AN: I don't own Avatar, but I own Anzha, and I own my cats. I'm really happy with this, because things are finally heating up. Let me know if you agree.

RR: Zuko didn't recognize Anzha as She-Wolf simply because he didn't want to. Just like he doesn't want to realize that capturing the Avatar is wrong.

Chapter 12: Breathe

Captain Zethan was standing on the prow of her ship when the cry was given up from navigations. She glanced up and saw a sailor pointing out to the north. Following his finger, she saw a man and woman clinging to a barrel. Immediately she took command. "Bring that barrel in and get those two onboard." A couple of sailors lassoed the barrel and brought it against the ship's hull. They lowered the ramp half-way and brought the couple on deck. The man's arm was clearly broken, and the woman looked dead. Both of their faces were obscured. Zethan motioned for a couple of sailors to help the man up and to the hospital wing, but he stirred when they picked him up.

"Not me, her, pregnant, help her."

Then the man fainted once more. Zethan knelt by the woman and sure enough; there was a faint but steady pulse. A couple of her men escorted the woman to the hospital wing. Moving to the man supported by her crew members, she reached a hand up and swept the long black hair from his face, and then gasped.

The sun was high in the sky, turning the steel of the Fire Nation ship into steaming torture. Normally, all would be inside at this hour, but none one was willing to abandon their leader.

No one knew what to say to the sobbing prince as he clutched the piece of hull to him. He rocked silently back and forth, his face hidden in the metal. In truth, few had figured out what had him so upset.

Iroh went and knelt by his nephew, placing a hand on his shoulder. He hadn't seen Zuko like this in years. Instead of pulling away from him, Zuko released the scrap of metal and clutched at Iroh, burying his face in his uncle's chest. The lieutenant moved forward to see the metal Zuko had clung to so desperately.

"Oh dear God, the Fire Lord."

Now the words on the hull were clear for all to read and the prince's grief was justified. A moment of silence passed over the crew as they all realized their Fire Lord was dead. Then one of the sailors cried out, pointing to the horizon.

"A ship!"

Zuko stood quickly, wiping tears from his cheeks. He took a deep shuddering breath, and Iroh stood beside him. "It's Zhao."

As soon as it was said, an arrow whizzed past them and lodged itself in the wall of the ship. Zuko stomped over to it and snatched the small scroll wrapped around it. On it was written two words, and Zuko hissed in anger.

How's daddy?

He dropped the note and tore to the edge of the ship. He would've jumped overboard if Iroh and Gi hadn't caught him. Even then he fought against them, desperate to get to the ship. His words caught everyone off guard.

"HE KILLED MY FATHER! I'LL KILL HIM! I'LL MAKE HIM WISH HE'D NEVER HEARD MY NAME!" and so on and so forth.

"Zuko! Calm down!"

Zuko stopped fighting the men and spun around.

"Raise the catapult!"

Even as the words slipped from his mouth, a sphere of fire flipped up into the sky and arced down towards them. The helmsman, who luckily enough was at his post, managed to avoid it. By now the men had gotten Zuko's catapult ready.

"Return fire!"

As his men did so, a sailor ran up to him. "Sir, we're on a collision course with Admiral Zhao!"

"Then tell the helmsman not me!" The sailor nodded and ran off to navigations.

No one saw the bison high above their heads. Anzha saw the smoke and leaned over the edge of the saddle. She saw the two ships racing towards each other and yelped. "Zuko!"
Iroh for once was helping the soldiers. Gi ran to Zuko's side, who had just lighted another fireball.

"Why is Zhao attacking us?"

"You mean besides his overwhelming hatred for me? Now that my father is dead, Iroh and I are the only things between him and the throne."

"Oh."

Through deft maneuvering, the two ships managed to avoid each other by a hair's breadth. Zhao shouted to his men, who now understood completely that they were serving a madman.

"Board the prince's ship! Kill them all but save Zuko for me!" Zuko's men were loyal, even in the presence of the leading officer. Zhao's men stormed over onto Zuko's deck and the battle commenced.

No one noticed the ominous cloud on the horizon, rolling in with deadly speed.
Aang directed the bison over the ship, and Anzha could barely keep her seat as soldiers surrounded Zuko, blast after blast forcing him to lose ground, wearing him out.

"Aang, we have to help Zuko!"

"Why, can't your boyfriend take care of himself?"

Anzha glared at Sokka, doing her best not to roast him. She glanced at Aang, and even though his face was sympathetic, his eyes were thinking the same thing.

"Fine."

She turned from them and leapt over the edge of the saddle.

Zuko managed to block another fire blast, but when they stopped coming, he could barely breathe. He was surrounded by Zhao's soldiers, and they were preparing for a simultaneous attack. As the fireballs formed in front of the soldiers, something landed beside him and he heard a familiar voice. "Need some help, my spirit?" Together they raised their hands, combining in a joint bending. The soldiers were immensely surprised to see their fireballs converge and then come right back at them. When the smoke cleared, Anzha and Zuko were back to back, and Zhao's eyes and Anzha's met.
The cloud was overhead.
Aang landed Appa in the water next to the warring ships and the three of them sprung from the saddle, more to help Anzha than Zuko, but still there. Aang blew away several soldiers who were ganging up on an man, who after a moment, Aang recognized as Zuko's uncle.

"Thank you Avatar."

"Well, I hate Zhao more than I hate Zuko, and Anzha's my friend, so that makes us friends….I think."

To his surprise, Iroh smiled.

"Good enough for me."

Anzha and Zuko were fighting off a group of relentless soldiers when someone grabbed Anzha forcibly by the back of the neck and threw her against the ship's railing. As Zuko turned concernedly towards her, calling out her name, a huge fireball collided with his side with enough force to send him skidding across the deck to the other end of the ship. Surprisingly enough, the flames dissipated as he stopped sliding.

Shaking as he got to his feet, Zuko wasn't surprised to see Zhao walking confidently towards him.

"I beat you once before Zhao, and I can do it again."

"That was before, and so much was on your side, little prince. I was out of practice; your uncle was there to give you advice, and you had your Source. That is what has always given both you and Anzha an advantage, that intimate relationship with such power. But now, we're equals. The Source has given me the last thing I needed to become all powerful."

Zhao sent a powerful fire blast at Zuko, who blocked it, holding his footing, just barely. Zuko could barely believe what he was hearing. Zhao had tapped the Source? Not even he had truly tapped it, he'd only seen it as a guide. He was jerked from his thoughts by another fireball, this one more powerful.

"Now you're the only thing left in my way, Zuko. The death of the Fire Lord, the Crown Prince, and the great retired General will be a huge tragedy to the Fire Nation, and I will be there to help our people through it."

Suddenly, Zuko lost it, everything hit him at once, but most of all it was his loyalty and love for his country.

"Zhao, you forsook the Fire Nation when you murdered my father! They are no longer your people! I will die a thousand deaths and forsake all that I love before I let you have the throne!"

Zhao grinned, but for the first time in many years, Zuko was not afraid, of anything.

"Well, let's start your thousand deaths with one."

With this, he threw a huge fireball at Zuko, who threw his hands up in an 'X' to block it, but the sheer force of the blast knocked him off his feet, into the railing, and through it. He yelped as he felt the ship fall away beneath him.

Zhao turned from the fallen prince and back to the fray of battle.

No one noticed as the waters became rougher, the wind started to blow, and the first drops of rain began to fall.
Anzha had recovered and was now fighting side by side with Sokka, who was proving himself to be a pretty capable warrior. Zhao burst into the fray and caught Anzha by the neck. Moving to the side of the ship, he held her over the railing, her feet dangling yards above the churning waves.

"What are you doing Daddy?"

"Oh, you're not my daughter anymore. Natalani told me that right before I blew up her ship."

Anzha's eyes grew wide, equally from shock, horror, and lack of oxygen. She managed to gasp out her next sentence.

"Good for her, at least she's free of you now."

"Soon you will be to."

"You're a little too confident."

For Zhao had made a big mistake touching his skin to hers, because she was much more experienced with the Source than he was. Even as they spoke, Anzha had merged with her Source, and now she flowed into her father's body, seeking out his Source, just as she had done hundreds of times with Zuko. Zuko's Source and hers were so completely fused it was like they were one, and that was how they could read each other so well. They practically could hear each other's thoughts.

Now, she felt Zhao's Source, and felt the power from it flooding his body. Immediately she surrounded it with her own power, cutting Zhao off from it.

Every soldier turned as Zhao screamed. He dropped Anzha who managed to catch onto the railing as she fell. The contact broken, the Source flowed back into him, but Anzha was quick. She flipped back over the railing and caught Zhao dead in the chest with her heels. He skidded backwards and the battle intensified.

The rain was now pouring down, and Zuko's grip on the broken railing was slipping. The railing was now attached to its co-parts by an inch of metal, and it swung back and forth, creaking with his weight. He had his hand on the edge of the ship, but it was too slippery to pull himself up, and just as he felt the railing give, a hand caught his wrist.

Zuko would have expected, Anzha, Iroh, or even one of his soldiers, but it wasn't any of the above.

It was the water peasant girl. Their eyes met as Zuko hung off the side of the ship.

"Why?" He asked her, confused.

"Because Anzha loves you, and Anzha is my friend."

Determination replaced surprise in the prince's eyes, and he nodded. She braced herself, and through their combined effort, he got back onto the deck. He opened his mouth to thank her, but then his eyes were drawn to something behind her.

"Holy…"

Katara spun around to see what Zuko was looking at, and she cursed.

The huge wave crashed over the two ships, sweeping several soldiers as well as Katara and Zuko overboard.

Katara bended the water around her to stay on the surface and looked around desperately, but she saw no sign of Zuko. Then she looked down.

Zuko struggled to gain the surface. He was a strong swimmer, but his armor weighed him down. By the time he realized this fact, he was running out of air, and he was steadily sinking. He frantically tried to release his armor, but his hands were clumsy due to lack of oxygen. Just as he'd accepted the fact that he was going to die, his head burst free of the water.

Katara had bended the water around an air pocket, drawing it around her and Zuko. She listened to him take several deep breaths as her deft fingers unclasped first his shoulder plates and then the thigh plates. She felt a little awkward fiddling around at his waist, but she moved her hands as the armor fell away. Their eyes met, and they both took a deep breath before Katara allowed the air pocket to dissipate.

The effort of bending the water took its toll on Katara at a most inconvenient time. Trusting her life to Zuko as she felt a strong arm encircle her waist, she focused on holding her breath and maintaining consciousness.

Zuko's strong strokes bore them both to the surface, and it took a moment for Zuko to realize Katara was still holding her breath. He slapped her and shouted at her, which made him realize he didn't know her name. As she came to her senses and gasped in life-giving air, he looked around. He couldn't see the ships anywhere, and was having a hard time keeping them both on the surface. Hearing the girl's voice in his ear, he turned to face her. She was pointing off in a direction, and following her finger, he saw the outline of an island. It looked close, but carrying them both against the current, Zuko knew he didn't have the strength to get them there.

"Hold on!" Katara shouted at him. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders as his grip on her waist tightened. Turning her back on the island, she pushed against the water, sending them rocketing towards shore. She felt her back collide with sand and then she knew no more.

Zuko was exhausted, but the girl was unconscious. The rain fell unrelentingly, and he was freezing. Knowing that if he was cold, she was worse, he knew he had to get them out of the storm. He'd never admit it, but he felt a strange pride in the girl. They had selflessly worked together to get to land, without a second thought about their feud.

He stood, feeling strangely light without his armor, and got the girl positioned on his back, her arms thrown over his shoulder, and he held her legs around him. Like this, he ventured further inland. Luckily, he soon found a relatively dry cave sunk into a cliff wall. He slipped into the cave, as far back as he dared. Exhaustion was frolicking on the edge of his consciousness, but heignored it for the time being. Placing a hand against the girl's face, she was insanely cold. He knew what he had to do, and prayed the girl would forgive him for it later.

Being careful not to wake her, Zuko stripped the Water Tribe girl of most of her sopping clothes, leaving her only in a thin undershirt and her underwear. He then undressed down to his underwear as well. He laid their wet clothes on a couple freestanding rocks to dry, and pulled the girl into his arms. Bending, he felt the heavenly warmth of his inner fire spread through his numb limbs. He let the warmth spread to the girl and was satisfied when he felt her body temperature rise to normal. Finally feeling safe, he let exhaustion take him.

HUGE thanks to all my reviewers, cuz out of 600 hits, ya'll are the only ones nice enough to let me know what you think. Cheers to you! Ice Cream on me! 2 more reviews and I'll update on 'Brotherly Love!'