Chapter Four

The Capture

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Sakuyo reluctantly opened her eyes when the out-of-place noise would not go away. She hadn't expected herself to fall asleep, especially when she had so recently awakened from a who-knows-how-long meditative state. From the light streaming through the porthole from which she had climbed into the ship, she could tell that it was morning again. She had slept almost all day and night. It was to be expected though. She was still used to sleeping, and the other times that she had awakened from her slumber, she had a hard time staying awake when there was nothing to do.

Thump.

What was that annoying sound? She could vaguely hear men shouting on deck, but as long as it wasn't threatening her safety, she didn't see any reason to be concerned. She heard a whistling sound in the air, and then a giant, flaming mass flew by the porthole. There was a big splash, and, unfortunately, water flowed in through the porthole, which she had forgotten to close. She was drenched, and now uncomfortably awake.

"Well, there's no use trying to sleep now," Sakuyo muttered, and, drying herself off with a careful blast of air, she walked to the door and cautiously opened it. There was no one outside, thank goodness, so she followed the direction of the shouts. Quite suddenly, she emerged on deck and was confronted with a bizarre scene.

There were men swarming around large devices on which they piled large chunks of what appeared to be coal. One of them then lit the coal and the device flung the flaming chunk at a white speck in the distance. It was quite apparent that it was one of these rocks that had so inconsiderately drenched her when it fell into the ocean. But what was that speck they were firing at? Sakuyo squinted at it and then felt as if something had punched her hard in the stomach.

The Avatar and his flying bison. Of course. Wasn't it against the unwritten laws to attempt an attack on the Avatar, though? Had law and tradition dissolved while she was sleeping? Why hadn't anyone woken her up?

"Keep him in sight!" someone yelled. "If we lose him, you're the ones who'll pay!" It was the young man from before whom she had fought. She tried to make herself inconspicuous, but he caught sight of her before she could blend back into the passageway again.

Sakuyo attempted to reason with him. "You know, it used to be an offense punishable by imprisonment to attack the Avatar-"He didn't care, but instead directly shot a fireball at her. She was trapped in the doorway with no room to maneuver. She either had to Firebend or risk getting badly burned.

"Inconsiderate fool," she sighed, putting her hands together and cutting through the stream of fire. He did not look surprised. He probably only wanted to confirm what he had seen at Kyoshi. Sakuyo darted out of the doorway before he could shoot another one at her so that she would have more room to maneuver.

"Keep firing!" he yelled at the other men, who had ceased in order to watch the battle. They returned to their stations, but with many curious looks behind them. When he turned back to her, she was already gone, leaping onto the strange devices with a look of concentration on her face.

Sakuyo decided to stop the men from operating the machine so that the other Avatar would have time to escape. She directed a blast of fire at the men carrying coal chunks so that they would have to drop them, and then quickly dealt powerful blows to their heads. She wouldn't kill them, of course, but would make sure that they wouldn't hinder her efforts.

"What do you think you're doing?" her opponent shouted at her. She merely gathered fire in her left hand like a whip and snapped it at him to scare him away. He jumped away, but her fire whip left a scorch mark on the metal of the ship's deck.

"Quit wrecking my ship!" he shouted at her. Sakuyo thought about throwing the rock at him to shut him up, but dismissed the idea. He didn't need to know about her Airbending abilities yet.

"That was just a scorch mark. I think your ship will keep floating," she said dryly. "You should be more worried about your men." She glanced at the speck in the sky. They only needed a little more time to be completely out of sight. A stream of fire flew by her cheek, narrowly missing the skin. She turned her head back to look at him.

"Was that an invitation to fight you?" she asked, walking towards him. As she did so, she casually knocked out a few men who looked as if they were about to get up again. Perhaps it was overkill, but it made her look a bit more intimidating.

"Fight you? I wouldn't lower myself by fighting a girl," he scoffed, folding his arms in a superior way. "That was an invitation for you to quietly submit to me and let yourself be taken into the prison. Why did you even come back? Any sane person would stay away."

"Okay, ignoring the male chauvinism, do you want the truth or the nice story?" Sakuyo asked. The gender part didn't annoy her. She had received many, many insults of the kind over her lifetime, and to respond to them would only lower herself to his own level.

"What do you think?" he asked, trying to buy time for his crew to recover.

"I came back to kick your butt again," Sakuyo smiled ingratiatingly, but he let out an enraged roar and shot a fireball at her. She was expecting that, though, and quickly countered it with an identical fireball.

"What, are you embarrassed?" she teased. "Don't worry, better Firebenders than you have fallen before me." This time, she narrowly avoided a fierce burst of fire by flattening herself against the floor. He seemed to be fueled by an ever-increasing rage, but Sakuyo wasn't worried. He would fall, too, just like the others.

"You have plenty of passion in there," she observed with a critical eye. "but very not as much technique. For example, you should punch with the strength coming from your core, not your shoulder. The blast would be much more effective."

"I don't need you to teach me anything!" he yelled, loosing blast after blast at her with reckless fury, all of which she either blocked or dodged.

"By now, you're doing more damage to your ship than I did." A fireball flew by her shoulder, singing the fabric, but this time, it came from behind. Men were getting to their feet, much to her dismay. She had spent all of her attention on the one man when she should have focused on the whole group. They formed a ring around her, with arms held at the ready.

Oh, crap, she thought, eyeing them nervously. If they all fired at once, then she would have to switch to Water or Airbending. Not a good idea when she was trying to conceal her identity. And of course, that was exactly what their leader had in mind.

"Now!" he yelled, and every man loosed a stream of fire at her. So she jumped, but it wasn't one of those normal two feet high jumps. It was one of those twenty feet or more jumps aided by Airbending. She intended to make good use of revealing herself, though. There was a whole ocean beneath her, and luckily for her, every Firebender's worst nightmare was being drowned.

In one fluid motion, she drew a large mass of water up towards her and slammed it into the ring of Firebenders below. Sakuyo kept drawing the water up and down until she felt that they had all been knocked unconscious from the impact. Then and only then did she drop lightly down, landing lithely on her feet and the fingertips of one hand. None of them had drowned, she knew instinctively. She always made sure she did not kill when it wasn't necessary. She glanced over at their leader and let a smile come to her lips.

"I'm too good to let some novice defeat me," she said simply. It wasn't bragging. It was only the truth. Now she directed her gaze towards the sky. The flying bison had been heading north, she was sure, so she would follow him that way. Then she made a mistake: she turned her back on the enemy.

He had been watching her through narrowed eyes as he lay on the deck, pretending to be unconscious. Now he made his move and snatched at the back of her dress, meaning to knock her out by way of the pressure points on her neck, but once again, she proved to be a cunning opponent. When he lunged towards her, she collected water from the puddles on the deck of the ship and lashed back at him, cursing herself for being slow. He instinctively threw fire at it to avoid making contact with it. Mist enveloped the deck.

Sakuyo didn't dare move or make any sound to alert him to her position on the deck, hoping that he would blunder around in confusion. Yet another mistake. His fist came looming out of the mist at her and it was too late for her to block it. The blow distracted her enough that he could slip his hands into the right position on her neck. Darkness came swirling down upon her eyes.

I really am getting slow…

Her captor looked down upon her with thoughtful eyes. He had lost one Avatar, only to be confronted with another. This one was strange, though. She had a misplaced notion of Fire Nation honor, for one thing, and she used Firebending moves that he had never seen before. There would be time for interrogation later, though.

"Prince Zuko?" his uncle asked from behind him. "What happened here?" Zuko turned to him with an impassive face.

"Lock her up," he said, indicating the unconscious girl. "And head for the naval base you talked about earlier. We need to make repairs." His uncle didn't ask questions, but immediately saw to it.

"Very well, then."

­

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­I am so sorry for the long wait. I know, I know, I should update more, but I have a dozen different writing projects going on at once, not the least of which is a novel. I hope that you'll forgive me and that you enjoyed this chapter. It also just occurred to me that I haven't been including disclaimers in my chapters too, so here it is.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender, even though I wish I did, but we all know how it feels to want.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter.

Quick question: Who can guess which episode Sakuyo woke up in the first chapter? I'll give a digital cookie to anyone who can get it right.