Sokka hated retreating.
It was the right decision to make, he knew that. Tanya's strategy had outfoxed the North, and with the sun due on the horizon in no more than an hour there was no tactical ploy he could think of to turn the tides back in their favour.
Retreating to fight another day was the best way to make sure that the Northern Tribes had any hope for freedom in the future. But that didn't mean he had to like it. Being forced to run while the enemy yet again uprooted people's lives and stole away their homes left a bad taste in his mouth.
Fireballs wizzed and sizzled as they flew aimlessly over his head, smashing into the icy walls of buildings as the northern warriors raced through the main streets of Agna Qel'a.
Despite being younger and far better rested than them, Sokka found himself struggling to keep up with the punishing pace the warriors were setting.
They could not afford the leisure of saving their energy with the Fire Nation hot on their heels, and for many it was only the fear of death that kept their legs moving.
Yet if he was struggling with the pace, for Yue it was torture. She was a princess in a society that shunned female warriors, and the expectations that she be demure and ladylike had robbed her of the opportunity to develop any real stamina.
Even with all her effort and willpower, her body simply did not have the muscle strength to keep up. Sokka had stayed by her side to offer whatever help he could, but there was only so much that he could do.
Eventually something had to give. Yue let out a gasp of pain as her foot slipped and landed on its ankle. She stumbled, seconds away from falling, but Sokka was immediately there to scoop her up and carry her.
"My foot!" She hissed. "I think I sprained it!"
"It's alright! Leave everything to me!" Sokka panted back, even as his legs wobbled and shook under the burden of the extra weight. He could do this! So what if his muscles were already burning? He could take it!
Water warriors were passing them from behind with increasing speed, and the din of the Fire Nation horde grew steadily louder. It was Yue who realised it first.
"Sokka… you have to leave me behind."
"What?! No! Never!" Sokka gasped out between heavy breaths, refusing to even consider the idea. "I'm not going to abandon you."
"I'm holding us both back, Sokka. At this rate we'll both be caught." Yue replied.
"Then we'll be caught together! My job is to protect you!"
"Oh Sokka. Brave Sokka." Yue's cool hand cupped his cheek, and Sokka looked down into her sapphire blue eyes. Even with an army chasing after them she did not look afraid. Instead her expression was one of wonder as she drank in the sight of his face, as if expecting it to be the last time she ever would.
"Your job, your destiny, isn't to protect me. It's to protect him." She nodded upwards, where the last of the air nomads bravely rode his sky bison steed, swinging his staff and conjuring howling winds to deflect the fireballs raining down upon them.
"He's going to need you, Sokka." Yue continued. "Someone with ingenuity. Someone resourceful. Someone who can see alternative paths where others see no choice but to fight. Because this won't be the last you see of Tanya. I'm sure of it."
Her eyes trailed over to the golden-haired star that hung in the sky above the Fire Nation forces like an omen of evil, hurling fireballs with vengeful vigour.
"I think she means to hunt Aang to the ends of the world. And if she can't defeat him in direct combat, then she'll set a trap for him just like she did today. It's going to take someone capable of outsmarting her to keep Aang safe, and I believe that's the role the spirits chose you for."
"But I-…" Tears were forming at the edges of Sokka's eyes, but he couldn't spare a hand to wipe them away. His voice wavered under the physical and emotional stress thrust upon him. "What about what I want? I don't want to leave you."
"I know." Yue's lip trembled as she struggled to contain her own feelings. "I don't want to leave you either, but this is bigger than the both of us. Your place is with The Avatar, and mine is with this city."
Sokka choked back a sob, the harsh realisation of what he had to do dawning on him. He wished so badly that it wouldn't, that he could blindly cling to the hope that if he just kept running everything would work out in the end. But he was too smart for that. Reluctantly, his footsteps began to slow.
Yue smiled up at him. "This isn't the end, Sokka. One day, when this war is over and peace has returned, we'll see each other again." She slipped out of his arms, wincing slightly as her injured foot touched the floor, and laid an arm on his shoulder. "Now run Sokka. Run!"
And so he did. Every step tore at his chest, as if he were forcibly pulling apart a thousand tiny strings keeping him bonded to Yue, but Sokka forced himself to keep planting one foot in front of the other.
One short sentence came to mind. Three little words he found himself desperately wanting to say. He looked over to see Yue standing proudly before the Fire Nation horde, smiling at him serenely, and the words bubbled up in his throat, begging to be released.
But how could he say them when he'd left her behind? Shame strangled the words on the tip of his tongue, and a heartbeat later the opportunity was gone. The sea of red and black swallowed Yue up like a hungry beast.
Sokka ran. He ran and ran and ran, completely numb to the burning ache in his muscles and fireballs exploding around him, until he'd caught up with the water tribe warriors. And if any of them noticed the tears streaming down his cheeks, not one of them said a word.
...
"There it is! The path!"
Relief crashed into Katara like a wave on a beach as the road leading up the glacier into the northern wastes came into sight. The horizon was beginning to turn orange, and everybody knew that the moment the sun peaked up, the firebenders pursuing them would gain a fresh burst of power. Yet if they continued their current pace they should escape the city just in time.
Yet that wave of relief quickly receded, replaced by a dry horror as another realisation struck her.
"The path is exposed!" She cried. Indeed, the winding road that led the way up was carved into the side of the glacier, with no walls of barricades to protect them. "We'll be easy targets! The Fire Nation will stay down here and shoot at us!"
Beside her, Master Pakku nodded grimly. "Yes, that is true. Unless, of course, someone holds them off."
"Wha- what are you saying?" Katara asked, only to realise that Pakku had stopped running, and had turned around to face the oncoming horde. "Master?"
"We still have a few minutes left of moonlight. You must lead them to safety, Katara." Pakku continued, his body settling into a low, flowing fighting stance. "I will hold the Fire Nation off until the sun rises."
"But master…" Katara swallowed the lump in her throat. "They'll kill you."
"I have lived a long and rich life, Katara. I have known many wise and loyal friends, and passed down the wealth of my knowledge to a student truly worthy of it."
"But Aang… he needs a waterbending master!" Katara pleaded.
Pakku offered her a tight, but unmistakably fond, smile.
"Then he'd better get used to calling you Master Katara, hadn't he?" He began to sway his arms, and all around them the city of ice began to sway with him.
As the last few retreating warriors made it past him Pakku clenched his fists, and hundreds of tendrils of ice and water, like the limbs of a great kraken, burst from the ground around him, blocking the path between the Fire Nation and the northern warriors.
"Run Katara. Don't look back. And may the spirits of the moon and ocean watch over you on your journey."
And so she ran. And even as she reached the foot of the pathway, and the bloodthirsty roars of the Fire Nation soldiers morphed into cries of fear and the rushing of torrential water, Katara respected her master's wishes and did not look back.
She kept her eyes on the path ahead, encouraging each and every warrior she passed on her way up to keep on running just a little bit further, and never stopping to watch Pakku's final battle.
It was strangely hard to keep track of time. Later, Katara wouldn't be able to decide whether it had felt like hours had passed or just a couple of minutes, but before she knew it she found herself standing at the top of the path, the snowy tundra of the northern wastes stretched out before her.
They were just in time too, for right at that moment the light of the rising sun swept over her, signalling that a new morning had come.
The night of the red moon had come to an end, and with it the Siege of the North was over. It had been a night filled with death, heartbreak and the bitter taste of defeat, but the last warriors of the Northern Water Tribes had snatched themselves from the jaws of certain death to fight another day.
...
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