A/N: Yeah I'm so sorry about the late update but here it is! Wanted to get this chapter perfect as a lot happens in here! Thanks again to sunflower13 and AerisCote (Your review was amazing and gave me the right motivation to get down to business and write this!). Please Read and Review! I worked hard on this chapter so hopefully you'll all like it :D

BTW this is a re-post as a glitch happened on my laptop and it saved the wrong draft – Sorry if you have two alerts!

Anyway on with the show…

Choosing a Path

Seria's POV

"Where do you think you're going?" Shrieks the man, holding an elaborate helmet under his arm. He glares at me before turning to Zuko. "Prince Zuko, don't force me to give my men the orders to attack. Although I'd hate to attack a member of the royal family, I will not hesitate to do it if necessary."

There's a pause as Zuko looks at him with a sudden burst of anger. "Well, I guess you don't have anything to worry your patriotic conscious, Captain… As I refuse any past ties with my father." There's a collective gasp from the soldiers and a vein pulses on the Captain's forehead. Zuko raises his voice and steps forward. "You heard me! My father is a cruel man who has betrayed the world – and me, his own son who he banished at thirteen. He is the one who has brought this fighting upon us and he is responsible for the war and the death that surrounds it! He is not the saviour for the Fire Nation. Not the hero. He is the murderer!"

There's a slightly shocked silence from the solders, filled only by the sound of Zuko's heavy breathing. The soldiers look to the Captain for what to do but he looks just as looks taken aback as they are.

Zuko's voice is quieter when he continues. "And if you chose to fight with him," he says. "Then I am not on your side. Not because I am a traitor, but because I choose this side – the right side." He adds, looking at me over his shoulder with a short smile. He turns back to the Captain and his soldiers. "So order your men, Captain Lau. Follow the Firelord for the rest of your destructive career and see where it leads you. Or you can make things right and let us pass. Your choice."

There's a pause as the Captain stares thoughtfully at Zuko, conflict evident in his twitching lip. I walk up to Zuko and stand next to him, thinking that maybe we could get out of this. Then the Captain frowns, his forehead creasing many times, and in a slow and deliberate way, he places the helmet on his head and glares at us with new eyes. It's the same look a hawk has for a its prey.

"You've made your choice," he says bitterly. "Now here's mine – Attack!"

With a deafening roar, a wave of fire comes rocketing towards us. I jump in front and make a towering wall of air, arms straining as it absorbs the impact from the fire but luckily it doesn't waver. Heat blasts my arms as the flames ran up the sides of the wall in a spectacular glow of ruby and gold. When it disappears, Zuko lunges forward and sweeps fire at their feet, forcing them back. He begins to engage the soldiers and I follow, not wanting to make the same mistakes I did last time.

Don't leave his side this time. I growl to myself, punching air at soldiers as Zuko and I fight back to back. A spear comes out of nowhere and I narrowly miss being impaled. Gritting my teeth, I swing the glider round and it catches both the spear and the soldier, knocking them away before the spear can clip Zuko. Another swing and one more man is sent flying back into the others. Getting into a rhythm, I knock some more down, swinging my bat back and forth as they charge at me.

"You're enjoying this too much!" Zuko shouts from behind me.

I smile through gritted teeth and glance back at him as he literally knocks two heads together. "Speak for yourself!" I retort.

He grins at me before his hand reaches past my head to grab an oncoming spear. He swings the man towards me and I kick him away, making him fly across the ship.

We grin at each other and continue to hold our ground. But slowly, the soldiers are coming closer and closer, pressing in on us further more. It gets to the point where it's just claustrophobic so I grab Zuko's hand behind me and, without any warning, launch us both into the air. The ground falls away and Zuko looks down in surprise at his dangling feet. We continue upwards until we reach the top of the control tower and when we reach the pinnacle of our ascent, I look at Zuko.

"Remember the forest?" I say and watch as he smiles knowingly, his eye crinkling. "Good! Shoot and I'll fuel it."

Nodding, Zuko breathes in deeply and punches downwards, a large fireball shooting down towards the soldiers. I do the same with some air and it hits Zuko's fire ball halfway down, making the flames swell and expand to five times its normal size so it becomes nothing less than a roaring beast charging down upon the soldiers. There's a cry below us and we watch as the forms of Firebenders are whipped back by the mix of fire and air.

I soften our fall with a cushion of air. We smile at each other and it's on the tip of my tongue to say we should find Aang and Katara when there's a scraping of metal on metal and the ships rocks treacherously.

Our heads whip to the side as a ship collides with our one, gangplanks slamming down across each of the ships' two railings. Soldiers from the other ships run across the gangplanks and onto this one, lots of them pouring onto the deck.

We glance at each other before we run towards them, trying our best to keep them back but there are just too many gangplanks. Suddenly, there's a growl and without thinking, I grab Zuko and yank him out of the way before there's a he tunnel of air that shakes the gangplank loose. A couple of shouts are heard as the gangplank tumbles down into the waves below, dragging the soldiers with it. I turn around and grin at the sight before me. Katara and Aang jump off Appa's head and run over to us.

"So, did I miss the party?" says Katara, cracking her knuckles scarily as she comes over. She seemed unhurt save for a fading bruise above her left eye, making her rebellion to the soldiers clear.

"Not just yet…" I say as more soldiers pour onto the deck.

Her eyes scan over them. "Good."

There's a pounding of footsteps behind me and before I can react, Katara jerks her arms forward and water flies past my head. I turn just in time to see a soldier being flung over board, as if he weighed less than a pebble.

"Thanks," I say and she gives me the thumbs up.

Aang grins at Zuko. "Great to see you again, hotman."

There's a slight groan. "I told you not to call me that."

"So guys, shall we get started?" Katara says eagerly stretching her arms above her head. We all get in line and face the oncoming soldiers, fuelled by determination. Katara leaps forward and a whole gangplank and the soldiers on it are swallowed by the sea, washing them away as if they were some kind of stain. Aang and I together begin to create a whirlwind while Zuko and Katara cover us. We raise our gliders and twist them, watching the circle of air grow larger and higher – and powerful. A spinning vortex soon appears, twisting towards the sky and just short of the top of the commanding tower. It is heavy and hard to control, but we manage to point it towards the soldiers. It felt like moving a rock. However it is effective and many soldiers are spun away, as if they nothing more than leaves on the wind.

Aang and I bump fists. Zuko and Katara look equally pleased.

There's another bump and we stumble as the ship sways again. And another one. We spin around and see more gangplanks slamming onto the deck from two more ships. More soldiers. We glance uneasily at each other. It was four – plus Appa – against essentially a whole army. How were we going to do this?

"Aang," Katara calls worriedly. "Now would be a great time to you know… glow it up."

Aang sighs. "I can't, remember?"

There's a pause before Katara looks away.

Zuko takes a step in front of us. "Let's get this over with."

Zuko is the first to run forward and after a slight hesitation we follow, temporarily abandoning the first ship and their occupied crew.

However as I run, there's a hiss of fire and I only just have time to throw some air up to defend myself. But it's not enough and I get knocked back, skidding across the ground. My glider slides to a stop and is lost within the swarming boots of the soldiers.

Growling, I look to my left to see a furious Captain Lau. He steps forward and shoots more fire at me. I scamper out of the way before I can get roasted and manage to jump to my feet.

"Who are you?" he shouts, firing more flames. I whip them away and counter his attacks with my own, driving him back a bit. We continue to engage and I grit my teeth.

"My name, Captain," I say sarcastically as he glares at me, punching out at him. "Is Seria. And I am one of the last Airbenders left in this world."

"Well, aren't I such a lucky soul to bask in your presence," he spits out. I frown; sarcasm from a captain is a new thing. He sniffs disdainfully. "Why do you even exist?"

"Because," I say, halting his oncoming fire and shoving him backwards with a little air power. "I am stronger than I look… And I have some kickass survival instincts."

I kick out suddenly with a sharp gust of air and he flies back onto the ground. It was a dirty move, but I don't even care. He was getting in the way and I had to get back to my team.

Leaving the captain, I turn around and rush over to the group, fighting my way through the sea of red armour until I reach Zuko who is grappling with two other Firebenders. Katara and Aang are behind them, guarding a growling Appa. I grab one of the soldiers fighting Zuko from behind and with as much strength as I can muster, slam him into the other one so they tumble down the deck together.

"Thanks," Zuko pants, rubbing his shoulder.

I frown. He's tiring – as is everyone. I can see the tiredness in Katara and Aang's movements as well.

Including me. I think, feeling for the first time a deep and tired ache in my limbs.

"No problem," I say and begin to make my way closer to Aang and Katara. "Make sure everyone keeps together."

Then I barely have time to leap to the side as a soldier steps in front of me and fires. I lash out with my feet and luckily catch the soldier out, but still find myself surrounded by others.

I see Zuko try and help me, but he's got his own soldiers to deal with. I stare at their angled helmets, wondering about the people behind them. Do they have a family? Someone they love in their lives?

I shook the thought out of my head. It didn't matter. At this point, we were on opposite sides.

"Well, this is unfair," I mutter having a feeling that I'd been in a similar situation before.

There is a burst of fire and I manage to counter the attack, engaging the other soldiers as my own private battle takes place. It's only after a few moves before I find I had drifted away from Zuko. Sweat flies off my hands as I swipe them from side to side, taking out each Firebender and fire blast. The next minute feels like an hour.

"We can't hold them off!" I hear Katara shout and I see her struggling to keep her ground against five Fire Benders. I shoot some air at them wildly whilst trying to hold my own and two get knocked away from her.

And still more soldiers are boarding the ship.

There's a sudden lull in the fighting and I look around, and what I see fills me with despair. I see Aang desperately defending Appa. Katara and Zuko fighting side by side, both breathing heavily. I see the soldiers, swarming in tight packs against each of us.

There was a blast of a horn, signalling the approach of the last ship. My heart sunk. How were we going to escape? We had to escape before things got any worse than they already were. I'm surprised at how well we were managing to hold out this long.

I dive through the crowd, pushing and blasting my way thorough until I reach Katara and Zuko. "Let's move!" I shout to them and pull them towards Appa and Aang.

We clamber on board and Aang frowns at me. "Your glider?"

I shake my head. "No time. Go!"

Appa launches off the side of the ship, followed by many plumes of fire, but luckily the soldiers' efforts to down us are ineffective.

Katara and I grin at each other, Zuko nodding in a pleased kind of way next to us being the tough guy he is.

"So where to?" Katara says happily but Aang doesn't hear her. "Aang? Hey, Aang!"

We all glance at him and see his grey eyes glued on something below.

"They're loading the catapults," Aang says and the horror in his voice makes my blood run cold. I run over to the side and my heart sinks. Nearly fifty catapults are being loaded, the ships all turning to face us.

The accuracy and distance of those nets could were impossible to run from, not to mention the fact that the boats were already chasing us and picking up speed as they went, a white streak of water marking their progress over the waves.

"We can make it." Zuko manages to say, but the lie falls deaf on all our ears. There was no chance of us escaping like this. Not unless we had someone down there taking out all the catapults. Not unless–

I pause in my thoughts, struck by a new idea.

Wait a second…

Then I remembered.

The weight of understanding and remembrance crashes into me and everything looks so clear all of a sudden. I got it. Sho had told me in a dream what I had to do. He'd been the one to warn me and now I had to act or no one would get out of this.

I had come to crossroad, and now I had to choose a path.

"I have to go," I say suddenly standing up, gaining everyone's attention. I walk hurriedly to the side of the saddle when I feel a strong hand close around my arm, stopping me from jumping out.

"What are you doing?" Zuko shouts in my ear and I glance back at him, feeling the gravity of what I was about to do slam me in the stomach.

Aang looks confused. "If this is about your glider, we can get you a new one–"

"No, it's not that," I say impatiently – breathlessly. "I-I have to do something and I guess I have to ask you to trust me."

"I don't like the sound of this," Katara mutters.

"Seria," Zuko says and I turn my attention back to him. His face is an expression of anger, hurt and desperation all rolled into one. "What's going on?"

When I open my mouth, I find the answer is automatic.

"We have the same destinations, but different pathways." It sounded as if I was reciting a legend. I suddenly realise who I sound like and a bemused half-smile graces my face. "And this is the one I have to choose, Zuko, to make sure you guys get out okay. This is how it's meant to be – please try to understand." Zuko just stares at me confused.

I sigh inwardly and turn to Aang who looks back at me in such a sad way, it takes a lot not to turn away.

"You go, I'll hold them off," I mouth to Aang. "Make sure Zuko doesn't follow me."

Aang's lips tighten into a thin line but after a drilling stare from me, he nods slightly. Zuko looks between us in panic.

"What?" he shouts and his grip tightens. "Seria, what does that even mean?!"

"It means, Zuko," I say softly, turning to smile at him. "That I'll see you later. And that even though this is killing me to do this, you'll all be safe."

Realisation slaps him as if there was a physical blow.

"No!" The hurt in Zuko's voice makes my heart feels like it's about to break. I feel just about ready to cry. "You can't leave me again."

I bink hard, keeping my gaze on the ground until the tears disappear. I don't want to do this to him, to hurt him like this – I hated myself for doing this. But if I don't, then we'd all surely be captured again, and this time Zuko won't survive his father's wrath.

Slowly, I lift my head up to meet his eyes. "I will leave if it means that you escape."

There's a moment where we stare at each other, Zuko's eyes burning me with their fury and hurt, and I see myself reflected in them, a faded shape – who pulls away and jumps off the saddle and down towards the ships below.

"Seria!"

Zuko's cry is whipped away by the roar of the wind. A gasped sob escapes me and I squeeze my eyes shut, feeling the pressure of tears sting them.

"I'm so sorry, Zuko." I whisper uselessly, an ice cold tear slicing my cheek. "I hope you can forgive me."