Little Soldier Boy

Sides

Katara stood on the deck as she rested her arms against the side of the water tribe ship. She left her hair down from being unable to sleep, Aang and Sokka were below deck as they traveled back to the earth kingdom to start hunting for aangs earth bending teacher hopefully.

She held a small knife in her hands, it was light but the blade was sharpe, one side said made in earth kingdom. The other side said 'never give up without a fight'.

She knew it was from that fire nation soldier. The one that took Aang..

She remembered his voice, his scream of fear when zhao killed one of their own, those two that were with him in the blizzard seem like he trusted them. Friends maybe even..

It didn't add up, why did zhao want to kill him? Was it because he failed taking the avatar? But why go for the scarred soldier specifically? The one that was killed was closer, it would've made sense to kill the one that's closer but he went after the scarred man.

He dropped the blade just before he ran off with his other friend, she wondered what happened to them? Everyone knows zhao got what he deserved but nothing more than that, his failure.

But Katara knew better than to be optimistic, some fire nation soldiers lost their lives as well, she didn't know how many. She didn't know if she wanted to know how many.

Katara pursed her lips debating on dropping the knife into the ocean. Why would it matter.

But since did the soldiers carry something that might mean something? Why was this one different? What made this one stand out? The stupid knife? The scar on his face? The fact that zhao let someone take partial credits in capturing the avatar?

Katara gasped softly hearing footsteps and saw Aang climbing up the ladder to the surface. Oh no.. he must've had another nightmare, he was asleep and it's been so long since they've slept on something that wasn't appa or a sleeping bag.

"Wanna talk about it?" Katara didn't bother guessing to him why he was with her at this time of night.

"Nah just a nightmare," Aang walked to her.

"I was in the avatar state," he sighed a little as Katara hid the knife in her belt behind her back.

"But I was outside my body, watching myself... it was scary, I was scary," Aang put his head down in guilt of the battle at the northern water tribe.

"It is scary," Katara nodded. "It's a lot for you to handle so fast, it's a lot of responsibility, it's a lot of power for one person but you're not scary,"

Aang looked at her sadly and she offered a kind smile to comfort.

"You saved everyone, the moon spirit was saved, and the northern water tribe is still here because of you," Katara tried again, he let that sit in for a moment.

"Thank you, for helping me every time I'm in the avatar state," Aang smiled back a little and went back to the bunks but she stayed out in the night.

Aang didn't think further on the war, that there was death, there was misery to both sides, no matter what nation your in, someone isn't going home every day.

She pulled the knife out again.

It was an earth kingdom object with an fire nation soldier on the battle field. That was beyond odd. It made her think about how each person in the fire army had a family back home, they had a home to go back too. That's what she hated about war. He was someone's son or uncle or nephew or brother too, his death means something to someone.

Everyone's death matter to someone.

Katara covered her face shaking her head. What was she thinking? She couldn't think like that, she probably wasn't innocent either, or if she was it wouldn't last for long.

She couldn't think like that, not in a war, not in this war.

But she still couldn't drop the knife in the waters.

——

Jet lead Zuko through the forest as they spent a few hours walking together back to jets camp, Zuko kept looking over his shoulder paranoid for those who'd be after him.

"So how'd the colonies get so close to earth kingdom, that's still a whole ocean away," jet walked backwards with his hands behind his head to face the other teen.

"My village burned down when I was seven, I ran away and started to travel around over a year ago after running from an orphanage, they were going to start recruiting soldiers," Zuko gulped looking sad to play the part of the pathetic orphan.

"Fire benders burned down my village and killed my parents too," jet stopped as he stared at the boy.

"Guess it's pretty common," Zuko nodded crossing his arms.

"So are you a fire bender then?" He asked. It made the paler boy hesitate, should he admit it?

"No, not worth much back home," Zuko swallowed a lump in his throat. Jet looked at him for a moment and hummed a little.

"So your on the run from those bastards too? As a freedom fighter we could use someone with your experience," jet agreed turning back around

"I'm not joining your rebel group," Zuko stopped. Jet turned to him again confused.

"Why not?"

"I just... I don't think it'd be smart," he crossed his arms looking down a little. It wouldn't turn out well.

"What do you have to lose? Family? Friends? Do you have a life lee?" Jet raised a brow seeing the hesitation on the boy.

"I don't.. I don't have a lot, but there's.." Zuko pursed his lips. Xai, jay, akio, the others, that's all he had left. That is all he had left.

"Some people I'm worried about," he admitted. But not like he can go back.

"Have a meal, you can have some more time to decide," jet smiled gently at him and Zuko frowned more.

"Why does it matter? You don't know me," Zuko sighed a little shaking his head.

"You jumped off a ship to escape prison," jet grinned.

"Swords like those, a scar like that, your a fighter, and you have your own goal in this war, your like us, suffered and had everything taken from you, am I wrong?" He asked but there was smugness in his voice as Zuko thought about it.

"We all want vengeance, together we'll get it," jet put his hands on his hips taking a step backwards.

"Vengeance?" Zuko asked. Was it possible? Could he...

"Let us get you a meal, think about it," jet raised his hand and grabbed a rope that blended with nature, suddenly yanked in the air into the trees.