Twenty-four

The next morning, they were back to chasing the Avatar, who, for once, was literally right in front of them. But, unfortunately, that was not really a good thing. Aang and his friends had decided for some reason that they were going to fly their fluff-monster directly into the Fire Nation. Maya, Uncle, and Zuko stood on deck. Uncle was yelling at Zuko.

"Please, Prince Zuko, I'm begging you! Turn around now!"

"I can't do that, Uncle!" Zuko protested. "The Avatar is heading into the Fire Nation, so we will do the same."

"Have you completely forgotten that the Fire Lord banished you? What if you are caught?"

"I'm only going into the Fire Nation to chase the Avatar. My father will understand why I have returned home."

"You give him too much credit," Uncle muttered. "My brother is not the understanding type."

"We've got another problem!" Maya interrupted them, pointing out in front.

Zuko and Uncle turned to look. "A blockade…" Zuko murmured.

In front of them, but still many yards away, was a massive Fire Navy force, comprised of at least a hundred or so ships. They were all lined up, one after the other, and they were at least four ships thick.

"Technically, you are still in Earth Kingdom waters," Uncle said quickly, trying to get Zuko to listen. "If you turn around now, they cannot arrest you."

Zuko looked up into the sky. The flying bison was still heading straight towards the blockade. "He's not turning around," Zuko said. "I don't have a choice."

"Yes, you do!" Maya said, breaking into the argument. She was afraid. "Zuko, please! We have to turn around! We can't fight them all! And besides, how are we going to get through even if we're not attacked? We're going to crash into the ships!"

He ignored her. "Bring up the catapult!" he yelled at a few of the crewmembers.

"What are you doing?" Maya yelled. They were all going to die because of this boy's stubbornness.

"I'm going to shoot him down."

"Don't you remember what happened the last time you tried shooting the Avatar down with a fireball? Your ship got severely damaged and because of that, you had to go have an Agni Kai with that jerk Commander Zhiao."

"An Agni Kai that I won, if you'll recall," he said.

"That's not the point!"

But he was not listening anymore. The catapult had been lifted to the deck from its storage compartment underneath. One of the men was pouring some sort of black liquid on the rock that lay inside it. It smelled disgusting. Maya put her hand over her nose and Uncle pulled out a fan and began to use it, pulling his head away from the direction of the catapult.

"Really, Zuko," he said, "couldn't you shoot them down with something more fragrant?"

Despite the circumstances, Maya laughed. Leave it to Uncle to find something funny to say in a life-threatening situation.

Zuko used firebending to ignite the black liquid, and the rock burst into flames. "On my mark," he said. Then he waited, glaring up at the flying bison with determination. "Fire!" he yelled suddenly, and the catapult was released, the boulder zooming into the air directly at the giant fluff-monster. At the last second, the bison veered to the right, and the rock splashed harmlessly into the ocean. Zuko cursed.

And then the real trouble started. It seemed whoever was in charge of the blockade had decided either that they also wanted to bring down the Avatar, or that they thought the catapult had been aimed at them. In either case, there were now dozens of giant flaming rocks flying into the air and down straight towards the ship.

Maya grabbed onto the railing and held on tight, squeezing her eyes shut. They were going to die. She knew it. Miraculously, none of the rocks hit the ship, all of them splashing loudly into the ocean. This did, however, cause a great wave of seawater to splash up onto the deck and knock a few crewmembers into the railing on the opposite side of the ship.

For a moment, Maya thought they were relatively safe, and then she saw another group of fireballs raining down on them. She again held tightly to the railing. A second later, she felt the massive jolt of impact as one of the fireballs crashed into the ship, nearly throwing her overboard. She whimpered, to her own embarrassment, and then opened her eyes to look. Behind her, there was smoke rising out of the roof of one of the rooms on the ship. A man ran out of the door, coughing from the smoke.

"Prince Zuko, the engine has been hit! We need to stop and make repairs!"

Zuko whipped his head around to look at the man. "Do not stop this ship!" he said, in a low voice.

As they neared the blockade, Uncle tried one last time to get Zuko to turn around. "We are on a collision course!" he said, voice pleading.

"We can make it."

"Zuko!" Maya screamed. She did not want to die.

He squeezed his eyes shut. "I'm sorry," he said.

And they continued on, getting closer and closer to the line-up of Fire Navy ships. Maya braced herself for impact, and certain death and/or capture. But then nothing happened. Confused, and still not daring to believe that they had made it through, she opened her eyes and looked up. They were passing through the line of ships. She looked around at the faces of the people standing on deck. They glared. She looked around more, at the ship closest to them – and gasped. Standing on board, grinning, was none other than Commander Zhiao.

"What is he doing here?" she asked incredulously.

"I do not know," Uncle murmured, stroking his beard in thought. "But no matter what his reasons for letting us go, we should all be thanking the spirits. We could have been dead or worse back there."

"What's worse than dead?" Zuko snapped.

"Would you rather be dead, or captured by Commander Zhiao?"

"Dead," Zuko and Maya both responded. He grinned at her. She smiled back.

Later, however, Zuko's spirits had dampened quite a bit. Maya saw him clench the railing so hard that his knuckles turned white. She looked closely at his face. He looked pissed, but that didn't mean anything. He always looked pissed. Even when he looked happy – he still looked pissed. "What?" she said, hoping he'd tell her what was wrong.

He continued to clutch at the rail. "I don't understand. Why did Commander Zhiao let us through? What's he playing at?"

"He wants to follow you," Uncle said. "He knows you will lead him directly to the Avatar."

Zuko was silent for a moment. Maya knew he was thinking. Then he said, "If Zhiao wants to follow our trail of smoke, then that's exactly what I'll let him do."

Maya raised an eyebrow. "What are you thinking, Zuko?"

Zuko smiled at the question, but the smile was not one of happiness. It was one of cunning. He turned and began giving orders to the crew.

Even later, Zuko was standing in a small boat that was being lowered into the water by a rope-and-pulley system. Although it was small, it had its own engine, and did not need to be paddled to work. "Uncle," he called. The old man was standing at the prow, looking at his nephew over the railing. He was unhappily stroking his beard. He had disagreed with this plan from the very beginning. "Uncle," Zuko repeated. "Keep heading North. Zhiao will follow the smoke screen while I use it as a cover."

"You mean we," Maya called down, suddenly appearing at the railing. Before Uncle could stop her, she jumped and swung her legs over the side of the ship, landing heavily, but unharmed, inside the little boat.

"What are you doing?" Zuko yelled at her, getting in her face. "You're going to get in my way!"

"Too late now," Maya replied, folding her arms over her chest. "Let's go."

"Ugh!" Zuko growled. He spun around so his back was to her. "You're so annoying! If you get in my way –

"I know. You'll do something utterly unspeakable to me. Now, are we going to go say hi to the Avatar, or what?"

Zuko grumbled for a bit, and then he said over his shoulder, "Fine…"

Silently, Maya cheered. Maybe Zuko was coming over to her side – if only just a little.