*Heh, looks like the Kataang earned me some new readers.
Thanks to everyone who commented. Here's the request from iWin (which was a great idea and fun to right). Sorry it's the only one today, but it's pretty long and I'm going back to school tomorrow (which means more homework and maybe less one-shots
) And in case someone here doesn't know Latin or isn't familiar with this famous phrase, "Carpe Diem" means "Seize the Day". I thought it was appropriate.
Carpe DiemNo. Not again.That was the one thought that took up every inch of her in that split second. His face fell away from her, their eyes still locked together. She wondered if the look of horror on his face was also mirrored on hers.
A part of her wanted desperately to give vent to that horror, to scream at him not to leave her alone. They were supposed to fight together, stay together. But yelling wouldn't help anything. So instead of letting the terrified girl inside her speak, she let the warrior do it instead.
"Go on! I'll catch up."
Empty words. But it didn't matter how empty, as long as they made him go, as long as they made him save himself and Toph. No more people would die today than absolutely necessary.
It had happened so fast. No one had told her that war moved so quickly, when from one instant to the next you could be running alongside the person you trusted most, and then be falling away from them faster than you could think.
She turned around on her crumbling piece of zeppelin, feeling so alone that she had to force back the cry of anguish again. It hadn't been so long ago that she'd felt this way, with her back pressed against the metal of a prison wall...what exactly were the spirits trying to tell her? That she and Sokka were never supposed to be together?
But then she took a deep breath. She didn't care what the spirits thought. She wasn't going to stand here while there was a war going on and wait to die.
You are a Kyoshi Warrior, sworn to honor the memory and ideals of Avatar Kyoshi.. So move, Suki! There was, as she sometimes taught her students back on Kyoshi Island, a certain mentality to being a warrior. There was a certain point when you could think with crystal clarity in the midst of total chaos. And it came to Suki now.
She scanned the sky, which was taking on a tinge of blood red and flaming orange. She could still see the broken hull of the zeppelin Sokka and Toph were on, drifting drunkenly along the line of airships.
Carrying them further away from her.
Sometimes it was hard to stay in the warrior mentality.
Focus, Suki. She was focusing so forcefully that she almost missed her opportunity. One of the zeppelins had lurched out of line in an attempt to escape Sokka's "airship slice". Now it swept down in a smooth curve toward where she stood on the sinking piece of the shattered hull. The crew was probably too preoccupied with their interrupted attack to notice her. And there, dangling from the side of the airship, miraculously, was a rope.
Maybe the spirits didn't hate her after all.
Climbing a zeppelin was
hard.
Sure, she'd climbed a vertical steel wall before, at the Boiling Rock prison. But she'd been motivated then, spurred by the idea of escape and freedom and being among friends again. And Sokka.
She had that motivation now, of course, perhaps more than ever. But it was hard to let in those feelings to use as drive without letting them overwhelm her. It was a balance she had to walk with the utmost care, or she'd be reduced to a hopeless mess. Which was not what was needed right now.
The metal sheet slipped and grated beneath her sweaty hands. The tips of her toes scrabbled for purchase on the sloping, curved sides of the huge airship. The only thing keeping her from falling was the rope she clutched in her right hand. And her own sheer force of will.
She looked up at the top deck of the zeppelin. It seemed miles away. The hand holding the rope was raw, her leg muscles burned with the force of digging her feet against the smooth surface. It would be so easy to just fall, or to tie herself up with the rope and wait the battle out until it was won or lost. So easy.
She chanced a look sideways, in the direction of Sokka and Toph's ship. At first she couldn't see anything around the zeppelin's bulk. And then the ship swung to the side and she caught a glimpse of two tiny figures, huddled on top the deck of a different ship. One wearing green, the other blue.
But they were still so far away from her they might as well have been in a different nation. She watched with a kind of aching sorrow as the two figures stumbled their way across the deck, the blue-clad one dragging his leg. A dull shot of pain that had nothing to do with physical exhaustion pulsed through her. Sokka must have gotten hurt. He looked like his leg was broken.
She saw the soldiers milling on the lower decks, well aware of the two interlopers on their airship. They were probably only waiting for an opportunity.
That was when the movement of the two figures caught her eye.
She wasn't sure if they slipped, or jumped, or fell. All she knew was that one moment, she was looking desperately at the Fire Nation soldiers, and the next the two shapes were falling.
For one second, she felt grief and fury so strong that she nearly let go of the rope. It wasn't fair, that she had to watch them die, clinging to the side of a zeppelin and unable to do a thing to help. It wasn't fair that the last thing she got to remember of Toph was her proud smile as she drew the iron about herself and leaped into the cockpit to single-handedly defeat the guards. It wasn't fair that the last thing she knew of Sokka was that look of loss and terror as he was taken away from her again. It wasn't fair that their last kiss had been so quick, and yet so full of promise for the future.
And then she saw that they had stopped falling.
Sokka was sprawled on a deck protrusion, half his body twisted at a strange angle that Suki could tell was wrong even from this distance. And Toph, so strong and sure of herself, was hanging from his hand, her body looking small and alone as it swung in space.
They weren't dead yet. But they would be soon. Even now, guards were swarming down to their level.
Suki wasn't sure whether she should press her face to the warm metal and try not to see, or watch until the end. Why, why was it like this? Why did she have to lose everything so quickly after she had found it again?
I always knew you would come.She remembered herself saying those words, tears of joy running down her cheeks, his hand pressed solid and warm against her face. They were so true. She had lost many kinds of hope alone in the Boiling Rock, but never that one faith. She honestly had never doubted that someday, no matter how far in the future, he would save her. He would come. And then it was as if a new resolve hit her like lightning.
It was time to return the favor.
Suddenly, all the pain vanished. She couldn't feel a single ache, a single burn. It had just disappeared. Or maybe it didn't matter anymore.
Power exploded through her. She had been trying to suppress her feelings, trying to stay the cool, emotionless warrior. But again, Sokka had taught her something, so long ago.
I am a warrior. But I'm a girl too. And it was as a Kyoshi Warrior, strong and agile and pledged to the greatest Avatar ever, but also as the girl who loved Sokka of the Water Tribe with all her heart, that Suki seized the rope and began hauling herself up, hand over hand. Her body worked in an endless rhythm that suddenly seemed as natural as breathing, step and pull, step and pull.
And in what seemed no time at all, she was on the top deck. Now she needed to think again. There was no time for triumph in war.
The image of Sokka and Toph clinging together intruded violently into her mind. She was about to thrust it away, when the reminder of Toph made her remember something.
Toph's extraordinary fingers digging into the airship rudder, pulling it by sheer force into a turn. Controlling the zeppelin.
Suki whirled around. Sure enough, there was a sail-like rudder jutting up not twenty feet from her. But she was no metalbender.
But you are a warrior. Work with what you've got, Suki. The rope. Maybe she couldn't crunch the rudder into a new shape so she could turn the ship. But she could rig something up so she could steer it.
She found the hook where her climbing rope was anchored and pulled it free. She spared a precious second to look over the rudder, seeing where she could attach the rope.
There! If she threw the rope over the edge and tugged it around so she could hold both ends, then by force of pulling she should be able to control it. Somewhat. And that would have to be enough.
She was never sure whether it was skill or luck that gave her the accuracy to nail the throw on the first try. But it seemed like some miracle as she took up the two rope ends in her hands, braced her feet hard against the side of the airship, and leaned all her weight outwards in a tremendous pull.
At first, she thought it was all for nothing. The rudder didn't budge. She hurled herself back, legs straining, her knuckles whitening. For Toph, the brave, blunt earth and metal bender with fire in her opaque eyes. For Sokka, the grinning, warm-hearted warrior who she couldn't imagine being without. She clenched her teeth and hauled on the rope with every ounce of strength.
The rudder creaked. Groaned. And then it swung in a smooth arc, turned its nose toward Sokka and Toph.
She could have laughed with relief.
But then she saw how they were slipping, how Toph's hand was shaking, wavering. She saw Sokka twist so he could throw something; his boomerang. Then he whipped out what looked like his sword, hurling it at the edge of a cable so it snapped and unbalanced the first wave of incoming guards. He was so brave, fighting to the last, doing everything he could before he went down.
But as long as she was here, he was never going down.
She heard the hopeless sound of his voice echo across the distance between them. "I don't think boomerang's coming back Toph. I think this is the end."
No. Never, Sokka, never. She braced her legs hard, waiting for the impact.
It came in a thunderous screeching clash of metal on metal, sending a vibration roaring under her feet. The whole ship lurched, but she was ready for it. With a thrill of victory, she saw the guards stumbling and falling, thrown from their positions on the lower deck.
They obviously weren't ready.
She saw Sokka haul Toph up, raising his head. His expression was twisted with pain and stunned surprise. She heard Toph's voice, equally bemused and somewhat breathless. "Did boomerang come back?"
Suki couldn't answer the question. She was too busy looking at Sokka's face, feeling her face break into a grin of triumph. The two rope ends were still clutched in her hands.
Sokka answered for her. His words swept through her, full of awe and pride and gratitude, and she knew that the future was not ended, as she had thought before. It was only beginning.
"No...Suki did."
