"Fire is a living thing." Zuko breathed as he stood in ankle deep water. "Feel how it moves with your breaths and breaths just like you do. As you bend, that fire is part of you." he said as a fire ball floated between his hands.
On Zukos right side Aang nodded. "I feel it."
And on Zukos left side. Zhau-Li lost his own fire ball again as he stumbled forward. "Sorry." he gasped.
"It's okay. You are doing what the military taught you." Zuko said. "Short powerful blasts." he said. "Quick and powerful to quickly surprise and overwhelm any enemy. This is the opposite as we are trying to maintain and control. Keep it going. Concentrate on your breath. It is not about making it bigger or more powerful. It's about being able to maintain it the way it is. And since this fire is a part of you, you yourself must be calm. Breath."
Zhau-Li inhaled a deep breath as he gave it another go.
At the shore several water tribe people were looked at the three fire benders standing in the water. Some with fear in their eyes. Looking rather nervous at the bending going on in front of them.
Katara smiled amused as she shook her head. "You don't need to be afraid. You can trust them." she said to Hakoda who sat right next to her.
"Sorry." Hakoda lowered his head. "I suppose I have just seen so many villages being burned down that... And the attacks on our…" he halted.
Katara sighed deeply. "I know." she admitted. "The day mom died. It was the worst day of my life. I didn't think I could ever forgive the fire nation."
"Katara." Hakoda looked at his daughter with painful eyes.
"But I learned since. It was wrong of me to blame the fire nation as a whole!" Katara said looking up at Hakoda. "Zuko. Zhau-Li. Mr Iroh and so many others we met are good people! And their fire bending is as important to the world as my water bending is. The only ones we should blame is the fire lord and those in power who enjoys the misery they spread. All the rest. We have to forgive them. They are just people." she said.
"Oh Katara." Hakoda looked at her with fondness in his eyes. "You grown so much." he whispered reaching up a hand holding her cheek. "You always had your mothers kindness and wisdom. Her passion." he breathed. "And now I see it more than ever."
Katara looked up at Hakoda. Her blue eyes misty. But also she smiled. "We all have our own healing to do dad. Whether we like it or not though. Fire is also a part of our world. Fire keeps us warm to inside of our tents and cooks our food. We need it just as much as anyone else. So we can't just dismiss it out of fear." she.
Hakoda smiled. "When did you become so wise?" he asked as he reached in and pulled her into an embrace. "My children are amazing adults now. It's hard to wrap my head around." he admitted.
Katara sighed deeply as she leaned into her fathers embrace. "Well. Not entirely yet." she said as she glanced up to look at the fire benders again.
Only to witness Zhau-Li loose control of his fire again, and then in a desperate attempt to catch his own fire lost footing and then fell head first into the water.
Katara smiled while feeling kind of bad for the young man. Obviously the things Zuko did actually wasn't that easy for regular fire benders. It didn't seem like it came natural to Zhau-Li at all. And the poor guy really tried. He had been ecstatic when Zuko suggested he should join him and Aang for fire bending training. And then he had looked nervous, not wanting to interrupt these important lessons or waste Zukos time.
And now he was back in the water. Looking really embarrassed as Zuko offered him a hand.
"He sure is patient that Zuko." Hakoda remarked.
That made Katara snort. "You should have met him a couple of months ago." she chuckled. "But he is the most stubborn person I ever met. And always were. Seriously. He is going to restore the fire nations honour through sheer stubbornness. He's never giving up on anything. That's what that is!" she pointed as Zuko who was showing Zhau-Li the move set ones again. "He is to stubborn to give up on this. And his endurance is insane."
"That's good to hear. He's going to need that." Hakoda commented.
"It'll be okay dad." Katara assured. "The thing about both Zuko and Aang. They tend to pull off the most insane things and get through it somehow. I believe in them." she smiled.
Hakoda smiled gently. "I hope you're right. And you have my full support Katara. Don't ever doubt that."
Katara smiled as she nodded. "Thank you dad. It means a lot to hear that from you."
Just then a flute sounded from above and they looked up. Even halted.
"It's time." Hakoda gasped as he stood up as they were all moving in a instant.
Zuko and the other two hurrying back through the waters. Amused Katara noted that Zhau-Li was soaked all through and unlike Zuko… Didn't look like he knew how to dry himself either using that body heat thing Zuko would do.
Geesh. And Zuko would usually insist that he wasn't that good a fire bender.
As they camp vanished everyone got into position. Katara and Zuko were standing together and Katara sighed.
"Zuko… Remember to at least try to take it easy." Katara asked.
"In a battle?" Zuko asked. "Katara I don't think that's how it works."
Katara grabbed his shirt and pulled Zuko down to her own eye level. "It's simple really. No stupid bullshit from you." she stated as she let go again.
Zuko sighed deeply as he faced the waters and couldn't help but wonder… Were all little sisters scary like this? Was that just a thing?
They laid in wait like before, and finally the little scout unit was back.
They waited. Waited until it got close to shore and was about to turn and that's when Katara jumped out and froze all the waters effectively trapping the scout unit.
"HEY!" A soldier screamed as he appeared. "A water bender! Get her!" he shouted as one fired a fireball right at Katara.
Only for Zuko to step right in front of Katara and easily blocked the fireball.
The soldiers on the vessels gasped and then Zuko started to move forward with Katara, Aang and Toph being right behind him using Zuko as their own private flame shield.
Until they were finally close enough to the vessel that Katara could create a water whip and smack the one fire bender overboard.
And then they were all across the ship, quickly making short notice of the six soldiers who were there total.
Quickly they were all stripped of armour and tied up to one of the trees.
And then Zuko, Zhau-Li, Sokka, Katara and Hakoda got to put on the armour themselves while Aang and Toph were instructed to hide in the little cabin.
Zuko quickly took the helmet and checked all the levers as Katara lowered her hands dissolving all of the ice.
"Zhau-Li I need you to give the coals a fire blast. They have gotten too cold." Zuko instructed and Zhau-Li nodded opening the little gate to the boiler where true enough there was coals.
Sokka also looked at the contraption with extreme curiosity.
"This is why ships needs to have at least one fire bender onboard." Zuko explained in a light smile. "You can get the steam going without a fire bender. But it is going to take you a really long time. With a fire bender you can more easily control the heat and even just turn off the heat quickly to safe on coals."
"Fire nation tech is so cool." Sokka breathed.
Zuko smiled amused. "I'm glad you think that. To bad it was all developed specifically for war affords." he sighed deeply.
"Well yeah. But after the war is over the tech will still be there." Sokka pointed out. "Just think of how much you can do with it afterwards! The possibilities of these steam engines are endless. We've all ready seen them being used on land as well. Think of the abilities to transport goods across nations! Making trading both cheaper and easier!"
Zuko looked at Sokka. "Sokka. When the war is over. We really need to keep seeing each other."
"You can count on it buddy. You're not getting rid of me that easily." Sokka snorted in a grin making Zuko smile as he returned to the helmet.
"Okay. Off we go." Zuko said pulling a lever. And the ship started to sail again.
"Wooaah!" Sokka ran to the railing and looked it down. "Katara check it. We are sailing against the current! And at a pretty high speed."
Katara was quiet as she looked down. "I guess that's cool. Though… feels unnatural doesn't it? We always use the currents when sailing. We are one with the water and ocean. This is… Erhm."
Zuko shook his head. "Even these ships can't just defy the oceans Katara." he said. "We also have to consider the currents and the tides. If we don't respect the oceans our ships are going to be wrecked." he pulled the helmet swinging it to the left. "The ocean doesn't care who you are. Thus the ocean must be respected. At all times. You can't just change the tides or the winds. You have to work with them or face the consequences."
"Heh. You really did spend three years on a ship." Katara commented.
"Yeah." Zuko sighed deeply. "If there is one thing I learned out there about the ocean. It is that you gotta respect it."
And Katara smiled, clearly happy about Zukos respect of her beloved element.
They kept following the shores on the path Zuko assumed had been laid out for the scout unit. And like Zuko had said before they were following the currents until the currents naturally brought them back out on the wider ocean.
Sokka kept watch with a long telescope and then finally shouted as he spotted what had to be the main vessel.
Zuko inhaled deeply. "All right here goes. Remember what I said." he said. "We will be approaching the vessel from behind where they will open up a hatch for us. They'll throw chains down to us which we are supposed to festoon to our unit allowing them to pull us back onboard.
"All right guys. Helmets on." Sokka said.
And they all complied as they started to approach the vessel from behind.
And true enough, the ship itself started to open up allowing their own little unit inside. Follow by two chains thrown down which Sokka and Zhau-Li ran towards to festoon them at the assigned places.
The next thing they knew a big cranking sound came as the boat was being pulled inside, up a ramp and the hatch closed behind them.
"Hi Xiu. Any luck?" Sounded a bored voice from somewhere down on the floor. Then a big yawn. "Of course not. You would be all shouting if there was."
Zuko turned to Aang and they both nodded and then.
Aang jumped off the ship, send out an air current knocking all three greeters into the walls and the rest jumped down as well making quick process of the soldiers.
"Okay." Sokka stood up. "Let's try to move with stealth and pick them off in smaller groups at the time. Toph can tell us where there are larger groups concentrated and where there are soldiers whom are on their own."
Toph grinned. "Easily." she stated.
The poor fire nation soldiers didn't even see what was coming. Two guys were just sitting playing Pai-Sho as they were taken from behind and tied up.
Then there was the guy just busy mucking the Komodo Rhino stables. Easily taken and thrown into a room with the others.
Then there were the guys in the engine room where Zuko made the engines suddenly heat up surprising them all as they were now covered in steam that Katara turned to ice trapping all of them.
And then they got tied up as well.
With purpose they moved across the ship taking soldiers out one by one.
Finally they had taken out everybody below deck and it was time for a full frontal assault on the people on deck.
"There are twenty-one people up there." Toph informed. "They seem to be doing some sort of training exercises. Oh and one guy really high up in a room."
"That would be the helms man." Zuko said. "So… Twenty-one. That's most likely twenty regular soldiers and one commander." he said turning to them.
"Aww poor babies." Katara commented and then she smirked.
"They wont even know what hit them." Toph grinned slamming a fist into her hand.
And then they burst out. All the soldiers yelled in surprise clearly not even realizing what was going on before their team was all over them.
The commander shrieked as he turned backwards and ran. Pulling the string which released the emergency whistle blaring all across the ship only to turn and be met by Toph who stood there with crossed arms.
"Sorry. No backup for you!" Toph grinned and suddenly two metal plates flew up and trapped him.
Soon enough most were knocked down and the rest stood with raised hands.
Zuko had made his own way to the long ladder that was the quickest way to the helm and crawled up and into the helms room to be faced with a middle aged man who glanced on Zuko.
The man looked at Zuko and then raised his hands. "I surrender." he simply said.
"Oh… Really?" Zuko asked.
"I don't really feel like being blasted in the face by a fire ball and then thrown all the way down there." The helms man said. "I'll go down myself." he stated. "Try to not hit any rocks will you. I don't really feel like getting ship wrecked either today." he sighed as he exited the way Zuko had come and climbed down the ladder.
Zuko shrugged as he took the helmet himself. That was a really smart dude. And like that. The ship was theirs and Zuko grinned as he turned the whole thing around to get as close to shore as they could to allow the water tribes man access while dumping all these soldiers on the shore.
The next thing Zuko knew a young Avatar flew all the way up there to sit outside the Zuko. "Hi Zuko! Is everything all right in there?"
"Yup." Zuko said. "This is a ship where everything isn't breaking apart. That's a lot easier to handle."
"That's great!" Aang grinned. "Wooh we got a ship!"
"Yes indeed." Zuko grinned back. "We got a ship!"