Chapter Text
Limping off the airship with the help of Suki, Sokka’s heart felt light as he saw Fire Lord Ozai at Aang’s feet. They did it. They won.
Aang’s clothes were in tatters but he looked happy enough with Momo on his shoulder. But as the others joked about the now defeated Fire Lord, he finally noticed who was missing. “Where’s Katara?” he asked with more than a hint of panic in his voice.
Sokka handwaved the question. “Don’t worry Aang. She’s with Zuko back in the Fire Nation. Someone had to take care of Azula.”
Aang nodded, though he looked a little hurt.
Toph nudged the arm of the prone Ozai. “What should we do with him now?”
“We should get back to the Fire Nation,” said Suki. “Katara and Zuko may need our help.”
Sokka looked down at his broken leg and rubbed his forehead. There was the sound of reality crashing down on their short-lived parade. “Yeah, but without knowing what happened to Azula...” He had faith that Zuko and Katara could beat Azula – well, at least that Katara could – but if not then delivering Ozai back to a newly crowned Azula would take their victory away, bending or no bending. “Plus what are we going to do with all those guys?” he said, motioning to the shore where the crews the downed airships were gathered.
“The White Lotus then,” said Toph. “We’ll let them deal with it.”
“The what now?” asked Aang.
Sokka sighed. “While you were out making friends with a lion turtle, we tracked down Zuko’s uncle who happens to be part of some super-secret international society for old guys called the White Lotus. Your friend King Bumi is with them too. They are supposed to be taking back Ba Sing Se right now.”
“Bumi?”
“Yeah. Him, Master Pakku, Piandao, who else.... oh, Jeong Jeong. Some others too.”
Aang shook his head at the new information. “Okay then Sokka and Suki should take Ozai to Ba Sing Se while Toph and I can go to the Fire Nation to help out Zuko,” amended Aang. “The sooner we get there the better.”
“Except we only have one working airship Twinkle Toes.”
“And I’m not so sure we should leave all these Fire Nation soldiers just sitting here,” said Suki gently.
The group continued to debate their next steps. Sokka looked around at the desolate landscape, towering rocks marred by fire and the consequences of Aang and Ozai’s battle. They had one airship, one defeated Fire Lord, probably a couple hundred Fire Nation soldiers, and no idea of what had happened in either Ba Sing Se or the Fire Nation palace. Sokka’s leg throbbed and Aang looked exhausted. Toph was trying to act like her usual unaffected self and Suki was still joking around but stress was still evident in their voices. After the multiple near-death experiences they all had on the airships and now stuck in the middle of nowhere, a little stress was understandable.
He shuttered at that thought. Even though the unnatural glow from the comet was gone from the sky, the day was long from finished. And after waiting so long for this day to come, everyone just needed it to be finally over.
Sokka was the plans guy, but they had no plan. Why hadn’t they thought of a way to contact the others before they split up?
Trying to put as much authority as he could in his voice, Sokka offered the only thing he could think of. “Fine, me and Aang will take him to Ba Sing Se. The White Lotus may have more information about what is going on in the Fire Nation anyway. Toph and Suki will stay here to guard the soldiers until we figure out where to take them. And from there.... Well from there we’ll figure it out.”