Hidden Amongst the Dragons
Summary:
Love and loyalty are often at odds in a world at war. For Sokka, there was never a choice to be made.
Sokka meets his soulmate just as he throws himself into the fray of the Hundred Year War at the side of his sister and Avatar Aang. Devastated to find his other half on the side of the Fire Nation, he stands steadfast in opposition to their tyrannical rule, even when he finds himself behind enemy lines.
Book Three: Love Amongst the Dragons
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Sokka spends his sixteenth birthday imprisoned in one of the many lavish rooms in the earth king’s besieged palace. He is pretty sure that the room in which he has been living for the past few days used to belong to a woman considering all of the dresses that line the closet. All of the occupants of the palace had been forcibly evicted when Ba Sing Se had fallen to Zuko and Azula. The Dai Li had torn down long stretches of the city’s outer wall, allowing Fire Nation troops to pour into the city. From what Sokka has learned by listening to the idle gossip of the remaining palace servants, there has been pushback from the citizens, but only in the Lower Ring. The Middle Ring had surrendered quietly, and there are plenty of recreant aristocrats in the Upper Ring already cozying up to Azula and other high-ranking Fire Nation officials.
The whole situation makes his blood boil. He cannot believe a city as great and well-armored as Ba Sing Se fell to three teenagers who had decided to infiltrate it on a whim. What’s worse is that they had impersonated the Kyoshi Warriors to do it, which means that Suki and her comrades are probably locked up in some spirits-forsaken prison in the Fire Nation.
Sokka’s other friends are surely suffering, as well. While Toph had managed to rescue the earth king and his pet bear from Ty Lee and Mai, he cannot imagine they are experiencing any sort of good luck given what had happened in the catacombs.
Aang had died, and the reincarnation cycle along with him.
Lying slumped on his borrowed bed with tears blurring his vision, Sokka wonders where his sister had chosen to bury the last avatar. Had she returned to Chameleon Bay and done a sea burial? Did she prepare an Air Nomad funeral? What was an Air Nomad funeral even like, he ponders. Aang had promised to tell them when they were old and gray and the information would have actually been appropriate to know.
He is pulled away from his thoughts when the rap of someone’s knuckles sounds at the door. Rolling his eyes, he stays put.
Every morning and night for the last three days, Zuko has come by in an attempt to coax Sokka out of his room. For whatever reason, Zuko keeps inviting him to breakfast and dinner with his sister and her friends, but Sokka has rebuffed him every single time. Zuko always sounds like a kicked seal-puppy whenever Sokka tells him to go away through the door, though why he thinks that Sokka would like to share a meal with his captors and someone who murdered his friend is beyond him.
This morning, he doesn’t even bother to respond, hoping that Zuko will take the hint without them having to engage in conversation. Unluckily for him, Zuko also tries something new this morning: he comes into Sokka’s room without permission.
Immediately, Sokka jumps up from the bed, taking up a defensive stance. Logically, he knows that Zuko is not going to attack him, but he reasons that he feels assaulted by Zuko’s mere presence. Glaring at Zuko, he takes in his current state of dress, so different from what it had been a few days ago. When before he had donned a somewhat grungy, brown and yellow smock, now he wears the finery of a prince. The clothing is superior even to that which he had worn in exile, which had mostly consisted of worn battle armor. Now, his robes are made of silk, colored in burgundy and mahogany. The ensemble is lined with various gold designs in the shapes of flames. To top it off, his boots are particularly baroque. The toes are pointed upwards, and gold runs all the way from his ankles to his knees.
“Look,” Zuko starts before Sokka can think of anything to say. His head is half-bowed as he speaks, as though he knows he is not in Sokka’s good graces. “I know you’re mad at me and you don’t want to talk right now—”
“No shit,” Sokka barks, cutting him off. “Why wouldn’t I be mad at someone who betrayed me so they could help their insane sister kill my friend, who was the last hope for the world!”
Taking the bait, Zuko responds to Sokka rather than proceeding with whatever he had come into the room to say. “I didn’t know Azula was going to do that, okay?”
Crossing his arms, Sokka yells, incredulous, “You didn’t know?”
Clenching his fists in typical-Zuko fashion, Zuko grits his teeth and mutters, “No. I only ever wanted to capture the avatar—”
“Well, what the fuck did you think was going to happen after that,” Sokka exclaims, reaching his boiling point. “Did you really think your dad was just going to indefinitely imprison the avatar?” Brow raised, he pretends to wait for Zuko’s answer to his rhetorical question. When no such answer comes, Zuko’s gaze pinned to the floor, he proceeds, “No! He was always going to kill him.”
Blowing out a rough breath, he concedes, “Alright, I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry, but—”
“But what,” Sokka shouts, ferociously cutting Zuko off. He is panting—having been exerted by their argument—and glaring at him hard, as though daring him to say something more about Aang.
“Look,” Zuko says again, starting over from when he had come through the door. “I didn’t mean to upset you, but I only came in here because I wanted to tell you that we’re leaving today.”
“Great,” Sokka replies, feeling genuinely pleased, though he maintains the fury in his tone. “Bye, see you never.”
Frustration rippling across his face, Zuko amends, “No, I mean, we’re leaving today.”
Like a bucket of ice, the meaning of Zuko’s words crashes over him, and Sokka starts waving his arms to convey his objection. “No, no way. I am not going to the Fire Nation.”
Zuko takes a step closer to him. “Sokka, come on. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”
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