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comradekatara · 2 years

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Your mention that Azula thinks she'd win the hunger games left me intrigued. How would the gaang strategize in the hunger games and who would actually win?

the second I alluded to this I knew someone was gonna follow up and on one hand I feel like I could map out how this would go but on the other hand it’s inherently a very sad and fucked up AU so like... read at your own discretion. at first I was just gonna do bullet points like usual but then this turned into... something else.

(also please note I have not read this book since its release; I read it in one night, was like “that was kind of heavyhanded and the prose could use some work, but as far as kids’ dystopian commentary goes, its not too bad” and then never read the sequels, though I have seen a couple of the movies... so, my memories of the nuances of this world are extremely fuzzy...)

katara gets selected at the ceremony, and obviously, immediately, sokka volunteers as tribute. katara tries to protest just out of sheer shock and horror, but sokka won’t take no for an answer. he’s always known that if katara was chosen he would volunteer in her place; at that point it’s not even a question for him. unfortunately this means that since they now have a boy tribute, they need another girl from their district, and that girl happens to be yue. and sokka can’t volunteer twice, so.

they head to the capitol together and yue tells sokka that she knows she has no chance of winning, so he shouldn’t even bother trying to protect her. he needs to focus on his own survival, because he needs to be there for katara—he volunteered for her in the first place. sokka knows that she’s right, but he’s also utterly heartbroken. yue suggests that they make the most of the time they have left together, and sokka reluctantly agrees.

their PR coordinator is very intent on pushing the “‘they're childhood sweethearts they’re so in love how absolutely beautiful and tragic’ angle,” which sokka and yue absolutely cannot stand because they don’t want the most intimate details of their lives being publicized as spectacle for the entertainment of their oppressors (you know, more than it already is). it would be one thing if they were manipulating the media for their benefit, but they actually are in love, so it just feels gross.

yue is very beloved by the audience due to her ethereal beauty and soft-spoken charm. she’s just self-aware and acerbic enough, without being too alienating. sokka responds to every question he’s asked with bitter sarcasm, which some people find amusing, but most find offputting due to his “bad attitude.” he couldn’t give less of a fuck how he’s perceived by these people, though. he just wants to make it through so he can go back home to katara, and he doesn’t care about anything or anyone else.

suki complicates matters by being friendly and flirty with him, and since he recognizes that she’s also a good person trapped in a shitty situation, he is friendly enough with her while also trying to keep her at a distance. he doesn’t want to make alliances in the arena, because any hesitation on his part could cost him katara’s safety and he can’t afford that.

but, he does have a soft spot for the blind twelve year old who knows exactly how to work a crowd’s sympathies and is secretly witty and sharp and hilarious. his heart also aches for the tiny bald kid who keeps establishing that he is a staunch pacifist and will not compromise his principles for anyone. sokka knows that even if he doesn’t want to have to look out for anyone else out there, he’s probably going to end up taking toph and/or aang under his wing regardless. but suki seems like she can fend for herself, so sokka pretends like he doesn’t care about her inevitable fate. he’s already grieving yue as it is.

as far as the other tributes go, sokka gets distinctly bad vibes from azula (too intense, seems almost happy to be there?), ty lee (too cheerful, what is she hiding?), and jet (too slimy, just rancid vibes, ugh), but otherwise doesn’t consider anyone else particularly memorable. the guy who came with suki has a pretty terrible mustache, but sokka doesn’t think that means he deserves to die.

unfortunately, that’s not his choice to make, so as he’s left in an arena with a bunch of other kids, he grabs the first weapons he sees and then runs off into the woods, in the opposite direction of all the others, making sure he doesn't leave an obvious trail. he hides underneath the thickest foliage where he’ll have cover. he pretends it doesn’t matter to him that he doesn’t know where yue’s gone as he stores up food for later. he finds a tree to take shelter in and waits.

meanwhile, aang is on the other side of the arena, desperately hoping that if he hides somewhere and waits it out for as long as possible, maybe he’ll survive. he knows it’s unlikely, but it’s the only choice he has. toph tries to follow aang, which is difficult because he has the lightest footsteps, but she feels an urge to keep him safe, and she knows that he’s not gonna defend himself if anyone comes for him.

when azula volunteered as tribute upon zuko’s selection, it was partially due to the fact that she knew that zuko would never make it out there, and mostly due to the fact that she’s always wanted the chance to win one of these things. it’s the ultimate chance to prove herself, to test her tactical skills in a perfectly fair fight. and the glory she’d receive upon winning is only a perk. zuko is horrified, and grateful. while azula smiles and smiles, he throws up into the sink all night. when asked about his sister, zuko scowls and responds, “azula will be fine. it’s everyone else i’m worried about.” no one knows whether or not he means it.

when mai is selected, ty lee has no choice but to volunteer. mai is all soft and gooey inside, like a burnt marshmallow; ty lee simply can’t let this happen. so she does the unthinkable: she risks her own safety for love. mai doesn’t know whether to kiss ty lee or kill her herself. ultimately, she doesn’t have time for either, as ty lee is whisked away on a train headed to the capitol.

sokka spends the night watching faces he barely knew projected into the sky, waiting for yue’s face. but she isn’t there. she’s still alive, for now. despite being on edge the whole night, he manages to sleep without external disturbances. no one has found him, yet. he wakes up the next morning, marveling at his uncharacteristic luck. he isn’t aware of the bloodbath occurring on the other side of the arena.

suki doesn’t know how many people she’s had to kill, only that they swarmed her and she used necessary self-defense. but she finds herself at an impasse with ty lee. she’s too quick, too agile. suki’s sure that if she wasn’t fighting for her life right now, ty lee would have already beaten her. they’ve run off from the central crowd, using trees as cover and branches as weapons, but neither can seem to get an advantage on the other. finally, ty lee concedes. “truce?” she asks, holding out a palm filled with small red berries.

suki rolls her eyes. “girlie we both know those are poisonous.”

ty lee shrugs, “it was worth a shot,” she says. “you don’t know how many guys have already fallen for that.”

suki is startled to find herself laughing. nobody can help being disarmed by ty lee. they decide to form a tentative alliance, if only because they both know that they could’ve been friends, maybe even something more, if they weren’t both stuck in this damn arena. they tell each other about their home lives—what does it matter anyway—and that night they take turns on watch while huddled for warmth.

sokka hears footsteps approaching and is immediately on alert. today, only one person tried to attack him, and he subdued the guy easily, with a merciful knife to the throat. he’s counting on his good luck running out any minute now. and he’s right. it’s yue, covered in blood, although, she assures, not her own. “there have already been so many close calls,” she admits. “it’s sheer luck that I’m still alive now.” sokka doesn’t tell her that he killed someone today. instead, they kiss because they still can. “I realized something,” yue tells him. “if im going to get killed in here, I want it to be you who kills me.”

sokka can’t believe his ears, suddenly ringing. his hands feel numb. “I can’t do that,” he tells her. “you know we agreed to only kill in self-defense. and.... I can’t. I just can’t. are you crazy? I’m not doing that. no. absolutely not.”

yue smiles at him, and takes his hand. “we agreed that I wasn’t gonna make it, sokka. this is the only way I want to go.” even as sokka asks if this is, somehow, a trick, he knows she means it. yue would never lie to him. she genuinely wants him to do something utterly unthinkable.

sokka adamantly refuses. he simply cannot do this. “what if, instead, we keep each other safe until the end, and then you kill me? then you can go home and look after my family. you get to live, I get to die, and my family will be in good hands with you. isn’t that a good plan?” there are tears in his eyes, but he finds this proposal all very logical. after all, yue is without a doubt the best person he knows. she deserves to live more than anyone, and he doesn’t even really want to live anyway. it’s not like life’s so great, especially if he can’t have yue by his side.

she looks at him so sadly, with something disgustingly close to pity. “okay,” yue agrees softly. “that’s a good plan, sokka.” she kisses his forehead, shifting closer to him so that they can sleep. she promises to keep watch for tonight so that sokka can get some rest, and he trusts her so implicitly that he actually lets her.

yue lies there for a very long time, taking in the sounds around her. everything feels so alive in a way she hasn’t let herself notice in years. even in this artificial hellscape, she can feel the roots of the tree pressed against her back, the buzzing of insects, every blade of grass poking through her fingers. and of course, sokka beside her, who snores like an old man and mutters incoherent nonsense in his sleep. as quietly as possible, she extricates his knife from his boot, and points the tip of the blade to her heart.

sokka wakes up with the distinct feeling of something having gone terribly wrong. he is just alert enough to witness the moonlight glinting off his knife as yue makes the plunge. he is helpless to stop her. he bites his tongue from crying out, and holds her as she fades. “why?” he asks, his voice hoarse and desperate. “I could have protected you. I would have—“

“get home safe,” says yue. “for katara, okay? i love you.”

“no. no. yue. don’t go.” sokka blinks back tears as yue coughs up blood.

“goodbye sokka. i will always be with you.”

distantly, a canon goes off.

sokka just holds her. he doesn’t know for how long. her body feels unnaturally still. he remembers prying katara off their mother’s corpse as she screamed. he takes three small strands of yue’s hair and braids it, tying both ends with string from the frayed edges of her shirt. then he takes his knife and cuts her braid, pocketing it. in the coming weeks, he will bring it to her father, his head bowed as he apologizes profusely. arnook will put a hand on sokka’s shoulder and thank him earnestly, and the bile of guilt and shame that has been steadily rising in sokka his whole life will threaten to burst.

sokka is still holding her when a hovercraft descends to retrieve her body. he throws a rock at the machine’s vulnerable underbelly, and it crashes into the ground. he doesn’t know what they do with their dead bodies, but if it’s anything similar to the apathy with which they treat them alive, he doesn’t want her in their hands. perhaps they send them back home, for a proper funeral. but that’s not a risk he’s willing to take. he’s going to hold her a funeral right here, before another hovercraft comes.

he doesn’t exactly have the time or resources to dig a ditch, but he supposes that he can at least let her sink to the bottom of the lake. he would give her a viking funeral, but he doesn’t have time to build a raft, and anyway he doesn’t know if he can stand to watch her burn. he takes as many rocks as he possibly can and slides them into her shirt, tucking the hem into her pants afterwards so that they won’t fall out. then he picks all the flowers he can find and fashions it into a bouquet, folding her hands over her heart with the flowers nestled between.

sokka carries her still, leaden body into the deepest part of the lake he can reach, almost neck deep, before letting her sink. some flowers rise to the surface in her wake.

back home, katara watches with tears in her eyes, more furious than she ever has been in her entire life, and that’s saying something. she’s never watched the games before, of course she would never be complicit in such a brutal and gratuitous ritual, but she has an obligation this year, to her brother who stupidly sacrificed himself for her because he’s stupid.

she had known yue ever since they were children, back when she was just sokka’s best friend. their mothers had died a year apart; while katara’s mom was murdered, yue’s had passed away over the course of a slow, unyielding illness—but they both died at the hands of the system. yue was her sister, and more than that, she had meant everything to sokka.

watching the factionalism and cultic madness that the other side of the arena had quickly descended into had made katara sick, but not nearly as sick as watching sokka slice open the throat of a teenage boy like he was making quick work of dinner, sighing resolutely and closing the boy’s eyelids, fashioning his body into a coffin-ready position and putting a stone over his ribcage, before picking up his shit and walking away. not nearly as sick as watching two twelve years old run through the woods, one blind and the other so painfully gentle. not nearly as sick as watching sokka hold yue, cutting back to the bloodbath, and then back to sokka, still in the same pose, the same grief etched on his face.

katara had never watched the games before. as helpless as she was to stop them, the least she could do was not endorse the violence with her tacit gaze. she watches them now. she makes a silent and resolute vow to end them.

once the funeral is over, sokka just sits there, staring out into the distance on a nearby rock, letting himself dry off slowly without the aid of a fire. he’s not crying. he feels too numb to cry. he doesn’t know if it’s been minutes or hours when he hears a rustling from a nearby bush.

“DON’T COME NEAR ME RIGHT NOW,” he yells without moving. “I DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO KILL YOU.”

“woah, it’s just me,” suki says, approaching with her arms up. “i’m not gonna hurt you.”

sokka relaxes slightly. he’s still in indescribable pain, but at least suki isn’t a threat. she walks over to the edge of the rock he’s sitting on and tilts her head. he nods, which she takes as permission to sit with him.

“so this is where you’ve been hiding,” suki says admiringly. “I think everyone just assumed you were dead.”

“why would they have assumed that?” sokka asks, slightly offended. so far, staying alive has been the easy part.

“well, you didn’t form any alliances,” suki explains. “pretty much everyone was either team azula or team jet.”

sokka wrinkles his nose. “ew. why?” he finds it concerningly easy to fall into banter with her, like the love of his life didn’t just die because of him.

suki laughs. “at least in an alliance you had people who had your back. anyone who didn’t pick a side got killed fast. of course, the azulas also killed the jets and vice versa. it was a whole bloodbath.” sokka wonders if he should be disturbed by how unfazed she seems by it, but maybe she just hasn’t let herself actually process it yet. every time they interact, it feels like a respite. only a few days ago, this fact used to worry him, but right now it’s a comfort.

“so whose side were you on?” sokka asks. he recalls both azula and jet, and can’t decide which name he’d rather hear.

“neither,” suki says. “i’m just hard to kill.”

admittedly, this impresses sokka. “if we tried to kill each other, who’d you reckon would win?” he asks.

“i’d probably let you kill me, if it came down to it,” suki says nonchalantly. “but if it weren’t for your whole ‘sacrificing yourself for your sister’ thing, i’d kick your ass.”

sokka groans. “so you know about that,” he says.

“uh, yeah dude. it’s a core part of your whole deal. sacrificing yourself for your sister, only for it to turn out that you’re actually a sarcastic asshole who hates everyone.” she smiles, but sokka misses that she’s attempting to pay him a compliment.

he stares at her incredulously. “maybe i’d be nicer to everyone if we weren’t all trying to kill each other in some fucked up death game reality show, but forgive me for being unsatisfied with my circumstances.” he stares out at the lake once more. “and I don’t hate everyone,” he corrects.

“trust me, I don’t blame you,” responds suki. “the way you talked back to all those stupid bitches in the capitol was hilarious.”

sokka rolls his eyes. “well it’s a relief to know that I could play the jester before entering their coliseum.” he doesn’t even care anymore, is the thing. he just wants to see katara again.

suki looks around at all the hidden cameras. "do you think they're watching us now?"

"honestly? i don't care," sokka replies. "anyone who willingly watches this shit is subhuman. their voyeurism matters as much to me as, like, being watched by mosquitos."

"what about your loved ones?" she asks. "don't you think your sister is watching?"

sokka laughs. "katara would never violate her principles like that," he says. "not even for me. not even for yue."

"not even after you sacrificed your life for her?" suki asks. "isn't she grateful?"

sokka smiles for the first time in weeks. "grateful? please. she was furious."

"seems like a great sister."

"she's the best." it's the most earnest thing they'll ever catch him saying.

"so you've never watched the games before?" suki asks. "because your strategy has been impeccable so far."

sokka rolls his eyes. "my 'strategy' has just been to kill anyone who gets in my way."

"really?" she asks. "how many people have you killed, then?"

sokka makes a big show of counting on his fingers. "one... and a half."

"half?"

"well, technically she committed suicide, but it's my fault. i should've stopped her."

suki thinks about what brought her here, to sokka, to the games. she thinks about ty lee, telling her that she also has lots of sisters. none of them cared about her the way suki's did when she boarded the platform. only mai had cared, and mai has zuko, which is. well. it's better than nothing, right? suki doesn't know who zuko is, but she nods sympathetically. technically, azula cares too, but she cares more about winning. ty lee doesn't really care about winning. she cares about not dying. or at least, she did, and then she watched a blind twelve year old girl shatter an extremely tall wannabe cult leader teenage boy's ribcage with a sharp, jagged rock, his lungs slowly collapsing in on themselves, and she thought maybe dying on her own terms wouldn't be so bad. she cuts her handful of berries in half, handing some to suki. "in case you ever need an out," she tells her. "or run into some gullible boys." then she puts the rest in her mouth, chews, and swallows.

"yeah," agrees suki. "i know what you mean."

mai didn't cry when she watched ty lee kill herself. it felt too much like a twisted joke she would play on her friends; she'd always had a fucked up sense of humor. but now that the other girl, suki, is acknowledging it, even if only slightly, it suddenly sinks in. everything feels real again, like it hasn't since that day she got selected.

zuko is at her house, even though they technically live in different districts, to watch the games with her. after all, it's not just her best friends in the games, but his sister. they sit on her bed in front of the tv, mai occasionally offering zuko a chip even though it's clear that he has no stomach for it. mai only sort of gets it. yeah, she's sort of nauseous herself, but she could always go for junk food.

she cries now, at first only slightly, then mouth covered in snot, shoulders shaking, muffled sobs into zuko's chest. he'd have thought she was too numb for this, but he's secretly pleased that now she can't fault him for crying during yue's funeral. "you don't even know her," mai had said, as if that had mattered.

sokka and suki sit in unbroken silence for so long that the tv cuts back to the other side of the arena. zuko's stomach sinks in disappointment, and lower still when he realizes who he's back to watching. of course she'd still be alive. he no longer knows whom to root for. it's not like he wants azula to die, but she's not the only one who sacrificed herself for her sibling.

now that the others have been eliminated, she’s tracking down the ones who managed to escape. the bald boy and the blind girl have light footsteps, but they’ve still left a trail to follow. indents in the mud and slightly crushed leaves lead azula to where aang and toph are sitting under the shade of the tree, playing some sort of game with their hands.

they’re both laughing, which is good. it means they’re off their guard. as long as aang doesn’t see her and toph doesn’t hear her, azula can finish them both off without breaking a sweat.

“okay, now how many fingers am I holding up?” aang asks.

as usual, toph has no idea, but she’s suddenly alert. “aang, watch out, I think there’s someone h—“

azula’s knife plunges into aang’s back before he even has time to turn around. toph can hear his weak cry and the sound of a blade piercing flesh, before azula takes the knife out once more and aang slumps over immediately.

she lunges for toph next, but toph is faster. she jumps out of the way, picking up the bloodied rock she’d previously used to kill jet that she’s been carrying on her as a weapon. she swings the rock around so wildly that it knocks the knife out of azula’s hand by sheer chance. she’s shocked, but doesn’t let this deter her. toph is tiny and blind, it’s not like she stands a chance against azula.

what? everyone's thinking it.

“i’m sorry about your girlfriend,” says suki. she may as well say something.

“mhmm,” sokka hums. he’s still not ready to talk about it. he doesn’t know if he’ll ever be.

suki tries to lighten the mood, because she doesn’t know what else to do. “i never had any luck with dating,” she says. “one girl dumped me because i was ‘too intense,’ and another girl dumped me because i ‘never took anything seriously.’” sokka looks at her. “yes, the irony is not lost on me.”

“i didn’t say anything.”

suki smiles, thinking about how sokka is funny but intense too. she knows he had a girlfriend regardless, but she can’t help but picture the life they could’ve had together, outside of the games. it’s a lovely impossibility.

sokka is so, so tired. “if i fell asleep right now, would you kill me?” he asks suki.

“no,” she answers honestly. “i can keep watch for us if you want.”

“thanks,” he says, falling asleep on a rock as if that’s remotely comfortable. a little package descends from the sky with a knife in it. suki picks it up, frowns, and pockets it. who do these game designers think they are?

he wakes up a few hours later. “thanks for not killing me,” he says. “we can swap now.” suki boldly rests her head in his lap, but he doesn’t protest. his pants are still slightly damp from submerging himself fully in the lake earlier, but she decides not to question it. he sits there for hours, thinking about how just last night, he had lost yue. he won’t let that happen again.

suki awakes with the light. "good morning,” she says.

“when did you get that knife?” sokka asks her. it hadn’t been there yesterday.

suki unsheathes it. “oh, this?” she asks. “the game designers gave it to me while you were sleeping. i think they thought it would incentivize me to finish the job.”

sokka laughs, pulling out a shiny new knife of his own. “what a coincidence,” he says. “they gave me one too.”

suddenly, they both hear a rustling, so quiet it’s almost imperceptible, but distinctly human. they grip their knives tighter.

a little girl covered in blood walks into the clearing, holding a rock like a weapon.

sokka and suki beam at each other. “toph!” sokka cries, running straight towards her and pulling her into a hug. she is so surprised that she drops her rock for the first time in days, and hugs him back.

“hi, toph,” suki says, realizing that she can’t see her.

“so, is this it?” toph asks. “you’re the only people i’ve run into since i killed azula. are we the last ones left?”

“you killed azula?” suki asks.

“don’t act so shocked,” toph replies. “i killed jet too.”

“what happened to aang?” sokka asks. not that he particularly wants to hear the answer.

“azula snuck up on us and killed him,” toph says matter-of-factly, like she hasn’t been crying on and off all day. “so i bashed her head in with good old rocky here.”

“impressive,” says sokka. “do you want a knife?” he asks her. “it might be more practical. and we have extra.”

“you’re really offering me a weapon?” toph asks. “when you’re gonna have to kill me, and we just established that i’m more dangerous i look?”

“well i wouldn’t kill you unless you tried to kill me,” sokka says. “and in that case, i’d want it to be a fair fight.”

toph bursts into tears again, collapsing to her knees. sokka sits on the ground and holds her as she cries. suki leans against sokka’s other side, reaching her arm across sokka’s shoulders to rub toph’s back. they just sit there while toph cries, occasionally saying things like “it’s not fair” and “i don’t want to kill you” and “i don’t want to die.” it’s not fair. i know. it’s not fair. i know.

after toph is all cried out, at least for now, they begin to discuss logistics. “we’re the only ones left,” says toph. “I’ve been counting.” suki agrees. sokka hasn’t been counting, but he does now, thinking back to every time he heard a cannon fire. yep. 21.

“fuck,” sokka whispers. “so what do we do?”

“we decide who deserves to win,” suki says simply.

“by what metrics?” sokka asks.

“lowest kill count?” toph offers.

“that would be sokka,” says suki, since she knows that toph has killed at least two people, and she’s killed far more than that. and they’ve all only killed in self-defense, as far as she knows, so that factor is negligible.

“nope,” says sokka. “i’m not letting you guys die for that. out of the question.”

“what about who has the best reason to live?” toph asks. “im already rich, so being rewarded by the capitol wouldn’t help me at all, considering i’d still be under the thumb of my controlling parents who are fundamentally ashamed of me. i may as well die here.”

“my sisters would miss me, but they could also make it without me,” suki says.

sokka says nothing.

“it has to be sokka,” toph says. “right?”

“right,” suki agrees.

“once again, NOPE,” sokka says. “absolutely not letting you guys die. no fucking way.”

“don’t think of it as you letting us die,” says suki. “think of it as us letting you live.”

sokka laughs. “that’s so stupid,” he says. suki and toph join in his laughter. god this is stupid. what a dumb fucking situation to be in.

it occurs to sokka then that there’s no way people aren’t watching them. there’s no one on the other side of the arena to draw focus away from them, no plausible deniability that the cameras are not trained on his face and his words. if he speaks now, the capitol will listen.

“it’s crazy how everyone watching this is so fucking numb and desensitized to the capitol’s violence that they are just allowing this to happen,” sokka says, uncharacteristically slowly enunciating his words with deliberation as he knows he must. “they’re letting two teenagers and a child debate who must commit suicide right now, for the entertainment of the state. and no matter what i do or say right now, no one watching this will care. anyone watching this is already too numb, there’s no point in trying to appeal to their sense of basic fucking decency. we should all kill ourselves, right now. that way there’s no victor. there’s your fucking entertainment.”

“yeah,” suki agrees. “you’re right." she digs around in her pocket. "here, i have some poison berries ty lee gave me. i’ve been saving them in case it came down to this. we can all chew on them at once.” she separates the berries into three sections, and hands two to sokka and toph respectively. they signal to each other, and place the berries in their mouth.

before they can begin to chew, they hear the blades of a helicopter whirring above them. “spit those out,” a voice from the sky commands from a megaphone.

sokka, suki, and toph all firmly hold their ground. none of them chews, but they don’t spit them out either. they’ve suddenly found a bargaining chip.

“spit those out and we won’t have to kill you,” the voice repeats.

sokka raises an eyebrow. suki smiles in amusement. toph’s eyebrows furrow, trying to figure out what they even mean by that.

suddenly, another voice from the sky, bigger this time, louder and cheerful, congratulates them for winning the hunger games. sokka and suki exchange a look, confused. it can’t be that easy, right? a ladder descends from the helicopter. “climb up,” says the other voice.

“keep the berries under your tongue,” sokka whispers. “don’t spit them out until you’re 100% sure you’re safe.” toph and suki nod.

sokka and suki help toph up the ladder. a man they vaguely recognize is sitting in the chopper, smiling although he is clearly irritated.

“congratulations,” he says to them. “now spit the fucking berries out.”

they refuse to comply, only finally spitting out the berries once they’re back in their room in the capitol. their weapons were removed from them immediately, but sokka is careful to keep yue’s lock of hair in his closed fist before they can take it from him.

the room itself is disgustingly lavish. “this room is usually reserved for the victor,” says the man, “but under these circumstances, you can share it.” they nod at him, still silent as a reminder of what they could swallow at any moment. only once he leaves the room, and sokka leads them into the fancy shower in the bathroom, does he give them the signal to spit the berries out.

he turns the water on, and lo and behold, the water pressure is extremely strong. “this shower is probably bugged too,” sokka whispers, “but it’s our safest bet.”

“did we really win?” toph whispers. “or is this a trick? just another layer of the arena?”

“i don’t know what to think anymore,” suki says. “but i do know that as long as we all have these berries, we’re untouchable.”

“we have to promise to look out for one another,” sokka says. “right now with the right leverage we can all stay alive as long as none of us exploits the other. no matter what they say to tempt us, we have to stick together.” toph and suki nod. obviously.

“okay, now, i actually need a shower,” toph says. “i’m covered in some disgusting dried substance i’m 99% sure is blood.”

sokka and suki stand guard outside the shower while toph washes off, and then they switch. when it’s sokka’s turn to shower, he hands suki yue’s lock of hair. “hold this for me?” he asks. she nods silently with a small smile.

when they leave the bathroom they notice fresh clothes for each of them laid out on the bed. but they’ve already decided they’re not going to wear anything the capitol tries to put them in. they stay in their disgusting clothes caked in blood and grime, thank you very much.

a woman with no tongue leads them out to a stage, where the charismatic host ushers them to sit down on a modified couch, now able to fit three people. the lights are blinding. “so, how does it feel winning the hunger games?” he asks them. the crowd goes wild.

“fucking awful,” says sokka, in his usual fashion. “you ought to be ashamed of yourself, asking that.”

the host winces imperceptibly, then forces a laugh. “touche, sokka, touche,” he says, warmly, brilliantly. sokka could kill him.

“i for one am grateful for my opportunity to not be dead,” toph says sweetly. “it really is an honor and a privilege.”

“i couldn’t think of a better way to spend my sixteenth birthday,” suki says. the audience awws. (it is not, in fact, her birthday.)

he asks them each a few more questions, ridiculous and innocuous. then they are ushered off the stage, and met by their handlers. apparently it’s time for their victory tour. they are placed in front of various crowds, who all cheer wildly. then they board the train that will take them through the rest of the districts.

they meet the families of their fellow tributes. sort of. one of ty lee’s sisters finds suki and sobs in her arms. once she finally leaves, mai takes her place, quietly walking into the room. “ty lee volunteered for me,” she tells suki. “the funny thing is, i would have done the same for her. and now she’ll never know.” suki, who stayed strong for ty lee’s sister, crumples now. she runs over to mai and hugs her. “im so sorry,” she whispers, over and over again.

toph never had friends before. her parents wouldn’t allow it. but aang had so many friends. and it’s clear they all loved him so much. but of course they did. who wouldn’t? “thank you for looking out for him,” they say. “thank you for taking care of our boy.” toph tries to say strong, but she thinks about the cry aang let out as azula sliced through his spine like butter, how she was helpless to stop it, and she sheds silent, useless tears as they hug her. a whole sea of children who know her pain. who knew aang, toph’s first ever friend.

in azula’s district, her brother surprises sokka by telling him that she also sacrificed herself for her sibling. sokka nods warily. “im glad you’re the one who made it out, though,” zuko tells him. “if azula had won, so would the capitol. but if you play your cards right, you might have the ammunition to end the games for good.” by the time sokka has gotten over his shock, zuko has walked away.

“you killed my sister,” zuko tells toph.

“your sister killed my friend,” toph replies.

“i know.”

it’s not exactly an apology, but it's an understanding.

in toph’s district, no one recognizes her except for her parents and their staff. they didn’t even know the beifongs had a daughter. toph’s mother hugs her and sobs and sobs. her father thanks sokka for taking care of his daughter. “i’m pretty sure she took care of herself,” sokka corrects him.

in suki’s district, her sisters swarm her, fret over her, take turns hugging her. they brush the tangles out of her hair, and tease her for her obvious crush on sokka. they offer her her favorite pie, and stay by her side until it’s time for her to leave again. she lets herself cry in their arms. she promises she’ll return soon as she boards the train again.

finally, in sokka’s district, katara runs into his arms. they hold each other for so long they begin to feel numb. katara calls him every insult under the sun in an attempt to express her affection. sokka laughs, because he’s never been able to cry in front of her. then he goes to yue’s house, and offers arnook the last remains of his daughter, a single woven braid.

zuko and mai finally reveal themselves. they had stowed away on the train without anyone noticing, but zuko sees his chance now and takes it. he awkwardly introduces himself to katara. “your brother did for you what my sister did for me,” he says. “i think it’s time we return the favor.”

“i couldn’t agree more,” katara says. she has already been organizing the first traces of a rebellion, but she knows she’ll need more than what she’s got so far to make a real difference.

the six of them sit around a table in gran gran’s house. “so how do we do this?” toph asks. “how do we make sure this isn’t a death sentence for all of us?”

“we play it smart,” sokka says, looking at zuko. then he looks at katara, who is looking at him with a look that is wholly unfamiliar to him. it’s the kind of look she used to give their mother. “we can’t afford to be sloppy. that means taking it slow. sowing seeds of disruption. maintaining the capitol’s attention span for longer than five fucking seconds. we broke some rules and got rewarded for it. let’s find a way to break some more.”

“i like the sound of breaking rules,” toph says, which is really her way of saying, i’ll follow you no matter what. “no offense zuko, but i think we need to do for aang what paul and those other guys did for jesus. he’s an unimpeachable martyr. he can be our avatar of the resistance.”

“none taken,” says zuko, slightly confused, as katara says, “you’re right. aang and yue. too good to live, now we fight in their name.”

“that’s good,” mai agrees. “ty lee was also a martyr, though. we shouldn’t leave her out.”

“that’s true,” says suki. “not to mention she was extremely beautiful. her big, innocent eyes. she makes a good face for our cause.”

“aang for toph, ty lee for suki, and yue for me, then?” sokka asks. “is that what we’re doing?” he feels disgusted. how can he expected to use yue's memory like that, when it's his fault she's dead? she had a future. they had a future together. and he's here, back in his house with his sister and his grandmother (and his father still alive in prison somewhere, maybe), but she's gone. he knows it is what he must do. he knows now better than anyone. so why does it feel so wrong?

mai shrugs. “pretty much,” she says. katara and zuko nod in agreement. then toph and suki nod too. they can do this.

"excuse me," says sokka, making a beeline for the bathroom. he throws up in the sink, retching so forcefully that his bile splashes against the mirror. he stares into his reflection as he wipes it off.

when he returns to the dining room where they're all gathered, gran gran is there too. "you're back?" he asks her. she must've left work early.

"you're back," says kanna, tears in her eyes. she brings sokka in for a hug, and then katara too, even though katara and sokka already hugged for a good ten minutes. kanna and katara cry, and so does zuko for some reason, but sokka just stands still as his family surrounds him. he still feels like he's being watched. 21 new pairs of eyes overseeing his every move.

eventually they sit back down around the table.

“so,” katara says, “how do we end the hunger games?” the answer is obvious, and oh so complicated.

“I remember the first hunger games,” says kanna. “barely.”

“how did people just let it happen?” suki asks.

“they said, you don’t have to watch it if you don’t like it. and we didn’t.”

“but surely people fought back,” she protests.

“we did,” shrugs kanna. “anyone who posed a serious threat to the capitol was taken away. eventually, there was no one left to fight back. we were tired. we just wanted to live.”

“so you’re saying it’s hopeless,” toph says bluntly.

“i’m not saying that,” says kanna. “something’s shifted now. something different, that sets a new precedent.”

sokka sighs. “it was an accident.” he never actually thought they’d let them get away with what they did. he never actually thought they’d all be alive right now. if he had, maybe he could’ve convinced yue not to...

“that’s not how the people see it,” says kanna.

katara nods. “you’ve given us hope again.” she catches sokka’s eye from across the table, brimming with optimism, as if sokka is some kind of hero. he can’t meet her gaze.

katara wants to lead a revolution. sokka just wants to keep her safe. he's always admired her reckless idealism and overflowing emotions, as much as they've also caused him endless frustration. so when she becomes the voice for the people, fighting tirelessly for a better world, he will always have her back. and suki and toph will have his.

in the difficult years ahead, he sometimes wonders if the games were the easy part. (he immediately hates himself for thinking that. nothing about what happened to yue was easy.) but he keeps fighting, because katara keeps fighting, so he has to. he's grateful for the friendships he's made. he loves them all: mai's dry wit, zuko's unyielding heart, suki's inner strength, and toph's utter brilliance. but it is katara's heroism, her hope, her righteous fury, that eventually organizes the people into a movement effective enough to produce results. that day sokka was first whisked away on a train katara decided that she would end the games no matter what, and she always keeps her word.

every year on this day, sokka sits by the lake near his home at night, watching the full moon reflect its silver light over the still water. the handful of flowers he picked drift over the surface, glowing ever so slightly under the night sky. he rests in silent contemplation as the sun rises above him. it's a new day.

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