Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar, but I do own the gray and white cat keeping my feet warm.

Before I knew that I could,
my vision of success was distorted and unfocused.

Chapter 3: The Voice in the Dark

She lost the flying bison for a while, fending for herself in the woods. The woods she'd entered were mostly burnt, and she did have a good deal of troubling finding things, but luckily, she'd been sparing with her supplies. There was a village nearby, but after Omashu, she didn't really want to risk it. Looking at a strange statue in the middle of the burned forest, she was startled when the bison went straight over her head.

For a moment, she caught a glimpse of the boy with the blue arrow on his head sitting on the bison's head. Her head snapped around, following the bison's trail, just before she began running after it. This time she was prepared for the bison, a small ship waiting in the bay. It was originally from a Fire Navy ship, but she had painted the symbol of the Avatar on the prow. She had it ready to sail when the bison flew over her head.

She followed it for the next day until it got very close to Fire Nation waters. Refusing the return to the Fire Nation, she pulled the ship over to a small island and watched from a cliff. The bison was flying easily over the water, drawing ever closer to the blockade at the border. Following whom she had to call the Avatar in her own thoughts was another Fire Nation ship. She saw the ship outside the borders fire at the Avatar, which the bison easily avoided, but she was greatly astonished when the blockade fired as well. They didn't even stop when one of the fireballs hit the Fire Nation ship.

And then she understood, and fell to her knees, suddenly nauseous as she watched the Crown Prince's ship run the barricade and somehow make it through. He'd be killed, chasing the Avatar or no.

She waited on that cliff most of the day. Exhaustion swept over her as the days past finally caught up. The Prince's ship returned to view and swept out through the blockade without any problems, but then it just anchored outside the Fire Nation's borders and seemed to be waiting for something. An explosion deeper within the borders sent waves of thunder out to her, the Prince, and the blockade ships. Most of the ships of the blockade turned from their duties and sailed towards the explosion.

In the fray, a smaller ship, much like her own, sailed around them and docked with the Prince's ship. She could see people milling about the main ship's deck, working to draw the smaller boat up within, and she understood. It also gave her an idea.

She flew down the cliff to her own boat. Once below deck, she shoveled coal into the boiler until it wouldn't hold another piece. The ship strained against its anchor as it burned and harvested the energy of the coal. She knew she wouldn't have the strength to pull the anchor up, and so instead, she took a deep breath, Forgive me, and bended a sharp blast of fire which disintegrated the chain. Its restraint gone, the ship leaped forward, knocking her to the ship's hard deck. Leaping up, she ran to navigations and guided the ship out of the hidden cove. Startled crew members stared at her from the Prince's ship, but they would be much more startled in a moment. Grabbing a spare chain, she tied the wheel so it wouldn't change course, for now, it was heading directly for one of the blockade ships.

She left the wheel and went to the starboard side of the ship. Everyone on the Prince's ship could see her clearly now and sailor after sailor paused in their work to stare at her. She watched them as well, at least until she, standing in the middle of the ship, passed the prow of the Prince's. A stocky older man and the teenager by his side turned and looked at her. The older man seemed more occupied in the teapot in front of him than her, but the teenager glanced meaningfully from her to the ship she was about to ram. She smiled lightly, following his gaze, just before leaping up onto the railing and smoothly diving into the sea.

The Prince tore his gaze from the inevitable collision. Turning, he shouted.

"Lieutenant! Get us moving!" Lieutenant Gi suddenly seem to come out of a trance and sent sailors running to navigations and below deck to the engine. The Prince turned his back on the Lieutenant and watched the progress of the rogue ship. The blockade ship had realized its predicament and was desperately trying to get out of the oncoming ship's way. It had turned to go around the port side of the ship in front of it, but this foolhardy decision of the captain's would see to the greater loss.

The girl's ship plowed into the stern of the first ship, the force of the impact causing the ship to turn, tearing and plowing through the stern of the ship it had tried going around. The Prince watched this with a strange sense of satisfaction, and as he felt the ship begin to move beneath his feet, he turned and went below deck. No one on the deck noticed the passenger they had picked up.

The moments in which She-Wolf moved from the side of the ship to the cargo hold in its depths were a blur to her. All she could remember later was finding a dusty unused corner behind some crates and falling asleep.

When she woke, she could tell by the dense silence aboard the ship that it was late night. Risking anyone still being up, she crept silently up to the deck and then onto the roof of the navigations room. Watching the stars, she tried to determine there position using the infinite masses, and her thoughts turned to the Fire Prince who was now yards below her. Could she face him so soon? She doubted it, but who knows? It was a ship. She was bound to cross someone sooner or later. Then, she heard the door below her open and shut. Perhaps it would be sooner than she thought.

The Fire Prince Zuko walked out onto the dark deck without bothering to light his way. He knew the ship like the he knew his reflection. Practicing fire-bending today with Gi had made him realize how slow he'd become. His reactions had only been enough to keep up with Gi, but before he'd been exiled, no one had been able to match his speed. No one…except…he shook his head, banishing the memory; she represented what made him weak. He needed no friends.

As if to emphasize the point, he punched the air in front of him, the resulting flame lighting up the area around him. He continued with the forms, trying to make the flames bigger as he moved, imagining opponents reacting and counterattacking and he sought to avoid them.

"You're really slow."

The voice came out of nowhere and right in the middle of the Prince's jump-spin-kick, which caused him to lose his balance and land hard on his bottom. The flames of his bending died out just as he turned red with embarrassment, leaving him in total darkness. When he got his breath back, he called out commandingly.

"Who are you?"

"Technically, you know me."

"I do?"

"Yes, but you can call me She-Wolf."

The Prince frowned, but she continued. "You look like you need a sparring partner."

"I have sparring partners."

"If they're slower than you, they must be going backwards."

He hissed, but heard something…or someone…land on the deck behind him and he stood quickly and spun around, lighting a flame in the palm of his hand to see by. But his flame revealed nothing.

"Why don't you come where I can see you?"

"Alright." A figure moved within the circle of light radiated from his flame, and the Prince's frown deepened. Her appearance revealed nothing about her. Her face covered by a mask shaped like a wolf's head, her eyes were amber like his own, but they seemed to shift at times. She wasn't smiling or frowning; she had managed to find a mix between them and pull it off.

"You're a fire-bender?"

"At times." Her posture was relaxed, but screamed out Fire Nation nobility.

"Well, I'll admit my reflexes need some work." She smiled, and assumed a fire-bending stance. He looked at her blankly for a moment.

"Hang on a minute, you impatient wolf." She straightened, looking at him with what could be confusion, if he could see her face.

She found her gaze drifting to the Prince's scar as he moved about the deck lighting the lanterns. Though she never moved, she noticed he kept glancing back at her, as if checking to make sure she was still there. For the first time, she noticed that he wasn't wearing anything except a pair of uniform pants. Mentally she noted the well-defined muscles in his chest and arms. As he turned towards her again, she reassumed the fire-bending stance.

The Prince copied her stance, held it briefly, and then lunged forward with a simple spin-kick, sending an arc of flame. She moved with lightning speed, slicing through the flame with one hand and using the momentum to spin her body, bringing her leg up and around, and sending an identical flame his way. He blocked it but then stopped and stared at her. The block and counterattack had been essentially perfect, exactly what he had expected. That hadn't happened in little over two years.

She abandoned the simple stance she'd assumed after landing and placed her hands on her hips. "No wonder you're so slow." She stated simply.

His eyes narrowed mischieviously and a rare grin graced his features. He sent a powerful fireball her way, which she avoided with a back-flip. As she landed, she smiled. Soon the air was filled was flames as they danced around each other. Slowly, the Prince began to react faster to her counterattacks, for she stubbornly refused to bluntly attack him. When a fireball arced at him too fast for him to block, the Prince just threw his hands up to protect himself. But instead of devouring him, the flames licked playfully at him before dissipating. He straightened and she copied him, recognizing and accepting his offer of a break.

"You're doing better."

Eloquent words and witty comments abandoned him as he sought a way to describe her bending. What he came up with was this. "You're so fast. I couldn't even block that last flame." She frowned, frustratingly.

"You've blocked that move before at that speed and then you told me to hurry up, you were getting old."

It was out before she could think about it and his mouth fell open in surprise and confusion. She desperately sent a flame at him, blinding him, just before she raced back below deck.

"Who are you?"

The Prince shouted as flames licked about his wrists at his sudden anger at She-Wolf, as she called herself. Why had he allowed himself to train with her? It had been so open, so trusting. She could be anyone, anyone at all. A spy from the Earth Kingdom was the first thing that popped into his head, but that was quickly put to rest. She was a fire-bender after all. He let the minutes pass by and the flames fluttering around his hands trembled and died. The door opened, revealing a sleepy Iroh as the Prince made his way around the deck, extinguishing the lanterns.

"I heard you shout Prince Zuko." The Prince quenched the next to last lantern.

"All is well, Uncle." Iroh looked around.

"What were you doing?"

"Training."

"This late?"

"I couldn't sleep." Iroh shrugged as his nephew vanished in the sudden darkness that came with the snuffing of the last lantern. He returned to his chambers and the Prince did the same. In his chambers, the Prince laid down on his bed for the second time that night. His training with She-Wolf had left him more tired than his mind registered, and he fell asleep, within minutes of lying down, on top of the covers. For the first time in over two years, his dreams were pleasant.