Here's my third chapter that I've been working on over the past few months of absence. Included is my sorry attempt to introduce a couple new characters into the mix, including one that I dreamed up kicking around ideas for a potential follow up to this story. All the more motivation for me to get this thing wrapped up.

Don't own it. Never have. Barring a miracle, never will.

Chapter 14

The moon was full, casting its soft silver glow over the black deck plates of the Independence. Lee found himself looking up at it for a brief moment as he paused near the number one gun mount. Great night for waterbenders, he thought before shaking his head slowly and resuming his walk.

Captain Yuan had ordered the fleet to make port at Blackwood Island to take on stores and last minute supplies of fuel and ammunition. All non-essential crewmen had been permitted to go ashore for a final night of fun and partying before the fleet set sail for the Burning Sea, while the damage control officer kept his ship fitters aboard to finish up repairs on the ship. Lee had finally finished polishing up his tactical planning for the battle ahead and decided to walk on the main deck to observe the progress of the work details. His first stop had been at the base of the command tower, where work had been completed that morning. The new deck and bulkhead plating had already been covered with fresh coats of paint by the deck department. Despite the damage control officer's insistence to the contrary, the work had all been done so skillfully, Lee couldn't even tell where the old steel ended and the patches began.

The work on the hole blasted into the main deck forward of the gun mounts was nowhere near as far along, however. Members of the work detail had put up barriers around the gaping wound in his ship's main deck to keep sailors that weren't paying attention from walking into the hole. Most of the twisted and torn deck plates had been cut away and sent down to the machine shop to be refurbished into new plating. Gaps in steam lines had been repaired, but the lower decks were still exposed to the sky above. The result was a twisted maze of conduits and pipes that hung several feet above the decks below. Some patches had already been installed, and shipfitters were working hard at welding more replacement decking into place. The steel glinted under the shower of sparks and flashing light produced by the skilled firebenders. The metal would stop reflecting so much light as soon as deck department had a chance to lay down some paint.

"Good evening First," the damage control officer said as Lee stepped up to the temporary barrier. "Something I can do for you?"

"Just here to take a look at the progress of repairs," Lee replied as he looked down into the hole.

"They're coming along, sir. Most of the work was in getting all the damaged steel cut out. Now that we've got everything smoothed out, it's just a matter of welding in the new armor plate. We should be finished by sunrise."

"Sounds good. Keep me posted if plans change."

"Of course, sir."

Lee remained for a moment, listening to the crackle of seared metal as the shipfitters installed the armor plate. He took a deep breath, savoring the sharp tang of molten steel before turning and walking off in the direction of the brow.

Why is it that they always build piers in the worst areas of the city? Lee asked himself as he walked through the warehouse district that bordered the piers his fleet had moored at. All the old warehouses were covered in soot, with several of the old metal walls showing signs of heavy corrosion from years of exposure to the salt air. A few moments before, he had walked past a small knot of dock workers that had bore the look of men up to no good.

The sound of footsteps behind him made him pause. He stopped, turning around slowly. The same group of dock workers stood several paces off.

"You Lieutenant Lee?" a burly man with a particularly nasty looking boat hook asked.
"Yes," Lee replied, not liking the bad feeling he was getting about this seemingly chance encounter.
Almost immediately, the group of five men began spreading out in the wide alleyway. A couple of them carried mauls that looked like they had been stolen from a damage control locker. He didn't doubt that the men carrying them had used them to crush skulls.
"Our boss sends his regards, Lieutenant. He regrets to take Governor Qiao's new love away from her, but we're all sure she'll come to live with it."
"And just who would your boss be?" Lee asked, trying to stall for more time to analyze the situation at hand.
"Shin, of the Blackwood Trading Company," boat hook replied with a smirk.
The man Long ordered to kill the captain and me.
The temperature in the alley seemed to drop several degrees, despite the warm tropical air. Lee's mind tracked a large shadow near the corner of a warehouse as a sixth potential threat, an instinct that he didn't have time to question as the first two men charged him from opposite sides.
Lee inhaled sharply and punched out directly to his sides, sending a stream of fire from each fist. One man was slow. The maul in his hands fell to the street with a resounding clang as he staggered backwards. He would likely end up blind from a fire blast to the face.
The man on his right managed to dodge the blast, and closed to arm's length as Lee turned to face him. This immediate threat wore a set of spiked brass knuckles on one fist that sliced open a cheek as Lee tried to dodge a punch to the head. The blow had power, but the man behind it relied on it too much. Lee grabbed the outstretched arm in one hand, forming a fire dagger with the other. The dock worker screamed as Lee cut across his wrist, inflicting a wound deep enough to permanently cripple him. The last thing Lee did was use his opponent's momentum to toss him towards his blind friend.
"This rebel bastard bleeds just like anyone else," boat hook shouted before leading his remaining men forward.
Lee steadied his stance, ignoring the blood that was now running from the wound on his cheek. Suddenly, the dock worker on the right stiffened, a look of pain briefly crossing his face before he dropped to his knees and fell forward. An ice spike roughly the size of Lee's arm protruded from his back.
"What th-" the dock worker on the other side of the loose formation said before a second ice spike seemed to materialize through his neck. It impacted with enough force to throw the man sideways, nearly tearing his head from his shoulders in the process.
Boat hook looked at the corpses that had been his comrades a few seconds before in astonishment before turning around. The shadow that Lee had identified at the beginning of the fight solidified into one of the largest men he had ever seen.
"What's the big idea here?" boat hook shouted, stepping forward to swing his weapon. "Those were my friends!"
The huge man said nothing, swatting the blow away with the back of his hand. The massive waterbender grabbed boat hook by the throat with the same free hand, lifting him clear of the street as easily as Lee would lift a cutlass.
"Lieutenant Lee wastes his skill on men like you," the waterbender said, aiming a spear at the smaller man's chest. "Go to the spirits now."
Before boat hook could choke out a reply, the waterbender shoved the point of the spear into his chest, driving it home to the heart. The would be killer kicked and jerked for a few seconds, each movement becoming weaker until he was still. The waterbender snorted in disgust and pulled the spear out, tossing the dead dock worker to one side in contempt.
"Silver Wolf will have words with Shin," the waterbender said, setting his spear on the street almost reverently before turning to face Lee. "He sends boys to do a man's work."
"Thank you," Lee said, sizing up the man at the same time. He recognized him as one of the wild waterbenders of the Rift. He also noticed the wolf head headdress perched atop the other man's head, the snout casting the wearer's face in shadow.
"Do not be too quick to thank Silver Wolf, Lieutenant Lee of the North Sea Navy. Silver Wolf has been sent to send you to the spirits. May you fight and die well."
With that, Silver Wolf swept up a stream of water and sent it hurtling towards a baffled Lee. The lieutenant was slow to react this time, and the water hit him like the force of a hundred shipboard fire hoses, sending him tumbling backwards into the gutter. He recovered quickly, tensing his entire body into a two legged kick that sent a fireball rocketing towards his opponent. To his dismay, Silver Wolf easily blocked it with a shield of water.
Lee quickly considered the situation as he found his way to his feet again. The full moon put him at a stark disadvantage against the waterbender. He wondered if he had anything going for him as he punched out a few more fireballs, stepping forward to close the distance between them. For such a large man, Silver Wolf's movements were surprisingly quick and fluid. Couple that with his waterbending abilities, and Lee found himself in a world of trouble.
He made it to close combat distance, hoping that his skill would offset Silver Wolf's tremendous set of advantages. Lee slashed and blasted at the other man, feeling normally carefully controlled anger turning into desperation as none of his blows connected. For every slash of a fire dagger and carefully executed fire blast, Silver Wolf had a stream of water ready to shield himself.
Suddenly, Lee felt his arm jerk and go limp, followed closely by a feeling he could only compare to sinking his hands into the waters of the South Pole. He staggered back and looked down to see a jagged slash that ran up the inside of his arm. The wound was white around the edges, almost as if he had been frost bitten. As he looked on, a few drops of blood began to gather at one edge of the cut.
Lee looked back up at Silver Wolf. A narrow ice dagger stuck out several inches from the man's fist. One edge was tinted red with blood. As he looked on, Silver Wolf threw the dagger straight at him. Before Lee had a chance to move, or even blink, the sliver of ice lanced across the distance between them and buried itself just above his knee.
A hiss of pain escaped Lee's teeth as he dropped to his good knee. The pain was unlike anything he had ever experienced before, but he would be damned before he showed his enemy that.
"Silver Wolf admires you, Lieutenant Lee," the man said, whisking some water out of a rain barrel and forming another ice dagger with it. "Few men could bear a wound like that in silence as you have."
Lee said nothing in reply, choosing instead to rip the dagger out of his leg. Unlike the wound on his arm, blood flowed freely from the gash as soon as the ice was clear. He gritted his teeth and slapped a palm over the wound, cauterizing it to stop the flow. The chill was replaced with familiar searing pain, a feeling he knew how to deal with. His ears started to ring as a fresh surge of adrenaline dumped into his bloodstream and he struggled to his feet. He knew as he took a breath that his fighting ability had been compromised by a pair of debilitating wounds, but he refused to consider it. Failure was a word he had forgotten long ago.
A brief look of shock passed across Silver Wolf's face as Lee swept a fist into the hottest uppercut he could muster. The blow lacked some of the power it would have normally, but it came in fast enough to catch the waterbender off guard and singe some of the fur of his cloak. Lee shook slightly, but continued his assault.
Silver Wolf's shock quickly wore off, and once again he began effortlessly blocking Lee's attacks, simultaneously sending high speed ice spikes hurtling towards him. Lee found himself on the defensive, spending more effort blocking the incoming missiles than directing attacks at his opponent. Sooner or later, he knew that one was going to get through.
Sure enough, one did. Silver Wolf sent two spikes in rapid succession, one aimed low and a second at chest level. Lee blocked the one aimed low, attempting to twist his body to avoid the second. His battered frame failed him, however, and the spike impacted against his chest plate, driving through like a nail through paper.
A fireball died on his fist as Lee looked down at the nearly two foot long icicle that seemed to have sprouted from his chest. The massive load of shock to his system completely deadened the pain, causing him to feel nothing but a sense of wonder. His vision began to swim in and out of focus, and he looked up to see the blurred form of Silver Wolf walking towards him. He tried to inhale and bring his hand up to defend himself, but his body refused to respond.
He inhaled, not understanding why, as Silver Wolf reached out and grabbed him by the throat. Lee's windpipe was closed off as the other man lifted him bodily off the street. A feeling of calm resignation washed over him even as his body began struggling to expel the air in his lungs.
"You fight well, Lieutenant Lee," Silver Wolf said, looking into his opponent's eyes. "You have courage and spirit, more than I've seen in a long time. Silver Wolf thanks you for a good fight."
Lee looked into the cold blue eyes of the waterbender, feebly reaching up with his good hand to try to pull the man's hand from his throat. He might as well have tried to pull the Independence into a dry dock by himself.
Lee's last thought was of Qiao. He wondered idly how she would take the news of his death in a dingy back alley on the island she ruled. Probably not well. He tried to imagine her voice as tinges of black began encroaching on his peripheral vision. To his shock, it wasn't Qiao's voice, but that of an old combat instructor that began echoing through his mind.
"Remember, no matter how big the man you're fighting, every one of us shares the same weakness. A nice swift kick to the balls, and even a man the size and temper of an angry platypus bear will go down."
Could it really be that easy? Lee asked himself, a ghost of a plan beginning to form at the back of his mind. If nothing else, it would make a good last act of defiance. Fighting to ignore the fact that his lungs felt like they were going to burst from his chest, Lee cocked back with his good leg and kicked out with his last bit of strength.
The impact came at a fraction of what he would have normally been capable of, but his foot struck true. While it didn't produce the drop-to-his-knees effect that Lee intended, the pain was enough to make Silver Wolf loosen his grip ever so slightly. Lee's windpipe opened a sliver, allowing a tiny bit of air to escape. Seizing the opportunity, Lee exhaled as violently as he could through the small crack, feeling the energy in his body rush into his chest.
The result was a weakened breath of fire attack that burst from his mouth, directly into Silver Wolf's eyes. Where the kick hadn't produced results, the sudden flash burns to the face gave Lee what he had been hoping for. The huge hand that had closed around his throat like a vice suddenly released its iron grip, and the lieutenant fell to the ground. His legs gave out underneath him, and he crumpled unceremoniously to the pavement, sucking in the sweet night air.
Silver Wolf staggered backwards, hands clasped to his burned eyes. A howl of pain unlike any other sound Lee had ever heard from a man's lips. The sound was piteous, and his body was slowly shutting down from the wound to his chest, but Lee knew he had to press on and finish the fight permanently.
A battle cry he hadn't shouted since his days in the academy escaped from his lips as Lee rose to his knees and punched a fireball at Silver Wolf's unprotected stomach. The blind man did nothing to ward off the blow, and it struck home with a sizzling of flesh. But Lee didn't stop there. His body dumped the rest of its adrenaline into his veins, and Lee staggered to his feet, jabbing and slashing out fire into his opponent's body. All training in combat was forgotten, all indications that he was destroying his body were ignored. Only raw instinct remained. One goal: eliminate the wild waterbender as a threat permanently.
Silver Wolf ended up on his back after sustaining a dozen wounds that would have been fatal to a lesser man. Lee stepped over, his body shaking as it used up its last reserves of strength. He aimed a fist at the waterbender's heart, hesitating for a moment.
"What are you waiting for? You have defeated Silver Wolf."
The sound of resignation and near satisfaction in the waterbender's voice gave Lee pause. He lowered his hand slowly, finally letting it fall to his side. He swayed on his feet for a moment as the short burst of strength began to fail him.
"No," he said, his voice weak. "Live in shame."
With that, Lee passed out, falling backwards onto the pavement.

Lieutenant Shen was drunk. It was a usual in port pastime for the young officer, especially during stressful times. Time spent sampling local the poisons produced by native stills was his preferred way of forgetting about the things that went on in the sick bay.
The chief medical officer of the Independence had certainly had a busy time during the revolution. Ever since the Captain had signed his ship on for the wild ride of the rebellion, there had been a marked increase in the number of cases that found their way into the section of the ship many of the other officers were fond of calling his kingdom. The past week had been particularly busy, with casualties from the action with the gunboats and injured shipfitters assigned to the repair details. Shen had welcomed the chance to turn the more seriously wounded men over to healers on the island, where they would be in better hands than he was able to provide on the ship, and be able to cut loose before the upcoming battle against the Fire Navy.
A band of rowdy engineers had fallen in behind him as he was making his way back to the ship. Shen didn't mind the company, so long as they didn't try to pick any fights with the locals or each other. Sailors hurting sailors was something that never sat well with him.
As the small band rounded a corner to a shortcut that one of the engineers insisted was the quickest way back to the ship, Shen noticed a faint blue light emanating from the far end of the alley. It didn't look like any torch or lamp light that he had ever seen, giving him cause for concern. He knew that there were plenty of people out there that were out for rebel blood, and a few drunk sailors wouldn't be much of a match for a coordinated force of locals.
"What's going on over there?" one of the engineers asked, his voice slurred by a night of heavy drinking.
"Some spirits most likely," another replied, drawing laughter from his companions. Shen was forced to smile at the naive comment as well, but he had to admit that whatever was going on was concerning.
The silhouette of a man swam into focus as he drew closer. The glow that illuminated a large portion of the alleyway seemed to be emanating from the ends of his arms.
Firebender? Shen asked himself before quickly rejecting the idea. He had never heard of anyone other than Princess Azula that was capable of producing blue fire. The only other option was a waterbender doing some healing.
Despite his level of intoxication, a healer's instinct kicked in for Shen and he quickened his steps. As he closed to within a dozen paces, he could see a huge man kneeling over another that appeared to be dressed in a Fire Navy uniform. The large man's hands were coated in water, which seeped over a particularly ugly looking hole in the downed man's armor.
"What happened here?" Shen asked as he knelt down next to the two men. The waterbender looked up at him, and he recoiled slightly. Both of the huge man's eyes were burned shut, and most of his face was a twisted mass of burnt skin.
"Who are you?" the waterbender asked. Shen noted a hostile undertone.
"I am Lieutenant Shen, chief medical officer of the North Sea Navy Ship Independence. I'm a healer."
"You are a waterbender?"
"Uh, no. I'm not."
"Then there is little you can do to help. This man is Lieutenant Lee. A sailor like yourself."
Shen started at the sound of the name, and looked closer. Sure enough, First Lieutenant Lee lay on the pavement.
"Can you see?" Shen asked.
"Not right now. Maybe never again. Lieutenant Lee saw to that. He fights well."
"Engineers! Over here! Assist the First!"
The engineers put a spring in their step at the order, quickly closing the remaining distance.
"Pick him up, gently now! You, waterbender, what is your name?"
"Silver Wolf, Lieutenant Shen."
"Right. Silver Wolf, we are going to move you and the First Lieutenant back to our ship. You will have safe conduct on board as long as you are in my charge, but I have to ask you. Did you and the Lieutenant fight each other here tonight?"
Silver Wolf nodded, moving back slightly to let the engineers pick Lee up.
"Yes. Silver Wolf was ordered to kill Lieutenant Lee. But he was stronger than Silver Wolf."
"Right. Well, come on Silver Wolf. Right now I need your help."