The Girl They Won't Forget

The Promise, Part 8

"To our right," I directed. Toph's hand reached out to the right, and she twisted it with a jerk. "Good. That's the last one."

"What do we do now?" Suki asked as she continued driving the tank.

Toph was the one to answer. "Nothing. We're here." And she was right. I opened the hatch and lifted myself out, and the others quickly followed. In front of our tank stood Aang, Katara, and a mob of protestors. I climbed down from the tank and, as I grew closer, I noticed that a small group of girls within the congregation had shaved their heads and tattooed themselves as Air Nomads. I couldn't even imagine how Aang felt about this.

"Saki?" Katara cried out. "Toph? Sokka?!"

"And Suki, too!" Toph said, pointing down into the tank.

"Hold on," Katara said. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Did you four just decide to hitch a ride with the Fire Nation army while we're in the middle of trying to stop what could be another war?"

"For your information, Katara," Toph argued as I climbed onto the ground, "we weren't hitching a ride. We were trying to slow them down! And what about you two? Since when did defending Fire Nation Colonials become part of the Harmony Restoration Movement?"

The Earth Kingdom general approached, attempting to persuade Aang to commence this Battle of Nations.

Katara frowned at me, then the others. "If you were so busy slowing the Fire Nation down, how is that they still ended up here?" She questioned.

"Keep your eyes on me, Sugar Queen," Toph smirked pridefully. "Keep your eyes on me."

Sokka flashed a smug smile. "She's following my plan."

"My plan," I corrected him.

With that, Toph leapt from the tank and landed on the ground with a hard stomp that shook the earth. Cracks slithered their way to the tanks, making them fall apart due to the missing screws and bolts. Sokka yelled out in excitement at our success, but it was a short-lived celebration. Both armies were commanded to attack.

Both sides dismounted their beasts and ran forward to engage in combat. Instantly, I was torn.

Who do I fight for?

Who do I defend?

I hated the Harmony Restoration Movement. It gave me a feeling of raw, unadulterated loathing. This conflict was rooted from fear. Fear of those different from us. But where do people like me fit into this equation? People like me and Kori who belong to more than one Nation, and refuse to identify with one and disregard the other.

To segregate the Nations would be to revert to ancient times. Old times that benefitted no one and affected everyone.

Thus, I fought for no one, and yet I fought for both. I bent the leaking oil from of the dismembered tanks and used it to push back the Earth Kingdom soldiers, bending it into a wave and knocking them onto their backs. I whirled around, and the oil shot into the faces of three Fire Nation soldiers.

Keep them apart, I repeated to myself. Apart. Apart. Apart.

"Saki, you shouldn't be fighting!" Katara scolded me as she mirrored my movements with her water.

"Would everyone stop trying to tell me what I can and cannot do?!" I blurted. I looked over my shoulder, past the incoming men and Komodo rhinos, and spotted Aang hovering over Zuko. "Maybe you should focus more on your boyfriend before he does something he'll regret!"

Katara looked in the same direction and shouted angrily, waterbending a ramp to carry herself to Aang. She grabbed him around the waist and carried them both over the fighting, off to the wall high above us.

Distracted, a heavy force knocked my body to the ground. A sharp pain jolted through my arm as I used it to catch my fall, forcing a cry from my throat.

"Pay attention, will you?!" Sokka shouted. "You almost gotten taken out!"

"Yeah, by you!" I shot back, but I saw that he was right. A boulder was in my place, somewhat embedded in the ground by the impact of its landing. I groaned as he helped me back up, "Thank you, Sokka."

"It's nothing," he said with a faint smile. It quickly faded as he returned to his Warrior Mode. "Come on. We need to get everyone somewhere safe so we can figure out the game plan."

I smirked as we ran into action. "I figured the plan was to just improvise and hope things went well."

"If only things were that simple for us," he said.

Bobbing and weaving through the chaos, we were able to collect Toph and Suki and make our onto the wall, where Katara now stood alone. According to her, Aang was off somewhere meditating because he now felt conflicted about this entire ordeal. In the meantime, it was up to us to stop the violence between the protestors and the two opposing armies. Sokka and I were to deal with the protestors, Toph and Suki were to stop the Fire Nation, and Katara was going to handle the Earth Kingdom.

Toph bent another slide, leading down to battleground. Sokka went down first, and I followed close behind. Once we landed, Sokka was able separate a fight between Smellerbee and a young man I had never seen before.

(By "Sokka was able to", I meant I. I was the one to separate them, but I'll allow Sokka to believe that his falling off of the slide into his face is what pulled them apart.)

"What's going on here?" Sokka asked. "I thought you two were friends!"

"We were until Sneers decided to date an ash maker!" Smellerbee shot, pointing at Kori, whom I had only just noticed to be standing there again.

"Wow," Kori said, crossing her arms as she looked at me. "I'm surprised to see you here."

"Wish I could say the same," I replied.

Sokka looked at us both. "Wait," he said, "you two know each other?!"

I shrugged, as did Kori. "It's a long story. Anyway, why—" I paused. Another wave of illness washed over me, but this one was different than the others. It was accompanied by what felt like a lightening bolt attacking my core. I grabbed onto Sokka's arm to keep myself steady, but it made no difference. I crumpled to my knees and held my stomach tightly. My eyes locked shut and my jaw was clenched.

"Saki?" Sokka's voice was filled with sheer terror. "Saki! What's wrong?"

I couldn't speak. Any reply just came out as a strained whimper.

"What can I do?" He asked. "Saki, please answer me!"

Forcing out my reply, I began seeing black dots blinking in my vision. I opened my mouth, and said, "Take me to Iroh."