Cometfall: Prologue

The Day of Black Sun was not the success that the Avatar and his friends had hoped for. Despite the liberation of Ba Sing Se and the restoration of a now wiser Earth King to the throne, the Fire Nation was not defeated. With the aid of the earthbending Dai Li, the Fire Nation was able to withstand the assault of the Free Army of the Earth Kingdom long enough for the sun to shine again. The war had become a stalemate, dragging the conflict on long enough for the day that Sozen's Comet returns. The day known as Cometfall.

This is the story of the war's final days told from the perspectives of the five children. Children for whom fate has played a cruel trick on, children of war. Sokka, Toph, Katara, Zuko and Aang all have their own hopes and their own dreams, but they have their parts to play as well.

For when plans fail and hopes are crushed, destiny makes way for desperation. Cometfall is now.

Chapter 1: Sokka, the Warrior

Cometfall

I shouldn't have left them out there, the young man dressed in blue thought as he stalked down the torch lit corridors of the Fire Lord's palace. Aang told me to go, so why does it feel like I've betrayed him? Both him and Katara, my own sister, I left her out there with Zuko and Azula. If anything happens to either them...no! I can't lose focus, she's counting on me. She's been their prisoner for months, and I know now that her faith in me has kept her going. I cannot fail again. Sokka felt his anger rise, I will not fail again!

"SUKI!" his voice carrying down the cavernous hallways, "I'm coming for you, hang on!"

Sokka focused on his anger and not how worn out he felt. Since that fateful day on the icy waters of the South Pole, he has grown both stronger and more skilled; he had won the respect of his peers and most importantly, his father. But after a year on the run, a year of pain, and a year of sorrow he felt stretched to his limits, and ready to see it end.

Approaching the massive doors of the throne room, he flashed back to his failure with the doors of the Earth Kingdom palace and knew instantaneously that he was not going to make the same mistake again. With a strength born out of a year of struggle alongside the Avatar, and the power of a lifetime's anger with the Fire Nation flowing through him, Sokka kicked the doors wide open with a single blow and strode into the throne room.

The cavernous chamber was lined with massive support pillars on either side, each one over eight feet in diameter. The central pathway was padded with a fine red carpet emblazed by the black Fire Nation emblem every ten feet leading up to a bright glow on the far side of the room. The throne hall was designed to be intimidating, and Sokka couldn't help but feel a shiver run down his spine. Reaching for his machete, he felt the soft sealotter leather of the handle give a little under his grip reassuringly. He drew it slowly out of its scabbard, giving him the chance to focus on the distinctive sound, letting it sharpen his mind. Moving forward at a deliberate pace, he could start to feel the heat of the flames that encircled the throne, and though the haze he could make out three figures. Two stood in front of the throne's fires, a third seemed suspended in the air. A soft prayer barely escaped Sokka's lips, "Yue, watch over me…watch over us."

Sokka approached cautiously on the soft carpet runner, the whale bone machete held close to his face. Soon the backlit outlines of Azula's cohorts and their prisoner became clear. Suspended from the ceiling by a rope that stretched so far upwards that not even the bright light from the throne's flames could penetrate the darkness was the captured leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, Suki. Thick coils of rope around her torso held her arms fast to her body. Her face was pale, not from her unit's traditional markings, but from the ordeal that she had suffered since her defeat at the hands of Azula in the forest outside of Ba Sing Se.

Zuko had filled Sokka in as to Suki's situation when they had forged their uneasy alliance days before at the ruins of Roku's Avatar temple. Under the threat of her home island's destruction she had told Azula what she needed to know to impersonate the Kyoshi Warriors to the degree necessary to fool the off-guard Ba Sing Se defense forces and reach the Imperial Palace. While the other island warriors were freed after the liberation of the Earth Kingdom capitol, Azula had taken their leader home with her, knowing it would upset the Avatar's allies.

"Look who's left over for us, Ty. Your cute little fish boy." Mai's unnervingly blasé tone, always level despite any tragedy or horror that surrounded her, emanated from the shadowed figure on the right. Sokka eyed her with a cool distain. He never forgot that it was her who was willing to trade her own baby brother away for a temporary advantage. Those who would betray blood so easily couldn't be trusted, even wild animals protected their own. Even an insect that eats its young is just following its instincts. Mai should know better, she was more demon than human.

"I don't know so much anymore, Mai," came the giggly reply from Ty Lee, the impossibly fast master of precision, Chi-blocking strikes that could render the most gifted bender powerless or the strongest warrior paralyzed. Her fierce martial skills were hidden behind an incongruently bubbly persona. It was if everything she's done was part of some little kid's game, that no one was really getting hurt, that no one was dying. Sokka had no idea if she really understood what the Fire Nation had been doing the world for the past hundred years; if she was truly delusional as well as dangerous. "I mean really, if that," she pointed upwards at Suki with two fingers, always those two fingers, "girl is his standard, I must be too pretty for him."

Sokka, standing just fifteen feet away now and pointing his weapon at Ty Lee, was in no mood for banter. Silly words wouldn't bring brave warriors like Bato back to life. Sokka was ready to finish this:

"I can see your heart.

It is as ugly as the dark.

No smile can hide it."

Ty let out an outraged gasp and like an oncoming storm, began to tumble towards Sokka, "Oh dear," Mai said evenly, "we're going to have to kill you now." Three needles appeared out of nowhere and arrived at Sokka seconds before Ty did. Deflecting them with a twist of his machete, Sokka had to immediately turn his attention to the attacks of Ty Lee, bending himself like his sister would a cup of water to avoid letting a single one of her two fingered blows make contact.

Sokka moved sideways across the throne room, being extra careful to keep Ty Lee between him and Mai. He wagered his life that despite her dark nature, Mai would not risk throwing one of her weapons if there was a chance that she could hit the enraged Ty Lee in the back.

Ty Lee's anger was getting the best of her, but she couldn't think about how that was affecting her fight, too much was on her mind already, "Sheisnotprettierthenme. I'mtheprettiest…exceptforAzulaofcourse, butsheismorescarypretty, I'mmorecutepretty, whichdoesn'tmeanthatIthinkI'mabetterkindofprettythenher…"

She had backed up the formally cute, now terminally ugly water tribe boy against one of the large wooden pillars that lined the throne room. She felt her rage and frustration build up as she chased him around and between them, failing to land a single blow while she dodged the measured swipes he made with that white and blue sword thingy of his that totally clashes with the whole room's décor.

The fight fell into a pattern, she would try to strike low, to disable his legs, and he'd back her off with a downward swipe. Then while she was crouched, one of Mai's darts would miss and impact the pillar. Mai was trying but her attacks were fewer and further between then usual when they fought together. She then would try for his body, she could throw off his equilibrium with one strike to his torso, but he would back up around the pillar every time. Finally after bounding between columns to get the right angle, she tried for his arms, paralyzing them would leave him defenseless, especially since that big white flying sheep thing wasn't around to save him this time, but again and again, he'd ward her off with another swing of his weapon. The fight was starting to drag and she wondered if he could keep up pace with her attacks.

Then she saw it, this time he over extended his swing and his right side was exposed. She had him. Like lightning, but not as fast as Azula's real lighting of course, she swung out and in with two of her fingers on her left and to strike a point under his right armpit that would leave that whole side of his body numb for hours. She sensed that he noticed what he had done as well, but it was too late, this fight was over right…

"OW!" She exclaimed as she felt the bones in both of her fingers break on contact with Sokka. Blinded by pain she dropped to one knee, clutching her hand to her chest, "what…owww…what happened."

Sokka reached into his tunic, unhooked a small object and pulled it out. He dropped it on the ground next to Ty Lee so she could see. It was a piece of metal, bent in the shape of Sokka's chest from his sternum back around to his right shoulder blade. A custom piece of armor made to defend one part of the body from one attack that could only come from one person. There was a slight dent that that person's now shattered fingers had caused.

"The greatest Earthbender in the world made that for me. She's blind, but she can still see the lies of your dark heart."

Ty Lee's pain went away instantly at that remark. She hopped to her feet and threw a wild, closed fist, punch with her right hand, intending to cave Sokka's face in. He dodged at the last moment and she felt her last good hand break against the throne room pillar. Sobbing over the pain, she dropped to her knees. Sokka's plan to use her vanity against her had worked.

Sokka grabbed her lengthy ponytail and pulled it straight up, forcing Ty's head down against the pillar. He drew his machete back and with one stab pinned her head against it by her hair. Leaving her to vainly try and pull free with two broken hands.

Sokka slowly crept back around the pillar towards the main hall, wary of Mai's location after losing track of her. His question was answered by a dart that whizzed past his face, drawing a line of blood across his right brow.

Ducking back to wipe the blood and sweat from his eyes, and chuckled for a moment as he realized that Mai hadn't moved from the same spot she started from. Sokka had crippled her so-called friend and it hadn't motivated Mai in the least. He moved forward in the shadows of the pillars, taunting Mai, and using the echoes of the cavernous hall as cover.

"You know even Bosco came to the aid of his friend when he was in danger," Sokka remembered for a moment the attack that Bosco absorbed with his body, trading his life for the King's. So much death, he thought, for what? "But not you, Mai, what kind of friend are you?"

Sokka didn't hope for an answer, just maybe a moment of contemplation from Mai as he dashed perpendicularly across the throne room. It has worked; Mai was a moment behind Sokka with a torrent of sharp knives clanking harmlessly in the expanse of the throne room. As he reached the throne room's long red runner Sokka drew his boomerang and with its sharp edge cut across it while dive rolling over it. Sokka left the cut carpet behind as he continued to out run Mai's attacks. Reaching the other side, Sokka took two steps straight up the opposing pillar and flipped back to the center of the room, a line of needles marking his path. He had learned this move by watching Aang, Sokka couldn't go as high or as far as the Avatar could, but he did go far enough. Now back at the cut, Sokka pulled it up in front of him, allowing it to absorb six more darts before pulling it backwards with all of his strength.

Mai felt her arms burn with fatigue, the spring loaded dart launchers around her wrists and ankles were now empty and she was forced to attack manually. Mai felt exasperated at her inability to connect against this Water Tribe fool, whom she had nearly killed so many times before now. Then in a flash, she was on her back, the rug pulled out from under her. Disorientated, she was then shocked to be smothered when the carpet was folded on top of her lengthwise. Composing herself in the red cocoon, she drew her longest knife, cut herself an escape route, and rolled out of the carpet just as the fool connected with her prior location with a white club which incongruently had a blue stone implanted into it.

Sokka felt the vibrating sting from his missed attack travel from the ground, up his war club and though his arms, and thought about Toph for a flash before cursing himself for missing. Mai had rolled free and stood now just four feet away, holding a knife. She flung it at him with a speed that seemed impossible from such as casual looking motion and it took a larger slice from Sokka's right arm than he would've wished.

He clutched the wound with his left hand and was relieved to find that he had not dropped his weapon. His eyes never left Mai's and was not surprised to see a small smirk appear on her face. Sokka needed to buy time to catch his breath and recover.

"I'm not sure why you smiling. I still have my club, while you become more and more defenseless with every toss."

Mai's smirk grew larger; it never became a smile, it just seemed to twist upwards inhumanly, like a vine growing slowly across her face. She reached to her waist, and Sokka strained to raise his weapon in defense. Mai instead undid the knot of her robe and swung it off of her body with a toss that belied the robe's fluid nature. It fell across the throne's ring of white flame, burning instantaneously.

Mai was far from being unarmed. Underneath that flowing robe lay a web of metal, as if a spider had laid its trap across her whole body. Over a form fitting undergarment, hundreds of small knives, needles and darts were wired to every inch of her.

"That explains the posture." Sokka cracked to cover his nervous astonishment.

"Nobody alive has seen me like this," she replied in fey embarrassment, "in a few moments that will be true again."

Sokka, knowing now that he can't dodge her attacks forever, took a quick step forward to close the distance, covering his face and neck with his outstretched club. He took three needles in his left thigh before he could engage Mai at close range. She drew three short blades with each hand and held them between each of her fingers, creating punch as deadly as Ty Lee's.

Sokka parried two quick swipes from Mai with his club and was startled to see Mai hunched down, fighting like a clawed animal. Gone was the pretence of aloofness. She was displaying a degree of hand to hand skill that was unnecessary for her to show before now. Another swipe narrowly missed disemboweling Sokka, but cost his tunic dearly. Three long cuts appeared horizontally in the fabric across his waist.

"I can fix that myself now, let me borrow a needle," Sokka riffed.

Unamused, Mai jabbed forward and Sokka caught her right arm with his left hand, and twisted it up behind her back casing her to drop her finger blades. She flung her left hand up and loosed its knives from between her fingers and over her right shoulder, narrowly missing Sokka's face as he released his grapple to save his life.

Sokka attempted to connect with his club, but with his injury the attack had no real speed, and Mai was able to get underneath it and use Sokka's momentum to fling him on to his back, where he landed with a breath stealing thud. She leapt on top of him, a long needle in her grasp and thrust it downward, intending to impale his face. Sokka caught her just in time, bracing the attack with his club. After a few tense moments of straining, he managed to get his foot up to her waist and kick her off of him. She tumbled back, with Sokka's club in her hands.

They both came to their feet, exhausted. Mai looked at her captured prize and with a smirk, broke it over her knee and tossed the pieces aside.

"Sorry about that," She said insincerely, gasping between words nearly exhausted, "I guess I have a habit of…breaking…the things you love."

Sokka slowly let his injured arm creep up behind him.

Mai continued, "She was tough…I'll give her that, but she's not…Fire Nation. She should have let…her village burn; she should have let…her friends die before she betrayed her country."

Sokka was almost at his destination. "I've seen the way you treat you own family, your own friends. Just like your weapons, you discard them once you've used them." With that Sokka flung his last defense, his boomerang, out at Mai, who turned her head to dodge it, confident in herself and her skills.

Sokka took a quick step and was upon her immediately, grabbing her head with his hands, "While I love my family, and my friends, and I will always come for them."

There was a hard thudding sound as Sokka's boomerang connected with the back of Mai's head, knocking her unconscious, "And they always come back to me."

Sokka, now holding up Mai by her head, unceremoniously dropped her across the folded carpet, and with a kick, rolled her up in it, "That club was my father's," he finished.

Picking up his boomerang again, he positioned himself just right and hurled it up to the ceiling, cutting the rope holding Suki. She dropped into his arms and despite his injuries and fatigue, she felt as light as a feather. After catching his weapon, he gently helped her stand as he untied the last of the rope holding her.

"Are you alright?" A dumb thing to say, knowing what she must of gone though these past few months. He brushed some sweat-stuck hair off of her forehead.

She collapsed into him, hugging his chest. "I'm…better now." He held her for a moment. A long moment.

Leaning on each other, they started to make their way back out of the throne room when a blood curdling scream echoed though the room. Out of nowhere Ty Lee emerged, her hands swollen red spheres, and her hair hacked off against the edge of Sokka's machete.

She charged the weak and wounded pair leaping up to deliver a flying kick. Sokka instinctively pushed Suki behind him, but she was never one to be taken care of. She snaked back around and ahead of Sokka, grabbed Ty Lee's foot and used the momentum to fling her away and into the throne fire.

Ty Lee's hair disintegrated and her face was scorched by just passing through the white flames. She grabbed at her burned face with her broken hands and screamed off into the darkness, helpless to find respite from the pain.

Suki held her warrior pose for as long as she could before dropping to one knee. Sokka helped her back up.

"I remember that move," he reminisced warmly.

"What about this one?" Suki leaned in and their shared their first kiss since their parting in the shadow of Ba Sing Se.

When they separated, Sokka smiled goofily before regaining his composure, "Let's get out of here," he said, looking back at the Fire Lord's empty throne. "This isn't over yet."

BR

Next: Go back three weeks to fill in the gaps and hit the beach with Toph, the Soldier. Then learn more about the lost time as Katara, the Healer faces pain, doubt and Azula.

Go back further and see how the other half spent the summer with Zuko, the Prince.

In the final chapter, see it all come together in Aang, the Avatar.

BR

(Author's note: Suki's horrifying ordeal can be found in the anthology collection "Tales of Cometfall" elsewhere on this site, please note that it contains slight spoilers for chapter four of this story and is not recommended for young readers)