Chapter 68

***
This was a situation Sokka had predicted, though the upcoming Fire Nation attack might end up happening sooner than the original timeline. 

Azula would be a harder opponent, but Sokka welcomed that with open arms. As the people around him were scared and confused, he played along by having a worried gaze as he stared at the dark snow.

By now Katara hadn't even gotten around to convincing master Pakku to teach her. Sokka sighed, it seemed like he would have to take the steering wheel on this one. Because if he let things play along, Azula would take over without much trouble. They would have to escape with Katara learning nothing.

He couldn't allow that. Because then the Fire Nation would become too dangerous to handle. 

What Sokka is playing here was a very dangerous game, like juggling many sharp objects, one mistake and his hand would end up being cut off. But he had to, this way he could at least somewhat control the outcome of events. 

"Hey," Hahn called him over, and by the smirk on his face, it was easy to see that he was up to something. "How about a friendly spar?"

"Hm?" Sokka stared at Hahn for a couple of seconds and a new idea started forming in his head. What he needed right now was control over the outcome, and to get that, he would have to get in close contact with the Military of the Northern Water Tribe. 

Essentially he needed to befriend people in high places. He casually walked towards Hahn, who had a bone spear in his hand. "What do you want?"

Sokka was unbothered as he casually walked towards him. "You wanted a spar right? Well, I will give you one."

Fwish!

Within an instant, Sokka displayed almost supernatural speed, his spear blitzed, becoming unseen to the natural eye and cutting Hahn's bone spear into a over a pieces. 

Hahn looked at his weapon in shock, but there wasn't anything that he could do as Sokka's spear was pointed at his throat. "No matter what trick, scheme, plan, or whatever you pull. It becomes completely useless against absolute power."

Fwish!

Sokka whooped his spear, Hahn flinched, thinking he had been cut. But no, as the wind around him picked up, changing the course of the dark snow around Sokka, so not even one of them touched his body. 

Hahn fell on his behind, his eyes widened in shock as he had never seen anything like this. No matter how hard he trained, the distance between him and Sokka was already something that couldn't be closed. 

The other warriors from the sidelines caught sight of this, but Sokka didn't pay any attention to them, knowing that he had to move things along faster now. Azula's attack would be dangerous, not something like Zhao, who just had his ships charge and fight even during a full moon. He was what people would call, a very incompetent leader. 

It confused even Sokka just how could such an incompetent man rise through the Fire Nation's ranks. Maybe he is just good at listening to orders? Even the high ranks needed someone incompetent, but who would listen to the Fire Lord's orders, with no questions asked, and carry them out no matter what. 

As he walked off, Sokka had a determined look in his eyes. He didn't have the luxury to play around as a harmless and innocent young man anymore. From now on, he had to change… or more correctly, he had to start showing qualities that were needed in a war.

A soft, naive, young man would be cannon fodder at best. Sokka wouldn't allow that to happen to him.

***
Katara was annoyed that she had learned to heal. While it was a useful ability to have, she needed more. 

Women here weren't allowed to fight. It annoyed her to no end, but she knew that fighting against it was useless.

Normally, she would have asked Aang to teach her what Pakku does during the day. But Katara no longer was so naive, because she knew that Pakku was a prideful guy and might stop teaching Aang altogether if she did something like that.

Instead, Katara is now waiting until they get out of here, and Aang learns what he needs to. Only after finishing all his training, she will learn waterbending from him. Even if Pakku learned about it then, it would no longer matter. There was nothing he could do about it.

She angrily dragged her feet to go and meet up with Aang and her brother. 

Suddenly, an arm was wrung around her neck, almost in a chokehold. Katara was ready to skewer her attacker with ice spikes, but looked at his arm and knew who it belonged to. "Sokka, I am not in the mood for games right now."

"What?! My cute little sister rejected her brother's attempts to cheer her up." Sokka nudged her playfully. But that atmosphere didn't stay around for long as his face turned cold. "I think we should fix this problem soon. Having my cute sister so worried makes me feel angry."

Katara recognized the look on his face, as a chill crawled down her spine. 

'So it wasn't a hallucination, yesterday, who would have thought that my brother had a side like this.'

"Dear sister," Sokka addressed her. He wasn't trying to hide anything from her. "Life sometimes is quite harsh. So you have to be a lion. I will get Pakku to teach you waterbending today."

"There is no need to rush-"

"No, there is. You know what the dark snow means. The Fire Nation is close by." Sokka clarified, reminding his sister that the Northern Water Tribe wasn't some safe sanctuary any longer. "I don't think you understand how I feel about this sister. If you die because of some stupid tradition that didn't allow you to learn waterbending… the Fire Nation won't be the only one I will blame."

Katara looked uncomfortable at this, she squirmed, but Sokka's hold on her shoulders got stronger as he whispered in her ear. "If you die, I will kill Pakku, and do everything in my power to slaughter everyone in the Northern Water Tribe for having such a tradition."

"Stop," Katara elbowed him harshly, though he didn't have any reaction, and kept looking his sister in the eye. "Stop talking about such things."

***
-Katara POV-

"Don't tell such jokes, they aren't funny."

It felt like my heart would burst out of my chest. I could immediately tell that he wasn't joking. When Sokka said he would kill everyone if something happened to me, he was serious. 

But I didn't want to hear it. I don't want to see this version of you, Sokka. 

You are my sometimes naive, but strangely smart brother, who girls seem to flock around. This cold side of you, I don't want to think of it as anything more than an act. 

Even though I knew it wasn't an act. Maybe this cold side was the true him all along? No… I can't keep thinking like that. I didn't want to feel such a cold terror from my brother. I didn't want to be scared of him.

"They were jokes, right?" Saying this was just an opportunity for him to continue our delusion. I knew that he probably planned to make me aware of this cold side of his. But please, brother, don't act like such a different person. Do I even know you anymore?

Suddenly, Sokka's cold look turned into a smile, and he chuckled. "Of course I am joking. But if something were to happen to you, I would be pretty mad. You know how older brothers are. If anyone is gonna bully you, it's gotta be me. Because someone else doing it… pisses me off."

That cold feeling disappeared as if it was never there, to begin with. But this time, I knew for sure that Sokka seemed to have a darker side to him, something that he had kept hidden for years.

"By the way, you sound like you have some grandiose plan to have me learn Waterbending." Katara changed the subject. 

"I do," Sokka nodded, which going by his words would be reassuring. But the evil laugh and comically villainous chuckle that came after that wasn't reassuring at all.

*sigh*

"What a troublesome brother, he just became a hundred times more difficult to handle," the difficult part was telling which Sokka was the real him and which was an act.