Book I: Water

Chapter 6: The Waterbending Master

Southern Earth Kingdom - Ten Years After Sozin's Comet

They flew south from the Fire Nation colonies for two days straight before they landed again in relatively safer Earth Kingdom territory so that Appa could rest. They had headed further inland, hoping Zhao would have a harder time tracking them that way. So far, they'd seen no sign that he had any war balloons at his disposal, but neither Zuko nor Katara could help scanning the skies anxiously every now and then. And of course, there were always other dangers to watch out for.

The next morning began with another waterbending lesson, which Zuko allowed himself to sit and watch. Momo came and curled up in his lap as he did. Katara had begun working on the second form with Aang. They were moving beyond mere direction and control of the water now, and on to more offensive moves that could actually be used in a fight.

Katara would demonstrate what she wanted Aang to do, her movements graceful and precise. Zuko knew that Amaruk had demanded perfection from Katara during her own training, and she had learned to make perfection seem effortless. Then Aang would copy her, no less powerful in how he wielded the water, but with a flashy, almost lackadaisical attitude. The boy liked to improvise, and it was quietly driving Katara crazy.

"You're pulling your punches," she chided him after another run through the kata. "If you're not sure of your strikes, the water won't follow through with full strength."

"Uh huh," Aang replied, barely acknowledging her correction. "But watch this!" He spun his hands over his head and bended a whirling pinwheel of water. It was beautiful, but probably useless in combat.

Katara swiped one arm sharply to the side with her hand extended flat, and the water above Aang's head froze into several ice daggers, which planted themselves in the grass next to them - far enough from Zuko that he wasn't worried, but still close enough to make Momo start in surprise and run over to Appa.

"Stop it," Katara said forcefully. "This isn't a game!"

Aang blinked in surprise at her tone. "I know it's not," he said defensively. "I just like to try out new tricks sometimes - to see if I can do it." He shrugged, then said in a more wistful voice, "That's how I learned airbending."

"You learned airbending during peacetime," Katara shot back. "I know it's hard for you to accept, but there is a war going on now, and someday you are going to need to know how to fight."

"We all know that," Zuko said, getting to his feet and coming to stand next to Aang. "He's just having some fun. At least he's not throwing himself at hungry sea monsters this time."

But his attempt at levity didn't go over like he'd hoped. Katara only looked at him sternly. "An unwilling warrior is no good to anyone," she said. Then she stalked over to where their packs lay by the remains of the previous night's campfire, muttering something about lunch. Well, at least her ire was only driving her to cooking, so far.

Aang gave Zuko a mournful look. "I'm not a warrior," he said. "I've never been a warrior."

"No one expects that from you right now," Zuko replied, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. "But as the Avatar, you will have to end the war someday. Katara is just trying to prepare you for when that day comes."

Aang looked away, frowning. "What if…"

But whatever he had been about to say, he didn't get a chance to finish. Zuko registered the faint whistling sound just in time to push Aang out of the way of the arrow, which struck the ground where his foot had been a moment ago.

"Go!" Zuko shouted, pushing Aang towards Appa and casting a shield of flame to burn the subsequent wave of arrows out of the air. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Katara already throwing their packs onto Appa's saddle, rousing the bison and getting him ready to take off again as quickly as she could. Aang had leaped onto Appa's head and had the reins in his hands.

Zuko scanned the woods around them, looking for any sign of the hostile archers, as he backed up towards the bison, but he could see nothing. Another wave of arrows came from his right. He threw up a wall of flames to block them, just as a second barrage came from the opposite side. His defense was just a second too slow - a single arrow made it past his fire and struck his right arm. While he was still dazed with pain, he heard the sound of more arrows being shot - they whizzed past him, but carried some sort of net that tangled around his legs. He fell to the ground.

Katara shouted his name. He looked back at her - she was poised to leap off of Appa's saddle and come to his aide. "No!" he shouted back. "Get Aang out of here! Go!"

But something hard impacted the side of his head, and his vision went black before he saw whether or not she did.


South Pole - Nine Years Earlier

One year after the northern delegation arrived at the south pole, the tribe celebrated their first betrothal since Natika had agreed to marry Katara's maternal uncle Takeel. That had been just before Katara's father had gone away with the war party, and Takeel had reluctantly left with them. The marriage rites had never been celebrated. Now, Aunt Tira had agreed to marry Atial, one of the handsome northern warriors, to the surprise of no one. They were both twenty-two years old.

That left twenty-one year old Siaja as the oldest unattached girl, followed by Nivi, who was sixteen now and just old enough to be betrothed. And then there was Katara herself - she would reach her majority in the coming winter. Her aunts had already started making insinuations about her and Kohnna, though Gran Gran would tell them off if she caught them.

Katara had a good idea why they teased her. Everyone knew she would watch Kohnna train with his father any time she got the chance. What they didn't know was that she wasn't there because she was pining after him - she was studying him, and Amaruk. And on quiet nights when everyone else was fast asleep, sometimes she would sneak outside the village and try out the waterbending moves she saw them use. She had a pretty good grasp of the water whip now. But she didn't exactly know how to explain that to her aunts.

So she endured the occasional teasing patiently, and waited for the right moment to push the issue again. She found her next opportunity when she was working on embroidering Tira's bridal blanket with Amaruk's wife, Selen, and their daughter, Minak. Selen was called away to settle some dispute between the children playing outside, leaving Katara and Minak alone.

"Do you ever wish you could learn to fight like Sokka and the others?" Katara asked casually. Minak wasn't a waterbender, but nonbenders were still allowed to fight - as long as they were boys. Everyone had been unsettled since the annual visit from the grain merchants had brought news of what had happened to the Earth Kingdom at the end of the summer. With her father's war party still unaccounted for, the need for warriors to protect their village seemed greater than ever, but the girls were still excluded.

Minak shrugged as she worked her needle. "Not really," she said. "I don't think I'd be much good at it." She gave Katara a knowing look - her eyes were more blue than green, but just as sharp as her father's. "If you want my dad to teach you, you have to ask him, not me."

"Yeah, I'm sure he'd jump at the opportunity to teach a girl." Katara replied sarcastically.

"My mom doesn't really want me to tell you this," said Minak with a cautious glance at the door, leaning closer, "but he had a big argument with Kida about it, right before we set sail to come here."

"Really?" Katara asked. She'd long since picked up on the tension between the two senior waterbenders, and had been secretly dying to know the cause for it.

"Oh yeah," Minak said, setting down her needle. "If Princess Yue had known how to fight with even a knife," she quoted passionately, in what Katara assumed was an imitation of Kida, "she might have made the difference in stopping Zhao before he got to the moon spirit!" She pounded her fist into her palm for emphasis.

"Or she might have been killed in the fight," Minak went on in a more measured tone, surely mimicking her father, "and the moon spirit would have been lost forever."

"I can't believe Princess Yue's fate was just to die like that," Katara said, shaking her head. "It seems so unfair, that the only way she could do anything was by giving up her own life."

"Maybe," Minak said with a shrug. "But it was a noble sacrifice. She saved us all, even without fighting." She looked at Katara pointedly. "She's the reason you're still able to waterbend at all."

Katara thought for a moment, then sat up straighter, her resolve greater than ever. "Then I think I owe it to her to make sure I learn to waterbend properly," she declared.

Selen returned then, ending the discussion. But Katara's mind was made up. She was done sneaking around trying to learn what Kohnna could do in broad daylight. When she made her way to the training field where Amaruk was instructing his son that afternoon, she didn't sit down at a safe distance to watch, but marched right up to them and hit Amaruk square in the chest with a water whip. It wasn't very powerful, and only made him stumble back two steps, but it got her point across.

"Maybe women don't fight in the north, but you're in the south now," Katara declared. She could feel Kohnna staring at her in amazement, which only fueled her determination. "I know our women did fight in the past, and it's my right to follow in their footsteps. I demand to be trained as a warrior."

To her surprise, Amaruk looked immensely pleased. "It's about time," he said. "I had wondered if you were ever going to ask."

Katara felt her mouth drop open in surprise. Kohnna gave a snort of laughter, and she glared at him. "But Minak said...I thought you had argued with Kida…" she sputtered inarticulately in her confusion.

Amaruk raised an eyebrow. "I did," he confirmed. "I knew your tribe was not in any position to let our outdated traditions limit your defences. But Kida was adamant that I not train any female warriors unless they asked. She was worried I had only agreed to lead the delegation so I could push my agenda."

"Your agenda?" Katara echoed in disbelief.

"Her words, not mine," Amaruk said with a shrug. "But now that you've demanded to be trained," he continued, smiling in that satisfied way that Katara had always hated, "you've certainly met her conditions."

"I told you she would, Dad," Kohnna said smugly. He was smiling, too, and looked very much like his father when he did. Apparently Amaruk and his son and all of the northerners had been discussing her behind her back like a prize in their stupid grudge match over their own backwards customs while she had struggled to teach herself the most basic fighting forms in the middle of the night, as if it were some shameful secret...

"Indeed you did," Amaruk replied to his son. "So now, you can demonstrate for her how to do the water whip properly."

Thus began her first official lesson. She went home that evening tired, capable of a flawless water whip, and furious. Somehow, even in giving her exactly what she wanted, Amaruk had managed to make it feel like he'd beaten her at something. Like she had only been playing his game all along.


Southern Earth Kingdom - Ten Years After Sozin's Comet

They fled into the mountains beyond the woods, and found a cave large enough to accomodate Appa. Katara had taken the reins, and she urged the bison as far into the cave as he would go before she climbed down from his head. Aang leaped down from the saddle just behind her.

"We can't leave Zuko behind!" Aang protested.

"Don't worry," Katara assured him firmly, "I'm not." She walked to the mouth of the cave and glanced up at the sky. Aang followed close behind her, and saw that storm clouds were gathering. They'd have to move quickly.

"Where do you think the archers took him?" he asked.

Katara headed back into the cave and retrieved her pack from Appa's saddle. She pulled off her parka and slung both her waterskins across her torso. "They had to be the Yuyan archers," she explained. "They're Zhao's favorite minions - I guess he got to keep them in spite of his banishment." She pulled a dark blue poncho out of her pack that looked like it was made from sealskin - probably that was better in the rain than the heavy fur parka, Aang realized.

"So Zhao's ship must be somewhere nearby," Aang mused aloud.

"Right," Katara agreed, stuffing her parka into the pack hastily. "And since he can't go back to the Fire Nation without you," here she gave him a pointed look, "he's probably not going too far any time soon."

Aang picked up his airbending staff. "Alright," he said determinedly. "Let's start looking then."

Katara looked at him in surprise. "I'm going by myself," she said firmly.

"But I can help!" Aang protested, ramming the end of his staff against the floor of the cave. "I'm good at being sneaky! That's perfect for a rescue!"

"Absolutely not," Katara insisted, closing her pack and standing. "I'm not taking that risk."

Aang frowned at her. "First you want me to be a warrior," he said, his voice rising in frustration, "now you want me to stay here and hide?"

"Aang, the Fire Nation soldiers won't be playing games," Katara shot back. "They won't care that you're a child. They will try to hurt you. You have to wait here." Aang wanted to argue, but Katara's tone was final.

She went to look outside again. The sky was growing darker by the minute. "Stay in the cave," she ordered. "Don't risk being seen for any reason. If I'm not back in twelve hours, you go straight to Gaoling and find Lagora, the healer. Tell her I sent you, and she'll help you get to the Underground." She glanced back over her shoulder at Aang. "Understood?"

"Got it," Aang replied sullenly. Keep hiding, just like he'd done for the last hundred and ten years. He supposed he was pretty good at it by now.

"Good," Katara said. Then she left the cave and began her climb down towards the shore.

Aang went further back into the cave, where he'd be even less likely to be seen, and sat against Appa's side with a sigh. Momo came and curled up in his lap, like he'd done with Zuko just that morning. Aang stroked the lemur's soft fur absently. He stayed that way for a long time.

It seemed ridiculous, waiting here and doing nothing while Katara marched into danger to try to rescue Zuko. He knew it was their job to protect him, but it's not like he was totally helpless. How was he supposed to face up to his responsibilities as the Avatar like everyone wanted him to if he stayed hidden and ran away from every danger? Doing that was what had gotten the world into this mess in the first place…

He stood up suddenly. Momo squawked in protest and scurried away. Aang paced to the front of the cave and back a few times. Outside, it had started to rain. He picked up his staff, twirling it in one hand and bending a gust of wind against the wall of the cave in agitation. He wasn't just a child. That had been very clear to him ever since they'd left Roku's temple on Crescent Island. It wasn't fair that he was still being treated like one.

He bended a stream of water from the now heavy rain outside and flung it at the same spot on the wall where he'd directed the wind. It splashed harmlessly against the rock. Gathering the water up again, he focused his energy, executing the movements just as he must have seen Katara do them a hundred times. This time, he didn't pull his punch - and a water whip struck the cave wall hard enough to chip the stone.

"I'm not unwilling," Aang said. Appa merely blinked slowly at him. Momo poked his head over the rim of the saddle and gave Aang a quizzical look. "I can do some good, and I'm going to prove it to them."

He leaped onto Appa's head, took the reins, and directed the bison out of the cave. It was still raining heavily, but they'd flown through worse storms. As they took to the air, Aang searched the coastline for any sign of a Fire Nation ship. It was hard to see very far in the rain, and it was slow going, but he was determined.

He'd find Zhao, even if he had to search all through the night, and he'd help Katara rescue Zuko. He was the Avatar, and it was his duty.


South Pole - Nine Years Earlier

Katara still went to her healing lessons with Kida most mornings, if she didn't have too many other chores to do, but her afternoons were now given over entirely to lessons with Amaruk. She'd tried to put aside her initial resentment towards him - he was a good teacher, if a bit demanding. He expected her to perfect each move of each form before he'd let her move on to the next one. Even so, she knew she was making steady progress.

After a month, he let her start sparring with Kohnna. She lost their first two bouts, but she knew he had far more experience than her, so she didn't take it hard. Their third fight ended with him knocked flat on his back by an ice disk.

She had barely a second to enjoy her victory before a blast of water blindsided her, knocking her down as well. She glared at Amaruk, pushing wet hair out of her face. "What did you do that for?" she asked indignantly.

"You let your guard fall as soon as your opponent was down," Amaruk replied.

"Yeah," Katara said, "because the fight was over."

Kohnna had gotten to his feet. "Come on, Dad," he said, offering Katara a hand to help her up. "Cut her some slack. She just won a fight for the first time." Katara accepted his help. "Nice job, by the way," he said to her with a grin. She thought he held on to her hand longer than was necessary.

"A real fight does not necessarily end when one opponent is subdued," Amaruk lectured them, crossing his arms sternly. "You have to stay on your guard until you are certain there is no more danger. Best to form that habit now."

"It's just a training exercise," Kohnna muttered.

"It won't always be," Amaruk warned him. Then he turned back to Katara. "Fire Nation soldiers will try to kill you. They won't care that you're a girl. They won't hold back, so neither will I. Understood?"

Katara met Amaruk's green gaze, as hard as ice. She hated to admit it, but she could see his point. "Understood," she replied begrudgingly.

"Good," Amaruk said with a nod. "Now, both of you, show me the seventh form again."

He had pushed the training session longer than usual, making them do extra drills until well after the sun had gone down. When Katara came to Kida's healing hut the next morning, she was late for her lesson, and her eyes still felt heavy. Kida took one look at her and frowned.

"Lagora, Nivi," she said, "Why don't you go check on Hanna. See if she and her boy are feeling better." The two girls obeyed, casting furtive glances at Katara as they left. Katara squirmed under the collective disapproval of the other healers. "I hope," Kida said to Katara when they were alone, "that Amaruk is not pushing you too hard."

"He's not," Katara insisted. "I can handle anything he throws at me. Don't worry."

Kida shook her head sadly. "A rigorous training regimine will be just the beginning, I'm afraid. Amaruk's ambitions are lofty. Once he sees you have met his expectations, he demands more." She walked over to the firepit, where a cauldron hung over the flames. Katara could smell the redthorn berries boiling. Kida swirled her hand over the cauldron, stirring the water with her bending. "That's how he has always been," she muttered, half to herself.

"Is that why you didn't want him to train me?" Katara shot back. She'd never confronted Kida about it before, but finding out she had been the one to impose the ridiculous test that had kept her from learning to fight for so long had felt like a personal betrayal. In her exhaustion, she was now cranky enough not to care if Kida knew of her resentment.

Kida looked at her sternly. "I didn't want him to manipulate you into something you did not want to do," she said. Looking back to the cauldron, she flicked her wrist and drew some of the water out. It was a golden-yellow color from the berries; Katara knew it had to boil until it was orange, and then it would be used to clean wounds and prevent infection. "Believe me, even if you had been dead set against it, he would have tried," Kida explained, letting the water fall back into the cauldron. "I'm happy for you to learn from him, but for your own purposes, not for his."

Katara was mollified somewhat, though she still felt Kida was a bit hypocritical accusing Amaruk of being manipulative. But she burned with curiosity over another question. As long as she was being honest, she might as well ask it. "Is it not what you want for yourself?"

"Me?" Kida asked with a chuckle. "I'm a bit old to start training as a warrior now. I've been a healer for decades and I'm good at it. That's enough for me."

"But what about Yanor?" Katara pressed. "She's young enough. And Lagora and Nivi are my age, but whenever I suggest they come with me to Amaruk's lessons they make excuses."

Kida grew more serious. "Perhaps they don't want to."

"Why not?"

"You must understand, Katara," Kida said, setting a lid over the cauldron and leaving it to stew. "In the north, we have traditions. It is not only the men who believe in them."

Katara planted her hands firmly on her hips. "Do you really think they're not good enough, just because they're girls?" she demanded.

"It has nothing to do with being good enough," Kida replied just as firmly. "Most women see it as beneath them."

"What?" Katara was shocked. "How is it beneath us to defend our people? What could be more important?"

"Curing their illnesses," Kida suggested. "Mending the wounded, so they can still support the tribe. Saving weak newborns from death."

Katara let out a frustrated sigh. "Of course all that is important! But-"

"But what?" Kida cut her off. "Not everyone wants to fight, Katara. Not everyone can. Let them be. An unwilling warrior is no good to anyone."

Katara crossed her arms angrily. After a moment, she said darkly, "They only think that way because it's what the men have told them."

"Give us northern women more credit than that," Kida admonished her with a patient smile. "We're here, aren't we? Pakku didn't think we should have come at all."

Katara didn't argue any further after that. But that day was the last time she went for healing lessons with Kida.


Southern Earth Kingdom - Ten Years After Sozin's Comet

Zuko woke up, unsurprisingly, in the brig of a Fire Nation ship. The first thing he noticed was that he was lying on his side on the hard metal deck. When he tried to push himself up, he realized his hands were shackled behind his back. The shackles and the chains around his ankles were also fixed to the floor, so the most he could manage was a slightly less uncomfortable kneeling position.

His right arm still throbbed with pain, but someone had taken the arrow out, pushing up his sleeve and bandaging the wound enough to stop the bleeding. The chains chafed against the wound unpleasantly, but on the whole it hurt much less than Zuko would have expected. Perhaps they'd drugged him as well - that would also account for the lightheaded, almost giddy feeling, that was totally incongruous with his dire situation.

He took comfort in the fact that he seemed to be the only prisoner - the cells in the brig were separated only by iron grills, and all the rest were empty. Hopefully, that meant Katara and Aang were well on their way to Gaoling by now.

He didn't have to wait long for his first visitor. The door to the brig screeched open, and the looming figure of the ship's captain stalked straight over to his cell, fiddling with keys for a moment to open the grate. Apparently, Zhao wanted to gloat up close and in person. That suited Zuko just fine - if Zhao was here to torment him, that meant he wasn't tormenting anyone else, at least for the moment.

Zhao folded his arms and looked down at his prisoner in triumph. "I suppose you'll be happy to know the Avatar got away," he said. Zuko was happy, actually. It was what he had hoped for. He looked up at his captor's scarred face and almost felt like laughing. "But I have you, at least, to deliver to the Fire Lord," Zhao went on. "She'll certainly be pleased to hear that. And if the Avatar and your little waterbender try to stage a rescue, so much the better."

Zuko rolled his eyes. "They're not going to fall for such an obvious trap." At least, he hoped they wouldn't. He knew Katara wouldn't be happy about leaving him behind, but they'd all be a lot worse off if Aang got captured, too. The Fire Nation could not be allowed to get their hands on the Avatar.

"You know," Zhao replied with a shrug, "I'm feeling sentimental lately. I think I'm going to bet on true love, this time. That woman won't be able to leave behind her poor sweet prince." He said this last in a mockingly saccharine tone. Zuko almost laughed again - he sounded ridiculous. But Zhao's next words sobered him. "Of course, the Phoenix King wants the Avatar alive, and your sister would rather kill you herself, but no one cares what happens to the water tribe peasant. I guess that's up to me to decide."

Foolishly, Zuko tried to stand, succeeding only in straining his arms and his back against the chains that still held him fast. His injured arm protested painfully. "She would kill you," he said darkly.

Zhao only smiled. "We'll see," he said.

Settling back onto his knees, Zuko glared at him. He might be physically helpless at the moment, but there were other ways to strike back at his captor. He jerked his chin, indicating the scars on the right side of Zhao's face. "Did Azula do that to you?"

Zhao's lip curled. That was a yes, then, and a sore spot. Zuko smirked, feeling slightly giddy again, and kept pressing. "What did she do, try to claw your face off with her bare hands? You weren't even good enough for her fire?" He let his eyes drift lazily to the side as if disinterested, tilting his head to the right. "Just between us disgraced exiles, I'd say I made out better in the scar department."

Zhao was on him in an instant, holding a flaming fist dangerously close to Zuko's face. Zuko flinched involuntarily. Perhaps goading him had not been the wisest decision after all. "Maybe you'd like me to even it out for you," Zhao growled.

Feeling no less stupidly cocky - he had definitely been drugged, or had a concussion, or something, part of him registered vaguely - Zuko took a deep breath, felt the roaring energy of Zhao's fire, and nonchalantly snuffed it out as he exhaled. "No, thank you," he said politely.

That really made Zhao mad, but he reined himself in rather than lashing out. "A smart mouth and some parlor tricks won't help you escape from this ship," he said, standing upright again. "Or from the Fire Lord's wrath. Your sister will wipe that grin off your face, if nothing else."

He turned to leave, but Zuko called out one last question in genuine curiosity. "Why are you so loyal to her? She clearly doesn't think very highly of you anymore."

Zhao halted outside the cell, one hand on the grate. "I don't care what that madwoman thinks of me," he spat. "But once my honor is restored, she may yet have her uses."

And with that cryptic answer, he slammed the grate shut, and stalked out of the brig, leaving Zuko alone to contemplate the disturbing question of what those uses might be.

It was hard to keep track of time precisely from the windowless brig, but Zuko could definitely feel that the sun had gone down by the time he heard the commotion outside the door. A guard started to shout, but was abruptly cut off. If there were others, they never got the chance to sound the alarm. The fight didn't last long, but through it all he heard the distinctive sound of water impacting against metal at high velocity.

So, Zhao had been right. True love had won out after all.

The door screeched open again, and Zuko couldn't help but smile as his wife stepped over the fallen body of a guard and into the room. Her face was slightly flushed, and her blue eyes were sharp and alert as she unlocked his cell with stolen keys, assessing every inch of him.

"You're beautiful," he said stupidly. Probably he was still feeling the effects of whatever they'd drugged him with. That was his excuse.

Katara gave a snort of laughter. "You always say that when I'm rescuing you."

Okay, so maybe he had no excuse. "It's always true," he defended himself.

A few swipes of Katara's hands, and razor-sharp arcs of water broke his chains. She helped him to his feet, frowning over his bandaged arm. "We don't have time for me to heal this," she said apologetically.

"I'll manage," Zuko replied, stretching his left arm. Firebending one-handed wasn't ideal, but he'd fought under worse circumstances before. "Where's Aang?"

"Somewhere safe," was all Katara said, and Zuko nodded. He was selfishly glad she had come back for him, but it was a relief not to have to worry about Aang being captured on his account.

They hurried out of the brig and were almost immediately met by another wave of soldiers coming to investigate what had happened to the guards. Zuko's right arm seared with pain as they fought them off, even though he only summoned flames with his left hand - either the drugs were wearing off, or the exertion was aggravating the wound, or both.

But Zhao's crew were hardly elite warriors - a stark contrast with the highly skilled forces he had once had under his command, and with the archers he'd used to attack them earlier. How was an exiled naval officer allowed to retain the Yuyan archers at his disposal, yet given nothing but old men and mediocre firebenders to crew his ship? Zuko had never had any special resources granted to him during his banishment, but his crew had at least been more competent than this. If it was all Azula's doing, that did seem to be further evidence that she was not making such decisions under the full light of reason…

Whatever the explanation, Zuko and Katara were able to fight their way up onto the deck of the ship relatively quickly. There was something comforting about fighting together again, and how easily they had slipped back into the familiar patterns after so long. Zuko knew how Katara thought and moved in a fight as well as he knew himself, and she could say the same of him. He covered her back, and she covered his right side, and they were a formidable team, just like in the old days.

Once they were on the deck, they finally crossed paths with Zhao himself. If he was disappointed that it was only Katara who had come to Zuko's rescue, and that the Avatar remained beyond his grasp, he didn't show it. He merely attacked them with the full force of his fire. Zuko was just able to deflect the flames away from them with his one good arm.

But Katara was a master waterbender, and now that they were on the deck under the light of the moon, the entire ocean around them was her weapon. With a great heaving motion of both arms, she drenched the entire ship, sweeping Zhao and all of his crew off their feet. She had frozen Zuko's feet and her own to the deck as she did so, and melted the ice just as quickly as the water drained over the sides of the ship, leaving them the only ones standing.

They ran for the railing. There was no need to discuss a plan - Zuko knew that as soon as they leaped over the side, Katara would have a raft of ice waiting below them, and they could make their escape.

The dark silhouette of a large, furry shape rapidly approaching in the sky caught Zuko's attention, and he grabbed Katara's arm, causing them both to skid to a halt. So much for Aang being somewhere safe. "I told him to stay hidden!" Katara shouted in frustration.

A sarcastic reply died on Zuko's lips as a fireball grazed the shoulder of his injured arm. He let out a grunt of pain, falling to one knee, as Katara whirled around to block the strike that followed. Zhao had recovered, and had taken advantage of their distraction to attack.

But as soon as he realized what had distracted them, Zhao changed targets, launching fireballs at Appa instead. Katara and Zuko did their best to block some of them, and Appa was able to dodge the rest.

"Don't stand there staring!" Zhao was yelling at his crew, who by now had gotten back on their feet as well. "Bring down that beast!"

The crew hurried to comply with their captain's orders, though they also had to fight off Zuko and Katara, who had attacked them again. Only a few fireballs were actually launched at the flying bison, and Aang was still able to evade them. But he was getting closer, and making himself an easier target every moment.

Soon he was close enough that Zuko could see the fiercely determined expression on his face illuminated by the flashes of fire. It was the look of a boy desperate to prove himself, a boy with far too much weight on his shoulders, who saw every attempt by his guardians to lighten his burden as a slight as his ability to carry it alone, as he believed was his duty. Zuko knew that look well.

Zhao was poised to shoot another blast of fire straight at Aang, but had to hold back at the last minute to deflect the fireball Zuko hurled at him instead. Before he could recover to attack again, a high-pressure jet of water forced him back, towards the starboard rail of the deck. He tried to duck out of the way, but Katara hit him with another blast of water from the side. She kept up her assault, never giving Zhao any quarter, until finally with a great push she threw him over the side of the ship and into the sea below.

Those crew members who were still standing ran to Zhao's aide. They clearly had more concern for their captain than commitment to capturing the Avatar - no wonder they'd never advanced very far in the Fire Nation navy. While they fished him out of the water, Katara bended a stream of water around herself and Zuko, carrying them up into the air and dropping them onto Appa's saddle. Without breaking pace, the bison flew past the ship and away towards the coast, carrying all three of them to safety.

"You shouldn't have done that," Katara scolded when it was clear they were not being pursued. Aang turned around and climbed up to join them in the saddle, looking at Katara defiantly.

"Why not?" he challenged her. "I helped you get away, didn't I? And I didn't get captured or hurt or anything. It all worked out fine."

"It wasn't worth the risk!" Katara insisted. "We were about to escape anyway when you showed up. Zuko got hurt again because you distracted us in the middle of a fight!"

Aang shrank at her words and looked at Zuko with wide eyes, taking in the singed flesh of his upper arm. "Oh," he said in a small voice. "I didn't realize…"

"It could have been a lot worse," Zuko said. Aang shrank further, and Zuko's gut twisted. He wasn't trying to guilt the boy, but he had to learn... "We've talked about you running into danger."

Aang sat up a little straighter. "I'm sorry you got hurt because of me," he said earnestly. "But I can't just run away and hide every time there's danger," he argued. "To end this war, to do my duty as the Avatar, I need to be a warrior." The boy's voice faltered only slightly at the end of his pronouncement, but it was enough for Zuko to catch it.

"But you're not ready," Zuko pointed out. "You're not a warrior yet."

Aang looked back at Katara. "Well, I am willing to be," he said.

Katara nodded. "Then you need to follow our directions," she said, more kindly than her earlier scolding. "We want to help you do your duty as the Avatar. You have to accept that help."

Aang gave a small nod. Satisfied, Katara turned her attention to Zuko. "Let me see your arm," she said. She gloved one hand in water from her waterskin and gently unwrapped the bandages around his forearm, revealing the arrow wound. It was only about an inch long, but it went clean through his arm. Whatever had been dulling the pain before had definitely worn off by now - his entire forearm was swollen and throbbing, on top of the searing pain in his upper arm.

Katara placed her water-covered hand over the wound, and the water began to glow. Aang looked on with undisguised interest.

"No damage to the bones," Katara said absently, "and none to the major blood vessels, obviously, or you'd be bleeding out much more." As she spoke, Zuko could feel the swelling going down and the pain lessening again. After a minute, the healing water was absorbed into his skin. Katara drew more water out of her waterskin and applied it to the wound again, this time knitting it closed.

"Wow," Aang breathed softly, "I had no idea you could do that with waterbending."

"Katara's a great healer," Zuko said appreciatively.

Katara smiled at him. "I'm alright," she said modestly. "Nivi was always the prodigy."

As Katara turned her attention to the burn on his shoulder, Zuko caught Aang eyeing the jagged lightning scar that wrapped around his arm. When Katara's healing was done, Zuko tugged down his tattered and bloodstained sleeve self-consciously. Aang met his eye, but didn't ask anything. "Not everyone gets the luxury of waiting until they're ready," Zuko said, just to have something to say. Aang looked at him curiously for a moment, then nodded again.

"Alright," Katara said. "We've had enough delays. It's time we headed for Gaoling."

Aang adjusted their course, guiding Appa towards the southeast, and they were on their way at last. If all went smoothly, they'd be with the Underground before the week was out.