Images dances in Smellerbee's head as the boat was dragged to shore, that of being strapped to another interrogation chair, her wound ripped open again as ice frosted over her at the bottom of the cooler. She couldn't do that again, refused to, but as her, Longshot and Chit Sang were swamped by a fleet of armed guards, she was destined to believe that that would be her reality. That this place, this prison that went against everything she stood for: freedom, would be the end of her.

She could only hope that Jet would figure this out, that Pipsqueak was on the horizon. That this place would not be the last thing she ever saw.

Jet knew there was no time to waste. He refused to let Smellerbee and Longshot go back in a cell. He strut through the prison, breaking away from Sokka to find their respective new rescues. Zuko slipped off into hiding again, back to his cell with the rest of the prisoners.

The alarms eventually stopped ringing, and the red lights above them stopped flashing. He could only hope that Smellerbee and Longshot went quietly as he searched for the giant.

It wasn't long before guards were dragging Zuko from his cell, surely, he thought, for his role in the escape attempt. Thankfully, Sokka had spit out what he was trying to say before being taken away, and hopefully, Jet had been relayed the same message. Meet in the yard in one hour.

With too much force, the guards threw him into a room, landing awkwardly in an empty interrogation chair. Though, they didn't strap him to it, to his surprise, just shut the door behind them.

"Wait, stop!" he tried to protest, "I didn't do anything wrong!"

"Zuko," a familiar and haunting voice said from the shadows, "We all know that's a lie."

With a bit of slinking around, the giant was found (thankfully, the big guy wasn't hard to find), but Jet wasted no time thinking or contemplating what to say this time. He simply ripped the keys from his pocket and swung open the door.

"Pipsqueak," he said, shutting the door behind him.

"Who's-" Pipsqueak started, but Jet cut him off quickly by removing his helmet and going on a quick tangent.

"Listen Pip, I know this is probably a real big shock right now, and I promise, I'll explain later, but right now, we need to move," Jet said all in one breath.

"Jet?" Pipsqueak said, his voice low and lumbering, "When did you become a prison guard?"

As much as Jet appreciated Pipsqueak's more… simple outlook on life, now was really not the time.

"I'm not really a prison guard," Jet explained, "I'm breaking you out."

Pipsqueak blinked his eyes at him for a moment, then a big smile wrapped his lips. He stood and lumbered over to Jet, towering over him by at least a foot and a half, his too small shirt hiked halfway up his stomach. Without prompt, he picked Jet up in his massive arms, squeezing the breath out of him with seemingly no effort at all.

"Pip," Jet breathed, his arms dangling helplessly beside him, "Can't breathe, bud."

"Sorry," Pipsqueak chuckled, releasing Jet from the suffocating bear hug and lowering his gasping body to the floor.

"I missed you too," Jet said, inhaling air back into his pressed-out lungs, "But right now, we gotta' go."

"Okay," Pipsqueak said, thankfully with no further argument or questions, "What do we need to do?"

"We're finding the others."

Spirits, was Pipsqueak a big mother fucker to be trying to sneak out of a prison, but thankfully, Jet spotted Sokka down the hall and waved him down.

"Spirits, Jet, what are you doing?" Sokka scolded as the three huddled around a corner.

"I thought it was obvious," Jet said, throwing a hand out to Pipsqueak, who smiled in response.

"We're escaping today, on the gondola," Sokka explained.

"Well, duh, that's why I'm getting everyone out their cells," Jet said, "I'm not waiting around anymore!"

"You can't just go around doing things!"

"Well, it worked out, didn't it?" Jet snapped.

"Urgh! You're impossible! Just meet us in the yard in an hour!"

"Uh, guys?" Pipsqueak interjected, "There's people coming."

"Fuck," Jet hissed, pushing the giant towards the nearest cell. "Pip hurry get in!"

Sokka tried to worm in behind them, but was quickly cut off by a guard calling after him. "Hey, you, the warden wants to see you!"

"Shit," Sokka hissed under his breath. He turned around and played it cool, though. "Why?"

"He wants so see you now," the guard reiterated.

"One hour," Sokka hissed into the crack in the cell door, and Jet nodded silently behind it.

"Mai," Zuko said, standing up from his chair, his hands out, pleading for understanding, "I never wanted to hurt you. But I have to do this, to save my country."

"Save it?" Mai scoffed, throwing her hands out, "You're betraying your country!"

As much as it hurt, Zuko wouldn't back down. Couldn't back down, not now. "That's not how I see it."

Longshot and Smellerbee were both strapped to chairs in the same interrogation room, which was one of those rare strokes of luck that Jet liked to come across. Time was dwindling, though, the hour in which they were all supposed to meet coming too quickly. Luck was dwindling too; it was only a matter of time before someone spotted three random inmates being transported by a single guard. Thankfully, Pip could carry Smellerbee without much effort or loss of strength at all, so they had that going for them.

Jet went to Zuko's cell too, and much to his dismay, he wasn't there.

"Fuck," he hissed under his breath for about the umpteenth time in the last fifteen minutes. They spent the next fifteen minutes bobbing and weaving around patrols of guards when the prison was supposed to be on full lockdown. One guard to spot them was all it took…

Clanking down the metal walkway, out of the corner of his eye, just barely, he caught a glimpse of Zuko in an interrogation room.

Zuko's head hung low, not being able to take much more of this from Mai. He wanted nothing more for her to just understand, but how could she? None of this was her fault, none of it at all. The hurt in her eyes was unbearable, and he knew, that some of this reaming, he quite deserved. He could have done something different, should have, but in the end, he did what he did to protect her. Just hopefully, she could find it in her to forgive him, eventually.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement from outside the cell, an urgent waving of hands. He looked up to meet it, and fucking spirits, if it wasn't Jet waving him down from outside. Mai's eyes were still bored into him, so he had that going for him.

Well, until the red lights started flashing from outside and the prison alarm started going off, then of course, she turned around, and Jet went still like a deer in headlights.

"Oh, this guy again…" Mai murmured, and Zuko's eyebrow perked.

"You… you know him?" he asked.

"Some creep that was trying to get in me and Ty Lee's pants," Mai explained, and Zuko thought he could just die right there.

Jet looked off down the hall, and a sudden rush of movement and clanking sounded from outside. Zuko waited for a split second, then the face of a guard was being slammed into the metal door. He slid down slowly and hit the ground, then Jet, with one swift movement, threw open the door, stepping over the unconscious guard to call urgently inside.

"Time to go," he said between his teeth, and Zuko took the opportunity of the moment of shock Mai was having to rush out the door, slamming it closed behind him before she could react.

With one last look through the metal slot, Mai eyed him with eyes full of fury and betrayal, ones that he'd hoped to never have to see, but he was helpless to it - and turned away.

The rush of inmates running around was cover enough; Sokka must have had found a way to let them all out. But that wasn't the worry right now, the worry was getting to the prison yard through the swarm of flustered prison guards and hyped-up inmates.

The group turned down a hall to hit a dead end blocked off by guards. "Stop right there!" one of the guards said, then brandished a sword in front of him.

"I got this," the big guy said, then turned to hand off the girl to the archer (Zuko should really try harder to remember these guys' names).

Pipsqueak cracked his knuckles in front of him and approached the group of four armed guards as casually as he'd approach a kitten. Their eyes went wide as he did. "Stop right there, I said!"

Pipsqueak only chuckled the threat off, and the guard swung at him, but the giant's hand caught the guard's arm before it could make contact. With one fell swoop, he swung the captured guard into the other guards so hard they piled into one another, and turned around for the group to admire his handy work.

"Good job Pip," Jet praised, and Zuko couldn't help but to wonder where this fucking guy had been the whole time. Pipsqueak gingerly took Smellerbee back into his arms as gently as he would hold a newborn, and the crew were on their way, stepping over the piled-up guards in their wake.

Around the corner, and the space had become curiously more closed off, probably a corridor for guard use only, but from the look of it, a much quicker route to get to the prison yard. With one down side: no where to run but straight, and no where to hide unless they wanted to cram into a storage closet. They were here now, though, and time was of the essence.

Half running down the hall, and a voice stopped Zuko dead in his tracks, Jet having to turn around to see why he had stopped.

"Well, well, well," it purred, "If it isn't my treasonous older brother."

"Azula," Zuko breathed without having to turn around, and his eyes furrowed. "Jet, go, get out with the others now," he ordered with more urgency and authority than Jet had ever heard.

"Brother?" Jet asked, unfazed, then looked to the woman who had her arms casually folded on her chest, smiling a wicked grin as she sauntered towards them. The girl in pink from before was hot on her trail, looking much more serious paired with the daunting woman in black and gold armor.

"Jet, I'm serious, they're out of your league," Zuko said, stepping in front of the others and going into a firebending stance.

"Longshot, take the others and find Sokka in the yard," Jet ordered, and Longshot nodded. The group of three freedom fighters reluctantly turned and continued down the hall.

"Be careful!" Smellerbee said over Pipsqueak's shoulder, urgency and pleading in her tone as they crossed the threshold to outdoors.

"Jet, please, go," Zuko said, and Jet shook his head as he brandished his hooks in front of him.

"No way," he said, and Zuko grit his teeth.

"I should have known," Azula said, straightening the folded fabric on her wrist. "That you'd be in cahoots with such a pathetic little group of street rats."

Jet's hands tightened around his swords, and Zuko took a quick glance to him. "Don't let her bait you," he murmured, and Jet nodded almost immeasurably.

Azula took another step, slow and casual and uncaring in her pace. "Let me guess," she said, curling her fingers over her palm to observe her sharpened nails. "Your little group has some sort of revenge fantasy and a sob story under your belt. Which one is it: lost your family in the army? Or is it that they were slaughtered in a raid?"

"You shut your mouth," Jet hissed and took a step, his teeth grinding together, and Zuko had to place his arm out to keep him from moving forward.

Azula smiled, unfazed by the vague threat. "What's this, brother? Made yourself a little friend? How sweet. How well do you know him, though?"

Better than you, he wanted to say, but didn't. Azula was trying to rile him up. If he showed he cared for Jet, well, more than he was suddenly realizing he already had, then she wouldn't hesitate to end him. Which, he also hadn't realized until now, seemed an unbearable reality.

"Twenty-two sound familiar?" Azula asked, turning her attention to Jet, who's eyes lowered in confusion. Azula met the look, mouth curling into a wild smile, too many teeth in it for it to feel sane. "That's how many fire nation soldiers were assassinated by your little group of 'fighters'. Wonder how many came before? The one's we don't know about-" And with that, her eyes snapped back to Zuko. "What an honorable group you've joined, dontcha' think, Zuzu?"

Azula always lies. Azula always lies.

"You don't know what you're talking about," Jet snapped, his voice lowering, defensive, but with a wavering that made it seem she did, in fact, know something.

"What – what did you do?" Zuko asked, thinking nothing could be worse than what he did.

"You don't wanna' know," Jet answered, a little quietly. "If you did, well, you wouldn't want me standing in your room. But that isn't me anymore, and you aren't you anymore. So, just give it time."

If there was one damning quality about Azula, it was that her lies always had some hint of truth. "Do you know how he got that scar?" she asked, addressing Jet, but eyes still glued to Zuko's.

"Stop it, Azula," Zuko said, and Jet couldn't help but to look and see Zuko's eyebrows furrowing together. What was he hiding?

"He got it because he's weak and pathetic," Azula continued, pushing her advantage, "And now he's weak and ugly, just like your little friend I threw in the cooler to freeze."

"You," Jet growled, his fingers wrapped so tight around his swords they were turning white.

"Of course, it was me," she said, uncaring and smirking. "I'm also the one who ordered the mute's fingers to be broken. He wasn't so quiet then."

Something inside of Jet snapped, his lips stacking in a rabid snarl, and he was on his heels before Zuko could react to it. Azula smirked, readying herself in a stance as Jet charged towards her, swords uncrossing with a wicked metallic sound out in front of him.

He'll never make it if she bends. The whole hall will be engulfed.

So, Zuko did the only thing he could do as blue fire flicked from Azula's fingertips. He swirled fire with his feet, sending a low, weak wave down the hall and towards Jet. It landed home, and Jet's feet flew from under him, and he landed heavy on his back a second before Azula's blast flew right over him. Jet had just a moment to realize the scorch marks on the ceiling that ran down the walls, just stopping barely above where he laid on the floor. The blue flames roared towards Zuko behind him, and with a stern wave of his hands, the fire dissipated.

"Jet, get up and run!"

But he didn't have the chance. Ty Lee flipped over Azula and into the fray, landing with her feet on other side of Jet, preparing her fingers to jab into his pressure points. Unfortunately for her, Jet rivaled her in speed and nimbleness, quickly rolling his body to the side and using the weight of his body to knock her leg, off balancing her for just long enough to scramble to his feet behind her.

She turned and jabbed the air, he dodged easily, swishing to the side long enough to connect his swords together. A difficult move to pull off in the narrow hall, but he needed reach on her. If she hit him with those jabs, it was over. He took a chance, calculated for a split second, and sent the hook at her ankle. It missed as she hopped backwards, landing behind Azula once more. Azula smirked, and readied again.

He snarled at her, but not for long. Heat and light, orange and blinding, filled the hallway next to him as Zuko approached from the rear, his arm out and hand balled into a fist, spewing fire like nothing Jet had ever seen, twisting and curling as it roared towards Azula. His eyes went wide as he backed behind Zuko, for good measure, because Azula had sent her own fire their way.

The two energies met in the middle, creating an explosion fierce enough to send both groups rocketing backwards down the hall. Zuko crashed into Jet's chest as they flew through the open door to the platform, and they skirted across the metal, Jet's hand barely catching Zuko's as they were forced off the side.

Pain, white and blinding, tore through Jet's shoulder as his hook caught something on the platform above, and they dangle there, the blue sky above and cold metal below.

Zuko could barely hear the shocked gasps below over Jet's screams of pain, but one voice broke through, just barely.

"Let go!"

He looked down, and the crew had gathered, Pipsqueak waiting with arms out and ready to catch them.

"Jet, we gotta' let go!" Zuko called upwards, and Jet nodded, letting Zuko slip from his fingers. Zuko looked up as he fell, watching in slow motion as Jet tried to untangle his hook from the platform, and Azula came, covered in soot and snarling, to look over the railing.

Blue fire, no, blue lightning, crackled from her fingertips, aimed straight down at Jet just as his hook tore free and he began to fall, and Zuko's eyes went wide with terror.

Before the deadly energy could leave her fingers, a flash of red and black stopped her in her tracks, sending deadly precise knives her way and pinning her shirt to the rail.

Mai.

And then he was being caught, Jet soon following, both making loud oofs as they made contact with the giant's arms.

"Come on! We got the warden! We gotta' get to the gondola!" Sokka voiced called as the sound of Jet's hook clattered to the metal, which was picked up by someone Zuko couldn't see.

They were safe. For now. But Jet's arm was in bad shape, evident in his wailing, but there was no time. Zuko hooked his arm through his other, and the team ran, limping but alive, to the gondola.

The gondola moved way too slowly over the lake, but thankfully for them, Azula was quite busy at the moment. Zuko could see Ty Lee and Mai now giving her a go, but that wasn't his concern at the moment.

Jet's wailing had subsided to groans of pain and a lot of sweating and swearing by the time anyone was able to get a good look. And that person, was of course, Zuko.

He peeled the fabric back, which made Jet's lips peel back in a snarl. "Fuck, man."

"It's dislocated. We gotta' set it back," Zuko said as calmly as he could.

"Do you even know how to do that, fire bender?" Smellerbee snapped, and Jet winced, raising his other hand to calm her.

"Let Longshot," he murmured and Zuko nodded, letting Longshot slip in and observe the injury, never having felt more helpless in his life.

Longshot kept calm though, as always, and set it firmly back into place. Jet let out a high-pitched yelp that stung Zuko's ears, followed by a lot of groans, and much to Zuko's dismay, a few tears. He quickly was back at Jet's side the second he was able, not really caring at that point what everyone else had to think.

Jet's eyes were pressed shut, his breathing heavy, but after a second, he opened them and met Zuko's. He gave a tired, halfhearted smile that Zuko assumed was supposed to be reassuring.

"You know," Jet said, then winced. "That's the second time you've almost fallen to your death since I've known you. You should probably work on that."

Zuko swore to the spirits once that fucking arm was healed –

"Look, it's an airship!" Sokka called, leaning slightly over the railing to peer over the mountain.

"Must be Azula's," Zuko murmured, hesitating to take his eyes off of Jet for just a moment before standing to confirm. Yep, that was a royal airship alright.

Their ticket out.

Zuko waited patiently from outside him and Jet's room, watching as Katara's blue light lit up and died down, lit up and died down again. Smellerbee had gone first, her arrow wound being the more dire of the two injuries. So Zuko had been waiting for a least a couple hours in silence, leaned up against the stone, listening to Jet groan and Katara chastise him.

"How dare you leave your baby with me for three days?"

"I'm sorry, okay! I didn't know it would take that long!"

"And then, you come back all banged up like I wanna' heal you after three days of babysitting your baby!"

Zuko smiled as he listened. At least he hadn't had to do the yelling at Jet himself, and he was slightly thankful Katara's wraith was focused on someone else for once. Tikka stirred in the little bundle of furs next to him, long been asleep as the night progressed. Everyone else seemed a little busy for her, and she wasn't much bother anyway. So, Zuko waited with her, trying himself not to fall asleep.

"I'm. Sorry!"

"Well, all I know is – is, is you better find someone else to do it while your stupid arm finishes healing!"

Before Zuko could dwell on that statement too much, Katara ripped back the rolled door, sending daggers with her eyes at Zuko before turning on her heels down the hall.

"Is he okay?" he asked softly, despite her clearly not wanting to talk to him.

She blew a puff of air out her nose, paused, and looked over her shoulder. "He'll be fine," she said softly, not nearly as angrily as he'd expected, more empathetic than anything. She seemed to consider this for a moment, then put her mask back on, snapping "Go see for yourself," a second later.

All things considered, it was a pretty good interaction, and Zuko smiled as she continued down the hall. He looked down to Tikka, who Jet surely was missing at this point, and paused, suddenly realizing he'd… never really picked her up before. The only reason she was this close now was because Katara had deposited her there before going in to scold… heal Jet.

Well, he supposed it had to happen sooner or later. He scooped her gingerly, doing everything in his power not to wake her. She stirred a little, and she was heavier than he'd expected, but not bad. She really was a beautiful kid, like a porcelain doll, and he carried her into the room with the delicacy of one.

Jet took pause from flicking his wheat back and forth between his teeth to smile at them from the bed. He was shirtless and staring at the ceiling before, and raised hand in a beckoning gesture. Zuko complied, and sat Tikka into the little cradle Jet had created with his good arm.

"There's my girl," Jet murmured, smiling giddy to himself as he took a look at the sleeping child. He looked up to Zuko, who'd crossed his arms, standing awkward beside the bed.

"Smellerbee and Longshot took your room," Jet informed, and Zuko raised a brow, wondering well, where the hell am I going to sleep? But not wanting to say it out loud. It's not like he could kick the kid out of the bed, after all.

Jet smirked at him, seeming to read his mind. "Right here, stupid," he said, shifting with a wince to scoot closer to the wall.

"Jet, you don't have to-" Zuko started, then Jet shot him a look, which shut him up pretty quickly. Jet pat the edge with a smile, and Zuko sighed.

Zuko shimmied himself into the small space, his chest pressing against Jet's side as he slid under the blanket. Jet smiled as he scooted down, gesturing with his eyes that Zuko lay his arm so that he could put his head on it. Zuko blushed, but complied, and so they lay like that.

There could be a tornado outside, and Zuko didn't think it could wipe the smile from Jet's face, which brought up something warm inside him that he hadn't quite expected. He sat there looking at it for a moment, relishing in how beautiful it was, before feeling the heat rising to his face, and he averted his eyes to stare at a thread on the blanket.

"I got my family back," Jet said warmly, softly, and it was probably the most affectionate tone Zuko had ever heard him use. He looked up from the thread, expecting Jet to be looking at Tikka, but instead met his eyes, and something shifted inside him. Jet chuckled at whatever look had washed over his face.

"You're laughing at me," Zuko murmured, suddenly self-conscious.

"No," Jet argued, then smiled. If he had a hand that was free, he'd probably run it down Zuko's cheek. "I just find it funny that anyone could ever think that you're pathetic. Or ugly."

Zuko stomach twisted, and he pressed his eyes shut. "Jet, I don't-""It's not true, you know," Jet interrupted, and there wasn't any indication that he wasn't being genuine, but still…

"I don't want to talk about this right now," Zuko murmured, lifting his eyes to meet Jet's that were looking at him sympathetically.

"Okay," Jet agreed, then tried one of his reassuring smiles. "When you're ready."

"Same for you," Zuko said before he had much time to think, and Jet's smile faded for a moment, then returned bright as ever.

"Deal."

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