"W-what?" Suki took a step back. "Y-you knew?!"
"Give us some privacy!" The giant roared to his troops who immediately obeyed as they double-timed it away.
...
"Of course, I knew." He shrugged as if it was the most natural thing in the world, "I would have been perfectly fine with our arrangement if you hadn't tried anything. I could have been easily convinced to spare your island and let you go back to it after the war. But since you were going to play underhandedly, I decided to do that too."
He looked Suki straight in the eye.
"I discovered and replaced the poison with white, starchy rice-water days ago. Just after your first interview in fact. So, the only poison you administered to me was that horrible cup of tea that you mixed it in. The growing numbness in my arm? Just me practising my acting skills. Very convincing, wouldn't you say? As for where the actual poison went however... well, I was curious so I reverse engineered it. But clumsy me, the first batch might have fallen into something when I tossed them out. Maybe something like... some sacks of Gaoling rice?"
Suki recalled all the Fire Nation soldiers who had loaded and unloaded the rice back on the caravan, and she realised just where the poison went.
..
..
A wall sentry at Omashu clutched his painfully grumbling stomach as he surveyed the endless rocky horizon.
"A Gaoling caravan is arriving!" He urgently cried out, "And they're holding up a sack of rice! THEY HAVE FOOD!"
"FOOD!? Quick, send a runner to inform King Bumi!"
..
..
"No... no, no, no! NO!" Suki screamed in panic, "We have to stop them from eating that rice!"
"You're not going to make it in time anyway." Khan scoffed at her, "By the time you arrive, the rice will be on some Earth Kingdom noble's plate. And right before they take that first bite, the Kyoshi Warrior's name will be on their lips..."
His green eyes stared at her through the eye slits of his skull-helmet.
"...you know what that means, don't you?"
..
..
The caravan master gave a dramatic retelling of the events that occurred to an audience of Earth Kingdom nobles and the ruler of Omashu, King Bumi himself.
"... The Kyoshi warriors beseeched the Giant for the sake of Omashu, and so moved was he by her earnest plea that he granted her request and let us go free with the food!"
"Truly the power and influence of woman cannot be underestimated, wouldn't you say, King Bumi?"
"Hooh boy, is that man whipped bad! Glad that I don't have that problem! Oheeheeheehee! *snort*"
"Too right, my king- Aauggh?! P-poison!?"
..
..
"The Kyoshi Warriors are now traitors to the Earth Kingdom." Khan shrugged nonchalantly. "They'd kill you on sight."
"No, that wasn't us! That was you!" Suki shouted, "We can still clear our name!"
Khan let out a cruel bark of laughter.
"That would be a great plan if I didn't send a report to Fire Nation Command and a message to Earth Kingdom of your... collaboration with me."
..
..
The Captain of the Omashu Earthbender garrison read the letter in his hands that were shaking with anger.
'The Kyoshi Warriors send their regards.' was all the letter wrote.
"Those traitorous women! We lost how many of our citizens and perhaps even King Bumi just because these turncoats accepted Fire Nation gold! Send a message to the Earth King of this betrayal! We must not let those Kyoshi Traitors do this again!"
..
..
Suki watched as the Giant shook his head as he spoke, "So, as far as the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom are concerned... the Kyoshi Warriors deliberately poisoned Omashu's food supply to aid in its invasion. The legend of the Kyoshi Warriors will live in infamy alongside my deeds."
"No..." Suki murmured.
"You tried to kill me even after I afforded you special treatment, so I responded by striking at you. Not you six specifically, but the Kyoshi Warrior's name. Even if the Earth Kingdom wins this war... The world will forever remember Kyoshi Warriors as Avatar Kyoshi's greatest mistake."
"HOW DARE YOU!" Suki roared as she charged him with her war fan- intent on dying an honourable death in battle. That was the only way she could even begin to redeem the name of the Kyoshi Warriors now. But even that was denied to her as Khan immediately disarmed with contemptuous ease using the chain of his meteor hammer. All without harming her.
"Suki..." Khan said her name not with anger, but with disappointment. And that somehow only made it hurt more. "You really should know better. Just accept that you've been outplayed and formally surrender this time."
Suki just squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth in frustration. They couldn't- can't stop him. They tried every trick up our sleeve, all the strength in their bodies and it still wasn't enough... and now...
"You won't even give us the dignity of dying in battle..." She despondently murmured.
"My enemies deserve no mercy, no dignity." Khan firmly replied, "But I don't want you to be my enemies, I want you for your notable combat potential, not to mention I've also grown slightly fond of you... So, I'm offering to fix all of this if you swear you turn coats to work for me instead."
That wasn't enough to move the rage burning in Suki as she furiously glared at the Giant that had torn down the Kyoshi Warrior's legacy in one stroke.
"Why would we ever think of doing that?!" She yelled out defiantly. "You did this! You're the one spreading these lies! And if we decline your 'generous offer'? If we refuse to surrender?! What then, Khan?! WHAT THEN?!"
"Then you'll die as my enemy, I'll even afford you a warrior's death." He said simply and calmly, "And not long after your deaths, this book will be published and distributed to every library, school and personal collection in the world."
Khan's large hand reached into a pouch on his waist and pulled out a familiar book with a leather cover of green and gold. Fine golden lettering spelling out the title proudly: An Interview with a Kyoshi Warrior. By Khan.
He looked her in the eye.
"It will say nothing about this night- A blank spot in history." He explained, "And the world will treat the absence of tonight's account as confirmation of what everyone already knows: That the Kyoshi Warriors were traitors, that it was their nefarious plot that precipitated the fall of Omashu... and that all it took for you to turn coats and spit on the legacy of the Avatar you worshipped was Fire Nation gold."
Khan's voice turned less harsh.
"But if you do surrender, if you do swear your unquestioning obedience and unflinching loyalty to me... I'll write my account about this night, and although your names will forever be stained by your association to me, the world will know of your noble sacrifice, and the legend of the Kyoshi's proud warriors will stay pristine... it will still be an ideal to be striven for."
Night slowly fell on the clearing as the two choices weighed heavily on Suki's mind. Just the howling the evening breeze slipping between the short distance between her and Khan. Her, in her armoured green kimono that cloaked her slim frame and her painted face. Him, in his Fire Nation armour that ensconced his massive form and his skull-faced helmet. Two enemies, two lovers.
"Well, Suki?" He spoke softly- in almost the same tone of voice he used during the afterglow of their lovemaking, "What shall the history books read?"
He was making this her decision despite his part in all this... What an infuriatingly complex man.
The breeze brushed through her auburn red hair as Suki's blue eyes looked up to the night sky.
The twinkling stars that were most likely spirits dotted the sky... as a child Suki used to believe the Avatar Kyoshi was one of those shining stars- an unreachable ideal that they nonetheless had to strive for. It was on nights like these that she made promises that she meant to keep, because she believed that it was witnessed by Kyoshi herself. And it was on a night just like this that she swore to her fellow Kyoshi Warriors that they'll always be sisters. Even now, Suki knew that they felt the same as her. Sisters Forever...
With a sigh that was lost in the evening breeze, the Kyoshi Warriors made their decision.
As one, they knelt on one knee before the Giant of the Fire Nation. As one, they rested their clenched fists on the ground. As one, they bowed their painted faces low. And as one, they spoke the sacred oath that the Kyoshi Warriors reserved only for the second coming of Kyoshi herself.
...
"In this life or in our thousandth life, the Kyoshi Warriors will live to serve you, our Khan."
...
[On a bison somewhere high in the sky]
"NO!" Aang cried out as he jolted from his nap, and immediately, Katara was there
"Aang! Are you okay?" She asked, concern for him sparkling in her blue eyes, and the setting sun behind her back.
"I don't know..." he muttered with downcast eyes- curling his skinny knees to his chest, "For a second there, I just felt... off."
Sokka immediately pounced on that with a panicked expression.
"What kind of off? Be specific, Aang!" He urgently probed, "Like a bad sandwich off? Cuz we split a few sandwiches and we might wanna fly closer to the ground just in case an... emergency potty break is needed."
Aang just shook his head as he looked out to the horizon in the south-east.
"No... it was as if someone close to me had just left me behind to be with someone else."
Katara just hugged him warmly- running a mitted hand over his bald head.
"It was just a bad dream, Aang." She reassured him, and he smiled- he had an amazing friend in her.
"Thanks, Katara..." He said, leaning closer to her touch, "I'm sure it was nothing."