The three rescuers whirled around to see Zuko, fully armoured, standing a few feet from them. His eyes lingered on Suki. "I was right. No honor."
Suki narrowed her eyes to slits and she took a combat stance, fans drawn out. "Leave him to me," she hissed dangerously.
"But-"
"Leave him to me!" Suki repeated with a snarl. "Go find Aang! Now! I'll hold him off!"
The firebender gave an amused smirk. He threw a punch to summon a fireball but Suki was quicker than him and charged him, hitting him with all the weight of her armoured body; he fell on the floor. Suki turned around and nodded at the siblings. They nodded back and ran down the corridor.
Zuko threw himself back on his feet, kicking Suki in the stomach with both feet in the process. She stumbled back with a yelp and dropped her fans. Zuko then firebent at her; she stood her ground and protected herself with her arms.
"You know nothing about honor," Zuko said, his tone shifting from amusement to anger.
"You're the one with no honor," Suki growled as she crouched to take back her fans. "Threatening innocents isn't honorable!" She charged him again.
"I'm not expecting a lowly peasant to understand," Zuko snarled back as he firebent again.
Suki spread her fans before her to minimise the damage. "Fighting a non-bending isn't very honorable either." She lowered her fans to reveal a smirk. "Afraid you can't beat me without firebending?"
It was Zuko's turn to narrow his eyes to slits. "I can perfectly defeat you without bending." To prove his point and despite the narrowness of the corridor they were fighting in, he delivered a roundhouse kick that sent Suki into the wall. She bounced off the metal and dropped to her knees.
But she wasn't defeated; she tripped him with her leg before getting back on her feet. He fell on his back and Suki instantly straddled him to prevent any movement. She then pressed both her fans on his throat.
"You'll pay for dishonoring me," she hissed in his burnt ear as she applied more pressure on his windpipe.
"Y-you know nothing about h-honor!" Zuko repeated as he had more and more difficulty to breathe. He threw his head forward, smacking hard on Suki's forehead. She staggered back as her vision grew troubled. He stood up. "Absolutely nothing."
Their fight resumed, each warrior trying to best the other. They were left unperturbed in their conflict as all the guards but the sentinel looking after the ship. They clashed constantly, their battle sending them in the innermost parts of the vessel.
At one point, Zuko spotted the siblings from the corner of his eye at the other side of the hall they fought in as he dodged a fan directed at his scar. The Avatar was with them. They stopped there, watching the fight worriedly.
"Suki! Follow us!" Sokka cried.
"That's it!" Zuko screamed. He released an enormous blast of fire in front of him, knocking Suki to the floor and burning parts of her robe. "You won't escape me again, Avatar!"
He thrust towards the trio but Suki countered his momentum with a kick of both legs in the torso and Zuko hit the floor once again.
Suki stood up. "Leave!"
"Not without you!" Sokka shouted back.
"I told you I'll hold him off! Leave!" She threw one fan at him to emphasise her will.
"Come with us Sokka," Katara said sadly as she saw Suki rush back towards their enemy.
They left, to Suki's great relief and satisfaction. She wouldn't leave before making Zuko pay. She doubled her efforts to hurt him and their clash led them in the inferior levels of the ironclad. Zuko had resumed firebending, and she could feel her metal fans slowly becoming too hot for her to hold. She threw them at Zuko; one missed, the other hit his face right on the scar. He howled in pain and brought one hand to his scar while firebending at Suki with the other. She smirked; she'd believed that she couldn't use the strength of a firebender against him, but she now knew otherwise.
Now defenceless against his fire, Suki ran away from him. He swiftly followed and she soon reached a door; the one leading to the depot of explosive jelly the sailors used to destroy the icebergs too big to be melted by firebending. She opened the door at once and Zuko crashed into it.
Zuko quickly recovered and closed the door on her, sending her on the floor of the room. He then charged him and started to summon another fireball.
Meanwhile, Sokka and Katara were safely seated in Appa's saddle, Aang leading the beast away from the ship. Abandoning Suki didn't feel right, even if she requested herself.
"Let's go back for her," he told his friends.
"Yes," the siblings answered in unison.
But as Aang directed Appa towards the ship, an explosion eviscerated the vessel, lighting the night with a fiery glint and propelling sizzling shards of metal in the air. Aang promptly hauled back the reins to dodge the deadly debris, causing Sokka and Katara to stumble in the saddle.
They watched in horror as the carcass of metal that remained on water slowly sunk underneath the waves. Katara closed her eyes; she could feel tears forming under her eyelids. Aang's mouth was agape as he watched sadly the carnage. Sokka was the most hurt; he stared blankly at the debris of the smouldering ironclad.
"At least she died honorably," he said miserably. "She regained her honor."
None of them found comfort in this fact.
