Chapter stands-in for Sozin's Comet part 3


Inside the Airship it felt like everything that could go wrong was going wrong, Azula and Zuko had narrowly avoided getting scolded to death by a burst steam pipe. saved by Katara's quick action in freezing the super-heated steam to snow, and the engines would remain dead until the problem was fixed, which Azula had gotten right on, collecting all her nerve as she began to use her flame to weld the broken components, even so it was slow and demanding work, at least she had Toph and Katara by her side in case anything else decided to give.

Meanwhile Zuko had gone and examined the damage to the rest of the ship to report it to Sokka, two flotation cells were completely torn while a third was leaking. He would need help getting the spare cells into place, and he knew no better man suited for the job as he ran towards the bridge.

The Airship started touching the water but thankfully skipped off the surface and back into the air but as it lost forward momentum it became increasingly unlikely that it could make a follow-up skip.

Katara had felt the impact and made a split second decision to drop everything she was doing. "I'm sorry!" she told Azula who was frantically trying to weld one of the broken steam lines together, as she ran out of the boiler room and out onto the exterior catwalks. The ship was about to hit the sea again when she began freezing the sea in front of them, allowing the ship the ship to slide along the ice without sinking.

But Katara noticed that she had to continue the process indefinitely as the low friction of the ice hardly slowed down the ship's momentum at all.

Inside the ship Zuko and Aang were busy trying to inflate one of the spare cells to replace one of the punctured ones, a process that Zuko had heard the airmen tell horror stories of and they had two to contend with. Even with Aang's help, the large wax-coated silk bags were unwieldy and difficult to rig into place. Even when that portion was done they would have to try and fix the leaking cell.

Toph had found herself in the unenviable position of trying to keep the airship from buckling as it skidded and bounced on the ice while also trying to help Azula fix the broken machinery, without Katara's help, one wrong move could mean they would both get scolded by the high pressure steam which had began circulating in the pipes.

Sokka was on the bridge feeling useless, yes, he was flying the ship as much as he could trying to keep it from destroying itself. His heart was beating like a drum in his ears as he saw the giant battlecruiser bear down on them, closing awfully fast, he made a quick estimation of around thirty five knots an estimation made harder by the fact that there was no visible smoke coming from her funnels, so hot her boilers burned, still, the estimation wasn't far off the mark.

He thanked his lucky stars that the ship's main armament was still trained on the opposing fleet, but it hardly mattered, its ram bow had been lowered, which exposed its intentions.

He looked down through the window to see his sister hard at work trying freezing the sea in front of them that kept the ship from crashing into the ocean and just bobbing on the surface as it slid down the ice.

The battlecruiser was now but half a mile away, about two ship's lengths, it would plough through them like the mighty airship was nothing but hot air, which of course, it mostly was.

"We've got power!" rang Azula's voice from one of the voice tubes. Sokka looked at his gauge cluster, it wasn't much, but enough to manoeuvre with, he did a split second decision as he turned the ship away from the battlecruiser and reached for the bomb release lever.

The airship banked sharply to starboard, the giant battlecruiser was less than a ship's length away now when Sokka pulled the bomb lever and prayed.

It felt like an eternity as the cold sweat poured down in his brow, he waited for the awful sound of metal buckling and screams coming down the voice tubes and he pictured the jaws of the ship's figurehead, now recognisable as a large dragon, coming through the bulkhead behind him and swallowing him.

Then there was the explosion, more of a low thud that shook through the ship's frame.

Sokka didn't know if it had been a success and for a moment, to his terror, off to port, he saw the bow of the battlecruiser overtaking them, but it did not crash into them, the opposite happened, it started to pull away.

What Sokka could deduce as the giant passed them by, was that he bomb had exploded just aft of the ship's citadel, probably jamming the rudders and destroying the screws, rendering it wholly unmanoeuvrable.

As he looked on as the ship continued passing them, gradually slowing down, he could see that the still spinning starboard propeller shaft was gouging a massive hole in the ship's hull, the mighty beast was doomed. Even if it didn't sink from its wounds, Chan's forces could soon be here to finish it off.

His own ship was almost positively buoyant when there was a bright flash, and where Katara had been standing but a second ago, was but a broken platform. Sokka let out a blood-curdling scream as he thought he had lost his sister, when suddenly a giant wave rose from the sea between the Airship and the stricken Battlecruiser.

There was another flash but it was refracted through the water and didn't do any damage.

Sokka turned the ship to port and up as he increased power to maximum. He was going to finish off the ship if it was the last thing he did on this Earth. As the ship lifted and got over the Battlecruiser, he reached for the bomb lever and pulled it.

A perfect drop.

But just as he heard the explosion, all forward momentum of the ship was lost as he crashed into the tiller.

"What happened?!" cried Azula's voice from the voice tube.

Sokka looked at the gauges and then out, everything should have been fine but the ship wasn't moving forward, "We must be caught on the ship!" Sokka answered as he pulled back on the throttle.

"What ship?!" asked Azula in panic, Sokka having forgotten how isolated she had been in the boiler room. "Everyone into the bomb bay!" he commanded.


Azka was coming to, having been thrown thirty feet down the deck of the battlecruiser by the explosion, he now saw the airship had been caught in the guy-wires of the main mast.

He was about to shoot another beam at it to bring it down for good when a wave crashed over the deck and flushed him further down the deck, smashing into one of the ballista barbettes, as if the water wasn't icy cold to begin with it suddenly froze all around him, pinning him to the barbette.

He looked up to see a girl riding another wave towards the ship's main deck, eyeing him intensely. Be began to charge up lightning when he decided it might be better to pull the rug from under her, quite literally. Using his pseudo-water bending, he yanked at the wave and Katara could feel the water beneath her acting strangely as if being shepherded by an invisible force that as it gained power, made it harder for her to maintain balance, until finally, Azka feeling confident at his mark being sufficiently distracted, managed to break his bonds and discharge a bolt of lightning at her.

Katara losing all balance redirected the wave from under her into the path of the lightning but in the process crashed on to the deck.

Azka watched as she tumbled across the deck and behind the aft most ballista barbette, narrowly breaking his line of sight to her.

As Azka started walking up the deck, she jumped out taking a blood bending stance which momentarily caused him to flinch in horror as if knowing what was to come, which surprised Katara despite her not getting a grip on him yet.

But as she started getting a grip, the young man just started smirking and breaking into laughter, "You must be, Katara?" He started walking forward again, "Blood bending requires a full moon to be effective." he raised his hand towards the sky, "And there will be a new moon out tonight!"

Katara, eyes widened, "How does he know about blood bending?" she thought to herself before she raised a wave from the sea and jumped back behind the barbette.

Azka used his raised hand to shoot lightning at her, missing her, but in turn creating a small explosion of molten metal from the wall of the superstructure, just before he found himself once again pinned to the barbette, frozen to it, and extremely annoyed.

Approximately two hundred feet above them Sokka, Aang and Zuko had climbed out of the bomb bay onto the superstructure of the battlecruiser to try and free the ship which had tangled itself to the main mast, when they had seen Katara almost get electrocuted.

Sokka had instinctively thrown his boomerang towards his foe, and without even thinking about it, jumped down, sliding down the superstructure using one of the freed guy-wires to break his fall. Aang and Zuko had also leapt into action, Zuko under the comet's power, found it almost effortless to break his fall with fire bending.

Azka had once again freed himself from his icy bonds when an air blast threw him back against the wall. He grunted in pain as he almost felt his lungs burst at the sudden overpressure.

Zuko had dove towards Katara to check her condition, while Sokka had run down the deck towards Azka his sword in hand.

Barely had Azka gathered himself, when he found himself pushed back into the barbette again as a boy in his early teens landed in front of him, a staff at his trachea, "If you hurt Katara I will end you!" the boy screamed in his face. He looked to his right and saw a coal black sword wielded by another teenager his eyes as fierce and menacing as his comrade's. "What he said!"

Some of the crew ran out of the superstructure only to be thrown overboard by a wave, Sokka breathed a sigh of relief once again to know that his sister was okay. He looked behind him to see that there was actually quite a few crew at the stern of the ship lowering lifeboats into the water and trying to get off, too busy fighting the life boat winches and pulleys than what was happening up front on the ship. Another group came running out and after a quick look around threw their hands in the air before they started running towards the stern.

Azka sighed in frustration as he watched the sailors run towards the lifeboats, it was every man for himself. He turned to face Aang, "So... You really are the last of Air Bender?"

Aang looked at Azka with an expression of anger and confusion, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Azka chuckled, "Nothing... Call it a failure of intelligence..."

Suddenly a flash of lightning engulfed Sokka's sword, and in a reaction of fright he swung it against Azka's right hand, where it discharged, flowing through his hand into the barbette behind him.

Azka screamed in pain and looked up at the bridge, Sokka and Aang following his gaze. On the bridge, with a look of shocked disbelief, Fire Lord Ozai stood and looked down on the them, but without a moment's more hesitation had flung another arc at Aang and Sokka. Aang pushed himself in front of Sokka and raised his hand into the air and catching the lightning.

Ozai watched again in stunned disbelief as the the lightning arced back on him and he leapt and thrust himself into the air as the bridge blew up beneath him.

Aang gave out a half-whisper, "It's him… It's the Fire Lord."

Ozai using pulses of fire bending carefully lowered himself down onto the deck of the ship, forward of the twin ballistas. Azka had rolled down the curved deck of the battlecruiser and crawled to his father. "Is it bad son?" Ozai asked with a slight hint of concern, knowing he might have handicapped his greatest asset.

Azka winced, "It could be worse." as his clenched his fist nursing it with his left hand.

Ozai frowned in frustration, "I was aiming for the Avatar!"

Azka just nodded while in pain, scarce comfort.

Up on the top of the superstructure Toph and Azula were trying to free the Airship, when Azula's eyes met her Father's. She stopped what she was doing and walked over to the ledge. "What are you doing, Sparkie?!" Toph yelled out.

Ozai scoffed and shook his head as a stand-off had ensued and Azka stood up behind his father. Sokka and Aang both took stances that optimised their chances to redirect lightning but they took a quick glance behind them following the Fire Lord's locked gaze.

Azula had jumped down from the roof of the superstructure onto the roof of the conning tower, a good fifteen feet drop in and of itself as she she walked forward, her eyes betraying a deep sorrow.

Ozai yelled out, "Between my enemies and traitors, the traitors will get it first!"

Azula got to the edge of the conning tower and jumped down to the bridge, disappearing from view for a second. She turned to look into the conning tower and saw no one, and on the starboard side of the bridge, out on the wing, she could see the body of a man in a high ranking officer's uniform with a metallic splinter the size of a knife sticking out of his neck, undoubtedly from one of the bomb blasts, most likely the second one.

She sighed as she walked forward, gazing over the railing, seeing her father's eyes still locked on her, and what she could only assume to be her half-brother standing almost shoulder to shoulder with him darting his eyes around sequentially between the threats.

Azula yelled out, "You're the one who betrayed me, father!" and then turned her eyes to look scornfully at her older half-sibling and roared "So this is the bastard you've replaced me with? I, who conquered Ba Sing Se in your name, I, who went out to face our foes on the day of black sun, I, who slayed the Avatar!"

Ozai and Azka both looked down at Aang and then back at Azula in confusion and anger, Azula realising how she had put her foot in her mouth was forced to add; "He got better!"

"Get to your point!" spat Ozai.

Zuko peaked out from behind the barbette to look at the unfolding stand off, Aang and Sokka stood together facing his father and half-brother, while his older half-sibling divided his attention between the threats, his father focused only on Azula, glaring at her murderously. He looked up to see Azula standing on the bridge, even at range he could see the sorrow in her eyes as she looked at their father.

"You labelled me a traitor, father, for the crime of being taken prisoner!" Azula yelled down.

Ozai roared back, "I judged you a traitor for your obvious involvement in a conspiracy with the Water Tribes!"

Azula scoffed, "On what grounds?"

Sokka moved closer to Aang and whispered in a worried tone, "If she tries to buy herself back into her father's good graces now we're going to be neck high in bison dung..." Aang nodded, and the two friends moved back to back, still mainly facing forward but not leaving their rear periphery unguarded.

Ozai raised his hand to eye level and pointed two fingers back at himself, "I saw it with my own two eyes!" and then pointing his fingers at Sokka making both him and Aang flinch expecting lightning to come out of them. " ...You, practically ravaging that savage!"

Azula began to cackle and shake her head, "I was drugged and concussed! Hardly an agent of my destiny!" she abruptly stopped and looked her father in the eyes with hatred. "You could have heard me out, the least a father could have done, instead you sent assassins to kill me!"

Ozai scoffed in return, "Even if I could believe you, you still lied to me about the fate of the Avatar, a treasonous statement regardless, and for what? To protect your failure of a brother?! I should have known you'd turn out just like your mother, another weak... Sentimental fool."

Azula looked down shaking her head and her eyes met Zuko's and the two smiled at each other, she raised her head again, "Yes! I lied to protect my only brother and I would do it again and again, because he is the only man in this family who's ever cared for me, and my only regret is that I didn't realise it sooner, I'd gladly give my life for him!"

"That can be arranged!" Ozai yelled out as he took his lightning bending stance which prompted Azula to charge her own lightning, but in the end it was Azka who was quickest on the draw, jumping in front of his father and shooting a huge arc towards Azula.

But Zuko, upon seeing this thrust himself into the air and managed to catch it before discharging it into the ship, but there was something different about Azka's lightning as he felt the current reverse through him, and then suddenly, it changed direction again and he felt his muscles stiffen and lock up. The enormity of the charge was too much and despite his best effort some of the arc managed to find his sister, he felt like he was caught by the lightning as the current altered direction several more times, making him its slave, each time more of it leaking through paths he didn't intend. What couldn't have been more than a second had felt for Zuko as an eternity as the world around him went dark.

Ozai watched first as his daughter slumped over on the bridge and then as his son fell lifeless onto the roof of the superstructure. "And thus the traitor's reward!" Azka yelled out before he himself fell to his knees, obviously whatever his lightning bending technique, took a toll on him too.

Ozai then stepped forward and turned to Azka and said nonchalantly, "Congratulations on becoming an only child."

The stand-off was now over as Aang and Sokka recovered from the shock of seeing Zuko and Azula fall, Aang sending an air blast at Ozai that nearly flung him off the ship, hadn't he thrust himself into the air, Azka catching some of the blast was sent hurtling down the deck like a rag doll.

Aang then bent a wave against Ozai who thrust himself further up into the air before Aang followed him into the sky.

As the Fire lord fought, he found himself losing more altitude, and he noticed as the sea around began to grab at him so he rocketed up once more to equalise his elemental disadvantage.

Aang met him mid air, floating gracefully by his robes, while Ozai had to pulse and regulate his fire bending to stay in position but as he got the hang of flying he began to cackle manically, "You couldn't have confronted me at a better time Avatar!"

Ozai curled up momentarily and in a flash disappeared from view as an explosion of flame engulfed him and shot out at near supersonic speed, Aang just about managing to create an air cushion to divert the blast but he still found himself tumbling through the air, the sheer radiance of the fire painfully hot.

"I have all the power in the world!" Ozai screamed into the wind as he rocketed towards Aang.

Back on the ship Toph had yelled down from the superstructure, "Sokka, Katara! Azula and Zuko are hurt really bad!"

Sokka looked at Azka gathering himself and nursing his injured hand near the ship's forecastle as Katara, obviously injured herself emerged from behind the barbette.

"Katara, go help Toph and get off this ship!" He picked up his boomerang and looked back at his sister once more, "I'll handle him!" He looked at his his sister nodded with an expression of pain on her face, from her injuries or grief was hard to tell, but he smiled at her, a smile that told her everything she needed to know as she disappeared into the superstructure.

Sokka glanced quickly to the ship's port where a storm of fire had erupted in sky before he looked at Azka, not knowing how injured he was, just that he was dangerous, but as long as he could distract this weapon of death long enough for his friends to get to safety, he could die happy… Or as happy as a fifteen year old could.

As he saw Azka charge an arc at him, he ducked behind the barbette of the foremost ballista, he would try to sneak around but before that, some much needed distraction, as he threw his boomerang out to the starboard side, calculating that it would arch around the bow and return to him on the port side.

Azka watched the boomerang in the sky and wondered if it would curve back to hit him, his right hand was almost useless and hurt like it was being crushed under a rock. He could still shoot lightning, but without his death ray, he felt strangely vulnerable.

He looked as the boomerang curved over the bow and as he turned to follow its terminal flight path, in the corner of his left eye he could see movement, a flash of steel. He turned around quickly and using his lightning bending, he stopped the blade inches from his face as Sokka felt as though he had struck an invisible cushion and Space sword was repulsed backwards unexpectedly and he found himself equally unexpectedly completely open to attack, leading with his face.

Azka swung with his right arm towards his attacker, the only thing good about the situation, how many bones he might break in his hand, he couldn't imagine it could hurt much more.

Sokka took most of the force to his chest which knocked the wind out of him and a glancing blow to his jaw as he was flung backwards onto his back, where he saw stars for a moment before he recovered slightly..

Azka discharged an arc towards Sokka who managed to redirect it with his sword but just barely and Azka had to step forward and kick the sword out of the way and then out of Sokka's hand.

Azka grabbed Sokka by the collar with his still functioning left hand and lifted him about a feet off the deck before slamming him right back down. Azka looked Sokka in the eye, as blue as his own, and Sokka began to feel small static shocks to the chest.

"Goodbye Sokka, Gran-Gran sends her disregards." Azka said mockingly, and Sokka without wasting any time, leading with the knuckles of his index fingers started punching Azka's arm and he felt the shocks suddenly stop and Azka's grip go limp.

Azka let out an astonished gasp, "What did you do?!" but even if he had expected an answer Sokka had curled his legs up to kick him off.

After recovering and two phases knocked out, Azka had to resort to his third eye.

Sokka rolled backwards to his space sword and watched in terror as the crippled lightning bender started shooting an arc out of his forehead, it started off slow as if he was trying to get the hang of the new technique, as the filament arced back and forth between the deck and his forehead, until Sokka couldn't make out the pulses anymore.

There was just one stable filament that left a puddle of molten metal where it touched the deck. Sokka doubted that even Space Sword could stand up to this and he retreated behind the barbette as Azka moved the arc closer to him.


Up in the air Aang and Ozai were in a fierce fight for supremacy. Ozai's fire bending propelled him through the air like a butcher-hawk but Aang had more control because of his air bending.

As they flew past clouds Ozai found himself the target of flying icicles, no larger than needles but enough to hurt and distract him if he wasn't careful.

The last of the airships was approaching the scene, its fire benders unable to distinguish targets didn't open up their fire.

Aang turned this into his advantage and flew towards the ship and landing on top of it, leaving the option for Ozai to fire on his own men or leave Aang unmolested. Ozai frowned as he rocketed himself straight towards the ship's bridge.

He crashed through the window and everyone on the bridge looked in stunned horror at broad wild haired figure who had crashed into the midst.

"Who the hell are you?!" inquired the Captain.

"The Fire Lord! You imbeciles! The Avatar is on board! GET HIM!" Ozai sneered.

The bridge crew snapped to attention, "Yes sir!"


Azka and Sokka were playing a cat and mouse game as they circled the barbette. Normally Azka would have felt confident, but he knew who he was dealing with, and though the odds were in his favour, one wrong move could cost him. Sokka in turn was shook up by what the man had said, it didn't shock him that he knew his name, but there were only so many elderly women he had personally offended in his travels to warrant such a send off, and he certainly didn't look like he was related to Aunt Wu, coupled with a few other things, including the icy blue eyes, kind of narrowed it down.

Azka stalked his prey and chuckled, "Well, well, Sokka! You're quite the hellion."

"Captain Sokka to you!" Sokka responded, instantly regretting giving away his position as he tried to stay out of the lightning bender's sight.

"Well Captain, you should come out and show your respects to a superior officer!" Azka retorted, and curved an arc slightly around the barbette, narrowly missing Sokka.

"I will endeavour to do so when I take your surrender!" Sokka yelled out tauntingly before he quickly side stepped around the barbette.

Azka laughed and yelled in response, "You're a brave man! I could have used the likes of you in my team."

"I'm sure you could have!" Sokka yelled out again trying to bate Azka to shoot at him as he gripped Space Sword tightly.

Azka moved around the barbette readying another charge.

"What say we end this, you have nowhere to hide, there is no shame in surrender, I'm sure you'd agree." Azka said in an attempt at a diplomatic solution before he took another step, "No point in throwing your life away, kiddo."

Sokka followed the sound of the voice and looked up at the super firing ballista, maybe he could climb into it and shoot it at his foe he thought to himself before he stopped himself, there was no way it would depress so low, nor could it train fast enough for anything but a snail-sloth to be caught by it. "I'd rather see this through to the end, whoever you are, Bastard Prince! You killed someone very dear to me at the Air Temple!" he yelled out spitefully.

Azka, thought back to the day, as he recalled having accidentally shot a young woman who got in-between him and the Avatar, he scoffed, "If it's of any comfort to you, it brought me no particular joy!" leaving out that it didn't particularly bother him either.

"Not really!" Sokka responded dryly.

"Didn't think so, but you're making a fundamental mistake in warfare." Azka jumped around the curve and shot lightning at Sokka's suspected position.

Azka sighed having hit nothing and shouted out, "War is war, Sokka! Your lover probably knew that, just as well as you or me! Don't make this personal, don't make me destroy you."

With that the super firing ballista began to depress and train.

Azka suspected a trap or one of the boldest and stupidest plans ever conceived as he grabbed onto a rope hanging out of the turret's port and he started climbing up on the turret ring and peaked inside behind the turret face. Behind the Ballista he could see a boot, he shot lightning at it but nothing happened, except that the ballista stopped depressing, the boot having leaned on a control pedal, a ruse, nothing less than he expected out of such a worthy opponent.

Azka removed a piece of polished brass from his uniform and used it to peak further inside the turret before he began to climb in.

Just as he was almost inside he felt something tug on his legs. "I wasn't in the turret!" he heard the boy's voice say, as he looked back to see his legs had been bound together with a loop. He kicked Sokka in the head and watched as the boy fell back towards the deck, as he shot up to try and undo the rope, but as he did he noticed that with the boy fell a piece of string that suddenly lost all slack and tightened up.

Azka, to his horror, understood his mistake as he heard a ping from behind him followed a deafening snap as and he watched the ballista bolt shoot off into the sky and before he could react further the rope had pulled tight and he had gone with it.

Sokka groaned as he watched the red and black blur exit the turret, for a moment he thought he saw a pink mist trailing the blur and as he tilted his head backwards he could see two black specks arch across the sky what seemed like an eternity before turning into two splashes in the ocean some considerable distance from the ship.

He slowly got up and looked up at the superstructure, the Warspite had gone and as he scanned the skies for the ship he saw nothing, which he hoped meant that his friends were safe, but he also realised that Zuko and Azula could still perish from their wounds, he sighed as he held back tears.

Out to the South West the horizon was alive with flashing lights for several nautical miles which could only be Chan's fleet engaging the enemy.

As the looked around it began to dawn on him that the ship was indeed sinking, albeit slowly, but he also knew that the rate would only be accelerating as the ship took on water.


Chan and Jee stood on the bridge of their flagship and watched the fleet circle like birds of carrion the two remaining battlecruisers that were now desperately trying to break out of the encirclement but weren't quite fast enough to respond to Chan's own slightly faster battlecruisers, albeit less well armed and armoured, but it hardly mattered, the battleships of the Eastern fleet were within range and were taking turns going in to peck at the wounded beasts.

The flagship had itself been hit a few times during these attack runs, but after a brief falling out of line and efficient damage control, it was now back in the fight.

A signals officer came up to the senior officers, "Our scout group reports that the Resolution is still dead in the water and..." the man paused to sigh, "...And that the Formidable is sinking."

Chan and Jee turned around stunned, then to one another before Chan ordered the signals officer, "Confirm that this report is accurate!"

The officer swallowed before starting, "Admiral, I checked, rechecked and sent a hawk, both ships are dead in the water and the Formidable is going down stern first."

Jee interjected, "Any reports of the Warspite?"

"Last report said she was going down, I will ask for details." responded the officer.

Chan nodded, "That will be all Lieutenant."

The signals officer saluted and turned around to head back to the communications tower.

Chan turned to Jee and cracked a smile, "Could it be that the boy did it?"

"It is an intriguing possibility, Admiral." Jee responded solemnly, "Let's hope they made it."

Chan nodded as his eyes turned back to the battle, the Valiant was on fire from bow to stern while the Conqueror's ballistas hadn't fired for nearly quarter of an hour, seemingly jammed in position, the third battle squadron made signals that they were readying for their attack when the Conqueror's ensigns started to be taken down. The crew upon the Valiant seeing what was happening swiftly struck their colours too.

The signals officer then came back to the bridge and approached Chan and Jee, "Hawk arrived from Second scouting group." he said and handed his Admiral a scroll.

Chan opened the scroll, read it and smiled, "It seems our friend Yon-Rha thought himself clever and tried to ambush the Northwestern wing."

Jee nodded, "Shall I order a course change Northwest?"

"No need, the Second scouting group managed to flank and destroy the squadron in a pincer between them and the rest of the Northwestern wing and now it seems like the Vice-Admiral of the Northern fleet is eager to discuss terms." Chan responded jovially.

Jee smiled and nodded, "This is shaping up to be great victory, Admiral."

Chan scoffed, "I wouldn't celebrate just yet, the Fire Lord could still manage to rally the rest of his forces." he turned his head to look Jee in the eyes, "But I have faith in the Avatar."


Aang was sneaking around the airship trying to evade detection and possible capture. He would try and do his part to cripple the airship somehow, if he managed to sneak down into the engineering spaces. The catwalks clanked and airmen were arguing and shouting at each other.

"Are you sure he is onboard?" asked one man, only to be hissed by another "Yes! I saw him come onboard!"

Aang could only speculate as to who they were talking about, him or the Fire Lord but he decided it didn't matter.

As he moved through the ship he grabbed onto a metal pipe and felt it sting and reflexively pulled his hand away, it was hot. Aang blew on his hand and then got an idea.

He blew on the pipe until it was cool enough to touch, there was steam running through the pipe. He wondered what would happen if he would freeze it.

Suddenly panicked voices started to break out bellow. In the cacophony Aang could make out "What's happening?!" and "Boiler pressure is rising!" Whatever he was doing, had some kind of effect.

"Sir, the condenser is running dry!" another voice cried and through the echo of a voice tube, "Engines are losing power!"

Aang could now feel that there was no more flow in the pipe and it was completely cold to the touch, he began to move on.

He followed the pipe to the heat-exchanger, where the noble gas that gave the airship most its buoyancy was pumped through and heated to generate extra lift. Aang cracked a few of the gas lines and moved forward. As he tip toed forward trying to be as silent as he could, he suddenly heard a squeaky voice from behind him, "There you are!"

Turning around to see what kind of creature would make such a noise, he saw the Fire Lord who shot a bolt lightning at him, which he just about managed to dodge.

"Stand and fight!" the Fire Lord screamed with a squeak and Aang couldn't help but laugh, which angered the Fire Lord even further.

Aang leapt down the catwalk and found himself in a small corridor with doors on each side labelled Boiler room port and starboard respectively.

He kicked open one door and before anyone could react he had earth bent all the ready coal into the boilers. A terrible flash of fire engulfed the room, as the coal dust ignited.

While the engineers where reeling from the shock, Aang did further mischief as he walked up the pipes marked "Feed water" and began to freeze them.

It wasn't long until many gauges where red lined and Aang made his escape down the corridor to a ladder that he guessed would take him down to the bomb bay which he slid down to find a bunch of crew handling the bombs, everyone turning around to look at him.

Quick on his feet, he looked around to see a large lever marked "Bomb release" which he promptly pulled the safety pin from and threw, that true to its marking dropped a bomb from the ready rack, which busted the bomb bay door wide open as it fell.

As puffs and bangs started ringing out from the floor above, Aang leapt towards the opened doors and out into the free air, the crew too stunned to react in time.

After breathing a deep breath of fresh cool air, he looked back at the airship, it's engines were no longer turning and it was visibly descending, by force of nature or man, Aang couldn't tell but as long as the ship was out of the game, that was all that mattered.

As he got further from the ship he could see a jet of flames emerge from the ship and a figure came flying towards him. Aang steadied himself for another fight.


The Formidable had been sinking on an even keel and Sokka had found himself surrounded by men who hadn't made it off the ship, some of the men weren't much older than him, some might even have been younger, and many of them were crying out for their mothers as the icy water kept rising across the deck.

Sokka had prepared to fight them and was surprised to find that many of them looked to him, until he remembered he was wearing a Fire Navy officer's uniform, his white lotus armband going unnoticed, or perhaps they just didn't care. One boy had asked "Why didn't the lifeboats wait for us, sir?" only to have the question answered by an elderly petty officer, "They didn't want to be overwhelmed by so many desperate seamen."

Sokka counted quickly, only around a hundred men but more than enough to topple and drag under a small life boat.

The elderly chief petty officer walked up to Sokka to stand next to him, "I'm not familiar with you, sir."

"The feeling is mutual, chief." responded Sokka. He scanned the horizon and saw smoke and then looked towards the main mast, the Fire Nation ensign was still flying.

"Chief, get one of the men to strike our colours!" Sokka ordered pointing at the ensign.

The Chief whistled to two of his subordinates and pointed to the flag and gestured for them to take it down as a sign of surrender.

"For all the good that will do." said the Chief. "If I were you sir, I'd tell the men to start swimming as far away from the ship as possible."

Sokka turned to the chief in shock, "Why?!"

"The ship is going to pull us down with her, an old sea dog as myself would rather go down with the ship and have it done with." The Chief responded stoically.

"I was under the impression that was a myth, chief." Sokka said with a nervous laugh.

"Not with a ship this size, sir." The Chief said with a hint of annoyance.

Two sailors had reached the mast and were now in the process of hoisting down the flag, once again Sokka found men eyeing him pensively as if expecting something out of him.

"Uhm, Chief?" he asked.

"Men! Attention!", the Chief yelled out as he clicked his heels together as he watched the Red Ensign come down, the rest of the men following suit.

Sokka sighed as he watched the water level climb, there was no more deck visible behind the superstructure, the ship was also taking on a starboard list as which probably meant she would roll over soon enough.

Suddenly one of the crewmen yelled out. "Airship! Coming in low!"

"One of ours?" Sokka asked.

"I can't tell, sir!" answered the crewman.

Sokka sighed, either it was his friends who had understood his message or he would have a very uncomfortable time for the foreseeable future.

But as the ship came closer, he could at first see that part of the forecastle was missing, raising his spirits before he could make out the name, which made Sokka jump in the air with a triumphal roar that once again caught him many eyes, but he was well past the point of caring.

Sokka then turned to the chief, "Tell the men to form up and prepare to surrender."

"Ay ay, sir!" the chief grunted before he started barking orders to the sailors.

Sokka looked back at the Formidable, it wouldn't be long until she would be making her final plunge, he estimated about twenty minutes.

As the Warspite lined up against the forecastle of the giant warship, to his great surprise and joy he could make out that the ship was being piloted by Azula who waved at him enthusiastically through the bridge window.

The ship's ramp opened and they were greeted by Katara and Toph, "Alright, scallywags, last one onboard is a rotten sea prune!" Toph yelled out, and the sailors all marched onboard as neatly as they could, considering the circumstances.

The chief came up to Sokka and asked, "Friends of yours?"

"Family." Sokka said as they boarded the ship together. As he walked up the ramp, he saw that Katara and Toph weren't alone, there were several Water Tribe warriors looking down from the catwalks suspended above the bomb bay.

All the men had taken seats in the bomb bay and Katara called out, "Is there anyone injured that needs medical attention?" to which there were a few hands raised.

Azula had come down from the bridge as the ramp was closed behind them, "Welcome onboard Captain!"

Sokka turned and saluted her, a smile rising on his lips, "Lieutenant!"

Sokka then stepped up and announced, "I have some good and some bad news for you men, the good news is that the war is over for you, the bad news is that you are now prisoners of war."

There were some confused looks and grumbling but mostly the men were just happy to be off the sinking ship as Katara attended to the wounded.

He then turned back to Azula, "Where's Zuko?"

"He is hurt badly, but he will live, we had to make a quick stop at the North pole which is why we took so long."

"Spirit water..." Sokka said with a smile, as he took a hold of the ladder leading to the bridge he turned around one last time, "Chief, I'm counting on you to keep order."

"On my honour as a sailor, Captain!" The chief saluted and began patrolling the bomb bay.

Sokka and Azula then climbed into the bridge, and once when they were out of sight they kissed and did so passionately, before Sokka pulled away. "Won't the boilers need attending?"

Azula smirked, "I've set them at quarter power. We have the bridge all to ourselves." she pulled Sokka into her again. This time it was her turn to break the kiss as she walked up to the tiller.

"I'm guessing we're going to have to look for Aang and my Father." she said solemnly.

Sokka walked up to her and put his hand on her waist. "Aang will be fine, I can feel it… Right now, the best thing we can do, is help out the men in the water."