At first the crew did not enjoy the thought of having a woman on the ship, let alone being their cook. The male Firebenders refused to go downstairs to the boiler room to have their supper until Uncle Iroh convinced them that Xhela had cooked him the best fish fillet he had ever tasted. Surprisingly, Xhela was a wonderful cook and soon the rest of the crew realized that it wasn't the worst thing to have a woman on the ship.
Uncle Iroh finally had a worthy opponent in Pi Xio, a checker-like board game. He was getting tired of beating the rest of the crew members in less than ten minutes. Besides, he was happy to have someone the same age as his stubborn nephew to keep Zuko in line for once.
Zuko allowed Xhela to keep his Firebender armor since it almost fit her perfectly and so his crew wouldn't become suspicious of her being an Earthbender. He even cleared out one of the weapon rooms on the first lower portions of the ship for her to stay in for the time being. The exiled Fire Prince had no clue why he was acting so kind towards her, except for the fact that she had outsmarted one of his worst enemies.
Two days went by at the dock with no news of Commander Zhao coming back to Zuko's ship to find Xhela and no news of the Earth Kingdom giving up the battle against the Firebenders. The dock was the same as had it always had been, very chaotic and bursting with warriors preparing for battle. Sometimes Zuko would find Xhela watching the frantic Firebender warriors rushing back and forth from the safety of the ship; she always had a concerned look on her face as she watched them all carefully. He couldn't blame her for acting so paranoid.
When it finally seemed like nothing could go wrong for Zuko, the worst was just about to begin. On the third night of the Earthbender's stay on his ship, Zuko was woken up in the middle of the night by a gentle voice. "Prince Zuko..." he cracked open his eyes and frowned at the blurry sight before him until his eyes finally adjusted to his dark room. "Wake up please..." the prince opened his eyes all the way to find Xhela standing next to his bed.
Stretching out his arms above his head and yawning loudly, Zuko raised his black eyebrows at the Earthbender. "What is it?" he scratched the back of his neck as he curiously watched the Earthbender nervously glance around his room. "What is wrong with you? Why are you-"
Xhela quickly placed her hand over his mouth to silence him, "Sshh," she hissed in his right ear, "Listen..."
Cocking an eyebrow at her, he pleased her by shutting his mouth and attentively listening for a few moments. "I hear nothing," he whispered back at her in a peeved tone of voice.
"That's it...I could hear the Firebenders wandering around the dock at nights-now I can't hear anything," the Earthbender General tightened her grip on a leather bag filled to the brim with small round objects. She had Zuko's chest armor on and the leather pads on her arms and legs; it was if she was expecting a huge battle to happen.
Pausing to think back to the past few nights, Zuko realized that she was right. He distinctively remembered not being able to fall asleep for the first few days his ship was stationed at the dock due to the racket made by the numerous warriors.
"I can't find your Uncle Iroh either, Prince Zuko...or the other members of your crew on the lower levels of the ship..." she straightened up when she heard a knock at his private chamber's door.
Grumbling under his breath, Zuko jumped out of his bed onto his feet and took a few steps towards his door. He glanced over his shoulder to see Xhela grabbing a handful of charcoal from the leather bag she was clutching desperately to, and silently move to the other end of his room to hide in the shadows. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and scowled at the sight before him.
"Prince Zuko, you and your crew are requested to accompany me to Commander Zhao's tent near the front..." stated a Firebender dressed completely in armor. Somehow, Zuko knew that this Firebender was not giving him the option of not going to see Commander Zhao.
"And what if I deny this request...?" the Fire Prince growled in an unhappy tone of voice.
The Firebender smirked, "Your crew already denied the request and they are currently tied to the side of your ship," he muttered darkly. "I suggest you come peacefully or my men will not be merciful in handing you over to Commander Zhao..." He took a few steps closer to the Fire Prince so his body completely blocked Zuko's only exit.
Folding his arms smugly across his chest, Zuko shook his head, "I don't think so..."
Just as the Firebender was creating a large fireball in his hands something smacked him in the middle of his exposed forehead. He froze and gave Zuko a curious look for he had not seen the young prince make a single move. Then another piece of charcoal suddenly flew at his face and hit the Firebender in the right eye.
While the attacker was flinching, Xhela quietly came out of the shadows and patiently tapped the Firebender on the shoulder. When he lifted his head back up, he found the Earthbender standing right before him with a dark look in her eyes. "Have a nice fall," she whispered just before she used a powerful right hook on the Firebender to knock him to the floor unconscious.
Beaming about her accomplishment, she bent down and snatched the two pieces of charcoal from the ground. "That was way too easy," she mumbled to Zuko as she took a step out of his private chambers and into the hallway.
Zuko moved swiftly to grab her by the shoulders and pulled her back into his private chambers just as three fireballs were thrown in her general direction. "Firebenders enjoy backstabbing and using the element of unfair play in our tactics..." he hissed to her while she watched the fireballs scorch the floor where she had been standing a few seconds earlier.
She smiled weakly at him and nodded in reply, "Well, Earthbenders enjoy ambushing and using the element of surprise in our tactics..." Then suddenly, a brilliant plan formed in the back of her mind; she signaled for Zuko to hide back in the shadows where she was before. Silently she dumped all of the contents in her leather bag onto the floor in the doorway to the Fire Prince's private chambers, and then joined him in the shadows of his room. "Watch this," she whispered to him when she heard the footsteps of the other Firebenders coming closer and closer.
"We know you are in here general," one of the Firebenders growled before they stopped directly in the doorway to stare at the odd pile of black rocks on the floor. "What's this...?"
The Fire Prince watched her out of the corner of his eyes, Xhela was making a few quick hand movements in the air to manipulate the charcoal lying on the floor of the ship. In an instant, the pile of charcoal shot up into the air and began smacking and hitting the new Firebender in every direction until he backed out of the doorway and into the hallway once again.
Using this advantage, Zuko came sprinting out of the shadows of his private chambers and attacked the other two Firebenders who had invaded his ship. "How dare you attack my ship!" he yelled at the two Firebenders who were clearly no match for the Fire Prince.
Right behind him, the Earthbender General continued to have the pieces of charcoal strike the cowering Firebenders. "If Commander Zhao is so eager to have me over for tea, why doesn't he ever ask me politely, eh?" she lowered her hands so the pieces of charcoal fell back to the floor. "Come on-I'll let you have a try now...It's only fair," Xhela mocked as she stood perfectly still in front of the Firebender.
Yelling out in frustration, the Firebender shot a fireball from his hands right at the Earthbender. He frowned when she simply leaned to the left to miss his fiery attack. Cracking his knuckles, the attacker decided to use brute force on her. Just as he tried to take a swing at her, she ducked down and elbowed the Firebender right in the face to stun him. Once he was stunned, she swiftly kicked him across the face and then folded her arms smugly as he fell to the floor unconscious. "Still too easy," she muttered under her breath.
A few seconds later, Zuko's two attackers fell to the floor unconscious also. "Are you alright?" he was panting slightly.
"Work up a little sweat there, Prince Zuko?" she teased with a bright gleam in her honey-colored eyes. Waving her hands over the pieces of charcoal, they shot back into the air and formed a tight ball right before her. She took her leather bag back out and had the pieces of charcoal return to it.
He snorted in reply to her sly comment, "Let's go find the others..." Zuko mumbled under his breath.
They both ran up the stairs to hear cries of help coming from the far end of the ship. Zuko sprinted in the direction of the cries, while Xhela stopped at the top of the stairs to observe the deck of the ship. Something is not right here...If Admiral Zhao is so keen on having me captured-wouldn't he come himself this time? Four meager Firebenders wouldn't have been able to capture the rest of the crew either... The Earthbender General narrowed her eyes towards the Fire Nation's dock-it was completely deserted. This is not a good sign…
"Uncle!" Prince Zuko's bare feet slid across the slick surface of the deck as he heard a very familiar voice coming from the other side of the ship. When he was at the edge of the ship, he peered over the metal railing to find his uncle and the rest of his crew hanging inches above the freezing ocean water. Shit! "Uncle, are you alright?" he called as he frantically tried to come up with a solution to save them.
Uncle Iroh lifted his head to see his nephew's panicking face, "Zuko!" he yelped with some surprise in his voice. "Where have you been? We've been tied up for at least twenty minutes here! Where is Xhela?" he asked suddenly in a worried tone of voice.
"She is fine, Uncle," Zuko reassured his beloved uncle as he strained the back of his mind to come up with a plan to save them. He grabbed the metal railing on the side of the shipped as he thought of what to do.
"Zuko!" Straining his neck, Uncle Iroh tried to grab his nephew's attention once again. "Admiral Zhao is here-" he started to warn Zuko.
Just as his uncle's words were registering in his busy mind, Zuko heard malicious laughter coming directly behind him. Glancing quickly over his shoulder, the Fire Prince spotted a tall, stern-looking man stroking his chin with four guards awaiting their orders. "Zhao," he spat through his clenched teeth, "You'll regret what you have done to my Uncle and crew!" the teenage boy turned around to face Admiral Zhao and his minions.
Admiral Zhao smirked at the exiled prince as he continued to make more idle threats, "Just hand over the Earthbender General and maybe I won't tell your father about this little mishap." His proud and arrogant posture was suddenly ruined by something small hitting the back of his head. "What in the f-" Zhao snarled in a cold voice as he turned around to see what had hit him. "You..." he hissed when he spotted Xhela holding a handful of charcoal in her bandaged hands.
"Yes, it's me...Why don't you leave the little prince alone and come pick on someone with a higher bounty on their head, huh?" she snapped back in a harsh tone of voice. "Or am I too much for you to handle all by yourself, Admiral Zhao?" Xhela's voice hinted a bit of mocking. She continued to tease him, "I've already escaped you once..."
"Why you little insolent bitch-" Admiral Zhao's hands burst into flames to show his rage. He nodded to the four Firebenders to go finish the Fire Prince, "I'll take care of this disruption myself this time..."
She chuckled to herself as Zhao prepared to finish her off once and for all. "Tell me Admiral Zhao-" she teased in a pleasant voice, "how did you ever become an admiral? I mean, since you can't even capture a twenty year-old general... Especially when you have the Fire Lord's personal archers and the best benders in the Nation-" she made a tsk-tsk sound, "-following your every order…Yes, the announcement of your new position was quite a surprise to me," Xhela chimed in a sweet voice just to piss Zhao off even more.
"Because I never thought you were worth this much effort," he barked darkly at her as he took a step towards her. "But now I will finish you off to please my Fire Lord's wishes..." Zhao narrowed his cold black eyes into tiny slits as he waited for her to make the first move, "Ladies first..."
Zuko glanced down at his uncle, "I'll be right back Uncle!"
"Wait! Zuko! What's happening up there?" Uncle Iroh sighed loudly when he could no longer see his nephew's scowling face above him. The elder Firebender could hear the crew moaning next to him about something, "Why do I feel so cold all of a sudden…?" he glanced down to see that the level of the ocean water was to his knees. It took him a second to register in his mind that the water level was steadily rising. "ZUKO! THE WATER IS RISING! HURRY!"
Ducking and dodging fireballs and fists, Zuko slipped and slid across the smooth surface of the dock. I'll definitely work up a sweat now…
"SOME OF US CAN'T SWIM!" Uncle Iroh bellowed at the top of his lungs when he could see smoke and fireballs being shot above his head.
"I know-I KNOW!" Zuko kicked a massive fireball towards two of the intruding Firebenders, "Uncle-I'll be there to help you in just a few minutes!"
Are you ready? Xhela thought to herself silently as she tightened her fists around the pieces of charcoal. Taking in a deep breath, she gathered all of her courage as she went at Admiral Zhao with everything she had. She ran at him like she was going to try to knock him out but faked at the last second and kicked Zhao right in the face with the middle of her shoe.
Blood began dripping down his nose and his chin, "You little slut..." Zhao snarled in a dark voice as he wiped the blood away from his mouth, "How dare you think you can beat me!" In a heated rage, literally, he swung at her multiple times with his hands still burning violently.
She barely managed to get away from his flaming fists; her hair was badly singed in the process. Xhela just had enough time to jump out of the way of Zhao's larger fiery fist slamming down on top of her. As he was pulling his hand out of the large dent he had made in the ship's deck, she lightly landed on his bent knee with one foot and then flipped herself with her other foot knocking Zhao directly in the chest.
Zhao hit the deck hard from Xhela's kick, but she had accidentally reopened one of her wounds in the process. Gripping her side, she waited to see if Admiral Zhao would get back up to fight her once again. She felt something wet and warm dripping from the hand that was holding her side, it was blood. No, not now…
While Xhela and Zhao were busy trying to destroy one another, Zuko was sliding all over the deck in his bare feet trying to dodge the Firebenders as he tried to find some rope to save his crew and uncle. Zuko finally found a rope long enough to drop from the railing of the ship, the problem with was that it was tied to a long metal rod. Untying the knot with one hand, the exiled prince shot small bursts of flames at Zhao's benders with the other. He quickly stomped the fire out with his bare feet when one of the fiery attacks landed on the end of the rescue rope.
The blows she had dealt him were quite devastating, but Admiral Zhao was determined to not pass on the opportunity of finally capturing the Earthbender. Placing his hands behind his head, he pushed himself back to his feet and immediately went at Xhela.
Quickly, Xhela released her side and made three graceful movements to send a wall of charcoal to block the three whips of flame Zhao had thrown at her. But while she was busy defending herself from the flames, the admiral slipped by her protective wall of rock and knocked her to the ground with a hard punch to her stomach.
She instantly fell to her knees; he had punched her in the same spot he had done several days before. Tears fell from her honey-colored eyes as she gripped her bleeding side to try and stop the throbbing pain.
Looking down at her, Zhao smirked triumphantly, "Did you think you could defeat me? Not even your own brother could defeat me in battle...and look what happened to him-he's dead."
Zuko had just knocked the final attacking Firebender into the ocean when he heard Xhela scream out in pain. He bolted to the other side of the metal deck to find Zhao standing over the girl like he was already victorious in killing the annoying general. Dropping the rope, Zuko decided to ram himself right into Zhao, knocking the both of them to the ground. The Fire Prince clamored to his feet, but he was slower than the admiral.
"You father won't be pleased to hear about this-his son desperately trying to save an Earthbender," Admiral Zhao loomed over Zuko with a triumphant look in his cold black eyes. "And how you died trying..." he added with a sneer.
Three pieces of charcoal smacked the back of Zhao's head again, "You must be joking-" he snapped as he turned around to find Xhela back to her feet with a determined look in her eyes now. "You still want to fight do you?" Zhao forgot about Zuko, thinking the teenager was not worth the effort today, and went after the Earthbender instead. "This time, I'll make sure you stop breathing!"
Rushing towards her, he took a swing at her with his hands burning furiously but she ducked underneath him and slid right between his legs. Before he could react, she quickly did a hand stand and kicked Admiral Zhao in the back of his head with her heel. He flew right into the railing of the ship and knocked his head on it. With Zhao temporarily stunned, Zuko took this advantage and dumped the commander off the side of his ship with a swift kick to the chest. "Hope you can swim Zhao!" Zuko called brightly from the deck of his ship.
Once the main threat was off of his ship, Zuko snatched the rope he had successfully untied and tied one end to the railing. He then told his uncle and the crew to grab the other end of the rope just before he sent a small flame at the rope that was holding them to the side of the ship. Helping each of them back on the deck, Zuko barked at his crew to weigh anchor to get away as quickly as possible from the dock. The Fire Prince never looked at the Earthbender until his uncle asked what had happened. "Well-" Zuko started to say as he glanced over his shoulder to see if she would help him answer the question.
Closing her eyes for a moment, Xhela gave Zuko the same broken smile, pretending that nothing was wrong. Taking a step forward and opening her mouth to explain, Xhela cried out in pain and fell face-first on the deck.
Zuko and Uncle Iroh immediately rushed to her side. The young Firebender picked her up from the ground and wrapped her arms around his neck, "Xhela...?" His golden yellow eyes softened for a brief moment, Zuko was concerned for her.
"Hey…"again she smiled weakly at him, "you know my name..." she whispered before her eyes rolled to the back of her head.