Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, its characters, designs etc. Those are © Mike and Bryan, and Nickelodeon. Xue Bao, the medic, Dao, Yun, Naomi and other original characters are © me, Lady Asvin.

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Lanterns flickered on and off as an eerie silence descended upon the steel monster that was the Fire Lord's ship. Bitterly cold waves sliced through its slowly sinking hull; belowdecks, the crewmen faithful to their Fire Lord gathered the women and servants into a tight huddle by the navigation room. The ship heaved clumsily back and forth; already, deadly swirls of hyperborean water were turning ankles blue and crystallizing over boots. The ship's hull cracked open like an egg…

"Captain Shou! Captain Shou! I need you to-" Zuko roared orders, stopping short when he realized the ship's captain was nowhere to be found. A freckle-faced sailor ran up to the Fire Lord, soaked and shivering.

"C-captain Shou abandoned s-ship, sir!" Zuko gritted his teeth.

"Coward," he muttered. The sailor stood by him, rubbing his arms and fighting to keep his eyes open against the cutting rain. A sudden blast of wind nearly knocked both off their feet. Zuko turned to the man, bracing himself in case of another treacherous sway.

"Go down with the other sailors and the servants. There is nothing more you can do here." The bow of the craft was sinking quickly with Appa on board; out of the corner of his eye, Zuko could see Katara desperately trying to keep the ship from taking in any more water. Her face twisted with the effort, and every second saw her herculean struggle against the wounds sustained on her way to warn him. The millions of cuts multiplied, reopening and sending rivulets of blood down her arms and legs, staining through her clothing. The freckle-faced sailor still stood on the upper deck; his face had acquired a stubborn set that would have worried the Fire Lord in any other situation.

"N-no, your majesty. I c-can't leave you t-to fight the b-blizzard alone." Although the man was older than him, Zuko couldn't help but feel a combination of frustration and embarrassed flattery. Before he could say anything, however, the ship abruptly righted itself, throwing a very wet young woman into his chest, her matted hair plastering itself over his nose and mouth. Blushing madly, the sailor helped Katara up as Suki, who had come up from belowdecks to find Katara, stared on. The Fire Lord was up, but the moment Katara was released she collapsed in a tired heap on the deck; it had begun to sleet, and the tired and injured girl couldn't get her footing. The Fire Lord himself bent to help her up, and Suki started at the sight of her small, tan hands in his bony pale ones. Funny, I never thought about it… but maybe… now is definitely not the time, she thought to herself. The waves crashed louder.

"Zuko," shouted Suki above the din. "Katara!" The two stopped their struggling to look at her. "Toph says she can hold the ship together for a bit, but it's moments at best!" The cutting wind nearly tore the words from her throat. The four on the upper deck turned to look at Appa; the beast himself lowed mournfully, in pain as ice and cold penetrated his dense fur. Zuko turned to catch Katara's eye.

"Katara, can that thing swim?" he asked. His voice was getting hoarse from the effort. From her position, supported on one of his shoulders and a head shorter than him, she stared.

"Yes, but he's tired." Zuko closed his eyes briefly.

"Help me," he said tersely to the sailor, who had stayed nearby to watch the drama unfold. In one fluid move, he hoisted the waterbender up in his arms and handed her gently to the sailor. Meeting her blue eyes with his gold ones, he said: "Can you bend from there?" She nodded, not protesting simply because she could not afford the time or energy. Zuko turned to Suki.

"Go belowdecks. Send all of my men up here, and ask Toph how long she can keep this death trap together." The Kyoshi nodded and disappeared.

"What's your plan?" asked Katara from the sailor's arms. He turned to explain but found he couldn't, with her in the position she was in. The sailor's freckled arms held her solidly, but gently enough to avoid scraping her already-bleeding limbs. Seeing red, he turned back around.

"I want to push Appa into the water," he said swiftly.

"What?" asked the Water Tribe girl incredulously. Zuko met her stubborn gaze.

"It's not what you think. You said he can swim, right?" The waterbender nodded. "Well, I want to push him in the water, but keep him close to the ship. Then, I was hoping you could bend water away from the ship and Appa's head-"

"In an air bubble," she finished, nodding. Understanding had made its way slowly into her expression as she listened.

"Yes," said Zuko. "And… I need Appa to push us to shore." Katara looked doubtful. He probably just covered himself in honey or something so that Appa would lick him.

"Only Aang can-"

"I know," interjected Zuko. Looking at him closely, Katara understood that this was quite possibly their only chance. She turned to the sailor.

"Let me down," she told him. The man looked questioningly at Zuko, whose expression was a cross between incredulity and admiration.

"Let her down," he said, and at that moment the stomping footsteps of crewmen sounded as his sailors made it to the upper deck. He motioned to them.

"Men, follow me!" he called out. Looking at Katara, he nodded. "You know what to do." She nodded back, a grim salute, and ran to the bow of the ship. Suki met her there.

"Toph can hold the ship together for a few minutes more, at most," she said. From where they were, the girls could see Zuko and five burly men, plus the freckled soldier, pushing and heaving to move the ten-ton bison. Appa snuffled loudly and snorted in annoyance; the men pushed all the harder. Katara turned to her friend.

"Suki, I want you to get everyone belowdecks up here," she said quickly. The Kyoshi was understandably confused. "Ask Toph if she can let go of the back half of the ship and somehow… I don't know, seal the rest of it – it will be easier for Appa to push." Suki's eyes widened, but the entire day had been spent attempting the impossible, so she decided not to pursue it. She had run ten feet when she heard a piercing scream; turning around she realized in shock that a rogue icicle had flown from its cave or glacier and pierced most of Katara's right thigh. Gritting her teeth through the pain, the waterbender looked to where Suki had frozen in place.

"GO!" she said harshly, and the Kyoshi snapped out of it and ran. Zuko heard the scream and looked back, but could not stop now: the men had managed to get one set of legs and the tail over the steel railing, and were still heaving. He saw a deadly ice dagger buried a hand deep into Katara's thigh; from his heaving, sideways perspective he saw her grit her teeth and yell at the Kyoshi girl. Knuckles white, the waterbender forcefully yanked out the ice; a pool of vivid red blood welled up, but Katara did not have the time or agility at that moment to make a tourniquet. Instead, she froze the outer layers of blood to prevent the rest from flowing and stood again, steadying herself on another rail.

Do you remember her?

Don't worry, you will.

She's unforgettable.

Smiling grimly, Zuko returned his attention to the daunting task at hand.

-

Belowdecks.

-

"Xue Bao, when does this nightmare end?" drawled Mai. She and her chaperon, as well as two maids and the ship's cook were all huddled against the wall near the navigation room. Huddled was a bad way of putting it; instead, the group was holding for dear life to a metal pipe that ran the length of the wall and disappeared around one of the ship's corridors. The maids were terrified out of their wits, and the cook was praying that the end would come swiftly. Xue Bao had opened her mouth to reply when someone crashed down the stairs, face chapped and eyes wide.

"The Fire Lord needs everyone on the upper deck," she gasped. Suki's eyes sparked wildly, daring them to question the order. No one did; instead, they followed directions and hurried upstairs. All save one: Suki turned to run into the deep center of the ship and find Toph but faced Mai instead.

"Where's Zuko," she asked suspiciously, watery golden eyes narrowing. Suki snorted impatiently. I do not have time to pretend I like this girl, she thought, and pointed up the stairs. "Where everyone else is," she replied shortly, and abandoned her to go find Toph. Mai followed her back down the corridor until she disappeared. Insolence, she mused, and made her way slowly up the stairs as she pondered how she would punish that. Two dozen feet below the upper deck, a tiny raven-haired metalbender struggled to press together a steel-and-iron monster. Suki found her, red-faced with exertion and muscles bulging.

"Toph," said the warrior hurriedly.

"Come on fan-girl, I need some good news right about now," choked out the girl, trying not to waste her breath. The Kyoshi grimaced.

"Katara wants to know if you can let go of the back half of the ship… and somehow seal the remaining part." The blind girl's eyes widened incredulously.

"That's a tall order," she said dryly. "But here, let me see what I can do." Suki didn't even have a chance to move. The tiny earthbender drew in a massive breath and stretched out her arms, calling the metal to her and pinching it together. With her feet, she drew iron sheets from the floor and ceiling together to create a makeshift wall, grunting with the struggle. She coordinated her hands and feet to weave the metals together, giving one last monumental push to mesh the thing flat. The earthbender's muscles suddenly relaxed; Suki, awestruck, was nearly pushed front-first into a network of pipes as the ship shuddered and released tons of metal into the ice-ridden ocean. On the upper deck, seven men managed to get the last of a ten-ton bison off the ship and into the frigid ocean. Katara drew her element in around her; the water swirled and arched, forming a large bubble of shifting shades of blue and white. The bubble grew to encompass half of the imperial ship and the sky bison's head; protected from sheets of snow, rain, and ice, Zuko's men could now form makeshift reigns for the bison.

"Appa, YIP YIP!" yelled Katara and the Fire Lord simultaneously, and the beast strained its great heft, pushing at the craft with its forehead. Zuko steered the entire contraption around so the bison was behind the ship and pushing in the direction of the South Pole shore as Suki and Toph ran to join the others on the upper deck.

"How far out are we?" shouted Zuko to one of his men. The man shook his head.

"The navigation room was near the back of the ship, sir!" Which is now underwater, thought Zuko savagely. Turning to Katara, he tried again: "Do you know how far we are from your village?" In the single moment it took Katara to listen to him, she allowed one flying ice chunk to make it through her bubble.

The entire ship watched in horror as their bubble disappeared and a waterbender, knocked unconscious by a brick-sized block of solid ice, fell heavily to the steel deck.

-

Southern Water Tribe.

-

The wind had settled slightly, but snow still scoured the ground and walls of the Southern Water Tribe. Aang looked worriedly out the ice block window, occasionally airbending himself level with it to try and make out the landscape better. Sokka braided rawhide, angled his boomerang, cleaned his sword – anything but think about his girlfriend out there, in a blizzard. Hakoda of the water tribe had paced the area before the hut's door into a deep welt in the ground; ice fell noisily on the walls and roof, although according to him the blizzard had yet to hit full force. It was almost possible to hear the waves from the door…

Knock.

Hakoda stopped pacing and strained his ears – silence, and then:

Knock.

Aang and Sokka raced to the door as Hakoda fought to open it.

Knockknockknock.

The door flew open. A burly man holding two women over his shoulder stumbled in, wet and frostbitten. Another man followed, carrying an older woman. After him came a freckle-faced sailor, holding a light-eyed, slightly chubby warrior girl. Sokka's eyes widened.

"No," he whispered, and rushed to take her from the man's arms. The man gave her up gratefully and collapsed, taking care to keep away from the snow blasting in through the open door. Aang's worried eyes trained themselves on a black lump coming slowly through the built-up snow; Hakoda, man that he was, found it necessary to suppress tears at the sight. He opened the door a little wider as his daughter was carried in by a scarred boy, too cold to even shiver. Her hair streamed downward; both their arms were riddled with slivers of ice, and the girl's thigh was bleeding freely, dripping scarlet blood onto the hut's floor. The boy's face and back had been cut badly, to the extent where his blood began to run, mingling with the girl's on the floor. Hakoda closed the door and rushed to his daughter. The scarred boy looked at him helplessly.

"Save her first," he whispered, and collapsed. Only then could his most grievous injury be seen: a piece of sharpened steel, mayhap part of a ship once, had embedded itself in his left lower back deep enough to touch ribs.

What are you doing?

Saving you.