The Spirit Avatar Chapter 10: Imprisoned, an avatar: last airbender fanfic

Chapter 10: Imprisoned

Charmaine was sitting in her room staring out at the morning sunrise over the ocean. The water was completely still as glass and reflecting the beautiful golds and blues from the sunrise. The water reflected how Charmaine felt at the moment; cold and still.

She had small bags under from the lack of sleep over the past few days. Ever since Suki confronted the death of her fiancé all the memories had come flooding back. She had been fine the first day on the ship until she tried to sleep. Every time she closed her eyes all she could see was Ra's heading hitting the ground with a painful expression etched across his face. At some point she managed to fall asleep but then the nightmares ensued. They ranged from the actual battle to Suki screaming and kneeling next to Ra's decapitated head. After she stopped screaming she'd yell "YOU MONSTER!" at Charmaine and attack her. She woke up screaming several times and breakdown into tears. She refused to sleep after that horrifying night.

After a horrible night's sleep, Charmaine went to eat breakfast with Iroh and Zuko. Iroh had noticed that Charmaine wasn't looking well but Charmaine reassured him that it was from the lack of care while in prison and that she would be fine after getting some food in her belly. For the most part breakfast had done its job; Iroh had embarrassed Zuko by telling stories on how he use to refuse to wear his diaper and run down the hall screaming as his mother and servants chased after him, Zuko got upset over the stories and threatened many of the staff, and the food managed to give Charmaine some much needed energy.

After breakfast Charmaine went to go practice her bending out on the deck. After an hour of practice she switched to her swords as she did every morning. Everything was going fine for the first five minutes until she took a swing at the empty air. After the sword finished slicing the air she saw Ra standing in front of her. For a few seconds he stood still as if nothing was wrong and then Ra's head slowly fall off his body. The head hit the ground with a thunk and rolled around stopping a few feet in front of Charmaine with a painful expression across his face. As soon as his head stopped his body fell to its knees and then fell forward. Charmaine dropped her swords and stumbled and fell onto the ground in horror. Iroh had seen her and came running up to her. He asked her what was wrong but all Charmaine did was cling to his leg with her eyes shut, shaking her head back and forth mumbling no while crying.

After Charmaine managed to finally calm down Iroh tried talking to her again but she refused to speak; all she did was sit on the railing and stare blankly out at the sea. Everything after that was pretty much a blur; she remembered getting up and locking herself in her room for the rest of the night and the next couple of days, denying meals, Iroh had come to speak to her but got nothing, and at some point Zuko came to check up on her.

Today, as Charmaine stared out into the sunrise, she decided she would go out and swim. She thought that maybe the swim could get rid of the images that kept popping up of Ra. Several times this morning around she swore she saw Ra standing in various corners with his head in his hands staring at her. At one point he spoke saying he wish he could be with Suki instead of dead.

She got up and removed her robe revealing her red night gown and proceeded to leave the room and travel up to the deck. As she walked down the hall some of the guards stared at her in shock due to her zombie like walk and emotionless face and some even asked if she was okay. She ignored all the stares and questions and proceeded to the upper and deck shoving past any guard that tried to get in her way. As she approached the railing she was tackled from her left side and onto the floor.

"You're not quitting on me now," Zuko stated as he pushed Charmaine to the ground.

"What the hell are you talking about," Charmaine asked as Zuko pinned her to the ground.

Zuko looked down at Charmaine and frowned as he saw her emotionless state. This wasn't the girl he was use to. Normally she would have thrown him off and proceed to jump over the rail with a smirk on her face. All he saw now was this broken girl and the last time he saw her like this was after she had killed an Earth Kingdom Soldier. "I'm not letting you commit suicide. You haven't come out in days or spoke to a single person after the incident. You look like you have given up on life."

"I was just going for swim," Charmaine said blankly. She then proceeded to kick Zuko off her and stood up.

"Oh," was all Zuko could say as he stared at her stupidly. He should have known better; she wouldn't do that Iroh. He then watched as she hopped over the railing landed in the water, thus breaking the perfectly still water.

-Q-

Four days ago…

Zuko had a hard time going back to sleep after his dream of Charmaine. He sat up against his wall for what felt like a lifetime as he reflected back on his dream. He still swore that it had to have been real. He could still feel her breath linger on his lips like her lips were just bare centimeters away from touch. After he came to grip that it was just a very livid dream he pondered how he was going to make Charmaine fall in love with him.

Some of the ideas he came up ranged from getting the crew to play romantic music as they ate dinner under the star by candlelight to giving her flowers and declaring his love for her. He quickly discarded those ideas simply because he couldn't bring himself to do any of those. He wasn't a romantic or emotional person unless you counted his anger. He decided that his best chance was to try and be nice to her. If the past taught him anything with her is that whenever he was nice to her she would give him a kiss either on his cheek or his lips.

After several more vivid dreams about him and Charmaine Zuko got up and changed into uniform. He was starving and couldn't wait to see Charmaine at breakfast. Zuko was the first one to breakfast which was very unusual. Usually Uncle Iroh was the first one to arrive and would complain that Zuko and Charmaine had taken too long, so when Iroh arrived he expressed his surprise.

"Zuko you're here early," Iroh said as he sat down at the table patiently waiting for Charmaine to arrive.

"Well I fell asleep before dinner last night so I woke up earlier than usual," Zuko said in a matter of a fact tone as he tried to slyly look around for any sight of Charmaine.

"Well that and your probably hungry, I know I would be."

"Uncle you're always hungry even if you don't skip meals."

"I can't help that my body needs plenty of food to keep this beautiful physique in shape," Iroh said as he flexed his muscles. Zuko looked at Iroh and turned green and turned to the side to dry heave.

"Good morning Iroh. Good morning Zuko." Charmaine walked into the room and looked very tired. Zuko and Iroh noticed the bags under her eyes right away.

"Charmaine are you alright," Iroh asked. "You don't look like you got any sleep, is something troubling you?"

"I'm fine," Charmaine stated as she sat across from Iroh. "I didn't get much sleep while I was in prison and I guess it's just catching up with me."

"Well I think it's a good time to lift everyone's spirits from the past few days with a good story," Iroh said as he started to dig into his giant breakfast.

"Uncle, no one wants to hear about any of your tea stories," Zuko said as he delved into his own food. He swore that this breakfast was hands down best breakfast he had ever had.

"It wasn't going to be about tea," Iroh said while giving Zuko a scolding look. "In fact I decided I would talk about you when you were just a little boy."

"NO!" Zuko said in authoritative voice

"Well you didn't want a tea story so this story will have to do," Iroh said as a small smile crept onto his face. "You see when Zuko was about two years old he hadn't been fully potty trained so he was still in diapers. But you see Zuko hated diapers. He said they made is butt itchy and would constantly pick at the diaper."

"UNCLE!" Zuko yelled as Charmaine and Iroh chuckled at the image of a baby Zuko picking at his diaper. Zuko's face was blushing a very deep red color as he glared at the two.

"Well one day when he was the nursery about to get his diaper changed by his mother, he decides he doesn't want to wear his diaper anymore. So he pulls off his diaper and declares that he is a big boy and big boys don't wear diapers. Well Ursula, who is about 8 months pregnant at the time, tries to grab him to put him into a clean diaper and he takes off running out the nursery buck naked! Ursula was waddling after him and servants were trying to stop him as he is running down the hall. While he's running he's yelling 'I'm free!' It took five servants and his mother to catch him after twenty minutes of chasing him around the palace."

As Iroh finished the story he was laughing so hard he had tears coming out of his eyes, Charmaine was laughing but was trying to cover it up to spare Zuko's feelings, while Zuko sat pouting and blushing a deep scarlet. Finally after about five minutes Charmaine and Iroh had recovered from their laughing fit but Zuko still sat pouting like a little kid.

"Well thank you Iroh that definitely managed to get my spirits up," Charmaine said as she started to get up. "And now I think I'm going to go practice, but the two of you continue to enjoy your breakfast." With that said Charmaine left the room leaving Zuko staring after her wondering when he should make his move.

"So Zuko when are we going to start back up with your training," Iroh asked as he finished the last of his meal.

"What are you talking about Uncle," Zuko asked. "I haven't stopped practicing my fire bending."

"I'm not talking about your fire bending Zuko," Iroh said as he looked at Zuko with all seriousness. "I'm taking about your tea brewing skills. You haven't practiced in a long time and you are getting very sloppy. I'd prefer to drink Jasmine tea not hot leaf juice."

Zuko groaned and dropped his head into his bowl of oats as soon as Iroh mentioned tea brewing. He couldn't believe that his Uncle was being serious about tea. I mean hot leaf juice is exactly what tea is. After Iroh finished Zuko pulled his face out of the oats and walked out of the room to talk to the captain about possible Avatar sightings.

"Your highness the last known sighting of the Avatar was at Omashu and according to our sources he has already left heading further North." The Captain finished his report to Zuko and hoped he wouldn't be too angry.

Zuko sighed and looked at the map before him intently. There where red markings everywhere indicating all the Avatar sightings. What bothered Zuko the most is that since the Avatar left Omashu he just dropped off the face of the planet. Normally within two days of leaving one place there would be sightings of him somewhere else. "Keep heading North Captain. He's headed to the North Pole in order to find a water bending master. He won't go straight there for a while but he'll be visiting places along that path."

"Right away your highness," said the Captain.

The Captain hadn't even finished before Zuko walked out. He decided it was time to go practice as Charmaine should be finishing up right about now. As Zuko walked out onto the deck he stopped in shock as he saw the horrible scene in front of him. Charmaine was clinging to Uncle Iroh's leg on her knees. She was crying and kept shaking her head back and forth as if she was trying to deny something. He went running up to her ready to yell out whoever put her in this state.

"Uncle what's wrong," Zuko asked in a panicked tone.

Iroh looked up with panic etched across his face as he tried to comfort his adoptive daughter. "I don't know, one minute she is fine just practicing with her swords and then she just fell back and started crying." Iroh kept trying to help her calm down but she just continued to breakdown.

Zuko bent down next her and put his hand on her back. "Charmaine its okay, Uncle and I are right here," Zuko said in an uncharacteristically soothing voice. "We aren't going anywhere. We want to help you just tell us what's wrong."

Charmaine seemed to calm down a little more. She was no longer mumbling or shaking her head but she continued to sob and cling to Iroh.

Iroh bent down and enveloped her with a hug. "I will protect you… Nothing c-can hurt you." Iroh started to shed tears as he held onto Charmaine.

Zuko got up and started to yell at his soldiers. "Tell me what happed here now!" It was no use because the soldiers repeated the same story as Iroh. It seemed as if something just snapped and she crumbled. He looked over at Charmaine and she seemed to be calming down so he decided to go look for a doctor.

When Zuko finally found the doctor he practically dragged him all the way there. As he dragged him onto the deck he saw Charmaine sitting on the deck with her feet hanging over the boat. She just stared out into the ocean with an empty expression on her face. Iroh sat next to her trying to talk to her but obviously getting nowhere. The doctor walked over to her hesitantly. He proceeded to try and talk to her but she wasn't responding.

After five minutes of trying to get through to her he gave up and came over to Zuko. "Physically there seems to be nothing wrong with her. Whatever is wrong with her is mentally. I'll keep an eye on her but until I know what exactly is going in her mind I can't help her."

Zuko glared at the doctor. It wasn't good enough for him. Something was wrong with his fiancé and she needs help not to be observed. The way the doctor talked about how something mentally was wrong with her sounded like he thought she might be crazy. "SHE is not Crazy doctor if that is what you're implying!" Zuko hollered.

"N-n-no th-that's not w-what I'm s-saying your H-Highness," The doctor stuttered. He cringed and retreated back as Zuko's temper started to lose control.

"Really because that's what it sounds like to me. You think she's just a nut job that finally cracked don't you!" Zuko grabbed the front of the doctor's shirt and brought up his fist to hit him. The doctor squeaked and covered his face as he braced himself for the incoming impact, but it never came. He looked between his cracked fingers and saw Iroh holding Zuko's fist.

"Zuko let the man go. He hasn't done anything wrong," Iroh said in an authoritative voice. Zuko reluctantly let go of the man. The doctor fell onto his butt and then scurried off.

"He was saying she was crazy," Zuko growled at Iroh.

"No he was saying something mentally caused her breakdown Zuko, he was doing is best," Iroh retorted back.

Zuko was about to argue back when he saw Charmaine get up from the railing. Iroh and Zuko just stared at her as she walked past them with the same blank stare as before. They proceeded to follow her whilst asking if she was okay and/or needed anything. She ignored them both and went straight to her room and locked the door.

"I think it would be best if we left her alone for now," Iroh said after standing outside her door. Zuko begrudgingly agreed but not before he ordered two soldiers to stand guard and report if anything changes.

Zuko tried to practice bending with Uncle guiding him but neither had their minds in it. Iroh was too distracted by his daughter's breakdown that he didn't even notice that Zuko's stance and footing were completely wrong. As for Zuko his mind kept going back to him walking up on the deck and seeing her so…so broken. He realized half way through his training session that her facial expression and demeanor was exactly the same after she killed that Earth Kingdom soldier. The only explanation he could think of why she was acting this way was because she killed again.

"Uncle I'm done for today. I'm going to go wash up." Iroh only grunted as a response back as he sat staring blankly at his pai sho table. He hadn't moved a single piece in over thirty minute; he just sat there staring at it as if it held an answer to his problem.

After Zuko finished washing up he sat on hi bed in loose black pants. He stared at the wall as he thought about how Charmaine must have killed someone. He thought back to when he went to rescue her from Kyoshi. He went over every detail that he could remember. He had seen her knock people out but not kill, so if she did kill someone it would have been before he tried to rescue her but after he left her there. He just couldn't picture hurting someone without reason. She willing let herself be kept in the prison instead of blasting her way out and hurting someone. She killed before to protect him and that was because there was no other choice.

He glanced over to the picture on his nightstand; it was the one he found in Charmaine's room but he had yet to return it. He reached over and grabbed it and continued to stare at her intentionally. Could she have possibly killed some just because she could? Did killing the soldier give her a thirst for it? Was she just like his sister?

Zuko needed answers and sitting on his bed was not going to get him anywhere. So he got up headed to Charmaine's room. He knocked on her door and asked if he could come in but he got nothing in response. He tried again but he got the same response. When he tried to open the door it was locked.

Zuko sighed and turned to the guard to his left. "Go to the Captain and ask for the keys to the ship. Tell him I sent you and you shouldn't have any problems. Bring them to me as soon as you get them."

The guard saluted him and took off towards the Captain's quarters. He was back within two minutes and handed Zuko the keys before resuming position. Zuko found the right key to her room and inserted it into the door. He walked into her room and found it submerged in darkness. Zuko closed the door behind and tried to scan the room for Charmaine, but it was too dark so he created a flame in his hand so he could see. He found her sitting in front of the window with her knees pressed up against her chest with her arms wrapped around them as she stared blankly out the window.

Zuko walked up to her and sat down next to her with the fire still lit in his palm. After a few minutes went by and she gave no indication the she knew or cared about his presence Zuko addressed her. "Charmaine I couldn't help but notice that you're acting like you did after you… killed that soldier. Did you kill someone again?" She didn't respond so he pressed on. "If you did, did you do it out of self defense?" Still she said nothing. "Or did you kill somebody just because you could?" Zuko said the last part in a hushed tone. He felt ashamed that he was even asking her that but also afraid that it might be true.

All of sudden Zuko was pinned up against the wall. The flame went out so he couldn't see who his attacker was. His first thought was that it was Charmaine reacting to what he said, but then his other senses kicked in. As he heard an angry growl he smelt his attacker's breathe. "Uncle let me go!"

"How dare you accuse her of killing someone because she just wanted to," Iroh growled at Zuko. He was furious that he even thought of such a thing. He had been on his way to Charmaine's room with some food in hopes of trying to get her to eat some dinner. When he approached the door he went to knock when he heard Zuko's voice. Being the man he is he decided to eavesdrop on the conversation when he heard Zuko accuse her of such a thing.

Zuko pushed his uncle off him and yelled, "WELL what else could it be?! She's acting like she did when she killed the Earth Kingdom soldier!"

"That does not mean she killed someone for the sake of killing Zuko!" Iroh bellowed back. "Her reaction to it last time showed how damaging it was to her soul. In addition that by now you should know that is not who she is. She is a good person with a good heart."

Zuko stood in silence and ashamed of himself while he was silently grateful that it was too dark for his uncle to see him. "I don't know what else would cause her to be this way."

"Well until she decides to interact with us we won't know Zuko," Iroh said in a quiet voice as he lit a fire in his palm so he could see. "Zuko, please leave us be." Iroh then laid the tray out in front of Charmaine and sat down.

Zuko left Charmaine's room quietly and shut the door behind him. He stood there facing the door in silence as his anger began to boil to the surface. As his anger brewed he turned around and punched the wall. He couldn't believe that he allowed himself to accuse Charmaine of something so horrible and that he really believed it possible. Zuko decided the best way to get rid of his pent up anger was to spar, so he grabbed the first guard he could find and dragged him up to the deck.

-Q-

The next couple of days Zuko avoided Charmaine and Iroh; he felt too ashamed to face either of them. Zuko wouldn't show up for meals but had them sent to his room. So as he ate breakfast in his room he was surprised to see Iroh bursting through his door.

"Zuko I think I figured out what is wrong with Charmaine," Iroh said in a rushed voice.

"Uncle haven't you heard of knocking," Zuko said without taking in what Iroh said.

"Who cares about knocking I know why she is acting like this!" Iroh said anxiously. He was about to elaborate but was interrupted.

"My prince, Charmaine has left her room and is headed to the deck," said the guard who stood watch at Charmaine's room.

Zuko took off out the door, still in his pajamas, headed for the deck with Iroh trailing behind him. As Zuko made it to the top of the deck his heart stopped as he saw Charmaine walking towards the railing all zombie like. She looked stiff, pale, and disheveled. Her face held no emotion and the worst popped in Zuko's head so he took off after her. As she reached the railing he tackled her from her left side.

"You're not quitting on me now," Zuko stated as he pushed Charmaine to the ground.

"What the hell are you talking about," Charmaine asked as Zuko pinned her to the ground.

"I was just going for swim," Charmaine said blankly. She then proceeded to kick Zuko off her and stood up.

Iroh came up to Zuko as he stood there watching Charmaine. "It's good to see her acting like herself," Iroh said in a somber voice.

"She's not herself Uncle," Zuko said quietly. "She would have thrown me off her right away and put up a fight." Iroh just nodded in agreement. "Let me know when she's done," Zuko said to Iroh as he turned to walk away.

When Zuko turned around he saw his crew snickering and pointing at him. Zuko felt his temper rise up and yelled "WHAT ARE YOU LAUHING AT?!"

The crew went silent as they straightened up and avoided eye contact, unfortunately for them that just made Zuko even madder. So Zuko stalked up to the smallest guard and got right up in his face. "Tell me what is so funny or I will throw you overboard for mutiny," Zuko said in a deadly whisper.

"W-well…uh you see…" the guard said in a small voice. "Y-your lack of c-clothes…a-and lack of L-Lady Ch-Charmaine's…y-you where on top of h-her..." the soldier couldn't finish.

Zuko blushed a little as he realized the situation he was at, but as quickly as the blush came the quicker his anger surface. How dare these soldiers think of Charmaine that way! "GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!" Zuko yelled at the soldier before turning his attention to the others. "Now if I find out that any of you ever speak about me or Lady Charmaine in such a manner again I will personally hurt each and every one of you before I through you out to sea for the ocean spirit to take you. Are we CLEAR?!"

The soldiers yelled back "YES, YOUR MAJESTY!" All of them avoided contact and some scurried off to avoid any more confrontation.

Zuko stalked off to his room to get into some proper clothes before seeking out the captain to tell him what he told the soldiers earlier. When he arrived the captain ran up too him right away. "Your highness I have urgent news. There was a sighting of the Avatar's friend on a Fire Nation ship."

"Is she still there? Is she being detained?" Zuko asked as he walked over to the map that the captain was showing him the location of the ship.

"Unfortunately sire she is gone. The captain of the ship did not who she was until after she had taken off."

"What kind of ship was this that they wouldn't notice a water bender?"

"Well that is it sire, she was pretending to be an earth bender to get on the prison ship."

"Why was she on a prison ship?"

"We believe she was on there to start a riot, which she successfully did."

"Set course for the ship, I can get more answers from the captain."

"Right away your highness." The captain saluted Zuko and left to change the direction of course, and soon as he left a guard came up to him.

"Prince Zuko, Lady Charmaine is back on board and has requested you to come to her room."

As soon as the guard finished Zuko took off running towards Charmaine's room. After the way she had been of the past four days he wasn't going to deny her to talk to him. He didn't care if it involved screaming or yelling for what he said to her a couple days just to hear her voice was worth it.

Zuko reached Charmaine's door in record time, but didn't immediately enter. Zuko caught his breath and smoothed out his outfit and he could have sworn he heard the guard next to the door chuckled. He then proceeded to knock on the door just in case she wasn't decent. The door opened a crack and Zuko proceeded to let himself in before shutting the door behind him. He looked around and saw that the room was dimly lit by a couple of candles around the room. The window in the room barely provided any light due to the oncoming storm. There Charmaine sat staring out the window with her hair wet and cascading down her back. She was still in her wet night gown from earlier. She had her head leaning against the window with her eyes closed. Zuko smiled a little because she looked like she was at peace instead of broken.

Zuko moved over to Charmaine and sat down next to her and waited for her speak. After a couple of minutes of silence Zuko couldn't take it. He was about to ask her why she wanted him here if she was just going to ignore him, but then he saw a single tear slide down her face. She opened her eyes to stare at him. It was killing Zuko to see all the hurt and pain in her eyes; he wanted his feisty and happy fiancé back. Out of nowhere she threw her arms around him and clung to him as silent tears fell down her face. Zuko sat there in shock before he finally wrapped his arms around him.

-Q-

Charmaine floated in the water, staring up at the sky, trying to empty all of the thoughts that had plagued these last four days. As she was floating she realized that she couldn't run away from these thoughts, but that she needed to face them. She had spent these last four days trying to escape them but that was making them worse. The more she tried to run the stronger they became.

Charmaine had come to terms with what she did months ago, but meeting Suki and seeing how much pain she was in over this sent Charmaine spiraling. It was one thing to kill a no name soldier but then to learn his name and see how loved he was made Charmaine feel even worse than she did before. Meeting Suki made her realize that not only did she take away this man's life she had taken away part of Suki's, his mother, farther, and siblings if he had anything. She had robbed them of having kids, nieces, nephews and grandchildren. But what killed Charmaine the most was that even though she knew all of this she would still pick Zuko all over again.

Tears began to flow down her face as she accepted what she had done and that she would do it again. Charmaine then submerged herself under the water and let her sink down two feet. She opened her eyes but everything was blurry, but then a mask of air encompassed her face. She saw all the fish swimming around and the turtles flowing in the currents. It was all colorful and beautiful. Seeing nature and the beauty it held brought some piece to her mind. It reminded her of when she was little and she visited the aquarium with Ilais.

Charmaine was so excited that she barely slept. Today was the day that she was going to go see the aquarium, but she didn't care about that. Charmaine was excited because today was the day that she was going to leave the palace for the first time. She had never been able to leave the palace for her first five years of her life. She always wanted to see what was beyond the palace walls but she wasn't allowed to go but she didn't know why.

Ilais walked into Charmaine's room with her brown hair tied up in a bun and in a beautiful long red dress. She walked over to Charmaine to put up her hair but as soon as she reached for a tie Charmaine escaped her grasps. Charmaine refused to wear her hair in the stupid knot and today was no different.

Ilais chuckled and grabbed Charmaine's hand. They walked silently to the front of the palace where a palanquin waited for them. Before they got on Ilais stopped and bent down and said, "Now Charmaine I know you are excited, but we need to go over the rules. You are to stay with me at all times. If someone comes up to you other than me or the guards you need to runaway and come to me."

"Why can't I talk to other people?" Charmaine asked as she looked at her adoptive mother with sad eyes. She wanted to talk to other kids like her and play. She had no one to play with at the palace. Zuko wasn't any fun and ignored her all the time. One day when she tried to play with her he called her freak because of her hair. After that she avoided him.

"Because you don't know if they want to hurt you or take you away from the family. It's important that you remain safe and here with the family," Ilais said firmly. "Do you understand and agree to follow the rules?" Charmaine nodded her head yes. "Good now let's get going." Ilais grabbed Charmaine's hand and they got on the palanquin.

Once they arrived at the aquarium Charmaine barely noticed the fish because she was too focused looking around for other kids. She was disappointed when she saw the guards usher every one out of the place except for Ilais and her. Charmaine didn't care about stupid fish she wanted to play with other kids. So she sat down and pouted.

Ilais was observing all of the different colored fish when she noticed Charmaine sitting on the floor pouting. She walked over to her and asked "Don't you wanna look at the fish? That is why we came here."

"NO!" Charmaine yelled. "The fish are stupid and don't do anything."

"Now Charmaine that's not true. We can learn a lot about the fish that could help us." Charmaine looked up at her in disbelief. "Come here I'll show you." Charmaine begrudgingly took Ilais hand and let Ilais lead her over to a window. Inside it was a big pink coral reef with all kinds of sized stones. These beautiful orange fish were all together going in one direction.

"You see Charmaine; these fish teach us that we need to trust others to lead us. Without a leader we get lost and can get into danger. We trust our leader to not only to guide us and keep us together, but to protect us from sharks. They find the safest route and lead us to safety."

Charmaine stared at the fish in awe as they avoided the shark that was swimming above them. They all seemed so in sync like they were all one in the same.

"They move together as one like a country must do because if even just one falls out of sync they lose a piece of themselves. They are no longer whole and become weak. So if just one person were to go against our nation they put us at risk. That one person can make others leave and it could spread more and more until we become divided thus leaving us to the sharks."

Charmaine stared as the fish began to break up as the shark came after them. The fish scattered and became lost allowing the shark to attack them with ease.

Charmaine watched the fish move in sync as they left her sight. They inspired her to break her silence. If she kept shutting Zuko and Iroh out not only did she put herself in danger of the sharks but them as well.

Charmaine swam up to the surface and gasped for the much needed air. She looked up and saw Iroh looking down at her. Even with her being all the way down in the water she could still see his worry and sadness. Charmaine swam over to the ladder and struggled a bit to climb it due to lack of sleep and food. Once she made it to the top Iroh encompassed her with a big hug. She hugged him back and enjoyed the feeling of safety that it gave her.

"I know why you've been acting this way," Iroh whispered as he still clung to her. Charmaine had shock written over her face. "The same thing happened to me when I returned home from Ba Sing Se. The nightmares and visions will go away and happen less and less."

Charmaine didn't say anything but just hugged him tighter.

After what seemed an eternity Iroh let go of her and looked at the sky. "A storm is coming, you should go inside and change before it comes." Charmaine just nodded and left.

When she reached her door she stopped and turned to the guard. She leaned up and whispered to him to send for Zuko. She needed to see him.

When she entered her room she lit a couple of candles and walked over to the window. She didn't care about her wet clothes so she didn't bother changing. She sat down and stared out the window wondering if Zuko would show. And as if on cue she heard a knock on her door. She got up and opened it a bit before returning to her spot. She laid her head against the window reveling in the cool sensation. She felt Zuko sit next to her but she didn't know what to say. She thought about when he came to her room all worried and she just ignored like he was nothing. A tear fell down her face and she opened her eyes to look at him. She felt horrible for how she treated him and then all the pain from the last days overcame her. She flew her arms around him and clung to him as the tears of pain fell silently. She felt him wrap his arms around her and it made her feel safe.

"I'm sorry," Charmaine whispered.

"For what?" Zuko asked soothingly.

"I ignored you and worried you because I was to self absorbed in my own pain to tell you what was going on." Zuko didn't respond he just held her and let her say what she needed to say.

"I've been having flash backs of the day I killed the Earth Kingdom soldier. Suki, the leader of the warriors on Kyoshi Island, she was his fiancé. I was in prison because I told her of what I had done so she locked me up. Over the next couple of days I was yelled at and told that I took away a beloved member of the community. It triggered these flash backs. So when I was practicing with my swords I saw the soldier's head fall of and roll towards me." At this point Charmaine was sobbing and Zuko couldn't understand her after that, but he didn't need to because he understood. So all he did was try and soothe her and let her get it out.

After about 20 minutes had gone by Charmaine had calmed down and was still hugging Zuko. Charmaine pulled back from Zuko but still kept her arms around his neck and he kept his arms around her waist. They stared at each other in silence. Charmaine began to lean in towards him and Zuko reciprocated. They were about an inch apart when a knock on the door interrupted them.

"Sire, we have reached our destination and you are needed on deck to speak to the other captain in charge of the prison ship."

Zuko cursed under his breath as Charmaine moved out of his grasp and stood up. "I think you should go. I need to change anyways," Charmaine said quietly as she avoided eye contact.

Zuko begrudgingly got up and stalked up to the deck. He was this close to kissing her and he guard had ruined it all! This damn captain better be useful or else he was going to burn him to a crisp.

Zuko barely paid attention to the guard as he described what had happened. It was basically a long winded version of the story his captain told him, but then he said something useful. He had told him that the girl had left behind her necklace. Although the captain saw no use in it Zuko knew that could be use to track her. He took the necklace from him and dismissed him. He stood outside holding it as the sunset as he put Charmaine on the back burner and brought the Avatar to the forefront. Charmaine would have to wait; he needed to regain his honor and nothing was more important, not even her.