Chapter Fifteen: Save You From the Pirates

Present

Katara was a waterbender. A waterbender on a ship. She could do this. She just… needed to figure out what 'this' was. Because she was an untrained waterbender on a pirate ship. An untrained female waterbender, and they were pirates she'd stolen from, and her childhood might have been isolated but it hadn't exactly been sheltered. And she was not panicking. She wasn't. Even though they'd taken her while her brother and friend were asleep, and Sokka and Aang might not notice until they woke up and might not figure out what happened to her for hours after that—

Someone would save her from the pirates. She was sure of it. People cared about her and they'd be looking for her and they would find her (when?)

Four hours ago

The pirate ship sailed out of the river's mouth and into the open sea. Sails were set, and idle hands started turning idle eyes on their captive.

"We aren't much in the habit of keeping guests for very long, girl," the pirate captain said, as his awful iguana-parrot sneered down at her. "So as I see it, you've two choices in rooms. There's the cargo hold, or—"

Eight hours ago

She could barely see the waterbending scroll in the moonlight. She could barely see the pirates, either.

Aang would have been able to fight them off, she thought. With airbending, or with the waterbending moves he'd learned today, from her, that he was already better at than she'd ever been.

Twenty hours ago

Aang glided back down to their camp, leaving the pirates a whole town and half a forest behind them. Katara's feet touched down, and her heart was still racing and a victory dance would probably be too much.

She settled for gloating over her new high-risk acquisition, instead. She didn't know what Sokka was so worried about.

Eight hours ago

The pirates had the scroll, and they had her surrounded. And that was when Katara realized they weren't just going to let her go.

Her first water whip fell apart into weak splashes and pirate laughter. Her second made a man stumble back. Her third and fourth just made a lot of boots wet, but her fifth was better than Aang's.

They got her back on their ship, but they had to chip two men and an iguana-parrot from the ice before they could set sail.

Four hours ago

"—You could have yourself a nice warm bed." His lips curled, and his crew laughed. "What'll it be?"

Slaps were for polite girls, and Katara's hands were tied behind her back anyway. She kicked the Captain instead, exactly where Gran-Gran had taught her.

"Wrong choice, girl," he growled, when he could talk again.

"Captain, we've spotted a ship. Fire Nation; a small one. Seems to be alone."

He narrowed his eyes at her, and straightened up. "Put her in the hold. Change course to pursue—"

This was the last thing she heard before she was dumped down a trapdoor into the dark, where she could feel the water all around her.

Present

She was a waterbender on a ship. An angry waterbender on a ship. She could do this, and 'sitting around waiting to be rescued' wasn't 'this'.

Okay. So she was locked in their cargo hold. Obviously not a permanent arrangement. She didn't know when they were coming back. There was something loud going on above deck—a fight?—whatever it was, hopefully it would keep them distracted.

What would dad do?

Abandon his children to go fight the Fire Nation. Okay, bad example.

What would Sokka do?

Make an elaborate plan that started with… started with…

Getting her hands free. That's how it started. They were tied behind her back, but waterbenders-in-training were nothing if not flexible. Just squirm, and bring up her legs, and kind of squiggle and— there!

Okay. Hands in front. Still bound. Still sitting in the dark. Still completely proving Sokka and all his sexist views on women wrong by standing up and looking for something sharp. She bumped blindly around, finding a crate, a crate, and… more crates. Their corners were pointy and oww, but not exactly sharp. And even if they were conveniently full of knives, a few experimental slightly-curse-laden attempts to pry off a lid told her that fingernails did not make good crowbars.

Katara sat on a box, and closed her eyes (which did nothing, but still helped somehow). She took in a deep breath. In through the nose—(the ship's hull creaked, squeezed by waves that were just as sick of pirates as she was)—and out through the mouth. She found the rope's knot with her teeth, and got to work loosening it.

Hands free. Bleh. Now she needed a weapon, and she needed to get out of the cargo hold. Probably in reverse order. They'd pulled out the ladder when they dumped her down here, but they'd left her plenty of stackable boxes. She could see a dim square of light outlining her target. All she had to do was shove around these really heavy crates by leaning all her weight against them and pushing come on come on—

(The waves scraped against the hull with icy fingers.)

YES! Woo! Victory! She did dance, because she'd earned it. Just one or two more of these. That she had to move and then lift.

(Ice grew. On the lowest level of the ship, something splintered. The noise above deck washed it out.)

Katara was thoroughly ready to kill something by the time she flung the trap door open. It wasn't locked, which saved it from being her first victim. She emerged out into the pirate's boutique—the cramped room of curios. It was currently pirate free. She pulled herself up, and tip-toed over to a display of weapons. She found a dagger that fit her hand, and preemptively thanked the spirit of whoever it had come from for lending her their strength. Then she shoved every scroll down her shirt (it was the principle of the matter), and—

The door crashed inwards. A pirate fell back into her. The dagger was pinned at her waist, (the seas surged their way through an ever-growing hole but couldn't reach her,) so she grabbed blindly at the shelf behind her and hit the creep hard with the first thing her hand closed on. Then she readied herself for the man in the doorway, the skull-masked evil looming Fire Nation soldier—

Crewman Teruko eyed the snarling Water Tribe girl who'd just brained a pirate with a ruby-eyed monkey statue.

Crewman Teruko backed out the door, and shut it softly behind herself.

Present

"Zuko!" Iroh called. "Come back here this instant!"

Lu Ten had never been this much trouble.

(Lu Ten had never been within leaping distance of a pirate ship.)

Four hours ago

There were pirates on the horizon. It was a welcome change from Zhao, in the same way roach-mice were an improvement over mosquito-ticks. Iroh watched the ship tacking to port; its sails billowed out as it picked up speed. It had spotted the undersized Wani, rusty and slightly Avatar-dented and so very far from the help of the rest of the fleet. It was hunting them.

"Evasive maneuvers, Lieutenant Jee."

"The wind's in their favor, Sir. Engineer Hanako's already warned against pushing the engines."

Iroh sighed, in a way that several Earth Kingdom generals still had nightmares about. This will hurt me more than it will hurt you, because dead men do not hurt.

Zuko was leaning over the rail; any further, and they would have to fish him from the sea. The sun was warm against his skin and his fire brimming. Miles away but coming closer, a certain waterbender was being thrown into the dark.

Twelve hours ago

Zuko finally stopped practicing and let Uncle shoo him to bed, but not until the sun set and the fire inside of him wanned (and even then he could feel it, warmer than it had ever been, like a hug on the inside) (not that he needed any hugs).

He dreamed of dragons while a waterbender fought.

Twenty hours ago

The anchor was up and their course set and the Wani at cruising speed. Lieutenant Jee had run out of excuses. He joined the prince on deck, and learned… the Dancing Dragon.

Off to the side, pretending to check the catapult, Crewman Teruko snickered the snicker of someone who wanted latrine duty for the next month.

The General smiled. "I believe Teruko would like to be your next dance partner, Prince Zuko!"

"It's not a dance!" The prince had his flame daggers back. And the rest of his fire, for that matter. Ancient ruins apparently made for better field trips than Jee thought. "I wish I had something real to practice on."

"I'm sure something will come up, sir," Lieutenant Jee said, with perfect fatalism.

Around the same time, a Water Tribe boy was ranting at his sister about all the piratey doom she'd just invited. His sister wasn't listening.

Present

The last pirate fell. Katara stood above him, monkey in one hand and water whip in the other, and stared across the deck at the prince of the nation who'd stolen her mother and who'd stolen her mother's necklace. His crew ringed him protectively, a mass of red with those faceless white helmets that made each of them look just as heartless as any other.

"I won't be anyone's prisoner," she said.

"Umm. Could we maybe talk about this on my ship? The ship that's not sinking."

Katara grudgingly accepted the validity of this point. She waved an after you hand. After you turned out to be after the prince's crew, and the trussed up pirates, and the prince himself who seemed satisfyingly stiff-shouldered and sneaking-glances-behind-him about having a Master Waterbender In Training stalking over the plank on his heels.

The prince's uncle waited for them on the opposite side, his arms crossed and his hands tucked up opposite sleeves. "Nephew, did you just save the Lady Waterbender from pirates?"

Katara stomped her last step, off the plank and onto the deck. The sea swelled under them. "I saved myself, thank you."

"I see." The man smiled, and looked down at her impromptu weapon. "Oh, that is exquisite! A souvenir of your triumph?"

"Keep it." She shoved the monkey into his hands; he winced, and caught it on his wrists. Then she set her hands on her hips, darted a look at the Appa-free sky and the empty ocean in all directions, and held her head up high. "Where am I staying? If anyone says a warm bed, I will end you."

"...A cold bed?" Zuko offered.

Sisters were terrifying, and Sokka's had four more years of practice than Azula. And she had just sunk a ship.

Maybe he shouldn't have let her on his.

AN: Replies to folks who I can't PM—

spring, chapter 14: You are amazing. :) (Also, how the heck did you get a comment up on that chapter so quick? You are the Azula of speed readers. ...In a good, non-homicidal way?)

Guest (SV89?), chapter 14: I fully approve of the Indiana Jones theme. I had the James Bond one running through my head, but yours is so much more exploring-ancient-ruins appropriate. Laugh loud, laugh often, laugh while your family is shying away nervously!

Guest, chapter 10: *gives you a stuffed Appa to hold and protect instead, because a Zuko would squirm and shout and maybe-light-things-on-fire too much*