Chapter 1: South

She had a lion in her heart, a fire in her soul, and beastly tempered prince to watch out for. Shizi had her work cut out for her, but such is the life of a (formerly) royal bodyguard.

I ended up changing her name about five different times before I finally gave up. I swear. I went through Kaida, Azami, Kiwa, Shizi, and Ying before I finally got to Sang. Then my friend reminded me that Song is already a character so I went back to Shizi. Yeah.

Please send help.

Cursing ahead.


It was fucking freezing.

Even under three different layers of clothes Shizi was pretty sure she was starting to turn blue from it. She couldn't even put on thicker clothes, unless she wanted to walk around like a giant marshmallow instead of an elite warrior.

When the thermometer she was glaring at dropped another few degrees, she seriously considered it.

Prince Zuko, at least, had the freedom not to wear armor unless he wanted to. He got to flounce around in a thick cloak that almost touched the floor of the ship, warm as the penguin seals they puffed on by.

The rest of them were stuck wandering around in in armor made for sea and infantry. They hadn't been told they were going to be going to the South Pole when they had set out. The whole crew was ill equipped. The only thing they had going for them was that the vast majority was firebenders, and firebenders could warm themselves.

That didn't mean that Shizi liked the cold any. She would have much rather been back in her home country, basking in the glow of the sun. Running through the peaks of rocky mountains formed so long ago by volcanoes. Laying on the beach with the sand in her fingers and the wind combing her hair…

Her musings were broken apart when a light that a definitely not a part of the southern sky cast her shadow away from her. Shizi lifted her grey eyes up, up, up to the heavens and the beacon of light blaring up in a perfect stream that emanated from the glaciers below it.

Oh.

That was… unusual. She had heard that lighting got strange in the poles but this was certainly not the dancing rainbows her Master had described in his tales of travel and wonder. He hadn't mentioned beams of light or the threat of frost bite, and she knew he had been to the south pole. She had seen the pelts he hung on his walls, and the whale tooth scimitar that he displayed alongside them.

If she got the chance, Shizi planned on having one of her own before this trip was done.

Their course changed, the ship lifting up under her feet and the waves crashed against the side. Ice cracked under the pressure of the metal, splitting neatly before them. Shizi made her way to prow, just in time to be blasted by a wave of frigid air.

"What was that?" She asked dropping to her knees at the side of the former general. Iroh passed her a cup of tea and she breathed a bit easier when the warmth of the tea seeped into her frigid fingers. Is was jasmine, the scent reaching her and filling her with a calm that escaped her prince.

"According to my nephew, that is the Avatar," he said. Shizi looked around his shoulder to see the young man go storming across the deck to yell at the helmsmen. Again.

"Do you believe that it is?" she asked. Iroh turned his kind eyes on her. He was always like that. Nicer than he needed to be and full of caring and wisdom that he would share if only you sighed deeply enough within his earshot. Most of his advice involved tea.

Not that Shizi was going to complain. He made excellent tea. He had for all the years she had known him.

"I believe that Prince Zuko has found something to aim himself towards," came the neutral reply. Shizi hummed softly and took a drink, until her prince went for the door. She stood and moved to follow him. She was, technically, supposed to stay no less than three paces and no more than five away from him at any given time, but on the ship, in the middle of the north, she had relaxed. The men had proven themselves loyal, if long suffering.

The trip was a voluntary one, after all. She and all the other crew members were there of their own volition, and had been for the past two and half years. Not that she would have been anywhere else. Zuko was her prince, hers to guard and protect from all threats. He had been for years.

Shizi trotted after him when his pace increased, ducking around Lee the Cook, who was talking to Lee the Engineer, about his cousin Lee the Physician. So many Lee's. There were a million Lee's.

"I've found him," Zuko said it outloud but Shizi wasn't sure he was talking to her. He didn't really talk to people these days. He talked at them a lot.

"I saw," Shizi fell in, three paces behind him. "We won't reach that point for some time though, my prince," she said carefully. "At least a day. You might use that time to rest, my prince."

Zuko frowned. "I don't need rest. I need to capture the Avatar."

Which was what he'd said for the last two years. Straight. Shizi had grown tired, and then resigned, to it sometime between month five and year two.

"You'll catch him easier if you're not tired when we arrive," she insisted. She could only press so much before her prince balked and got stubborn. Again.

"I'll be fine," he dismissed, and stormed into his room. Shizi was left staring at the metal, a deep sigh sliding out of her mouth. She hoped that they found the Avatar soon, for her own sake. If they didn't, she might end up strangling whoever looked the most like her prince when she finally snapped.

With her thoughts now sliding to murder, and from there combat, she stepped into the door directly to the right of that of her prince. Her room was smaller than his, and not as decorated. There was still a corner full of candles and a desk, and the Fire Nation banner that hung from the wall, but that was requirement. Every other spare space was taken up by weaponry.

Swords, daggers, polearms, cables, bows, throwing disks, the list went on and on. There was even an antique staff from the Western Air Temple, tucked neatly into the corner.

None of these were what she was looking for though. She stepped up to the chest at the foot of her cot. It had come with the ship, an old , refurbished piece of shit from the beginning of the war. It was all that they had been allotted for this godforsaken journey. Even the allowance they had been given was barely enough to feed the whole crew. On more than one occasion had the crewmen had to dip into their own pay to restock.

It was an impossible mission and they all knew it.

Except now it was starting to look a little less impossible.

Shzi reached into her trunk, pulling out a small leather pouch. She let it swing before her eyes, counting to seven, before she dropped it again into the chest and reached for another pouch. The first was red, the second, black. That one she let swing four times before she dropped it and shut the lid. Seven for her and for her prince, four for their quarry and herself.

While Zuko may not rest before their battle, she needed to. Needed to. But she couldn't. She had sworn a vow on her name, her blood, her life, that she would protect him. She had failed once already.

She would not do it twice.


"It's so small," Shizi wondered aloud. Wei, who stood next to her on the helm, grunted his agreement. Wei had never been big on words. Perhaps because an earthbender that crushed his trachea years earlier and stolen his voice with a flurry of ripped vocal cords.

Or maybe he just didn't like speaking. Who could really say?

"Do you think there are any waterbenders in there?" she wondered. Wei gave her a flat look, accompanied by an arched brow. Shizi dropped her head. "Right, yeah. We got rid of them. Too bad, could have been a fun fight."

Wei let out a long breath, tipping his head just so.

Shizi smiled sweetly. "Oh come on. You don't think I can cut through some water?"

Wei put his hand on the side of her helmet and shoved. Shizi stumbled with a laugh and spun away to stand to her prince's right rather than his left, where Wei stayed. Iroh was staying on board with his tea and his solitaire.

She put her faceplate up, a hated addition that made it all the harder to see. If nothing else, her helmet had long drapes along the outside that would help her stay warmer. Most of her companions had helmets that ended below their chins. Even her prince.

Shizi let her breath fan out through the three slits of her helmet. She hated it so much.

The ship shook when the landing bridge fell forwards, smashing straight through the miniscule wall that surrounded the tiny village. The girl pitied the children that screamed inside.

And, the sole boy of fighting age that came towards them with a strange weapon raised above his head, screaming.

Zuko didn't look at her as he spoke.

"If you protect me from that, I'll be offended."

"If I don't protect you, I'll be doing a poor job," she retorted. Nonetheless she stayed back while her prince kicked the odd weapon out of his hand, and in the same motion cracked the boy across the head until he went tumbling into the snow drift below them.

While he was struggling, face buried in the snow, the small landing part of her, Wei, and her prince, moved towards the other inhabitants. Women and children only. The boy now trying to rip himself out if the snow was the only semblance of a 'man' in the village.

Shizi wondered why. She knew, she was sure, they were fighting a war. But why weren't there any left? Based on the side of the village there was one woman for each hut, probably more. So, why weren't any of them off fighting? Unless they couldn't. None of them were stepping up to defend themselves from her or her companions. So, she figured, they must be poor fighters. If they could fight at all.

How foolish.

A scream from behind alerted Shizi to the arrival of the boy, who was sprinting at them with that same weapon raised. Was he stupid?

She stepped up, caught his wrist, and threw him casually across her hip. He tipped ass over ears before managing to land on his knees, crouched. The face paint that had been on his face had all but smeared off, leaving only a border of black and white. He was even younger than she'd first thought. Younger and her, younger than her prince. He pitched something shaped like an elbow at her prince, who dodged away from it. Shizi glowered.

A little boy threw a spear at him and he tried to charge again, trailed by shouted of 'show no fear!'.

"What a stupid boy," she mumbled. Zuko snorted and crossed his arms while she stepped in front of him and caught the boy by his spear. With a neat twist she had it out of his hands. It wasn't bad. Probably more use for hunting than actual combat…

She ducked a wild swing he took at her head and smashed her elbow into his stomach. He was forced to bend double and she wrapped her arm around his neck, pulling him up. Her other hand pushed against the side of his head and with one jerk she had twisted his neck just so.

He hit the ground limply. Women started screaming.

Shizi rolled her eyes. Honestly, if they were so worried, they should be attacking her.

Her prince's shout from behind had her spinning around, just in time to catch the elbow thing in her hand. It had hit Zuko in the back of his head. He had been hit. Shizi felt sick.

She caught sight of something else moving towards him and moved, pushing her prince backwards and hopping up, over the-

Penguin?

She turned in the air to land on her feet, staring blankly at the boy that had come in riding it. He was dressed in yellows and oranges, with an arrow pointing down towards his nose from across his bald head.

She knew those clothes. They had found them years earlier, when they had been looking at the temples. The air temples.

Shizi stepped closer to her prince. She twirled the spear in front of her, catching it in an experts grip. She worked with polearms all the time. This was just another one.

Wei and another group that had followed them spread out, surrounding him on all three sides. When he swung his staff outwards Shizi braced herself for it, closed her eyes against the onslaught of rapidly moving snow.

She only listened to him with half an ear. She was looking now, for other people, for more ambushes. They had taken away the Southern waterbenders, they had beaten the only 'warrior' in the south.

And, with a vow from her prince, they had captured the Avatar.

Huh.

She looked over at Wei, who was brushing snow off of his shoulder. He caught her looking and shrugged. That was easy.

Too easy.


Shizi shivered violently as Wei finally finished thawing her out of the ice. She was cold, cold, cold. She hated it. She hated this whole stupid trip, this grand adventure, this quest of her prince's.

She wanted to go home, back to her home, to the courtyards of her master and her room inside his home. She wanted to return to the warmth of the Fire Nation, to their smitheries and industries. To the sun.

She wanted to back to when her prince was fourteen, when he was young and bright and optimistic. When he would have been one of the first to help fire his people of icy prisons. To help Shizi out of her prison.

"Thank you," she mumbled once she was free. Wei nodded to her and stepped back, giving her room to stretch her arms around. She could barely feel her fingers. Her skin burned where she could feel anything.

It was enough to make her eyes sting behind her mask.

"Did you see where Prince Zuko went?" she asked once she could make a fist without crying. Who knew ice could hurt so much?

Wei pointed to the tower that sat on top of the ship. His room, then.

"Thank you," she said again, dipped her head to him. She was soaking wet now, and still shaking badly. Still, she had a job to do. She needed to make sure he was secure before she could get in something drying. Warmer.

Less likely to end up in hypothermia.

She slipped into the hallway and pulled her helmet off, letting her wet hair clung to her skin, making it itch. She brushed as much away as she could without ripping it out before she pushed the door to her Prince's room open. She had to duck immediately when a fireball shot at her head. Her hair sizzled.

"Leave," he roared at her.

Shizi bared her teeth and stood up again. "Of course," she snipped, and spun away just as fast as she had come in. Anger bubbled inside of her and some of water steamed off of her armor. She heard her prince groan loudly before she slammed the door behind her.

She prayed they found a port soon, before someone got killed.