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"Ah! Fresh air!" I exclaimed as I stepped on to the deck of the ship. I was surprised when a guard came to my cell and told me to come with him. I figured Azula wanted me or something like that. I looked around at the water that still surrounded us until I saw a horizon of land. "I guess we reached the fire nation." I said to the guard escorting me. He had a confused look on his face.

"That's not the fire nation." He replied as if he just found that out too. He turned around and briskly walked away to get some answers. Wait, did he just leave me? I better go with him before someone sees me and thinks I'm trying to escape. Although it did cross my mind to run for it, but I already made up my mind on that issue.

I ran to catch up with the guard as he walked up the stairs to the navigation room. When we entered the bridge, we were greeted with the sight of an extremely pissed off Azula. An image I hoped to erase completely from my mind. A pissed off Azula meant two things: Destruction and pain. And she wasn't prejudiced to who receives the brunt of her anger. She was talking to what I guessed was the captain of the ship.

"What do you mean were 'Off course'?" she spat out at the captain. He sputtered and stuttered for an answer, but nothing coherent came out. "Explain yourself now or else." She said angrily. He cleared his throat and answered "The tide was stronger than we thought and we drifted off course, princess." Azula gave him a questioning look "How did we drift? This ship is run on coal not wind!" she spat venomously at him.

"We didn't have enough coal to run constantly, so we shut it off during the nights. We didn't realize we were off course, so we continued on our original course. So we ended up here." He answered her slowly. "Where exactly is 'here'" she asked. "Um, we're right off the coast of the earth kingdom." He said carefully. "What! How did we get this far out! You are all idiots!" she exclaimed. "I'm sorry princess; we're trying to navigate back as we speak. We'll be back on course in no time." He tried to reassure her, but to no avail.

"Well, it looks like you have a problem here, captain." She said calmly. 'Oh no' I thought; I knew that tone of voice. I think Mr. Captain here might be going for a swim. "What?" he asked, fearful. Without another word from her, she shot fire at his chest and it knocked him through the glass of the cabin. I heard a plop that signified that he had, indeed hit the water. The guard that let me out of my cell high-tailed it out of the room to escape the wrath of Azula. I probably should have done the same, but I guess I didn't think fast enough.

She turned to me "What are doing here peasant?" she asked angrily. "It's Sokka. A guard let me out of my cell, I don't know why." I replied. She narrowed her eyes at me "Why are you still here? You want to go overboard too?" she threatened. She obviously wanted me to leave, but again I didn't think fast enough or smart enough. "How did we get to the Earth Kingdom?" I asked. "You heard him, we drifted here." She replied with annoyance laced in her voice.

"Drifting that far? Only an idiot wouldn't know where they were going." I continued. "Now you see what I have to deal with." She said. I laughed "Yeah I guess." I said. She didn't find it very amusing "Shut up peasant. You aren't helping the situation." She said sternly. "Sokka. How am I supposed to help? I'm your prisoner." I reminded her. "Yeah, you are. So keep your mouth shut and stay out of my business."

"Well, I didn't want to help you anyway." I said as I crossed my arms. "You couldn't help me if you wanted." She said with a sly smirk. "I bet you I could navigate this ship better than any of your men." I boasted and she gave a short condescending laugh. "Only because all of my men are completely incompetent." She said. "Oh so that means you're saying I'm not incompetent? Thank you Azula." I said with a victory smirk. She realized her mistake and was about to retort until I felt the boat rock violently and it almost threw me off my feet.

"What was that?" she said confused as she held on to the railing to keep from falling over. I caught myself and looked out the window and saw smoke billowing from the side of the boat. "I think we just got hit by something." I replied. She ran over to where I was and looked out at the rising smoke "What the…" she trailed off and ran out the room. I followed close behind and we came to the deck of the ship.

Guards were running around everywhere in sheer confusion to what was happening. Azula grabbed one of the guards "What the hell is going on?!" she yelled at him. "Flaming rocks are being hurled at us from the shore! The right side of the hull has been damaged!" he said and she released him. "What should we do princess?!"

She stuttered on her answer and I had to step in before we were killed "Take evasive action! Get damage control on the hull right away! Use the rest of the men to keep the rocks off us until we can get out of range!" I screamed over the confusion. The guard looked at me wearily until Azula spoke up "You heard him! Move!" the guard nodded and ran to get the word out to the others. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mai and Ty Lee running towards us.

"What's going on here?" Ty Lee asked. "We've been attacked from the shore!" Azula told them. "What can we do to help?" I spoke up "Neither of you can bend, so help the damage control team as much as you can!" They looked at me skeptically "Who put you in charge?" Mai asked smugly. "Do you want to die?" I yelled and they got the message. They ran to help and Azula turned to me "Why are you helping?" she asked and I replied "I would like to live through the day. Azula, you're the best fire bender here. You need to help keep the rocks away." I started to run up to the bridge until she grabbed my arm "What are you going to do?" she asked.

"I'm going to steer the ship. It looks like I'm the only one who can." I answered as another salvo crashed into the ship. "Fuck!" I cursed as I ran up to the bridge. I grabbed the wheel and cranked it hard to the right and I felt the ship lurch in that direction. I saw multiple rocks fall in the water, but they were getting closer and closer with every shot. The men were doing exactly what I told them to do. They were pushing the rocks away with fire and the more advanced benders were bending the fire already on the rock to redirect it.

The ship was moving very slowly and I guessed that one of the rocks hit an engine or something. That would make it a lot more difficult to evade the rocks. It was a big ship and it already took a long time for it to turn, undamaged. A guard ran into the room "We've lost all power to the left rotor!" he reported. "If we're lucky, we won't need it." I replied. Another guard ran into the room "Two generators have been damaged. We have the first one running again and the other one can only run at half capacity currently. We can fix it with some time. What should we do?" he asked.

"I need more speed and time is of the essence. Run both generators and we'll fix the one later once we're out of range." I commanded. He nodded and ran out of the room and the other guard followed. I only completed half my turn and I waited patiently for the power I craved. I looked down and saw Azula unleash a wave of fire that destroyed three rocks. "Damn, she's a lot better than Zuko." I praised and turned my attention back to my steering.

I finally felt the power boost and the boat turned quicker and I thanked the spirits. I looked down at the controls and saw my power gauges creep up to near maximum power. My luck was looking up as the boat completed its turn. I gunned the engines and felt the boat lurch forward. We were moving away from the shore and we were a smaller target for the rocks. The others on the boat noticed this too as I heard and saw cheering down on the deck.

I saw Azula smile up at me and I was taken aback by the gesture. It actually looked, dare I say sincere? I smiled back at her and I looked back to the retreating horizon. My eyes widened as I saw one more rock careening towards us at a high rate of speed. It was much bigger than the other rocks and it was coming straight for us! I tried to warn the others but it was too late. The projectile slammed into the ship, ripping a huge hole in the hull.

The boat jerked violently and I was thrown onto the ground of the bridge. Shattering glass fell about me and I struggled to get back up. I staggered to my feet and looked out the broken window to the deck below. I saw a bunch of confused faces looking back at me. I saw a guard come up from below the deck "Damage report!" I screamed at him. "All engines down! We're taking on a lot of water! The ship is listing at 40!" he yelled back.

"Son of a bitch! There's nothing else we can do, Abandon ship!" I yelled to the crew. Everyone began to panic and scramble for their lives. I was going to get off, but first I had something I needed to do. I ran down the stairs and to a random guard. "Where is the Armory!?" I asked him. "What?" he asked confused. "The Armory! Where is it?" I repeated. "Under the deck, just go down those stairs." He directed and I released him and ran down said stairs.

I ran down the narrow corridor and turned the corner until I came upon a door. I opened the door and was surprised that it was unlocked, but I didn't take the time to ponder why. I ran in and saw multiple shelves filled with armor, gauntlets, various blades, and some underclothes. I searched for my weapons as I came across my black-bladed sword. I put it on my back and attached it around my torso. My boomerang was close by and I picked it up and ran out of the room.

When I got back up on the deck I immediately started looking for a life raft or something. The boat was listing heavily and I saw numerous guards sliding off of the deck into the cold water. Another explosion rocked the ship and it threw me off balance. I began sliding down towards the water below. I flipped over to my stomach and pulled out my sword. I jammed it into the metal as hard as I could and was able 

to pierce it. I regained my composure and got back onto my feet as I saw a lifeboat out of the corner of my eye.

It was alone, with no one around it. I ran towards it and jumped in. I swung my sword and cut all the ropes attaching it to the ship. My stomach jumped as he fell abruptly to the water below and plopped into the ocean. I grabbed the one oar in the boat and paddled furiously away from the burning ship.

Once I was far enough away from the ship, I looked back at the sheer carnage. The ship was already half under water and sinking fast. Whoever attacked us succeeded in their mission. I had the odd sensation to salute the sinking ship; I was the captain for a brief period after all. I decided to salute the ship as she slipped below the waterline.

I sighed, the only thing left to do is to get to the shore and hope they don't kill me before I get there. Maybe they'll notice I'm not fire nation and let me go. Probably not, but I like to dream. I began my long journey towards the shore, passing debris and such along the way. It wasn't long until I noticed something peculiar floating in the water. I was intrigued and paddled my way over to it. It didn't look like metal or wood or anything like that.

That's when I noticed that it was actually a person! I quickly grabbed the oar and paddled much closer and pulled the body onto the raft. I turned it over and saw none other than the princess herself. "It's Azula." I said to myself, astonished. I felt for her pulse and it was faint, but it was still there. I saw her chest rise and fall which signaled that she was breathing. She seemed to be unconscious and I pondered what I should do.

"I could just leave her here and forget this ever happened." I said to myself. I knew I wasn't going to do that, I was too damn nice. Even if she was psychotic, she was still a human being. I couldn't live with myself if I left someone in their time of need. Even if it was Azula. The girl who on a regular basis tried to kill me. I laid her down on the bottom of the boat and continued to paddle towards the land. I looked down occasionally to see if she was still breathing.

I was almost there when extreme fatigue started to set in. My arms felt like they were on fire as I continued to paddle. I felt like quitting right then and there, but something inside kept me going. Maybe it was my pride, or my dignity. Or maybe it was because someone was counting on me…

I pushed that thought aside and pushed towards land. While paddling, I was looking on the shore line for any sign of who attacked us. I saw little encampments, but no people. 'That's weird' I thought and turned away from that direction. I did not want to deal with whoever sunk us, especially since I had the fire nation princess with me. That wouldn't help my case when I tried to convince them I was a prisoner.

Finally I reached shore and docked the boat. I gathered Azula in my arms and began walking into the forest that was adjacent to the ocean. It was mid-afternoon, nearing the evening and I was tired as hell. I had a rough day to say the least and I needed to find a place to camp for the night. I was walking through the forest when I looked down at Azula's face. She looked almost peaceful, something I have never seen in my life.

She was slightly cold in my arms and I was worried. She might have hypothermia or something and I needed to warm her up somehow. I found a small clearing with good overhead cover to protect us if it started raining. I set her down by a tree and propped her up against it. I left to gather firewood and some other grasses to start a fire. I came across a small tree and I chopped it down with my sword. I dragged it back to the campsite and cut it up there.

Once I had it in smaller pieces, I gathered rocks to make a fire pit and placed the wood in a log cabin fashion so it would burn easier. I put the grass inside and grabbed my flint to light the fire. I struck it a couple times until I produced a spark to light the grass. I blew on the grass and the fire started to catch the logs and burn.

I had the fire going so I gathered the remaining wood and built up a small shelter against a tree. I took some more branches and placed them over the top of the small structure. I went back over to Azula and placed her near the fire. I knew there was something I had to do, but was way too scared to attempt it. I sighed, I had to do it or she would die. I had to get the wet clothes off of her.

I laid her down and started fumbling with the ties on her armor. I was so nervous, I was almost sick to my stomach. The entire time I was thinking one thing 'Please don't wake up, please don't wake up.' I was chanting in my head. I got the top part off of her and started working on the bottom half. Her armor was soaking wet and hard to even move off of her. Finally, I got the armor off of her and I left her in her underclothes. I kept those on her to preserve her dignity and my life. Although the clothes clung to her form and didn't leave much to the imagination.

I averted my eyes and tried not to look, but it was hard. I picked her back up and placed her closer to the fire. Once I put her down, I took off my sword and boomerang and sat next to her and started thinking. 'What's going to happen when she wakes up? Will she be grateful? Probably not. Will she kill me even if I saved her? Maybe.' I didn't know how she was going to react and I tried not to think about it.

I looked back to her and saw she was shivering. 'Damnit, she's still cold. There's only one thing left to do… No! I will not, if she wakes up she will kill me for sure! But if I don't she'll die.' I cursed the spirits, but I had to. I gathered her up in my arms and held her close to my body. Body heat was the only thing that could save her now. I sat back against a tree close to the fire and pulled her to me. I sat her in my lap and tucked her head under my chin. I wrapped my arms around her torso and her shoulders and held her close.

I noticed how she fit just perfectly to my body as I held her. I felt her cold body start to warm up slightly as I held her and the shivering subsided. I knew I could let her go, but if I did she might go back to shivering again so I kept her there. I was surprised when she leaned into me further and I thought she was awake, but her steady breathing proved otherwise. She snuggled further in to me and it caught me off guard.

'I guess I'm doing a good job keeping her warm' I thought. I smiled when I saw her peaceful looking face as she slept. It almost looked like she wasn't a heartless war machine bent on controlling the world. I still couldn't believe that I was actually here with her. If my friends knew they would flip-out and yell at me to get away. I chuckled when I thought what Katara's expression would be. Shocked and disappointed I suppose.

Oh well, it can't be helped. I started to feel sleepy as my eyelids drooped down. I wanted to stay awake thought to keep a lookout for danger, but I couldn't help it. I let sleep overtake my form as I held Azula close to me.

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That's it for this chapter! R&R please!