The green and white buildings were scorched black, and tall pillars of smoke rising up from various locations as distant figures garbed in the red and black uniforms of the Fire Nation swarmed all over the place.
...
"Oh no..." Suki muttered in horror as she saw a new depressing sight: On the road beside their parked cell-coach, there was a long line of manacled prisoners with crestfallen expressions as they trudged defeatedly down the road. Earthbenders by the look of it. The chains rattling between their wrists and ankles- a constant reminder that they wouldn't be able to fight back. Not anymore.
The line of prisoners even included a familiar wizened, old man with a liver spotted face.
"Uncle innkeeper..." Suki dejectedly called out to the old man in chains. Hearing her voice, the grey-haired old man raised his bowed head up and squinted at them with his bleary eyes.
"Khan got you too, eh? Well, I did warn you ladies." He reminded her with a bitter smile as he slowly walked on by, "But I should have heeded my own warning and fled town myself when I still had the chance. Now... I have nothing."
"You have your life." Khan boomed as he walked into view beside the line of prisoners. In his full Fire Nation armour including his skull-faced helmet that glared down at the old man, "Be grateful that I'm not having you executed for that ambush you pulled, you wily old fart. Get moving."
"Heh."
"Smug old bastard." Khan growled as the line of prisoners moved along.
"Khan! Where are you taking them?!" Suki demanded- gripping the bars of their cell tighter.
"Resettling them to somewhere less stupid." the giant shook his head in vivid disapproval, "That was a horrible, horrible location to build a village, just like the last seven villages we burned down. Good riddance! Shows what their ancestors knew- which was absolutely nothing. No forward planning at all, just 'let's build here, it looks neat.' Amateurs."
Suki felt herself fume angrily. This was the type of thinking that threatened her village, the entire Earth Kingdom actually. The type of thinking that the Fire Nation knew better, and that the world would be better off under their rule. And she was reminded once again that despite how attractive Khan was under that helmet, he was still Fire Nation- they were still mortal enemies.
"Typical Fire Nation arrogance." She spat as her knuckles turned white from gripping the bars of her cell, "You really think you know better than all the wisdom gathered by the generations that came before?! That you can just come here and dictate how we can better our lives?!"
"Yes, I do know better. You have no idea." His voice hummed as if a flood of memories was washing over him.
"I have... experienced enough city and settlement-builders." Khan began in that same haunted tone, "Age of Empires, Kenshi, Rimworld, Dwarf Fortress, Frostpunk, Black & White 2... and maybe Simcity and Cities Skyline if they're even applicable in this tech level. Oh, and a useless piece of paper that says I'm a fully licensed clown of the civil engineering circus. Rest assured, I know how to establish and build up a village from nothing- more than anyone else in this entire world in fact. I know what it takes to make a settlement endure such unimaginable horrors and cruel tribulations that this world has been fortunate enough to not experience yet. Once I'm done with here, not even the spiteful gods of RNG can make my settlement fall."
She watched Khan shake his head one last time before walking away, and though Suki didn't understand a lot of those words- likely references to things that were taught in Fire Nation schools- her blood just boiled all the same as it sounded like just more pointless Fire Nation imperialism to her.
"You really think you're the hero in all this, Khan?!" She aimed the angry shout at his back.
The armoured Fire Nation giant stopped, and his skull-faced helmet turned to look over his shoulder at her.
"I'm the farthest thing from a hero." He said simply, "But it won't matter what I am, once I finish my quest for books and finally unshackle my mind from its mere mortal limits. A hundred years from now, the world won't remember me for what I was- only for what I was able to achieve. Who knows? Perhaps one day, they might even thank me for what I did."
And without another word, he walked off- likely to organise the loot that all filthy Fire Nation raiders did when they sacked an Earth Nation village.
Angrily shutting the window shut, Suki sat down with a huff and frustratedly running her fingers through her auburn red hair. She couldn't believe she almost slept with him willingly. And as their coach-cell began moving again, her sisters seemed to have arrived at the thousand gold piece question on their own.
"Wait... what will happen to us when Khan finishes his book?"
All trains of thought ground to a stop in their coach-cell as everyone realised to their growing horror that they did not even have one possible answer to that question that ended well for them. The apprehensive silence stretched on as they considered each grim possibility.
"We need to escape before that happens." one of her sisters-in-arms finally said, but Suki had to disagree.
"No... What we need- what we must do is to kill Khan." She proposed instead. "His reign of terror won't end until he's dead."
Pure disbelief coloured her sisters' expression.
"But how can we do that?"
"Yeah, the six of us couldn't win against him while we were all armed and well-rested!"
"Dignity. We'll use Dignity." was Suki's only rebuttal, and all discussion died down. Her sisters immediately adopting a heavy expression of trepidation as they considered the weight of what she was proposing.
Dignity was the name of the poison that every Kyoshi Warrior hid in their ornamental brass headdresses. A white liquid in a wooden vial that could induce death in seconds. It was one of those long-standing traditions that the Kyoshi Warriors don't really talk about. At all. Because women soldiers getting captured in wartime... It was often an ugly and ignoble fate, and dying with Dignity... well, there was no name more apt for that poison. Suki and her sisters have been extremely fortunate that Khan was one of the exceptions to the rule in regards to captors. And it was a testament to the giant's skill in combat that none of them had the opportunity to use the poison.
"Khan personally disarmed us... our headdresses must be in his quarters as trophies."
"But it's not like he'll let anyone wander around his quarters."
Suki already had a plan going forward.
"Let's work off of the old plan..." She told her sisters, "I'll seduce him- gain his trust to have more freedom to move around his quarters and find our headdresses. If he's... preoccupied with me, he won't be able to finish his book at a reasonable rate, and it'll buy us even more time to look for an opening. And when we do find it, I'll slip a quarter of a vial into his tea. The poison should kill him over a day, and if we time it right, we might even be able to escape and continue with our mission to Ba Sing Se."
Her sisters just looked at each other with deep worry, and Suki knew them all well enough to know what they were worried about: her.
"Suki..."
"It's alright..." She said softly as she slid the window open and glanced at the sacked village once last time- what she was fighting to prevent from happening again, "I think being able to stop the 41st Division's campaign of terror and destruction is worth trading my virginity for."
Her resolve strengthened at the sight, and she turned to face her sisters-in-arms to flash a confident smile at them.
"And besides, I'm a Kyoshi Warrior, first and foremost. I won't lose to a man."