The team and I are situated at a waterfall pond. Sokka is surveying a map while I sat on the rock beside him. Toph is sitting with her feet in the water, kicking it back and forth. Aang is swimming while Katara is located at the top of the lake near the waterfall.
Aang goes underwater for a moment and bends an ice cube around himself for amusement.
"Waterbending bomb! Yeah!" Katara jumps from the cliff into the pond below.
The splash sends Aang out of the water, breaking his ice prison, and soaking Toph and I, including Sokka and the maps which he tried to protect.
"Sure, five thousand year-old maps from the spirit library. Just splash some water on 'em." Sokka says with pure sarcasm.
"Sorry." Katara wrings her hair dry and bends the water off the map.
As we all gather, Sokka takes the map and places it on the ground.
"So, did you figure out what route we're going to take?" Aang asks.
"Okay, we just got out of the desert," Sokka says, tracing his finger across the map. "So we must be around here. And we need to go to Ba Sing Se, which is here. It looks like the only passage connecting the south to the north is this sliver of land called the Serpent's Pass."
"You sure that's the best way to go?" Toph asks suspiciously.
"It's the only way. I mean, it's not like we have Appa to fly us there." Sokka shrugs.
"Shush up about Appa." Katara angrily whispers. "Can't you at least try to be sensitive?"
We all turn to Aang to view his expression. "Katara, it's okay. I know I was upset about losing Appa before, but I just want to focus on getting to Ba Sing Se and telling the Earth King about the solar eclipse."
Katara is surprised. "Oh...well, okay. I'm glad you're doing better."
Sokka grabs the map and rolls it up. "Then to Ba Sing Se we go. No more distractions."
Suddenly, two women, one pregnant and a man arrive. "Hello there, fellow refugees!"
Sokka's face soured as the refugees approached closer.
"So, you guys are headed to Ba Sing Se, too?" Aang asked.
"Sure are. We're trying to get there before my wife Ying has her baby." The man replied rubbing his wife's stomach. "My name is Than and this is my sister." He says pointing to the other young lady.
"Great!" Katara beams. "We can travel through the Serpent's Pass together."
The three refugees look up in shock. "The Serpent's Pass? Only the truly desperate take that deadly route!" Ying said.
"Deadly route?" As I turn to Sokka, I raise an eyebrow. "Great pick."
"Well, we are desperate." He replies with a shrug.
"You should come with us to Full Moon Bay. Ferries take refugees across the lake. It's the fastest way to Ba Sing Se." Than suggests.
"And it's hidden, so the Fire Nation can't find it."
"Hmm... peaceful ferry ride," Katara turns to her brother, "or deadly pass?"
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As we arrived at the Full Moon Bay station, where perhaps hundreds of locals were awaiting transportation, Katara remarks. "I can't believe how many people's lives have been uprooted by the Fire Nation."
Ying and her husband showed us the long line of citizens who were waiting for their tickets after Ying and Than had already received their own. I joined the group and formed one of the lines in front of the ticket stand.
We were almost next in line as the line began to thin out after some time.
"I told you already..." the ticket lady was yelling at a man in front of us. "No vegetables on the ferry! One cabbage slug could destroy the entire ecosystem of Ba Sing Se! Security!" A platypus bear appears out of nowhere and destroys the cabbage cart.
"Gahh! My cabbages!" The merchant shouts as he is then escorted away by security.
I turn to Sokka. "Does that guy look familiar to you?"
Sokka turned his head to examine the man getting carried away. "Never seen him before."
"Next!" The ticket lady yelled.
Aang hesitantly approached closer to the old women. "Um, five tickets for the ferry to Ba Sing Se, please."
"Passports?"
Aang turns to me in shock as if I knew we needed passports and I didn't tell him. Why does everyone think I know everything? He turns back to the sour old lady. "Uh... no one told us we had to have passports."
"Don't you know who this is?" Sokka emphasized. "He's the Avatar!"
I lightly smacked Sokka's arm. "You can't go around telling everyone Aang's the avatar. It will attract unwanted attention."
He only ignored me.
"Ah, I see fifty Avatars a day and, by the way, not a very impressive costume." The woman points to several impostors dressed as Aang. Aang nods his head in approval; the lady then notices Momo. "Besides, no animals allowed. Do I need to call security?"
The platypus bear chomps down on the cabbages from earlier. Momo hid in fear.
Aang defensively raises his hands. "That won't be necessary."
"Next!"
"I'll take care of this." Toph firmly grabs my wrist as she walks us towards the desk. She displays her passport to the ticketmaster. "My name is Toph Beifong, this is my sister Venus Beifong and we'd like five tickets."
A smile plastered over my face as I glanced down at Toph introducing me as her sister.
"Ahhh," the ticketmaster's eyes widen in amazement. "The golden seal of the flying boar! It is my pleasure to help anyone of the Beifong family."
I placed a hand on my hip. "It is your pleasure. As you can see, my little sister is blind and those three imbeciles are her valets." I sweep my arm behind me, presenting my friends who were huddled up together with a big smile on their faces.
The clerk is hesitant. "But...the animal-"
"Is my seeing eye lemur." Toph quickly answers.
"Well, normally it's only one ticket per passport, but this document is so official... I guess it's worth five tickets." The women stamps an approval seal on the tickets.
Toph slides her hands above the desk to grab the tickets. "Thank you very much."
Toph and I began leading the group away. "Sister, huh?" I cheekily smiled.
"You're the only person in this group who doesn't drive me crazy so yeah," I could see a light blush appear on Toph's cheeks. "You're tolerable, I guess."
My face lit up. I'll take that compliment. I've never had a sister before or brother. To be honest, I consider everyone in this group as family. They mean so much to me.
Sokka abruptly grabbed my shoulder and began violently shaking it. "All right, we scammed that lady good!"
Sokka screamed out of nowhere, and his warm hands were ripped from my shoulder.
"Tickets and passports please." A feminine voice had said, she had grabbed Sokka, and I couldn't quite make out her face because Sokka was blocking the way with his height.
"Is there a problem?" Sokka asked, confusingly.
"Yeah, I got a problem with you! I've seen your type before. Probably sarcastic, think you're hilarious and let me guess, you're traveling with the Avatar and some girl named Venus?"
I purse an eyebrow as I walk closer to Sokka and examine the girl closely.
"Suki?!"
"Venus!" She shouts tackling me in a hug. My mind and heart was racing with so many feelings and emotions. I haven't seen Suki in so long, and a lot has changed since then.
As I examine the face of my best friend, I break free from the hug. "Suki. I am going to cry right now."
"Aw, Venus!" Suki says grabbing my face and smushing it together.
Sokka then joins in, pulling us all together for a hug. "Suki!"
Suki giggles. "Hey, Sokka it's good to see you."
Suki led each of us to a different part of the station, so we could all catch up again. As we spoke, everyone gathered around.
"You look so different without your makeup! And the new outfit." Katara beams.
"That crabby lady makes all the security guards wear them. And look at you. Ditched your Kyoshi uniform and became a sandbender? What a traitor."
I let out a laugh. "Are the other Kyoshi girls around? I wanna say hi."
"Yeah." Suki answers. "After you left Kyoshi, we wanted to find a way to help people. We ended up escorting some refugees and we've been here ever since. But I don't think you'll be able to see them. I'm the only one on duty today, the rest are coming back from Ba Sing Se." Momo jumps up next to her. "Hi, Momo! Good to see you too!" Suki scratches his head near his ear. "So why are you guys getting tickets for the ferry? Wouldn't you just fly across on Appa?"
Katara lays her head low. "Appa is missing. We hope to find him in Ba Sing Se."
"I'm so sorry to hear that." Suki looks to Aang. "Are you doing okay?"
Everyone sorrowfully looks over at the Avatar. He scans all of our faces.
"I'm doing fine. Would everybody stop worrying about me?" He snaps.
Even though everyone had now remained silent, I couldn't stop talking to Suki. I had no idea how much I had missed her before I saw her.
"So much has happened to me, Suki, you won't believe it!"
"Avatar Aang," a voice cries gaining everyone's attention, noticing Ying, her husband and his sister. "You have to help us! Someone took all of our belongings; our passports, our tickets, everything's gone!"
"I'll talk to the lady for you." We all hurried back to the Ticketmaster.
Aang had explained to the old lady what had happened, but all she said was, "No passports, no tickets!" And stamps a denied stamp on Aang's forehead.
"But she's pregnant and all of her stuff was stolen! You have to make an exception!" Aang tries to reason.
"No exceptions! If I just gave away tickets willy-nilly to anyone, there would be no more order!" The women shouts. "You know what that means, no more civilization!"
"What if we gave them our tickets?" Aang asks.
"No!"
"But-"
"Next!" She yells while spewing saliva all over Aang's face.
I cringe in disgust.
Aang wipes his forehead as he makes it back to everyone. "Don't worry, you'll get to the city safely. I'll lead you through the Serpent's Pass."
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"I can't believe we gave up our tickets and now we're going through the Serpent's Pass." Sokka grumbles, annoyed.
"I can't believe you're still complaining about it." Toph says.
In her normal Kyoshi Warrior attire Suki runs up to the group. "I'm coming too!"
Sokka's eyes widen. "Uh, are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Sokka, I thought you'd want me to come."
Sokka cringes. "I do, it's just–"
I raise an eyebrow as I observe the two...so strange.
"Just what?" Suki lightly scoffed.
Sokka slowly glances towards me to see if I was watching the conversation unfold. He turns his gaze back to Suki. "Nothing. I'm glad you're coming."
Suki walked straight past Sokka and over to me, she clung and locked our arms together. "He's weird."
I turned my head over my shoulder to observe Sokka, he looked a bit uncomfortable or saddened, I'm not sure why.
Eventually, we made it to the serpents pass, we had traveled a long distance to discover a rocky path with an ocean surrounded by the area.
"This is the Serpent's Pass?" Sokka looked confused. "I thought it would be a little more wind-y, you know, like a serpent. Huh, I guess they misnamed it."
Ying lowers herself to be closer to a large sign that was written in front of the passageway that leads to the entrance. "Look at this writing! It's awful."
"What does it say?" Toph asks.
Katara reads the archway. "It says abandon hope."
"How can we abandon hope?" Ying cries. "It's all we have!" Her husband comforts her.
"I don't know." Aang neutrally says. "The monks used to say that hope was just a distraction, so maybe we do need to abandon it."
"What are you talking about?" Katara asks.
"Hope is not going to get us into Ba Sing Se and it's not going to help find Appa. We need to focus on what we're doing right now and that's getting across this path." Aang starts walking through the entrance.
"Okay," Katara murmurs saddened. "If you say so."
Within the pass, we walk. We walked through thin layers of rocks, creating a path that took us above the ocean.
Fearful of falling over, I tightly held onto Suki's hand. We were so high from above the water.
"The Fire Nation controls the western lake." Suki begins to speak. "Rumor has it they're working on something big on the other side of it and don't want anyone to find out what it is."
We all pass by a sailing Fire Nation ship. A part of the rock gives out, causing Than to fall. Toph stops it from falling and lifts him back up with earthbending.
"I'm okay!"
The rock falls to the water, which the Fire Nation ship notices. It fires at us.
"They've spotted us! Let's go, let's go!" Sokka signals everyone.
Aang gets on his glider and deflects the fireball back. Several pieces of rock that were above Suki and me fell when another fireball struck the mountain. We are forced out of the way by Sokka. To prevent the rocks from falling onto Sokka, Toph bends a portion of the mountain.
I gasped as I fell to the ground harshly. My hands and knees skid across the rocks.
"Venus! Are you okay?" Sokka immediately asks, grabbing and pulling me off the ground.
He then turns to Suki who was on the ground. "You have to be more careful! Come on!" Suki stands up and Sokka grabs both of our hands and hurries us up the path.
Toph pretends to be Sokka. "Thanks for saving my life, Toph." She goes back to her voice. "Hey, no problem, Sokka."
I lightly giggle, but Sokka had dugged me away.
"Ow! You're holding onto my hand too tightly, Sokka." As he looked at the palm of my hand, Sokka released me immediately.
"Venus, what am I going to do with you? Do you need Katara to heal you?"
"It's just a few scraps," I reply, "nothing too serious."
Sokka took my wrist and examined the bleeding. "I really think Katara should-"
I scrunched my face up in confusion. "Sokka, are you doing okay? You've been acting strange since Suki arrived."
"Strange how?"
"Like-"
Out of the blue, Suki had arrived as she came by my side. Sokka clenched his jaw as he immediately ran away from Suki and began walking with his sister and Aang.
"That." I lowly muttered to myself.
Hours later, at sunset, we set up camp for the night.
Suki and I had sat in a corner together as I began to tell her everything that had happened since I left home.
"-So you are telling me that since you left Kyoshi island, you have stopped using drugs, that you broke up with Jet because he almost killed a town of Fire nation citizens and beat an old man, that you saw Kyoshi in the flesh, that you were engaged to the Prince of the North Pole, that you got a tattoo, and that you saw your mother in some delirious swamp forest?" Suki only highlighted the important details.
I nodded my head rapidly.
Suki squealed. "I don't know whether I should be proud, upset or jealous that you've got to experience so much. Since you left me."
"Suki," I sighed against a rock. "It was so exhausting, especially in the North Pole, I think I lost about ten pounds in the few weeks I was there, but I think it shaped me to be a better person after I left."
Suki leaned her head on my shoulder. "I'm so proud of you for over coming your drug usage."
"Yeah," I said as small tears began to fall from my eyes. I hadn't talked or thought about drugs in a while. Now that I think about it, it made me feel a little emotional. I've made a lot of progress. I let out a cry of laughter. "My friends played a big part in it, especially Sokka, who really helped me. Even though he was really rude about it in the beginning. Oh my spirits, I remember he told me he didn't want me to meet his father because I was a druggie-"
"Oh, Sokka?" Suki sighs out.
"Yeah," I wipe the tears away from my eyes as I notice her sudden mood change. "Uh-are you okay? Did I say something wrong?"
"Uh..no..y-you uh didn't, I'm fine, um." Suki gets up and starts grabbing her sleeping bag. "I am going to sleep now. Is that okay with..you?"
I was quite confused on why she was moving away from me and why she wanted to go to bed when we were just having a full on conversation two seconds ago, but I shook my head, nodding. "Oh..okay...I love you."
Suki gives me a closed mouth smile as she blinks numerous of times as if she was trying hard not to cry. "I love you too, Venus."
A few minutes later, out of the blue. I saw Sokka sprinting over to Suki as she tries to lay out her sleeping bag.
"Suki, you shouldn't sleep there. Who knows how stable this ledge is, it could give away at any moment!" He moves her sleeping bag.
"Sokka, I'm fine, stop worrying!" Suki shouts.
I shake my head as I listen to the two, I pull my eyes away and begin to prepare myself for bed.
"You're right, you're right, you're perfectly capable of taking care of yourself!" Suddenly, Sokka's eyes widen as he makes his way over to me.
"Venus, wait!" He runs up to my sleeping bag and begins stomping on it.
"Sokka, what are you doing?!"
He stops jumping as he turns over to me with an awkward smile. "Oh, I thought I saw a spider in there, but you're fine."
I look down at my stomped out sleeping bag.
Sokka wraps his arm around my shoulder. "You can share with me, if you want?"
I take Sokka's hand and unravel it away from me. "Sokka, what's going on with you? I'm serious."
"V, I don't know what you mean."
"You don't?" I lightly scoff. "Why are you acting so weird. And don't say you're not because you are...is it because of Suki, do you still have feelings for her?"
Sokka's eyes sadden as he approached closer to me. "Venus, it's not that."
Tears begin to whelm my eyes as I look down at my scraped up hands. "Then what is it, Sokka?"
"I-I-I-" he looks away and turns his head to where Suki was. "I don't know."
"I thought we were starting to like each other."
Sokka immediately grasps my hands, but I let go because of the pain from when I fell earlier. "We are liking each other, I mean I do like you...a lot. I'm just worried about Suki."
"Why would you be worried about her?" I lowly asks. "That's nice of you, but I think she can take care of herself."
I turn away from Sokka as I face the moon, it was so beautiful tonight. She's always so beautiful. "If you want to be with Suki then just say so...please. I don't want to be led on."
"Venus, it's not that!"
"I'm not sure if I believe you." I take my sleeping bag and shake it out. "Goodnight, Sokka." I transport myself and belongings to a different location.
I hid away from everyone as I sat there and cried. Man, I hated love. I'd always had the impression that I couldn't be loved. My first love died when I was an infant, and my own mother didn't love me, she always said it, but actions speak louder than words. Also, I thought I had found love with Jet, but apparently since I've been apart from him, he's become a psychopath murder and Neymar was forced love. With Sokka, on the other hand, I felt like we were finally starting to get closer. But I guess that was all a lie.
Inside my sleeping bag, I cuddled up to myself and tried to cry myself to sleep. But, I could hear voices talking after a while.
To find out who they were, I got out of my sleeping bag, and it turned out to be Suki and Sokka. They were perched on this heart-shaped rock as they sat there.
I hid behind the rocks as I began to eavesdrop. "It's a beautiful moon."
"Yeah," Sokka replies. "It really is."
"Look, I know you're just trying to help, but I can take care of myself." Suki says.
"I know you can." Sokka sighs.
"Then why are you acting so overprotective?"
"It's so hard to lose someone you care about. Something happened at the North Pole and I couldn't protect someone. I don't want anything like that to ever happen again."
"But what does this have to do with me?"
"It's because you are Venus's best friend. She cares about you a ton, and I care about her, so I want to protect you also..you mean so much to her." Sokka mumbles. "I know we had a tiny thing in the past, but I really like Venus, she's different from anyone I've met, and I know she's a bit broken," Sokka lightly chuckled, "that's something she would say about herself, but I just want to protect her and everyone she loves. And that's very few people, you are one of them. I'm sorry if I was really irritating today."
I could barley make out the words he was saying, am I hearing this all right?
"You know," Suki sighs. "When Venus told me about how she stopped thinking about drugs and using them, ever since she left Kyoshi island. I felt jealous. She said you all helped her but especially you, and I got upset, was I not enough for her to stop using? Was I the problem? Did she have to get away from me, to stop? I don't know."
"What?!" Sokka gasped. "Are you serious? Of course not! Venus has been through so much. Sometimes I forget what has happened to her in the past because she's always smiling and helping others. I just think she needed to get out of the pressure of being a Kyoshi warrior and get out in the world. She adores you. In my opinion, I think you played a big role in her withdrawal. If you didn't encourage her to leave Kyoshi and travel with the avatar...I don't know if she would have stopped using. And where does she get all her substances?"
Suki chuckled. "I don't know, she was so sneaky with it, but thanks, Sokka. I really appreciated this conversation. I feel better now."
Sokka patted Suki's shoulder. "I only tell the truth. Except when Katara asks me if her hair loopies look good."
"You know, I think Venus likes this guy," Suki teases, "he's smart, and brave and funny."
Sokka stands up defensively. "Who is this guy? Is he taller than me? Because Venus seems to be very attracted to taller men!"
Suki tries to hide in her giggles. "No, he's about your height."
"Is he better looking? Because both the guys she's been with have been tall and very good looking!"
Suki stands up and shoved Sokka's shoulder. "It is you stupid."
"Ohh." He then begins to smile cheekily.
"You've really changed Venus's life, and I couldn't even do that as her best friend. It's amazing that you've only known Venus for a few months and have already changed her perspective on life, and I'm grateful for that. Sokka, she really likes you. So, stop playing around and ask her out before someone else does, because she's so hot like flaming fire flakes."
Sokka turns away from Suki and glances up at the moon lovingly. "You're right, Suki, thanks."
The two began to share a hug. Sokka's back was turned towards me as Suki face was over his shoulder. In the direction of the rock I was hiding behind, Suki squinted her eyes. She waved over to me and raised her hand high, indicating that she was aware that I had been listening to her and Sokka's conversation all along.
She framed a half shaped heart with her hand. To make the heart whole, I raised my hand and shaped my fingers in the same way.