Chapter 32: A moving Speech

A/N: Chapters in advance in Patreòn

Pa treon.com/HolyJoker

(20+ chapters in advance)

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Chapter 32: A moving Speech

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"We all as humans, need to put an end to war, or war will put an end to us," Sokka said passionately, this was a speech that he had prepared beforehand.

With [Acting] Skill, he could pull such a performance perfectly. Like an actor trying to draw in its audience, any mistakes that could have been related to bad luck or minor misfortune were eliminated. The only thing left was the true and simplistic emotions that appeared on his face.

"We are brothers and sisters, why do we butcher each other for a wrong ideal? Or for some commander who is too cowardly to fight for you."

He looked each person in the eyes with a hawk-like glint. It made everyone nervous and put them on the spot.

Some people amongst them didn't care for his speech, but they didn't dare act and decided to go with the crowd. As they might get killed by Sokka and it seemed like their comrades were too distracted to do anything.

'This fucking kid, he has everyone swept by his words.' - thought one of the soldiers who wasn't convinced by the speech.

But looking around, he could see by the posture of his colleagues that they didn't want to fight Sokka and were willing to hear him out. 

"This is unlucky as hell," the soldier whispered to himself. "These guys are almost all those who feel guilty for their deeds," the soldier knew about his colleagues and how they sometimes had sleepless nights from what they had to do, "Fuck, there is nothing I can do, I just need to wait for an opportunity to break the brat's argument apart. he convinces these guys to desert, then a tidal wave will follow. There were a lot of unsatisfied Fire Nation soldiers that will start deserting and we can't punish them all."

Sokka didn't know any of this and didn't even think of having the soldiers desert. He just needed to have the main ship stop shooting at Appa and that would work well for him. Since the other ships would also stop shooting.

After all, there was no radio communication in this world and only signals. So most commanders would order the other ships to attack as long as the main ship attacked. 

Of course, Sokka didn't know such detailed information about the Fire Nation. But he could guess that it was something similar to signals. 

But he knew just how bad having the ladder running away would seem. Though he was from a technologically advanced world, Sokka wasn't anything special. If an average physicist went back a hundred years in time, then he would be the best physicist in the world. Knowledge evolved rapidly, just ten years would show major differences.

Sokka wasn't a physicist either. But he had the average knowledge an internet user would have. Meaning he knew a lot of cringe anime speeches that would be super effective when someone heard them for the first time. You had to travel to a whole new world to find them not cringe, but it worked. Also, he knew some good military strategies that were fun to watch on youtube channels that explained it easily, like Oversimplified and such.

"Do not judge people by their background," Sokka said, his eyes looking at the people around him, his gaze changed from intense to a gentle one. 

"Fire Nation killed my mother," he told them bluntly, shocking the people. This made people's hearts clench, which deployed soldier hadn't killed someone? They were very rare, but being under Zhao, they had done some atrocious things. So everyone here had killed at least one person. 

Someone like Zhao wasn't a good commander, and he only got promoted because he wagged his tail like a dog and knew how to follow orders. Soldiers needed consultation by their leader every time they had killed, to let them think that it was for the greater good, even when it wasn't. 

But for someone like Zhao, why would he bother with even having a conversation with his soldiers? 

"I wondered why they did that so many times. But never came up with anything. You are people here who are also part of the Fire Nation. Do you kill women too in front of their children? Should I hate you? An unknown person I have never met before," Sokka paused for a little, seeing everyone look down in shame. He waited for someone to speak.

'This is my chance.' - thought the soldier who wasn't convinced by Sokka's speech. He looked at everyone around him like they were stupid. After all, if he did a good job here then he would get a promotion from Zhao and that was all he cared about. "The Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom are-"

"Are what?" Sokka frowned, interrupting the man. This was the chance he had been waiting for. "Protecting their lands? Nobody welcomed the Fire Nation's invasion. Do you still have delusions about spreading greatness? Is killing my mother and other people's parents the Fire Nation's way to spread greatness?"

'Bitch, don't talk to me like you are some kinda smartass. I will hammer you down like a nail sticking out. Now that one person who spoke up has been hammered down, others will become more reluctant to speak. The one who wins an argument is the one who speaks the most. You can't win an argument if I do not let you say anything.' - Sokka had thought of a speech like this a hundred times over. Sure, he might not have planned it for this exact situation.

But his mother had been killed by a Fire Nation soldier, and he planned to use that to earn more sympathy. Though this speech was supposed to be used for his future political campaign if he became the leader of the Southern Water Tribe. He will have to make another one by then, and he had more than enough to do so by then.

Though Sokka had miscalculated one thing and that was just how much guilt these soldiers would feel from his words. Knowing that they had killed someone's parents, brother, someone's husband. The guilt almost crushed them, they had seen just how people looked at them. Children crying and looking at them with hate for killing their parents, starving villages that were annexed by the Fire Nation.

The crimes of a whole cruel regime weighed down on them. What they wanted wasn't glory, they weren't young children anymore and knew that they could die any day now, that was the life of a soldier. But what they want most right now is forgiveness. They wanted to be forgiven for their sins, as they knew what they had done. 

But something happened that even Sokka hadn't expected. The Fire Nation soldiers fell to their knees and took off their helmets, showing their faces. They had wincing looks filled with shame, and he was even more confused.

'What do I do now?' - Sokka wasn't prepared for something like this. In his mind, he had planned for his enemies to hesitate a bit when they heard this well-prepared political speech that he didn't believe in himself. 

He never believed that there was such a thing as succeeding too much. Well, he started believing now. Because… he had no idea what to do with these people. 

"""Sir!!"""  They suddenly called him respectfully, freaking Sokka out and making his skin crawl. He could feel something bad was about to come.

"Please… forgive us! We have committed many sins in this life and don't want to die with them." One of the fire nation soldiers begged and others followed along. He thought of the screams of the villages they had slaughtered and he shook his head, trying to get rid of such a thought but it wouldn't go away. 

"..." Sokka just stood there and didn't say anything. He had planned for when his speech might go wrong, or if the soldiers decided to attack him again. But… he hadn't planned at all about his speech going too well. - 'I am so fucked. What do I do now?''

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