After the Scorpion's arrival and the news he brought, the Kyoshi Warriors had gathered as a whole to discuss the potential return of the Avatar, as well as the troubles that would follow along. Nobody liked the fact that the Fire Nation commander seemed to have plans for Kyoshi Island, and everybody liked it less that he insinuated a possible future where the Kyoshi Warriors would find cause to cooperate with the Fire Nation.
So preparations were made, and when the Avatar did show up - in Suki's village too, no less - those preparations were hastened.
Hidden shelters were constructed for each village, to allow for the island's whole population to hide in if push came to shove. The sole trading port underwent renovations to both reinforce it for defense, and allow for quick sabotage if it was captured. The Kyoshi Warriors underwent a more intense training regimen while also training up the adult villagers into respectable militias.
None of those tasks were completed when Zuko, prince of the Fire Nation made landfall, and turned the Scorpion's words from an omen into a prophecy made real. Suki had gambled and used the monster's name, and surprisingly the words had bled off most of the prince's hostility. They still clashed though, but by the time the invaders left to chase after the Avatar, no lives were lost, and the village was relatively intact.
Suki and her fellows suffered some wounds to their pride, but they'd get over it. Zuko and his soldiers were well trained, and it took the Kyoshi Warriors all of their martial skill to both fend off and distract the Fire Nation for as long as they did, even if the enemy had been holding back. Suki had ended up being tripped by a sudden leg sweep, and found the prince's hand hovering close to her face, glowing with the threat of a blooming flame.
Surprisingly, his scowl carried a mix of respect and annoyance. And despite the latter, she did not pick up any killing intent from the prince. "You fought well. I can see why Xing wishes to keep this place intact."
He left with his troops, leaving the Kyoshi Warriors to deal with the light aftermath. Incredulously, a Fire Nation boat beached on the next day, packed with sacks of Earth Kingdom currency. It was then that Suki realized the influence the Scorpion of the Defiant 11th wielded to be able to make a prince play nice.
With the village restored and the defensive preparations continuing, Suki made the decision to head out to the Earth Kingdom to gather more information. Xing had promised to seek them out again for some purpose, and Suki wanted to know what exactly was happening in the Earth Kingdom that made the Scorpion think he could cause the Kyoshi Warriors to side with the Fire Nation.
Traveling the Earth Kingdom was an eye-opening experience for Suki and her small unit of Kyoshi Warriors. A lifetime of isolation had etched certain expectations of the mainland, many of which they were finding to be either obsolete or outright false.
Even discounting the ravages of war, there were signs of misrule. The villages far behind the warfront complained or showed signs of apathy from Ba Sing Se. Instead of the harmonious unity of the great empire, the people in the walled cities they had initially passed through spoke little of the Earth King and his grand court, and talked as if the southern states were a separate entity of its own.
Later on, Suki's squad encountered and promptly escorted the refugees of Omashu headed south to Sufang. From them, Suki learned of King Bumi's selfless sacrifice to save his people. The ancient king had faced down the Scorpion Dragon in an attempt to halt the Fire Nation's advance for a second time, but he lost the rematch. Yet the duel had bought his troops time to disperse and regroup to other realms, while Omashu was quickly emptied out as the Fire Nation's advance slowed in fear of a trap.
Even in defeat, the Mad King had been well prepared.
And once more, the lack of even a token contribution from Ba Sing Se stood out to Suki.
Supposedly, the king of Omashu was held prisoner in his own city, but already the other states - southern states - were drawing up plans to retake the city and liberate its king.
None of the refugees she spoke to even considered seeking assistance from their capital.
Suki shared the admiration the refugees had for their captured monarch, yet she was also quite aware of the enormity of what had transpired. King Bumi, well known as the king who had single-handedly stopped an entire Fire Nation campaign, had been brought down by a monster in the form of a boy.
That uncomfortable fact had made Suki absently reach for her neck where the Scorpion had managed to firmly wrap his hand around. For all her training, his takedown seemed so effortless. She was far below him in skill, she realized, yet he not only spared her, but also regarded her with some twisted form of respect.
After escorting the refugees to Sufang, the Kyoshi Warriors traveled north once more, eventually coming across their first villagers conquered by the Fire Nation. To their surprise, the settlements were not as devastated or oppressed as they had expected. The villagers seemed generally uncaring about their new rulers, with no signs of atrocities being committed by the oppressors. Even the womenfolk were walking around without any sense of trepidation.
"Oh, they're dangerous if you cross them," an elderly villager had told the confused warriors, "But other than that, they ask for little."
Suki glanced about the almost idyllic scene around her before staring at the man. "I thought the Fire Nation would be taking away all the able-bodied adults and benders?"
He shrugged as he answered. "We thought so too. But then the officials came by, and told us our obligations were now to the Fire Nation princess, and then hired our earthbenders to build the new village hall. That one, there."
"Hired?" The Kyoshi Warriors glanced briefly at the rather large structure they had initially thought to be a warehouse or simple manor.
The old man grinned. "Yeah. That's our faces when we heard that too. Paid well too. Supposed to be a place for the Fire Nation magistrates to stop by and listen to any grievances that they could work on. No, really. That's what they said."
Suki couldn't help the skepticism in her voice. "Have any of them used it so far?"
The villager nodded his head. "A-yep. Every three weeks, just as they said they would. They come in, ask if there's anything that needs looking into, and then move on after they send out their letters. The last time the chief decided to give it a try and ask for new tools. The next magistrate that came along told us our request was received. Then the week after that, a wagon comes rolling in with brand new farming tools. Shovels, sickles, sacks, wheelbarrows…"
Suki had to consciously close her jaws shut. "This…you're talking about the Fire Nation, right?"
"Yeah. Hard to believe, I know, after hearing all the tales from the north."
The other villagers shared similar sentiments, and Suki felt as if Kyoshi Island had missed out on some major upheaval after all this time.
Then they heard of the exploits trickling down from the subjugated north, and things felt more familiar again.
For all the supposed benevolence, the Fire Nation's crown princess was the one who held the leash of the Scorpion. And almost everywhere he went, horrid results were left in his wake.
He led a campaign of terror that had brave Earth Kingdom soldiers either fleeing or butchered beyond recognition.
A duke's brother was spared for his insolence, but had his hands and feet burned off to live a pitiful existence.
His first fight with King Bumi was ended because he dishonorably broke from the duel to land among Omashu's soldiers, ransoming their life for his.
He killed a dragon, and had its eggs presented to the Fire Lord as a prize, who then obliterated them to claim the dishonorable title of the man who killed the last dragons.
Supposedly even many Fire Nation commanders were leery of working with him, save for those desperate for glory, or shared in the same despicable tastes. The only consolation was that Xing of the 11th was not tasked to hunt down the Avatar, otherwise Suki could imagine the trail of mutilated hostages left in their wake to force Aang's surrender.
With any luck, the Avatar would not encounter the Scorpion any time soon.
However, much to Suki's distaste, the Fire Nation was not the only one with monsters.
Keeping to the forest, the Kyoshi Warriors ran into a ragtag group of so-called 'freedom fighters'. At first, Suki admired Jet and his gang of misfits for their stubborn resistance. Her group stayed with them for the night, learning about their noble goal of freeing the nearby village of Gaipan from its Fire Nation oppressors.
She and her sisters were about to pledge their assistance, until they saw how Jet and his band eagerly preyed upon a lone, elderly man clearly passing through 'their' forest. Despite the old man's obvious Fire Nation attire, Suki and her unit quickly intervened to stop the guerillas from making cruel sport of the prone man.
"Why are you protecting him?" Jet had demanded angrily, suddenly snapping with wild eyes. "He's Fire Nation!"
"He's an old man who's unable to harm you."
"He's Fire Nation!" the young man repeated. "They're all the same!"
Suki half-turned to her Kyoshi sisters, not keeping her eyes off Jet. "Search him."
Miyu and Luqi carefully helped the elderly man up before carefully patting him down, finding a small sack and a rather light coin purse. "Rations, a knife-"
"See? He's an assassin!"
The Kyoshi Warriors collectively rolled their eyes. Said knife in Luqi's hand was obviously a chipped and barely maintained survival tool, not much of an upgrade over sharpened stone.
And besides the weapon itself…
"You brought him down and almost killed him right then," Suki retorted sharply. "Let him be. He's clearly not a soldier."
"He's Fire Nation!" Jet shouted once more, as if it explained everything. "They're responsible for countless deaths and destroyed homes!"
Suki felt her temper rising to catch up with the irrational intensity of the man's - boy's tantrum. "That doesn't mean he's personally guilty of it!"
Her opposite number fumed and took a threatening step forwards, brandishing his hook swords. The Kyoshi Warriors reacted in an instant, shields and war fans unfolding while blades were unsheathed. Jet froze at the warning, and found little effectiveness in trying to glare Suki down.
"You don't understand. How can you understand? You haven't lost anything to these monsters!"
The tension spiked as the resistance leader went there. Suki leveled her war fan at him as her eyes narrowed dangerously. "I understand that there is a clear difference between righteous vengeance and wanton destruction for the sake of unjustified entitlement."
She then gave a sideways glance to the old man. "Elder, leave. Now. We will protect you."
As the Kyoshi Warriors held their ground against the scowling Freedom Fighters, the old man nodded quickly, and hurried out the way he came as fast as his frail legs could carry him. Once he was gone, the tension bled out with Jet spitting on the ground between him and Suki.
"Fucking traitors."
"Hate-bound monster," she returned.
Unsurprisingly, they did not stay for a second night, opting to leave the region as fast as they could. They had just cleared the forest and crested a hill when Luqi noticed something in the distance. "It's definitely them," indicating the Freedom Fighters as she squinted hard at the wooden dam at the base of the hill. "There's a wagon… They're unloading barrels from it."
That confused Suki and the others, until Luqi told her what color the barrels were, and that they were packing them by the base of the dam.
"We need to warn the village," Miyu said.
"Or stop them," Okuni suggested.
Suki gave a quick glance at the village, and then turned her gaze back towards the dam. Even from up here, the dam was closer. With a flick of her wrist, Suki's war fan unfolded.
"Kyoshi Warriors. Sisters, we take the fight to them. For the innocents."
"In Kyoshi's name," they intoned.
They darted down the hill with ease, finding the wooded hills no more troublesome than their mountainous home island. Suki gave little thought as she leapt over low-hanging branches and swung from tree branches. She and her sisters slid down steeper inclines and practically ran across the lower canopy to reach their target.
As they drew closer, Suki saw clearly that the Freedom Fighters were finishing their task. A sharp bird call sounded from somewhere, and the ragtag fighters froze and turned as one towards the approaching Kyoshi Warriors. With the advantage of surprise lost, Suki and her fellow warriors simply accelerated for an all out, direct charge.
With a harsh whip of their arms, the Kyoshi Warriors contemptuously batted aside a drizzle of arrows coming from the right flank with their shields and fans. Compared to firebenders, compared to the firebenders of the 11th especially, these projectiles were nothing. Jet shot out like a bolt to intercept them, his gang members following after.
The Kyoshi Warriors broke formation in an attempt to weave through the opposition and secure the barrels. Suki ducked under Jet's slashing hook sword, swinging her fan up to bind with the hook of the second blade and redirect its momentum with a twist of her wrist. Jet recovered quickly, pulling back and then lunging forwards once more with his blades reared up for downwards swings.
With ruthless precision, the Kyoshi Warrior stepped into his attack, catching him by surprise as she rammed her pauldron into his chest. She raised her shield once more to meet an arrow from behind her, never taking her eyes off her opponent.
Suki stalked towards a more wary Jet, ignoring his aggressive posturing. Even if he linked his hook swords together to whip them about, even if he launched a respectable warding pattern with them, Suki could not help but feel that this man, this…terrorist, was highly unimpressive. His moves were flashy, but that was all to it.
Then again, after facing the worse the Fire Nation could offer, perhaps her standards were too high?
She didn't hide her contempt as she parried his strikes and side-stepped the more telegraphed attacks. When Jet attempted to hook her wrist to disarm her, Suki let go of her war fan and grabbed at the hook sword as it slipped past her limb. Padded gloves made the move anything but dangerous, and allowed her to yank at the weapon to yank Jet off balance, allowing her to promptly deliver a knee up into his now-exposed chest.
Jet was a decent fighter, but he relied too much on flashy unpredictability with his exotic weapon. Her training and short but bountiful experience in fighting the Fire Nation told her that much. The anger in his eyes also told Suki that he was losing his focus, which was more of a disappointment.
"Stop this," she demanded, earning only a growl as Jet lunged again. This time Suki stepped back as the hook swords swung out, and then stepped back in to press her lamellar cuirass against the curved tips of the hooks. With his arms locked into a swinging pose, they buckled from the sudden pressure and allowed Suki to dive in, using her shield hand to grab him by the throat.
It wasn't as elegant, but Suki was getting close to matching the Scorpion's skill…however little progress it might be.
"Stop this," Suki repeated, this time unsheathing her sword and bringing its much sharper point against his throat. Before he could reply, she twisted aside and dragged him into the path of another arrow coming from behind her, yanking him aside just as it was about to hit him right between the eyes. "I'll have the next one go right in your mouth," she threatened, and finally Jet slumped and sighed.
"Fucking traitor…" he muttered as he dropped his weapon, but she didn't care.
Looking around, Suki found the rest of the Freedom Fighters groaning and limp on the ground, while her sisters remained alert for further threats. The warfans and swords were not stained, and she saw no pools of blood beneath the bodies, so the takedowns were all nonlethal.
"Now tell everyone else in the forest to come out."
Jet's glare was one of impotent fury and pure hatred, but he eventually gave a bird call, and repeated it twice after several seconds of tense silence.
Suki almost relaxed when she felt his resistance completely melt away in her hands, giving way to resignation. But then Luqi gave an alarmed cry, and her gaze quickly snapped skywards.
Soaring through the air, a lone, burning arrow flew towards the dam and the barrels piled against it.
Glancing down, Suki met Jet's wry, vindictive smirk.
"Idiot."
She slammed the hilt of her blade into his temple and tossed him aside, picking up her war fan as she ran to the other Kyoshi Warriors. "Boost me!"
Without requiring further elaboration, Luqi, San-Niang and Miyu crouched side by side as she ran towards them, forming the foundation for Okuni and Kana to climb on their thighs. Suki climbed up the human pyramid, and as her feet landed on Okuni's and Kana's cupped hands, the Kyoshi Warriors as one shot up with a collective grunt, launching their leader high up.
It didn't take long for her to reach the apex of her short flight, and Suki flung her fan out just before she began descending. Her eyes locked onto the spinning weapon as she fell back to the earth, and she watched it fly into the path of the arrow, the force of the collision snapping the burning projectile and shattering the war fan into its individual metal pieces.
Suki landed in the arms of her fellow warriors, and even before metal and arrow fragments rained down on them, she got up and stomped over to a still-dazed Jet. A quick gesture of her hands sent San-Niang, Kana and Luqi into the forest. "Last chance," she declared with a snarl, her patience all ran out as she pressed her sword against his throat once more.
"Call all of them out, now. Or we'll drag their corpses here ourselves." It was shameful to take a page from her nemesis' playbook, but Suki didn't second-guess her impulse and rolled with it.
"Anything other than your fellow terrorists comes out of that forest, and I'll end you and all your friends here before I go in and hunt down the others."
She watched with some satisfaction as all the anger and the fight finally left Jet. He wasn't completely lost to his hatred, then.
The next bird call he gave was shorter, and it didn't repeat. Not long after, several more Freedom Fighters walked out from the forest, their empty hands raised in the air.
Not trusting them, but not trusting the Fire Nation even more, Suki had them bound first before she and her sisters rolled the barrels away from the dam and broke them open to spill the contents into the soil.
Give it a few days and the whole thing would leach away harmlessly.
Suki then gave the Freedom Fighters a simple choice: Leave the region or be brought to Gaipan to face justice. Suki knew better than to get a promise from them to not commit anymore acts of lunacy. She could only hope that they would hopefully be demoralized enough to try again anytime soon.
Naturally, all of them chose the first option.
"If your idea of freeing your people means slaughtering them, then I suggest you work for the Fire Nation instead," Suki coldly rebuked, ignoring the flare of rage from Jet. "Otherwise, learn to actually fight your real enemies, rather than settle for sulking in the shadows and bullying the helpless."
Whether they took her advice or not, Suki didn't care. Not until she ran into them again. Hopefully that won't happen anytime soon.
The Kyoshi Warriors tossed the Freedom Fighters' weapons into the river before leaving. They would untie themselves, eventually.
Just to be safe, the girls spent a night at Gaipan, where their lodging and meals were covered by the old man they had saved the other day. Or more accurately, his praise of the Kyoshi Warriors impressed the villagers that they waived off any fees. The Fire Nation guards stationed there didn't show any hostility to the sight of the Kyoshi Warriors, only scowling with suspicion at having armed visitors walking around.
They went back to check the dam the next day, and found the Freedom Fighters gone, seemingly keeping their word. Disturbingly, Suki found superficial damage to a particular section of the dam, as if someone was hacking ineffectually at the logs and planks to compromise its integrity. Or to vent their frustration.
As they continued their journey, Suki dearly hoped that Jet and his gang of madmen would be a unique exception to the Earth Kingdom.