sighed, urging him with her head to join her in the hangar once more…
It didn't take long for her to thank him for his praise once they reached the safety of their cabin: in the eyes of the Fleet, their very unprofessional relationship wasn't happening at all. But behind closed doors, where no security cams could catch them, Azula had no compunctions about giving herself fully to the man she loved: it felt like eons since she had last touched his naked body, since he had filled her and made her his while they exchanged deep, desperate kisses… afraid that their chances to find intimacy and bliss would dwindle and fade before long.
"I don't want you doing this alone," Sokka whispered, as they lay together after finishing, face to face, under the covers. Azula swallowed hard and nodded.
"I know," she said.
"I don't like who I am when I'm afraid I'll lose you," he said, gritting his teeth. "I don't know how to be any better, either, I…"
Azula rolled into him, kissing him fully as she straddled his hips anew. While there was no intent to reprise their earlier exchanges yet, she kissed him in the hopes of soothing him, little by little, through the familiar brush of their lips together.
"I'll do everything I can to return to you at haste… in one piece, too," Azula said, pressing her brow to his. "And after this is done… we can do whatever you want. If the Fleet leaves me be, I… I'll go anywhere with you. Far away, so the war won't catch up to us…"
"I… I don't know that we'll be able to do that."
"Think it'll extend that far?" Azula asked, sadly. Sokka shook his head.
"I think… neither you nor I know how to walk away from this. Not anymore."
Azula met his gaze with heartfelt anguish. Both knew a dark, foreboding future awaited them… and whatever lingered in it would likely change their lives forever, and quite possibly, not for the better.
"I really miss how easy life was back… back when we were training and our biggest problem was figuring out how to pilot half a ship each," Azula smiled sadly. Sokka laughed, nodding as tears blinked in the corners of his eyes. "Whatever comes next, Sokka… this has been the adventure of countless lifetimes. If I ever had to choose what to do with my life again? My heart would never stray from you. I'd choose you, every single time, in every lifetime…"
"In every lifetime," Sokka repeated, smiling kindly. "I would too, Azula. You're… you're everything I never knew I needed in my life until you turned up at my chosen seat, in that ridiculous ceremony…"
Azula laughed, pressing her brow to his. Sokka caressed her cheek gently.
"I won't let you fight on your own. I'm your partner… your husband. If you need me to stay behind for a day or two, I will…" he said, quietly. "But I'll be there for you. I'll find you, no matter where you may go. And if I have to infiltrate that shitty ship and tear Eun-u Cho apart myself…"
"Really? Would you do anything and everything just to get back to me?" Azula smiled. Sokka growled. "Would you forego a proper meal forevermore, I wonder? Live off nutrition shots forever if it means I'll be with you for good?"
"Not even a question. I can… eat certain parts of you, anyway. That doesn't get old," Sokka smirked. Azula laughed.
"Alright, guess I should push that further. Would you… move to Earth, permanently? If, of course, we find a way to keep your awful dreams at bay…"
"Huh. I was going to say yes regardless of that addendum, but if you'll be so kind… yes, all the more," Sokka smiled, pressing his brow to Azula's. She chuckled, kissing his lips softly.
"Alright, I've got it: would you biocatalyze a planet? Or drive a core pod into its depths, without a Lifeseed if it freaks you out too much… not sure how I feel about it anymore, myself. But, still…"
"Huh. I… I would, I think. I hope," Sokka said. Azula smiled and shook her head.
"You don't need to say as much if you don't think so…"
"If I know you'll be there, waiting at the other side… I'd go anywhere, Azula. I'd do anything," he said, taking one of her hands, kissing her knuckles softly. "You're my partner. My wife. My soulmate, as far as I'm concerned. I'm proud of all those things… prouder still of fighting for you, to hell and back if I have to. I may not be in my best shape these days, but… I would do it. You have to believe…"
"I do, actually," Azula whispered, pressing her lips to his brow. "And I'm proud of us, too. As far as I know… only a handful of people have come as far as we have, in the history of human spacefaring. I'm sorry that things are so fucked up right now, but…"
"Doesn't matter," Sokka said, with a gentle smile. "If I'm going to be an upstanding member of this Fleet by your side, that's fine by me. And if I'm going to be a renegade, I'll do it too if I'm with you. That's all I need."
Azula swallowed hard and nodded, moving in to kiss him again: Sokka's arms offered her the safety and comfort that nothing else in this life ever could. She closed her eyes, drifting away into that warm embrace, dreading the moment when she'd have to forsake it if just for a few days…
But the time came indeed, just as news reached Ross 128 b: the battle for GJ 581 f had resulted in another loss for the Fleet… and more worrisome than that, Exalsyn had been nowhere in the planet's vicinity. It was Aang who knew where it was, instead:
"It's moving towards Earth's solar system," he said, once their two ships were geared up and ready to take off. "I don't know for how long it will remain there, but… it's on its way there. Usually, Exalsyn keeps its distance from the system itself… around the level of Pluto's orbit, probably. That's where we'll need to go."
"Fuck," Azula sighed, shaking her head before turning towards Sokka.
He would lead their new assigned ship, the one meant for their entire crew… while she would pilot a smaller one, given to them so Aang could turn her in, as believably as possible, to Eun-u Cho.
"We'll meet you there. You'll just have to jump and follow our beacon," Azula said. "Once I've found what I need, I'll send a signal through my ring. I'll find my way back to you no matter what… to all of you."
Toph smiled and nodded. Katara sighed, moving in to hug Azula at haste. Aang sighed, lowering his head and ducking into their stellarship without another word.
"You know… you were a better commanding officer than you had any right to be," Katara said. Azula chuckled. "Everything you've done, all your crazy ideas… they tend to pay off. Make sure this one does, too."
She pulled back, wiping tears from her eyes. It was Toph's turn to hug Azula next… though she also threw a fist in her direction, one Azula caught quickly.
"Good reflexes are important when you're off to face the Exalted," Toph said. Azula shrugged and nodded. "You ready?"
"I'll try to be," Azula said, glancing back at the stellarship she'd share with Aang: he was already settling into his seat, undoubtedly feeling out of place in the middle of the team's farewells.
She turned towards Sokka anew: his eyes glistened with tears… Azula sighed and stepped towards him, just as Katara raised a device and pressed its button: the power blinked in the hangar for a moment, and cams were disabled as the two lovers kissed one last time before parting ways, if just for a couple of days.
"Come for me. I'll be waiting," Azula said, with an earnest smile.
"I'll be there. I swear it," Sokka whispered. She pressed her brow to his… then stepped away, towards the smaller ship's ramp.
The lights blinked back to full power by then: to her surprise, Sokka raised his fist, index and middle fingers extended, offering her the respectful salute he had never needed to give her before… her eyes only grew more clouded with tears as Katara followed his example. As Toph did the same, too, with a cheeky smirk.
They were her team: whether destiny had brought them together, or they'd merely done it all by sheer willpower, Azula knew she'd never build a tighter bond than the one she shared with her small crew.
"I'll… I'll be back with you soon, Team Renegade."
She smiled warmly at Sokka before raising her fist the same way towards her group: pride and respect roared in all their hearts as their fateful mission was slated to begin.
The next stellarflight they would embark on would carry them all the way to Earth's solar system anew: unbeknownst to them, the fate of more than just Zuko and his partner, Suki, hinged on the outcome of that mission.
Humans and clones alike, all across the Stellar Council's domain, would soon gaze towards the skies with dread and fear: the darkest days of the Human-Exalted War were about to begin.
Ross 128 b was a rocky, grand planet, tidally locked and booming with life.
Multiple cities spread across its landscape by now: it had quickly become the favorite planet for humanity to settle on, with a far easier landscape to mold to their will, a stable environment and weather patterns easy to predict. Plants and animals had grown and developed quickly after the Lifeseed had taken root, providing humanity with ample resources to work with, including the natural ones inherent to the planet itself, as they established a new branch of its society well beyond the confines of their original solar system.
Few people were born in Ross 128 b, only from the rare cases where women had not become barren during the trip to reach the planet, nor the men had grown infertile. Most of the population came from Earth, or any of the solar system's inhabited planets and moons, some sent over shortly after birth, to be raised all along in Ross 128 b's society.
A number of stations orbited the planet, for it was the pioneering location where most high-end stellarships were developed: due to the very favorable conditions of Ross 128 b for humanity to thrive in, it had become the Stellar Council's main headquarters beyond Earth since the very system of a Council had been implemented, back in the year 3215.
Four days passed after Azula, Sokka and Toph's stellarship's landed on Ross 128 b's Spaceport Station: from there, they descended to the planet's capital city and settled at their assigned temporary sleeping arrangements, until the appointed day for the grand meeting arrived.
A sea of different uniforms gathered in the monumental inner plaza of the Stellar Council's headquarters. It was as big as the one from the military parade in Mars, so many years ago, and it painted a rather intimidating picture of the reach and magnitude of the Stellar Fleet: their military force was staggering, all the more considering how many members of the Fleet couldn't have attended the urgent meeting called at Ross 128 b, be it due to other missions, or to being too far away to receive word of what was transpiring in the council's headquarters at the moment.
Azula and Sokka were allowed through without issue: to their surprise, nobody seemed to bat an eyelash over Toph's presence, even though she looked entirely out of place in her recruit's uniform, among the many initiated soldiers that crowded the place. Everyone looked towards the stage, awaiting the current leadership of the Stellar Fleet. A few officials stood there so far, but none that Azula or Sokka could recognize.
"C'mon. I think there's more room that way," Sokka said, tugging Azula towards a slightly more spacious area of the crowd. She, in turn, seized Toph's shoulder and pulled her as she followed Sokka.
"This is what the Fleet's like all the time?" Toph asked, nonchalantly.
"Of course not. Clearly, something's not right," Azula said. "We were very lucky to get here just in time for… well, whatever they intend to do."
"I hate big crowds," Toph sighed. "Too much noise."
"It'll be over soon," Sokka said. "Should start any moment now."
The stage grew more crowded gradually: Azula finally recognized someone, raising her eyebrows at the sight of Ren Jiahao, whose uniform suggested he had been promoted by several ranks since the last time she had seen him, during some important event in Earth back when she was still in training.
"Is he… a Paladin now?" Azula frowned. Sokka crooked his eyebrows.
"Red shoulder boards, and… looks like five gold arrows, so yeah. Fuck," Sokka raised his eyebrows and glanced down at Azula. "How's it feel to know you've talked personally to a Paladin, huh?"
"Doesn't feel like anything in particular," Azula said, teasingly. Sokka smirked. "I mean, you did say I'm going to be Paragon one day… meaning, I'll outrank him by two ranks sooner than later. Wouldn't do for me to gush about a measly Paladin, if so."
"Uh… and how about gushing over a mere Task Master, instead?"
Sokka's tone shift gave away that he had seen something he didn't like: his words immediately gave Azula pause. Her teasing demeanor faded…
Her eyes focused on the stage to find Atsuko Takei in the flesh, for the second time ever.
"Well, we sure are rarities now, you and me," Sokka reasoned, with an awkward smile. "Saw her twice. Goes to show we've lived too long."
"We're… not that old. Just been traveling at lightspeed for a while. Not as much as she has, anyway… she doesn't look any older than in Mars," Azula reasoned: the remarkable pilot wasn't quite the picture of youthfulness anyway, but if someone had certainly spent more time traveling at lightspeed than Azula and Sokka over the past three hundred years, it was undeniably her.
"So, what, you guys know all these bigshots?" Toph asked, nonchalantly.
"Not really… not personally," Sokka said, eyes raking the others at the stage, many of whom seemed older than either Ren or Atsuko. "But they're the people whose orders we'll be following, going forward, I guess, so… pay attention, alright?"
"What for? I didn't even graduate. They'll probably kick me to the curb as soon as they realize that," Toph said.
"No need to jump to conclusions," Azula said, breathing deeply. "If the chance arises, I'll see about getting you to graduate here, or… they might even conscript you and make you an official member of the Fleet anyway. Depends on the gravity of the situation…"
"Considering this seems to be because of the war? It's probably pretty damn serious," Sokka said, with a dry grin. Azula nodded: her eyes remained set on Ren Jiahao and Atsuko Takei, who appeared to be speaking quietly.
It was no surprise that rumors abounded about the pair, considering how rare it was for the famous pilot to ever be seen fraternizing with anyone. While Ren's words to his wife probably had been true back in the day, Azula couldn't help but wonder if anything had changed since then… could anything have? Did either of them have the time and opportunity for that to be the case?
Five minutes later, a row of commanding officers stood at the stage, standing in order of rank: Azula counted two Elite Battle Masters and four Battle Masters ahead of around twenty Task Masters, among which stood Atsuko Takei. The next ranks were not deemed part of the higher leadership of the Fleet, regardless of hierarchy, thus, they weren't on the stage. As such, the ranks that comprised the crowd below would be Captains, Quarter Masters, Ensigns, Operatives and Corporals, as well as awkward lurkers like Toph herself.
Above all ranks, superior to the Elite Battle Masters, were the Paladin, the Elite Paladin and highest among all, the Paragon: today, however, the highest rank present was but one Paladin: Ren Jiahao himself. Thus, it was him who stepped forward to address the forces ahead.
"Stellar Fleet! Salute!" exclaimed one of the Battle Masters: on cue, all present members of the Fleet raised their fists to their chests, extending their index and middle fingers. Azula couldn't help but eye Takei in particular: no sign of giving anyone a middle finger this time, then… Azula smiled, guessing that was a very special treatment reserved for Liu Lijun.
"At ease," Ren Jiahao said: now everyone took up a resting position, even Toph, as nonchalant and uninterested as she was in following such orders. "You have been summoned to serve, as is your duty to humanity, as members of the Stellar Fleet. As many of you are aware, and as all people have known for centuries, we have an enemy to contend with. It's a rebellious faction, once that was meant to serve, and that now refuses to uphold its purpose: we have known them as clones, but nowadays they call themselves the Exalted."
A rumor of noise started, then quieted down upon hearing that word: Sokka's eyes narrowed. The Exalted… it felt like a religious matter, perhaps. Were the clones gathering a greater following than anyone had anticipated? Much like Azula, he had suspected the near absolute power of the Council would suffice to keep any potential rebellions at bay… how, exactly, had the clones ever managed to become a threat sizable enough to elicit the first genuine organized military response from the Stellar Fleet?
"The Exalted are led by a clone that goes by the name of Eun-u Cho," Ren continued, frowning heavily. "He has been the face of the Exalted ever since the conflict began, and to this day, he continues to lead them. They have hijacked every clone factory across our home solar system, and at this point, humanity faces no greater threat than their growing fleet."
"A… fleet," Sokka repeated: images were projected behind Ren Jiahao, seemingly snapped with a distant telescope. "Holy shit."
For the untrained eye, it might have been nothing but a bright constellation: Sokka could tell, however, that the stable, steady brightness of each light in the distance represented the vessels, small and large alike. None, however, was as large as the one he suspected would be the main ship: it hovered at the center of the swarm, an orb comprised by multiple rings that he recognized, at once, as components needed for stellarflight travel…
"They have named their main ship Exalsyn," Ren continued, scowling. "They hi-jack, steal our own fleet's stellarships in order to bolster their technology and render ours useless against it. They are less than human, but they pretend to be more. And we're barely scratching the surface of the true danger they represent: with access to stellarflight technology, there is no telling where Exalsyn and the Exalted intend to strike next. Therefore, our forces shall be bolstered through conscription across every exoplanet under the Stellar Council's domain, and a full restructuring of our army has been organized throughout the past days to ensure maximum efficiency so that we may be ready to face and undo these threats."
Azula and Sokka glanced at each other in surprise briefly before their neural chips notified them of something. They had only just opened the unexpected notification when Ren Jiahao gave voice to its purpose, openly:
"All officers of the Stellar Fleet below the rank of Captain have been promoted by one rank," he said. "The exact information pertaining your new commission, assignments and battalions have been made available for you in your respective neural chips. Further instructions will be given personally by the Task Masters in charge of each battalion. For now, let us focus on our duties and remember that every step we take, every new star we reach, renews our promise to humankind: we are the Fleet of tomorrow, and we will protect our galaxy."
The words were far from a declaration of war, which had long been done anyway… but the implication that no other intelligent lifeform would be allowed to exist didn't sit particularly well with Sokka. He twitched, glancing down at Azula, whose nine-yard-stare suggested she was checking the contents of her neural chip.
"Sounds like anything that isn't us is an enemy now. What'd you reckon we're going to do if we actually find aliens out there, huh?" he said.
"As far as I can tell? Squish them if they're pacificists, fight them if they're not," Toph interjected, careless about who Sokka was talking to. "Who'd you think would win?"
"Beats me," Sokka smiled a little. "Depends on how advanced the aliens might be… Azula? You there?"
"We… we're assigned to her battalion."
Sokka rushed to open the notification, immediately reading the same data Azula was shocked by. It listed the chain of command they'd need to follow for the time being…
Ensign Sokka Harkin.
Assigned to Squad 1745.
Squad 1745 reports to Platoon 328, commanded by Quarter Master: Fat Yingzhu.
Platoon 328 reports to Company 102, commanded by Captain: Piandao Lee.
Company 102 reports to Battalion 56, commanded by Task Master: Atsuko Takei.
"Heh. Well, shit," Sokka said: Azula's starstruck gaze prompted him to smile awkwardly. "Uh, you do remember we're in the middle of an ugly war and that this isn't the time to go up to your hero to ask for an autograph…?"
"I wouldn't…! Shut up!"
"You got a case of hero worship for the bigshot?" Toph asked, hands on her hips as she narrowed her eyes: she could scan the entire room, the heat readings of each person… she ensured to focus her attention on Takei. "Well, I've got bad news for you: she's a completely ordinary human being, going by my heat scan, and… damn, she's got to be hungry. Nothing in that stomach, heh. Bet it's growling up a storm right now."
"Could you not do that?" Azula exclaimed, looking at her in disbelief. Toph smirked proudly. "That's completely out of place, and…! Don't go around looking into people's personal business that way, will you?"
"But what's the point of having better eyes than anyone else's if I can't do that…?"
"Have you never seen something you regret by doing that kind of stuff?" Sokka asked, perplexed. Toph's sneaky smirk twisted downwards.
"Eh. Yeah. A few times. People get up to fucked up shit, why lie?" she said, with a heavy sigh.
"Ought have taught you to stop looking through their bodies without permission," Azula grunted. Toph snickered.
"I guess I'll ask for permission, then: can I look through yours?"
"No."
"See why I don't wait for permission? Nobody would let me…"
"And for good reason."
The multitude of officers dissolved as they marched off to their assigned meeting quarters with their superior officers once Ren's address ended: to Azula's utter delight and astonishment, it wouldn't merely be a meeting solely with their Quarter Master and Captain… it would be the whole battalion they were assigned to, and naturally, the officer in charge of explaining their group's duties thoroughly would be none other than Atsuko Takei herself. Sokka glanced down at her often as they navigated the maze of corridors within the grand headquarters of the Stellar Fleet.
"We can take this elevator, we'll get there faster that way…" Azula said. Sokka snorted, shaking his head. "What?"
"I think you need to calm down. She's our direct superior now, sure, but… doesn't really mean much. There's still two more ranks between us and her, and… who knows how much higher she's going to go before we rise any higher?" he said, with a shrug. "Besides, she'll probably just bail on us, same as she did on Mars, so…"
"The situation is entirely different now," Azula snapped, glaring at Sokka as they and Toph entered the elevator. "We're at war with the clones, the… Exalted. It's weird, using that name for them, but anyway: we have to deal with something far greater than Liu Lijun's idiotic ego, alright? There's no way she'd be part of that ceremony only to pawn us off to the next leader in line."
"You have an awful lot of faith in this bigshot," Toph said: she surprised both Azula and Sokka by pulling out a bag of peanuts, opening it unceremoniously and snacking on them. "What? I'm hungry too."
"With the whole conscription announcement, I don't think it'll matter one bit anymore that you're not a graduate from the academy," Sokka told her. "You might end up assigned to another squad, though."
"Well, was nice knowing you, if that's how it turns out," Toph said, throwing more peanuts into her mouth.
Sokka sighed, wishing he wouldn't feel so uneasy once the elevator reached its intended destination. Several people were already in the hallway that led to their meeting room… though a tall Captain was standing there, along a few Quarter Masters, fending them off, it seemed.
"If you were not assigned to Battalion 56, you are to head over to your own designated groups, now," the tall, dark-skinned Captain said, firmly: some discouraged recruits sighed and hung their heads, while others continued pleading with him.
"Is she there, though?! Is she?!"
"I just want to talk to her!"
"Can I just shake her hand?! I swear, that's all I need to do…!"
"See? This is what you might come off as if you don't tone it down, Azula," Sokka smirked. Azula scowled, elbowing him hard in the ribs. "Ow! I'm just teasing, calm down…"
"I'm not like that, I… oh, fuck off," she grumbled, though her cheeks heated up with embarrassment. Sokka smiled, chuckling as they approached the room where the tall captain continued to dismiss onlookers.
"You three are assigned here or…?" another officer asked, this time a Quarter Master.
"The two of us are. She's… our companion for now. Candidate for conscription, she didn't graduate from the Academy just yet," Azula explained, pointing at Toph, who greeted the Quarter Master with a jerk of her head. "She can stay with us so far, can't she?"
"Eh… not the ideal protocol, but I don't mind if she promises not to be like those guys," the Quarter Master growled, watching as his Captain had no choice but to pull an armlock around one of the younger recruits who tried to dash past him.
"Oh, don't worry about that. Toph looks like she doesn't care about anyone being famous or important," Sokka said. The man sighed.
"So be it. Then… ah. You're Ensign Harkin and Ensign Homura, then?"
"Right," Sokka said, perking up after hearing his new rank spoken out loud.
"Good. You're mine," the Quarter Master said, nodding at them. "I'm Quarter Master Fat Yingzhu. Head on in."
Sokka and Azula smiled, offering the respectful greeting to the Quarter Master before reeling Toph into the meeting room: while smaller than the previous one, it was still large enough to host at least two hundred people… though the reality was that they'd likely have far less than that. Each battalion was meant to be comprised by around 600 members, but most of them would not be present in Ross 128 b at the time, tasked with countless missions elsewhere.
"Not here yet," Azula said, noticing other lower-ranked officers around them, who looked about as thrilled to be part of this battalion as she felt. But, of course, there was no sign of their commanding officer…
"Bet she's not that excited to see you whenever you're apart for a while," Toph said, nudging Sokka lightly. He scoffed, reaching for her peanuts vindictively. "Hey! Bring your own peanuts to the circus next time!"
"We brought you all the way here. Least you can do is share," he said.
"Considering you don't share your girl, can't see why I need to share my peanuts."
"S-she's not…!"
"I can see heat, remember?" Toph said, smirking at him. Sokka winced. "Not that I needed to, with how noisy you were last night, but still…"
"T-that's not…! Shut up!" Sokka squeaked, covering her mouth with a hand.
"Get off me!" Toph grunted. "First you steal my peanuts and then you won't let me eat 'em…!"
"It's… against regulations to fraternize like that, alright?" Sokka growled quietly at her. "So… don't go around saying that kind of thing out loud, okay?"
"Pfft. Half the Fleet's banging someone or another in secret. Who cares?" Toph rolled her eyes. Sokka sighed and looked at Azula… who, yet again, remained oblivious to his conversation with Toph.
His heart shouldn't sink upon finding himself entirely removed from her perception, more so when he knew just how much Azula admired Atsuko Takei… but a nasty, unpleasant worm seemed to grow and fester in his gut. It wasn't merely the wishfulness that she might someday return his feelings in earnest… it was the dread that no amount of teamwork, companionship and loyalty between them could amount to much in the face of Azula's non-existent bond with the woman who had inspired her on this path.
Sokka eyed Takei with disdain once she finally turned up, through a backdoor that led into the meeting room: the place was crowded by about sixty people at the time, with only two Captains and four Quarter Masters to organize matters while the Task Master focused on something or another in her neural chip.
The fiasco in Mars truly might have been yesterday for the woman, judging by how similar she looked: the only noticeable difference in her appearance would be the design of her uniform's shoulder boards, featuring a blue strip with two golden arrows instead of one, as it had been when she landed in Mars. Now, promoted to Ensigns, Sokka and Azula would have gray strips with one silver arrow soon, themselves… the idea would be far more exciting if it weren't a matter of urgency, a promotion done in the midst of a confusing, dangerous war. And could Sokka ever trust this woman to lead them to victory in it? The way she had dismissed Mars still irked him, but perhaps, at this point, his greater problem was wondering whether Azula would so much as hesitate if she were asked to choose between being his partner or her idol's, should any such opportunity ever arise…
Oh, he shouldn't think of that. He really shouldn't think of that.
"Everyone's here?" Atsuko asked: the captain from earlier closed the door and nodded.
"Rest of the battalion is off planet, so… yes," he said. She nodded at him.
"So be it. The news will reach the others in due time," she concluded, raising her gaze to scrutinize the crowd before her. "Well, then… welcome. You're the fifty-sixth battalion of the Stellar Fleet's Cosmic Forces, or at least, part of it. Unfortunately for you, you happen to be under my command, so if anyone had any delusions of grandeur pertaining becoming a big war hero, I'm afraid you'll have to request a transfer."
"What?" Sokka frowned.
"As determined by Paladin Ren Jiahao, this battalion, among a few others, will be tasked with the gathering of resources for the Council to continue waging its war successfully against the Exalted," Atsuko stated: a gasp, and a few groans, were heard in the crowd. "I said it once, I'll say it again: want out, feel free to go."
Despite the complaints and protests, nobody moved. She raised her eyebrows, jerking her head at the door.
"I mean it. No repercussions on my end. No doubt Ren won't appreciate it, he's very proud of his work at restructuring the Fleet… but that's not my problem."
Her nonchalant attitude unsurprisingly won her a new fan quickly, to Sokka's irritation: Toph smiled and nodded approvingly.
"My kind of gal," she told Sokka, nudging him with her elbow.
"Apparently, everyone's kind of gal," Sokka grumbled – save for himself, that was. It was increasingly difficult to understand the woman's appeal, but it was likely that he couldn't see her virtues out of sheer frustration over how everyone else behaved around her.
"Alright, then. If you're all going to stick around…" Atsuko said, apparently unimpressed by their choice – it wasn't difficult to surmise that nobody wanted to walk away from the opportunity of being in the presence of the legendary pilot, regardless of their displeasure pertaining their apparent duties. "Protocols will change, going forward. You were already encouraged to remain in good physical shape, namely for the sake of improving our odds of survival whenever we spend long periods in space. Now that we're in all-out war, you're to develop and strengthen your combat skills as a precaution, in case you're ever forced to engage in direct battle with any bastions of the Exalted.
"Aside from your own skills in physical combat, though, you'll also be expected to learn to handle newly developed weaponry that will be installed in all stellarships across the next years," Atsuko continued: Sokka's eyes widened. "Mind you, our task remains the same: your combat training, be it physical or with stellarship weaponry, is a matter of precaution. You are not to engage in any battles unnecessarily with the enemy other than to save your own lives. No one in this battalion is authorized to do so until any express orders are given to the opposite. Am I clear?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Very well," Atsuko said, breathing deeply. "Most the people assigned to this battalion either have experience at biocatalysis or have displayed interest in it. You will continue to carry out such duties, as will I, as will every member of our battalion. Key exoplanets with ample resources will be prioritized and assigned, not for the sake of colonization, but for the sake of resource exploitation. Some of you won't even perform any kind of biocatalysis and will focus instead on obtaining the materials we require, if they can be harvested without biocatalyzing the planet to acquire them. Each Quarter Master will take care to assign all respective teams to their duties. As our ranks swell up through conscription, it's possible that many of you in slightly higher ranks these days will become commanding officers in your own right in due time, too… and you may find yourselves with broader teams than merely pairs, as it has been thus far. Now, then… any questions so far?"
At first, no one spoke even though it was apparent that many of the lower ranked officers longed to say something….
The one who stepped forward was none other than Sokka: Azula gasped, immediately tempted to grab his arm and pull him back, but he raised his head with unexpected dignity.
"I would like to understand more about the enemy," he said. "The Exalted, as they call themselves now, have new technology stolen from us, according to Paladin Ren Jiahao…"
"Not quite," Atsuko responded. Sokka froze. "Not all of it is stolen. Much of it is of their own development, which makes it considerably dangerous. Neutralizing that kind of technology through our known means has proven impossible so far. Their systems are codified in such a way that our programmers cannot decrypt them. What else do you want to know?"
"What can we expect them to target? Are they really going for exoplanets? What… what have they done so far to Earth's solar system?" Sokka asked, shivering upon asking that final question. Atsuko's eyes softened… but only slightly.
"We still lack information about the full extent of the damage. What we do know is that the Exalted have taken full control of the Moon," Atsuko recited. "But they also struck at the moon Enceladus by Jupiter, not long ago. There was a hit against solar plasma harvesters as well, clearly plotted to cripple our reserves of fuel for stellarships. The main concern is Eun-u Cho, as you were told, the leader of the Exalted and alleged strategist behind each of these hits…"
"Aren't clones limited by lifespan constraints, though?" Sokka asked. "If they just live for ten years, he's bound to…"
"They live for ten years in one body, yes… but they appear to transfer their consciousness, their minds, as it were, to newly grown bodies whenever their time is up," Atsuko said: Sokka's eyes widened as a gasp ran through the crowd. "It's a form of immortality. Eun-u Cho is well over a thousand years old at this point. As for your likely next question, pertaining how they have enough people in their ranks to be a menace at all?"
"Y-yeah…?" Sokka gritted his teeth, eyeing Atsuko warily. She breathed deeply.
"We don't know for sure yet," she admitted. "But everything indicates that they… they don't just murder thousands upon thousands when they hit any of their targets. Not even the ship that was harvesting plasma… it seems they take prisoners, instead."
"So… what, the prisoners join their forces or something?"
"Involuntarily, yes."
The tomb-like silence that spread within the room was only interrupted when one of the captains approached Atsuko, nervously.
"Should we be sharing this kind of information? It's unconfirmed so far, we don't really know…"
"I think our forces ought to be prepared for the worst-case scenario. If they can't stomach this knowledge, I'm not sure how they're going to handle a worsening war," Atsuko said, bluntly. The man fell silent and she turned towards Sokka again. "The current working theory is that they take prisoners, presumably steal a sample of their DNA, transfer their consciousness through a neural chip implanted in a newly-grown clone's body, and kill off the original body. This, then, would allow them to hold all the cards over their prisoners: they can't come back to us, they're not legally human anymore… and their only option is to fight alongside the Exalted because of that. The only way to prolong their existence is to be part of their war effort."
"That's fucked up," Toph said, frowning.
"Very," Azula whispered, a shiver running down her spine: being cloned against her will, forced to inhabit the wrong body…
She had very little idea of what the Exalted were capable of until then. While Atsuko framed her explanations by claiming this was all theoretical, it certainly didn't sound as vague as that. If anything, the Council's unwillingness to spread word about what the Exalted were capable of sounded like a matter of politics, of fearful denial to Azula. They wanted to deceive their people into believing that the Exalted weren't that much of a threat… but these theories suggested that the Stellar Council had met its match.
"That's the extent of the information I have at this time. If you would like further details, seek out an audience with Ren personally. Not that I expect him to give you anything but platitudes, if you try," she said, before glancing about the rest of the crowd. "Anyone else? No? Any questions about…?"
"Can I be your partner?!" shouted an Operative: one of his friends slapped a hand over his mouth and looked at Atsuko apologetically for the insolence. She shot them a cold, deadpan stare.
"Any questions about the current state of war emergency we're in?" Atsuko said, curtly: the notion of angering the woman seemed to daunt everyone into silence now. She shrugged and stepped back. "Then I guess that's about all I ought to say for now. Am I forgetting anything, Captain…?"
"Piandao," said the man Sokka and Azula had seen by the door, humbly.
"Right. Captain Piandao," Atsuko repeated. He smiled and shook his head.
"We will handle all further necessary instruction. Thank you for your services, Task Master Takei."
"Please… go ahead," Atsuko said, letting out a heavy sigh and stepping out of the limelight: Piandao took over for her, though Azula's gaze followed the woman, regardless.
The heavy information she had just conveyed might have been difficult to unravel… but something about her suggested she was far too tired, far too jaded for a situation that wasn't quite so dire just yet. Was there something wrong with the Task Master…?
Takei slipped through the backdoor again: Azula sighed before clasping Sokka's arm.
"Uh… don't be mad. I just had things to ask…!" he squeaked, as he turned to face her.
"You did good," Azula said. Sokka froze, astonished. "Asked the right questions. Kept your head surprisingly level considering how hostile you usually are about her, so… thank you for that. And for being the one who managed to stay coherent, I… I should've known what to ask her, too. But… not important. Now we seek Quarter Master Fat and I will tell him about our initiative."
"You… wait, what?" Sokka blinked blankly.
"We're still on biocatalyzing duties, remember?" Azula said, with a dry grin. Sokka's eyes widened. "Meaning… my scheme's not off the table just yet. But we'll need the Quarter Master's approval first of all."
"And you're not even slightly worried that your favorite big boss might just shut this down?" Sokka asked. Azula winced. "I'm just saying… sure, someone else might shut it down instead of her. But if she'll be in charge…"
"I can try to convince her, if need be. Or you can do it for me, if you'd like, considering how you're the only one who dares talk to her as recklessly as you did?" Azula said, with a dry grin. Sokka grimaced, cheeks flushing.
"You're actually a bit mad about it, aren't you?"
"I suppose I am, yes. What you did was truly impressive, considering how poorly you think of her… but it's like you were defying her to prove a point, too. If so, you're an idiot. If not, then I'm the idiot and I'm sorry for judging you rashly," Azula said, breathing in and shaking her head. "Anyway, let's see what our Quarter Master has to say about our next assignments."
They had to wait around fifteen minutes, since Quarter Master Fat had to speak with other members of their particular squad first. At last, he acknowledged them with a nod, eyes drifting towards Toph in particular.
"Guess we'll have to handle what to do with this one, eh?" he said. "How far along in your instruction were you?"
"Me? Made it to year four, wanted to dig my own way and nobody would let me," Toph explained. Fat blinked blankly.
"You want to be a digger?" he asked. Toph nodded promptly. "Why, then, I'm afraid it might be better if you're assigned to…"
"We have a venture in mind where her personal skills could come in handy," Azula cut him off, with a slight smirk. "I've been developing this initiative for a few months, in fact. If you'd care to hear it… the truth is I would like to create a different kind of biocatalysis team."
"Oh? How, exactly, would your team be any different than what's done nowadays?" Fat inquired, skeptical at once.
"We would be more efficient, based having to rely less on external teams of programmers and diggers and engineers," Azula said, raising her head proudly. "Toph here would be our sole digger. Once we find a good enough programmer, they would be in charge of setting up all simulations. We would have a multipurpose pod aboard the stellarship at all points, rather than relying on a specific pod built by the local engineers at each station, and… our job would be rather straightforward. Create the tunnel, develop the simulations, drop off the Lifeseed. If we have the right resources and team members, any biocatalysis mission could be done within days."
"Wow. That sounds incredibly wishful," Fat said. Azula scowled. "There's no way we're ever getting an initiative like that approved, sorry to say. The amount of red tape you intend to skip is frankly worrisome… why are you even trying to do this?"
"Because… we've run into many hurdles with teams that refuse to adapt and adjust," Sokka explained, cutting in before Azula could answer. "The first planet we flew in, well… the team very clearly wanted someone other than Azula as pilot, so it was up to me to come up with a solution for the worst part of the route, and that's not how it should be, right? So… yeah, she just doesn't want to deal with those sorts of unhelpful teams anymore."
"We've never had it as bad again, but the staff have been lackluster in other missions anyway," Azula said, frowning. "I want a small team, easier to manage, with people who can do the job without making a ruckus over every little thing that they're asked to improve upon. I understand how much hard work it goes into setting up any operation… but if the plan is to ensure pilots survive and that Lifeseeds aren't wasted, teams like these are far more likely to become a liability to the Fleet's cause, rather than being any help, especially in days of war such as these."
"As much as that may be the case… I fear this is a very risky concept. Probably too risky to attempt at all," Fat shook his head. "I'm sorry, but if you ask me, you shouldn't press the issue any further…"
"Something the matter here?" Captain Piandao approached. Sokka tensed up at once, offering the man a respectful bow. "Is there a problem with this team?"
"Well, not as much of a problem as… well, they have an impossible initiative in mind, Captain," Fat explained. Azula scoffed.
"It's not impossible," she said, stubbornly. "We just need resources that I suppose nobody would want to give us, but if they did…!"
"They want to build a manner of strike team for biocatalysis purposes," Fat explained. Piandao frowned.
"Is that… reasonable?" he said, glancing at Azula. She gritted her teeth.
"I believe it can be done. We already have a candidate digger with us," Azula said. Toph jerked her head towards Piandao.
"What's up?"
"Right," Piandao said, eyeing them all warily. "And you're all in agreement about this… initiative of yours?"
"Well… I'm in agreement in theory," Sokka said, with an awkward smile. Azula scowled at him. "C'mon, I've always told you they're not going to go for it. I think it'd work! But…"
"The system and processes for biocatalysis have been perfected and developed across millennia now," Piandao pointed out. "It's difficult to fathom that two soldiers of your youth could have developed a better method than what we've relied on so far."
"It's not like I'm pretending it'd work for every case. We would need specific, already studied planets," Azula sighed. "But by doing this, we would enable the resource harvest that the Council is so eager for, so, if you want to please them, maybe let me do a test run? Just one attempt, that's all I ask."
"One attempt?" Piandao repeated.
"I can prove myself, and prove that this can work," Azula said, firmly. Piandao raised an eyebrow.
"I… cannot authorize this," he said. Azula's chest burned with frustration upon hearing those words… "But maybe the Task Master can."
Azula froze. Fat eyed Piandao warily.
"You don't think she's gonna…?"
"I don't know. I barely know her. Most nobody does," Piandao admitted. "But she has authority over us. If she convinces her… you and I can only step aside and let her move forward with her initiative, right?"
"It's too risky," Fat gasped. Piandao shrugged.
"Isn't that true of any kind of biocatalysis?" he said. "I'll go fetch her. Instruct the others in the meantime."
Mystified as he was, Fat nodded, urging Azula, Sokka and Toph to stand aside while he handled the rest of the soldiers at his charge. Sokka eyed Azula warily, finding her earlier confidence and stubbornness had been, predictably, replaced by nervousness.
"She's just another human being, like Toph said," Sokka nudged her with an elbow. Azula let out an awkward whimper in response to that.
"Whatever her readings say, doesn't change the truth about how much power she holds over us, and… how much I would like to not come off as a complete idiot in front of her," Azula sighed, shaking her head. "But it doesn't matter, you're right. Even if she thinks I'm just a loser, I ought to think she's but competition for me, right? The day will come when I… will stand toe to toe with her. And she'll have to acknowledge me. Because I'm a… a skilled…"
She was reciting her own pep talk with no conviction, hoping it would inject her with confidence and strength: neither thing arrived before she trailed off, panic nearly seizing her when Piandao returned with the aforementioned Task Master in tow.
She would speak with her directly. Much like Sokka already had, the bold fool, but still…
"What's this about an initiative related to biocatalysis missions?" Atsuko said, point-blank: her eyes raked all three of them, passing over Sokka quickly, giving no sign of recognizing him as the defiant, bold Ensign who dared speak up earnestly about the war when no one else did.
"Task Master Takei, sir… this is Ensign Homura," Fat explained. Azula did her best to stand tall, but she couldn't so much as dare meet the woman's dark eyes… "And she wants to build some kind of task force to biocatalyze planets faster."
"That so?" Atsuko said, glancing at Azula now. "How?"
"I…" Azula breathed deeply, calming herself. "I'm a core pod pilot. My partner pilots the stellarship…"
"You aren't both core pod pilots?" Atsuko asked, glancing between them.
"No, he… he knows I prefer that duty," Azula explained, hoping not to present Sokka as lesser than her for his distaste for core pod flights. Sokka winced, glancing at her almost gratefully for the framing of her words. "Now, this is… Toph Beifong. And she wants to be a digger. She seems talented, if a bit of a loose cannon, but she believes she can build tunnels far faster than most people…"
"You can say I've got an eye for it," Toph said, smirking as she raised her head: her disorderly hair revealed her prosthetic eyes, and Atsuko acknowledged that with only a slightly crooked eyebrow.
"All we need is a good enough programmer, and a core pod that we can reutilize rather than one designed for each mission…"
"And a mechanic to repair said core pod too, if so," Atsuko cut her off. Azula stopped. "Even if you somehow manage to never scrape the pod, it's a necessary precaution."
"Well… I could probably do it. Learn more about core pods," Sokka suggested. Azula nodded. "I've helped out with a few solutions for things, here and there, so…"
"Right. Well… in short, we would be a team that works quickly on each location we're assigned to, planets that have been studied and for which Lifeseeds have already been developed," Azula finished. "If my plans pay off, we could pull off missions by investing far less resources, involving less people, and it could be accomplished in a much shorter amount of time than anything done nowadays. So… that's my proposal."
Atsuko's deadpan expression made Azula's stomach sink. Her narrow eyes were astonishingly cold, a dark grey that reminded Azula of the color of cataphract steel. The bags under them remained the same as when she had seen her through the screens in Mars, too…
"That's a big gamble, Homura," was her response. Azula gritted her teeth. "You'd follow all other mandatory regulations? Making sure you get your seventy-five percent odds of success and survival if you fly the mission?"
"I… yes. Without a doubt," Azula said, firmly. Atsuko grunted, raising her gaze.
"As you're my underling now, I guess I'd have access to… there. Your file," she said: her neural chip provided her with whatever information she sought…
For the second time ever, Azula saw Atsuko Takei's face contort with astonishment: the next time her eyes fell upon her, there was a streak of acknowledgement in them, instead.
"You've already biocatalyzed five planets?" she asked. Azula's cheeks flushed.
"I… yes. I have," Azula nodded. Sokka smirked beside her.
"She's a natural at it, too," he said, proudly. Azula glared at him, pleadingly, as though hoping he'd know better than to pretend to show her off in front of their superiors.
"GJ 486 c, Tau Ceti f, Wolf 1061 c… huh. I had my eye on that one. Beat me to it," Atsuko said: the corner of her lip turned into a slight smile, and Azula gaped at her in disbelief. "Then it was L 98-59 f and GJ 625 b… not bad. You're… how old are you, exactly?"
"I… at this moment, twenty-three," Azula said. Atsuko's eyes widened. "Though, of course, that's just biologically. Chronologically…"
"Yeah, that's not important," Atsuko dismissed the matter quickly. Azula smiled awkwardly, though Toph snorted.
"You're a crone," she snickered at Azula, who glared at her.
"That's a more successful career at biocatalysis than what the bulk of the Fleet's pilots ever accomplish," Atsuko said, finally finishing off with Azula's file to scrutinize her directly anew. "Then… you're sure you can do this? If I find you a good enough programmer, you believe you can pull this off?"
"I… I have confidence in my skills," Azula said. Atsuko hummed.
"That's all fine and good, but you'll put your life in their hands too," Atsuko said, jerking her head towards Sokka and Toph. "Got to have just as much confidence in them. But… I'll admit, I'm intrigued. Can't imagine this is a sustainable system for every core pilot out there, but maybe you're that much of a special case, Homura. Prove that's how it is, and you'll get your special dispensation to run as many missions of this nature as you care to. But… prove it, first."
"Of course. I will do whatever needs to be done," Azula said, firmly.
"Good. You'll have five days to biocatalyze your next planet," Atsuko said. "The Quarter Master can assign you a reasonable target, doable within that timeframe under regular circumstances… and it should work out for you too, provided your team is as good as you believe it is. If it takes you longer than that, you'll return to the usual methods, at least until we have the technology and upgrades to sustain your ambitions. If you fail, outright, then the whole scheme is off the table… regardless of the nature of the failure. Evidently, if rushing things gets you killed there's no more to this initiative anyway. So… I advise that you exercise restraint and common sense. If it can't be done, don't do it and set aside your grand project for later. Simple as that."
"I… very well. I can do that," Azula said: a burning, wild sensation in her chest rejoiced in the Task Master's decision…
"Are you certain of this?" Piandao asked Atsuko, cautious. "I can see the potential, but…"
"Biocatalyzing any planet is always a risk. Procedures are what they are now in order to minimize such risks," Atsuko said. "The whole protocol was built on trial and error, whether you know that or not, Captain. Might as well give an alternate technique a shot, see if it can make certain matters easier, going forward."
"Well… if you're sure," Piandao said. Fat sighed.
"Shall I put out word to find a programmer for them, then?" he asked. Atsuko nodded.
"If you've got the time, sure. I can do it myself as well, but…"
"We will handle it. You have bigger things to do, and… and worry about," Piandao said, grimacing. "I fear what Paladin Jiahao might say if he hears of this initiative."
"He's free to take it up to me if he needs someone to shout at," Atsuko said, simply. "Who told him to make me a battalion's leader, anyway?"
"Technically, it was the Chairman who did, upon making you a Task Master…"
"My promotions have always been as good as symbolic," Atsuko responded, bluntly. "I don't even know why they give me any, to begin with. My accomplishments don't imply any preparation for handling leadership duties."
"Is that why you turned your back on Mars?"
Azula felt her stomach sink when she heard Sokka speak again: the proud man stared at their superior with no sign of shame, let alone respect. Atsuko raised an eyebrow in his direction.
"I was there on that day. So was she, so… we saw you walk away, fly away, and never come back," Sokka said. Atsuko didn't respond. "You think you're not a good leader, then? Or is it you thought Mars wasn't good enough for you?"
"What makes you think I was good enough for Mars?"
Sokka had no response to that. He stared at Atsuko in silence, finding her unaffected disposition didn't match, in the least, with the words she spoke or the expectations he had built up about her in his mind.
"I'm not a leader. I might just be sentencing you lot to an early grave by approving of this initiative of yours… a late one, some might say, judging by how us pilots extend our lifespans as unnaturally as clones seem to," Atsuko said. "We're all taking big risks when it comes to that. How much of a risk do you think it was to leave someone like me in charge of a planet that I'd only visited for the first time on that very day?"
"You'd… never been to Mars before?" Sokka asked, eyes wide.
"Afraid not," Atsuko said. "You'd be infinitely more qualified to rule your planet than I could ever be. I never asked for that job, and I had no business doing it. Walking away as I did was meant to be proof of that."
"But… you're still the Premier. To this day, you…"
"Not because the title's official does it mean I'm fulfilling the job in any capacity," Atsuko huffed. "I get reports on how things are going there once in a while, probably a matter of protocol. Whatever Interim Premier is in charge now, you can't even doubt he's doing a better job of it than I ever would have. You might have meant to tell me all about how great Mars is, and what a bitch I am for not sticking around to run the place? You're right about it all. In the end, I'm just a pilot who knows her limitations. I drew that line not for my sake, but for yours and that of your people. You don't want me in charge, and I don't want to be, either."
Sokka gritted his teeth: he could feel Azula's glare upon him, and it made him wish he could shrink away, vanish from the face of Ross 128 b… he had merely wanted answers. Perhaps he should've considered he might just get some after all… unfulfilling answers as they might be…
It hardly surprised him that Azula would blow up on him over his misstep once they returned to their assigned shared quarters in Ross 128 b, a few hours later:
"Of all things you could've done, you just had to go and spill all your nonsense at her exactly at that moment?!"
"I'm sorry, okay? I am! I didn't think she'd say …!"
"Oh, no, because you most likely expected worse! Did you seriously think she'd just roll over and beg your forgiveness? No! You wanted to pick a fight, to show she's just human, nothing impressive, just as you've always told me… and you couldn't help but try to prove it right then and there! Well, congratulations, Sokka: she IS human, and she knows it better than anyone else, apparently! Now can you leave the damn matter to rest for once and for all?!"
Sokka swallowed hard and nodded, meeker than usual. Maybe because his reaction was so quiet, Azula's own fury appeared to dwindle. She shook her head, though, rubbing her forehead with her fingertips.
"Why, Sokka? Just… did you seriously need to do that?" she asked, her voice softer now.
"I guess… I guess I didn't," he admitted. "But a part of me… a part of me was too stupid to accept the truth."
"And what truth is that? That I could be right?"
"In more ways than you know," Sokka said, lowering his gaze. "Doesn't matter, I… I'll just go clean up. I'm sorry. We'll… we'll talk more later if you want. I just need to be alone for a minute."
Azula watched him go, making no move to stop him. It made no sense for her chest to tighten with guilt when he was the one who had messed up… maybe she had been too harsh, though. Maybe…
"Is that it? Dang. I thought it'd be a bigger throwdown," Toph said: the sound of her snacking on whatever nuts she was eating now only earned her a sharp glare from Azula. "What?"
Azula rolled her eyes and walked off. Toph shrugged, taking her seat by the comfiest couch and immediately setting up to watch whatever kind of entertainment she might find in her neural chip.
Due to the sudden addition of Toph to their living arrangements, Sokka wound up relinquishing his assigned bed to the girl early on. But on that night, he didn't sneak into Azula's room and remained on the couch instead: he was still unusually sullen and quiet by the time he draped himself with the blanket, heart turbulent and uneasy as he tried to string together the thoughts, the words, hoping Azula would understand they were no excuses… hoping she wouldn't find him pathetic, once he expressed them.
But where he thought he'd do it by the next day, at best, if she so much as tolerated hearing him out, he was caught by surprise when Azula's door swung open… when his partner approached him, taking her seat at the edge of the couch and reaching over to smooth his loose hair.
"Azula…?" he whispered.
"I don't like this. Don't like you being… distant like this," she said, softly. "I know it's my fault, but…"
"It's not, Azula, I…"
"I blew up on you."
"I knew you would when I did it. You've never made it a secret that you don't agree with me when it comes to this, and it's not like you need to. It's just…"
Sokka sighed, pushing himself up to a seating position. Azula stared at him begrudgingly, but she gave him room to speak, if he meant to.
"I… I envy her."
Azula's eyes widened. Sokka's shoulders sank as his sad gaze drifted off, past Azula.
"You and I… we met just as you first saw her. That day set our futures in motion, in its own way, and I…" Sokka started, before huffing and shaking his head. "I'm an idiot. Don't worry about it."
"You'll be an even bigger one if you stop talking now," Azula said. "What is it you think you should envy her for, exactly? Because I look up to her? You want me to admire you too?"
"No! I just…!" Sokka said, chest tight as he met her eyes… and in doing so, his heart seemed to unlock the right words, just as well. "From the moment we were assigned to each other, I knew… you were bound to outdo me, outdo anyone, maybe anyone but her. You deserved a partner on your level and I had no idea if I could be that. A part of me thinks…"
"That I'd choose her, if I could have?" Azula asked. "Is that what this is about?"
"You had no choice when it came to me," Sokka said, eyeing her earnestly. "If our partnership works… it's because we made it work. Not because we chose it… not because we wanted to be a team. And maybe we always had that potential, but I always feared I'd be holding you back. And I know, too, that you didn't want things to ever get sentimental between us because, as soon as they did, shit would go sideways. But I guess it's too late for me now when it comes to that because… I do love you. I don't want to lose you. But I wish I could have earned your respect the way she did… I wish I could have proven myself to you, and you had chosen me for that reason, rather than just being stuck with me as you were. But I didn't… and now it's you proving yourself to her, instead. So…"
"So… you envy me, or her, or both?" Azula concluded. Sokka sighed and shrugged. "I'm living the dream, so to speak… being acknowledged by someone I looked up to, and having this chance to show what I'm made of. You really think you've never had that chance with me?"
"Not this way. We were forced to work together," Sokka whispered.
"No one forced me to kiss you. No one forced me to help you in the harvesting that day. No one forced me into your bed."
Sokka's cheeks flushed, be it over her words, over the memory… or over how unfair he felt upon hearing her reasoning. He raised his gaze towards her, finding her earnest, sincere, frowning heavily.
"If you envy her because you think you'll never mean to me what she does… yeah, that's true. She doesn't mean what you do, because… she's the ideal I aspired to. She lives the life I thought I wanted to lead, back when I first saw her on Mars. Answering to no one, freedom from all consequences, jumping on a stellarship to get away from everything…? Sounded like bliss to me. But now…"
"What… something changed?" Sokka asked, raising his eyebrows.
Azula raised a hand, fingers slipping through his hair. Sokka swallowed dryly.
"Do you really think I could've been through everything I have with you and remain unchanged?" she asked. "I never wanted a partner, no, but… I have one. The best one I could've asked for, even if he runs his mouth when he shouldn't. You've saved my life more than enough times, Sokka, I… I would've died like a fool on our first mission if not for you. I wouldn't have even gotten out of the solar system to begin with, if just because of the Fleet's regulations. Yeah, sure, we might not match up perfectly according to the compatibility exams, or whatever they were… but do you really think that matters anymore?"
"I…" Sokka looked at her in desperation. Azula sighed and pulled closer, cupping his cheeks.
"I had the chance, the choice, to forsake you once we graduated. Once the first mission was complete. I could've asked for another partner: I didn't. Why do you think that is?"
"Because… because the sex was that good."
Azula fell silent. Sokka eyed her guiltily.
"Well… it was. But that's not all there was to it, damn you."
He couldn't help but chuckle. Azula did too, shaking her head before kissing him in the midst of shared laughter.
"Idiot," she said. He chuckled still, pressing his brow to hers. "I… I wanted to do things by myself. Thought that was the right way to go about life, but… you went and changed that. I like… I like being around you. Knowing that I have someone who will have my back, no matter what. I can't imagine how much worse I'd have it if I had to deal with all those programmers and engineers on my own, I… I want our own team because of that, yes, but you're part of it. You've always been part of it. I never once considered…"
Sokka swallowed hard, cupping Azula's face too. She closed her eyes and breathed heavily… a tear, however, seemed to slip through the corner of her left eye. Sokka's thumb brushed it away, aware of her vulnerability, yet allowing her to keep her strong façade, if that was what she wanted.
"I want to be with you."
She managed to utter the words, even if it sounded like it had taken a great deal of effort for her to do so. Sokka's heart, twisted and diminished after their earlier spat, now soared and eased up as a smile spread over his lips.
"I don't say it a lot, there's a lot of things I don't say, Sokka, but that doesn't mean I don't feel them," Azula said, gritting her teeth. "Yes, you're right, maybe I wouldn't have chosen you at the start if I'd had the choice… and that would've made the worst mistake of my life, alright? I'm aware of that now. So… maybe it's time you are, too."
"The… the worst one?" Sokka said, with a small smile.
"We don't know everything. You and I certainly don't," Azula said, pressing her brow to his, and shutting her eyes tightly. "We can't even hope to have all the answers. That's… that's why we run simulations, why we practice, why we train. Why we work, on and on, until we figure out the solution to whatever's troubling us. That a past version of me might have made the wrong choice, if given the choice at all… it doesn't change that the current version of me would never consider continuing charting this course across the stars without you by my side. And I get it, you'd rather be part of the war effort in earnest, but… this is important too, isn't it?"
"It… it is, yeah," Sokka said, reassuringly. Azula gritted her teeth.
"I never imagined that you might want to walk away from me. It's wild to realize… you've spent all this time expecting me to do so," Azula whispered. "And now that I consider what that must have been like for you, I… I'm sorry. I should've said all of this sooner, I…"
"Don't. Don't apologize, you don't have to," Sokka said, pulling her in for a tight hug. "You came to me to sort this out, you… oh, Azula."
He buried his face in her hair as she snapped: tears spilled down her cheeks as she clung to him, pressing kisses to his neck and shoulder. His hands stroked her back, up and down, hoping to soothe her with a few kisses to the top and side of her head.
"I think… I think you did a number on me," Azula whispered, clinging to him, sniffing softly. Sokka shook his head, tears blinking in his eyes as well. "Never meant to let it come this far, you and me, but now… just the thought of parting ways is…"
"I can't stand it," Sokka whispered.
"Me neither," Azula admitted. Sokka smiled. "S-so… what does it mean, if I don't want to be away from you? If I… if I hate being on bad terms with you? If I want you to be happy, want to be intimate with you, want…?"
Sokka swallowed hard: her questions seemed rhetorical, even if she might actually want an answer.
Azula breathed deeply, letting the air out before gazing up at him. His blue eyes glistened with emotion as she brought their lips together, perhaps in the most fragile kiss they had ever shared.
"I… I love you too, don't I?"
Sokka let out a soft laugh. Azula trembled in his arms, and he smiled warmly at her.
"Up to you to decide, but… that sounds a lot like how I feel about you," he whispered. Azula smiled a little.
"Well… good for you, then. Means… means you're not in a one-sided romance, then. We're both… equally dumb about each other."
"I can live with that," Sokka smiled warmly. Azula laughed now, even if tears escaped her eyes again. "Then… it's a done deal between us? We're… we're really together? Properly, we…?"
"Hold up, because… w-we can't just go off, get married, anything like that," Azula said, biting her lip. "Don't think the Fleet's regulations allow it still. And we… we can't even consider kids, not after so many trips, and…"
"It's okay," Sokka said. Azula shivered. "I don't need a fancy diploma that states I love you, or kids, or… I don't need anything like that. I just need you. I just want you. And if you want me too…"
Azula surprised him by rising to her feet. Her hands clasped his, however, reeling him up as well. Slowly but surely, she backed towards the apartment's hallway… on her way to her room. She never stopped facing him, and Sokka smiled as he followed, accepting an olive branch than the one he had not anticipated on that night.
To think he had feared she'd leave him for good because of his stunt… to think he had underestimated their partnership so much. His heart burned with joy and relief alike, and he intended to spend the night showing Azula as much, a task made much easier when she reeled him into her arms, pulling him into bed with her amid the warmest, most affectionate kisses she had ever offered him.
A night that had promised to be cold, uneasy, full of uncertainty, now brought forth no end of relief to the lovers that gave themselves with delight to each other once more. But for once, the barriers that often existed between them, set and kept in place by Azula's wishes, appeared to be entirely gone. Her heart raced as Sokka loosened her clothes, as her fingers fumbled with his light sleeping garments, until they were as bare as they ever wanted to be, bodies blissfully pressed together as they kissed with no end in sight, whispering comforting words, allowing themselves to want and need the other, just as they relished in knowing the feeling was mutual. As inferior as Sokka often felt, as superior as Azula often acted as, that night ensured the truth would finally stand clear, in the open for them both: they were equals, and that was what they ever wished to be.
Naturally, the growth of their relationship elated them just as much as it annoyed their other roommate: Toph spent the entire morning ranting about her struggle to get any rest, regardless of using Azula's musical hypnotism techniques to block away the noise.
"But really, is this all you guys do for fun? Fight and then spend the whole night banging just to make up?" Toph growled. Azula huffed as they progressed through the street, on their way to the headquarters once more.
"I would appreciate it if you stopped talking about this so casually," she said. "More so when we're about to head into Fleet territory."
"But… everywhere is Fleet territory."
"Exactly."
Toph snorted, rolling her eyes: it was up to Sokka to step up to her and clap her shoulder, at which Toph winced.
"You be careful who you touch with those filthy hands of yours, I know where they were…"
"What the…? Azula is a very hygienic person, I'll have you know!"
"Could you both stop it?" Azula groaned, cheeks flushed.
"I was just going to remind our friend here… that relationships and romance aren't exactly encouraged in the Fleet's ranks. Thus… we keep this hush-hush, okay?" he said.
"You should keep it hush hush at night, for starters," Toph grumbled, pouting. "Promise you'll set up better protections for my sake and I swear no one's going to learn a thing from me. You'll break your rules all you care to, and I'll play dumb all you like."
"We'll… try," Sokka smiled awkwardly. Azula couldn't help but smile at his shamelessness, too.
"What're we heading back into this place for, anyway?" Toph asked nonchalantly, as they stepped into the Fleet's headquarters once again. "Thought we had our instructions by now."
"We have our instructions, but not our entire team yet. No programmer yet, and we can't set out that way," Azula explained. "And those who can't set out on missions yet…"
"Are to proceed to combat training instead," Sokka finished: they had received the command early that morning and hadn't wasted time following it.
Captain Piandao was in charge of imparting the combat training sessions, aided by his Quarter Masters. While the start of the session was devoted to basic hand-to-hand preparation, however, the next part introduced a new element that neither Sokka nor Azula anticipated:
Piandao stepped forward on the dais: he wielded a long staff that, at first, seemed entirely ordinary, patterned with circles and triangular formations that converged around each round shape. But after performing a couple of twirls with the weapon, Piandao tapped it against the floor… and the components disengaged from each other, changing forms abruptly.
"What the…?" Toph frowned. Azula's eyes widened.
Slowly, every metallic component of the weapon drifted together into forming what appeared to be a sword this time. An awed silence followed, and Piandao smiled a little.
"This is a psionic weapon. Its more common form is that of a staff, yes… but its purpose is to change into whatever the wielder requires at the moment."
This time, a swing of his sword saw the steel unfolding into a round shield he positioned before his face. Now voices of amazement drifted through the crowd.
"You can, of course, resort to classic weapons, while you can also do less common ones," Piandao explained: suddenly the shield unfolded into a square layer of defense, but the small circles sped forward, as bullets might. "The limit is your imagination. Now, then… each of you will receive a psionic weapon of your own, and you'll be able to control them through your neural chips. The thoughts you send towards the weapon shall turn it into whatever shape you can think for it. You'll need to be quick, you'll need to be smart, you'll need to be creative."
"Sounds like fun," Sokka smiled, stroking his chin. Azula eyed him warily.
"I fear what you'll be able to do with that thing."
"It'll be fine," Sokka chuckled. "Sounds a bit like your cataphract steel suit, though. Guess it's made of the same thing?"
"Looks that way, for sure," Azula nodded: even if a light glow emanated from the edges of the shapes that formed Piandao's current weapon – a spear, this time –, the steel's dark yet polished color immediately reminded her of the suit she ever wore for core pod descents.
Learning to use the psionic weapons was a slow process for most: Toph took to turning hers into utterly random shapes, most of them hardly useful for battle. Her favorite shape was that of a rock, and she'd swing it bluntly with her mind at whoever she was told to train with. Azula relished the chance to work independently with the shards that composed the weapon, splitting it into pieces for attacks that came from multiple angles… only, telegraphing a proper, synched attack didn't come about easily, going by how many shards comprised the weapon, and how much awareness of her enemies she'd need to have.
Sokka, on the other hand, went utterly wild crafting just about anything he cared to do. Where others took around ten seconds to form a new weapon, he managed it in one, instead. His smile gave away how much he enjoyed this activity, whether the weapons he crafted were useful or not.
Once that training was over, they switched to practicing with the upcoming weaponry for the stellarships – while their ship would not be furnished with weapons just yet, since they were not prioritized for the upgrade, learning to fire the railguns was nonetheless an important element of their new education. Sokka yet again proved quite capable at it, adapting and adjusting to the new tech with astounding ease.
"You sure you don't want to ask for a transfer into a combat unit?" one of their instructors asked: Sokka smiled and shook his head, glancing at Azula from the corner of his eye.
"Nah. Not by myself, anyway, and… until my partner wants to, I'll stick with her," he said. The instructor sighed and shrugged.
"That's alright, but if we lose the war? I'll hold you responsible," he said, teasingly. Sokka scoffed.
"As if I were that good!" he squeaked, prompting the man to laugh as he moved away to instruct another newcomer.
For three days, the 102th battalion practiced combats they awaited their assignments, to varying degrees of success: some people couldn't seem to get the hang of the weapons or ships, others succeeded quickly at one thing and handled the other poorly. As time passed, some took off on missions to gather resources and had to stop practicing with the rest of the battalion, often fated for transporting equipment, resources and Fleet members across the galaxy to improve the Fleet's odds at success.
On the fourth day, just as Sokka and Azula were sparring with psionic weapons among the remaining officers of their battalion, their Task Master paid them a visit once more.
"Not a lot of them have taken to the psionic weapon as effectively as we would have liked. At least we're only teaching them for self-defense purposes…" Piandao said. Atsuko frowned as she watched the closest pair sparring, switching weapons between staff and shield exclusively.
"As long as we don't get reassigned to the frontlines anytime soon, yes," she said, quietly. "Has anyone become remotely proficient with the weapons so far?"
"Why… yes. The best pair is sparring back there, in fact," Piandao pointed out, gesturing at the area where Sokka and Azula currently dueled.
The relaxed atmosphere between them hardly seemed to match the combat they were engaged in: Azula sought to strike away at Sokka with her preferred technique, casting the triangular shards towards him… only for Sokka to split his own staff's materials to block each and every shard of Azula's.
Then, she attacked with her circles instead: launching a cylinder in Sokka's direction, Azula kept her eyes keen and peeled on Sokka's reaction. He jumped to the side, clashing with the shards that were countering each other… only to engulf most of hers with his own, preventing their movement.
"Hey!"
"Your bad, yep!"
He smiled as Azula struggled to undo the trap in which she had fallen: her cylinder fell apart, and Sokka swirled his shards around himself, propelling them with momentum that turned them into a sharp stake. A mix of his shards and Azula's froze right at her neck, and he beamed cleverly as Azula scowled in his direction.
"Got you again."
"You won't be so lucky next time, I… how did you even think of doing that?" Azula scoffed: Sokka chuckled as the joint shards fell apart, returning to each of their owners.
"Spur of the moment," Sokka shrugged. "I'm pretty good at improvising, aren't I?"
"So it would seem."
The blood seemed to drain from both their faces: they turned around to find their superior officer gazing at them intently, an eyebrow crooked.
"Mind if I give it a go?" Atsuko asked. Azula and Sokka looked at each other warily. "As in, both of you, at the same time."
"That… might not be fair," Azula said, warily. Atsuko smiled slightly.
"Then you'd best make the most of it."
The partners exchanged another glance… but when Azula nodded, Sokka smiled and readied himself.
Atsuko extended her arm: her own weapon had been disguised within her uniform's jacket, for the components slipped out of her sleeve and instantly took the basic shape of a short staff, by her left hand. She eyed them both, weighing them cautiously...
Then, she raised her right hand and another burst of shards poured from it towards Sokka.
He yelped but drew forth a shield: to his utter horror, the shards Atsuko manipulated slipped through the cracks of his own, forcing him to lean back to dodge the attack.
Azula snarled, rushing forward to strike: the staff Atsuko had formed spun in circles at vertiginous speed, however, moving quickly towards Azula and forcing her back as well.
"Use motion as well. Deception is a handy tool," Atsuko said. "It's not merely about the shape… it's about what you do with it."
She stopped the staff: it spread around Azula in the form of a flower, almost… but Azula knew better than to allow pretty shapes to deter her. She raised her own shards, using them to push away Atsuko's… only for the Task Master's shards to slide smoothly past hers, turning into a liquid instead of remaining in solid shape. They converged into a deadly spike once more at the end, one that pointed right at Azula's brow: the Ensign had no defenses left at that point.
In the mean time, Sokka sought to meld his own shards together for the sake of crafting a sturdier shield: Atsuko's liquid steel slipped under his feet, however, trapping him just as he attempted to shield himself from an upper attack instead.
"Fuck…!"
In a matter of moments, and with but a few jerks of her hands and head, Atsuko had neutralized the pair. Her eyes drifted between them both, Azula with the spike by her forehead, Sokka with his immobilized feet and blades dangling above him.
"You'll have to give these two the advanced training course soon, Captain," Atsuko said, glancing back at Piandao. "They show promise. Make sure they can fulfill it."
"I… yes. Of course," Piandao nodded: his eyes gave away that he hadn't quite anticipated several of Atsuko's techniques either.
She extended a hand: the shards she had used returned to the shape of the largest spear possible for a moment… then, they dissembled and slid through her sleeve, hiding within her clothes once more. Sokka and Azula gazed at her in astonishment.
"Carrying weapons clandestinely has never been easier," she said. "Feel free to turn your psionic staves into chest protection or so. It will keep you safe from any attacks if need be, too."
"That is… whenever we're not wearing cataphract suits?" Azula asked.
"In your case, yes. Not sure the rest of your team is going to have those," Atsuko pointed out. "At any rate, you'll have to practice some more when you're on your way to your next destination. We've found a programmer willing to work with you."
"Really?" Sokka gasped, glancing at Azula with a broad smile. Azula beamed too, turning towards Atsuko.
"You'll be ready to take off tomorrow. I found you two potential planets to weave your magic at: GJ 536 c and e. You only need to do one to prove yourselves, but if you do both… well, you'll impress plenty of people that way," Atsuko admitted. "Now, then… Homura?"
"Yes?"
"I'll need a private word with you before you set out," Atsuko said, before glancing at Piandao. "Captain, give her the directions to my office once you finish up here."
"Right. As you say," Piandao nodded.
"Carry on, then. Give it your all," Atsuko said, glancing between Sokka and Azula: a spark of approval seemed to glint in her eyes, and as much as he had been so antagonistic towards the woman, Sokka's heart burned with a smidge of pride, nonetheless…
Azula, of course, looked as though she was about to burst of elation. She held off her reaction until Atsuko was gone, and by then Sokka chuckled as he turned towards her, hugging her with one arm.
"You better not accept if she offers to be your partner, though…"
"Meeting with her, in private! Sokka…!" Azula laughed, looking at him in amazed disbelief. "I thought you'd impress her more, you were doing so much better than I was…"
"Pfft. She wiped the floor with the two of us just now," Sokka chuckled. "Just, uh… let's hope this private meeting's just about giving you further details on the mission?"
"What? What else could it…?"
Azula froze: Sokka's raised eyebrow reminded her of their secret… and dread rose in her gut, instead. Could the Fleet authorities somehow find out that they had a relationship? Would Atsuko be the type to give them grief for it? Perhaps she would be…
"Okay. With any luck… that's not going to be a problem," Azula said, swallowing hard. "But, uh… let's be more cautious going forward."
"Cautious…?"
"Turn off our neural chips in case of spyware, whenever we… you know," she said. Sokka blushed but nodded.
"Fair. I guess that makes sense," he smiled awkwardly.
Once Piandao dismissed them for the day, Azula followed his indications to Atsuko's office. Sokka accompanied her only to a certain point, knowing better than to breach protocol by forcing himself into a meeting he hadn't been told to attend. Azula breathed deeply, hoping nothing troublesome would come of it… hoping her hero would give her solid advice, perhaps offer her ideas on how best to fulfill her assigned task. And there'd be no talk about secret relationships, of course not…
The door was ajar when Azula approached it. She frowned upon hearing a male voice drifting from it… was this the right office? Atsuko's subsequent response gave away that it was, but… the voices sounded confrontational. Conflictive.
"Being part of a military organization doesn't mean…"
"Doesn't mean fighting in the frontlines? No, but you could lead from behind them, anyway!"
Azula froze: she recognized the male voice now. Ren Jiahao… the Paladin who had helped her avoid Liu Lijun, long ago.
"You know how much your presence encourages people. You're a symbol…!"
"Don't… don't fucking call me that."
"Deny it all you want, people see you and think you're a hero. You've been the legendary pilot who has brought humanity this far…!"
"That doesn't mean I'm going to spearhead any of these missions! You assigned me to these duties willingly merely a few days ago: what the hell changed, Ren? Where is this coming from?"
"I… look. The Chairman…"
"Oh, fuck the Chairman. It's the same lout from before, isn't it? The piece of shit who made me a Task Master, who gave me a planet I never asked for?"
"Atsuko, please…"
"He wants me to lead forces as a symbol just so I can become a martyr, doesn't he? Wants me to die in the battles against the Exalted so that he can embolden everyone further with my sacrifice. Well… I'd much rather drop dead when a Lifeseed's explosion catches me. Fuck his petty war and fuck his attempts to throw me to the wolves."
"The Exalted are a hazard to humanity as a whole. And you… you've said plenty of messed-up things in regards of clones. Everyone's aware of it. Saying… saying they're hardly any different from us? They're clones!"
"Where do you think clones come from, exactly?" Atsuko hissed. "Where do they get their destructive, vengeful nature? Ah, yes, from the DNA they spawned from… human DNA. It's remarkable how you and so many others are perfectly content to overlook that."
"I'm not overlooking their origins, Atsuko, but they've become something else, something completely different from us," Ren retorted. "And likening our stellarship flights with their methods to extend their lifespans unnaturally…!"
"If they're monsters for breaking the natural order of things, why aren't we?" Atsuko rebuffed. "Honestly… what do you even want, Ren? You've got nothing better to do other than arguing clone semantics with me today?"
"I have a lot of things going on, lots on my plate…! I'm trying to organize an entire army across space! Do you really think that's easy?"
"Aren't there Elite Paladins that outrank you? How about the Paragon? Other Paladins like you? Get their help, not mine," Atsuko hissed. "I never asked for this role. I never wanted to be promoted, and I'd have been content to spend the rest of my life as an Operative instead. So if you're here to tell me he's going to threaten to take away my rank if I don't comply, be my guest…"
"He knows better than to do that."
"Then take a hike."
"You… you'd do better to show more respect. Especially when you owe me as much as you do."
"Oh, right," Atsuko's voice rang with sarcastic amusement now. "I forgot I'm supposed to be groveling on my hands and knees because you got me out of TRAPPIST-1d, aren't I? Damn. I guess nobody warned you I'm not particularly good at doing those things…"
"It wasn't just TRAPPIST. When I found you adrift… you could've died if I hadn't arrived."
"Guess you're regretting turning up on time to save my life now, then. Or aren't you?"
"You… where's your honor? Your sense of dignity?" Ren rebuffed. "Anyone else would have offered anything in return for being saved! Anyone…!"
"Forgive me for being so skeptical… it's hard to believe I owe you anything else considering just how far and high you've climbed among politicians and within the Fleet thanks to the reputation of being Atsuko Takei's savior. Feels like I paid that debt and then some already…"
"We're… friends. We're allies! And beyond that, I'm your superior officer! Don't… don't make this harder than it needs to be. Your battalion will have to join the main Fleet in due time. You can't stay away from the war forever, Atsuko. You can't dodge it, you can't keep pretending it has nothing to do with you…!"
"It doesn't have anything to do with me," she said, dryly.
"So… you'll just let humanity die out, then? If you could make a difference, if you were the one person who could tip the scales… you wouldn't bother anyway, because this isn't your war?"
This time, silence. Ren scoffed, and then Azula heard the sound of a heavy hand falling upon a desk.
"When I call upon you… it won't be for the frontlines. It will be so you lead by my side. I know you can do it… I know somewhere deep down in that heartless, skeptical shell of yours, you want to do it. We… we could be unstoppable together."
A strange silence reigned still. Azula's heart raced: what exactly did the Paladin's proposal to Atsuko Takei entail? The change of his tone, even after the menacing blow against the desk, suggested something she wasn't sure she should unravel. Could it be true, after all, that there was a deeper connection between the two…?
"I fly alone."
Her words were spoken with unexpected softness… no matter if they were a rejection. Azula's heart tightened as she stepped back: she shouldn't have heard any of this. She should've just come back later…
"You know what?" Ren said, his voice ringing with emotion, frustration, all at once: "The day will come when you'll finally find something to live for. Someone, maybe. And by then you'll learn to be grateful to those of us who have done our damnedest to keep you breathing until that moment. Those of us who see you for who you truly can be, rather than this bitter husk that couldn't care less about humanity. You don't even remember what you're fighting for… looks like you've lived too long for that."
Footsteps. Azula tried to back away, but it was too late. The door swung open abruptly, and Ren Jiahao's eyes fell upon her. She swallowed hard and raised a hand to her chest, two fingers outstretched.
"Paladin," she greeted him, head bowed.
"Homura," he said: he recognized her still… much like Atsuko, he had barely changed since Azula had last seen him.
Ren Jiahao didn't say another word before marching off. Azula watched him go, unease rising in her chest: was he self-aware upon realizing he had been overheard, perhaps…? She would've expected a reprimand for it, if anything…
Azula glanced at the office, through the open door: Atsuko had stepped away from her desk, and Azula couldn't see her from this angle. The younger pilot swallowed hard and stepped forward, knocking lightly on the door.
Atsuko stood by the window, with her back towards the office's entrance. She had removed her uniform's jacket: Azula noticed the shards of her psionic weapon clung to her sleeveless undershirt, with a tall collar…
She jabbed a device Azula had never seen before into her IV socket, in her left arm.
Atsuko's heavy breathing eased up slowly. She raised her head, breathed in, again, again… the substance in her IV socket finished pouring into her bloodstream, and she yanked out the empty container after the process was complete.
Only then did she turn around: the woman's face had grown stoic, cold, as it had been in many other instances… not how it had been earlier, on that very day.
"Homura. You… overheard that, I suppose," Atsuko said. "I didn't expect Ren to turn up today. Had I known…"
"I should've known better to stick around and listen too, I… I'm sorry. If there's any reprimand for my actions, I…"
"He's the one who ought to get one. Left the door open so anyone could hear," Atsuko sighed, shaking her head before pulling her jacket over her shoulders again. "Right. You're here because I… I called you in. I did. I… sorry. It's just harder to focus when…"
"When you've just clashed with a superior officer?" Azula asked. Atsuko made a face and shook her head.
"Ren and I always seem to do that. He's just… more intense about it these days. The war, I guess," she said, sinking in her seat and extending a hand towards the available chair across her desk. Azula nodded, taking her place on it. "But it's the stability dose, if anything. Fixes and fucks with your head all at once."
"Stability dose?" Azula frowned. "Is it the same as a balancing dose?"
"Not really," Atsuko cut her off. "Balancing doses are supposed to fix whatever's wrong with your body. Wounds, illness, all such things. But stability doses… guess you might start to need them soon. Frequent stellarflight travelers use them. They help you retain your focus, they help spacefarers recover faster after stellarfight journeys. It also… neuters emotions. Allows better control of your own body."
"Oh. So…" Azula said. Atsuko shrugged.
"He keeps giving me reasons to use them when I shouldn't have to. Prick," Atsuko sighed, turning towards her. "I didn't call you here to talk about Ren's bullshit, though. The programmer the Quarter Master found for your squad… she's very talented, as far as I hear. Never worked with her myself, but she's got a solid record, a pioneer in simulation programming in many regards. She volunteered to work with you immediately… which is fortunate, since nobody else did. She's in Ross 128 b right now, so you'll be able to bring her along for your next mission, no need to wait years for her to arrive or so. The thing is…"
"There's a catch, huh?" Azula crossed her arms over her chest. Atsuko said: she pulled up a holographic screen, pushing it towards Azula so she'd see the file for herself.
"I'm sure she'll do a great job with your team… but I'm not sure your partner's going to handle this well."
Azula froze: she wasn't sure she could handle it well, herself. Her eyes widened as she found familiar features upon the file before her…
She had lived with that girl. She had befriended her, they got along quite well by the time she and Sokka set out on their trip, and now…
Now, the file for Katara Harkin revealed she was a highly skilled programmer, who had set up numerous top-of-the-line simulations for entertainment's sake, as well as for military purposes. There were many accolades to her name, she was credited for developing newer software for simulations based on ancient databanks… an impressive achievement, to be sure. One that could only be accomplished across many decades of hard work and experience:
The picture on the file, and the information upon it, revealed that Katara was forty-two years old.
Reality came back into focus after a stellarflight in the same familiar, unpleasant manner – with the plasma draining the ship and their bodies returning to their usual states slowly. Sokka and Azula had reached their new destination: the red dwarf star GJ 486. A rocky planet of roughly the size of Mars, with the codename of GJ 486 c, orbited the red star, their assigned destination for their first biocatalysis mission.
"You good…?" Sokka asked, breathless. Azula drew in more air before nodding, a smile on her face.
"Still getting used to it… our fifth flight and we're still reacting this way," she said. "But it's still fun for me, I'll say. Whereas you don't seem particularly thrilled…"
"I like the wind-up better than the jump itself," Sokka confessed, with a small smile. "The plasma isn't that unpleasant, but… I guess it still freaks me out whenever I can't breathe."
Azula certainly could relate to his statement, as she inhaled deeply, cleansing herself from the foggy sensation clouding her mind as best she could: this jump had represented their longest so far, with a total of fifteen years worth of space travel… she tried her best not to ponder the implications, but the awareness of having prolonged her lifespan unnaturally didn't fade despite her best efforts to dismiss it.
"At this point, we've traveled for… thirty-seven years, give or take," Azula said. "Counting our first trip, to Proxima Centauri…"
"Then back home. Then the one to Ross 128 b…" Sokka said, biting his lip before smiling. "So… we're fifty-years-old now, are we?"
"More or less," Azula said, teasingly. Sokka chuckled.
"And now we're here. Ready to fly a core pod?"
"I hope so," Azula said, removing her helmet slowly: the air within the cabin was breathable again, and she relaxed against her seat as Sokka's words sank in.
Her first biocatalysis mission was just about to begin.
Their trip to Ross 128 b had been a great success: as initiated members of the Fleet, they'd been given a mission right away thanks to their remarkable results in the Academy and considerable connections within the Council – Azula's father still retained his role as Overseer of Energy, and she had no doubts his position was the main reason why she had been assigned anything as of yet. She'd do best to make the most of her advantages, she figured… thirty-seven years had gone by already. She had no intentions of waiting for more time to slip through her fingers before beginning to rack up biocatalysis successes.
It didn't hurt, of course, that the Chairman's undying resentment towards Atsuko Takei compelled him to seek new, promising talents desperately among the younger recruits in the Fleet. If there was ever a time for Azula to build her career and legacy as a core pod pilot, this was it.
A temporary space station hovered right above GJ 486 c: Sokka piloted towards it carefully, confirming their presence and the staff's readiness to receive them. Azula went over the protocols in her mind, knowing it'd be a while before she was ready to fly the mission:
They would be introduced to the staff crewing the temporary station upon arrival: the bulk of them would be engineers and programmers, who had spent the past year or so crafting predictions based on the information that the excavation engineers, commonly known as diggers, also part of the staff, would have provided as they carved out the tunnel through which the core pod would be launched. The diggers' job was essential and difficult, building the path that would lead all the way to the planetary nucleus. They worked with heavy machinery, lasers and considerably large drills they controlled remotely, with which they could breach their way through any planet's layers.
Once a proper path was open, the sensors planted over the cave walls would send information back to the base, and the programmers would then set up the flight's simulation for the pilot. Azula, of course, was used to flying simulations by now… but not quite as used to doing them with such pressure on her shoulders.
Simulations were a reasonable precaution and practice the Council demanded, all be it to minimize casualties… however, the simulations true purpose was to train pilots on a given route, namely so that Lifeseeds would not go to waste in failed trips. If a Lifeseed blew up halfway down the tunnel, be it because of crashes or malfunctions of the core pod, the Council's Technology Department would be forced to craft a new Lifeseed from scratch, to suit the specific necessities of the planet in question.
Each failed flight meant more resources invested with no returns, something the Council didn't take too well. The pilot's lives mattered too, due to how long it had taken to train them and how difficult it could be to prepare new pilots for the job, should any die due to flight accidents… thus, out of convenience for the Council, flight simulations had become a mandatory practice before every planetary biocatalysis.
After ten successful attempts in simulations, Azula would be free to run the mission personally… ten in a row, that was. A 100% success rate was a rarity, however, due to the complexity of each planet's designed core pod which, while following some industry standards, could change in design in small ways each time, based on how the engineers had crafted them. The tunnel's trajectory, too, might not be ideal, and the diggers might need to adjust some details before the final descent to the nucleus could be done… thus, with so many complicated variables, the Council's standard established that, once a pilot had a 75% success rate in simulations, both in the simulation of the descent and the posterior escape, the mission could be launched. Until then, the pilot would not be authorized to start the mission. If no pilot succeeded at reaching the 75% boundary, the team involved in the mission might be decommissioned permanently.
In short, Sokka and Azula were due to a long stay in the vicinity of GJ 486 c.
Azula glanced at Sokka wistfully: he crooked an eyebrow upon sensing her stare, and she smiled at him.
"We'll be here a while. Think it'll bother them if I have my way with you too often?" she asked. Sokka snorted, unable to hide his own smile and blush.
"I certainly hope they won't," he said. Azula chuckled, dropping her head against her seat's backrest. "But, as usual… no strenuous activity after a jump. It's been an intense time..."
"Always so cautious and well-behaved…"
"Always so greedy and reckless," Sokka hissed. Azula's proud smirk brought him to chuckle, despite himself. "What am I going to do with you, huh? Feels like you spent those two years of training just… bottling up all this unprofessional stuff and now you unleash it relentlessly upon me, huh?"
"If you don't like it, I can always… try to find another outlet?" she said, casually. Sokka pouted. "What? I'm giving you an out here."
"I didn't say I wanted one…" Sokka said, his voice cracking. Azula snickered, shaking her head.
She wasn't entirely sure how she'd dared act on her impulses and feelings quite as much as she had lately. The urge to be intimate with Sokka had certainly been latent, dormant while they prepared for their career among the stars… once it was clear that they'd outdone every challenge, all those needs had come to the forefront, and she found him too enjoyable to stop reaping the benefits of their new arrangement. Even so, she could tell Sokka was holding many things back… and he likely did because Azula was doing the same.
She wasn't interested in a conventional relationship. Sokka was aware of that and had grown to accept it: they wouldn't likely get married, and based on five stellarflights already, not to mention Azula's removed eggs, there'd be no children in the future for them, at least, not for a very long time. But more than anything, Azula wanted to be ready to set out on her own if Sokka ever gave up on his career as a stellarship pilot… a possibility that she was keenly aware of. His reactions to each trip hardly reassured Azula, for while she couldn't pretend she outright enjoyed the plasma bath, it barely bothered her, compared to him…
If he decided this wasn't his path, that this wasn't what he wanted, she'd be ready to walk away. Her own success as a pilot would not hinge on him. And if he never did think so, and remained with her to the end… well, she wouldn't mind that, but she didn't think they'd need to be married to make that system work, anyway.
"Get a bit of rest," Sokka suggested. "We're about an hour or two from the station still. And you'll need all the rest you can get… I'll get plenty once we're there. Whole show's going to be up to you by then."
"True," Azula conceded, though her heart raced with excitement at the prospect of what was to come… perhaps she was too excited to rest at all.
As intended, they arrived within another hour: the local staff welcomed them, but not quite as warmly as Azula had expected: the head programmer, the Fleet's assigned supervisor for this mission, seemed bored as he explained the inner workings of the station, the rooms they'd been assigned, and of course, how often they would be taking nutrition shots. That, Azula suspected, was Sokka's most despised aspect of stellarflights: a mere glance at his irritated grimace upon hearing of the nutrition shots spoke lengths of how much he resented receiving his nutrients without a proper meal conveying them.
"Make sure to finish the mission quickly. I want a pizza," Sokka growled, as they floated together to their assigned quarters: their beds were as good as boxes in the wall, utterly restrictive based on how much room the station could afford to spare for basic living conditions.
"What fantastic arrangement. Might as well stay in our ship instead," Azula remarked as she studied the lacking layout of their bedroom. Sokka smiled awkwardly.
"Not enough room for, uh…"
"And then you say I'm the one whose head is in the gutter."
"I mean, mine is too! You're just more shameless about it," Sokka squeaked. Azula smirked.
"True enough. Very well, then… we rest. And we get to work tomorrow… well, whatever counts as tomorrow, out here," Azula said.
While human life was conditioned to function on a twenty-four-hour clock, most exoplanets had much shorter rotation periods – and their orbits never lasted anywhere close to 365 days. The Council retained the use of twenty-four-hour clocks and time-measurement systems for the sake of coordination across all solar systems, but it proved much harder to follow them properly while living in a station hovering out in space.
Azula rested for about seven hours, waking up with too much excitement by then to sleep any longer. Sokka continued to drool on his pillow in the meantime: Azula smiled at the sight, shook her head, and floated on to the simulation room, adrift in zero gravity.
The head programmer and several others were there already. None greeted her with much enthusiasm as she took her seat at the simulation pod. The computer that would run the simulation was quite different from those she was used to in training, for it was far more rudimentary and difficult to prepare.
"Take it easy. System's good, but pilots get too antsy every time, and… you sure you don't want to rest a bit longer?" asked the head programmer as he typed away in a holographic device to set up the machine.
He was the assigned leader of the operation, the man who would either veto Azula as a pilot or give her the green light to fly to the nucleus once she reached the 75% success rate. Azula shook her head before securing herself on her seat, eyes on the screen upon which the simulation would be projected.
"We have time. Failing a few times at a simulation isn't the worst thing in the world, so… I'll just give this a try," Azula said, cracking her knuckles.
The program finally booted up: Azula flowed through the screen options, setting up her profile so the system could record her flights properly, and then she started the recreation properly, activating the first session.
"Very well… let's see it," Azula said, eyes narrowing as she powered the simulated vessel and flew into the tunnel.
The first stretch was wide and easy to traverse. It grew far more narrow, however, at a lower level of the planet's layers: jutting crystals startled her, formations that the programmers around her commented on.
"We don't have a full understanding of what they look like, this is just a prediction," said the head programmer. "Might be a lot worse down there, just so you know."
"Very well…" Azula continued: dodging the crystals was a complicated chore, more so as chunks of them appeared to collapse at random due to the internal pressure of the planet…
One crystal happened to burst moments before she reached it, casting its shards wildly in her direction: her flight ended abruptly when one such shard crashed into her pod and breached its hull.
"Yeesh…" sighed the head programmer as Azula scowled at the red message flashing on the screen: her first flight had been a failure. "Well, it's just the first attempt. Might get better later, right?"
"Sure," Azula said, though her voice reflected no confidence.
She had flown simulations of different qualities and styles, of many kinds of layouts… but a scenario with crumbling crystals that could tear apart the hull of her ship so easily was a first. Azula took a moment to analyze the run before starting again… and again. And again…
Sokka got up about three hours later: after taking his nutrition shot, groaning in misery at the lack of actual food, he drifted into the simulation room to find that most programmers weren't even there anymore: only the leader remained, and he patted Sokka in the back, making a face of displeasure before floating off to another room.
Sokka swallowed hard, approaching Azula carefully. She sat by the computer still, rewatching the recordings of multiple simulations at the same time.
"Um… everything okay?"
"Not a thing," Azula said. "The route is extremely dangerous. The crystals here… I think they're Londsaleites. You know, a more refined form of diamonds? Hexagonal crystals, some call them…"
"I… didn't know that," Sokka said, frowning as he leaned in. "And that stuff is…"
"Littering everything on the way down. There's a whole layer of the planet that's just… this," Azula said, breathing deeply. "The tunnel is there, but… the diggers have to break it open further. They say they will try, but… unless they succeed, our situation is grim."
Sokka bit his lip. Azula breathed deeply and shook her head.
"I just have to keep trying…"
"You don't have to do anything like that. Follow procedures, wait until they're done fixing the tunnel," Sokka urged her, frowning. "Don't jump into needless danger, Azula. I know you're eager for a win… but you shouldn't risk your life to get one."
He stroked her cheek: Azula resisted the urge to push him away. She shouldn't be so foolish as to act out, to be prideful and foolish… but she didn't care to face a setback like this one on her very first mission. A part of her feared that a better pilot might just make the descent where she had failed…
She shook her head. She couldn't let doubts get the better of her when she was only just beginning.
The next days were a matter of high tension and frequent clashes between Azula and the other teams involved in the biocatalysis system: the diggers claimed there was no safe way to make a better path through the hexagonal crystals, the programmers insisted that rebuilding the simulation at this point would take them days if anything changed… and every attempt at the simulation resulted in another crash, regardless of whatever tactics Azula tried in her flights.
"What if you use the fractal field?" Sokka asked, strapped to a seat by her side as she flew the simulation for the thirtieth time. "I know it's supposed to be for the magma, but…"
"It might tear if I use it as a shield against something so sharp," Azula said. "And by then it'll be useless once I get to the magma indeed, and…"
"I get it," Soka sighed. Azula huffed, shaking her head as she slowed the ship in the simulation: the maze of crystals was too narrow, too dangerous…
"Can't even tell the engineers to build a better ship either," she said. "They'll make all sorts of excuses and say I need to sock it up again. It's like they don't realize all their hard work means nothing unless a pilot can do this…"
"I guess they know that, but…" Sokka said. Azula frowned. "Maybe they want a specific pilot to do it instead of a new one. You know… a celebrity, so to speak. I doubt they'd put up so many protests if it were Ren Jiahao here, you know?"
"Of course," Azula said, frowning. "If he said he wants something done, they'd just bend over backwards to provide it… but maybe they'd still want someone else instead of him."
"Takei?" Sokka asked, bitterly.
"Her legend makes a lot more sense to me now. Anyone who can biocatalyze fifty planets with this kind of equipment and staff is undoubtedly a genius, a goddess or something beyond human possibilities," Azula concluded, shaking her head. "Do you think she ever just… tells them to do better? Or does she just barge in there and pulls off miracles without an issue?"
"Don't know. Never seen footage of her flights, to be frank," Sokka said, glancing at Azula. "Wanna try doing that? Maybe there's something in her missions that could help…"
"I hope she just brute-forces everything and gets it to work by sheer luck," Azula sighed. "Then I won't feel all that stupid for finding no solution for this. But… the mission staff probably do work harder for her sake, don't they?"
"Very likely," Sokka concurred. "I mean, it is the legendary pilot, most people want to impress her… but anyway, come on. Let's look. The Extranet's bulky enough to reach us here."
For once, Azula stopped working with the same program she had been using thus far: Sokka handled their new quest himself, typing away through the computer's systems with surprising ease. Azula crooked an eyebrow at his speed, and Sokka smiled a little at her.
"Programming is fun sometimes. I think I might do that if I weren't in the Fleet… which, well, I could still be in the Fleet and program, come to think of it."
"As long as you're not like that lot," Azula sighed, shooting a glare at the room where the programmers had hidden off at. "Then again, I'd much rather have you doing their job than them. I'd actually believe you when you tell me something can or can't be done, or that it's as accurate as can be…"
"That's a lot of trust you're putting on the guy you often mocked for being a lazy bum," Sokka said. Azula smiled.
"I may have called you that a couple of times, but… no lazy bum could've kept up with me. You're better than that," she said. Sokka snickered and shrugged.
"If you're sure," he said. "Well, shit. I can't find a damn thing. Why's she so elusive, huh?"
"Always feels like she has something or another to hide. Bet you'd like that too, wouldn't you?" Azula asked, teasingly. Sokka snorted.
"You know it. There's always been something sketchy about her, or many things… ah, whatever. Maybe I'll just look for video logs from specific exoplanets instead. Who knows? We might find a good example there somewhere," Sokka suggested.
"Huh… come to think of it, try looking for Proxima Centauri b. It was the first exoplanet that we ever biocatalyzed, so…" Azula reasoned, folding her arms over her chest.
"Wanna know how that one went down?" Sokka asked.
"They definitely had a much worse system than this, so it must have been much harder and a lot worse, all across the board. So… yeah, it might make me feel a little better to watch them suffering more than we have," Azula said, with a slight smirk. Sokka chuckled and nodded.
"As you wish…"
The recording wasn't easy to locate, hidden behind several turns and identity checks. Sokka grimaced upon finding that his own credentials appeared insufficient to access the files, and Azula's fared no better.
"We can just… get the head programmer's ID. Use that," Azula said, with a careless shrug.
"I'll ask."
"What… ask? I meant steal it," Azula said. Sokka huffed.
"Why would we steal it? Besides, we're just doing this for research's sake. It'll help you fly better, right?"
"If you can argue as much convincingly, sure…" Azula mused, with a shrug.
It didn't take Sokka very long to find the man in question… and it also didn't take him very long to return with him; Azula didn't care for the sudden, apparent camaraderie between the two. The head programmer seemed to be rather pleased that Sokka had asked for permission rather than going around him, a remark that irritated Azula on two accounts – the first being the jab against her, the second being the realization that the head programmer had been keeping watch and spying on their conversations… undoubtedly, on account of being the authority in charge of this station. She'd have to drag Sokka back to their ship temporarily to properly vent about that, if she ever had the chance.
"There we go," Sokka sighed happily once the head programmer's credentials passed the final checks: the video feed they'd been looking for was finally available for viewing. "Thank you!"
"You're most welcome. An officer of the Fleet with integrity is a rare breed indeed," the programmer said: the way his eyes flickered judgmentally towards Azula only compelled her to glare at him skeptically.
"Oh, when I get promoted…" she sighed, once the man left. "Well, not like I will unless we finish this damn mission, so… come on. Where is it?"
"Here we go!"
Azula swallowed hard as the feed opened: it appeared to be a recording of a similar nature to the simulations she'd practiced with, to date… only, naturally, it was far more real than anything that the best computer processors and graphic systems could portray. A dark tunnel could be seen on the screen, along with the interface of the core pod's screen, providing information such as altitude, heat and speed, among many details.
"All set, Takei?"
"As ready as I'll ever be."
Azula and Sokka froze: they exchanged a confused glance upon hearing the start of the recording.
"How in the…?" Sokka said. Azula's eyes widened as she paid even closer attention to the recording than before.
"Captain, are you sure about this? I… the others might have better odds. I don't know if I…"
"You're our best bet. You can pull it off… please. You're the only hope we have, Takei. Otherwise… no one here gets to go home."
Azula frowned: the nonchalant woman they'd seen in Mars had sounded nothing like this recording… she was far younger, clearly. Which made sense, because…
"Proxima Centauri b was our first biocatalyzed exoplanet," Azula repeated, staring at Sokka with wide eyes. "She… she did it? Takei?"
"Explains some things, I guess. Why she's a legend, or why she started to be one, I guess, but…" Sokka frowned. "Am I crazy, or was that…?"
"Three thousand years ago?"
Sokka's lips parted as he stared at the screen again. A cold chill rolled down Azula's spine: countless questions arose upon this strange discovery, one of many secrets that the Fleet, somehow, had decided to keep from the general public.
"Proxima Centauri b was biocatalyzed back in 2163. I remember, I… I memorized that back in school, when I was a kid," Sokka said, softly. "But nobody ever mentioned who did it. Nobody…"
"They're keeping a lot of things about her on the down low, for whatever reason, but… maybe it's because she really has been around for too long. And I mean, she has worked on fifty different planets, we knew that. Nobody can pull that off in just a century or so, but… three thousand years?"
The feed finally shifted: the flight was about to begin.
"Corporal Atsuko Takei… starting core pod descent trajectory to Proxima Centauri b's nucleus in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one…"
The core pod powered downwards, and the vehicle's lights ensured the way forward was visible through the dark tunnel. An initial straightforward rocky cavern stretched out for quite the expanse of the journey. After over five minutes of descent, the path narrowed, giving way to complicated bends and then…
The pod's lights weren't as necessary once the lava came into view.
"Holy shit," Sokka shuddered.
"Activating fractal field in three, two, one…!"
Two seconds after her declaration, the pod sank into the molten lava.
The heavy breathing of the pilot gave away she was nowhere near as calm as anyone would have expected from the grand legend Atsuko Takei. The feed only showed the outside of the ship… but they could hear soft whimpers upon each breath intake.
"You're doing great, Corporal! You can do this, please, just breathe…!"
"I can't do this. I can't do this. I'm going to…!"
"Just a little further! You're almost at the nucleus!"
A desperate cry accompanied the sudden acceleration of the core pod: she had chosen to plunge deeper, as a last-ditch effort to...
To die fulfilling her mission?
Azula's eyes widened. She covered her mouth with a hand as the feed continued to show the acceleration, the depth, the data of the descent…
"Holy shit," Sokka said, again: this was no heroic, glorious battle against the forces of nature… it was a suicidal dive into a dark, dreaded fate that the pilot in question seemed to be regretting profoundly…
"Approaching position! It's… it's so fucking hot! The fractals aren't working, Captain…!"
"They're working, it's just…! It's more heat than they can shield you from, but you're there, Corporal, you're there! Just do it quickly! Drop it, then turn…!"
"Turning now!"
"Wait! No! Drop the Lifeseed first! Don't…!"
The core pod turned around: the desperation in Atsuko's voice, in her heavy breathing, carried a combative hint now as she prepared for her escape.
"Dropping Lifeseed!"
No countdown. No protocol followed…
A flash of light blinded both Sokka and Azula as the feed grew incomprehensible…
The thunderous noise kept them from hearing anything. The interface warped into an unintelligible jumble: it was obvious she had survived, of course she had. There was no other Atsuko Takei out there, so she had survived somehow…
Suddenly, a speck of darkness appeared in the feed.
The core pod burst through the planet's surface, breaking into its newly forming atmosphere. Within a few moments, it was flying into outer space, towards the large stellarship it had come from.
"Takei! Takei, you… you did it! You're… Takei? You there?"
Only then did the heavy breaths become audible again. A few sobs could be heard too, but…
"I'm… I'm here. Somehow. Y-you're flying that shit next time, Captain…"
"Oh, Takei…!"
The man laughed and launched in celebration: so did the rest of his crew, whoever they were. Atsuko breathed heavily still, not making a single move to pilot her core pod any further: it was the stellarship, instead, that drifted towards her.
The feed cut off as soon as the core pod redocked on the stellarship anew.
"That… that was insane," Sokka remarked, with a small voice. "You… you can't do that. Can you? I mean, did you hear that? She sounded like…"
"It was really bad, as we expected, but… the technology has improved," Azula reasoned: even so, she couldn't hide the apprehension born from witnessing the earliest of all exoplanet biocatalysis missions. "But… she's been around for three thousand years since she did this. If she could handle it…"
"I get the feeling no one out there is particularly eager to see her come home in one piece, you know?" Sokka said, bitterly. Azula shot him a wary glance. "Has anyone once heard of her having a family? Loved ones? It's just stupid rumors about her and Ren, it's…"
"He's not her lover or anything like that," Azula said. "I doubt it anyway. The way he said it, he hasn't even met her that many times, but… it did look like she respected him, to some extent. Still… what does that have to do with anything? You think core pod pilots can't have any relationships in order to do their jobs? Because…"
"Might be it's for the better," Sokka said. Azula scoffed.
"You don't seriously believe that this legendary pilot who has been around for, apparently, three thousand years would not be missed if she blew herself up in a core pod…"
"Maybe she thinks so, and that's why she can do it. Maybe there's no one around to tell her they care," Sokka said: Azula looked at him skeptically before shaking her head and staring at the screen again.
"Fuck that," she said. Sokka sighed, hanging his head. "Look, I get what you're saying, and I don't care for it, Sokka. If you're going to start getting all mushy on me, and pretending that I shouldn't pilot because of that, then…!"
"It's not that you shouldn't pilot, but that you need to remind yourself of the risks," Sokka said, adamant. "I get that you want to pull off this mission, but you need to do it the right way, and… and be aware of what you're going to find down there. Maybe she didn't fly through a maze of hexagonal crystals, but maybe she would have taken her time to figure it out before jumping in anyway!"
"And what do you think I'm doing?" Azula bit back, glaring at him. "Do I look like someone who's rushing recklessly into something she doesn't understand? Wouldn't I already be in the pod, killing myself in that maze if I was like that? Your worries are misplaced, Sokka: I want to win. I want to succeed. And I will do it no matter the cost. So I intend to get those diggers to finish fixing that mess, and I'll have the programmers redo their projections and I'll fly the damn thing when we're ready. We clear?"
Sokka frowned: he knew Azula's temper was volatile at best whenever she was in a bad mood, but he wasn't sure he had ever faced it in such a way before. Their rocky beginnings had ensured she would not treat him with much respect at the start of their partnership, but matters had been mostly smooth sailing afterwards… until now.
"Whatever."
His response came as no surprise as he got off his chair and floated away from the room… though Azula's heart churned with frustration regardless: she didn't need him watching over her as a husband might… that was exactly why she refused to let their relationship escalate any further. Yes, they'd had fun… but she didn't join the Fleet to find a lover. She had done it for this very purpose… she needed to learn, from hands-on experience, how to fly the core pods, how to succeed where it seemed she was fated to fail, instead.
As she still could access the video logs thanks to the head programmer's credentials, Azula scoured more footage from notorious exoplanets across the galaxy, in the hopes of finding any case similar to the planet she was meant to brave: she wasn't surprised this time upon opening the file of Ross 128 b's biocatalysis, which had also been run by Atsuko Takei… of course. The second biocatalyzed exoplanet… only this time, the mission's logs revealed something different in Takei's disposition.
"Corporal Atsuko Takei, starting core pod descent trajectory to Ross 128 b's nucleus in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one…"
There was something colder, though Azula wasn't sure if more professional, in the pilot's voice tone this time. The mission launched, and there was no sign of the uncertainty, of the hesitation and anguish upon plunging into the lava: had the technology already improved enough to make the heat bearable, in a matter of a couple of decades?
Yet again, Takei turned the core pod around for her escape before planting the Lifeseed: the blast from the explosion catapulted her through the planet's depths and shot her right back into space, where the team assigned to this mission received her with cheers, hoots and open celebration…
She responded to none of it.
There was no joy, no relief in her voice when she spoke anew:
Was it normal to be so unaffected after running a mission as difficult as core pod dives into a planet's nucleus? An unsettling chill rushed down Azula's spine: something had happened to the legendary pilot in between jumps… something Azula didn't want to ponder too much. Talk about space madness had never worried her much… could that be it, though? Had the first core pod flight irreparably changed Atsuko Takei somehow… or had something else done it, instead?
Upon checking another planet, Lacaille 9352 d, she found the pilot was finally someone else. The flight resembled Atsuko's first far more than the second: the pilot had panicked and seemed to have a nervous breakdown upon reaching the planet's magma. Azula snarled: she refused to believe that every flight would turn out the same way. There had to be a pilot who could set aside their fears and focus on the importance of what they'd done…
Otherwise…
Her heart quaked at the thought of what awaited within the bowels of GJ 486 c. What if the planet was far more dangerous deep below the maze of crystals than it already appeared to be? What if being so close to death broke something deep inside her soul, the way it seemed to have happened to so many other pilots…?
She knew of TRAPPIST-1d, the planet reserved for the retirement of pilots: all official information claimed it was a heavenly location, a manner of Elysium of the modern era in which pilots could finally find the respite they had earned… but most believed it was but an asylum fated for victims of space madness. The reality of such a dark fate dawned on her more powerfully than ever before …
She couldn't let that happen to her.
She hadn't come all this way just for her convictions to waver.
She would pilot that damn core pod, and she would biocatalyze this exoplanet.
More arguments ensued in the station, more clashes, more complications: after nearly a month of the same routine, Azula grew convinced that the rest of the staff in GJ 486 c solely wanted to make her run for the hills and abandon all hope of fulfilling her duty. Sokka made himself scarce, too, often hiding away in their stellarship: Azula tried to ignore the gut-wrenching dread that he might just call it quits and ditch her here because of her previous harshness. Everything seemed to spiral further towards the worst-case scenario once the head programmer made the statement Azula suspected he had looked forward to uttering, across the past weeks.
"I will send out a call for another pilot."
"Oh, you will, will you? That means we'll all go back to Ross 128 b, and you'll have to return here in thirty years, expecting all conditions to remain the same and for some other pilot to miraculously achieve what I seemingly can't," Azula recited, firmly. The programmer huffed.
"You have to understand… a more experienced pilot could pull this off. If you were Task Master Takei, why…"
"You want her instead of me?" Azula asked, with a dry grin. "Tough luck. Last I heard? She'll spend over a hundred years off the grid, beyond anyone's reach. After she got to Ross 128 b, back when she was made Premier of Mars? She took up a mission to biocatalyze one of the TOI exoplanets. Almost a hundred years away. She probably hasn't even reached it yet, let alone started her way back. You intend to wait for her for all that time? I don't know that anyone can guarantee you'll still be alive before she returns…"
"Why, because you mean to kill me?"
"Because you might just get removed from all biocatalysis missions based on your failure in this planet. We all might," Azula said, through gritted teeth. "Now, as much as I can understand wanting to meet a legend and getting her autograph, I think you'd best get your priorities straight. Otherwise, no one here's going to make it home with a victory in their record: not me, not any of you."
"Say what you will, pretend to be very reasonable all you like…" the programmer growled, shaking his head. "This is a difficult, delicate mission. And you're demanding for refinement and improvements completely beyond any equipment developed for…!"
"Use the lava."
Azula froze. She glanced towards the room's door to find Sokka hovering there, a sullen look on his face.
"I've… made calculations. Simulations of my own," he explained. Azula frowned, puzzled. "We can stoke the lava with our fuel reserves. I know it's a hazard based on… well, obvious reasons. We would only use as much as we can afford to spare. But the lava may be the only thing that can melt down the crystals… everyone keeps thinking of breaking them, but we could melt them instead. Wear them down. We can clear the path that way… and then it'll be much easier for the pod to reach the mantle, too."
"That's… that's not something I'd ever…" said the programmer, astounded.
"You're sure it can be done?" Azula asked, her voice carrying a hint of hope that Sokka could only answer with a small smile.
"I've spent the last weeks making sure of it. So… how about we give that a go?"
The digging team returned to the planet's surface to set the stage for Sokka's idea, the first potential breakthrough for the mission in a long time: the two pilots remained in the temporary station along with the programmers, who were directing the diggers as best they could through the unforeseen, improvised solution Sokka had offered. He stood by Azula, watching the inhospitable planet through the station's windows.
"I hope it works. I really do," he said. "Everything I calculated, it… it seemed like it would be okay, but…"
"You didn't have to… well, you may have thought you did, but…"
"You said you weren't here for a suicidal mission. You want to win…" Sokka said, eyeing her warily. "I'm not here to be your personal driver and nothing more. I don't want to fly a core pod personally, no, but… I can help you fly yours. That's what my role should be as your partner."
Azula eyed him with uncertainty: he sounded fully professional… hurt, perhaps, by her refusal to accept a deeper relationship between them just yet. A part of her, foolish and easily manipulated, ached to offer him comfort and reassure him that she cared about him… but a much louder, prideful, wary side suggested that those words might be the last thing he wanted to hear now. So she nodded, instead, and resisted the urge to take his hand in her own.
"It's working… it's working!"
Sokka perked up: Azula raised her eyebrows before smiling upon hearing the unexpected shout by the head programmer.
They floated all the way to the command center, ever drifting without gravity in the station: the screens showed the progress of Sokka's proposed experiment, as many of the spiked, jagged, natural crystals dwindled and receded, losing their sharpest edges and the many layers of deadly sharp points that would have torn up the hull of any core pod diving into its depths. The lava glowed intensely as it eroded the matter… as it softened the path for Azula's eventual journey.
The next simulation, readied after a few days, was a resounding success: finally, Azula's statistics and odds for success started rising as she ran the path systematically, effectively, following fit with every protocol and her training so far. Gradually, that solid, irksome zero in her success odds started rising: within another five days, she had brought it all the way to 30%. Ten days later, it was 70% instead. The more she memorized the route, the higher the likelihood of success… and after numerous fulfilled simulated trips, one after the other, repeated enough until she could see the projected pathway in her dreams, Azula finally reached the mandatory 75% success odds for the mission to be launched.
"Then… we do it tomorrow," the head programmer said, looking at his staff with uncertainty. He glanced at Azula and raised his eyebrows. "We're counting on you, Operative Homura. This is our only shot."
"I'll make it count," Azula replied: the man's faith rang false to her due to their bad blood… but he was better off hoping for her success, for he would only be free to return home as a hero if this planet was properly biocatalyzed.
The tension permeated the air across the station that night: Azula focused as best she could, revisiting the route in her mind, trying to ignore the acute awareness of Sokka's presence in the next bed. They had so much to talk over, to resolve… should she truly fly out without having done so? She had full confidence in the new route, in the possibilities ahead… but it would be her first real core pod flight. As accurate as simulations might be, they didn't truly recreate every circumstance of the flight, only the general trek all the way to the nucleus…
She'd deal with any unresolved business tomorrow. She needed to rest properly for the task ahead.
By the next morning, it was Sokka who bore the marks of exhaustion across his face, with dark bags under his eyes and frequent yawns. But he was up once Azula got up, too, and they took their respective nutrition shots before marching into the preparations room.
"You're feeling okay for the flight?" Sokka asked, watching as Azula's uniform floated carelessly in the room while she changed into the special core pod piloting suit, behind a holographic, opaque screen. "No second thoughts?"
"You know I'm not having any. More so thanks to you," she said. "And I'm not just saying that, Sokka, I… I'm grateful. You found a way to fix this mess, instead of just… bickering about it and expecting someone else to solve it, unlike me. I… I should've thought of something too."
"Can't sort out everything yourself all the time," Sokka said, with a small smile. "Besides…"
His words slipped his mind entirely once Azula's screen disappeared: he had never seen Azula in the full piloting suit, and his lips parted as his eyes took her in.
Azula wore the latest technology developed for spacefaring: the Cataphract Steel Armor Suit. The malleable metal of the full body armored suit, of a glistening, slick black hue, could be controlled at will through the pilot's neural chip, switching from softness to hardness depending on the wearer's needs. Underneath the steel, visible across a few sections of the suit, peeked the blue glow of the fractal chainmail, the air filtering and temperature regulation system that would protect the wearer in the harshest of conditions, be it with excess heat or a lack of it. Propellers were attached to the calves and the braces of the suit, in case an emergency personal flight was necessary, and the suit boasted of a potent enough internal battery to protect any spacefarer across seven days adrift in space.
It didn't hurt one bit that the suit was form-fitting, allowing Sokka to gape a little too shamelessly at the body he had grown acquainted with across the last months. Azula raised an eyebrow questioningly at him as she adjusted the steel-laden gauntlets over her hands.
"You were saying?"
"I… nope. I didn't say that out loud… did I?" Sokka said. Azula smiled.
"Think you'll have remembered our conversation topic when I return?"
"I…"
Again, the awareness of what Azula was off to face struck Sokka in an uncomfortable place. His face fell as she breathed deeply, holding her helmet under her arm.
"Hey… just be careful, okay?" he said. Azula glanced at him apologetically.
"I have a lot of things to talk over with you. I don't mean to die before that happens," she said.
"I know. I believe in you," Sokka said, with a slight smile.
Azula nodded, patting his arm gently before floating towards the doorway, past him: the programmers and diggers crowded the core pod's room, and they glanced at her with a mix of foreboding and hope that she decided to ignore for the time being. She nodded towards them as she approached the core pod, designed exclusively this mission: it seemed small and smooth, made of the same materials of her own suit – cataphract steel and, in this case, a fractal field that she would activate once she reached the planet's magma.
While the pod featured wings that would make the flight as aerodynamic as possible, the main thing that jutted out, beyond the propellers at its base, was the large container behind the pilot's cabin, within which nestled the true protagonist of her flight: the Lightseed, hidden away from view, perfectly crafted to achieve the results that would turn this planet into a new haven for humanity.
The magnitude of her task had been ever-present in her mind… but being in the Lifeseed's presence bolstered the pressure that weighed on Azula: she couldn't afford to fail. She nodded at the rest of the station's staff, some of whom responded in similar fashion.
"We shall be with you every step of the way… if possible," the head programmer stated, as Azula fit the helmet in place over her head. "We've ensured every system is running within the pod, and it all checks out, so… the best of luck, Operative Homura."
"Thank you. I will make sure all our efforts pay off," she said, opening the pod's doorway: it slid back, exposing the smooth seat within.
Her neural chip activated suddenly, revealing a private communication channel… coming from Sokka. Azula swallowed hard and opened the line, glancing at him as she slid through the pod's door.
"Be careful," Sokka spoke through their connected chips, as she settled in the cabin, buckling in the seatbelts. "Azula, I… I'm not mad, okay? Just… just so you know. Whatever's going on…"
"We'll sort it out once I'm back. I promise," Azula responded. Sokka smiled a little and nodded.
"Okay. I… I'll be waiting. Do your best, as always, and… if anything looks dreadful, make sure to return, okay? We'll find a way to do it again somehow, we…"
"Won't come to that… but I'll think about it."
Sokka sighed: Azula offered him a sad smile before closing the door. Screens came to life, allowing her to see her full surroundings within the station. Information lit up across all screens, pertaining altitude, temperature, speed, as well as a reading of the Lifeseed she carried on the back of her pod. Everything seemed correct so far… she breathed deeply, closing her eyes before opening her comms with the station.
"Operative Homura, ready to take off."
The words saw the head programmer lowering the core pod through a small elevator and into the airlock that would release the core pod. The lock closed above Azula's pod, and she activated all flight systems.
"Beginning initial descent flight in three, two, one…"
The hatch below her opened, and the core pod dropped towards GJ 486 c at full speed, drawn towards it by gravity: the speed boost would allow Azula to drop quickly right until she reached the tunnel's opening. Once there, she would use her own fuel to maneuver through the complex route the staff had carved for her.
The inertia reminded her of lightspeed jumps, but at far greater potency. Inertia dampeners weren't anywhere near as sophisticated for core pods, namely because they hardly needed to be. She wouldn't travel at lightspeed in this vehicle, of course… but the less intensive dampeners would nonetheless help her bear with the bumpy journey all the way to the planetary core.
She slowed at the planet's crust upon reaching it: the outside temperature was recorded at a hundred and forty-eight Kelvin degrees… a cold surface in which humanity most certainly would not survive. Azula angled her core pod towards the tunnel's opening, and once there, she breathed deeply before announcing herself anew:
"Mission control, this is Operative Homura. I'm in position to start the mission."
"Mission control, we copy. Begin the mission," responded the head programmer.
"Operative Azula Homura, starting core pod descent trajectory to GJ 486 c's nucleus in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one…"
She activated all engines and blasted into the tunnel.
The core pod's headlights and cameras aided her descent: she could interpret the information she received through her neural chip, assessing the threats represented by the loose debris within the tunnels, or the hotter core of the planet, still too far to be portrayed by any of the readings.
"All good?" Sokka's voice drifted into the comms, at the appropriate time for confirmation of the pilot's wellbeing. Azula nodded.
"Everything's as projected so far. Halfway down to the crystal field."
"Good luck."
His voice was charged with faith, hope and no shortage of despair: Azula would make sure he would never have to doubt her again, never have to fear for her safety in these jumps. She needed to succeed. She needed this victory, at all costs…
Soon, the readings in the core pod alerted her of the incoming danger. Azula let out a deep breath.
"Entering the crystal field."
"Fly safe, Operative," said the head programmer this time. Azula didn't respond.
The true test of her piloting skills and instincts came to life when the cameras of her pod allowed her a glimpse of the field of dark, jutting crystals. The way was clear towards the area where they had been melted off… though so far up, most of them remained as piercing and dangerous as ever.
Azula pirouetted past the first ones, then dodged the next clusters with as much caution as she could exert. She couldn't slow down too much, entering the magma required so much momentum… but too much speed in the crystal field would be risky too. The balance between watching out for herself and looking towards the future seemed near impossible to attain.
But finally, a clearer path appeared once the spiked edges of some crystals appeared damaged, smoothed or bent instead of sharp and deadly. Azula angled her core pod that way, her heart racing…
The heat was rising. At this point, she was at roughly four hundred and seventy Kelvin degrees… the magma below would be over a thousand degrees, too. Azula breathed deeply, resisting the urge to activate the fractal field already. She was almost there…
Brightness started to seep through, announcing the arrival of the planet's mantle. She closed her eyes for a moment, settling down… then she reached for the control panel, ready to press the button to launch the protective field that would repel the worst of the lava. A single crack in the system, any tears within the fractal field, and this would be where it all ended for her…
"Activating the fractal field in three, two, one…!"
The spacecraft glowed in a cerulean color as a full network of protective hexagons spread all across the vehicle: she plunged into the magma moments later, and she activated the propellers to ensure the viscous molten rock and crystals would not slow her too much in her descent to the core.
Even with such technological developments, even though the field was fully functional, Azula couldn't help but notice the heat rising quickly within the cabin. Her own suit protected her, and even so…
That humanity had ever come up with this mad strategy was both awe-inspiring and baffling. She had no shortage of motivation to do this… but now, facing the utter madness of barreling through molten magma, all the way to the planet's solid core, Azula found it a lot easier to understand Sokka's reservations. Her life was at risk across any second she spent in space, it was the truth… but where that was a latent, perennial threat represented by space being an entirely hostile landscape to human life, this was as good as rushing deliberately into a beast's den, jumping into its maw and hoping to escape from the whole ordeal unscathed.
She was almost there… almost there. Over two thousand Kelvin. Two thousand and five hundred. Three thousand… the fractal field had better hold. The fractal field had to hold…
The beeping monitors in front of her warned her: she was almost there. Azula slowed down… if she kept moving any faster she'd crash against the solid core.
On pure impulse, she decided to imitate the technique she had seen in the logs from Proxima Centauri b and Ross 128 b's biocatalysis missions: Atsuko Takei had turned around before planting the Lifeseed… a reasonable choice, even in terms of convenience, for the seed nestled at the back of the ship. But Azula had never considered the turn would also be useful for the sake of slowing down the descent, more so as gravity hampered her attempts to ease it.
"Almost… almost…!"
She reached the marked spot, and without further ado, she pressed the next button.
"Dropping Lifeseed!" she announced: she wasn't even sure the comms were working anymore. She hadn't heard anyone say a word for what felt like hours, even if she knew it was merely minutes…
The container carrying the Lifeseed dropped from the ship: the fractal field quickly retracted, allowing the container fall freely without risking the integrity of the core pod:
And now came the hardest part of the challenge: the ascent back to the surface.
She needed to fly faster than ever before: she had to outrun the Lifeseed's guaranteed explosion and fight against gravity to do so.
She accelerated, pumping the bulk of her fuel into the first burst of energy out of the nucleus: the fractal field resented the high speed, but it held. It had to hold. She couldn't stay a moment longer …
She had only just broken out of the mantle and reached the start of the crystal field when a deep rumbling groan in the depths of the planet made her stomach sink.
She sped up faster, remembering the trajectory up the tunnel as best she could. Taking damage now wouldn't be so bad, she wasn't carrying the Lifeseed anymore, so she wasn't guaranteed death over a couple collisions…
The thrumming sound suddenly gave way to a shockwave, potent and terrifying, that sped her up beyond her expectations: the Lifeseed's aftereffects were catching up to her.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit…!"
She went faster. She had to try. She had to…
The harshest shockwave reached her: her core pod was thrown off course and launched, spiraling, through the remaining length of the tunnel.
Biocatalysis Mission Control to Stellar Council Communications Department.
Exoplanet: GJ 486 c
Pilot: Azula Homura.
Biocatalysis status: Success.
Pilot status: Alive.
Azula awoke with a start: everything was silent. She blinked herself awake, shaking her head: everything hurt, she was hovering off her chair, the safety belt had come loose…
Her core pod floated in space, drifting in the void.
Her comms seemed to be offline. The core pod itself was merely sustained in the lowest energy settings… probably due to how she had pressured it, investing all its power into that risky escape. She groaned, reaching for the back of her head… she hoped that pain wasn't some kind of concussion. She needed to find her bearings, return to the station… but she needed to catch her breath first. The air within the pod was still breathable, so she could do that. Close her eyes rather than facing the spinning world beyond her…
"We really need… better inertia dampeners on this thing…" she whispered: at this rate she would wind up throwing up bile – for she would have nothing her stomach beyond that – over motion sickness.
Finally she dared move towards the control panel to slow her motions. Little by little, the pod's spinning stabilized… though it continued to float away even as it stopped spinning, and Azula hardly knew where she was going. All she knew was that…
A sudden sound, like a bump, startled her at once. Azula glanced back: the screens showed what was behind her, and…
Her heart leapt, relief flooding her body upon realizing it was Sokka's stellarship.
The comms channel opened suddenly, as energy flooded the seemingly depowered core pod: he had provided her an energy lifeline. Azula breathed out heavily, removing her helmet and running a hand over her disorderly, sweaty hair.
"I'm here! Azula, you made it! Azula…!"
"Sokka," she smiled: he nearly yelped for joy upon hearing her voice. "You came for me. You…"
"Fuck yeah, I did! How could I not?! You made it out and started hovering over here…! Oh, come here!"
He maneuvered the stellarship in such a way that the core pod would attach to the ship's airlock. It was fortunate that most doorways followed an industry standard, enabling ships, Spaceports and stations to connect seamlessly with each other. Otherwise, Sokka would've had to drag Azula all the way back to the station before they could reunite properly.
"The others scanned for life, they could tell you were still alive, but I just couldn't wait for you to come back to your senses and…!" Sokka was telling her across the airlock, as Azula undid her seatbelt: the two ships connected, and the airlock's doors finally opened. She would hear his voice directly now, rather than through a comms device. "Fuck, Azula. Fuck, are you…?!"
She didn't care if she looked like a mess, didn't care whether there was any injury that required immediate attention, for she floated into his arms and kissed him without a second thought.
Sokka responded, backing down into the stellarship: the lack of gravity made the moment far more magical than usual, in virtue of how they hovered as they made out without restraint, embracing each other tightly, basking in the success of their first mission.
"You're okay… you're okay…" Sokka kept saying, between kisses. Azula laughed, cupping his face between her hands.
"That was fucking terrifying," she said. Sokka nodded, kissing her again.
"And I bet you're just gonna say you wanna do it again, but… not yet. Not now. I'm gonna… gonna check you're all good now," Sokka said, kissing her face, what little he could reach of her neck with her cataphract suit in the way. Azula giggled, throwing her head back.
"You know me so well…"
"Oh, you're mad. There's no sense in that head of yours, and I just… fuck, I love you. I don't care if you don't love me, I love you. Don't fucking scare me like that again."
Azula's eyes widened: he kissed her again, and suddenly it was as though she was back in the magma, with heat rising in such a way that the fractal chainmail she wore couldn't possibly keep up…
He loved her. The fool truly had foregone any shred of sense and reason and fallen in love with her, and…
And she'd be lying if she pretended not to be thrilled upon hearing him offering her his heart as freely as he had.
She couldn't respond with words – he seemed determined not to let her do so, to begin with. He kept kissing her with abandon, hands roaming over her suit… Azula made matters easier, sending a command to her neural chip to undo the entire thing.
Moments later, the shards of the suit spliced off her, hovering away from them: Sokka's uniform followed moments later, as did their undershirts, their underwear, everything they had dared wear. Such was the clutter in the room that Sokka didn't hesitate to push them into the piloting booth instead: the ship's large windows allowed a dazzled Azula to finally lay eyes upon what she had achieved…
Her lips parted: the quiet, rocky planet she had biocatalyzed appeared to be on fire.
It was a natural reaction, and it would still be several years before the Lifeseed's effects took root properly. For now, the place looked like it had only just formed, with volcanoes growing active all across its landscape, and an atmosphere rising around the sphere.
"You did that," Sokka whispered, smiling proudly. Azula swallowed hard at the sight, a disbelieving laugh leaving her lips.
"See…? How could I have enough of doing it, just the one time?" she asked, looking at him in disbelieving amazement. "Sokka, this is…"
"I know. Your calling," Sokka smiled, cupping her face and kissing her again. "And mine's making sure you can fulfill it, okay? So… don't worry about a thing. Not anymore. I'm with you, I… I'm yours."
Azula dreaded she'd regret acting on her emotions later. A part of her warned her not to be so foolish, not to accept this, not in this situation… he might misunderstand it as a wholehearted acceptance of something Azula couldn't possibly afford to give him. She needed, wanted, to focus on her job, more so now…
But their naked bodies hovered in that confined space, providing them with perfect privacy to succumb to their basest urges, to celebrate their first successful mission in blissful intimacy and passion. Their lips couldn't stop seeking each other out, hands reaching for everywhere they might touch… Sokka hoisted her, offering attention to her breasts, down to her abdomen, before burying his face between her legs.
Azula laughed in ecstasy, eyes closed as she leaned back… hovering in space, without gravity, certainly made for an entertaining and unusual scenario for a tryst. It was easy enough for her to turn around, allowing Sokka to still devour her core while she returned the favor: the pair would seem to form a wheel of a sort, with momentum making them spin while they hovered in the air, in a room where all sounds were those of their bodies pressed together, their mouths' wet noises as they delighted each other, and their every moan and groan as the excitement rose higher.
Once he knew she was ready, Sokka pulled back and slid inside her: their legs hooked into place over each other's front and back, in a rather odd position they'd never tried before. Azula laughed for it as she hugged Sokka's leg, as they rode each other, meeting their hips with each light thrust in the delightful pursuit for the culmination that lingered right within reach.
They couldn't help but bounce against the walls often, drifting as they were, incapable of finding any kind of stability when gravity was both an ally and enemy. The heat rose at haste, perhaps faster than ever… the adrenaline might have been to blame, beyond the natural effects of such activities in an unexpected environment. But they didn't stop, completely swept up by the need for each other and the rampaging emotions that only enhanced every physical sensation…
Azula burst first, and Sokka followed: she hugged his leg tightly as her body as good as convulsed in its release. Sokka's heavy breaths compelled her to shift positions again… to reach for him, to catch his lips in her own as fast as possible. His arms looped around her waist as their lower bodies disengaged, and Azula ensured to kiss him until her body had settled down again, a difficult feat, seeing as her heart raced fiercely.
"You… you okay?" Azula asked him. Sokka nodded, stroking her hair.
"You're the one I should ask, you… you could've been hurt. Are you hurt?" he asked.
"By the sex? I…"
"By the jump, first. Sex, too, I guess, but…"
"Maybe," she acknowledged, with a weak smile. "My whole body hurt, but… now it feels nicer. And…"
She shook her head, glancing down the window anew: the sight of that planet's surface, shifting and changing before her eyes, ignited such wild sensations in her heart. Sokka smiled, kissing her brow.
"You pulled that off, yes. Good work, Operative Homura," he said, teasingly. She laughed, pressing a kiss to his shoulder instead.
"We pulled it off, damn you. I couldn't have done it if you… if you hadn't come up with a solution," she said, gazing up at him with warm gratitude. "Guess I don't have all the answers all the time, do I?"
"Took you that long to realize it, huh?" Sokka teased her. Azula chuckled.
"No worries, I'll just… keep you around, for a little while," she said. "Once I've learned all your great tricks, I'll be able to strike off on my own, yes…"
"Good thing I have too many of those. Feels like you won't be able to shrug me off that easily," Sokka teased her. "Besides, you wouldn't have a crazy partner to fuck with in zero gravity if you did that, would you?"
"Oh, true. That is a very good argument, mind you," Azula reasoned. Sokka laughed before kissing her again.
They couldn't afford to try anything else anymore, more so as Sokka worried over Azula's wounds. He ensured to check on them, offering her a painkiller shot, injected into her arm's IV socket, and they dressed up afterwards, returning to the station to offer confirmation that Azula had made it safely.
"I will say… that was quite the impressive flight," the head programmer admitted, once he spoke with her. "I underestimated your capabilities. I can only wonder if…"
"If Task Master Takei might have done better?" Azula asked. The man tensed up. "Yes, she would have. She's worth studying more so that I may learn from the best, though. I only survived and escaped by putting her techniques into practice, so… thank you for letting us access those records. Even if you were spying on our every conversation…"
"Don't take it personally. We programmers do that to all pilots," the man said, smirking. "Well, except…"
"Except Takei?" Azula asked. The head programmer smiled awkwardly. "So… you worked with her once before?"
"Just the one time. She showed up for two days, finished the mission, left before anyone even knew it. Might as well have been a ghost," he laughed.
"Ah, so you didn't have enough time to spy on her either, I'm guessing," Azula smirked. "Or is it she runs a shift that tight… or maybe you lot actually respect her?"
"Eh… the latter, but there's also nothing to spy on. She flies alone, keeps to herself, interacts only whenever strictly necessary," the programmer said. "So, yeah, no point spying on her. It also never feels right with someone of that magnitude, but you were a newcomer, so, heh…"
"May the day come when programmers who work with me decide I'm worthy of respect too," Azula said, with a dry grin.
"I'd say it already has, but I doubt you care to hear me say that now," the programmer smiled. "At any rate… rest up, and feel free to take your leave whenever. We'll take off soon ourselves… thank you, truly. We finally get to go home."
Azula nodded: she guessed their relief made some sense… but as far as she was concerned, going home was nowhere close to a priority.
No… she wanted to know what her next mission would be, instead.
Fifteen years passed in the blink of an eye on their way back to Ross 128 b. A temporary return to Earth marked Sokka's first proper visit to the planet after that – once there, Azula had a brief chance to gain some knowledge pertaining what her family had been up to as of late. Her father continued to be in Liu Lijun's good graces, whereas Zuko was doing his own missions for the Stellar Fleet as well. Few families could outlast their own natural lifespans to such an extent, but it seemed both Azula and Sokka's families were doing as much: Hakoda and Kya, Sokka's parents, continued to travel beyond the solar system, and Katara was already on her first missions, as a new programmer serving in the Stellar Fleet.
Azula and Sokka received commendations on Earth for their first biocatalyzed planet – Sokka deflected all praise to Azula, unsurprisingly, who couldn't even try to hide her pride upon receiving such earnest admiration from the younger recruits in the academy, delighted to meet someone who had overcome such a difficult mission.
"Looks like you're on your way to becoming a legend," Sokka teased her that night, as they nestled together in her family's old home. Azula snorted, pulling the covers over their naked bodies. "What? Don't like that, all of sudden?"
"It's just the start, Sokka. One planet… hardly amounts to much," she said, stroking his chest. "But we'll do more. We'll get ourselves a new mission soon, and when we do…"
"We'll have to try and succeed even if the programmers and engineers and diggers and whatnot are a pain, huh?" Sokka asked. Azula sighed. "That might just be a pretty annoying problem."
"Feels like one, but… maybe it was just this time. Maybe our next squads will be better," she said. "And if worst comes to worst… we can always rant about them through our neural chips, or just go to our ship, vent our woes away in a more productive way, then get back to work. Easy, right?"
"Oh, sure," Sokka smiled. "Might help, I won't lie, but… I really hope your success is enough to make idiots like that last guy realize you're the real deal."
"Hopefully," Azula yawned, hugging him tightly. "We'll stay here for a bit… wait for a new mission to come up. Soon as we get one… we'll go back out there, right away."
Sokka nodded, kissing the top of Azula's head.
She drifted off to sleep quietly, peacefully… Sokka, however, wasn't anywhere near as relaxed that night. He woke Azula with a start several times, reassuring her quickly… though hugging her tightly, too.
"What exactly were you dreaming about?" Azula asked him the next morning, setting down their coffee mugs, steaming and inviting, at the kitchen table. Sokka groaned happily as he drained the first sip.
"Food. Drink. I love them so much more than they'll ever know," he said dramatically, before realizing Azula continued to stare at him skeptically. "Eh… yeah. Well… truthfully, I don't know. Could just be… heh, space madness?"
"What? You dreamt about it, or do you think you have it?" Azula asked. Sokka shrugged.
"How do you even know you have it?" he said, frowning. "I just… dreamt something strange, okay? I was here on Earth, had a ship, different one though. There was… I don't know, a battle waging in the sky? Me and the big crowd around me, we couldn't really tell what was going on. Some bigshot from the Fleet was telling us all to calm down and to enter the refuges safely. I tried to get to my ship instead, but I couldn't and… suddenly, something bad happened. Some sort of big… nuke, I guess, I don't know. I saw… or at least, I think I saw the sky tearing apart. Last thing I knew was that I couldn't breathe. Then… it was over, and I woke up."
"That's… dark. Maybe we really should check you for space madness," Azula said, reaching to touch his forehead. Sokka smiled sadly, shaking his head. "Did you dream of this constantly through the night?"
"I think so, I… I kept seeing it again. Vividly. Think it helped holding onto you because you weren't in the dream, so… kind of helped me realize it wasn't really happening," Sokka reasoned. Azula frowned. "Doesn't mean anything serious, right? Other than, well, that I might have space madness, but…"
"I suspect you're too coherent and collected for that, to be fair, but… we can certainly have you checked just in case," Azula said, cupping his face between her hands. She pressed a soft kiss on his lips, and Sokka smiled giddily for it. "We can stick around until we sort this out, then. Not like we're in a rush, and we won't be in one until we get a new mission, anyway."
They took their time to seek answers pertaining Sokka's dreams, though no professional could find any success in discerning what troubled him. They made up a few theories, but offered him nothing but sleeping techniques to prevent dreams, outright. On the bright side, they confirmed he wasn't suffering from space madness thus far… on the less bright side, his unsettling dreams seemed far stronger than those sleeping techniques anyway, and they continued all the way until, almost forty days later, they finally were assigned a mission and they left the planet, intent on pulling it off at once.
"Maybe this is why I never really liked Earth much," Sokka groaned, as they settled in the seats of their stellarship.
"You sure you can fly like this?" Azula asked.
"I'll get proper rest once we get there," Sokka said, with a careless smile. "I miss it, too. Really sleeping… what a notion, huh?"
Azula breathed deeply as their acceleration began: she hoped being sleep-deprived wouldn't affect Sokka significantly in this journey…
Their next trip took them to Tau Ceti f, a small but promising exoplanet that orbited a yellow star, rather than the usual red. Sokka had but two days to catch up on his lacking rest, though: by the third, Azula had been ready to fly the mission, biocatalyzing the planet in as good as a heartbeat.
A few more routine trips followed – back to Ross 128 b, a visit to Proxima Centauri b, then a visit to Mars rather than Eart, to Sokka's relief, then again to Ross 128 b…
Their third planet, Wolf 1061 c, took Azula eighteen days to biocatalyze. While it was a slightly more difficult mission, more so due to another complicated crew, Azula nonetheless prevailed with great pride: and where Sokka would gladly take a few days off after yet another resounding success, his eager lover and partner only seemed to set her sights ever higher.
"There's a new promising planet we can go for. I've signed us up, they'll make the decision in a couple days," she announced, as she entered their assigned quarters of Ross 128 b, the Fleet's main headquarters beyond Earth's solar system. Sokka grimaced, staring at her skeptically. "What?"
"Are you familiar with the notion of rejoicing in your current success? Counting your blessings, as it were?" he asked. "You're going from planet to planet… isn't this greedy of you?"
"Greedy?" Azula repeated, with a smirk. "I'm doing my job… and I'm damn good at it. I wouldn't be surprised if we were promoted to Corporals anytime soon."
"Greedy," Sokka said again. Azula laughed, leaning close to kiss him.
"That doesn't seem to bother you when it's not about piloting core pods, though…"
"Eh, well… it does have its bright sides, why lie?" Sokka smirked. Azula snickered before dragging him to her bed anew.
The decision was made indeed, but their departure was delayed slightly longer… for Azula's casual prediction came true: Sokka was shocked upon donning a new uniform with gray highlights, marking their progress into the ranks of Corporals now. Azula couldn't have been prouder as she raved about the new planet they would work at, thanks to their latest success: L 98-59 f would be their longest trip so far, thirty-four years no less, but even if the trip resulted in a sixty-eight-year total flight, Azula remained convinced that it would be worth it.
Her convictions were just as strong after that successful biocatalysis and into their fifth: Gliese 625 b awaited them, and after another period of around fifteen days of work, Azula and Sokka watched the blooming life across that new planet with proud smiles from their stellarship before starting their way back to Ross 128 b.
"We do seem to make a good team… but you're kicking my ass here," Sokka laughed, after they docked into Ross 128 b's Spaceport. "How about we take a light trip next time? Just a fun one, to a system I always wanted to visit?"
"Oh? Which one's that?" Azula asked.
"61 Virginis!" Sokka grinned. "I've heard the biocatalyzed planets there are big getaway locations. Could be fun, who knows?"
"You want to go on a vacation, then?" Azula asked, raising her eyebrows. "Seems whimsical..."
"Seems deserved. Haven't you noticed? It's been about a year for us, but it's actually been two-hundred and sixty-six years since we started out," Sokka pointed out. Azula winced. "That's a very long period, and a very well-earned break, if you ask me!"
"Oh, fine," Azula rolled her eyes. "But I'll pick our next mission after that anyway."
"Don't you always?"
The trip to 61 Virginis started out as a dreamscape for Sokka, just as he had anticipated: sightseeing in the beautiful beaches and meadows of one planet, all the way to beautiful tall mountains in another one… by the third planet, Azula was starting to grow antsy. By the fourth, even their nightly trysts weren't enough to temper her need for action.
"We've only been out for one week and you're already beelining towards the first Fleet's headquarters you could find," Sokka sighed, following Azula as they entered the building: her proud grin gave away she was delighted to have had her way, despite it all. "You know they probably won't assign us any missions here, right?"
"Worth a shot anyway. Would spare us the trip back to Ross 128 b, if possible," Azula said, glancing about herself with curiosity: holographic screens around them showcased the newest stellarship models the Council had developed… and there was more information than that in rooms beyond these. "Is that… a museum?"
"Looks that way," Sokka said. "A Stellar Fleet Museum, huh? Don't even start hoping we'll be in it yet, we're not that important so far…"
"I know that. But… we can check it out, right?" she said, with a proud smile. "Come on. Let's see what it takes to be featured here."
Sokka chuckled, following her inside: the exhibits featured a handful of treasures, small samples of other planets' rocks, debris from broken core pods or stellarships that were lost to tragedies, as well as many reports on the Fleet's successful flights across the galaxy. One exhibit, a few rooms in, caught Azula's attention:
"Humankind was never fated to be restrained to a single star, but there are those who would contest that truth, those who wish to hinder our flights and adventures into the greatness beyond our borders: across the past centuries, a rogue clone organization, led by the terrorist Eun-u Cho, has sought to undermine the Stellar Council's government and sabotaged the development of Lifeseeds and stellarships, stealing resources and information for themselves. These clones hijacked the Moon's previously human settlements, overtaking them for their own use. The Stellar Council has attempted to resolve the conflict through diplomatic means to no avail, and it will continue to do so until the terrorist threat is ended. One thing remains certain: the Stellar Council will always triumph over adversity, ever bringing humanity to the next horizon."
It was easy to forget the war against the clones often: Azula hardly pondered the matter other than over the occasional reminder, be it due to propaganda or any kind of stray information about it that crossed her path. The war had started years before her birth… it had always appeared to her that the clones could never support their cause for long, lacking the resources the Council had in spades. And yet, three hundred years later, the war continued to rage on… was the Council underestimating the clones? Or was it merely lying about their capabilities to the rest of humankind? Being part of the Fleet, Azula ought to be more informed pertaining the matter than most people were… she scowled at that thought. She'd look deeper into the latest happenings in that conflict in the coming days.
"You alright?" Sokka asked, approaching her again. Azula nodded, offering him a dismissive smile.
"Just wondering how much of what they say in these museums is pointless, false propaganda and how much of it is reliable, believable information. The usual," she said, carelessly. Sokka smiled, following her through the exhibits.
"So, what, you're not only going to biocatalyze every exoplanet, you're also going to restructure and chase out corruption in the entire Council? No one can accuse you of lacking ambition…"
"As far as I know, there's someone who likes to call me greedy instead of ambitious…"
"Both can be true."
Their joint laughter over those words faded when they reached the main exhibits pertaining the local solar system: the familiar picture of the most notorious pilot in human history, with her long, disheveled black hair and dark, cold eyes, appeared by the screens…
Which revealed her as pilot who had biocatalyzed the planet they were currently on.
"Heh. How surprising," Sokka said dryly, souring at the sight of the still-reigning Premier of Mars who, as far as he knew, hadn't set foot on the planet ever since her shocking departure while flipping off the Council's Chairman. "Guess she did 61 Virginis f. And, uh, and g. And…?"
"H. And i," Azula frowned: her eyes rose towards Atsuko Takei's picture, taking in the jaded Task Master, who seemed as cold and ruthless as ever. "Just… just a moment now. This is saying that, in a single trip, she biocatalyzed four planets?!"
"Uh… apparently," Sokka said, with a shrug. "You know how it is, she's the Council's spoiled and favorite pilot, so…"
"I want to do that."
Sokka winced. Azula's eyes glowed with that greed he had frequently accused her of, and he stared at her in disbelief.
"Can you ever stop trying to measure up to her?" he said. "You're like fifty times the pilot…!"
"Am not. And if I were, I haven't proved it yet," Azula declared, stubbornly. "I'm nowhere near her level, I… I've got five planets under my belt so far, Sokka. Five! The one time we saw her, she had ten times as many…"
"Yeah, and she's also like… I don't know. Two hundred times your age, give or take?" Sokka asked, with an awkward smile. "We'll get our chances, Azula, but how about we take it easy instead of pushing our luck all the time? We're going back out there soon, we'll do whatever mission's available…"
"Multiple planets in one system, if we can afford it," Azula said, stubbornly. Sokka sighed, as she clasped his arm and dragged him to the exit. "Come on, then. Let's go get a mission, as soon as possible."
As Sokka had predicted, there were no available missions in the 61 Virginis command center: anyone trained in the facilities of this solar system would be forced to travel to Ross 128 b for their next orders. Thus, Azula and Sokka had no choice but to do so…
"But, if I may… there's someone who was meant to go to Ross 128 b and missed her flight. Would you mind giving her a ride, by any chance?" the local Quarter Master asked them, with an awkward smile.
"Oh?" Sokka blinked blankly. "I mean… we should have room, right? It's just the quick ride, yeah?"
"Oh, yes," said the Quarter Master, with a relieved sigh. "She was a promising recruit for the Fleet, but… she caused some trouble during training. Doesn't follow orders as she should, you see. Anyway, they will either assign her to new duties in Ross 128 b, or she'll drop out of the Force altogether, who knows? I shall send for her and make sure she doesn't oversleep this time! Thank you!"
"She oversleeps…?" Azula repeated, once they were on their way back to their current lodging. Sokka smiled a little. "Quite the disciplined member of the Fleet, huh? Almost sounds like they're pawning this girl off on us just to get rid of her."
"Not impossible. I wonder what her problem is," Sokka said. "Guess we'll find out tomorrow."
As they were under no time pressure, it didn't hinder them much that the girl in question didn't show up until the afternoon… not that Azula appreciated it in the least, though, as she paced in front of their parked stellarship, by the grounds of 61 Virginis f's local Spaceport.
"They're definitely just using us to get rid of her. There's no other explanation, this is… ugh! We should be back in Ross 128 b by now! We'll miss out on every possible available mission…!"
"Sure, Takei's going to take them all," Sokka recited, with a teasing smirk.
"Joke all you like, but she might! If someone could, that's who," Azula grimaced, shaking her head. "Fuck, I don't understand how people can be so…"
"Hey."
Both Azula and Sokka jumped upon hearing the sudden, young voice that greeted them in such a deadpan manner: a girl with long, dark, disheveled hair, a sloppily-worn Stellar Fleet uniform and a couple of old bags slung over her shoulders might have been staring at them, but with those heavy bangs clouding her eyes, it was impossible to tell.
"You two are the pilot bigshots I was told would give me a ride?" she asked.
"Eh… if you're Toph Beifong, I suppose we are," Sokka said, smiling a little. "Nice meeting you."
"Heh. Sure," Toph said, rolling her shoulders back. "You gonna get me to Ross 128 b, then?"
"We shall," Azula said, staring at her pointedly. "You're very late. If you expect to join the Fleet in earnest, you can't just…"
"I don't expect that. I'm dropping out," Toph cut her off, stepping towards the stellarship.
"Wait, didn't that guy said you might just be relocated to another place…?" Sokka said.
"Doubt it. I was sent here for training," Toph explained. "This is supposed to be the place to specialize at digging, but they can't keep up with how I'd do things, so…"
"Wait, did you say digging?" Azula repeated. Toph huffed, turning towards them.
"Why d'you two need me to repeat everything, huh? I was a digger prospect and dropped out. So I'm out of here. Got it?"
"I… I guess," Sokka said, but Azula stepped up to her, frowning.
"Why exactly are you dropping out? Was the training here not what you wanted to do, or…?"
"Pssht: digging is exactly what I want to do, but I won't do it their way, so they don't like me," Toph said, bluntly. "I've made a bunch of plans and developed some real good drills, explosives too, but according to them, it's "too dangerous" and might cause serious damage to the exoplanets…! Bullshit, you know? Total bullshit. They go and drop a nuke at the center of the planet and call it saving humanity, but when I drop a silly little bomb down a tiny hole…!"
Azula studied the girl carefully. Her silence this time got Toph to glare at her.
"You think I'm crazy too, don't you?"
"Sure. The right kind of crazy, though."
That gave Toph pause. Azula smiled, and the newcomer shrank slightly.
"What d'you mean…?"
"I'm looking for a solution, you see," Azula smiled wildly. "I'd like to assemble a far more efficient and effective squad than what the Fleet's protocols establish. And if your ideas are too radical, maybe you're exactly what I need…"
"Wait. Wait just a goddamn second," Sokka said, stepping up to Azula and turning her to face him. "If she's pretty much going back home as a dropout, what makes you think you can argue into making her part of our squad? Azula, they're not going to let us skip protocols and all logic of how missions should be run…"
"They should. We'll get to far more planets this way," Azula said, with a smirk. "Call me greedy again if you need to… we'll bring this up in Ross 128 b. And I'll argue with whoever I need to argue until they listen. For now, though… this is a good starting point for my initiative. Provided, of course, that she wants to join it?"
Toph huffed: her hair rose over the air, revealing a surprising sight to both Azula and Sokka: the girl's eyes were nearly white… glowing with the telltale sign of being prosthetics, with far greater technology involved than anything either of them could hope to do with their neural chips alone.
"You're… you're a cyborg?" Sokka said.
"Nowadays, everyone is. You got a chip in your brain," Toph pointed out, with a slight smile. "I was born blind, the people in charge decided to do something about it. And now I see too much instead."
"As in, you have x-ray vision or so?" Sokka asked.
"Heat vision, x-ray, total vision in darkness, you name it. If the wrong function's on, I can even see through my eyelashes when I close my eyes," Toph said, with a wicked smile now. Sokka winced. "Tried looking up into my brain, too…"
"I suppose you look through other people's brains often?" Azula asked. Toph snickered.
"Just when I'm confirming they don't got much of them. And they usually don't," she said. Azula smiled, shaking her head.
"I hope to never give you cause to think the same. Anyway… that is a handy ability for a digger, come to think of it. They use many devices for what you can do with your eyes alone…"
"Damn straight! But the big bosses don't approve of me, so…" Toph shrugged. "You sure you can get that to change?"
"I guess we'll find out when we get there," Azula said. "For now… welcome aboard."
"Heh. Right. Welcome," Sokka said, eyeing Azula skeptically. She shrugged.
"They did tell us to bring her, so she's coming along regardless of whether we recruit her to our cause or not…"
"I know, but you sure flipped switches quickly, girl," Sokka said, with a sigh. "Anyway, I'm Sokka Harkin. This is Azula Homura. We're Corporals in the Fleet and… she's biocatalyzed five planets by now."
"Woah. Five? You two have been out and about for a while, then," Toph smirked. "How long have you been booting up planets, huh? A hundred years?"
"Uh… if we're talking about chronological time? It'd be over two hundred, actually," Sokka said. Toph snorted and cackled.
"You're grannies! That's so funny, actually…"
The girl kept cackling to herself about their chronological ages as she climbed aboard. Sokka followed her with her eyes, skeptical, before looking at Azula. She smiled a little at his expression.
"You sure you can handle having an extra member in our crew?" he asked. "Means less privacy for us…"
"I'm aware…"
"She can see through walls."
"Doesn't mean she's going to be looking all the time. I doubt she'd be that sick," Azula said.
"And last I knew, you didn't even want to have teammates to begin with," Sokka continued, as they climbed on the stellarship, following Toph. "Remember how much you struggled to get used to me? And suddenly all's well and good when it's this total stranger…?"
"Total stranger that might be very useful if we play our cards right," Azula said, with a proud smile. "And I intend to try doing that, so… how about you relax, at least until we know if we'll get permission to build a bigger team or not?"
Sokka sighed, staring at her skeptically, but he seemed resigned over Azula's choices now. After swapping into their proper gear for flying, and securing Toph and her belongings safely in the passenger seats that had never been used for their intended purpose before, Sokka piloted out of 61 Virginis f: within a couple of hours, they performed the familiar lightspeed jump all the way to Ross 128 b.
Toph was coughing and making faces, groaning with disgust once they reached the planet's vicinity. Azula, if still somewhat dizzy, glanced back to check on her.
"You alright?"
"I… don't like stellarflights," Toph said. Sokka snorted.
"And you still wanted to be part of the Fleet?"
"I'll put up with them if I get to dig!"
Azula smiled, turning again… but the grin faded from her face rather quickly when her eyes fell upon the well-known rocky, sturdy planet orbiting yet another red dwarf, Ross 128.
"Sokka?"
They had arrived at a safe distance, as was protocol: it was fortunate that they had followed it, for a bigger flock of stellarships than anything Azula had ever seen appeared to float towards Ross 128 b, the well-known headquarters of the Stellar Council besides Earth. At first, her heart jumped in her chest out of sheer panic – an attack? Were the clones finally acting out beyond Earth's solar system? – but soon enough, she realized that all stellarship models were familiar… the Fleet's models.
"What's going on here?" Sokka frowned.
"I don't know… but we'd better dock in, fast," Azula said, frowning as she eyed the rocky planet anew, Ross 128 b. "Though I don't expect there will be any room for us to leave our ship in the Station's Spaceport in these conditions, so…"
"Fuck," Sokka said, breathing deeply. Landing on the planet was hardly a problem, he'd done it often 61 Virginis, a system without actual Station Spaceports…
But the current circumstances gave him pause, and Azula felt the same way. All plans to jump into the next mission might just need to be postponed… for clearly, the Stellar Council was up to something important if they had recalled most of the Fleet this way. But Sokka and Azula hadn't received a message about it, though… or had they?
Azula pulled up the information of her pending messages in her neural chip: sure enough, a new missive had arrived once they entered the vicinity of Ross 128.
The Stellar Fleet had called in all available members for an urgent meeting in the headquarters of Ross 128 b, pertaining an unfamiliar conflict, or so it seemed…
"The Human-Exalted War?" Sokka frowned. "What in the name of…?"
"Oh, that's their new name," Toph said, startling him. "Clones, I mean. They'd just started using it a couple years before you two turned up in 61 Virginis. Nobody wanted to use it, though, they thought it was pretentious bullshit, but…"
"Then this is about the war with the clones?" Azula asked. Toph confirmed with a nod.
"Yep, they call themselves The Exalted now. And I guess the Council's finally called it quits with diplomatic nonsense and are out for their blood."
That wasn't quite how Azula would describe it, for the Council had certainly wanted to fight the clones for a long time already. But something clearly had changed… something had triggered a far more violent and harsh reaction towards the clones now. They'd likely only find out what it was upon landing… upon attending this urgent war meeting.
"I don't like this," Sokka said. Azula gritted her teeth.
"Let's just go. The sooner we find out what's going on, the sooner we'll know what it'll mean for us."
She reached over, touching his hand reassuringly: Sokka linked their fingers, knowing they shouldn't do that in front of Toph's all-seeing eyes, but he didn't hold back.
War. It had been looming for a long time, threatening to detonate when they least expected it… but how much worse would it get? How many resources could the clones possibly lay claim to? What exactly had happened that had forced the Council's hand this way?
Sokka powered their ship, and they sped towards Ross 128 b: they would only find their answers once that fateful meeting began.
